Last year I had great fun reviewing the Norwegian Melodi Grand Prix (their Eurovision selection show) final, so now I have decided to review the semi-finals of the 2006 programme. You can watch it all yourself here.
Semi Final 1 (Alta):
Trine Rein – Here For The Show
A “mature” lady in an unadvisably short skirt with a big voice singing a rocky number. She’s no Katrina but the song is good live. According to her web site, Trine has been famous for many years in Norway, where she released Torn, the Natalie Imbruglia song, before even Natalie got her hands on it, and you can even hear her version if you skip through a few songs on her site’s music player.
Geir Ronning & Jorun Erdal – Lost & Found
43 year old Geir will be recognised by Eurovision fans as last year’s Finnish entry, who sang the song Why (the one that ripped off Careless Whisper). He is actually Norwegian, so we can’t even tell him off for deserting his country, although we can reprimand him for his general boring rubbishness. Jorun is 42 and seems only to be famous for entering Melodi Grand Prix quite a lot. However, their song is really quite good! It’s a catchy piece of cheesy sing-along schlager. It’s probably not strong enough to do really well in Eurovision, but it wouldn’t earn them nil points either.
Kirsti Carr – Misled
It seems to be Kirsti’s stylist who is misleading her, cos she looks like she’d fit right in with the Slater girls on Eastenders in this picture, yet only the actual show she looks more like a young mum who has decided she needs to dress respectably now but ran out of trousers and had to put on her tacky white ones from the 80s at the last minute. The song is one of those ballads with a perky chorus that are very common in Eurovision, but it’s not a very good one.
Christina Undhjem – My Dream
The presenter somehow manage to make her name sound like Christina Milian, and she has made herself look rather like Mariah Carey, but she is like neither of them – she is worse. This song is really really boring.
Mocci – Tonight
This lady apparently went to Paul McCartney’s “fame school” in Liverpool and again she’s getting on a bit, but she seems to have modelled herself on Cyndi Lauper rather than a GMTV presenter. I’ve heard good things about this song and it is the best so far definitely.
Arlene Wilkes – Sunshine
This is Arlene’s second go at Melodi Grand Prix and she seems to be known for appearing in musicals in Norway. Her song is quite catchy and jolly, sounding like something S Club 7 or Jnrs would have done. Arlene may not be a cute stage school kid, but she sings it well and has heaps of stage presence (although this could just be cos she looks to be extremely tall).
After the performances it gets very weird – some old bloke goes on stage dressed like a friend of Robin Hood and does what can only be described as a combination of yodelling and gurgling (certainly not as singing). He does have some nice icicle chandeliers, though. Then an even older man arrives, seeming to be the mayor of somewhere in Norway (either that or he just has bad taste in “bling”).
Finally the presenters get around to announcing who is through to the 2nd chance round (ie. 3rd and 4th places). The audience show a sense of humour with some mock nerves. It’s… Kirsti! Also through is… Arlene! Hurrah!
Then, at last it’s time for the winners who go through to the actual final. Announced first is… Trine! She seems excited and has fun running up to the stage without showing her knickers. Then she sings it again and I decide I am extremely bored of her. And also going through is… Geir and Jorun! Hurrah!
As usual, the Norwegian final is good but no patch on their Swedish neighbours. No-one really stands out. Still, there are a few more semi-finals to go (which I will of course be reviewing), so maybe a deserving winner will be among them