Morten Thomassen from Norway decided to write about some of his memories of Eurovision and the Norwegian Eurovision selection. ESC Covers again will publish it after google translating it from Norwegian to English.

This time I’m going back to a Norwegian final, which, seen from the TV screen, could make you think you were in the world of fog somewhere, the person who directed obviously thought that fog was the thing that year.

Perhaps everyone in NRK was a bit confused when this event took place just over a month after the successful Olympic Games in Lillehammer had concluded.

The opening number was a tribute to our country’s biggest experience back in 1994, but for someone who was present at Oslo Spektrum, you remember that a good part of the 7,000 tickets that were put out were not sold, so parts of the hall were empty.

I also remember that you could use Norsk Tipping’s system and vote for your favorite, so in other words, one of the first times everyone in Norway had the opportunity to have their say on how the result should be.

The most special thing this year was that I had already heard one of the songs that was included the year before, because I know the lyricist of the contribution “Irresistible” and already once in 1993 he had played the song for me, because that was the year it was broadcast in the first time.

Shame on those who give up, they tried again in 1994 and then they slipped through the eye of the needle in competition with around 300 songs that were supposed to fill 10 final places.

Naturally, this was the song I voted for, not that it helped much, the group SubDiva who performed the song came in 8th place and basically had no chance against MGP greats such as Jahn Teigen, Tor Endresen and Elisabeth Andreasson.

Yes, Bettan was still Andreasson until 2 July this year, it was only when she became an Andreassen and before she got married this year it was as a duet partner with Jan Werner Danielsen that she was musically married to.

With the outstanding song “Duett” written by the not unknown composer “Rolf Løvland, we sent two vocally strong artists to the final in Dublin and there they got a great 6th place for Norway, so Bettan’s new homeland was not put to shame .

The international final in Dublin in 1994 was the first where I had proper accreditation.

This was my first international final where I was present the whole week and for a world that opened up, both being able to watch the first exercises of the various artists, but also various events that you were invited to.

I remember we were invited to the Russian embassy and without realizing it I sat next to Polish Edyta Gorniak during the entertainment there, whether I was lethargic or so excited that I didn’t catch anyone, I’m still unsure.

One of the most embarrassing things I have done on my ESC travels I did this year, namely there was supposed to be a small gathering for the Norwegian delegation and when I got to the place where it was to be held it turned out that the Dutch artist Willeke Alberti had her party right before Norway had its own and the lady was polite and came and greeted all her guests and that’s when I made a fool of myself.

Because instead of thanking her for greeting us, I told the truth that no, we were only there because Norway was going to have its party in the same venue a little later, well she was a bit shocked by my honest answer and someone I was traveling with gave me the correct answer for my slightly too honest answer.

Fortunately, I’ve learned and am much nicer to artists I meet these days, but whether I’m irresistible to any of them is unknown.

Like Morten I was at Eurovision in 1994 too  but it was my last Eurovision without press accreditation as then I got to know Morten and Munro Forbes from the UK and they helped me to get my first accreditation for 1995.

1994 had great songs from new participating countries such as Russia, Estonia, Hungary and Slovakia. My top sing is AUSTRIA, and PETRA FREY who I saw at opposition to Nicole from Germany.