Saturday, October 9 2010, seventy years have passed since John Lennon was born. Yoko Ono is in Iceland with her son Sean Lennon and they are holding a concert tonight at 9.30 PM at Háskólabíó with the revived Plastic Ono Band.
Earlier in the evening Yoko Ono will light the column of light, Peace Tower, situated in Videy. It is lit every year on October 9 and turned off on December 8, the day John Lennon died.
Icelanders are doing a number of things to celebrate the occasion. RÚV Iceland State Radio had a contest for Icelandic artists who played Lennon songs. More than 100 songs were entered into the contest and twelve made it to the final round of voting among the general public.
The winning song was I’m Losing You by Robert the Roommate, a band of four young artists. Rósa Gudrún Sveinsdóttir sings and plays the flute, Þórdís Gerdur Jónsdóttir plays the cello, Daníel Helgason plays the guitar and Jón Óskar Jónsson percussion. I’m losing you was originally on Double fantasy the Lennon/Ono album of 1980.
Runners up was Agnar Eldberg with A Day in a Life/Julia two Lennon Beatles songs joined together. In third place the School band of Mosfellssveit perform Imagine.
You can hear all twelve finalist songs here.
