"Scared of Heights" ( ; ) is a song by Icelandic singer

Hera Björk Hera Björk Þórhallsdóttir (; born 29 March 1972) is an Icelandic singer. She is known for Iceland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010, representing Iceland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 with the song "Je ne sais quoi (song), Je ne sai ...

, written by Ferras Alqaisi,

Ásdís María Viðarsdóttir Ásdís is an Icelandic female given name. It is derived from the Old Norse elements ''áss'' (god) and ''dís'' (goddess). Notable people with the name include: * Ásdís Egilsdóttir (born 1946), Icelandic scholar * Ásdís Hjálmsdóttir (born ...

, Jaro Omar and Michael Burek. It was released on 28 January 2024 by Alda Music. The song represented

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

in the

Eurovision Song Contest 2024 The Eurovision Song Contest 2024 was the 68th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Malmö, Sweden, following the country's victory at the with the song "Tattoo (Loreen song), Tattoo" by Loreen. Organised by the European Br ...

Background and composition

"Scared of Heights" was written by Ferras Alqaisi, Ásdís María Viðarsdóttir, Jaro Omar, and Michael Burek. In an analysis of the song by ''ESCPlus''' Iván Trejo, it is described as a ballad that is "about overcoming fear and finding strength in the face of adversity". It was announced to compete in '' Söngvakeppnin 2024'', Ríkisútvarpið (

RÚV Ríkisútvarpið (, ; abbr. RÚV ) is Iceland's national public broadcasting, public-service broadcasting organization. Founded in 1930, it operates from studios in the country's capital, Reykjavík, as well as regional centres around the count ...

)'s national selection to select Iceland's entrant for the

on 27 January, and was officially released a day later.

Eurovision Song Contest

''Söngvakeppnin'' ''2024''

Iceland's broadcaster for the

, Ríkisútvarpið (

), organized a 10-entry competition, '' Söngvakeppnin'' ''2024'', to select Iceland's entrant for the

. The competition was split into two semi-finals consisting of five songs, occurring on 17 and 24 February 2024, with two songs in each semi-final determined by televoting and a fifth wildcard spot chosen by RÚV advanced to the grand final. In the grand final on 2 March, two entries determined by a combination of televoting and juries were selected to advance to the superfinal; the system was also used in the superfinal to determine the winner of the contest. "Scared of Heights" was officially announced to compete in the competition on 27 January 2024, on RÚV program ''Lögin i Söngvakeppninni''. It was placed into the second semi-final, and was drawn to perform fifth. It managed to qualify to the final in one of the four televoting spots. In the grand final, the song qualified to the final in second place, along with Bashar Murad's "Wild West". In the grand final, despite a deficit of over 15,000 votes in the first round, Björk was able to overcome the deficit by gaining almost 20,000 more votes than Murad in the second round, winning over Murad by 3,340 votes, drawing an overall tally of 100,835 votes. Although the contest wasn't directly tied to select the Icelandic representative for Eurovision, on 11 March, Björk accepted to represent the country.

Voting dispute controversy

Immediately after the contest, multiple claims of voting glitches and appeals were made by various groups. Icelandic viewers reported on social media that the app used for viewers in the televote, , glitched during the superfinal. The claim was later repelled by

Vodafone Iceland Vodafone Iceland was an Icelandic telecommunications brand owned by the Icelandic company Sýn. Previously known as Fjarskipti hf., Vodafone á Íslandi and Og Vodafone ehf. The Vodafone Group franchised the brand and associated advertising st ...

's director of marketing and communications, Lilja Kristín Birgisdóttir. On 3 March, one of the songwriters of "Wild West", Einar Hrafn Stefánsson, appealed for a third-party investigation of the alleged voting glitches. The request was granted after Ásdís María Viðarsdóttir, one of the writers for "Scared of Heights", stated her intent to "cut ties with the song" due to the alleged glitches on 9 March. On 10 March, Icelandic news site reported that Yogev Segal, an employee of the EBU-affiliated

Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation The Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation is the national broadcaster of Israel. It carries the blanket branding Kan in Hebrew () and Makan in Arabic (). Its news division, Kan News, is the third biggest brand in Israeli newscasting, after Ha ...

(IPBC/Kan), allegedly started a campaign to stop Murad from winning the competition by creating a Facebook group that urged its members to vote against Murad in the final.

At Eurovision

The

took place at the

Malmö Arena Malmö Arena is a multi-purpose List of indoor arenas, indoor arena in Malmö, Sweden, and the venue for home games of Swedish Hockey League, SHL ice hockey team Malmö Redhawks. It is the largest arena in the SHL, and the List of indoor arenas ...

Malmö Malmö is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, sixth-largest city in Nordic countries, the Nordic region. Located on ...

, Sweden, and consisted of two semi-finals held on the respective dates of 7 and 9 May and the final on 11 May 2024. During the allocation draw on 30 January 2024, Iceland was drawn to compete in the first semi-final, performing in the second half of the show. The country failed to qualify for the final obtaining only 3 points.

Charts

Release history

References

{{Authority control 2024 singles 2024 songs Eurovision songs of 2024 Eurovision songs of Iceland English-language Icelandic songs Hera Björk songs Songs written by Ferras