I thought I heard the sound of a whip during tonight’s MGP semi-final because the men dominated the ladies. Norway sent through three acts, and all of them lacked female vocalists. I felt bad that Norwegian voters had to send through two acts from this field of six in the first place. This semi was mediocre at best, and if there had been an option to eject all six of them we may not have had any finalists from tonight’s show!
We’ll update videos once they are available, but for now….
One group to advance was Datarock — a bunch of men in red track suits. Their 70s look matched their 70s sound. They repeatedly sang, “This is the sound of the underground” but to me it was the sound of a losing song. “Underground” needs to stay underground, and never surface on the airwaves again.
Vidar Busk also advanced with “Paid My Way.” I found it a lot less offensive to the ears that most of the songs, probably because it’s blues which seems inherently cooler than 70s disco. Vidar packed the stage with eight people—two more than allowed at Eurovision—and I suspect a lot of his votes stem from the flight attendants shaking their thangs in the background.
Perhaps the most bizarre song in the field was “Alone” performed by Gromth feat. Emil Solli-Tangen. It also advanced. It’s death metal meets opera, and I absolutely hate it! Lys Assia and New Jack worked, but that’s about as mixed as I want my genres. Death opera needs to go.
Finally found a video of Datarock’s performance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8tpX0lUe0c I can understand why people would want a different outcome, but in this field I think Norway were right to choose novelty over normality. “Alone” is a pretty weak attempt at operatic metal, but I still find it the best act overall in this field. Besides, Thomas G:son lookalike on stage. It was only a matter of time. Datarock seem like they’re onto something, but they can’t get it together at any level. I’m giving it 2nd based on wishful thinking, but Fix Everything Please. Tom Hugo probably deserved to qualify for… Read more »
Wow, I just tuned in 1 day late after the semi finals. Everyone, you are able to watch it on http://tv.nrk.no/serie/melodi-grand-prix-tv in case you didn’t know that. As all of these entries were pretty awful. Tom Hugo was half decent to look at though. I personally was rooting for Mimi Blix – she was the best of these awful artists. Nothing made me laugh more than her “dancing”. Does anyone else feel like she is a Dana International tryhard look-a-like???? @Wiwi —- “Alone” is pretty freaking hilarious ain’t it? The sad part is, if this group ended up in Malmo… Read more »
Come on Norway, get it together! Why not Carina Dahl?! And I enjoyed Just give a Little Something Back. Hopefully Semis 2 and 3 will produce better results.
Though I’m just relieved that this year seems to be much better than last year. MGP 2012 was so boring, which is sad cause it’s my favorite preselection!
Your video links are broken.