NORWAY 2023

The Norwegian final "Melodi Grand Prix" was held on February 4th at the Spektrum in Trondheim, hosted by Arian Engebø and Stian Thorbjørnsen. Before the final there were 3 semi-finals which whittled down the 21 competing songs to just 9. The overall winner was chosen by a 50/50 split of online voting and an international jury panel from 10 different competing Eurovision countries. The winner was Alessandra with "Queen of Kings"

Alessandra Mele was born to an Italian father and Norwegian mother and grew up in Italy. She studied piano and took singing lessons with a singing teacher and participated in her first singing competition as a six-year-old. In 2021, she moved to Norway and enrolled at the Lillehammer Institute of Music Production in 2022. That same year Alessandra participated in The Voice Norge, reaching the live rounds.

The song starts off with atmospheric chanting in Italian. Alessandra then comes in with a quiet version of the chorus which steadily builds up to the rest of the song. After a verse, pre-chorus, verse roundel she follows quite quickly with another one. There is then a short bridge where she vocalises along with the track ending with a very high whistle tone before one more energetic version of the chorus. Alessandra is dressed half warrior princess, half  Greek goddess dripping in golden jewels on a dark velvety bodice. The staging is dark and moody with a colour scheme of blacks and blues. She is also accompanied by 4 dancers dressed and black sometimes using light sticks when dancing in the dark.

The beat of the chorus here is absolutely key. This gives it a modern EDM feel but also has a fierce Viking/Game of Thrones vibe. She has a very noticeable timbre which is easy to comprehend but almost has an operatic undertone. The staging of this could have been overly busy but the focus is squarely on Alessandra to the point where you barely notice when the dancers are there. In fact the dancers do a great job in the chorus but I implore the chorographers to get rid of the terrible light-sabre gimmick at the end. Although in essence it seems like it great idea, the timing was not perfectly on pointe and it looked rather clumsy and under-rehearsed. In a performance so well executed this part looks out of place.

This is a very strong identifiable song. It would be very remiss not to mention that my first reaction was that this is very KEiiNO-esque - I even wanted the bridge to be a little bit more joiky! This is not a bad comparison because like "Spirit in the sky" this song is catchy, visually enticing and very Eurovision. The fact that this song absolutely stormed the televote bodes well for her chances of making it through to the finals. If I had a word of warning it would be that the presentation of this needs to be fierce without feeling too angry or aggressive. Also there are already a few songs with this kind of wailing/strong female vibe to it which is unfortunate. However this song has such a strong identity that this will be very hard to lodge from your brain.

ARTIST - Alessandra Mele

SONG - Queen of the Kings

WRITING/PRODUCTION CREDITS - Linda Dale, Stanley Ferdinandez, Alessandra Mele, Henning Olerud