No, this section is not about the infamous American
footballer, rather it's a tribute to the biggest serial crime in
Eurovision history, namely the scandalous treatment of Norwegian
Eurovision entries from the mid sixties through to the mid eighties when
they finally hit the jackpot with La Det Swinge.
A quote from Clifford Brown, the legendary
Eurovision scrutineer (at
whose altar his successors can only worship) on a 1992 BBC
documentary:
"I remember on several occasions I chose Norway,
because I thought they were very catchy, very beautifully orchestrated
little songs. Of course, they always came very nearly bottom!."
The author of this web site would heartily agree with
those comments. So this page is a humble attempt to pay tribute to those
criminally neglected songs. Off stage, there was one man whose
influence was behind most Norwegian songs of this era. Arne Bendiksen,
performer in 1964, and frequent songwriter after that.
Norway first entered the contest in 1960 in London and
the early years were quite successful. Their first entry made 4th out of
13 and although they scored zero in 1963, again in London, so did a
quarter of the entrants that year. Ase Kleveland, later to become
Minister of Culture and presenter of the 1986 contest, attained
3rd place in 1966. That was to be Norway's last "podium"
place for nearly two decades ......
2008 Norwegian
Final Pays Tribute to Kirsti and Anne-Karine !
The awesome Oj Oj Oj reprised by Kirsti
Sparboe at MGP 2008
and the equally fantastic Mata Hari from
Anne-Karine Strom
Kirsti Sparboe
Anne-Karine
Strom / Bendik Singers
1967, 1969
1973-76
Kirsti sang three
times for Norway, the first before the Norsk barren period
began in 1965. In those attempts she accrued just 4 whole
points, that's 1,2,1. An abject jury disgrace. Her 1967 song
"Dukkemann" was a dreamy, jazzy song not far from
the winner of 1963, and 1969's fabulous "Oj Oj Oj"
owed quite a lot to Sandie Shaw, but there have been far
worse "Puppet" clones. In 1994 Kirsti recorded a
Silver Jubilee version, so there (!)
In 1973 the Bendik
Singers attained a rare top 10 placing for Norway with the
vocally complex "It's Just A Game". The two female
members, Anne-Karine Strom and Ellen Nikolaesen went on to
represent Norway in the next 3 years (Anne-Karine twice)
without any success. Anne-Karine's 1976 effort "Mata
Hari" was a classic disco belter that deserved far
better.
Anita Skorgan
Jahn Teigen
1977, 1979, 1982
1978, 1982-83
Anita sang
"Casanova" in London in 1977 and caused a stir for
all the wrong reasons. The BBC filmed preview videos in a
bar but Norwegian TV didn't like such scenes of debauchery
for their singer so they forbade the transmission of the
videos, hence the sooo-boring shots of the audience between
the songs. In 1979 Anita returned with another winsome
number "Oliver" but was not significantly more
successful. Threr years later she joined forces with husband
Jahn Teigen.
Jahn's first
effort is of course legendary and documented elsewhere on
this site. Three years later he teamed up with wife Anita
Skorgan and achieved a much better result with
"Adieu". A year later he sang "Do-Re-Mi"
solo and actually cracked the top 10!
The Others
Odd Borre -
1968
This has come to represent banality
and repetitiveness, but it was only entered after the original
song was disqualified for plagiarising "Summer
Holiday"
Hanne Krogh -
1971
Little Hanne and her parasol
skipped on to the Dublin stage in the favoured last in the
running order, but sadly could only beat the Maltese.
Hanne had the last laugh in 1985 as one half of Bobbysocks.
Grethe Kausland & Benny Borg
- 1972
A bearded
Scandinavian called Benny takes to the Eurovision stage in
the early seventies.... and sails home 14th in a contest
strangely packed with similar cutesy couples.
Sverre Kjelsberg &
Mattis Haetta -1980
A regular guy with
a guitar and an inoffensive tune, then half way through the
song stops and an ethnically dressed guys enters stage right
chanting something completely different. A political
and uncompromising entry that garnered points from four
countries.
Finn Kalvik -
1981
Finn came on right
just before the Bucks Fizz stage show. He wore what looked
like a football shirt and sat on a chair strumming a guitar
in low-key style. 0 points.
Dollie Deluxe - 1984
Two blonde lovelies
with a highly fancied entry - well they were anyway. A
somewhat ropey vocal performance in Luxemburg City. No
matter, Norwegian salvation was just around the corner.
