World of Chig   

21.5.03
Norwegian 'miming' scandal debunked...

...with another World Of Chig exclusive interview!
There was much fuss yesterday over the lack of live vocals from puppy-faced Jostein in his rehearsal, but Chig got to the heart of the matter with a late night convo with a 'senior person' (ahem) from the Norwegian delegation in the early hours of this morning(!) Norway's complaint yesterday was legitimate, but they are not making a big song and dance out of it. What happened is this...

Every country sends in their backing tape to Latvian TV in advance, and the Latvian people do some twiddling to put it in the format they need for the TV programme. In 25 cases, this seems to have worked okay, but in Norway's case, the tape was TOO FAST. Consequently, Jostein couldn't sing along to it. He would have sounded like he was on helium. (At this point in the conversation, having had a few drinks, I burst into song, singing "I'm in love, with a beautiful girl", like Pinky & Perky, but I digress.)

So, Jostein mimed to a recording (possibly a CD) which already had the vocals on it. He wasn't cheating, or saving his voice, it was just a practical solution to an awkward problem. He did sing over it for the final version though, which is the one they record to show Norway the camera shots, and discuss afterwards. However....and here comes the worst bit! Because of all the technical messing around, someone forget to 'press the red button', and the final preformance wasn't recorded. Norway had nothing to watch! Now tell me they have no right to feel aggrieved!

Luckily, they are actually very laid back about it. Jostein is so laid back that he said yesterday that he doesn't envisage a career in music. His record label are so laid back that they haven't even given us a press pack yet, just a photo and an A5 typed sheet. The backing tape will (hopefully!) be fixed for their rehearsal tomorrow, and then we'll have a real assessment of the song that lots of people think can win.

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