Norway and the Eurovision song contest

I can’t say I like it, but here’s my contribution to the Eurovision song contest debate ’09. First som history that I kind of assume has grown to be common knowledge these days;

  • 1984 Bobbysocks wins with “La det swinge
  • 1996 Secret Garden wins with “Nocturne
  • 2009 Alexander Rybak wins with “Fairytale

The above show the years, artist and song that Norway has taken home first price in this weird, European song contest that oddly enough is called “grand prix” in Norwegian. That in itself leaves room for some rather funny misunderstandings when talking about this contest to non-europeans.

Anyway. The thing I want to put the spotlight on is as follows. Bobbysocks is a duo. It consisted of Hanne Krogh and Elisabeth Andreasson. The latter is originally Swedish.

Furthermore…Secret Garden is a duo as well. It consists of Rolv Løvland, who is probably most famous for composing the hit “You raise me up“, and the Irish violinist Fionnuala Sherry. Is it clearing up?

Alexander RybackThird…Eurovision song contest 2009. Alexander Rybak crushes all previous records, and ends up in a solid first place with a record score of 387 points. To be fair…he is backed up up by the amazing Norwegian folk dance company “Frikar“. Nevertheless the question remains;

Is it possible for Norway to win the European song contest without the solid help of “foreigners”?

Just to be clear…I am not criticising any of the winners…it’s just a though. Alexander Rybak will for the year to come find himself under siege by the united international music press. Let’s just hope the 23 year old copes with all the fuss! And to finish up; congratulations with an astonishing performance Alexander.

Edit:
It seemes that I was hitting the nail right on the head. The discussion on “RedaksjonEN” tonight was, amongst other things, about mixing “norwegian and foreign culture”. (T. Giske, 25:45)

1 Comment on "Norway and the Eurovision song contest"

  • You clearly don’t know much about Eurovision. Very, very many of the winners in Eurovision Song Contest has had a songwriter behind. Few of the participants in this contest hasn’t written their own lyrics. And besides. And about Elisabeth Andreassen. She was born in Sweden by norwegian parents as an norwegian citizen. Rolf Løvland did also wirte Bobbysocks entry ”La det Swinge”. Again, it is very common with songwriters, and rather unusual that the singer writes his own text. And about the dancers in the norwegian entry this year. Did you see Russia last year? A world known ice-skater and an also world known violinist. Pay more attention to this contest before you write something about it. And in Norway Eurovision Song Contest is know as MELODI Grand Prix.

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