I would just like to state, categorically, once and for all, that I accept no responsibility whatsoever for any distress inflicted on you during the Eurovision final in Riga in May due to the dismal Norwegian contribution. I watched the Norwegian final on Saturday night with Tone (who came for a weekend visit – Yay!), Solveig and Arve and the winning entry was the only one which had a total score of zero in our run-down. The entry we had as number one was somewhere near the bottom of the list once the Norwegian people had had their say (the result being decided via phone polls). It’s somewhat reassuring to be so squarely in the minority, but that does not make the winning entry any less cringe-worthy.
Even if Jostein manages to sing in tune in the international final (his track-record of 1 in 3 times on Saturday does not bode well), I have my doubts for the song’s chances, it being a pretty dreary sort of ballad sung in English with a pretty appalling Norwegian accent.
Never mind. In fact, there is an obvious benefit to doing really badly in the European final, as we are then excluded from participating for a year, leaving me free to revel in the awfulness of the other nations’ entries unbothered by the embarrassment the Norwegian entry normally provokes.
Come to think of it, the ones we cheered for weren’t exactly keeping in tune, either. But at least the song was pretty good, even if the rendition left a bit to be desired.
Voice in my head: Ainslie Henderson – Keep me a Secret, kind of apt, I think. One of the benefits of watching Fame Academy on BBC Prime is that we are getting it a lot later than the Brits. Hence, this song, which has been on my mind since Friday, is already available as a single, which I’ve just ordered from Amazon.