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.

I reached the last international final of the last millennium, and you had to go on a really long trip, all the way to Jerusalem.

These days a rather troubled part of the world, back almost a quarter of a century it was probably a bit quieter and it actually felt safe to be there.

Fortunately, I lived just across the street from the hall where it was all arranged, so I could say there wasn’t much movement on the body that week.

But, you went on some trips back then, when you were so far from home you had to take in some sights, one trip was a tour of Jerusalem, there were 14 of us on the trip and we had no less than 5 armed guards with us, so safety was at its best, you could say, we were at the wall of complaints, had nothing to complain about, so we had to keep a serious face.

Another trip was to the Dead Sea and for those who need proof that you can actually float there without the need for a swim cap, you can look at a picture of this gentle float.

It was also a bit special to experience the Sabbath for the first time, it is not allowed to press buttons so the lifts were pre-programmed to stop on every second floor, something a nice lady explained to me in the lift down to breakfast on Saturday morning, but no rule without exception, when we had to pay by card for dinner later that Saturday, we were allowed to go behind a curtain and sin a little when we pressed the code for the card.

But, back to music, already on my way to Jerusalem I had a great experience, had to fly via Copenhagen and on the plane on a Sunday evening were actually the delegations from Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Iceland so over 1/6 of the participating countries were on the same plane and I actually sat in the row behind none other than Charlotte Nilsson, she otherwise slept most of the trip to Jerusalem.

Our own Stig van Eijk probably had a lot of hopes for it, it’s a shame that he ruined the whole final performance due to the excessively loud sound on the earphones he was listening to music on, because I heard him at the last dress rehearsal and then he sang impeccably and that he also did at the Norwegian party that I naturally attended.

Just as this year the tight battle was supposed to be between two Nordic countries, I guess I have a feeling that a small majority of those who watched probably cheered the most for Selma from Iceland who possibly lost a little because she did not deliver 100% in the final, a lot possibly due to a little too much nervousness.

Someone who kept her nerves under control was my previously mentioned flight neighbor Charlotte and she was thus able to collect her country’s fourth victory.

Unlike Morten, I had some mixed memories. First of all, for me the shortest flight to Eurovision, the only ever direct fight to Eurovision with South African airways, and no visa. But accommodation wise it was horrible. The travel agent did not listen to me when I asked to book a place close to the venue so I could walk. She booked me at a place with a short walk to a bus station to take an hour drive to the venue.

Also the Saturday was a horrible. I had two friends from South Africa flying in for the final and stayed at the same place as me. So we did some sightseeing the Saturday and when we were ready to go home, no transport and we had to walk over 5  kilometers to our accommodation. No going into the venue for the final so we watched it on TV in our rooms.

I did get the best accreditation ever, I was made HEAD OF DELEGATION of the SOUTH AFRICAN press and for the one and only time in my Eurovision lie, I could go backstage.

My plane also arrived at the same time as the flight with all those NORDIC artists and I had CHARLOTTE standing in front of me at the customs control and we had a long conversation and I predicted she would win right there at the start of the Eurovision week. When she did win, she came to thank me.  Her song was also the last night my personal number 1 for the year was also the winner. And on top of it, I had Iceland in second place and that also got second place.

Featured image – Wikipedia