Iceland in the Eurovision Song Contest
Iceland has been represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 37 times since its debut in. It has missed only two contests since then, in and, when prevented from competing due to finishing outside qualification places the preceding years, and will skip the contest due to the inclusion of in the context of the Gaza war. The country's best result is second place, which it achieved with "All Out of Luck" by Selma in and "Is It True?" by Yohanna in. The Icelandic participating broadcaster in the contest is Ríkisútvarpið, which select its entrant with the national competition Söngvakeppnin.
Iceland has achieved a total of seven top ten placements, with the others being "Eitt lag enn" by Stjórnin finishing fourth, "Nei eða já" by Heart 2 Heart seventh, "Open Your Heart" by Birgitta eighth, "Hatrið mun sigra" by Hatari tenth, and "10 Years" by Daði og Gagnamagnið fourth. Since the introduction of the semi-final round in 2004, Iceland has failed to qualify for the final nine times, including four years consecutively. To date, Iceland is the only Nordic country that has yet to win the contest.
History
Ríkisútvarpið is a full member of the European Broadcasting Union, thus eligible to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest. It has participated in the contest representing Iceland since its in 1986, 20 years after RÚV was founded.Iceland's best result in the contest is second place, which it has achieved twice: in with the song "All Out of Luck" performed by Selma, beaten by 's "Take Me to Your Heaven" by Charlotte Nilsson, and in with "Is It True?" performed by Yohanna, beaten by 's "Fairytale" by Alexander Rybak.
However, Iceland's worst result in the contest is last place, which has been achieved four times to date: in when "Það sem enginn sér" by Daníel Ágúst received 0 points, in when "Angel" by Two Tricky received 3 points, in when "Our Choice" by Ari Ólafsson received 15 points in the first semi final, and in when "Scared of Heights" by Hera Björk received 3 points in the first semi final.
With the introduction of semi-finals in, Iceland automatically qualified for the final that year due to Birgitta's eighth place the previous year. In, Iceland reached the final for the first time since then, with "This Is My Life" by Euroband. Iceland qualified for the final in seven consecutive contests between and before failing to qualify for the final from to. In, Hatari brought the country back to the final for the first time since 2014, finishing tenth, which was followed by a fourth-place finish for Daði og Gagnamagnið in, Iceland's joint-second best result to date, and a 23rd-place finish for Systur in. Further non-qualifications came in and. VÆB brought the country back to the final in 2025 breaking the countries two year non qualification streak. They finished 25th in the final, receiving zero points by the juries. RÚV withdrew from 2026 due to Israel's inclusion.
Despite these mixed fortunes, Iceland is the second most successful country never to have won the contest.
Sigríður Beinteinsdóttir has participated five times. Hera Björk has also participated five times. Stefán Hilmarsson has participated twice, as have Selma Björnsdóttir, Eiríkur Hauksson. Jón Jósep Snæbjörnsson entered as a solo artist in 2004 before participating in a duo with Greta Salóme Stefánsdóttir in 2012; Greta Salóme later entered as a solo artist in 2016.