Iceland in the Eurovision Song Contest 1999

Eurovision Song Contest 1999
Eurovision Song Contest 1999
Country	Iceland
National selection
Selection process	Internal selection
Selection date(s)	Artist: 11 January 1999; Song: 9 April 1999
Selected artist(s)	Selma
Selected song	"All Out of Luck"
Selected songwriter(s)	Selma Björnsdóttir; Sveinbjörn I. Baldvinsson; Þorvaldur Bjarni Þorvaldsson;
Finals performance
Final result	2nd, 146 points
Iceland in the Eurovision Song Contest

Iceland participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 1999 with the song "All Out of Luck" written by Selma Björnsdóttir, Sveinbjörn I. Baldvinsson and Þorvaldur Bjarni Þorvaldsson. The song was performed by Selma, which is the artistic name of Björnsdóttir who was internally selected by the Icelandic broadcaster Ríkisútvarpið (RÚV) in January 1999 to represent Iceland at the 1999 contest in Jerusalem, Israel. The Icelandic song, "All Out of Luck", was presented to the public on 9 April 1999 during the television programme Stutt í spunann.

Iceland competed in the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 29 May 1999. Performing during the show in position 13, Iceland placed second out of the 23 participating countries, scoring 146 points. This is Iceland's best result in the contest to date.

Background

Prior to the 1999 contest, Iceland had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest twelve times since its first entry in 1986.^[1] Iceland's best placing in the contest to this point was second, which it achieved in 1990 with the song "Eitt lag enn" performed by Stjórnin. In 1997, Iceland placed twentieth with the song "Minn hinsti dans" performed by Paul Oscar.

The Icelandic national broadcaster, Ríkisútvarpið (RÚV), broadcasts the event within Iceland and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. Since 1995, Iceland opted to internally select their entry for the Eurovision Song Contest, a method that continued for their 1999 participation.^[2]

Before Eurovision

Internal selection

The Icelandic entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 1999 was selected internally by RÚV. On 11 January 1999, Selma Björnsdóttir was announced as the Icelandic representative. It was also announced that her song would be written in cooperation with Þorvaldur Bjarni Þorvaldsson.^[3]^[4] Þorvaldsson composed several entries, which were submitted to Selma who selected "All Out of Luck" as the song she would perform.^[5] Lyrics of the song were written by Sveinbjörn I. Baldvinsson and Selma herself, and was presented to the public along with the release of the official music video, directed by Óskar Jónasson, on 9 April 1999 during the television programme Stutt í spunann, hosted by Eva María Jónsdóttir and Hjálmar Hjálmarsson.^[6]

"All Out of Luck" was the first Icelandic Eurovision entry to be performed in English and also the first Icelandic entry to be in another language than Icelandic. Selma explained that the decision not to sing in Icelandic, which was met with criticism from the public, was made "to ensure that those who come from nations who speak less well known languages have the same chance as those who speak English".^[7]^[8]

At Eurovision

The Eurovision Song Contest 1999 took place at the International Convention Center in Jerusalem, Israel, on 29 May 1999. According to the Eurovision rules, the 23-country participant list for the contest was composed of: the previous year's winning country and host nation, the seventeen countries which had obtained the highest average points total over the preceding five contests, and any eligible countries which did not compete in the 1998 contest. Iceland was one of the eligible countries which did not compete in the 1998 contest, and thus were permitted to participate. On 17 November 1998, an allocation draw was held which determined the running order and Iceland was set to perform in position 13, following the entry from Poland and before the entry from Cyprus.^[9]^[10] Iceland finished in second place with 146 points.^[11]

The contest was broadcast in Iceland on RÚV with commentary by Gísli Marteinn Baldursson.^[12] The Icelandic spokesperson, who announced the results of the Icelandic televote during the final, was Áslaug Dóra Eyjólfsdóttir.

Voting

Below is a breakdown of points awarded to Iceland and awarded by Iceland in the contest. The nation awarded its 12 points to Denmark in the contest.

Points awarded to Iceland^[13]
Score	Country
12 points	Cyprus Denmark Sweden
10 points	Estonia Israel Malta Norway Spain Turkey United Kingdom
8 points	Belgium Lithuania
7 points	Netherlands
6 points
5 points
4 points	Ireland Poland Portugal
3 points	Germany
2 points	Austria
1 point

Points awarded by Iceland^[13]
Score	Country
12 points	Denmark
10 points	Sweden
8 points	Austria
7 points	Norway
6 points	Netherlands
5 points	Germany
4 points	Croatia
3 points	Bosnia and Herzegovina
2 points	Estonia
1 point	Israel

References

^ "Iceland Country Profile". EBU. Retrieved 3 October 2014.
^ "Selma". eurovision-spain.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 2 May 2024.
^ "Eurovision 1999: Selma til Ísraels". Dagblaðið Vísir (in Icelandic). 11 January 1999. p. 1. Retrieved 2 May 2024.
^ "Selma keppir fyrir Íslands honn". Morgunblaðið (in Icelandic). 14 January 1999. p. 68. Retrieved 2 May 2024.
^ "Til Jerúsalem". Dagblaðið Vísir (in Icelandic). 27 March 1999. pp. 28–37. Retrieved 2 May 2024.
^ "Brosað framan í heiminn". Dagur (in Icelandic). 19 March 1999. p. 1. Retrieved 2 May 2024.
^ "Söngvakeppni Sjónvarpsins 1999 – All out of luck". Glatkistan (in Icelandic). 19 January 2015. Retrieved 2 May 2024.
^ "Selma - interviews". eurovision.is. Archived from the original on 2 October 1999. Retrieved 2 May 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
^ "Rules of the 44th Eurovision Song Contest, 1999" (PDF). European Broadcasting Union. Archived (PDF) from the original on 25 February 2021. Retrieved 13 March 2021.
^ "44th Eurovision Song Contest" (in French and English). European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 7 March 2001. Retrieved 21 May 2023.
^ "Final of Jerusalem 1999". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 12 April 2021. Retrieved 12 April 2021.
^ "Útvarp/Sjónvarp" [Radio/Television]. Morgunblaðið (in Icelandic). 29 May 1999. p. 86. Retrieved 2 July 2022.
^ ^a ^b "Results of the Final of Jerusalem 1999". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 12 April 2021. Retrieved 12 April 2021.