Söngkonan talar við áhorfendur áður en fyrsta lagið byrjar.

Because Icelandic usually adds the definite article to the end of the noun instead of using a separate word like the.

• söngkona = a female singer
• söngkonan = the female singer / the singer

So -an here is the definite ending on a feminine noun.

Talar is the 3rd person singular present tense of tala (to speak / talk).

The subject is Söngkonan = the singer, which is singular, so the verb must also be singular:

• ég tala = I speak
• þú talar = you speak
• hann / hún talar = he / she speaks

So Söngkonan talar means the singer speaks / is speaking.

It can mean either, depending on context.

Icelandic present tense often covers both:

• a general action: speaks
• an action happening now: is speaking

So Söngkonan talar við áhorfendur could mean:

• The singer speaks to the audience
• The singer is speaking to the audience

English chooses between simple present and present progressive more often than Icelandic does.

With the verb tala, Icelandic commonly uses við to mean to / with when talking to someone.

So:

• tala við einhvern = speak to someone / talk with someone

In this sentence:

• talar við áhorfendur = speaks to the audience / talks with the spectators

This is just the normal pattern you learn with the verb.

After við, the noun goes in the accusative.

So in við áhorfendur, áhorfendur is the accusative plural form.

A useful thing to know is that for this word, the nominative plural and accusative plural look the same, so you do not see a visible change here. But grammatically it is still accusative because við requires it.

Áhorfendur literally means spectators / viewers / audience members, so it is a plural word.

English often uses the collective singular the audience, but Icelandic frequently uses a plural noun where English uses a collective one.

So:

• við áhorfendur = literally to spectators
• but in natural English this is often translated as to the audience

Because Icelandic and English do not always use definiteness in exactly the same way.

Here áhorfendur is an indefinite plural form, literally spectators. In context, English may still naturally translate it as the audience.

If you wanted to make it clearly definite in Icelandic, you would use the definite plural form:

• áhorfendurna = the spectators / the audience

So the sentence as written is slightly more literally The singer talks to spectators before the first song begins, but English usually prefers the audience in this situation.

Áður en means before when it introduces a whole clause.

So:

• áður en fyrsta lagið byrjar = before the first song begins

This is a very common structure in Icelandic:

• áður en ég fer = before I go
• áður en hún kemur = before she comes

Here en is part of the fixed expression áður en. You should learn it as a unit.

This phrase has two parts:

• fyrsta = first
• lagið = the song

So together:

• fyrsta lagið = the first song

Lag is a neuter noun, and fyrsta is the form of first that matches a neuter singular noun here.

Compare:

• fyrsti maðurinn = the first man
• fyrsta konan = the first woman
• fyrsta lagið = the first song

It is in the nominative, because it is the subject of byrjar.

In the clause:

• fyrsta lagið byrjar

the thing doing the action of beginning is the first song, so that noun phrase is the subject.

Also, with a neuter noun like lag, the nominative and accusative singular are the same in form, so context and sentence role help you identify it.

Because its subject, fyrsta lagið, is singular.

• lagið = the song
• fyrsta lagið = the first song

Since only one song is beginning, the verb is singular:

• lagið byrjar = the song begins

If the subject were plural, the verb form would change:

• lögin byrja = the songs begin

The sentence has:

1. a main clause
   
   • Söngkonan talar við áhorfendur
2. a subordinate clause introduced by áður en
   
   • áður en fyrsta lagið byrjar

So the full structure is:

• [The singer speaks to the audience] [before the first song begins].

In the main clause, Icelandic normally puts the finite verb in the second position:

• Söngkonan talar ...

In the subordinate clause here, the order is straightforward:

• fyrsta lagið byrjar = the first song begins

Yes. Icelandic can move that time clause to the front.

For example:

• Áður en fyrsta lagið byrjar talar söngkonan við áhorfendur.

That still means the same thing: Before the first song begins, the singer speaks to the audience.

When something other than the subject comes first in the main clause, Icelandic still keeps the finite verb in second position, so you get:

• ... talar söngkonan ... not
• ... söngkonan talar ...

This is a very important Icelandic word-order pattern.