Iceland: National Final dates and entries revealed

A total of 240 songs were submitted to RÚV this year, and there were scenes of people queueing up at the TV studios in order to get their entries submitted before the deadline. 

Twelve songs to contest semi finals

A selection process has taken place and 12 songs written by 22 composers and lyricists have progressed to the semi final stage of Söngvakeppni Sjónvarpsins. 

• Augnablik (Composer: Sveinn Rúnar Sigurðsson Lyricist: Ingibjörg Gunnarsdóttir)
• Ég á Líf (Composers and lyricists: Örlygur Smári & Pétur Örn Guðmundsson)
• Sá Sem Lætur Hjartað Ráða För (Composer: Þórir Úlfarsson Lyricist: Kristján Hreinsson)
• Þú  (Composer and lyricist: Davíð Sigurgeirsson)
• Vinátta (Composer and lyricist: Haraldur Reynisson)
• Ekki Líta Undan (Composer: Sveinn Rúnar Sigurðsson Lyricist: Ingibjörg Gunnarsdóttir)
• Kem Til þín (Composer and lyricist: María Björk Sverrisdóttir)
• Lífið (Composer: Hallgrímur Óskarsson (Hal Oskarsson) Lyricist: Bragi Valdimar Skúlason)
• Ég Syng! (Composers: Elíza Newman, Gísli Kristjánsson & Ken Rose Lyricists: Elíza Newman, Gísli Kristjánsson & Hulda G. Geirsdóttir)
• Til þín (Composer: Sveinn Rúnar Sigurðsson Lyricists: Sveinn Rúnar Sigurðsson and Ágúst Ibsen)
• Meðal Andanna (Composers: Birgitta Haukdal, Sylvía Haukdal Brynjarsdóttir & Jonas Gladnikoff Lyricists: Birgitta Haukdal, Sylvía Haukdal Brynjarsdóttir, Michael James Down & Primoz Poglajen)
• Hjartað (Composers & Lyricists: Hallgrímur Óskarsson & Ashley Hicklin)

Familiar names in contention

Sveinn Rúnar Sigurðsson was responsible for the Icelandic entries of 2004, Heaven by Jónsi and 2007, Valentine Lost by Eiríkur Hauksson at the Eurovision Song Contest 

Birgitta Haukdal represented Iceland in the 2003 contest with Open Your Heart

Jonas Gladnikoff was part of the team behind the Irish entries for Sinéad Mulvey & Black Daisy and Niamh Kavanagh respectively in the 2009 and 2010 contests

Ashley Hicklin co-wrote Tom Dice's Belgian entry Me And My Guitar in the 2010 contest

New date for national final

The first of two semi-finals of the Söngvakeppni Sjónvarpsins song contest will take place live from a TV studio in Reykjavík on January 25th 2013. The second semi-final will take place on the following day, January 26th. In a change to the original scheduled date,the final will now take place on February 2nd 2013 live from the Harpa Concert Hall, the same venue which held the final in 2012.

Six songs will compete in each of the two semi finals. Three songs will be chosen to qualify directly during each semi final night by the televoting public only but a jury will have the chance to choose one wild card song to compete in the final.

During the final, the two songs with the highest score from a joint combined vote of televotes and jury votes will be selected on the night to compete again for the winning position. The song that then gets the most televotes will represent Iceland in the Eurovision Song Contest of 2013. All the songs will be performed in Icelandic in both semi finals and the final, but it will be up to the winning composers to decide if their song will be performed in Icelandic or another language in Malmö in May 2013.

Stay tuned to Eurovision.tv to find out which artists will be performing the chosen entries over the coming months.