Norway’s entry in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest won a chance Thursday night to compete again in the finals on Saturday in Vienna. Kjetil Mørland and Debrah Scarlett will be up against songs from 26 other countries and some think they have a good chance of winning.
“This is completely fantastic,” Mørland, who wrote their song called A Monster Like Me, told Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK), which produces the Norwegian preliminaries called Melodi Grand Prix. “It’s an unreal feeling.”
“It was just fantastic to stand on this stage,” added Scarlett after the second round of semi-finals in Vienna. “So much love and joy. I’m just really happy now.”
The duo changed their costumes and refined their presentation for the extravaganza where they were up against 16 other countries. Only 10 would be selected to proceed to the finals Saturday night, where they’ll compete against the 10 selected in Tuesday’s first round of semi-finals plus the six European countries that automatically qualify for Eurovision every year: Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom and the winner from the year before, which this year is Austria. Australia was also invited to compete this year because Eurovision has a strong following in the country and the contest is celebrating its 60th anniversary.
Competition will be keen on Saturday, with both Sweden’s and Slovenia’s songs drawing enthusiastic reaction and favoured by many critics. Israel’s lively dance number also won lots of applause. The other countries winning spots Thursday night were Lithuania, Montenegro, Latvia, Azerbaijan, Cyprus and Poland.
newsinenglish.no staff
