NORWAY: Maria Haukaas Storeng - Hold On, Be Strong

I'll try not to be too biased ... ; -) Actually not too difficult since the Norwegian entry is rarely my favorite. Nope, not this year either.

Maria's one of those people who apparently should have won Idol but didn't. Everyone thought that she's so fantastic that everyone else will vote for her, so I don't have to ... so then no one did. Alas!

At least one thing can't be argued with: Our representative this year can really sing. She has an excellent voice and knows how to use it too. She smiles way too much though, this is supposed to be a sad song about how she's so depressed because nobody loves her. We'll see how she'll do it in Belgrade. But she really cannot stand there grinning like an idiot like she did in our national final.

The song isn't quite my style, but it's good by ESC standards. We're probably going to do well this year. But, as I've said already, a ballad doesn't win after a ballad, so we don't have a chance at winning. In this country we tend to vote for what we like ourselves, and forget that we can't vote for ourselves. I don't know whether the Easterners will like this. But they very well might. I won't be surprised if we're in the top five. Again, she can really sing, unlike some ...

In any case, this song is such a monster hit already that it obviously won't really matter even if it totally flops on Tuesday. For Maria, it's mission accomplished already.