Iceland | More News As Iceland Confirms Eurovision 2019 Participation

It is official that Iceland will participate in Eurovision 2019. Just after it was officially announced that Tel Aviv would be the host city, the broadcaster for Iceland has revealed that they too, will be joining the party next May.

It is no coincidence that Iceland has waited this long to formally announce. In an official statement on the RÚV website it was stated that the broadcaster had waited until it was known as to which city had won the bidding process. They had also stated that the choice of Tel Aviv over Jerusalem had been the deciding factor, and that all the Nordic nations would work together to be present in Israel.

The people of Iceland had been very vocal in their opinions that the contest should not be held in Jerusalem due to the plight of the Palestinians in their Gaza region. This had culminated in thousands of its citizens signing a petition for the country to boycott next years event, which up until now had made an Icelandic participation look increasingly unlikely.

The statement released indicated that the channel took the petition and current situation very seriously, and that a superficial review had led to todays statement. The programme manager for RÚV has said,

"The decision is based on a non-political addition, but contrary to the agreement of different peoples that everything from the founders has had the primary purpose and the guise of spreading the mood of unity and peace that is inherent in combatting music and culture Generally. "

Iceland were among several nations who were very vocal about their concerns over Jerusalem being the host city. However, in recent weeks the likes of Germany, and Ireland have put their fears away, and confirmed that they have every intention of placing an act forward to next years competition.

What is interesting is that it has also been recently revealed that many professionals in the music industry world wide had also signed a petition championing a boycott of next years Eurovision. This included Iceland's very own Hildur and Dadi Freyr who were present in the Icelandic national final 2017. Is it likely we will see them trying to represent their home nation next year?

Last year Iceland was represented by Ari Ólafsson, unfortunately he failed to qualify for the Grand Final. check out his interview with Eurovoxx below: