Daði Freyr Pétursson and his band Gagnamagnið will perform Iceland’s entry to the Rotterdam Eurovision Song Contest next May. RÚV approached the musician who agreed to write a song for the contest. Daði won the local song contest Söngvakeppnin this year with the song Think about Things, which was well received internationally. He was considered a frontrunner for this year’s Eurovision, cancelled due to the global pandemic.
Read more about Daði Freyr’s Think About Things win
Once this year’s contest was cancelled, participating countries were informed they could send their chosen competitor to next year’s contest but they would have to bring a new song. Alternatively, they could have a new competition, choosing a new contestant and song.
Daði told Berliner Zeitung last week that he was ready to participate in the song contest but only if he would be asked to. “Taking part in the preliminary contest is a lot of work and at this point, I don’t see a reason to go through that again. If we went straight to the main contest, we could focus on that.”
In a statement from RÚV, Skarphéðinn Guðmundsson, Director of Programming, says he’s delighted that Daði Freyr accepted the invitation. “Daði won Söngvakeppnin 2020 by a landslide and the reception to Iceland’s contribution has never been so welcoming. We’re very happy and proud to be able to enter this great musician and his people into the competition like we wanted to do last time. We think the nation wants Daði og Gagnamagnið to represent us in this competition.”
He says many things had to be considered before making the decision but they found this was the right thing to do. “Due to the unprecedented situation that there was no Eurovision Song Contest this year. We thought it right and fair.”
In addition to the song contest’s cancellation this year, Daði also had a narrow miss in 2017. His song Is This Love? Was a fan favourite but ultimately came in second to Svala’s Paper. Daði Freyr is excited to finally take the Eurovision Song Contest stage. “I’m very excited. The reason I took part in Söngvakeppnin 2020 was to try to take my friends in the band to experience Eurovision from within. We always wanted to see how far we could go in this competition and we’ll see how we do this year.” Daði hasn’t written the song yet but he’s working on a couple of ideas. “I know how the music video is going to look and I have a few key things that need to be in the stage performance so I’ll write a song around that. I’ll try to write a dong to fit my performance, not the other way around, Euro is in a league of its own. But it will be a fun song, that’s for sure.” Daði is in it for the fun, stating: “The main thing is to have fun with it, although I do think it would be most fun if we win.”
