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.

For an MGP/ESC fan from Norway, this year is naturally quite a journey and very little can take away from us the fact that this particular year was a year for the history books.

Rarely has a Norwegian final been more euphoric and when a song gets almost 75% of all the votes, you can hardly have better support in the big ESC world.

This year’s event took place in the world’s largest country, Russia, and it’s almost a little wishful to think that back then it was almost all joy and fun in the relationship between Russia and the rest of Europe, will we ever get back there, do you think?

This year I stayed in an official hotel and since they had just gone through a financial crisis, hotel Cosmos was the place where a total of 25 delegations stayed, this was the hotel for delegations with poor means.

Thus, you were guaranteed to meet an ESC artist at the reception or when you ate breakfast, fortunately for the artists, most consider breakfast time to be a personal time, so they were mostly allowed to go there in peace.

We lived right next to the Albanian delegation and one day when we were about to take the elevator down to the reception, Kejsi Tola was practicing her song and she had to do it jumping, obviously a never-so-small exercise in having enough air to be able to perform the whole song and next to her the dancers did their exercises and you could say they were young, soft and fit guys.

Of the Nordic countries, only Iceland lived there, as you know, they were hit very hard by the aforementioned financial crisis, and then the TV station in the country also had to save money.

On the way to the first semi-final where they participated, we met two of the Icelandic choristers in the lift and they offered us a ride with them to the hall, after all, we were going the same way.

In the bus, “Is It True” performed a-capalla and believe me it was a magical experience and since the Icelandic MGP club had not been established I simply chose to take some responsibility on their behalf and when I was offered an Icelandic flag I was not difficult to pray.

Our friend Yohanna had to wait until the last country was called to be able to cheer for the final place and if you watch this recording a little over 8 minutes in, you will see me cheering wildly and uninhibitedly over that very fact and right then and there I am a super proud Icelander.

At the next semi-final, I naturally cheered just as much for the fact that Norway made it to the final, but since Norway was such a big favorite, I was almost more afraid that the victory would slip away than that we would win, and there was then a bit of excitement out and went when we were read out as country number 9 to advance.

You would think that you had used your luck when we got to sit on the Icelandic bus to the hall, did I say that it was with a police escort and wailing sirens?

Well, in the lift down to the reception on the day of the finals itself, we meet the same Icelandic choristers Erna and Fridrik and won’t you believe that we were once again offered to sit on the Icelandic bus.

Most likely they had seen our jubilant scenes after the semi-final and knew that you delivered the goods as an Icelandic cheerleader and this time we got a big flag to wave and I waved.

Because when you look at the recording from the final after the song has been performed, I’m the one waving the Icelandic flag and I had a lot to wave for, I must say.

The voting in 2009 will forever stand as a great experience among my ESC memories, both the fact that Norway won so clearly and the fact that Iceland managed to take a very deserved second place right at the end, double victory for me in other words .

Now me from ESC Covers can share a memory or two of 2009. Morten already mentioned that we stayed next door to the Albanian delegation and the twin dancers gave us a personal show of their movements in our hotel room.

Breakfast was a highlight and I every morning ate with another artist. A highlight for me was the morning I spent with the Belgium singer COPYCAT. Here in Moscow I was able to chat to him in Afrikaans and he responded back in Flemish.

Another highlight was when the Icelandic composer gave me a home recorded CD with their entry in several languages like Russia and Spanish.

Featured image – OnEurope.