First up were girlband Irresistible with their pop/R'n'B track "Elevator". This type of music generally hasn't gone down too well with the Norwegians in the past so I wasn't very hopeful. However, the girls put on a rather impressive performance with great vocals and some good choreography from the backing dancers. While the song is nothing amazing and has lyrics which I can't quite make out, (apart from the CLASSIC line "When I get tipsy, I'm gonna steal clothes like a gypsy" - don't we all do that?) it's still catchy and rather current, especially with the rapper part, which I quite liked, considering rap really isn't my thing.
Kim Andre gave a rather poor performance of a non-descript ballad, and then it was time for my favourite track of the evening. "High On Love" by Reidun Saether had been compared to both "Hero" and "I'm In Love" from Melodifestivalen, and even MF stalwart Tomas G:son had a hand in writing the song. It's a typical schlager-pop song that doesn't really bring anything new to the table, but it's that type of song you can't help but tap your feet and sing along to! It had been all over the Norwegian tabloids that poor Reidun had been suffering from a very bad virus and couldn't even perform properly in the rehearsals, and this was worrying, as the song requires quite a lot of vocal dexterity! Would she be able to pull it off?
Reidun did the best she could, however it was obvious that she wasn't at her best. A few of the notes were a bit off but some of the power notes she hits were amazing. Could the Norwegians see past this and give her a place in the final?
Rudi Myntevik was next with a rather disappointing performance with "You Break it, You Own It", and I couldn't really see this going anywhere. Next was Lisa Stokke, who was in the original cast of Mamma Mia, with her Disneyesque song "With Love". It was cheesy and schmalzy, but I still rather liked it, and Lisa's experience definitely showed as she completely sold the song on stage. As for her outfit, however....Oh Lisa. (!)..
What...On...Earth.???
Next was United, which featured Benedicte Adrian, who was one half of Norway's 1984 entrants, Dollie de Luxe. This was AMAZING for ALL the wrong reasons. It seemed like a bit of a boring R'n'B song until towards the end when Benedicte appears on stage and starts SCREAMING for no apparent reason whatsoever. I didn't know where to look! Check out her AMAZING entrance at 1 min 27 seconds of this video...
Despite being a complete MESS, I did like this song a little, but I knew it had next to no chance of qualifying...
Nora Foss Al-Jabri (now there's a mouthful!) was next up with her ballad "Somewhere Beautiful" which was even more Disney than Lisa's song earlier. This could easily be in the soundtrack for the latest Disney epic. Nora's not even 16 yet but sang everyone off the stage in Orland with her impressive performance. I thought she was pretty much guaranteed a spot in the Spektrum, but stranger things have happened...
Last up were The Carburetors with "Don't Touch The Flame" and this is pretty much as far removed from the kind of song I like as you can get. Despite this it was compeltely different from anything else tonight and would probably pick up it's share of votes...
After watching the performances, it seems like they've made quite a few changes to MGP this year, and to me it resembles it's big sister Melodifestivalen even more! Like SVT, NRK have also abandoned the "six people on stage" and "no vocals on backing tracks" rules that they have at the actual Eurovision itself. The jury is out whether this is a good thing or not. It does mean for more spectacular performances in the National Final, but this can mean that performances would have to be drastically changed for Eurovision itself...
After a break of half an hour, we were back with the results. This year, they have abandoned the Siste Sjansen and instead, the top 3 songs go DTS (Direkt Til Spektrum), and 1 song from the non-qualifiers will join the lucky nine in the final.
For some reason, they decided to announce the top 3 in order of 3rd to 1st. Quite why this decision was made is a bit baffling, as it takes away a lot of the suspense. My predictions for DTS were Nora, The Carburettors, and Irresistible...
Reidun was announced in THIRD place to her delight and my pleasant surprise The viewers obviously overlooked her vocal problems, and she'll have another chance in a few weeks, let's hope she's better by then. The Carburetors were announced in SECOND place, which I wasn't surprised about, as these type of songs generally do well in MGP. And finally, Nora was announced in FIRST place, which was well deserved after her performance.
So overall, I was fairly pleased with the result, though more than a bit gutted for Irresistible. However, according to iTunes, it looked like they may have finished fourth in the semi, so that Wild Card ticket could still be theirs. That all depends on how NRK choose this though. Still I don't think we've seen the winner in this heat, I think the fight for the top spot is still to come.
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