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Norway wants dance and funk
Norwegian Melodi Grand Prix, Semifinal 1 in Alta
The stage was colourful with a big led-screen in the back. The lights could change the appearence in seconds. Below there’s a review of the songs, as seen on Norwegian television.
Torhild Sivertsen & Funky Family – Love on the dancefloor
Tohild Siversen apeeared in golden trousers, backed by two guitarists and a female drummer. The song is very funky, with a heavy guitar influenced refrain. Pyro in the end lifted the performance a bit.
The artists were for the first time in Norway intervewed right after their performance. Torhild stated that she wanted to bring the very loud audience from Alta with her home.
Blue Moon Band – Goodbye to yesterday
Two pianists, one drummer and a guitarist on stage for Blue Moon Band. The two vokalists were dressed in clear white. The song is very easy listening, and it was a very cheerful, happy and safe performance. Also Blue Moon Band said that they loved the audience.
Marika Lejon – Perfect sin
This song is a bit like ’1001 nights’ of Rebecca in 2004. Modern sound with a slight oriental and ethnic touch. A red scenebackground supported the raid haired Marika, who appeared in a sexy and challenging black dress. A very happy mid tempo song, not very suitable for Marika’s style and appearence. Kind of a mismatch between the eurovisionstyled movements, and the looks of the artists. But a very solid perfomance though. Marika told the audience that she was a bit nervous, but she’d love to sing her song again.
Marianne Solberg – Livets små stjerner (Small stars of live)
A cute performance by Marianne, in a nice white dress remisent of an ice-princess, backed by a choir dressed in black. A sweet ballad with a catchy refrain.
Stian Joneid – Are you ready
Blue scene for Stian dressed in a blues shirt and a guitar. An easy guitarbased popmelody with a catchy refrain. The audience cheered when they were asked by Stian if they were ready.
Infinity – Hooked on you
A catchy dance song in the style of the 90ies by Infinity who makes a comeback with this appearence. A pink and colourful stage backed Infinity who were pretty kith-dressed. She apeared in a dress remisent of Portugese Doras dress back in the 86-final. The song gives reference to E-type and Scooter, and the audience clearly liked this one, which also was to be heared during the song.
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send infinity to helsinki..
Infinity to Helsinki!!! 
what the funk 
is this !!!???
LORDI -LIGHT
and boney m gone bad
like the music but thats it 
and there stylists should be shot..
bad norway
bad bad norway
you divere a slap on you assssssss for leting this pas the 1st semi final 
and if you got a nice one i do it my self lol
any wayzzz to all Norwaygian ppl :
I LOVE YOUR MGP , im looking forward to the next semi final
and you have a beautiful country,
My favorite ( only hear the studio version so far ): with no doubt : PERFECT SIN!!!!!
oh and if some1 has the mp3 of Rebecca - 1001 nights
PLEASE MAIL ME: [url=ecniv19@hotmail.com[]ecniv19@hotmail.com[/url]
or is you just want to mail for anything LOL
I didnt like Paradise at all... I thought it was a piece of rubbish... but I love Infinitys song... but also I hated Fames song Give Me Your Love, and loved Fabrizios I Do - eventhough it practically was the same song. So maybe Hooked On You is a much better production than E-types Paradise then 
As I Do was a much better production of the song Give Me Your Love 
Well, I´m swedish and heard A LOT of E-types "Paradise" in Infinity...not very impressed at all.
But there are more semifinals to come
What was that Stephen King movie: Sometimes They Come Back....?
If Dj Bobo is to come up with something similar to his latest releases these last years I dont think Switzerland will do very well... Dj Bobos latest work is pretty bad....
...and to all of you who claims Marianne Solbergs song was so great:
YOU MUST BE DEAF: it was the WORST norwegian ballad for ages. It was million times worse than Alvedansen, and it couldnt even be compared with the beautiful ballad of Christina Undhjem ("my Dream" last year either... Mariannes song is probably one of the worst songs I have heard of ALL the national final entries so far.... it would have secured Norway another last place for sure.
I agree with Stian. And maybe we'll have more than one eurodance-song this year... Norway and Switzerland... or is DJ Bobo schlager dance? I'm not sure at the moment. *g*
I just hate Infinity, but love Thorild & The funky family!
My other favourit were Marianne with her beautyful ballad.
I dont think Inifitys sing is anything like whats been in Eurovision before. It is catchy for sure, but ESC has NEVER had REAL eurodance in it. It has always been schlager dance, and Infinity is nothing like schlager dance
I'm really impressed how much MGP has developed the past years!
And I agree that so far Infinitry has the best and most "eurovision" style song.
Anyway, we should be aware that every year a lot of good songs goes out in the sem.. and also we are very early in the selections of this years songs so there is a lot of songs still to come.
So dear friends, don't be too sure yet...
Stian!
I agree with you, Infinity is Infinity all the way and Aqua is a diferent thing.
By the way people: Aqua is qurter Norwegian by that the lead singer of Aqua is Norwegian (Lene Nystrøm) she comes from a town not that far from me by the way
I hope the next semi in Bodø is better, hmm??? i think Andreea and Amelia can be really good
Heia Kongeriket Norge
Hey guys,
Belgium calling here and so far I'm not too impressed... Torhilds song was pretty ok but the infinity one was all show but it lacked a good voice in my opinion... We'll see, there's plenty more to come
In fact the song I liked most was the intro song (the one that accompanies the camera flying over a landscape with lots of snow)... Loved it! Does anyone by chance happen to know the title and artist for that one? My eternal gratitude awaits you
Thanks already!
I LOVE INFINITYS song Hooked On You - its just fantatic And it could be a winner of ESC definitly And to you who says it reminds you of Aqua,E-type or Scooter - please put on a CD and listen to it because there is no real comparison. This was INFINITY ALL THE WAY - and Infinity has as someone mentioned been around since 1994....and had their breakthroug at the same time as Aqua. And for the first time ever we had a REAL performance in MGP with costumes and dancers and everything. This is what Norway need to send to Helsinki And it would be by far one of the best songs to fight for the victory
I was impressed by some of the songs... Love On the Dancefloor was a great east listening radio friendly disco song - it was great and could do well for Norway. The performance was also okey but with a little work it could be fantastic as well.
Perfect Sin was also great - interesting and I think that the only reason why Marika didnt qualify for anything was that she was a totally unknown artist...
Marinna Solbergs song was just aweful, embarrassing and painful to hear
Goodbye to yesterday was easy-liked, cheerful but the performance was not so good... the guy was much better than the girl... this would be a horrible choice for Norway.
Are You Ready - friendly and nice tune - but nothing special. I hate acts like Stian Joneids, with a guitar and no stage-costumes - it makes it look so pale, boring and easily forgettable - and that is not what we want for Eurovision.
Norway, you also are one of the countries I listen and follow more than others, because of the good different entries in the past, you have become one of my fav countries in ESC, last year you had a great song, but it was a pitty that you directly after or before I don't know this time, Bosnia-Herzegovina which was in the same kind, but honestly much better. Hope you will this time a better start position with at least a song that has the same quality as last year.
If someone wants to take part in the European Eurosong Online Contest and bring your country to victory you can do it at: url=http://users.skynet.be/travel/esc/EESConline.htm]http://users.skynet.be/travel/esc/EESConline.htm/url]
Already 8 songs received for this contest, are you the next one? Hope so.
Stuypi
Oh my,,,, First of all Im glad that NRK has done a good job, making the MGP to a bigger event.
However, the songs that went to the final in Spektrum, was not very strong ones. My opinion on Infinity`s song, is that its a totally ripp-off of E-Types song Paradise, and Aquas song Candyman, and they couldnt preform it, and where the hell was the fireworks in that song???
Anyhow, I think its good for the norwegians that they send a song like this to the final in spektrum, but lets hope it doesnt winn, tat will be disaster in Helsinki!
My personal favourite was MArika and Perfect Sin.
Both songs are awful!
A weak semi IMO.....hope the other ones will be stronger
@ Whatever:
I wasn't hooked on Tornero as I first heard it. My favourite was Jokero. But Tornero was a typical grower for me. Better with every hearing. Mihais live performance on ESC has at last convinced me completely. Now I love this song.
And my predictions are just... predictions. Based on the last ESCs, my feelings and the right circumstances: A convincing performance and the condition that Europe accept this style of music. Every song can be a flop at ESC, the bad songs and the high rated songs. But the right song at the right time will do well if professional performed.
Does anyone here have the lyrics of Infinity - Hooked on you ? I would like to know what they are singing about.
I voted twice for Infinity, even tho I've heard better songs from them. I hope Kjell improves his rapping a little bit in the final, I know he can do better. Birgitte sings pretty good tho. Not a bad comeback considering they haven't released anything since the late 90s... Good to see that dance music isn't completely dead in Norway after all
I liked hooked on you.
Little Imp:
At first listen, I was utterly 'HOOKED ON'
Romania's [i]"Tornero"[/i] ... talk about a CATCHY TUNE
and can Mihai sure sing LIVE!!!!!!!!
[url=http://youtube.com/watch?v=vmJOSwW06og[]http://youtube.com/watch?v=vmJOSwW06og[/url]
It WAS the [u]BEST[/u] UPBEAT Song of the [b]ESC 2006 ATHENS[/b]!!!!
These are just two nice, [i]heard-before-type[i] mainstream dance
songs ... nothing special sets them apart.
wellthe best tune herewas perfect sin, butit didntget chosen...the others are well bad...
@ Owen: She was my favourite too. As it was Natalia Tameno in Belarus. But my favourites never get through! They didn't do last year, why they should do this year? It's as simple as that: look at my favourite and you know who will fail. But as we say in Germany: Shared sorrow is half sorrow.
Infinity - As I said earlier, if they win they could be a direct rival do DJ Bobos forthcoming dance entry for Switzerland. Both Switzerland and Norway have to go through the semi so they could harm each other and both fail to qualify. If dance will be the european trend 2007 than the entry with the higher quality will make the race I think.
Torhild - Maybe the weaker of the two qualified entrys at first hearing. But I thinks it's definitely a grower! An ESC-Winner-Song? I think not, but maybe it could follow the footsteps of Tornero.
My ranking after listening to the songs (didn't see the show):
[b]1 - Infinity - "Hooked on you"[/b] --- (the guy was dispendable)
[b]2 - Torhild Sivertsen & Funky Family - "Love on the dancefloor"[/b]
[b]3 - Blue Moon Band – "Goodbye to yesterday"[/b]
[b]4 - Marika Lejon – "Perfect sin"[/b]
[b]5 - Stian Joneid - "Are you ready"[/b]
[b]6 - Marianne Solberg – "Livets små stjerner"[/b]
"Hooked On You" - Good, cheesy, Eurovisiony
"Love on the Dancefloor" - Simply EXCELLENT! Could easily become a European hit, I think...
Two great choices, Norway!
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