World of Chig   

8.5.03

18 Norway – I’m Not Afraid To Move On – Jostein Hasselgard
Norway’s Eurovision history is chequered, to say the least, with a brace of winners which could hardly be more diverse (La Det Swinge and Nocturne), but also the unfortunate reputation from the 1980s of getting no points. Opinions over this song are as polarised as those two winners’ musical styles, with it either being declared a non-runner or the dark horse winner. They tried a male ballad in 2001, which I absolutely loved, but I knew its chances were doomed when, watching the final while surfing the BBC’s Eurovision chatroom, someone wrote of Norway’s singer, Haldor, ‘Mummy, stop that man from staring at me’. I realised then that people would be too scared to vote for him.
And this one? It may also depend what he looks like on the night! From the live video, he looks like a little puppy dog, who will have parents across Europe carping, “get your hair cut”. Slightly cute, but not massively so. As people have said, it’s like a Gilbert O’Sullivan song, with him sitting at the piano, and it builds nicely, but his voice seems a bit suspect. I just can’t decide about this one at all.

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