Eythor Ingi
Eyþór Ingi Gunnlaugsson was born on May 29th 1989 in Dalvík, a small fishing town of approximately 1,400 inhabitants in northern Iceland. Dalvík has nurtured some of Iceland’s greatest singers as it’s also the birthplace of Friðrik Ómar of Euroband (Icelandic Eurovision 2008), and Matthías Matthíasson of Sjonni‘s Friends (Eurovision 2012). Erna Hrönn Ólafsdóttir and Hera Björk (both Eurovision 2010) also lived there for a time.Music was clearly a major part of Eyþór Ingi’s childhood; he used to sing Elvis Presley songs while still in kindergarten and he also loved acting. In 2004, at the age of fifteen, he won a part in the Icelandic version of the musical Oliver!, which turned out to be one of the most successful theatrical works ever staged in Akureyri, the capital of northern Iceland. This was only the beginning of his theatrical career as he was offered a part in Óvitar in 2007 as well as taking the leading role in a college staging of the musical Jesus Christ Superstar.
Eyþór Ingi won the College Song Contest in the spring of 2007 and was selected to compete as a contestant in TV talent show ‘Bandið hans Bubba‘. After winning the show in early 2008 he soon began working as a professional singer, musician and sound technician.
Eyþór Ingi founded the progressive rock group Eldberg and in 2010 joined the renowned Icelandic band Todmobile, contributing to their seventh album, which was also entitled ‘7’.
In 2011 Eyþór Ingi was nominated as best singer in the Gríman Theatrical Awards for his role as Riff Raff in The Rocky Horror Picture Show. The following year he played hippie leader Berger in the musical Hair, He also featured in the cast of Les Misérables as law student Marius Pontmercy, when the musical was staged in Þjóðleikhúsið, the National Theatre of Iceland, in 2011-2012.
Eyþór Ingi was inspired to start singing by the music of Jeff Buckley and is also a big fan of David Bowie, Thom Yorke, Ian Gillan and Freddie Mercury. He has been a member of a Deep Purple tribute band and performed in the Freddie Mercury Tribute Show in Harpa Concert Hall in 2011-2012. This was Eyþór Ingi’s first time in Söngvakeppnin and he’s very much looking forward to participating as Iceland’s 26th entrant in the 58th Eurovision Song Contest in Malmö.
Songwriter
Örlygur Smári (songwriter), commonly known by his nickname Öggi, was born on June 30th 1971 in Reykjavík, Iceland. He has been active on the Icelandic music business scene since the early 90’s, and in 2000 he composed the Icelandic Eurovision entry Tell Me! which finished in a respectable 12th place. Öggi was determined to make music his priority in life after having had the unique chance of participating in the Eurovision Song Contest.
Pétur Örn Guðmundsson was born on October 21st 1971 in Selfoss, in the Southern part of Iceland, but spent most of his childhood and teenage years in Reykjavík. He comes from a very musical family - his father Guðmundur Benediktsson was a pianist, guitarist and singer in popular rock groups; his grandmother was a piano teacher. Pétur Örn started learning to play the piano at his grandmother’s house and, with a little help from his father, is a more or less self-taught guitarist. When the musical Jesus Christ Superstar was staged in Reykjavík for the first time in 1973 his father played the leading role of Jesus Christ. Coincidentally, Pétur Örn, who was two years old at the time, would become the next person to play Jesus Christ some 22 years later when the musical was staged in Reykjavík once again in 1995. As a result they are often known as Jesus father and Jesus son – ‘Guðmundur Jesus and Pétur Jesus’.