Tonight King of Trolls and Maria Haukaas Storeng are the top favourites among the bookmakers. Esctoday.com has spoken exclusively to them before the dress reharsals.
Maria met us a bit late, arriving Spektrum in a taxi. "Oh, it has been such a hectic day", Maria said. "Everyone has been calling and tried to ‘get a hold on me’".
Maria says to esctoday.com that the Melodi Grand Prix is s lot bigger than she had expected:
"Everything is so huge! I have been asked by the NRK to participated earlier, but this is the first time I really felt that I liked the song I was presented to. And the fact that none of the previous songs have become hits, might be a sign of that I have a good sense of such things", Maria says with a laugh.
"The first I heard of this year’s song was just Mira singing and playing the piano, but it was enough for me to make up my mind. From then I have been cooperating with the producer of the song, Simen Eriksrud, to get the right sound and feeling to the song."
Mira Craig is the composer and lyricist og her song, “Hold on be strong”. Mira is one of Norway’s leading pop artists. At the moment she is based in Atlanta, but she has returned to Norway for the Melodi Grand Prix. While talking to esctoday.com, Maria gets a phone call from Mira. They are like partners in crime, gossiping, laughing and talking like they have been friends for ever.
"Actually I had never met Mira before they presented me with this song, but now we are really excited about our participation. We are here to win", Maria says. She also quotes Mira from an SMS she got this morning: “Now our day is here – this will be f***ing amazing!!!”
King of Trolls
While Maria is number two at the bookmakers’ lists, the top favourite is a Troll, the King of Trolls. He has a slightly more modest view on his entry.
"I’m just a normal father of two sons, living in Lillestrøm, a small town just outside of Oslo. When I started to write stories to my sons some years ago, I developed a kingdom of Trolls and Elves far away in Midgard. Now these stories for children are out in a book and a CD, and this summer I got the idea that the King of Trolls himself should participate in MGP, so I sent the song to NRK."
Now the Troll is in the final, and he thinks that this is fantastic. "It’s been a lot of fun! After recieving the dices 1 and 2 in two norwegian newspapers, i realise that my song is a love and hate-song. But to be compared to Gary Moore is for me just an honor. My participation here is something for the whole family with both a good song and a show."
"Together with me on stage I have my army", says The King of Trolls. They are dressed in armour and have the ability to kill Elves from over 100 meters.
Tonight we will see if his Eurovision adventure is more than a fairytale.
