Eirikur HAUKSSON (performer)

Eirikur HAUKSSON was born in Reykjavik July 4th 1959 and started his singing career at the age of 15, choosing rock music rather than opting for a career as a professional football player, as everyone had expected. His first serious band was Start. They became quite popular when his composition Sekur (Guilty) was chosen as ‘Song Of The Year 1981′.

When Start disbanded in 1983, Eirikur formed the hard rock band Drysiil, releasing the album Welcome To The Show in 1984. This was not the best of times for heavy metal fans as almost everyone was into new-wave music, so the band members went their separate ways in 1985. Eirikur had already made a name for himself when he was asked by the grand maestro of Icelandic pop music Gunnar THORDARSON to perform two of his songs on a concept album celebrating Reykjavik’s 200th birthday. Both songs became huge hits, leading to Eirikur being asked to join the ICY trio in the spring of 1986, when Iceland participated in the Eurovision Song Contest for the first time. During the next couple of years Eirikur was busy teaching during the daytime, and performing with various pop bands almost every night. This was not exactly the life that he had planned for as his priority was heavy rock. Eirikur was still working on his first solo album ‘Skot í myrkri’ (Shot In The Dark) when he announced in 1988 that he was going to move to Norway. He had already joined the rock group Artch who released their debut album Another Return To Church Hill that same year, which got great reviews in the USA and UK. When their second album For The Sake Of Mankind did not turn out to be the success they had expected the band broke up at the end of 1993. At that time Eirikur was working as a ‘free-lance’ singer doing a variety of things like occasional gigs with rock groups, as well as representing Norway in the ESC 1991 with Just 4 Fun. Over the last decade Eirikur has frequently visited Iceland to sing with his old mates and been busy touring with former Thin Lizzy guitarist Brian Robertson. Most recently, he has been working with keyboard player and guitarist Ken HENSLEY who is known for his work with Uriah HEEP in the 1970’s.

When Eirikur was asked by composer Sveinn Runar SIGURDSSON to participate in the Icelandic Söngvakeppni Sjónvarpsins he refused at first, but after hearing the song decided to join in for the fun of it. He got through the semi-finals, qualifying for the final show where he beat all of his eight competitors making him the Icelandic representative in ESC 2007 in Helsinki.

Sveinn Rúnar SIGURDSSON (composer)

Sveinn Runar SIGURDSSON was born on December 24th 1976, in Reykjavik, Iceland. He started learning the piano and church organ at the age of 16.

From the beginning of his studies Sveinn has put the emphasis on composition. At the age of 18 Sveinn made his first TV appearance playing his own classical piece and the same year he entered his first classical competition ‘Tonvakinn’. From 1997, Sveinn has added pop music to his composition style. Sveinn composed Heaven in 2004, which was his second Eurovision song, and the 6th from his family, as two of his cousins have made it into the Icelandic finals, with one of them Sverrir Stormsker, competing for Iceland in Dublin in 1988 with his song Sokrates. Sveinn currently resides in Hungary and is running a software company based in Moscow. Some of his recent compositions have been released in Scandinavia, Australia, Argentina and South Africa.

Peter FENNER (author)

Peter FENNER was born in Maidstone, England on 19th November 1962. He loves all kinds of music but among his favourite artists are Van Morrison, Joni Mitchell and Morrisey.

Peter has written foreign language versions of Icelandic Eurovision entries by Selma, Birgitta Haukdal and Twotricky, and it was Selma who encouraged him to take his songwriting seriously. He co-wrote the Spanish single version of Cyprus’ Eurovision entry Gimme by One in 2002, which did well in Spain, Greece and Cyprus, and contributed to Spanish tracks on One’s album that year. Peter wrote an English lyric for Sveinn’s composition Mynd Af Þer, Birgitta’s entry in the Icelandic national final in 2006, and then in 2007 Sveinn invited him to write an English version of Ég Les Í Lófa þínum if it won the Icelandic preselection. He is now very pleased to be the first British writer to provide lyrics for an Icelandic Eurovision entry. He currently resides in London.

Participant: Eiríkur HAUKSSON
Song: Valentine Love
Writer: Peter FENNER
Composer: Sveinn Rúnar SIGURÞSSON
Broadcaster: RÚV
National selection: Söngvakeppni Sjónvarpsins 2007

(325 votes, average: 3.32 out of 5)

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