Vasily Petrenko unwittingly attracted the most readers to our site in 2013 — not because of his skills as a conductor, but for his controversial remarks shortly after joining the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra.
Petrenko told newspaper Aftenposten that orchestras ‘react better’ when the conductor is a man. He also surprised egalitarian-minded locals — and quite a few of our international readers — by saying that men “often have less sexual energy and can focus more on the music. A sweet girl on the podium can make one’s thoughts drift towards something else.”, Petrenko said. He later apologized in the form of a press release.
Readers were also interested in news on a monster hit video by the Ylvis Brothers, ‘What does the Fox say,’ particularly when it was pulled off iTunes due to copyright concerns. Our readers also clicked eagerly on any story having to do with ‘Lilyhammer’, a popular TV show starring Steven Van Zandt as a mafia boss transplanted to provincial Norway.
News of a Norwegian woman jailed in Dubai after reporting rape attracted steady traffic, too, and two of the updates on that story were among our top six traffic-getters this year.
Only-in-Norway stories like the one about babies parked out in the cold or efforts to make Norwegians limit their bragging also did predictably well. Similarly popular and much commented, but maybe not really liked, was the somewhat unsurprising news that few Norwegian firms hire foreigners.
Here’s the rundown of our 20 most-read stories in 2013:
1. New conductor strikes sour note
2. Tourist killed in Preikestolen fall
3. Hit music video pulled off iTunes
4. Historic vessel sinks off Sweden
5. Woman jailed for reporting rape
6. Rape in Dubai sets off outcry in Norway
7. Royal rumours set off press debate
8. Mette-Marit’s role stirs new debate
9. Babies parked out in the cold
10. Optimistic Carlsen heads for India
11. Norwegians urged to stop bragging
12. Ryanair loses in Norwegian court
13. Boosters celebrate ship tunnel funds
14. Few firms willing to hire foreigners
15. Ryanair boss denies ‘slave contracts’
16. Storm rises over royal wardrobe
17. Solberg: Norway is too expensive
18. No ‘Thor de France’ this year either
19. Here’s Norway’s new government
20.‘Norwegians are very complicated’
And here’s the rundown for most-searched-for people:
Politician (and Prime Minister) Erna Solberg
Anti-islamic blogger ‘Fjordman’
We’d like to take the opportunity to wish all our readers a Happy New Year and, as the Norwegians would say, takk for det gamle (roughly translated, thanks for the year that just passed). We hope you’ll keep clicking in, and subscribe, in 2014!
