Iceland: Eurovision Song Contest 2003 | Eurovision Song Contest News - 2009 Moscow, Russia 

After they had to take break in 2002, Iceland returned to the Eurovision Song Contest. The singer(s) would be decided during a national final.

Biography

The song representing Iceland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2003 in Riga on May 24th is “Open Your Heart”, performed by Birgitta, composed by Hallgrimur Oskarsson. “Open Your Heart” was chosen following a televised national final on February 15 th 2003, where fifteen songs competed to represent Iceland. “Open Your Heart” was a definite winner, scoring 21.694 points, the second place scoring 10.594 points and the third place scoring 5.041 ponts. This will be the fourth time the Icelandic entry is sung in English.

Birgitta was born on July 28th, 1979 in Iceland. For the most of her life she has lived in the northern part of Iceland, in the small city of Husavik.

In November 1999 Birgitta replaced then current lead vocalist of the pop-group Irafar. They released their first single "Hvar er ég?" (Where am I?) in the summer of 2000, followed by two more singles in 2001, establishing the band which was noticed mostly for their catchy songs, and Birgitta got a lot of attention for her performance and charming looks.

Irafar signed a recording contract with Iceland’s biggest record company, Skifan in 2002, releasing their first album "Allt sem ég sé" (All I see) in early November. It got great reviews and is Iceland’s fastest selling pop album of the last 25 years, reaching platinum which is not common in Iceland.

Currently Birgitta is the most popular female pop vocalist in Iceland. She’s been voted Pop-star of the Year and Performer of the Year amongst other awards given to her during the last two years. Birgitta is also a talented lyricist and writes most of her own lyrics.

Hallgrimur Oskarsson was born on May 14th, 1967 in Iceland. He has never worked as a professional musician but has been involved in music and poetry since childhood. When speaking about his musical interests, Hallgrimur only claims to be one of many Icelandic music-hobbyists and refers to the fact that one-third of the Icelandic nation is supposed to pursue various kinds of music. As a way to break-out his interest in this area, Hallgrimur released a CD in 1996/1997 with his music and poetry. At start, the plan was only to produce a simple CD to give to his family members as a Christmas present but the project ended up being a conceptual CD with many of Iceland’s best known artists appearing as guest performers.

Hallgrimur Oskarsson’s education and daily work is in the field of engineering, marketing and branding. As a secondary position, Hallgrimur has been a lecturer at the University of Iceland teaching a course called Marketing IV.

A well known screenwriter and prize-winning author of several books and plays, Baldvinsson has written for film and television in Iceland, Scandinavia and the U.S. He has written three feature films, NO TRACE (thriller, 1998), TEARS OF STONE (drama, 1995), FOXTROT (thriller, 1988). His published works include a novel, five books of poetry, a collection of short stories and two children's books. Also an accomplished musician, he has appeared on a number of jazz and folk recordings as composer, lyricist and performer. Baldvinson co-wrote the lyrics to Iceland’s 1999 Eurovision entry, "All Out of Luck".

Country profile

Do you want to learn more about Iceland ? At worldatlas.com you can read a detailed country profile, including maps, flags and you can even listen to the national anthem!

History

We are currently updating our country history pages and therefore, they are temporarily unavailable! How many times they won? Who represented the country in 1960? This and a lot more is available in the history section soon!