In a very professional and high standard selection process, Norway chose Guri Schanke to represent them in Helsinki, and in my opinion, they couldn't have made a better decision.  The song, Ven A Bailar Conmigo is a lovely slice of latino pop, uptempo and fun, with all the tasteful dances and costume changes a Eurovision entry should have.  Though being decided so early this song is bound to stand a chance of doing well in Helsinki, as I've said, it's everything a latino flavoured entry should be, and latino numbers always seem to do surprisingly well in Eurovision (note Marie N's victory in 2002 and Ramon's top 10 for Spain in 2004).  As far as the performance goes, Guri is a polished performer, maybe a little old for what's going on, but it all looks and sounds great.  This could be one of the few pop songs we see at Eurovision this year, but even at that, it is surely a sound entry with a solid chance of making a good impression in May.

 

 

Another one of the better pop songs in it this year.  If there were better support from the fans I'd have this in the top five, but I don't quite understand why they aren't taking to it.  Many say it's inauthentic to send a latino number from Norway but I'd like to draw their attention to Latvia's 2002 winner.  While I thought that was tripe, this ticks all the right boxes - it's fun, catchy, has a good dance routine, experienced singer and a sound draw in the Semi, so I see no reason why this won't qualify.  If it manages the Final, I would imagine a similar placing should be expected and Norway have a chance of direct qualification to the 2008 Final.  I hope they do well - they've tried so hard and haven't sent a bad song for a very long time, despite coming last in 2 of the past 6 years...

 

 

Another of the more deserving to qualify - Norway didn't reach the Final.

 

 

There were three songs in the Semi Final I desperately wanted to qualify: Belarus, Hungary and Norway.  Happy to see two of them make it through, I was disappointed not to see Norway muster up the points it needed.  Norway sent one of those songs you either loved or hated; many like myself enjoyed its vibrancy, energy and colourfulness, while others detested its inauthenticity, being a latino number from a Nordic country.  It’s hard again to pick out problems in this.  I really don’t see why anyone would not have liked this on first listen.  It had a good draw, but coming up after the commercial break may have made a small difference.  Guri sang particularly strongly compared to other westerners (probably why Norway finished higher than most other western European countries), and the routine was wonderful, coupled with being professionally and perfectly executed.  Again, I think this missed out just like Denmark to Eastern block voting, failing to strike a chord with those who were too busy voting for their ex patriots.  Nonetheless, Norway failed to qualify making my prediction very wrong indeed.