The Danes will choose their entry to the Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday February 13th. And their national final gives voters ten songs to pick from. It’s a LOT stronger than Norway’s selection this year, with no bad entries, a lot of good ones, a couple of VERY good ones, and one absolute stunner.
Last year Denmark failed to qualify for the Eurovision final, but they’re likely to fare a lot better in 2016 based on what the Danes have been given to work with.
You can listen to all ten below (in the order that they’ll perform on the night), and read our quick round-up of each of them;
David Jay – Rays of Sunlight
(Brian Risberg Clausen, Christoffer Stjerne)
A souled out, funked up, retro styled pop song with a lot of character and its fair share of charms. It’s not exactly spectacular though, and in the context of ten songs competing to stand out as a Eurovision Song Contest winner – it’s a bit underwhelming. Given the style of song though, there’s plenty of room for it to breathe as something outstanding on the performance side of things.
Simone – Heart Shaped Hole
(Andrew Love, Carl Ryden)
We’ve already ranted and raved (at length) about how obsessed we are with this song right here. Weeks later and the obsession hasn’t died down. It’s a phenomenal number which we really can’t get enough of. As we’ve already said, if the Danes don’t choose this as their Eurovision entry, then they deserve to sit out another year languishing in the semis. We’d even go one further and disqualify them from competing in 2017. It’s the very definition of a no-brainer, this one.
Bracelet – Breakaway
(Jimmy Jansson, Rebecca Krogmann, Charlie Grönvall, Felix Grönvall, Nanne Grönvall)
We’ve already featured Bracelet on here, after they released their debut single ‘Rooftop’ at the end of last year. This is even better than that was. A punchy pop track with a rock side and a synth gloss. Yes that’s THE Nanne on songwriting duties. The two boys count her as their Mum and Benny out of ABBA as their Grandfather.
Sophia Nohr – Blue Horizon
(Marie Keis Uhre, Christoffer Lauridsen)
We really like this song. An eccentric soulpop number that’s so eclectic in style, Sophia will really have free rein to present it how she likes on stage. If any song is a dark horse in this competition, it’s this one. It could well be a winner and do very well at Eurovision.
Veronicas Illusion – The Wrong Kind
(Dimitri Stassos, Peter Boström, Tobias Stigaard Stenkjær, Freja Jonsson Blomberg)
YES! A bit of bonkers dancepop here from Veronicas Illusion aka Veronica Jensen, whom we’ve previously featured on here thanks to her cover of Sugababes’ ‘About A Girl’. On record, it’s a terrific pop song, but it’s the sort of track that could two ways on stage. A confident mind blower or an absolute hot mess of the highest order. Personally, we’d be happy with either option.
Lighthouse X – Soldiers of Love
(Sebastian F. Ovens, Daniel Lund Jørgensen, Katrine Klith Andersen, Søren Bregendal, Johannes Nymark, Martin Skriver)
A fairly generic rock song crossed with a fairly generic Eurovision song. The mind boggles that it took six writers to go through the motions and come up with this.
Kristel Lisberg – Who Needs a Heart
(Jonas Gladnikoff, Sara Ljunggren)
This stands out not just because it’s the only ballad in the selection, but also because it’s an exceptionally pretty one too. Do we want it to win though? Hell no! It’s unfortunate that it’s found itself in the same contest as ‘Heart Shaped Hole’, but those are just the cards that life has dealt it, and it will have to cope with that.
Jessica – Break It Good
(E. Larsen, Tommy P Gregersen, David Todua)
A genuinely enjoyable cod-reggae ROMP. But again, we’re really just making our way through all ten songs for the sake of it. Because then we’ll be able to go back to song 2 and listen to it again. On repeat.
Muri & Mario – To Stjerner
(Mads Løkkegaard, Gianluigi Fazio, Muri & Mario)
More than any of the ten songs, this is the kind of song that genuinely becomes a hit single in Denmark in 2016, and gets played on the radio. A well produced and catchy number that sounds like Simone’s main competition. One that we’d definitely be featuring on here, regardless of its inclusion in Melodi Grand Prix.
Anja Nissen – Never Alone
(Emmelie de Forest, Rune Westberg, Maureen Anne McDonald)
A good Melodi Grand Prix song, but for all intents and purposes it’s really just a poor man’s ‘Only Teardrops’. Co-written by Emmelie de Forest too. This is considered a favourite for that reason alone, and also because Anja Nissen has won The Voice in Australia – Eurovision’s celebrated new country. But it would be a real shame if Denmark sent a vastly inferior rethread of their most recent winner to the big contest in May. We doubt this song would even have made it onto the Emmelie de Forest album.
