Iceland planned to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest 2020, which was scheduled to be held in Rotterdam, Netherlands. Icelandic broadcaster (RÚV) held a televised selection process, 2020, to choose its entry for the contest. Following two semi-finals and a final, "Think About Things", written by Daði Freyr Pétursson and performed by Daði og Gagnamagnið, emerged as the winner of the event in February 2020. In mid-March 2020, due to the spread across Europe of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) announced the contest's cancellation, with Daði subsequently announcing that they would represent Iceland at the 2021 contest.
During 2020 and following its selection as Iceland's entry, "Think About Things" went on to become a viral phenomenon and was considered one of the favourites to win the contest before the cancellation. It went on to win several alternative contests, held by national broadcasters in place of Eurovision to determine their public's favourite song, including Austria's and Sweden's .
Background
Prior to the 2020 contest, Iceland had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 32 times following its first entry in 1986 and had failed to participate on only two occasions since their debut. The contest has been broadcast in Iceland since as early as 1970, but the geographically-remote nation was prevented from competing until a stable satellite connection could be established to enable live transmission of it. Iceland had never won the contest ahead of the 2020 event, but had previously achieved two second place finishes, in with the song "All Out of Luck" performed by Selma and in with the song "Is It True?" performed by Yohanna. Following the introduction of semi-finals for the , Iceland's entries appeared in the final on nine occasions. In , Iceland marked their fourth consecutive non-qualification when Ari Ólafsson and the song "Our Choice" placed 19th and last in the first semi-final, standing as the country's worst result at the contest. Iceland made its returned to the final in , with Hatari and the song "" placing 10th with 232 points and bringing the nation back into the top 10 for the first time since 2009.
The Icelandic national broadcaster, (RÚV), broadcasts the event within Iceland and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. The Icelandic broadcaster has used various methods to select the Icelandic entry in the past, such as internal selections and televised national finals to choose the performer and song to compete at Eurovision. Since 2006 RÚV has chosen its entry for Eurovision through , a televised music competition. RÚV confirmed its intention to participate at the 2020 contest on 13 September 2019 through a post on the official Facebook page, and concurrently affirmed details for the production of 2020 to select its entry as well as opening the song submission process.
Before Eurovision
Söngvakeppnin 2020
RÚV once again organised ("The Singing Competition") to determine the Icelandic entry for the Eurovision Song Contest. The competition consisted of three shows held in the Icelandic capital Reykjavík, with two semi-finals held in the on 8 and 15 February 2020 and the final held in the Laugardalshöll on 29 February. All three shows were broadcast on RÚV and online at the broadcaster's official website ruv.is and were hosted by , Benedikt Valsson and .
The 2020 contest was announced on 13 September 2019 and until 17 October, interested artists and songwriters were invited to submit entries for the contest through the website. Alongside this open submission process RÚV also held discussions with experienced Icelandic songwriters inviting them to write entries for the competition. Each composer could submit up to two songs for consideration, while lyricists could be credited on an unlimited number of songs. A total of 157 songs were subsequently registered for the competition, 25 more than those entered for the previous contest; a seven-member panel consisting of individuals from the Icelandic Society of Authors and Composers (; FTT) and the Icelandic Musicians' Union (; FÍH) was tasked with selecting ten songs to compete in the semi-finals. In addition to winning the right to represent Iceland at the Eurovision Song Contest, any authors of the winning song received a prize of .