Introducing 2013: Norway

by Edward Montebello 237 views

Thirty-nine countries are competing with the aim to lift the trophy in Malmö. The fifteenth country to be introduced is Norway. The country won the Eurovision Song Contest three times. This year Norway will be represented by Margaret Berger.

Basic information

Performer: Margaret Berger
Song: I feed you my love
Language: English
Music: Karin Park, Robin Lynch, Niklas Olovson
Lyrics: Karin Park, Robin Lynch, Niklas Olovson

The song

I feed you my love is a strong techno-rocky song. Margaret Berger sings about a person who is ready to feed the partner her love.

A cocoon
in a silent tree
through the dark night
you listen to me
when I whisper
broken words
in your ear
And you push
you push me hard
to the surface
I’m blinded at heart
but you wake me
wake me up
from the snow
where I was born
Now I can see
the whole world is mine
I can touch and feel
I feed you my love

The performer

Electropop artist Margaret Berger grew up on the island of Hitra in Sør-Trøndelag. She made her breakthrough as an artist when she came a strong second in Idol in 2004 and made her record debut in the same year with the album Charmeleon. This led to a Spellemannspris for music video of the year for Lifetime guarantee, in addition to being nominated for the prize for Newcomer of the Year. In 2008, Berger became the music director of NRK P3, one of the three nation-wide radio channels of the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation. Now she is working on her third studio album.

The songwriters

The Norwegian entry is produced by the Norwegian-Swedish producer duo MachoPsycho (Robin Lynch and Niklas Olovson). Lynch and Olovson have previously collaborated with artists like Jessica Simpson, Natalie Imbruglia and Pink. For the latter, they wrote and produced the Grammy-nominated super hit Stupid Girls! Karin Park is a Swedish singer, composer and musician. Three years ago, Karin Park signed a record deal with Portsmouth-based label State Of The Eye.

The national selection

Norway selects its entry for the Eurovision Song Contest through the Melodi Grand Prix. Three semi finals were held before the grand final, where ten songs competed. The winner was chosen in two rounds of voting. In the first round, the top four were selected by tele-voting and in the second round the eventual winner was chosen by audience voting, tele-voting and a jury.

Norway in the Eurovision Song Contest

Norway was the third Scandinavian country to join the Eurovision Song Contest in 1960 and despite a strong debut with a fourth place, the country turned out to be one of the most unsuccessful ones over the next 25 years. However, a first victory came in 1985, a second one followed in 1995 and in 2009, Alexander Rybak brought the contest to Norway again. In total, the country finished in the top five nine times. However, Norway still keeps the record for the most last places as they finished at the very bottom of the scoreboard ten times, which means during more than 20% of their participations.

Statistics

This will be Norway’s 52nd participation in the Eurovision Song Contest. Margaret is the 23rd female solo performer for Norway. Furthermore, it will be the 13th in fourteen times since the abolishment of the language rule in 1999 that the Norwegian entry will be performed in English.

Norwegian vote in Eurovision

Sweden has given the most points to Sweden and before 2004, when the semi-final was introduced the Swedes gave the most points to Norway. However since the edition in Istanbul Norway received most points from Iceland.

The betting odds

According to oddschecker.com, Norway is currently standing at number 2 in the odds to win the Eurovision Song Contest and at number 1 to qualify to the final from semi-final two.

Vi ønsker Norge og Margaret Berger lykke til og et fint resultat i Malmö!

Videos

Preview

National final performance

Samantha

Tomorrow another country will be introduced (hint – they all fly high!)

Have your say

You can rate the Norwegian entry by voting in our poll

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You can view previous parts of this series by clicking here