In a weekly series from Morten Thomassen, we will look at strange outcomes at the Norwegian Eurovision selection. ESC Covers google translated it from Norwegian to English.
This is a blog entry and represents only writer Morten Thomassen’s own views.
From time to time you wonder what happens in our beloved competition and in this series I will comment on some episodes and events that absolutely deserve the title “Why that this happen”.
Most Norwegian MGP songs that can call themselves hits and that have thus gained a life after participation in the competition have gained that status after they went and won the MGP final the year they participated and they thus got a trip into it major ESC world.
But, sometimes it is like that “the wrong song won” and if you have to vote on which year this statement fits best, many will probably think of the gentleman’s year 1989.
Before the final in 1989, most people probably guessed that this would be a decent parade march towards victory for Mr. Teigen and when we had heard the songs, most people were probably even more sure that this should go their way.
But, as you know, it didn’t, the 5 jury groups that were present in Stavanger Forum had possibly seen and heard the dress rehearsal and had a different impression of the songs than those of us who saw it on TV, when 9 finalists were to become 3 super finalists Jahn Teigen not among these.
Full chaos broke out, we were served a solid pipe concert, the audience shouted “Teigen, Teigen” and the chaos did not diminish when Jahn Teigen ran out and received this tribute and the poor presenter had his own struggle to get the TV broadcast on its feet again.
The rest of the TV broadcast barely dragged on and the evening’s winner Britt-Synnøve Johansen could probably have wished in retrospect for a victory with a lot less aftertaste than she got and as if this wasn’t enough, Jahn Teigen was a bad loser this evening, something he later regretted.
What the juries may later regret is that we never got to know how well Jahn Teigen could have done in an international final.
I am 100% sure that it would have been better than the 9th place from 1983 that he ended up with as his best placing, I do not ignore that it might have been a podium placing and that is something we in Norway are not exactly spoiled for .
Well, we’ll never know, but you’ll always wonder why the 5 juries in Stavanger on 11 March 1989 didn’t think that “Optimist” deserved a win, because in retrospect it has won most people’s musical hearts.
Featured image – Tidal