Today, 17th May, is Norway's National Day. Could it possibly have started any better for Norway? It was about fifteen minutes into the National Day, Norwegian time, when they won Eurovision for the third time last night/this morning. Congratulations to Norway and congratulations to Alexander Rybak who celebrated his 23rd birthday this week. Not only did he perform 'Fairytale', but he wrote it too. With his record score and record winning margin, with points from every single one of the other 41 countries, it was a phenomenal victory, although he didn't quite beat the 'percentage of available points' record which the UK still holds through Brotherhood Of Man in 1976, so he's not quite the biggest winner ever.

Congratulations too to Jade Ewen and the BBC team. Achieving the UK's first ever fifth place was just fantastic (and I don't just mean because it filled in a gap in our record of the last 52 years!) It made for such an enjoyable evening for us, as points rolled in for the UK from a fantastic 31 of the 41 countries. All that touring by Jade paid off, as did her flawless performance. (Although someone told me that Jade was hit in the face by one of her violinists during the song. Did you see that?)

Jade has entered the official singles chart at #50 (up from #103 last week, which must have been cherry-picking from the Eurovision album, as Jade's single package wasn't released until this week). The CD is out tomorrow, but #50 is already nearly twenty places higher than Andy Abraham managed last year with his Eurovision single. Jade is now also in the iTunes top twenty at last, after a steady climb all week.

I had a fantastic Eurovision night, with the party at the Wellington, then seeing Jessica Garlick and Scooch perform at the Nightingale and chatting with all of them, before I made it home for 5:30am, but the late night and the alcohol have enabled the cold which had been stalking me for the last few days to well and truly take hold today. It has bunged up my nose and ears and nearly knocked me out, so I'm having an early night as I can hardly breathe.

More facts, figures, observations and photos later this week.

In the meantime, Alexander Rybak has jumped from #204 on the UK iTunes chart yesterday to #4 today. Sixteen of the 25 Eurovision finalists figure in the UK iTunes chart today, as listed below. Funny how we gave Turkey our 12 points and yet they're so low down the iTunes chart, isn't it?

Norway #4
UK #15 and #254
Iceland #33
Germany #75
Estonia #86
Sweden #88
Azerbaijan #91
Turkey #94
Finland #107
Portugal #121
Ukraine #124
Armenia #125
Denmark #147
Greece #168
Moldova #207
Russia #216

Labels: Eurovision 2009, Norway

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You may have missed this if you weren't watching Norwegian TV last weekend. After I wrote about Alexander Rybak's victory in the Melodi Grand Prix on Saturday night, I was invited round to Glitterball Mansions on Sunday as Norwegian TV was repeating it at teatime. (Can you imagine the BBC doing that with our final?) Knowing that the Schlagerboys had gone there with their banners, I asked my host if they'd been caught on camera. "Oh, they were in it," he replied. You mean audience shots of them waving their flags? "No, they were in it." And indeed they were. I wasn't quite prepared for this. On our national final, we get Eurovision royalty (Lulu) and, er, Duncan 'from Blue' James. Norway gets two blokes from Birmingham. But they are Eurovision royalty too. Regardez. Note how little of the English the presenter feels the need to translate into Norwegian. There are two possible reasons for this. I have decided to believe it's because most Norwegians will understand their English anyway.



Two of the SIX contestants in Your Country Needs You are now wondering if they're the two who Schlagerboy D has forgotten.

I also have a feeling that the UK probably will "stem på Norge" anyway, so the host can relax. I think every country in Europe will "stem på Norge" on 16 May and it could easily be douze points from us.

Labels: Eurovision, MGP, Norway, Schlagerboys

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Norway did the right thing tonight and chose the song that was already becoming a hot favourite to win Eurovision in Moscow, even before tonight's Norwegian final had been held! 'Fairytale' by Alexander Rybak (pronounced Roo-bak) won that final tonight by a monstrous margin; over 5:1 over the song in second place. As soon as the bookies open the odds, he will be right there as favourite and Eurovision will end up next year in Oslo, another city that's too damn expensive, which is the only downer.

Here's Alexander Rybak's performance in his heat two weeks ago.



He's cute and knows how to work the cameras. He wrote the song himself, sings it well and plays the fiddle. The song is instantly catchy, with universal appeal, being a bit poppy and a bit folky. There's an act to go with it, but not too much to distract from the song. But here's the clincher; Alexander was born in Minsk, capital of Belarus, so he has the advantage of being an Eastern European by birth, representing the Western country who came fifth last year. It's a done deal, and the only way I'll be happy to vote for a Belarussian until they discover the joys of democracy and human rights. As far as hosts Russia are concerned, if they can't win again themselves, their puppet state Belarus would be the favoured option, and the next best thing would be a Belarussian representing another country. Job done. Everyone's a winner!

'Fairytale' has already reached number one in Norway; the first time a song from the Eurovision selection has topped the chart before the final, apparently.

The Schlagerboys are in Norway this weekend for the final. They managed to get in early by meeting Alexander and putting this photo on their facebook profile last night.



Alexander looks a little bit scared, but they had already interviewed him (in writing). He clearly knew which buttons to press, bless him, and he has the best closing message ever.

Labels: Alexander Rybak, Belarus, Eurovision 2009, Norway

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Norway - 'Hold On, Be Strong' - Maria (Haukaas Storeng)

Apparently, having a surname in Eurovision is problematic, so Maria shortened her name between winning the Norwegian final and coming to Eurovision. I was so pleased to see this do well last night. We now know that Maria came 4th in the first semi-final, justifying my faith in this song. There's always room for a simple song, done simply in Eurovision, and this proved to be the one that people went for, even if they did develop a routine around it. The Norwegian final performance was much simpler, as you can see here:



It has been suggested (mainly by people in relationships), that it's only us single people who really relate to this song, but I liked it without taking much notice of the lyric, to be honest, apart from the title. On deeper analysis however, it does have some personal relevance, which just makes me love it even more. This was a great way to end the show last night. Well done Maria on coming 5th and being the top Scandinavian country, top 'Western' country and top 'old Eurovision' country. Here's last night's performance:

Labels: Eurovision 2008, Norway

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Norway is sending this song to Eurovision in Belgrade. It's fantastic.

Labels: Eurovision 2008, Norway

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