Viking Magazine - May 2010 - 33

MEMBER MA TTERS
Notes from Norway
NORWAY STEPS INTO THE SPOTLIGHT
Last year's winner is this year's host of the Eurovision Song Contest
BY NINA BERGLUND
orway may be a small country,
and its citizens overly
modest about their collective
wealth and role in world affairs, but
there's never a dull moment here in
the nation's capital.
N
But for all the " serious " issues dominating
local news, there's been one
lighter story guaranteed to keep generating
headlines as Norway entered
the traditionally merry month of May:
The country's hosting this year of the
Eurovision Song Contest.
Eurovision isn't particularly well
known in the US, but it's a very big
deal in this part of the world. Around
40 countries mount their own national
song contests (the Norwegian
version is known as Melodi Grand
Prix), featuring only original compositions,
and then they all compete at
the annual Eurovision Song Contest.
Winners often go on to fame and
fortune, as did the pop band, ABBA,
from Sweden in 1974.
Norway has taken part in Eurovision
for 50 years, but had a dubious record
until fi nally winning for the fi rst time
in 1985. Until then, Norway had suffered
a long losing streak, even attracting
international ridicule after scoring
zero points. Both Melodi Grand Prix
and Eurovision were widely disparaged
in some music circles as being far
too pop-oriented, and, well, a bit silly.
That started changing with the victories
of pop duo Bobbysocks in 1985
and especially after Rolf
Løvland's " Secret Garden "
clinched Norway's second
Eurovision win in 1995
with the haunting melody
" Nocturne. " And then, last
year, along came young
Alexander Rybak, the son
of two musicians who fled
Belarus in the early 1990s.
Rybak grew up in Norway
studying classical piano and
violin, won last year's Melodi
Grand Prix with his hit
song " Fairy Tale " and then
went on to win Eurovision
itself in Moscow, by the biggest margin
and with the highest number of points
in the contest's history.
Norway went wild, and Rybak's victory
meant Norwegian Broadcasting
(NRK) would need to host the lavish
production this year. The semi-finals
and final in the last week of May will
bring around 5,000 accredited participants,
including 2,000 media representatives,
to Oslo. In addition come
all the fans, who will purchase around
90,000 tickets to various Eurovision
events. Tickets to the fi nal, on May 29,
sold out within 20 minutes in February.
Norway's contestant this year is
another young man, budding opera
singer Didrik Solli-Tangen, who will
sing the song " My Heart is Yours. "
Norwegian organizers promised their
production wouldn't feature fjords,
The winner of the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest
was Norway's " Fairy Tale, " performed by
Belarussian-born Alexander Rybak (right).
trolls or Vikings, but rather would
portray Norway " in an entirely new
way, " without going into detail.
Organizers have disclosed the
show's theme, though: " Share the
Moment. " Jon Ola Sand of NRK
told the Oslo newspaper Aftenposten
that " there will be 120 million
people in Europe doing the same
thing on May 29-watching Eurovision
from Oslo. We want to focus on
that fellowship, instead of just showing
off our national symbols. " That's
classic Norwegian modesty, even
as the country steps into its biggest
spotlight of the year. V
Nina Berglund is editor and publisher
of Views and News from Norway,
an online Norwegian news service at
www.newsinenglish.no.
M a y 2 010 V I K I N G 33
PHOTOGRAPHY BY INDREK GALETIN (EBU)
http://www.newsinenglish.no
Viking Magazine - May 2010

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Viking Magazine - May 2010
