Who is Diljá? Get to Know the Eurovision 2023 Icelandic representative

New talents are making their way in this year’s edition of the Eurovision Song Contest in Liverpool, and Iceland is one of the countries contributing to this revolution of new artists. Diljá Pétursdóttir will represent the Nordic country most isolated from the continent with her song Power, which she composed herself alongside Pálmi Ragnar Ásgeirsson and won the 29th edition of the traditional Söngvakeppnin from Gufunes, Reykjavik.

Get to know Diljá (Eurovision 2023 Iceland)

Diljá Pétursdóttir was born on December 15, 2001, and raised in Kópavogur, near Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland. As a child, she put on small shows in her family’s backyard for their friends and rose to fame in 2015 after her participation in the Icelandic version of Got Talent at just 12 years old, surprising both the jury and the audience. In 2020, she would move to Copenhagen, where she would juggle her studies in physiotherapy and singing, after having studied at the Icelandic Commercial University.

In 2018, Diljá would participate in her first major singing contest, Vælið, en 2018. However, she would not embark on her professional music career until she became a vocalist for some of the more recent tracks by the group Rjóminn, known in Iceland for their artistic YouTube music videos. Nowadays, Diljá describes herself as an “energetic woman” who enjoys crossfit and cold water baths. Aside from singing, she dreams of being an actress and continues to audition to study at the Icelandic Academy of the Arts with that goal in mind.

In January 2023 , RÚV announced Diljá as one of the 10 participants in the Söngvakeppnin 2023, which took place between February and March in Gufunes, an outdoor area of Reykjavik. The 21-year-old soloist performed Lifandi inni mér (“Living inside me”) in the first semifinal on February 18, qualifying for the final by winning it with almost 2,500 points ahead of Bragi, the second-place finisher. In the grand final on March 4, Diljá performed the English version of her song, Power, created with Pálmi Ragnar Ásgeirsson – also the producer of Iceland’s 2015 representation, Unbroken by María Ólafs – sweeping both the jury and the televote in the first round and defeating veterans Langi Seli og Skuggarnir with 63% of the votes in the superfinal.

Lyrics of Power

Iceland in the Eurovision Song Contest

Iceland debuted in the contest in 1986, with the band ICY and their song Gleðibankinn, and has participated up to 38 times until this edition. The country started its participation more than discreetly, and since the introduction of the semifinals in 2004 , it has managed to qualify for the final ten times, compared to seven times it didn’t, interestingly grouped in two major periods: between 2004 and 2007 and between 2015 and 2018.

The country’s best position in the contest is still the silver medal, which it achieved twice: in 1999 with the song All Out of Luck by Selma Björnsdóttir and 10 years later, in 2009 with Is It True? by Yohanna, which failed to beat Norway’s Alexander Rybak.

In 2022, Iceland was represented in Turin by the Systur sisters, Sigga, Beta, and Elín, who performed Með hækkandi sól (“With the Rising Sun”), qualifying for the final but finishing in 23rd place with a discreet 20 points, 10 from the jury and 10 from the televote.