Say hello to Selma!
SO, WHAT’S ICELAND’S SELMA BJÖRNSDÓTTIR BEEN UP TO LATELY?
By Chris Zeiher (twitter @chriszeiher, Instagram @chriszeihertravel)
Stunning Selma Björnsdóttir (aka Selma Björns, aka Selma) entered the 1999 edition of the Eurovision Song Contest with many firsts to her name. She was the first Icelandic entrant to head into the competition as the pre-contest favourite and her song All Out of Luck was the first from Iceland not to be sung entirely in Icelandic. Selma went on to secure second spot in Jerusalem landing Iceland their best result in the competition to date (alongside Yohanna in 2009).
Selma returned to the Eurovision stage in 2005 at the contest in Kyiv, where again she was heralded as a potential winner pre-contest. However, Selma’s If I Had Your Love crashed out at the semi-final stage shocking fans and creating one of that year’s biggest contest controversies. Notoriously Selma grabbed another second place for Iceland that year by ranking in the number 2 spot for the Barbara Dex Award for the worst dressed at the contest.
In 2009 Selma joined the judging panel for Iceland’s fourth instalment of their version of Pop Idol (Idol stjörnuleit). During the contest both of her Eurovision songs were performed by contestants. In 2017 Selma co-directed the stage show The Heart of Robin Hood, described as a rom-com with acrobatics, which premiered in Los Angeles in December of that year.
In 2017 Selma joined fellow Icelandic representatives Yohanna and Svala in a version of carpool karaoke where the three delivered some stunning renditions of their Eurovision entries (check it out here - https://bit.ly/2MyCXhM).
A constant on the Icelandic music scene Selma’s All Out of Luck has cemented itself as a Eurovision classic with the lady herself recreating the magic of her 1999 performance (hair knots and all) on a local Icelandic light entertainment show in May of 2020. Check it out here - https://bit.ly/3oqpuG4