So, in 1985, we won the ESC ... our winner was the composer and musician Rolf Løvland. He really got into it, because he competed again in 1987, and then again in 1994. :-) He also was a part of the Norwegian team in -92 and -93, as conductor. This was back when they used real musicians. Oh, those wonderful days of yore. But anyway. He is really into the ESC, and he is also a very versatile guy when it comes to music ... his 1985 entry was one style, and when he competed again ten years later, that entry was in a completely different style. I mean, like you'd hardly think it was the same guy. o_O That year he added a little extra to his entry, though - he was on stage himself, performing the song with his ... band, I guess, Secret Garden. And, rather surprisingly, he won again. By the standard of the time a quite solid victory. Norwegians beside themselves again, ten years later!! :-D
The song stirred up some controversy, though - the Swedes in particular (and what a coincidence) were quite upset with us as they felt we were in violation of ESC rules which clearly state that entries cannot be instrumental, but must have lyrics. Which this song has ... although not a lot. Sweden lodged an official complaint against us, but got nowhere. Alas for our brothers across the keel. 25 words of lyrics are still lyrics, apparently.
This is Secret Garden performing Nocturne by Rolf Løvland and Petter Skavland. They competed at the Point Theatre in Dublin, Ireland on May 13th, 1995 and won. And oh, how happy the Irish were to unload the damn thing onto us ... !! :-D
Lyrics with translation here.
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2 days ago
4 comments:
Haha, I'm Swedish and i absolutely loved the song, I still do :-D
True the Irish were happy about getting rid of the damn thing. I think the joke at the time was it was the annual Eurovision song contest from Dublin. But we still had a hand in the win, the violin player was Irish, so I dont think anybody was sorry.
there was a brilliant skit of the 1995 Eurovision on Fr Ted where Ireland picked the worst song possible so that the National broadcastor would not be broke if we won
gealach: I'm not surprised, it's so lovely. :-) Just goes to show that the media loves to create this battle situation thing between Norwegians and Swedes, but we mostly all get along really. :-)
Paz: There's a rumor that whatever his name was who was head of the RTÉ in 1994 started to cry in the VIP room when he realized that Brendan Graham was actually winning. :-D I remember last May, when Rybak had won - ie late that night - my mother texted me and asked, What do you think Bjerkaas is thinking right now? (He's the current boss of NRK, our national broadcaster and first EBU member.) I texted her back with my guess - 'Shit shit shit shit shit ... !!!' :-D
What's really amazing is that Secret Garden is still going strong after all these years ...
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