The world wasn’t hers after all
May 19, 2013
“The whole world is mine,” sang Norway’s Margaret Berger at the finals of the Eurovision Song Contest Saturday night, but when the voting was over, it really wasn’t. Berger, one of the favourites to win the contest, ended up in fourth place while Denmark won by a healthy margin. That means next year’s extravaganza will [...]
Norway heads for Eurovision final
May 16, 2013
Margaret Berger, Norway’s entry at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, fed her audience well enough on Thursday night to qualify for the finals of the Eurovision Song Contest this weekend. Her song “I feed you my love” clearly appealed to the tastes of European voters, and her slinky dress probably helped, too. Since fans aren’t [...]
Eurovision hopeful ‘loves the madness’
May 13, 2013
Margaret Berger, Norway’s candidate in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, is ready to sing her heart out in Malmö, Sweden on Thursday when it will finally be her turn to compete for a place in the finals on Saturday. “I love the madness of all this,” she told Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) as the Eurovision circus [...]
‘Monroes’ guitarist dies of cancer
March 18, 2013
Eivind Rølles, guitarist for the Norwegian pop duo “The Monroes,” died during the night after a lengthy battle with cancer. He and colleague Lage Fosheim are perhaps best known for their hit song in 1983 “Sunday People,” which also got international air play. “The sorrow is without words,” Fosheim told newspaper VG. Rølles was 54 [...]
Eurovision winner aims for Top 10
February 11, 2013
Margaret Berger, a 27-year-old singer from Trøndelag, claims that just qualifying for Norway’s local version of the Eurovision Song Contest over the weekend already has changed her life. She ended up winning the contest by a huge margin and is unlikely to make many other changes in her performance when she represents Norway at Eurovision later [...]
Beaten in Baku, threatened too
May 27, 2012
Norway not only wound up last in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest but also landed in a serious diplomatic dispute with authorities in the contest’s host country of Azerbaijan. It didn’t turn out to be a very happy birthday for Norway’s contestant, singer Touraj “Tooji” Keshtkar, and Sweden stole the show. Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) almost pulled [...]
Tooji takes Norway to Eurovision final
May 24, 2012
Norway’s high-energy representative at the Eurovision Song Contest sang his way into the finals on Saturday, when he’ll also be celebrating his 25th birthday. It’s bound to be quite a party for Touraj Keshtkar, better known as “Tooji.” First he sang his way into the hearts of Norwegians, who gave him the most votes last [...]
Tooji ready for action at Eurovision
May 24, 2012
Norway’s entry at the annual Eurovision Song Contest was hoping to make both the finals and a difference during the annual, much-hyped event that’s playing out in Azerbaijan this week. In addition to rehearsing, the young man known as “Tooji” has visited an asylum center in Baku, sported a “Free Iran” arm band and been [...]
Tooji was the people’s favorite
February 12, 2012
A young man whose family came to Norway as refugees from Iran, won an overwhelming victory at the annual Norwegian national song contest Melodi Grand Prix on Saturday night. Tooji Keshtkar will now represent Norway at the Eurovision Song Contest in May. The singer, who performs simply as “Tooji,” won 155,480 votes in five minutes during the [...]
Karlsnes wins Eurovision wildcard spot
February 7, 2012
Lise Karlsnes, former lead singer in a band that once toured with the legendary Norwegian rock group a-ha, will be competing to represent Norway at the Eurovision Song Contest after all. She won a coveted wildcard spot for Saturday’s final in Oslo. Karlsnes was among the performers competing in Norway’s third semi-final for Eurovision, called [...]
Memorial held for father of Eurovision winner
February 5, 2012
Memorial services were held on Sunday for Jeff Mwangi Kwirikia, father of singer Stella Mwangi, after he was killed by a hit-and-run driver at Dal in Akershus last week. The 54-year-old native of Kenya was hailed for integrating his children into Norwegian life without letting them forget where they came from. The memorial was organized [...]
Activists seek Eurovision conscience
January 30, 2012
Norway’s chapter of the Helsinki Committee, known for its advocacy of human rights and democracy, has asked the singers and musicians taking part in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest to pay attention to what’s happening in Azerbaijan, which will host this year’s show. The country, run by a dictator, is regularly accused of human rights [...]
Teen wins first step towards Eurovision
January 22, 2012
She was the youngest of all the participants and she won the most votes: Nora Foss Al-Jabri, the teenage Norwegian singer with a grown-up voice, topped the first of three semi-finals in Norway’s qualifying rounds for the Eurovision Song Contest, and claimed she almost fainted along the way. The 15-year-old Al-Jabri could be seen bending [...]
Norway voted out of Eurovision
May 11, 2011
She sang and danced her heart out, but Norway’s entry in the annual Eurovision Song Contest failed to win the hearts of European voters watching the first of two semi-finals broadcast from Dusseldorf Tuesday night. Stella Mwangi of Lillestrøm, northeast of Oslo, didn’t qualify for the final on Saturday, meaning Norway is out of the [...]
Eurovision winner fends off racism
February 18, 2011
The young Kenyan-Norwegian woman who won last weekend’s run-up to the Eurovision Song Contest has been the target of what many are calling blatant racism, with even a local politician caught in the scandal. Singer Stella Mwangi herself, however, doesn’t want to talk about it. “I would rather talk about me and my music,” Mwangi [...]
