A weird Norwegian dream

I haven't been sleeping very well over the past week - there's a lot of stuff going on (not directly involving me) and it's obviously messed with my mind enough to end up having a totally random and unrelated weird dream involving me, my late mum, ESC 1986 Norwegian representative Ketil Stokkan and a trip to Norway!

Venue: a hotel in an undisclosed location somewhere in Norway.  This was no ordinary hotel as it opened up at the back to acres and acres of parks, streams and trees.  It was packed with people and I had managed to talk my mum into going to Norway with me to see a concert by Ketil Stokkan who had come out of retirement for this big comeback show which was taking place in a big lounge in the hotel, but there wasn't a big stage - instead the acts had to stand behind the bar where they would sing and perform their show.  We got ready for the big concert and headed down to the bar. There were many excitable Norwegians in the crowd and also some curious British and Americans employed in the oil industry.

Anyway Ketil appeared and started singing but there was no sound.  Despite changes of microphone the sound ceased to work.  My mum got fed up waiting and decided to go back to the impossibly luxurious hotel room but I begged her to stay in the bar, in my most pleading and whiny voice "I need to hear him singing Romeo, I can't miss that!". (Incidentally prior to the show, the organisers presented a massive cake with the word Romeo written in icing on top of the cake)

So she reluctantly decided to stay and we waited and time passed and still no sign of Ketil who had left the stage/bar.  Eventually he then came back on wearing his ESC 1986 trouser suit and started to sing.  This time the sound was working but for some reason he was singing a lot of old rock and roll songs (think Shakin' Stevens!) rather than his own songs.  The booing started and the crowd yelled "sing Romeo!"  I was all geared up to join in the famous "Romeo" dance routine as well.  But then I woke up, which was extremely frustrating as I wanted to find out how the dream ended.  Would he sing "Romeo"?  Would I get the chance to do the dance? Would he ever change my mind about "Brandenburger Tor"? (not one of my favourite ESC songs!)

Aah, so many questions ....but anyway, dream analysts - just what was that dream all about????? A subliminal commemoration of 30 years since my all-time favourite Norwegian ESC entry?  Or something completely different?  This was such a vivid dream that I just had to blog about it of course!

Melodi Grand Prix 2014: The Final - 15.03.2014

This year's MGP was scaled down from previous years.  No more big arena tour across Norway for the contest.  Unfortunately due to what felt like most of this year's national finals being crammed into a very limited amount of weeks, something had to give, and that happened to be this year's MGP heats :(

Ironically, for a show which in recent years had used the Melodifestivalen template, it now looks as if Sweden could learn a lot from their Norwegian counterparts.  Scaled-down heats and a showpiece final, presented by an attractive, classy and professional duo.  There's none of the 'baggage' which weighs Melfest down.  Although the show begins with a sketch (featuring WigWam) and an irritating child spoiling the opening, the contest quickly settles into a smooth, high quality show. 

Erik and Jenny are such lovely hosts.  And by the way, isn't Erik getting better looking, the older he gets?  Jenny has yet another of her lovely dresses on, this time it's all glitter and gold.  Now let's have some songs shall we?

"Ain't No Love In This City No More" - El Cuero
I always like a wee bit of rock in MGP.  It's not death metal this time, just a straightforward rock song.  It's nothing brilliant, but it's ok.  The singer reminds me, looks wise, of the lead singer of the Boo Radleys. 

"Soul Survivor" - Elisabeth Carew
I love, love, love her green dress.  This is a highly fancied, very contemporary soul/r'n'b number.  It's catchy and decent enough. 

Now we have some bloke with a big chain round his neck - he's like the Mayor of MGP! - talking about Knut. Which nicely leads us on to ....

"Taste of You" - Knut Kippersund Nesdal
Big big cheers in the Spektrum for a guy (with an amazing name!!) who, for me, is this year's Bjorn Johan Muri - he won't win but this is going to be a big hit.  Knut scored a record deal just before the final so I think we'll be hearing more from him.  There's a spectacular intro where Knut directs the laser lights.  This is just a great pop song which I'll take into off season.  The song ends with a golden firework finale a la Only Teardrops.  This deserves a spot in the superfinal.

"Needs" - Dina Misund
Even the songs I'm not personally fond of are still better than some national finals this year.  Dina gives a very nice performance.  Well done.

"Heal" - Mo
There's a big back story here: as Mo survived the Utoya massacre.  He performs the song well enough, although it's not a winner, but one thing's for sure already - this year's MGP final is ahead of the pack. 

"High Hopes" - Linnea Dale
Yet another dress which I love - Linnea's wearing a long satin dress in my favourite shade of green, which is the same as the curtains and cushions in my living room :)

This is contemporary, in a good way, and the song really draws you in.  By the way, I've been pronouncing her surname wrongly all these years: I thought it was pronounced 'Dale' the English way but it's actually like "Daa-le" so that's my Norwegian lesson for the week!

"Hit Me Up" - Charlie
Not really impressed by the title, and the song is probably the 'filler' of the night.  I never watched the heats but I'm sure this one must have beat off better songs.  It's one for those people who like the 'Disney girls'/Carly Rae Jepsen kind of sugary pop.

"Silent Storm" - Carl Espen.
From the ridiculous to the sublime.  He looks like an off-duty member of a death metal band.  This song's intensity is unmatched, and the fragility of his performance complements the song perfectly.  The buzz is already building for this one....

"Sing" - Oda and Wulff
So just when I'm enjoying the contemporary songs, along comes something which would have been at home in the Eurovision Song Contest of the 1970s.  National finals season has been littered with folky-acoustic numbers this year, but this is old fashioned.  Distressingly, disturbingly old-fashioned.  I think the Norwegian voters are too smart to let this win though.

The only down side is a 40 minute break between the first show and the gullfinal (superfinal): which gives us all a chance to take stock, and in my case do the washing up  :)

So 40 minutes later, the dishes are done, the wine is opened, the internet stream is faultless (see, SVT - this is how you do a live stream, watch and learn!) - Saturday nights just don't get any better than this. 

The wonderful Jenny has changed into a lovely navy blue glittery dress, and Erik is still looking good :)

But who are the gullfinalists?

Knut!!  With that hairdo he looks like Jedward's long lost brother.  He sounds good though, and he can be proud of his impressive debut this year. "Taste of You" is just a good pop song, we used to get lots of them in Melfest season...

Carl Espen is gullfinalist no.2.  Maybe it's just the way I've been feeling lately but the lyrics and sentiment of "Silent Storm" touch a very raw nerve.  He may be a little more nervous vocally, but this is an absolutely real experience which, if chosen to represent Norge this year, will completely slice through all the fakery. 

As my two favourite songs are through, I'm not too fussed about the 3rd and 4th songs but I'm sure they'll be ok...

Gullfinalist no.3 is Mo, with "Heal".  But firstly, is that really Stella Mwangi with her head shaved?  Yes it is!  Mo also has a distinctive look, but I'm not totally sure that this would be such a great choice.  It's a modern, slightly dubsteppy/drum n' bass style of song, but Hungary and Armenia have cornered that market this year.  Nevertheless this is a good performance.

And finally, gullfinalist no. 4 = Linnea Dale, with "High Hopes".  Glad that "sing sing sing sing sing like you mean it" dreck missed out.  Linnea brings effortless cool and lots of charm.  She has an interesting voice and this is another song for the off season.  There is background dancing, but it's not intrusive background dancing in a Melfest way.  This final is totally kicking Melfest's butt!

4 songs done, on with the voting so let's be having the interval act.  Firstly, Karin Park, the striking co-writer of "I Feed You My Love" with a song in a similar vein...

which leads us to the return of Margaret Berger, singing her latest song "Scream".

Finally it's time for "I Feed You My Love" which she performs in duet-version with Karin Park. 

There are some past MGP stars delivering the various regional voting totals, first up is Stella Mwangi, delivering the Østlandet votes.

1st - Mo
2nd - Carl
3rd - Linnea
4th - Knut

Jørn Hoel - from further back in the day at MGP - delivers the Nordnorge votes:

1st - Carl
2nd - Linnea
3rd - Mo
4th - Knut

Margaret Berger gives the Midtnorge totals:

1st - Carl
2nd - Linnea
3rd - Mo
4th - Knut

Helene Bøksle gives us the Sørlandet scores. 

1st - Linnea
2nd - Carl
3rd - Mo
4th - Knut

Christine Guldbrandsen - who doesn't look a day older than she did in 2006! - gives the Vestlandet scores:

1st - Carl
2nd - Linnea
3rd - Mo
4th - Knut
So Carl wins Vestlandet with a resounding majority, and takes home the MGP 2014 title ahead of Linnea in 2nd place, Mo 3rd and Knut 4th. 

"Silent Storm" may not be to everyone's taste, and I don't usually go for this minimalistic type of song - but it is an absolutely perfect choice for Norway in the Eurovision Song Contest.  Even my mum woke from her slumbers to declare "that sounds like a Eurovision winner to me" ("I don't know about you but that sounds like a Eurovision winner to meeeeee....."). 

The song was written by Carl's cousin, Josefin Winther, who was overcome with emotion after the final result. Carl's not even a professional singer - he's been a soldier, a glazer and a nightclub bouncer!  I'm sure this will be a springboard to a great career.  "Silent Storm" will stop the viewers of Europe in their tracks: whether that translates into votes is another matter.  It may be too "dark" and minimal for the 21st century Eurovision Song Contest, but it would be a unique winner.

MGP 2013: The Final, 09.02.13

Hello again!  I'm back after a much-needed break from blogland.  So much has happened since I was last here: national finals season has come and gone, and we now know the full line-up for this year's Eurovision Song Contest which is only 7 weeks away!

Over the coming weeks I'll post my thoughts on the songs, however this post is devoted to what I'm calling the 'Peter Nalitch' of national final reviews.  Yes, it was 'lost and forgotten' (groan) but I'm finally getting around to posting the final chapter of this year's Norsk Melodi Grand Prix.

Like Melodifestivalen which followed, an underwhelming and lacklustre qualifying season resulted in a surprisingly good final.  The venue, as usual, was Oslo Spektrum which was packed as ever, and this year's hosts Erik Solbakken and Jenny Skavlan have done a solid job presenting the show.  However, Jenny's stylist must have had the night off, as I wasn't too impressed with either of her outfits in the final. 

Time for the first finalist: Vidar Busk with "Paid My Way".  Now I still don't get him, and don't really understand why he's in the final, but then again it wasn't so long ago that this kind of thing was doing well in Melodifestivalen, so....

Right, let's get this out of the way: I have a very minor crush on the grinning guitarist in Fjellfolk, you know, the one who looks a wee bit like Bret McKenzie.  Anyway I'm feeling a lot more charitable on final night and even the tongue-twisting-title "Ulvetuva" sounds better than it used to.  It's a hypnotic Norwegian folk lullaby which then erupts into something a bit more lively.  OK then, maybe 'erupts' is a bit too strong.  Oh what the heck, let's have a gratuitous photo of Trym Bjønnes (the grinning-guitarist-Bret-lookalike)...  

In the lead-up to the final, "Bombo" sung by Adelen was topping the iTunes chart in Norway and she had become Margaret Berger's main competition.  In the weeks following the contest, the young singer has unfortunately been the victim of internet bullying, as reported by the excellent Wiwi Bloggs: http://wiwibloggs.com/2013/03/12/adelen-bullied-in-norway/23132/

I would agree that they're probably just jealous that she is young, extremely pretty and appears to have a cheerful and bubbly personality.  She certainly doesn't deserve that treatment.  Unfortunately her vocals aren't up to the job, but this is such a catchy song that there was never any doubt that it would make it to the final 4.

Next: it's Gromth featuring Emil Solli-Tangen.  I've never really been sold on "Alone" and would have preferred Gothminister in the final to fulfil the metal-quota.  Anyway, Gromth do their symphonic death-metal thang and then in strolls Mr Tangent-Thingy in his dinner suit.  Any more members of the Tangent-Thingy family want to come and have a go at MGP if they think they're operatic enough?

So Erik's just having a wander round the audience and who should he spot but some schlager royalty.  Oh look, there's Bettan!  And Guri Schanke!  Now, where the bleep is Alexander Stenerud?  We need him back in MGP.

But on we go to the next song, "Awake" sung by Gaute Ormåsen.  This is Morten Harket-lite, with a little bit of Donkeyboy thrown in.  The kind of effortless pop which Norwegians seem to do in their sleep.  This is one of my favourites in the final however is spoiled by the distraction of some women in sequinned trousers wheeling mirror frames around in the background, as you do.

The best thing about Lucky Lips is the lead singer's pink hair.  I can't believe that "Sweet and Heavy" was chosen as a wildcard to the final, as it's soooo banjo-plucking irritating.  The way she sings "dark red wiiiiine" annoys me beyond belief.

But fire up the glitterballs because it's D.I.S.C.O. time and my favourite MGP entry this year: "The Underground" by Datarock.  They are still dressed in those silly red tracksuits with 'Datarock' written on them.  But even if the styling is rubbish, I still love the song and never tire of it.  The intro is particularly amazing....come take a ride to where dreams are made of!  It was a better performance of the song than in Steinkjer and he nailed the key change this time.  But I couldn't see it as a superfinalist though.

Unlike Annsofi, who had the magical ingredient of a song written by Alexander Rybak, and indeed a song which became a real grower over the weeks.  "I'm With You" was performed well on the night.  I'd done some research to find out more about Annsofi Pettersen who had come 3rd in Norwegian X Factor in 2010.  She is still only 18 years old and I'm sure that she will be back at MGP in years to come.

And now to the pre-contest favourite, Margaret Berger or should I say "Marrrrrgarrrret Bergiiiirr" (I love that pronunciation!).  She seems quite likeable, away from the scary ice-queen character in that dress, performing "I Feed You My Love".  The intro recalls "Euphoria" and the staging of blue backdrop and flashing lights is very effective.  Let's face it peeps, she is probably the nearest thing we'll ever get to seeing Robyn at ESC so for that reason alone she had to win!

One more song to go, and it's "I Love You Te Quiero" sung by those chest-flashing Sirkus Eliassen brothers, who are like a Norwegian equivalent of LMFAO.  They look like the kind of guys who'd be good fun on a night out then would start to get very annoying.  But they're not as annoying as Sean Banan.  Anyway they are cute in a geeky kind of way, and extra points for the white rabbits.  This song is catchy but I could see a disastrous result if it was to represent Norway.

Songs over and it's time for Loreen to entertain the punters, stopping off at Norway on her national finals mini-tour.  She's chosen not to perform "E*******" but "My Heart Is Refusing Me", its Melfest predecessor.  Doing her usual mystical dancey thing.

Part 1 of the final is over - now there's some serious cross country skiing action to be done with!  On prime time TV on a Saturday night!  Only in Norway....oh well I'd rather watch that as most of the garbage we have inflicted on us on Saturday night telly here in the UK.  No wonder so many of us are spending our Saturday nights from January to March in national finals land!

But it's not long till MGP's back and it's time for the....Gullfinal!! The super-final in other words.  The hosts have had a costume change: I don't like Jenny's dress.

Adelen is the first of the four grand finalists.  Once again she celebrates as if she's won the whole thing.  Aww bless.  Anyway she gives "Bombo" her all.  She's followed by Annsofi.  By the way is it just me, or does anyone think Alexander Rybak looks very dishevelled and stressed out these days?  However he's cheered up by the announcement that his song "I'm With You" has made it to the final 4.  Annsofi gives a fine vocal performance and if this had been another year it may even have been an MGP winner.  

Erik's talking to Bettan (again) and outgoing champion Tooji, complete with his little blingy collar.  His advice to his successor: "Enjoy the ride!"  He might have come last in ESC but he doesn't seem particularly bothered.

Who's next to the superfinal?  Only Magnus and Erik Eliassen, with their perfectly waxed chests and white rabbits in tow.  By now "I Love You Te Quiero" is worryingly growing on me.

After a chat with Loreen and her personal bodyguard (OK I'm kidding) Mr Eurovision Jon Ola Sand, it's time for the announcement of the last finalist.  As the camera pans along the line-up of contestants, they know it's all lost.  Except of course for Maggie B who once again feeds us her love.

In his final act as reigning MGP champ, Tooji bows out with an 'alternative version' of "Stay" which I don't like to start with but then it eventually gets going and grows on me.  By the end of the song I rather like it, but the twirly hand dance seems to have been axed :(

After a wee trip to Malmö for host Erik it's time for the voting results.

There's a nice touch to the way the votes are announced this year.  The 'general' of each hosting town - who got the job in the individual heats thanks to answering the 'golden telephone' deliver the jury votes.

Steinkjer gives top marks to Margaret.
Floro "feeds" Margaret their top marks with Sirkus 2nd.
Larvik also gives top marks to Margaret.  At this point the three other finalists are joint 2nd.
Carina Dahl delivers the Midt-Norge vote.  Margaret top - Adelen 2nd..
Anina gives the votes from Nord-Norge.  Top marks go to...Sirkus Eliassen - this is the only area where Margaret didn't top the voting.
Martin Blomvik, (who is dressed in a nice jacket and jeans and looked a lot nicer than he did in his Primark-gangsta garb in his heat) delivers the Vest-Norge top marks to Margaret.

By this stage Margaret is so far ahead in the vote that the realisation is beginning to sink in for the hosts and contestants alike.  But there are still more votes to come.

Shackles deliver the Sor-Norge vote and with top marks, this officially seals Margaret's victory.
Last but not least, Julie Bergan delivers the Ost-Norge vote...

Margaret Berger is the winner of Melodi Grand Prix 2013.  And what a resounding winner too, as between juries and televoting she polled almost 40,000 votes more than the runner-up "Bombo", with "I Love You Te Quiero"  3rd and "I'm With You" in 4th place.

So it's good luck to Margaret in Malmö and I've got a feeling she's going to do rather well.  No last place or nil points this time round!  (But then I said the same about Tooji, so.....)

MGP 2013: Week 2

Another Saturday night and another exotic Norwegian destination on the MGP-tour.  This week it was Florø's turn to host the Melodi Grand Prix extravaganza.  I've still got mixed feelings about the opening title sequence, although it is rather 'epic' I guess.  It turned out to be more epic than the songs this week...

Yes, if you thought week 1 was a letdown then you ain't heard nothing yet!

"Det Vakje Mi Tid" - Martin Blomvik.

I initially had high hopes for this one after seeing Bjorn Johan Muri's name in the songwriting credits, but Martin, dressed like a Primark-gangsta, was a let-down and the song went nowhere, a repetitive, irritating retread of Labrinth's "Let The Sun Shine".  One listen was enough and I would be happy if I never heard it again. 

"I'm With You" - Annsofi.

This one grabbed the headlines due to its songwriter, a certain Mr Rybak, but this folkie ballad was anything but a fairytale. Where was the tune?  Already a pattern was beginning to develop in this week's heat: unimpressive vocals and an unconvincing performance.  I was relieved when it was all over. 

"On Hold" -Shackles.

 

I'm not familiar with the work of Shackles, but they were apparently in Norwegian X Factor.  (Points immediately deducted here, from this X Factor-hater).  It was all very contemporary, but I had to deduct further points for the song's disturbing similarity to that Rita Ora "Hot Right Now" song which I can't stand, so you won't be surprised to learn that this was yet another one I wouldn't want to hear again. 

So far, so much negativity from  me.  So I will say something nice for a change: I loved Jenny Skavlan's blue velvet dress this week!

"No One" -Hank.

 

Right, this is a strange one.  A Peter Jackson-lookalike who fronted black-metal combo Turbonegro, standing on the MGP stage crooning a surprisingly sweet song.  It wasn't great, and everything about it was probably wrong, yet it seemed to strike a chord with me where some of the previous entries hadn't. 

"Ulvetuva" - Fjellfolk.

For folk's sake - it's another folkie number.  This kind of thing can go down quite well at MGP.  It wasn't that bad but a pattern has clearly developed in this year's "Melodi" Grand Prix where most of the songs are actually missing a tune.  Still, the Bret McKenzie-lookalike guitarist provided a nice diversion. 

"Shine With Me" - Haji.

Forget everything that's gone before: for the awfulness of this knew no bounds.  Off-key from beginning to end, you really felt for him by the end of it and he probably wanted the ground to open up and swallow him. 

"I Feed You My Love" - Margaret Berger.

So now to the highlight of the evening.  Not a classic by any means, but this was the best song and performance of the night, although it took some guts to wear that catsuit!  (yep, I'm just jealous.)
A bit more of a tune wouldn't have gone amiss but the way things are going it's going to take something big to stop this one representing Norway this year. 

I didn't stick around as Denmark (and the DMGP final) beckoned, but it was no surprise that "I Feed You My Love" qualified direkte till Oslo Spektrum, and a folk double-whammy for "Ulvetuva" and "I'm With You". 

Please let there be better songs in the 3rd heat - I never thought I'd say this about one of my favourite national finals but (so far) you're letting me down, Norway :((
 

MGP 2013: Week 1

I have been trying to cut down on my internet time over the last couple of weeks as I've had lots to do around the house....but it's impossible to resist the lure of Eurovision national finals season, and MGP is one of my favourite national finals. So.....

Norway's Melodi Grand Prix process for 2013 seemed shrouded in secrecy, with week 1's songs and artists only being revealed a few days beforehand.  There's also been a change in the presenters this year: out goes Per Sundnes and his various female sidekicks, in comes Erik Solbakken (who seems to have got better looking since he co-hosted ESC in 2010) and Jenny Skavlan.

Bizarrely, my usually reliable internet connection chose Saturday night to go a bit erratic, just when I wanted to watch the first heat of MGP live online, and I didn't get to join the show until later.

As I tweeted on Saturday night, national finals season is the same every year: anticipation, followed by disappointment, followed by further disappointment.  But we love it.  Because good or bad, national finals season gives us the kind of diversity which we just can't find in the all-too-generic music scene at the moment.  Even in what was, I think you will agree, a below-par heat of the usually high-standard MGP, you can't deny that it was certainly diverse: rockabilly, Euphoria-clones, gentle acoustic pop, death metal and electro-disco to name some musical styles.

First out in Steinkjer this week was Vidar Busk with his rockabilly-tune "Paid My Way".  Now, seasoned Eurovision fans should be well-aware of the 'underestimate rock n' roll songs at your peril' rule in national finals, particularly in the Nordic region (although it can also be a non-Nordic thing: the-hell-that-was-Copycat) yet despite this I didn't see it qualifying to Oslo Spektrum.  WRONG!!!!  I will never learn.

Next up was "Sleepwalking" sung by Carina Dahl.  This was the first of the week's entries co-written by Ben Adams, no less, which caused brief excitement, however the result was a kind of generic Taylor Swift-style contemporary girlie-pop and nothing really special.  I only caught this in the recap and listened to the song later on, however it never really changed my mind.

A break from all the frenzied dance routines next: "Det Er Du" sung by Tom Hugo.  Which was rather nice.  I'm not really into this acoustic style but this nice sweet song was actually very welcome here and I would have been very happy if it had qualified.  But it didn't :(

Then there are "songs" which you just completely shake your head at , but allow them a spot in the running order whilst giving thanks for diversity.  Oh look, it's Didrik Tangent-Thingy's brother Emil Solli-Tangen!  Teaming up with a death-metal combo named Gromth with a "tune" called "Alone".  Now I've always been partial to a bit of the old metal but this is taking it too far, then the less-handsome Tangent-Thingy brother goes and does his little 'I'm a proper singer, me' bit before the scary death-metal screamers take over again.

My internet connection recovered in time to catch Julie Bergan sing yet another Ben Adams co-write, "Give A Little Something Back" the title of which called to mind "Give A Little Love Back To The World" from that horrific era of ESC.  This was burdened with hellish staging, with people dancing and faffing about around a park bench and distracting from Ms Bergan's vocal efforts.  Unremarkable.

There is an established Eurovision trend where a song wins and then a fair amount of songs try to copy it the following year.  So the "Euphoria" tribute prize on Saturday evening went to Mimi Blix, she of "Allergic" fame.  The very generic EDM of "Catch Me" sounded like the Swedish House Mafia featuring Loreen....

You only live twice!  Tomorrow never dies!

And so we arrive at the final song, which immediately grabbed me on first hearing.  After just one hearing, "The Underground" by Datarock became my absolute favourite of national finals season so far - OK there's not much to compare with at this stage, but hey ho - it's got a brilliant introduction and even if it borrows the title from Girls Aloud, and the tracksuits are a bit naff, you succumb to the irresistible electro-disco rhythms.  This is the first song to book a place in my 2013-50 year-end chart as we speak.  What I really like about national finals season is that it will introduce us to acts which we were previously unaware of.  So I checked out more of their music on iTunes.  They sound like a Norwegian version of Chromeo.  And yes, long-term fans of this blog will know that's a good thing.

So, after a little interval segment and some very long X Factor-style pauses, the three qualifiers were revealed in reverse order:

3rd - Vidar Busk.  (Damn! Foiled again)
2nd - Datarock. (Yay!!!!)
1st - Gromth and Tangent-Thingy.  (?????)

Above: this week's qualifiers celebrate in Steinkjer.

(All of the above pictures courtesy of www.nrk.no)

I wonder what next week's heat will bring?  Hopefully it will be better than this week.

If you're up for a bit of nostalgia, NRK's website still has all the old MGP heats and finals from the past few years...check out http://www.nrk.no/nett-tv/prosjekt/218

Hver gang vi møtes....

The third series of the Swedish TV phenomenon "Så mycket bättre" recently came to an end and it looks as if there is much more life in that celeb-reality TV format.  Whilst checking out what's hot in the Norwegian music scene on iTunes tonight I discovered that the format had crossed over there: it's called "Hver gang vi møtes" and we're now on season 2.

Old-school Eurovision fans may be interested to see that Anita Skorgan is taking part, whilst more recent stars in the line-up include Lene Marlin who had some international success at the end of the 90s, Marion Ravn formerly of M2M and the original "World Idol" himself, Kurt Nilsen.

If you want to find out more about the show go to http://www.tv2.no/underholdning/hvergangvimotes.  Just as in Sweden, they all decamp to a farmhouse in the country and sing each other's songs every week, which are then immediately released on iTunes etc.  Oh, and as in Sweden, there's lots of tears.

Album Review: "Fairytales" - Alexander Rybak

So Alexander Rybak’s "Fairytale" got the biggest vote-total in Eurovision history just a few weeks ago and has gone on to become a massive international hit - even breaking into the UK top 10 for one glorious week.

But when it comes to a rush-released debut album, what can this young man from Norway bring to the table? Answer: his very own brand of fiddle-driven folk-pop which conjures up visions of nights by the fire in a little wooden house in the Norwegian countryside.

Certainly that’s the vision I got with the bouncy opening track "Roll With The Wind" and its catchy "i-yi-yi" hookline.

Admittedly most of the songs are variations on the title track - which of course is the album’s best song - I guess that’s why the album is called "Fairytales" hehe. :)))

The lyrics of "Funny Little World" may have spookily predicted his rise and rise to fame - "Suddenly I’m famous and people know my name/got a thousand girls just waiting..." Anyway this has a similar vibe to Jason Mraz’s "I’m Yours" going on, and it’s already topping the chart in Norway so I guess it’ll go across Europe as the follow-up single? It’s off the cheese scale, but it’s also extremely charming.

Across the length of an album Alexander’s voice, distinctive though it may be, can become a little annoying, and the boy-meets-girl lyrics often too simplistic, but on the whole this is a much more distinctive effort than something you’d expect from, say, an X Factor winner or here-today-gone-tomorrow Eurovision winner, with the usual cover versions of "I Believe I Can Fly" and "Unchained Melody" etc. So let’s be thankful that Alexander hasn’t gone down that road but instead created a very distinctive sound all his own - and he wrote most of the songs himself

On big hands-in-the-air ballad "Abandoned" and epic number "13 Horses", Alexander sounds as if he’s channelling A-ha at times, the latter is perhaps a more daring and mature glimpse of the performer this young man can become if he continues with his musical career. Instrumental "Songs From A Secret Garden" shows off his considerable ability as a violinist - and in a unique coincidence, is a cover version of a tune by Secret Garden, the last Norwegian act to win the Eurovision Song Contest.

But then something very strange happened. There is, inexplicably, a cover version of The Proclaimers "500 Miles" (It’s funny to hear a Norwegian singing a Scottish word like ‘haver’!) - this version is played so straight that it is completely absurd and he really should have left it alone. Anyway you can’t listen to this song without thinking of Brian Potter, Andy Pipkin, "Chaka Khan" and "Bobby Davro" :)

It may not be to everyone’s taste, but I found young Mr Rybak’s debut to be a simple and refreshing alternative to what’s around at the moment. I can imagine this having wide appeal across Europe: are we witnessing the birth of a new international star, or just a one-hit wonder? Only time will tell.