Iceland's contribution to the Eurovision Song Contest 2025
This year's ESC contribution from Iceland is VÆB with their song "Róa", which means "rowing".
The Icelandic electro-hip-hop duo VÆB consists of the brothers Hálfdán Helgi Matthíasson (born June 4, 2003) and Matthías Davið Matthíasson (born December 7, 2004).
The brothers live with their parents, two siblings, other family members, and pets in Kópavogur; two older half-siblings have already moved out. The brothers come from a family of artists in which music, especially church music, has always played a major role: Their father, Matthías V. Baldursson, is a trained church organist, musical director, conductor, and saxophonist. Their mother, Áslaug Helga Hálfdánardóttir, is a singer, songwriter, and singing teacher who participated in the Icelandic Eurovision Song Contest in 2008, but ultimately failed to win.
The two brothers released their first studio album "Væb tékk" in autumn 2022.
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| Church concert in February 2024 |
In February 2024, the VÆB brothers participated in Söngvakeppnin 2024, the Icelandic preselection for Eurovision, with their song "Bíómynd". However, they only reached fourth place in the national final and did not qualify for the European contest. The winner of the preselection was singer Hera Björk Þórhallsdóttir, who was allowed to travel to the Eurovision Song Contest in Malmö with her song "Scared of Heights" – but she failed to qualify for the grand final. Incidentally, "Bíómynd" was the only song from the Söngvakeppnin to reach the top 10 of the Icelandic charts.
At Söngvakeppnin 2025, VÆB managed to prevail against nine other competitors and finally won the final in Reykjavík on February 22, 2025, with their new song "Róa".
In their song "Róa", the two brothers sing about being in a boat; the weather is bad, but they have waterproof shoes and are looking for a better place, and nothing can stop them: "Rowing here, rowing there, rowing through the waves, nothing can stop me."
Róandi hér, róandi þar
Róandi í gegnum öldurnar
Það getur ekkert stoppad mig af.
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| Photo: Mummi Lú (Source: k100) |
By the way, we first heard of VÆB in early February 2024, before they participated in the preliminary round. A very dear Icelandic friend of ours attended a church concert and enthusiastically sent us a video afterwards, even though he had been there to listen to gospel music, and this was not gospel at all. But the music and the entire performance were cool, funky, and funny, and immediately put us in a good mood.
We were surprised when we watched the national semi-final of Söngvakeppnin on TV - and suddenly the two brothers were there!
Eurovision Song Contest 2025
Incidentally, this year, in 2025, all Nordic countries will be in the Eurovision Song Contest final, which was last the case in 2014. In the first semi-final on Tuesday, Iceland, Sweden, and Norway had already secured a place in the final on May 16, and Denmark and Finland also made it in the second semi-final on Thursday.
We are excited about Saturday evening and keep our fingers crossed for everyone - and especially for Iceland, as we did here at the ESC 2021, when the Icelandic contribution by Daði og Gagnamagnið with the song "10 Years" even reached the 4th place at the ESC in Rotterdam on May 22nd, 2021.
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| Áfram Iceland! (Photo from 2018) |
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