NORWAY 1976 - Mata Hari

So, the draw was announced yesterday for this year's contest. Ie, the order in which the entries will be performed. We got slot #3. Which, if you remember what I've said about this before (although you probably don't ;-) ought to be really really bad. But actually, it's not. It's great!! :-D See, this year there's yet another change to the setup of the contest - now, instead of voting only during a short window after the performances are all done, we will get to vote throughout the entire show, starting when the first performer enters the stage. Personally, I'm against this change ... I think it's unfair on some level. I know, the draw is random, but still. It just rubs me the wrong way. But what are you gonna do.

Anyway, that means it's now good to get an early slot. And we're in third, so that raises our odds considerably. Which is bad, since we don't want to win ... ! :-D But at least hopefully it'll ensure that we won't do as badly as we did in 1976.

Actually, the song we sent that year was pretty fantastic ... that's generally agreed on among connoisseurs. ;-) A lot of those in the know think that the song was basically ahead of its time, too advanced for the audience back then, and so it didn't appeal to anyone and, alas, came last. :-( But it is a fantastic song ... one of my all time favorites among the Norwegian entries. And her costume is just precious. ;-)

This is Anne Karine Strøm performing Mata Hari by Frode Thingnæs and Philip A Kruse. They competed for Norway in the Congresgebouw in The Hague on April 3rd, 1976. The only way they could have done worse would have been to get zero points ... but they actually got seven. Three from the host and four from Portugal. They are generally confused ESC-wise. ;-) The goddamned Swedes didn't even give us one lousy point, as usual. Just because they weren't in the contest that year they thought they could weasel out of it, grumble, bah, humbug, etc.

And now, Mata Hari!!



Lyrics here, in both English and Norwegian. Participants were free to choose languages that year so Strøm performed in English.