Official Blog Up & Running!

And the official ESC's Icelandic Delegation blog is up and running....

With great support from the official sources!

ESC Official Icelandic Blog

ESCToday Press Release

ESC TV

Eurovision.tv Press Release

What's next? A Russian lyric - quite literally!

Iceland: Song Selected But Who Wrote It?

Jóhanna Guðrún Jónsdóttir won the Icelandic selection with "Is It True".

At 18 Jóhanna is a relative newcomer to the Icelandic music scene but in true Icelandic tradition she has recorded some songs for children's cds as a young teen.

Listen to the song and all other Icelandic contenders at the RÚV Söngvakeppni page

You can also listen to the original demo version by Tinatin at reverbnation and read all about it at Tinatin's MySpace blog.

There is a little discrepancy though, RÚV only mentions Óskar Páll Sveinsson as the writer of the song, but Tinatin wrote it with Chris Neil and aforementioned Oskar Paul. Sort it out guys.

Tónlist has the album with all selections songs (digital), Eurovision CD out soon on Sena.


Special thanks to Jan @ the Moscow Collection !!

http://moscoweurovision.blogspot.com/2009/02/iceland.html

Tinatin Iced!

Tinatin's self-penned song “Is It True” co-written with Iceland’s Oskar Paul Sveinsson (Bjork, Steps, S Club 7) and my hero Christopher Neil (Celine Dion, Sheena Easton, Mike & the Mechanics) has been chosen as the Icelandic entry for the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest, to be held in Moscow May 12!

“Is It True” to be performed by Jóhanna Guðrún Jónsdóttir, was chosen from 217 Icelandic entries, which were pared down to 16 songs for a televised heat in January, leading to the national final.

Iceland will compete in the ultimate Eurovision contest against songs written by Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, Diane Warren and Patricia Kaas. All the details of Tina's journey to the top are on her blog. Tiinatin and Ayhan Sahin have worked together many times and I have reviewed her work in Billboard on several occasions. I couldn't be more thrilled.

- Chuck Taylor, Billboard Senior Correspondent

What's True and What Isn't?

Over the past week since the Eurovision finals in Iceland, we've witnessed quite a stir in the media about "who wrote the 2009 Icelandic entry?" ("Is It True")

The overall confusion started when the RUV channel that was broadcasting the national finals, initially included only the Icelandic co-writer's name (Oskar Pall Sveinsson) in the TV show credits. But in the follow-up broadcasts, the show's hosts repeatedly announced the three writers individually.

At first it all seemed too trivial, and quite frankly, nobody was too bothered since we were all too busy speculating about the outcome of the competition.

On February 14th, "Is It True" finally won in the national selection process (44%!) and we're officially taking the song to Moscow in mid-May!

What we weren't expecting, however, was the interest that the co-writer situation has sparked among Eurovision fans and the European media.

There was one particular article that caught my eye... have a look.

A few other press articles followed, including German, Russian and Belarusian media outlets.

A lot of these sources are accurate, with a couple of interesting suggestions ("Tinatin is an American singer with Georgian roots and an impressive track record as a songwriter in Iceland"....REALLY??? I didn't know that!!!)

One of the Eurovision Forums in Russian was a real joy to follow - so entertaining! Ranging from Icelandic-entry lovers to those who simply "don't get it", the members of the forum have also tracked down the original demo and they were enthusiastically comparing the two versions and trying to figure out if I wrote the song or just appeared on the demo as a session singer, or maybe at the last minute I had decided to perform the song myself at ESC 2009? VERY COMPLICATED!!!

But I assure you, it's all very simple: "Is It True" was written by Oskar Pall Sveinsson, Christopher Neil and yours truly; the song will be performed in Moscow (just like during the pre-selection in Reykjavik) by the wonderful Johanna; it will not be translated into Icelandic, as some have suggested and/or predicted - and finally, the semifinals (day 1) will be held at Moscow's Olympiyskiy Stadium on May 12th followed by the finals on May 16th, so do make sure you cast your votes during the semifinals accordingly :-)

And one more thing: this exclusive interview was featured in the weekend issue of Novoye Russkoye Slovo, the leading Russian newspaper in America, also published in Russia, Ukraine, Israel and the worldwide web!

P.S. Here are the preliminary charts on the Eurovision website -- the poll results will be updated every Monday based on the fans and potential televoters preferences, so feel free to vote for your favorite (or your least favorite) song by following the link

P.S.s. A little something to make you all... smile :-) a big fan of the song, apparently!

It’s True for Iceland!

Dear Friends,

I am thrilled to confirm that yes, indeed, it's true Iceland! My self-penned song, "Is It True" co-written with Iceland's very own Oskar Paul Sveinsson (Bjork, Steps, S Club 7, etc.) and Christopher Neil (Celine Dion, Rod Stewart, Mike & the Mechanics) has now officially been picked as the Icelandic entry for the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest to be held in Moscow this coming May.

As some of you may already know, "Is It True", performed by the wonderfully gifted and beautiful Jóhanna Guðrún Jónsdóttir, will be up against some of the upcoming highlights of the contest, including songs written and/or performed by Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, Diane Warren, Patricia Kaas, to name but a few.

For those of you interested in the details of how this year's Icelandic entry came about (and yes, as you know I am Georgian-born, a Russian citizen after moving to Moscow at the age of 9 and currently living in New York, so why Iceland?) .....

Two hundred and seventeen songs were submitted to the Icelandic broadcaster in their open call for songs for the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest pre-selection. Sixteen of those were selected to proceed to the next phase which will include four televised heats in January, leading to the national final.

In an announcement made earlier this morning, Icelandic television broadcaster RÚV made it clear that just over 69,000 votes were cast by the Icelandic public when they chose Jóhanna's performance of the song "Is It True" as the nations representative for 2009 edition of the Eurovision Song Contest.

The results clearly show that when it came down to choosing an entry to fulfill Iceland's Eurovision hopes and dreams, there was really only one choice.

To watch the youtube of both the national semi-final and final performances of "Is It True", please follow these links:

Semi-final Performance:

Semi-final performance

National finals

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBQv4k3hu28


Official Eurovision YouTube homepage


Thank you all for your continued support and look forward to seeing you either in Moscow or live from the Russian capital on national European TV and/or online webcast!

In the meantime, stay tuned and don't forget to vote for Iceland (of all countries!) on May 12th! :-)

Tinatin

Is It True?

Yes, it is!

And moreover, it's official - a ballad that I wrote a few years ago with Chris Neil and Oskar Paul (Óskar Páll Sveinsson) called "Is It True" is now in the finals for this year's Eurovision Song Contest, which, ironically, will be held in Moscow (although the song will be represented by Iceland - that is, if and when it wins the finals!) next May.

"Is It True" performed at the semi-finals by Jóhanna Guðrún Jónsdóttir won the 1st round of semi-finals by staggering 44.8% according to the official poll results.

The finals, however, will be televised live on February 14th - so till then, fingers crossed and if by any chance you happen to be in Iceland, you can cast your votes, too!

And for those of you who haven't heard the original demo of "Is It True", feel free to have a listen!