Back on Monday, we went through the songs of the Norwegian Melodi Grand Prix and picked out our favourites. It’s a good line-up of tracks, and there’s plenty in there that has kept us listening since then.
Now though, all of the songs have been uploaded online. So if you’ve not yet had the chance the listen to them, we’ve popped all of our highlights into this post for one, easy streaming session.
Behold;
(although for those more time conscious amongst you – we’ve included the five absolute best first!)
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Tooji – Stay
Writers: Tooji, Peter Boström, Figge Boström
(This is quite brilliant. A club track with slight Arab-esque influences. And very catchy.)
Reidun Sæther – High On Love
Writers: Thomas G:son, Tommy Berre, Ovidou Jacobsen
(Rousing mid-tempo schlager from G:son. Chorus + key change = euphoria!)
Rikke Lie – Another Heartache
Writers: Rikke Lie, Maria Marcus, Niclas Lundin
(Beautiful ballad with some delightfully large instrumentation. The strings! The melody! This should breeze through to the final easily.)
Lise Karlsnes – Sailors
Writers: Lise Karlsnes, Thomas Eriksen
(The contest’s big name and with a song that’s been written by the man behind a lot of the hits by The Saturdays. Dreamy electropop. We really like this one.)
Lisa Stokke – With Love
Writers: Lisa Stokke, Johanna Demker, Anita Lixel, Tommy Berre
(Slightly bizarre number with lyrics that read like a spoof. But oh so charming with it. Unfortunately though it will probably suffer from being in the same heat as ‘High On Love’ – which is a much better version of what this is trying to be. We still love it though.)
Malin – Crush
Writers: Marcus Ulstad Nilsen, Andreas Sjo Engen, Kjetil Helgesen
(Ridiculously cheesy electro/schlager/pop/whatever-it-is. We were always gonna be on board with this one, weren’t we?)
Minnie-Oh – You and I
Writers: Monica Johansen
(See our notes on Malin’s ‘Crush’)
Rikke Normann – Shapeshifter
Writers: Silya Nymoen, Rikke Normann
(See our notes on Malin’s ‘Crush’ and Minnie-Oh’s ‘You and I’. What on EARTH are NRK doing putting all three hot mess entries in the same heat?! Anyone would think they didn’t want them in the final……..)
Nora Foss Al-Jabri – Somewhere Beautiful
Writers: Christian Ingebrigtsen, Eivind Rølles
(Ballad that sounds like it could have come from a musical. This is a good thing!)
Tommy Fredvang – Make It Better
Writers: Tommy Fredvang, Hanne Sørvaag, Tommy Berre
(Male vocalled rock – so what are we doing liking it?! Ah, that’ll be the strong Sørvaag melody. This guy sounds uncannily like Ola Svensson in the vocal department.)
Plumbo – Ola Nordmann
Writers: Lars Erik Blokkhus, Glenn Hauger
(This sounds like TIMOTEIJ! If they were really old men.)
Irresistible feat. Carl Pritt – Elevator
Writers: Anne Judith Wik, Nermin Harambasic, Ronny Svendsen, Robin Jenssen, Carl Pritt
(A pop song which starts off with a lot of promise – a great verse. But the chorus is quite the disappointment. Still, we’re looking forward to seeing this performed live.)
Marthe Valle – Si
Writers: Marthe Valle
(Very soft, very inoffensive ballad. Pretty though. With a good staging, this should easily progress to the final. There’s a lot of dross in its heat.)
