Wig Wam were one of the most popular and most publicised participants in the 2005 Eurovision Song Contest. Hotly tipped by many to win the event, the band succeeded in qualifying Norway directly to the 2006 final. Since then, the band have developed an international following, toured Europe and are now looking beyond. Today, esctoday.com caught up with lead vocalist, Glam and sat down to discuss the band, the success and much much more…
A lot of people, especially NKR expected a Norwegian win in Kyiv. How did you feel after the contest?
“You know, we really really had a great time in Kyiv. We put our mark on the Eurovision Song Contest for being the first band to do what we did, to bring real Glam-rock into the competition. I think it's a great thing that Lordi fulfilled what we started. The Lordi guys even thanked us for that!
It was so nice to see that we had started something, not only from an egotistic view but to make Eurovision Song Contest a little bit more spectacular, to broaden the way for other music styles to get into it. I think that it will help to maintain the interest in the competition. For Lordi to win, it was a shock to people but it really made the Eurovision more interesting”.
What's been going on with Wig Wam since Kyiv?
“After Kyiv, we went straight back on tour and in 2005 we mainly toured, something like 178-180 concerts in the year. There was lots of promotion and stuff. It was a really crazy year.
After we finished the tour, we did a tour mainly in Norway, but we went to Sweden with Alice Cooper, we went to Germany with Gottard. We went to Romania before Kyiv of course and to Iceland, Finland and Denmark mainly for promotion, and back to Sweden again. It was an amazing year. We only took the days of christmas off. On the 3rd of January, we went back into the studio to the rehearsal rooms and prepared for what was to be WigWamania, which was to be the next record.
We thought 'why let it wait' because we wanted to prove to our fans and to people in general that we were't just dependant on what happened in Kyiv and the massive promotion that we got from In my dreams. So we got back in the rehearsal room, we spent two days playing songs to each other, jamming on songs. On the third day, we started off in the Studio. And On the 7th or 17th of March, the album was out in Norway. It was all very quick”.
Tell us about the albums, you had Hard to be a rock n' roller in Kyiv, the new one, Hard to be a rock'n roller… in Toyko and Wigwamania.
“Of course, we also have Wigwamania out in Japan now, and it's doing really well. The record company is preparing for the release of our DVD there too because I think it was in November in 2005, we released a DVD in Norway that went Gold straight away. It contains a huge concert that we did in front of 10,000 people in Norway with a symphony orchestra. It was called Wig Wam in Symphony”.
Click the 'play' icon below to see Wig Wam perform In my dreams at the Wig Wam in Symphony concert.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQKdjAsF5Fg
We also added some bonus videos and a documentary made by NRK, the Norweigan broadcasting company, from Kyiv. It shows our way from the Norwegian final through the semi final and final in Kyiv. Then there's another documentary that we made with another documentary that we made with a diferent production crew also containing people from NRK. That was about all the touring and the craziness that we lived through in 2005. It was great, it was a great year.
This year has also been crazy. It's been great to go out on tour again, but this time we're standing on our own two feet. Coming to the UK at last to do Fire Fest this weekend. It's very exciting”.
