Selma, full name Selma Björnsdóttir, born 1974, is an Icelandic singer, best known for representing her country in the Eurovision Song Contest. Running since 1956, the Eurovision Song Contest (in French: Concours Eurovision de la Chanson) is an annual televised song contest with participants from numerous countries whose national television broadcasters are members of the European Broadcasting Union. ...

Her first experience of the Eurovision occurred when she took her highly-fancied entry All Out of Luck to the 1999 contest in Jerusalem, placing Iceland in the unaccustomed position of being the pre-contest favourites with many bookmakers. Following a vibrant vocal and visual display on the night - with choreography that appeared to be somewhat influenced by Carola's famous routine from the 1991 contest - Selma shot into an early lead in the voting, but was gradually pegged back by Sweden, represented by Charlotte Nilsson. Despite trailing Nilsson only very narrowly before the penultimate set of votes were announced, Selma's hopes of victory came to an abrupt end when Bosnia and Herzegovina awarded maximum points to Sweden and nothing at all to Iceland. However, Selma's second place in Jerusalem still ranks as Iceland's best showing in the contest to date by some distance. The Eurovision Song Contest 1999 was the 44th Eurovision, it was held in Israel on May 29th and the presenters were Dafna Dekel, Sigal Shachamon and Yigal Ravid. ... Jerusalem (Hebrew: יְרוּשָׁלַיִם Yerushalayim; Arabic: القدس al-Quds; see also names of Jerusalem) is an ancient Middle Eastern city of key importance to the religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. ... Carola Häggkvist is a Swedish singer who was born in Stockholm in September 1966. ... The Eurovision Song Contest 1991 was the 36th Eurovision, it was held in Italy on May 4th and the presenters were Gigliola Cinquetti and Toto Cutugno. ...

Such a fine pedigree ensured she was a hugely popular choice to represent Iceland for a second time in the Eurovision Song Contest 2005, to be held in Kyiv. She has co-written the lyrics to her entry If I Had Your Love, and has set her main target for the event as ensuring Iceland are one of the ten countries that qualify from the semi-final on May 19. However, the general response to the long-awaited unveiling of the song and its accompanying video on March 19 added fuel to the suggestions of many that such a modest declaration of ambition ought perhaps to be seen as a canny piece of kiddology on the part of a seasoned campaigner, and indeed one who has continued to accumulate Eurovision experience since 1999 through her occasional contribution to Icelandic efforts as a choreographer. The video depicts her as a hunter armed with a bow and arrow, nimbly darting through an urban landscape in relentless pursuit of her quarry - ie. the man who is the unwitting subject of her wistful longings, as imagined in the song's lyrics. Eurovision Song Contest 2005 logo. ... Kiev (Київ, Kyiv, in Ukrainian; Киев, Kiev, in Russian) is the capital and largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper river. ...

Weblink

• Iceland's Eurovision website (http://www.ruv.is/eurovision)