Birgitta Haukdal Brynjarsdóttir (born July 28, 1979) is a pop singer who comes from the small town of Húsavík in Iceland. For most of her life she has lived in the northern part of Iceland. In November 1999 Haukdal replaced the then lead vocalist of the pop group Írafár. They released their first single "Hvar er ég?" ("Where am I?") in the summer of 2000, followed by two more singles in 2001. The band signed a recording contract with Iceland’s biggest record company, Skífan in 2002, releasing their first album "Allt sem ég sé" ("All I see") in early November. It is Iceland’s fastest selling pop album of the last 25 years, reaching platinum - which is not common in Iceland. As of 2003[update], Haukdal is one of the most popular female pop vocalists in Iceland. She has been voted Pop Star of the Year and Performer of the Year. In 2003 she won the national final for the Eurovision Song Contest 2003 with her song "Segðu mér allt". At the contest she sang it in English ("Open your heart") and came in 9th. She competed in the Icelandic pre-qualifying for the Eurovision Song Contest 2006, with the song "Mynd Af Þér" or "Picture of you" and, in a duo with Magni Ásgeirsson, reached the finals of the Icelandic qualifying for Eurovision Song Contest 2008 with the song, "Núna veit ég" but didn't win. Eurovision Song Contest 2003 - Riga Entry for Iceland Performer: Birgitta Song title: Open Your Heart Song writer(s): Sveinbjörn I. Baldvinsson, Birgitta Haukdal Song composer(s): Hallgrímur Óskarsson Sang in Position: 1 Final Position: 8 Total Points: 81 In 2003, another country entered the song contest: for the first time, the Ukraine participated and sent one of their biggest stars: Olexandr Ponomariov. In total, 26 countries took part in the Eurovision Song Contest in the Latvian capital of Riga which would mark a new Eurovision record. The famous Russian duo, t.A.T.u., decided to enter the contest and kept both the organisation and the press busy during the rehearsal week by not caring about rehearsal schedules and boycotting press conferences. Eventually, the alleged lesbian duo finished third after Turkey and Belgium. Turkey won the contest for the first time after an exciting voting. The winner was not obvious before the last country, Slovenia, had delivered their votes which would give the victory to Sertab Erener, one of the biggest stars in Turkey. Sertab had studied at Turkish conservatoriums and had previously released lots of award-winning albums and had recorded duets with the likes of Ricky Martin and José Carreras. Her song Every Way That I Can was a combination of oriental melodies and pop and was specially re-mixed for the Eurovision Song Contest to make it more appealing to televoters. The United Kingdom entry Cry Baby performed by the duo Jemini came in at a disappointing last place, scoring no points at all. The group claimed that there had been severe problems with the monitor speakers and that this was the reason why they performed so badly. It was the first time ever that an entry from the United Kingdom got the dreaded nil points. The Belgian song Sanomi by Urban Trad was one of the most interesting songs in recent Eurovision Song Contest history as it was sung in a made-up language. No-one had expected them to score that well though ending up in surprising second place.
