Last month, Norwegian broadcaster NRK released the ten songs that will be competing at Melodi Grand Prix this weekend on March 11th – hoping to represent Norway at the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest.
It’s not good news, we’re afraid.
Out of ten songs, there is only one that’s any good. One solitary track out of the ten that NRK deemed acceptable enough to be whittled down to their Eurovision hopes. Their hopes in a contest in which they last year failed to make the final.
Let’s start with the one positive amongst all of this disappointing racket. ‘Nothing Ever Knocked Us Over’ by girlband In Fusion, is good because it sounds like a Timoteij album track. Not a Timoteij single – not THAT good. But a favourite to be tucked away on one of their albums. Probably their second. It’s no coincidence that it’s a soundalike either, and might even BE a Timoteij album reject – as Cecelia from the Swedish group actually had a hand in co-writing it. It’s a hyper, ramped up, rave-re-imagining of a Scandi folk track. And we LIVE for that shit, with ‘Nothing Ever Knocked Us Over’ being no exception. Seeing this at Eurovision in May would be awesome. And to be quite honest with you – it’s probably Norway’s only shot at making it to the final.
Right. Onto the other nine. All of the artist, song, and songwriter information is right here – plus a link to the play each of the songs if the below Spotify playlist isn’t working in your country. But there’s really not much else to say. An absolutely dire selection – the worst Norwegian pre-selection we can ever remember. Aside from the above song perhaps, there’s not a single qualifier amongst them. A depressing line-up of songs that range from awful to mediocre. And an astonishing selection given the sort of songwriting talent that NRK are able to call upon. Even regardless of what they may want to (not) achieve in Kyiv in May, just in the name a night’s entertainment for Norwegians on Saturday night – they should have put together a better line-up. Not even a group of disco lesbians from outer space will be on hand to lighten the evening. NRK should be embarrassed. And they’ll have a tough job getting anyone interested in Melodi Grand Prix in 2018, after viewers sit down to this lot next month. Unforgivable.
