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Norway: Interview with Frode Vassel | From The Voice Norway to the finals of Melodi Grand Prix 2022 ! (Video)

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After the announcement of the contestants of the Norwegian National Final, Melodi Grand Prix 2022, Frode Vassel talks exclusively to EurovisionFun reporters, Apostolos Bogiannos and Apostolis Matamis.

Frode is one of the finalists of the Norwegian national selection process for Eurovision 2022 and is bidding on representing his country with the song “Black Flowers”. In 2021, even though he is an experienced  artist already, he took part in the Norwegian version of The Voice, where he managed to get a four chair turn by impressing the judges. Fast-forward to now, he wins his semi-final earning him a ticket to the finals of Melodi Grand Prix 2022.

In the first duel, I was very stressed out, to such an extent, that I forgot a part of the lyrics. Thank God, nobody had realised that. When I reached the gold duel, I was more laid back and it was a wonderful experience. 

Him securing a place at the finals of MGP, contradicted all the betting odds for the night:

I was not the favourite for that semi-final, but “Black Flowers” is one of those songs that sound better, when they’re performed live. I had a good feeling about the results and I kinda new that with a nice live performance, I could convince even those having the most doubts. Due to COVID-19, there was no audience at all at the venue. But I hope that we will have a live audience at the finals, it will make the whole show even better. 

Regarding his final performance, Frode admits that there might be some slight changes and these will mostly affect the camera shots. After that, he discussed the meaning behind his song “Black Flowers”.

The title has a metaphorical meaning and the song is all about the decisions that everyone has to make on a personal level, or maybe on the society or the world, for example the environment. There’s always somebody that makes some decisions and these have an impact on everyone else. Whoever can’t do this, is the one who has to pay the consequences of these decisions. We make decisions that we don’t know if they’re right and this happens quite often, just because this is the most convenient way of doing things. So “Black Flowers” speaks exactly about that, about the maturity of a person and how they eventually use their own powers. 

Frode is very satisfied with his song and as he states, “Black Flowers” had been selected from a bunch of different songs he had prepared, when the idea of competing at Melodi Grand Prix 2022 came up. He might release some of those songs, after the contest.

From his competitors’ songs his favourites are those of Subwoolfer, Elsie Bay and NorthKid.

His favourite Norwegian entry is the one of Alexander Rybak (2009) while his favourite entries from the entire contest are Loreen (Sweden 2012), Go_A (Ukraine 2021) and Sanja Ilić & Balkanika (Serbia 2018).

We couldn’t help but ask his thoughts about Amanda Tenfjord, who is half-Norwegian as well, Frode commented:

I haven’t met her in person but she is well known in Norway. It would be interesting, if I got selected to represent Norway and met her in Turin. Of course 12 points go to Greece, this year.

A while before we said goodbye to Frode, he sang a part of his song acapella.

Don’t miss out on our exclusive interview with Frode! You can watch it on the video below:

You can listen to “Black Flowers“, Frode’s song for Melodi Grand Prix 2022 at the video below!

Norway: Results of the first heat of Melodi Grand Prix

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The first heat of Melodi Grand Prix 2022 took place today at 19:50 CET. We witnessed 5 amazing performances. Four hopefuls competed for the ticket to the Grand Final which will take place on February 19. We saw one of the automatic qualifiers perform on the stage as well. Three more heats, so-called ‘Last Chance’ and the Grand Final are yet to come!

The hosts of the show were Kåre Magnus Bergh, Annika Momrak, Mikkel Niva.

 

The four contestants of the first heat were:

These four competed in duels, where the two selected winners also competed with each other, in order to secure a place at the Grand Final of Melodi Grand Prix.

The duels that were determined by a draw yesterday are shown here:

The odds before the show looked like this:

 

The winner of the first duel (Mira Craig – We still here VS  Eline Noelia – Ecstasy) was…

Eline Noelia with her song “Ecstasy”

The winner of the second duel (TrollfesT – Dance like a pink flamingo  VS  Frode Vassel – Black Flowers) was…

Frode Vassel with the song “Black Flowers”

Elsie Bay, one of the automatic qualifiers, performed her song ‘Death of Us‘ right after the first 2 winners were selected:

 

Eline and Frode once again performed their songs. The final duel determined the winner of the heat and the first qualifier as well:

The choice was made and the winner of the first heat and the first qualifier is:

Frode Vassel with his song “Black Flowers”

 

The next heat will take place next Saturday at 19:50 CET! You can watch MGP 2022 by clicking here.

Stay tuned to EurovisionFun, for all the news regarding the Norway’s participation at Eurovision Song Contest 2022!