News - Introducing the 2009 entries: Norway | Eurovision Song Contest News - Azerbaijan 2012 

Arny Karvelsdottir [30009]

Sun 26 Apr 2009 16:03:34

I think it's a great song and a great performance by Alexander. If he will be as charming on stage as in the video and deliveres a good vocal then I think Norway will be in top 10 for sure.

Rich L [57597]

Sat 25 Apr 2009 16:08:05

Sorry Norway but a very average song and certainly doesnt deserve to win. He'll probably get a few points on the cute factor from old ladies. Imagine a 50 something man singing this wouldnt be anywhere as popular, I thought it was a song contest and this is dire. Sweden were hot favourites last year and look how badly they did, I think Norway may be in for a shock on the night.

Whatever... ORIGINAL ... [29486]

Wed 22 Apr 2009 18:11:16

Lady Swinge

The ESC 2009 Moscow is in full ...swing !

In the meantime, here's that link to listen to past ESC hits:
--> http://www.arionradi(...)n/player/default.asp

VALO Paskal [33878]

Wed 22 Apr 2009 16:20:47

Thank you very much Seppo !!! great news !

VALO Paskal [33878]

Wed 22 Apr 2009 14:05:09

OK, thanks May T ! I will try directly when I will be there.

May T [55019]

Wed 22 Apr 2009 13:35:57

@ Whatever:
Oops, sorry, I didn't see your ironi, I'm really sorry, and thanx. I did find that comment a little too much, though, so I should have thought of that..
But that actually proves an important point about harrassment, so many people are going over the top with this, and that makes the others blind to ironi and jokes. Even people who know you misjudged that comment, and that's not because the ironi ain't clear now that I know.
We really have to stop this harrassment, or it will spread to other participants too until paranoid suspisious from everyone will spoil our fun!

Well, never the less, hopefully someone learned a little from my post and got a few misunderstandings sorted out... it's long enough to be a scoolbook in several countries, so I guess so!

Whatever... ORIGINAL ... [29486]

Wed 22 Apr 2009 13:14:38

May T

In my comment, first of all, I did NOT imply in any way whatsoever that Alexander supports animal abuse. To me, it was utterly BIZARRE that his publicist would arrange such a Circus photoshoot - as described in my "flapping ears" comment below.

Even before his MGP win, I was/am not really a fan of Fairytale, but I certainly do wish him well in the Contest. My prediction was Top 10 then, now Top 5!!!!! If Norway manages to WIN, then kudos!!! Besides, enough people seem to like his SONG and it might not be too farfetched... Best of luck!

However, when I first heard it, I did mention that his song was more appropriate to have competed in ... Junior ESC and thought that he has a ... piercing / all-over-the-place / SCREAMING voice, who plays a fiddle in a SCREECHING way. And I'm not the only one to have said that.


Back to topic:
In reaction to another article on ESCtoday.com, I posted a comment about EurovisionGR having been a busybody, who should be ashamed of himself for trying to ...dig out dirt on Alexander, especially since ..."WE HAVE NOTHING TO FEAR, DEAR!"

Actually, my intention was to let it slide and to ..."bury" (so to speak ) that hatchet brought up by EurovisionGR, but it went on and on by others...


IMPORTANT: --> The ONLY reason I reacted to comments is that many here were negatively trying to link(!!!) Mr. Positive ENERGY --> AMAZING SAKIS ... to Alexander's SHOCKING photoshoot only because of that certain key word: CIRCUS, which is totally different in each case.... and THAT is exactly what I reacted to. Understood?
(Again, see my links below)

PEACE!

Lady Swinge

It was definitely not my intention disappoint YOU, of all people!!! Of course, we are friends. Let's have that ESC celebration (garden or beach or ESC "camp" ) party ... here , there OR somewhere else , perhaps? because nobody has got a clue how things will turn out, but I do know that the ESC 2009 Moscow will be great as ...Always!

Let's just enjoy these days leading up to the big event, my dear ESCtoday.com friend! Again, best of luck to Norway's song! Special wishes to the SONGS of Azerbaijan , Greece , Turkey , Spain , Sweden , Iceland , Cyprus , Netherlands , Finland , UK , Hungary , Denmark , Portugal , Slovenia , Malta and to ALL of the remaining songs of participating countries !

In the meantime, here's a link to past ESC hits:
---> http://www.arionradi(...)yer/default.asp[url]

May T [55019]

Wed 22 Apr 2009 12:23:43

@VALO
Omg, you're in Oslo on THE biggest partynight of them all, the night before our constitutional day. There will be a h*ll of a night out for all adults, the teens and youngsters are trying their best to teare the sound - wall!
My advice if you want the slightest chance to bouth see and hear the ESC, would be to stay inside in your hotelroom and watch it there.
I don't live in Oslo, by far actually, I live like 1700 km noth of Oslo, but if you'd like I could ask in the Norwegian ESC forum if the Norwegian ESC club in Oslo has some special bar or place they're having a get-together to see the show? I would suspect they would.

@vladimir:

No, who can understand that. I mean, it's fine not to like an entry, but to spend most of the day stalking and harrassing the artist is not what I consider to be desent OR normal behaviour.

Vladimir P [31751]

Wed 22 Apr 2009 12:09:10

I really don't understand people who spend most of the day posting anti-Alexander comments.

May T [55019]

Wed 22 Apr 2009 11:52:49

@ John:

In your dreams!! ... This is our night, this is my night, my time, when all hearts will go Dum Tek Tek.. hehe..
And we'll take you on our laps and tell you a famous Norwegian

FARIYTALE

They usually start like this:
Once upon a time, a mocked young man went far, and further than far out in the world, to win a princess' heart..

May T [55019]

Wed 22 Apr 2009 11:25:08

@ whatever:
Quote: "ALEXANDER'S performance at the MGP was like a ...circus act. And then his publicist thought it would only be NATURAL that he play HIS fiddle ...with a video running, while photos are being taken of HIM cuddling up to the flapping ears of an ...ELEPHANT in an actual Norwegian CIRCUS and it was SHOCKING!!!!!!!!! He should fire his publicist..."


This will be a quite long post, to tell you that you are attacing the wrong country regarding to animals in sircus, and that your conclutions in this quote are wrong.

Well, first of all, you may feel that Alexanders performance in Fairytale is like an sicusact and I won't denie you the assosiation if that's how you feel, but Norwegian culture has nothing to do with sircuses at all as we are not a "sircus-nation". We do not have a tradition or culture of sircuses like Russia, China, Romania etc.
No Norwegians would assosiate Fairytale to a sircusact, so an allegory like that in a Norwegian magazine would be bizarre. The correct allegory for this act regarding to your chain of thoughts, would for Norwegians be cows, mountains, snow, skiing, farms, countryside valleys, national costumes, fjords, boats, traditional portraits and art from the Romanticism, and cultural tradition such as Norwegian rose painting. It's Norwegian traditional folkdance "Halling" and Norwegian traditional folkmusic.

Because we do not have a sircustradition of our own, circuses are quite low in Norwegian cultural view, and comparing the national culturetradition in "Fairytale"s act to a sircusact would actually be quite an insult in Norway. Not from foreigners, but from a Norwegian magazine it would create quite a rage, I'm afraid.

The photoshooting for this lifestyle magazine took place in the only sircus who travels in Norway, Arnardo. This photoshoot also contained several other celebritys in Norway, such as a famous Norwegian stylist Jan Thomas, and a Norwegian model. The allegory has nothing to do with the Fairytale act as a performance, as I said before the assosiation to a sircusact is absolutly not Norwegian! This lifestyle magazine is Norwegian, so even though it problably will be published in May I can't possible imagine that it will be published in Moscow - as it is in Norwegian of course.

The allegory used by this magazines article about these different celebritys' public life, is from the Norwegian pun "........... - sircus" about events or happenings that creates a lot of fuzz, and the pun is a bit patronizing in an ironic/sarcastic way; commonly used expressions are "the ESC sircus", "the glamour - sircus", "the fashion - sircus", "the political sircus", "the press - sircus", "the RealityTV - sircus" etc. Norwegians first assosiation to the word sircus is elephants, as they are pretty much the only foreign animal allowed in sircus in Norway. This allegory or pun is what the magazine has used as an atristical active assosiation in the articles photos, it's not a ESC promotion (as it is only published in Norway... )and not a commersial for the sircus either, as Norwegian ESC contestants does not do commercials. (NRK is a non - commersial state company).
I can't quite picture the g@y celebrity - superstylist Jan Thomas do a commersial for a sircus...

The owners of Arnardo are Norwegian with familyorigins from Romania (I think), but non of the artists are Norwegian. All of the acts are hired for the season (summer only) from abroad, as well.. we don't have very good sircusartists in Norway, we have no traditions for that. We are skiers, we don't even have a trainingcentre for acrobat artists exept gymnastics (sport), and we're not very impressive there either.

The sircus in question has two elephants who's not owned by the sircus, but by a German couple hired for this act by Arnardo. Norwegian laws phorbids owning or training of originally wild animals in the purpouse of makeing a commersial show with them. (ref. animals who were living in the wilderness less than three generations ago). It is not leagal to import wild animals to Norway either, the law demands that they're "line of origin" must have lived tame with humans for at least three generations. Sircuses who wants to travel in Norway have to show documentations that all of their animals are kept as the Norwegian strict law on animal holding demands, regarding to space, security in transport, daily exercice in fresh air, feeding, regulare vetrinarian care, vaccinations and line of breed (as mantioned before).

All tamed animals in Norway are kept under strict supervision of the authoritys, a sircus has daily visits and controles by vetrinarians working for the state government (ministry of agriculture). If any prooves of mistreatment of animals kept in Norway, the owner of the animal (plus the sircus, in this case) would face public charges, huge fines and possible prisoncentense, and the animals would most likely be put to sleep. That's what Norwegian authoritys do with foreign animals with no documentation of tame origins too, or animals that are not on the list of animals leagal to keep in Norway when the owner can show a formal permission from the state of an special exeption from the law.

Elephants has been on the quite short list of animals that are given this formal exeption from the law, if proven tamed for over three generations, and are being kept by professional trainers in licensed and controled sircuses. A few years ago when this video of the abuse of circuselephants in training was known to the Animal Rights organisations (the same video that has been copied and cut into the video from the magazine photoshooting) the Norwegian animals right organisations claimed a state investegation of the treatment and protection of rights regarding animals used in sicus in Norway. The reseach showed that even if the treatment of the animals was acceptable, it was quite difficult to proove without any doubt the animals origins. Further, the lack of vetrinarians with special knowledge of elephants made the second cruzial pont to the conclution of the reseachreport: Any elephantholding in Norway must be considered to break the regulations of the state law on animal protection/care, and thereby elephants can no longer be allowed in Norway. The two elephants in Norway will therefore have to be taken out of Norway by their owners this year, and the new law will problably make Norway follow Finland and Austria and be the third country in Europe that totally phorbids trained wild animals in sircuses. (regulare houshold animals such as goats, dogs, cats and horses are not phorbidden, of course)

As I read your post, you wrote that you didn't get my point about Sakis performance in the Russian State Sircus and that "you had nothing to fear".
We have a saying in Norway, that says "you know others by knowing yourself". That doesn't mean that all others are just like oneself, but that one always belive so.
Your post and your statement that "you have nothing to fear" tells me that this is a pure attac on Alexander as a person, as this has nothing to do with animals rights at all.
Of course I could attac Sakis the same way if I wanted to, but in Norway such harrassment are bouth illegal and immoral, and also considered immature and cruel. I would never sink to such level for something like ESC.
And if you're still wondering what I ment in that post, I'll tell you again:
Artists can not be held responsible for the treatment of workers or animals in the places they are visiting.
To hold a 22 year old artist responsible for the mistreating of animals in foreign countrys because he accepted a photoshooting together with the same kind of animal, that's so far out there as it's possible to come.
It's just as stupid as if someone would hold Sakis responsible for the unethical training of children in Russian sircus schools, and the mistreating of brownbears in Moscow State Sircus, just because he performed in their show.
Of course we who have the time could question the ethic evaluation behind bouth these artists choise there. Of couse we could state that they should have considered their partisipation in bouth cases more. But that would not be fair, as they are bouth working their tops&bottoms off for the ESC at the time and, this is highly an ethicalpolitical issue.
They are artist, not politicians, either one of them.

I wish bouth Sakis and Alexander the best of luck in Moscow.

ANNA MARIA! ! [32604]

Wed 22 Apr 2009 11:03:00

i thinknorway will be the winner of the 54th eurovision song contest. To win you need from 14 to 17% of the votes. Fairytale is the only song with so many fans around europe. In the contest you can vote for a song not against it. You really believe this song isnt going toreceive 15% at least of the votes. I think 25% of the votes and more.

Lady Swinge [56054]

Wed 22 Apr 2009 08:57:38

@EurovisionGR: My post bellow is for you as well.