NORWAY

The Norwegian Final will be held on March 10th at the Spektrum in Oslo, hosted by Kåre Magnus Bergh & Silya Nymoen. There were 3 rounds of voting: one to select the top 4, another to select the top 2 and a final round to declare the victor. Going to Lisbon is 2009 Eurovision winner Alexander Rybak with “That’s how you write a song”

The staging for this song is very simple. Alexander starts on stage by himself and starts miming the instruments on the track. The outlines of these instruments are animated onto the tv screen so the float in and float away again. About a minute in he is then joined by 4 backing singers who then mimic the instrument playing from earlier on. With a minute to go he is reunited with his famous fiddle and continues the singing and dancing until the end. The background behind him looks like a blue Venetian blind effect with music notes floating on top.

Anybody wishing for “Fairytale part 2” will be seriously disappointed. As the song suggests this is a meta-song about the process of writing songs but also touches on the wider aspect of following dreams and progressing with any talent one might have. He starts sat on a stool for the first verse then stands up for the second. He is very active on stage interacting with the audience or dancing to the track. The chorus has a very catchy step one, step two approach which engages you straight away. After this we have a call and response scatting session which really seems to put the audience into a bit of a frenzy. After another chorus he then plays the violin and sings and dances at the same time. Right at the very end 2 fiddle players and two trumpeters come out at the very back. This puts the number of people on stage at 9, far more than is allowed at Eurovision

So, what it is absolutely no doubt is that this is a showman. Fairytale was brilliant song but this is something very, very different. He sings, he dances, he scats, he plays the fiddle – is there anything this man cannot do?!?!? But the question is – is this too much? When listening to the song alone, it feels very cheesy but the show that Alexander puts on is really something else. My fear is that this is just too much – just because you can do all those things doesn’t mean you should do all of them. I don’t hate this; I am somewhat disappointed by it but is growing on me. I feel like his name will get people watching in but will they be shocked by what they see?

ARTIST –  Alexander Rybak

SONG –  That's how you write a song

MUSIC - Alexander Rybak

LYRICS - Alexander Rybak