Anja Nissen lip gloss

She’s the Danish bombshell who moved effortlessly on the Eurovision 2017 stage, looking stunning in her red dress as she hit note-after-note of her power ballad “Where I Am”.

But it turns out that not everything went according to plan for 21-year-old singer Anja Nissen during her semi-final performance.

As DR’s Eurovision web site revealed after the semi-final, Anja found herself in nothing short of a sticky mess when her hair got stuck in her lip gloss after the first chorus.

It wasn’t obvious to most of us at the time, but re-watching the video of her May 11 performance the mishap is very evident around 1:15.

Staying cool and moving naturally, she quickly removes the hair from her sticky lips, and then discretely places her hand on her left cheek as if it that was the intension all along. Douze points for that manoeuvre!

Anja removes hair from lip gloss

Unfortunately Anja’s sticky troubles were quickly replaced by even trickier ones.

According to the Australian-born singer, she kept stepping on the hem of her airy red dress with her high heels. That may have caused a less experienced performance to lose her balance and fall backwards on stage. But once again Anja handled it like a pro.

Girl on fire?

Anja’s on-stage hiccups weren’t the only issues she faced. Before she even arrived in Kyiv there were problems with the proposed staging that DR submitted to the Ukrainians.

The DR blog reports that the Ukrainian broadcaster turned down the Danes’ request to have a record-breaking 50 seconds of pyro AND a wind machine on at the same time. The broadcaster feared that the combination of prolonged sparks and a wind machine would set the back of the stage on fire. They didn’t want to take the “Danish Dynamite” comparisons too literally.

In the end they compromised: producers cranked up the wind machine during Anja’s first chorus, and she had a golden pyro waterfall in the last 50 seconds of “Where I Am”.

Where do we go from here?

Despite all the effort, Anja didn’t finish in Top 5 — a pre-contest goal set by Danish Eurovision boss Jan Lagermand Lundme.

“I accept defeat,” he said afterwards. “But I think it is important to remember that Anja has been fantastic.”

Following the semi-final, Lundme said that he and his team had “been tactical in relation to all our choices” and had “analyzed everything and looked at what it is that creates a Eurovision winner.”

Now they’ll likely re-think their thinking. He’s not yet decided whether or not Anja’s placing will affect next year’s selection of songs for Dansk Melodi Grand Prix.

It will be interesting to see if Portugal’s win will trigger a different kind of song selection or if Denmark will once again go down the same familiar path. But given three years of sub-par results, the time seems ripe to shake things up a bit and select a more diverse range of songs.

Ironically DR — the broadcaster that wanted the longest pyro display ever — seems to have come around to Salvador Sobral’s thinking on stripping things back.

“Portugal won with a number that is so simple and so beautiful,” Lundme said. “It’s true. Music is music — it’s not confetti and glitter.”

In any case, what do YOU think? Did Anja deserve a higher ranking in the final and should Denmark try to shake things up at Dansk Melodi Grand Prix 2018? Let us know in the comments box below.

Read more Denmark Eurovision news

19 Comments
Newest
Oldest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
ESCaddict
ESCaddict
6 years ago

Anja was in my Top 5. I loved the song.
I am enjoying her “Where I Am” EP too. So many great songs.

Kaden
Kaden
6 years ago

I was expecting a top 10 result tbh. Surprised it didn’t do well on the night.

fastfoodmusiclover
fastfoodmusiclover
6 years ago

i swear if everyone decided to strip back their performances next year i’ll stop watching eurovision. thanks a lot, salvador.

Bambi sato
Bambi sato
6 years ago

I think You shoule thanks a lot Televoters not him .bye

EscAU
EscAU
6 years ago

wooo go anja!! aussie fans are so proud, love her to bits 🙂

Charli Cheer Up
Charli Cheer Up
6 years ago

I did notice something off about that ‘look’ she had at the semis. It wasn’t as polished as her NF appearance. Thankfully they fixed her up for the grand finals. Denmark should still be proud that Anja helped them qualify after two long years. It was a tough competition having to wrestle with other ballad entries and being placed between the favorites(Italy and Portugal) at the grand final order. She handled it pretty well in terms of vocals and promos at press conferences. Well done to her.

escterrace
escterrace
6 years ago

Oh she was great!Her voice is fabulous and the song itself wasnt bad at all.I think the problem for me was that she brought nothing new vocally and stage-wise!But that was a very respectable effort and i am glad the juries rewarded her!

James
James
6 years ago

I wish Denmark would send a song in Danish next year at least. We haven’t heard them use their own language for a veeeery long time.

Paul D.
Paul D.
6 years ago

Her song was absolutely irrelevant, never understood the love for it …

Dimitrios Daskalakis
Dimitrios Daskalakis
6 years ago
Reply to  Paul D.

I’m with you on that. A most tiresome song. (Great voice though, but such a wasted effort)

Jo
Jo
6 years ago

Top 5? 50 seconds of fire and wind? The Danish delegation went nuts…

Adrian
Adrian
6 years ago

How about Anja’ s new EP which contains Where I Am and 5 other new songs

EscAU
EscAU
6 years ago
Reply to  Adrian

aaah yes they still haven’t mentioned it but they do find time to write about måns’ dog 🙁

...
...
6 years ago
Reply to  Adrian

Her new EP is really, really good!

Regina Phalange
Regina Phalange
6 years ago

Anja was robbed. She deserved top 5.

Henry
Henry
6 years ago

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=znmIEtYieTw Watch BQL cover Desoacito

Maria
Maria
6 years ago

Everything in this performance was great… beside the song. She is beautiful, the camera work was interesting, stagin also ok, her voice is wow .. but the song, and screaming placed last on my top :((

Leaf
Leaf
6 years ago

@Hersi
What she deserved is a better song.
This whole package was objectively scored in my opinion.
Juries rewarded her vocals, the public didn’t vote for a been there done that type of song and It was all very well deserved.

Hersi
Hersi
6 years ago

Anja deserved SOOO much better, it’s just that her backup singers sounded really bad. Either way, I don’t think it’s fair to call her result “sub-par”, especially in comparison to Denmarks results in 2015 and 2016. Qualifying to the final and making the top 20 is a good result, and i’m proud of Anja nevertheless