Iceland was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2024 with the song "Scared of Heights", written by Ásdís María Viðarsdóttir, Ferras Alqaisi, Jaro Omar, and Michael Burek, and performed by Hera Björk. The Icelandic participating broadcaster, (RÚV), organised the national final 2024 in order to select its entry for the contest.
Iceland was drawn to compete in the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 7 May 2024. Performing during the show in position 8, "Scared of Heights" was not announced among the top 10 entries of the first semi-final and therefore did not qualify to compete in the final. It was later revealed that Iceland placed 15th (last) out of the 15 participating countries in the semi-final with 3 points.
Background
Prior to the 2024 contest, (RÚV) had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest representing Iceland thirty-nine times since its first entry in 1986. Its best placing in the contest to this point was second, which it achieved on two occasions: in with the song "All Out of Luck" performed by Selma and in with the song "Is It True?" performed by Yohanna. It also reached two more top-5 positions: in with the song "" performed by and in with the song "10 Years" performed by , ending fourth on both occasions. Since the introduction of semi-finals in , it had failed to qualify to the final eight times, including in , when the song "Power" performed by Diljá placed 11th in the second semi-final.
As part of its duties as participating broadcaster, RÚV organises the selection of its entry in the Eurovision Song Contest and broadcasts the event in the country. From 2006 to 2020 and again since 2022, it selected its entry through , a televised national competition. RÚV confirmed its intention to participate in the 2024 contest on 30 May 2023, while also confirming as its national selection method.
Before Eurovision Söngvakeppnin 2024 2024 was the national final organised by RÚV in order to select its entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2024. It consisted of two semi-finals on 17 and 24 February 2024 at Truenorth Studio, and a final on 2 March 2024 at both located in Reykjavík. The shows were presented by Ragnhildur Steinunn Jónsdóttir, Sigurður Þorri Gunnarsson, and Unnsteinn Manuel Stefánsson. The semi-final qualifiers were determined by televoting, while a combination of jury and public votes was used to determine the results of the final and superfinal.
Competing entries On 15 June 2023, RÚV opened the period for interested songwriters to submit their entries, lasting until 10 September; at the closing of the submission window, 118 entries had been received. In addition to reviewing the submissions, the broadcaster also directly invited established artists to compete. The ten selected entries were unveiled on 27 January 2024, with one participant, Bashar Murad, revealed three days prior. Among the entrants was Hera Björk, who previously represented Iceland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010.
Artist Song Songwriter(s) Icelandic title English title Anita "" "Downfall" Bashar Murad "" "Wild West" Blankiflúr "" "Love You" CeaseTone "" "Flow" Heiðrún Anna "" Hera Björk "" "Scared of Heights" Maiaa "" "Break Away" Sigga Ózk "" "Into the Atmosphere" Sunny "" Væb "" "Movie Scene"
Semi-finals Two semi-finals took place on 17 and 24 February 2024. Five entries performed in each, with two qualifying for the final; RÚV reserved the option to select a fifth finalist among the non-qualifiers, which was later invoked. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, a number of guest performances were also featured during the two shows. The first semi-final featured a duet by Friðrik Ómar Hjörleifsson ( as part of Eurobandið) and Sigríður Beinteinsdóttir (Icelandic representative in as part of Stjórnin, as part of Heart 2 Heart, and ), who performed a medley of Icelandic Eurovision entries. The second semi-final featured a performance from and , who opened the show with their song "", and an interval act from Björgvin Halldórsson () and Unnsteinn Manuel Stefánsson.
Key: + Semi-final 117 February 2024 Artist Song Votes Place 1 Blankiflúr "" 3,046 3 2 CeaseTone "" 1,344 4 3 Væb "" 7,347 1 4 Sunny "" 577 5 5 Anita "" 6,514 2
+ Semi-final 224 February 2024 Artist Song Votes Place 1 Sigga Ózk "" 6,730 3 2 Heiðrún Anna "" 1,053 5 3 Bashar Murad "" 9,034 1 4 Maiaa "" 3,184 4 5 Hera Björk "" 8,552 2
Final The final took place on 2 March 2024 and featured the four qualifiers and the wildcard from the semi-finals. While in the semi-finals all competing entries were required to be performed in Icelandic, in the final they had to be presented in the language they would be performed in at the Eurovision Song Contest: Væb opted for the Icelandic version, while the other four entrants opted for the English one. In addition to the competing entries, Diljá Pétursdóttir () and Selma Björnsdóttir (Icelandic representative in and ) performed as interval acts.
A 50/50 combination of jury and public votes determined two superfinalists, who then went through an additional televoting round; the sum of the two votings decreed the winner. For the first time since 2016, the jury in the final consisted exclusively of Icelanders, namely: Vigdís Hafliðadóttir (singer, actress and human right activist), Sindri Ástmarsson (programme director of Iceland Airwaves), Erna Hrönn (singer and radio host), Árni Matthíasson (music journalist and writer), Sigríður Beinteinsdóttir (singer), (chairman of the board of the Icelandic Music Information Centre) and Elín Hall (musician).
+ FinalFirst round2 March 2024 Artist Song Jury TelevoteTotal Place 1 Væb "" 13,656 15,727 29,383 4 2 Hera Björk "Scared of Heights" 16,661 15,406 32,067 2 3 Anita "Downfall" 14,476 10,124 24,600 5 4 Bashar Murad "Wild West" 21,304 26,359 47,663 1 5 Sigga Ózk "Into the Atmosphere" 16,114 14,595 30,709 3 + Song Juror Total 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 "" 1,639 1,912 1,639 1,912 2,185 2,731 1,639 13,656 2 "Scared of Heights" 1,912 2,185 2,185 1,639 3,278 2,185 3,278 16,661 3 "Downfall" 2,185 1,639 2,731 2,731 1,639 1,639 1,912 14,476 4 "Wild West" 3,278 2,731 3,278 3,278 2,731 3,278 2,731 21,304 5 "Into the Atmosphere" 2,731 3,278 1,912 2,185 1,912 1,912 2,185 16,114
+ Superfinal2 March 2024 Artist Song Votes Place Round 1 Round 2Total 1 Hera Björk "Scared of Heights" 32,067 68,768 100,835 1 2 Bashar Murad "Wild West" 47,663 49,832 97,495 2
Ratings +Viewing figures by show Show Air date Averageviewership Totalviewership (%) Semi-final 1 92,420 121,080 35.01% Semi-final 2 87,120 110,900 33% Final 105,330 144,810 39.9%
Official album
2024 is the official compilation album of the contest. It was compiled by RÚV and was digitally released by Alda Music under the former's exclusive license on 28 January 2024. The album features both the Icelandic and English versions of the entries.
+Weekly chart performance for 2024 Chart (2024) Peakposition Icelandic Albums () 5
Promotion
As part of the promotion of her participation in the contest, Hera Björk attended the PrePartyES in Madrid on 30 March 2024, the Eurovision in Concert event in Amsterdam on 13 April 2024, the Nordic Eurovision Party in Stockholm on 14 April 2024, the Nordic Music Celebration's Eurovision Night in Oslo on 20 April 2024 and the Copenhagen Eurovision Party (Malmöhagen) on 4 May 2024.
Controversies
Calls for boycott
The inclusion of in the list of participants of the 2024 contest, despite the humanitarian crisis resulting from Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip during the Gaza war, sparked controversy in Iceland as well as several other participating countries, with calls and petitions for broadcasters to boycott the event. Despite an initial statement that Iceland would still participate in the contest, petitions received from the Association of Composers and Lyricists of Iceland (FTT) and activists of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement prompted RÚV to decide that its participation would be evaluated after discussing with the winning artist of , thus making the national final independent from the contest for the first time. Ahead of the final, both eventual superfinalists Hera Björk and Bashar Murad confirmed that they would take part in Eurovision if they won, while none of the other finalists had made a decision. However, RÚV decided to delay its final decision to 11 March, the deadline by which all participating countries must have submitted their entries; the broadcaster confirmed that Hera Björk would participate in Eurovision on that day. Gísli Marteinn Baldursson, who had served as RÚV's commentator for the contest from 1999 to 2005 and again since 2016, opted not to resume the role for 2024 in response to the European Broadcasting Union (EBU)'s "lack of reaction" to Israel's offensive in Gaza. Murad, who is Palestinian, later performed at the "Falastinvision" event, which was organised in Malmö as an alternative to the Eurovision final in protest against Israel's participation.
In a March 2024 poll by , 32.3% of Icelanders wanted Iceland to take part in Eurovision, 42.2% were opposed to Iceland's participation, and 25.5% did not have an opinion. A similar poll by showed 31% in support, 46% opposed, and 23% no opinion.
App voting failure and allegations of voting irregularities , the app used for voting during the national final, was alleged to have experienced a glitch during the superfinal voting. Many viewers reported on social media platforms regarding the supposed glitch. Lilja Kristín Birgisdóttir, director of marketing and communications at Vodafone Iceland, said in an interview that the company's representatives looked into the matter together with the producers and later reported that all the systems worked as expected, suggesting that the issue was not systemic on Vodafone's part.
Einar Hrafn Stefánsson, one of the songwriters of "Wild West", called for an investigation carried out by an independent party as regards the conduct of the voting in the contest. Rúnar Freyr Gíslason, 's executive director, later stated that an investigation into the glitch was launched, while also clarifying that the total number of SMS votes received by the superfinalists did not influence the final results. It was further explained by the contest producers that this was because only a few users were affected by the issue. After the release of the results, Einar said that his request for an independent investigation had been denied, pushing him to request a re-voting. However, , RÚV's radio director, reiterated that the results were beyond doubt, despite the fact that the broadcaster had no information as to why the problem only occurred on Murad's number.
Later, an open letter signed by more than 1,200 Icelanders was sent to Rúnar Freyr and the RÚV board demanding for an in-depth investigation of the voting irregularities during the contest. Ásdís María Viðarsdóttir, one of the songwriters of "Scared of Heights", stated that she would "cut ties with the song" over RÚV's refusal to shed further light, stating that " conscience allow it" and citing racism in the Icelandic public's reaction to Murad's participation as an additional reason for her choice. Einar's request for an investigation was subsequently granted, with Stefán disclosing that RÚV had decided to appoint an independent expert to carry out an assessment of the voting procedure.