Yesterday DR, the Danish state broadcaster, revealed that songwriters submitted a record 872 songs for Dansk Melodi Grand Prix 2014. That’s a lot of ditties, y’all, and exactly 180 more than last year. Inevitably a lot of fantastic songs won’t make the cut. And of those that do, at least a few will have to finish as runners-up.
Case in point: Jesper Nohrstedt. In 2010 the 16-year-old student finished third on Danish X Factor. His voice sits well with electronica and reminded us of the band Postal Service. His baby face endeared him to teenage girls and grandmothers alike. Here he is singing “Fireflies”. Such clarity in his voice!
In 2012 Jesper took his electronic sound and competed at Dansk Melodi Grand Prix with the song “Take Our Hearts”. You can watch the actual DMGP performance by clicking here, but here is the official music video.
At DMGP, Jesper competed against eight other acts, including a hilarious R&B number called “Forever I B Young”. (That’s how she spelled it…not us!). Anyway, Jesper advanced to the so-called “Super Final” with two other acts—Soluna Samay with “Should’ve Known Better” and Christian Brons & Patrik Isaksson with “Venter”. They each performed again and then a jury and televoters had another chance to cast judgment.
In the head-to-head-to-head, Christian & Patrik came last with the four international juries and the Danish jury, and second with the televoters. Jesper finished first with three of the five juries (Norway, Russia, Germany), but last with televoters. Soluna Samay won two of the five juries ( Denmark and Azerbaijan), and also won the televote. Yes, Denmark went with a girl whose name means SunMoon. Here’s the presentation of the results and Soluna’s song.
The Wiwi Jury was not impressed, describing this as “a tad boring”. Even then we were mourning the loss of sweet Jesper, with one juror writing, “it’s difficult for me to think of Soluna’s song without a degree of sadness for him.”
Soluna went on to finish ninth in her semi-final, and 23rd in the grand final at Eurovision.
More than a year on, who do you think should have represented Denmark at Eurovision 2012? Was Soluna the best candidate from DMGP? Would Jesper’s electronic sound have taken a few points away from Loreen? Let us know in the comments box below!
You can keep up-to-date on the latest Eurovision news and gossip by following the team on Twitter @wiwibloggs and by liking our Facebook page.
Photo: jespernohrstedt.dk
Denmark knew better and sent the best song and singer. How can you call Soluna boring and praise this lad at the same time. Soluna sounds like she’s having a rave in comparison to this fella. He wouldn’t have made it past the semis IMO.
Wonder what Jesper’s doing now? I really like his sound. His fan pages kinda died in the summer time, it would seem. Guess he’s busy with school?? or other things? Working on new stuff? 😀
Agreed. I was so disappointed that he didn’t win. My disappointment was validated when I was in Sweden a week before the Eurovision final. I was in a mall, then walked into a (chic, expensive) men’s clothing store because La La Love was playing. I stuck around to see if any other ESC songs would play. And yes, Take Our Hearts came on. Oh, Denmark 🙁
Jesper for sure – I still get chills listening to that song, and it had much more potential for Eurovision success than Soluna’s boring and dated entry. I adored Ditte Marie’s Overflow too, and have a soft spot for Venter and Universe. Last year’s DMGP was wretched, but we got a win out of it, so I suppose I should trust that the Danes know what they’re doing. 🙂
2012 had to be Ditte Marie with Overflow, followed by Jesper, Soluna was a bore-a-thon!