We watched the Finnish final last weekend, as well as the Norwegian repechage round. Is it a bad sign for Finland that any of the songs vying for a second shot at the Norwegian final outshined the Finnish entry, Kuunkuiskaajat’s “Työlki ellää”?
I mean, it’s not bad; it’s even kinda catchy, with some pretty cool backing vocals. But I can’t say it really grabbed me. (In fact, I was kind of rooting for Eläkeläiset’s “Hulluna humpasta” for sheer anarchy’s sake.) We’ll see how memorable “Työlki ellää” is compared to the slew of inevitable post-Rybak neo-folk numbers that are surely coming this year.
The Norwegian Siste Sjansen show, incidentally, featured a Rybak rip-off number, Gaute Ormåsen’s “Synk eller svøm“. And it’s a terrific song in its own right, despite the similarities. But my favorite of the runners-up, and one of the two that made it through to Norway’s upcoming final, is Venke Knutson’s “Jealous Cause I Love You”:
It doesn’t have a shot of winning the national final in a year when Norway is hosting Eurovision, so I’m just going to savor it now.