Euroband

The Euroband was established in march 2006 by the singers Friðrik Ómar and Regína Ósk, who both have contested in the finals of the Icelandic Eurovision. Both of them have had a succesful solo career and have released a couple of solo albums. Rest of the band members are Grétar Örvarsson (keyboards), Kristján Grétarsson, Róbert Þórhallsson and Einar V. Scheving. Euroband only plays songs which have competed in the Euroviosin Song Contest from 1956 until today. Euroband represented Iceland in Belgrade for the 53rd annual Eurovision Song Contest in 2008! Euroband | artist This Is My Life | lyrics Composer(s) Örlygur Smári Lyrics writer(s) Paul Oscar & Peter Fenner Eurovision Song Contest 2008 Semi-Final (2) Sang in Position: 1 Final Position: 8 Total Points: 68 Eurovision Song Contest 2008 GRAND FINAL Sang in Position: 11 Final Position: 14 Total Points: 64 fter an exciting selecting process in Iceland dating back to September 2007, Iceland finally decided their participant for the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest. Söngvakeppni Sjónvarpsins was won by Euroband. Euroband was established in March 2006 by Friðrik Ómar and Regína Ósk who had both participated in the Icelandic National Song Contest earlier that year. Regína Ósk was the second runner-up in the finals with Þér við hlið and Friðrik Ómar ended up in third place with að sem verður. Friðrik Ómar also just missed out on winning the national finals in 2007 when the song Eldur came in second place. The other members of the Euroband are bass player Róbert Þórhallsson, guitarist Kristján Grétarsson, drummer Benedikt Brynleifsson and keyboard player Grétar Örvarsson, who sang Eitt lag enn along with Sigga Beinteins in Eurovision Song Contest in 1990, and also co-wrote the Icelandic 1992 entry Nei eða já. Friðrik Ómar was born in Akureyri on October 4th 1981. He started playing the drums at only five years old when his older brother gave him a drum kit. His mother says he started singing before he could even talk and he first performed in public at a school gathering at eight. He began playing guitar and piano early on and wrote his first song when he was only ten. By the age of 18 Friðrik had already released two solo albums and performed at a special concert for the President of Iceland. After winning a number of song competitions he moved to Reykjavík where he successfully auditioned for a part in a musical. He has participated in five popular music shows, worked with some of Iceland’s best known singers and fronted several bands. Friðrik has recorded two successful albums that reached gold status and one that was a certified platinum album. Last year he collaborated with the Lithuanian group Land and singer Lim from Malaysia. He has performed in War of the Worlds with the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra and has been nominated for the Icelandic Music Prize. Regína Ósk was born in Reykjavík on December 21st 1977 and, like Friðrik, more or less started singing before she could talk. Regina won two song competitions in her early teens, sang solo with her school choir, and studied classical singing for a period in the Reykjavík Academy of Singing and Vocal Arts, before taking some lessons in jazz vocals. Her first band was the girl group Söngsystur, which later evolved into an octet 8-villt, but more recently has been performing with the band Nova. In 1999 Regína Ósk sang in the musical Little Shop of Horrors where she met and went on to work with Selma Björnsdottir, who represented Iceland at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1999 and 2005. Regina has some Eurovision Song Contest background having sang backing vocals in in 2001, 2003 and 2005, and has done a lot of studio session work. She recorded an eponymous solo album in 2005, a second album Í djúpum dal was released in 2006 and her third album Ef væri ég appeared in 2007.