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 11 years
ago in 1995, with the rather strange ‘Nocturne’. Apart from 2004,
their recent entries at Eurovision haven’t been that bad. They faced relegation
in 2002 after a poor result in 2001, but bounced back to 5th in 2003, and finished 9th in 2005, qualifying
directly for this year’s Final.
Singer & Song
Christine Guldbrandsen Alvedansen
Norway are one of the few songs deserving
to be already in the Final this year, for both their great performance last year, and wonderful song this year, which is bound
to have made it through the Semi anyway. Even on the first listen I thought Norway had a really good chance of winning – and I still
stick to that. The song is beautiful is every sense. Though sung in Norwegian, the song is still one you can sing and hum along to and is certainly very memorable. Christine herself is a beautiful girl as well as a great singer, and at the national
Final she gave a fantastic and appropriate performance of the song. I have high
hopes for Norway this year, I’m
sure they’ll do well.
Prediction
Possible Winner: 1st-5th
in Final
I think Norway stand a really strong chance
for victory and despite their bad draw, coming up fifth in the running order, are surely not looking at last place for a seventh
time. As I’ve said, it’s one of the few songs that deserves to be
in the Final, both for their attempt last year and their entry this year. The
performance is destined to be great and memorable, and I’m sure more people than the Swedes will pick up their phones
for this one.
Prediction after Semi-Final
Possible Winner: 6th-8th
The competition coming through from the Semi-Final
is much stronger than I anticipated. I still think this could win though - it's one of my top seven possible winners.
Christine's main competition will come from Bosnia & Herzegovina. I think this is better and could just beat them
to the top spot. We'll have to see!
Review of the Eurovision
Performance
For me, the Norweigan entry was another one
(like Germany and Turkey) deserving to do far better than how they actually did. Mustering up just 36 points and 14th
place certainly was nowhere near how this entry deserved to do. This was however one of the countries which were performing
in the first 9 - and all directly qualified from 2005, so maybe this did have an ill effect on how this sing fared considering
none of them made the top 10, or indeed the top 13 - so coming 14th maybe did carry some sense of pride - considering they
were the best of the first pre qualified entries. The song was beautifully sung by Christine and the presentation was
perfect - the song both sounded and looked like it came from the 'frozen north' - and I'm so surprised this didn't strike
a chord with the voters. The backing singers and 'dancers' helped carry the song to great effect as well. I really
don't undertsand why this fared so poorly - it simply must have been the draw - coming up so early (5th of 24) and being shrouded
by a midst of mediocre songs - maybe this just didn't have what it needed to stand out. For me though, this is eurovision
gold - and I shall still be listening to it in years to come. Well done Norway, I thought it was great, it's just a
shame few people did. As for my prediction... not even making the top half comes nowhere close to a predicted winner!
Better luck next time Simon!
