Today, Danish broadcaster, DR, uploaded clips of the ten songs that will be competing in Saturday’s Melodi Grand Prix – the contest that will select Denmark’s entry to the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest.
You can listen to all of them here.
It’s a thoroughly strong selection, definitely. Unlike their fellow Scandinavians, the Norwegian NRK, DR don’t seem to have compromised the quality of the songs in favour of choosing ten tracks that include as many genres as possible, and thus trying to appeal to too many people. Instead, they’ve chosen ten pop songs, some of which have mass appeal, and others that will earn interest from the type of viewer that watches Eurovision, and the Danish pre-selections. That’s the best way to do it. There’s enough here for everyone that was always going to tune into Melodi Grand Prix anyway, and nothing that’s going to be an unsuccessful or fruitless attempt at drawing in some new fans, and give all the regular viewers a ‘yawn’ moment. They know who’s going to watch, and so they’re giving them what they want.
Below we’ve listed what we think of the songs. Or rather, since we only have 30 seconds of each to listen to, we’ve divided them up into different classes of how excited we are about hearing the full versions!
We have to say though, that the absolute standout track for us is Le Freak’s ’25 Hours A Day’ – a total Abba homage, completely on the same page as Jenny Silver’s ‘Something In Your Eyes’. Unsurprisingly, Thomas G:son is one of the writers behind it – and ‘Something In Your Eyes’, AND our other favourite of the then, Jenny Berggren’s ‘Let Your Heart Be Mine’. That man is SUCH a genius! Listen, and feel your heart palpitate with joy!
The Exceptionally Good
Le Freak: ’25 Hours A Day’
Jenny Berggren: ‘Let Your Heart Be Mine’
The Very Good
Lee Hutton: ‘Hollywood Girl’
Anna Noa: ‘Sleepless’
A Friend in London: New Tomorrow
The Quite Good
Jeffrey: ‘Drømmen’
Sine Vig: ‘You’ll Get Me Through’
Stine Kinck: ’Hvad Hjertet Lever Af’
Kat & Justin Hopkins: Black & Blue
The Just Alright, We Suppose…At A Push
Christopher Brandt: Emma
