Norway 2008

A Little Bit of History...

Well everyone knows about Norway’s record at Eurovision (if you don’t, just read on). As the first country to ever receive ‘nul points’, they’ve lost the thing (finishing last) a massive 6 times – almost as many times as Ireland have won. Their latest was with the not so prophetical ‘High’ in 2004, when they mustered up just 3 points – all from their neighbours Sweden. In fairness, I thought the song was great, and was one of the songs I’d predicted great things for that year, but at least I had Ruslana up there as well – so I didn’t get it totally wrong. Regardless of their losses, they have won twice, the last of which was just 13 years ago in 1995, with the enchanting ‘Nocturne’. Lately, Norway have had a bit of a rollercoaster ride in Eurovision, getting a mid table result in 2000 (11th), 22nd out of 23 in 2001, releagted from the 2002 contest, then a wonderful 5th position in 2003, bottom of the heap in 2004, a convincing top 10 in 2005, and then a very undeserved result in 2006. Christine Guldbransen gave a wonderful performance of her song 'Alvedansen', and blew away many critics with such a professional show in the contest, but only mustered up 14th place - much less than it deserved. Their misfortune continued with another great song in the form of Guri Schanke's 'Ven A Bailar Conmigo', which only managed 18th place in the Semi Final.

Singer & Song

Maria Haukaas Storeng Hold On, Be Strong

When I first heard this, I didn’t like it. Norway’s is one of the few National Finals I follow, and I never really caught on to why the Norwegian public liked this so much. I was of course, routing for two other entries, the King of Trolls with ‘Far Away’ and Lene with ‘Sillycone Valley’. Lene didn’t manage the Final in the end and the Trolls pulled third which wasn’t too bad. But what of the song that came first. Well, after a second listen, once I’d gotten over the fact that I wasn’t going to see the trolls at Eurovision, I’ve started to like the Norwegian entry, as have many other fans seemingly, being one of the fan favourites to qualify from the first Semi-Final. I do like it, and Maria sings really well. The song’s one of the more contemporary sounding entries this year, and I think it will look good on the stage in Belgrade. It’s actually quite different which might make it stand out, however, it doesn’t contain that initial impact, so it could just as easily get lost among the competition in the first Semi. A good song that I’d like to see make it through. It’s about time Norway had another shot at the top ten.

Prediction

Semi-Final:

Grand Final:

An initial prediction will appear here soon.

Prediction after Semi-Finals

A prediction will appear here when all 25 songs in the Grand Final are known.