Saturday February 7th sees Denmark hold their annual Melodi Grand Prix, to determine which song will represent them at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest. Much excitement.
Unlike other Nordic national finals, the Danish MGP is a one night affair. With only 10 songs selected to take part, the line-up is usually pretty strong – and this year’s lot stick to that tradition nicely. With only a couple of stinkers amongst them, the songs on offer this year are well worth a listen or twelve in the lead-up to next Saturday’s final. A striking bunch, with more than enough to cater for any fan of either pop or Eurovision.
Here are the songs. And for some blurb on the artists, scroll down to under the songs.
THE RIDICULOUS SCHLAGER BELTER
Tina & René – Mi Amore
Written by Thomas G:son & Henrik Sethsson
THE CYNICAL HIPPY GIRL SCHTICK
Anne Gadegaard – Suitcase
Written by Micky Skeel & Magnus Funemyr
THE ARENA-FRIENDLY, ETHNO-POP ROUSER
Babou – Manjana
Written by Thomas Sardorf, Karen Rosenberg, Lasse Lindorff, Daniel Rothmann, Johannes Loeffler & Matthias Zürkler
THE INEXPLICABLY LOVEABLE KITSCH NUMBER
Cecilie Alexandra – Hotel A
Written by Marcus Ubeda, Bobby Ljunggren & Kristian Lagerström
THE RETRO INDIE-POP CROWD-PLEASER
Anti Social Media – The Way You Are
Written by Remee & Chief 1
THE STARRY EYED ELECTROTWEEN
Julie Bjerre – Tæt på mine drømme
Written by Lise Cabble, Maria Danielle Andersen & Jacob Schack Glæsner
THE TOILET BREAK
Andy Roda – Love Is Love
Written by Andy Roda & Maria Hamer-Jensen
THE SONG THAT TURKEY SHOULD COME BACK WITH
Sara Sukurani – Love Me Love Me
Written by Sara Sukurani, Robert Uhlmann, Alex Papaconstantinou & Arash Labaf
THE WRONG CONTEST, MATE
Marcel & Soulman Group – Når veje krydses
Written by Marcel Mark Gbekle, Jeanette Christiansen & Bjarne List Nissen
THE DANISH ANSWER TO G.R.L
World of Girls – Summer Without You
Written by Daniel Calvin, Rune Braager & Martin Fliegenschmidt
But what of the artists?
Well there’s only one act on the list who have graced the pages of Scandipop before – and that’s newly formed girlband World of Girls who released their debut single ‘Weekend Girl’ last year. There’s the as-standard former Danish X Factor contestant – Babou, who competed when he was only 15 back in 2011. Julie Bjerre is another talent TV show graduate, although she won her show Mentor in 2013. Anne Gadegaard has already competed in Eurovision, albeit Junior Eurovision. Indiepop group SLASH boyband Anti Social Media are quite new, but will compete with a song written by one of Denmark’s biggest pop exporters Remee. Andy Roda performed back-up vocals for Denmark at last year’s Eurovision behind Basim. Tina Stachowiak and René Machon have formed Tina & René, tracked down the Swedes who penned Denmark’s Eurovision entry in 2010 ‘In A Moment Like This’, and demanded a hasty re-write – and boy did they get it. Cecile Alexandra competes with a song written by a guy who’s composed more Melodifestivalen entries than anyone else EVER, and another guy who wrote the song that won Eurovision for Sweden in 1999. While Sara Sukurani has enlisted the songwriting skills of Arash – first seen at Eurovision in 2001 with Antique’s ‘Die For You’, and last seen in 2012 with Ivi Adamous’ ‘La La Love’. And finally Marcel out of Marcel & Soulman Group shares a claim to fame with two of his competitors – he’s been in Danish X Factor AND he performed backing vocals for Denmark at last year’s Eurovision. So there.
Our picks of the bunch? ‘Manjana’, ‘Hotel A’, and naturally, predictably, and obviously ‘Mi Amore’. Come on now.
Here’s the album on Spotify;
