Ah, finally. Our Norwegian selection MGP is coming up! And even though we weren’t there to assist this year, our national broadcaster NRK did a fine job on their own picking out artists and songs that together will make a great show. But how will they do on their own in Tel Aviv? Read our reviews and verdicts below!
Norway’s national final opens with an American. Now, there’s a sign the American music industry and US in general is not the best place to hang around at the moment. Medina is a pro and truly has a silky voice, but the disco is kind of annoying. Then again, it might do well live and we’re all for the cultural exchange. How about Dolly Parton next time?
Points: 6/10
Winning chances in Tel Aviv: Probably none, and we’ll blame Trump for that one, like everything else.
And speaking of disco, this too shall pass.
Points: 2/10
Winning chances in Tel Aviv: None. People will dance like hell while it plays over and over in Euro Club, then totally forget whose song it is, at it will sound like almost everything played in Tel Aviv after midnight every single evening.
Mørland has been a favorite of ours ever since he teamed up with Debrah Scarlett and made us proud back in 2015. And now we even have a local office in his hood, so we’ll support him a little extra this time. Heck, he even sings in the local dialect. Only wish the best lyrics in this year’s competition were possible to understand by others than Norwegians. Guess Italy can relate.
Points: 8/10
Winning chances in Tel Aviv: Mørland is bound to get some votes for being an ESC Alumn from eager fans and he is good at publicity, so he should be among our better options. Also, despite the title being “a shit scared man”, we see no nervous breakdown in sight for this experienced artist from Grimstad. Which, historically speaking, is a bliss.
Ok, please shut up.
Points: 0/10
Winning chances in Tel Aviv: We can name a number of more humane torture methods than putting this one on repeat.
Erlend Bratland – «Sing for You»
Move over, Hovi Star, here’s Erlend from Kvinnherad! He has the voice, the attitude and a belter of a song in a-minor, what could possibly go wrong? There’s a lot here. Of everything. We desperately hope he’s covered in feathers, studs and diamonds come Saturday.
Points: 7/10
Winning chances in Tel Aviv: He would have to recreate a Conchita moment and blow off the roof in Tel Aviv. Or forget that, don’t blow up anything!
Ingrid Berg Mehus – «Feel»
10 years after winning Eurovision with a song about a fairytale we might end up sending THE fairytale to Tel Aviv, which is kinda cool, and chicks with violins are usually pretty successful in this competition. Besides being Rybak’s ex, Ingrid Berg Mehus can add nightclub violinist to her CV, a job we till this date thought only Vanessa Mae was qualified for. MGP can be so educational sometimes.
Points: 5/10
Winning chances in Tel Aviv: No fairytale ending this time, we’re afraid.
Oh, man. Just when we thought we had successfully allocated him to the scientology movement, this guy shows up again like weed in the spring.
Points: 2/10
Winning chances in Tel Aviv: The term when Hell freezes over springs to mind…
Carina Dahl pops up in MGP every now and then and we wonder what she does for a living in-between. Maybe she has a real job, like us. Or a rich daddy, very much unlike us. And just to be clear, there’s nothing holding this girl down as she repeats this very important piece of information about a gazillion times during her designated three minutes. Point taken, Miss Dahl!
Points: 2/10
Winning chances in Tel Aviv: Hahaha. No seriously. Ok, hahaha.
Adrian Jørgensen – «The Bubble»
Adrian is from Bindal, the place where at least one of us used to go to parties and drink moonshine while he was still in diapers. But can’t hold that against him, we guess. He is an immense talent and has a good, catchy song cowritten by our heroes Kjetil Mørland and Aleksander Walmann. Also, he came with to Kiev, so he has that ESC experience that could come in handy.
Points: 10/10
Winning chances in Tel Aviv: This is the absolute favorite of both us and our 11 year old associated jury member. Which is so rare we can see nothing but a top 10 come Tel Aviv. That is of course if the Norwegians manages to vote for the right song. And usually they don’t.
Holy crap, we think this one might end up winning on Saturday. We should be thrilled since we have been yearning for joik to be reintroduced on the Eurovision stage since 1980, but now we think we prefer waiting another 39 years instead. As we all know a joik is more powerful than weapons, which can be a risky combination in the Promised Land.
Points: 6/10
Winning chances in Tel Aviv: It will scrape through to the Grand Final saved by televoting and finish 23rd, saved by Germany, Spain and the UK from the bottom.