Marcus Gunnarsen and Martinus Gunnarsen, the known Norwegian duo of Marcus & Martinus, turned 21 just three days after the third heat of Melodifestivalen 2023, in which they participated. Winners of the first round of voting, they have secured their place in the semi-final show and are also big favorites to win in the final show, on March 11th!
Eurovisionfun is in Stockholm and Marcus & Martinus met us at the Quality Friends Hotel, right next to the arena and Andreas Papayiannakis secured an exclusive interview with them just two days before the grand final! They commented on their number this year, their love for Greece, their new beginning in Sweden, their relationship with the composers of their participation this year as well as the reasons why they preferred Melodifestivalen instead of MGP.
After today’s rehearsal they feel more confident compared to the week of the third heat that took place in Lidköping.
We are very excited, we feel ready, we want to start now, to get on stage and do it for the people!
Marcus & Martinus became widely known to the Norwegian public through “Melodi Grand Prix Junior” in 2012, but they feel that they have changed a lot as artists eleven years later:
We are more experienced and have changed a lot. Since then we have been on stage quite a lot and we hope to be able to show to the people that we have evolved even compared to the last show we did in Sweden.
Going back eleven years, Marcus & Martinus were guests at that year’s MAD VMAs where they performed “Make You Believe In Love”. They could not hide their love for Greece and have added:
If we win this year we will do a promotional tour in Europe right away, if not, after the summer we will start a European tour and we will definitely visit Greece! We love Greece, we love our fans in Greece, they are great!
Last year we spotted them at the after-party of the semi-final of Melodifestivalen 2022, held at the Friends Arena. Since very recently, they are now based musically in Sweden, Stockholm in specific. They commented on their decision:
Stockholm is the capital of music in all of Scandinavia. There are many good musicians, composers, lyricists, producers. It’s amazing for us to work in Stockholm!
Their collaboration with the composers of Air didn’t happen by chance as they have worked with all of them before, especially Joy (“Next To Me“) and Linnea Deb (“One Flight Away“) several years ago.
We knew that if we wanted to make a song for Melodifestivalen we had to work with the best. We have known them for many years, we have good chemistry with them. We are very happy about the song that came out!
When asked if the song was aiming Melodifestivalen they were clear! This song was written to be a fit for Melodifestivalen and the Eurovision Song Contest:
It only took us four hours to write the song. To some, this may sound like a lot, but for us who write music, is not at all! The day had a great flow and everything went perfectly!
But why did they prefer Melodifestivalen instead of MGP which is the Eurovision selection procedure of the country they were born and raised in? They answered us that everything had to do with the right timing. After their victory in “Masked Singer Sverige” and over the last year they’ve done several things in Sweden:
We know that Melodifestivalen is very important for Sweden and the Swedes, it’s really nice to be part of it, perform at the Mello tour with all those concerts around Sweden and it’s really an honour for us to be part of it.
In their staging and performance in the final show, they do not intend to make many changes except some minor improvements. However, if they are selected on Saturday to represent Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest, they will make several changes and promise us that we will see many cool things!
Like most artists, the pandemic has affected them both professionally and personally and Marcus adds:
Both personally and professionally the pandemic affected us a lot! We couldn’t do concerts, get in touch with our fans, we couldn’t release new music because we couldn’t promote it. But at the same time it was also a time for us to feel like normal teenagers. We are from a very small village with about 800 people, we went to our first party at the age of 18 years old, we drank alcohol for the first time when we were about 19 – 19 and a half years old. It affected myself more than Martinus, I wanted to be able to work but all I could do was wait for this to be over!
Of this year’s Melodifestivalen songs, they like “On My Way” by Panetoz which they consider very underrated but has very nice vibes, “Where Did You Go” by Kiana and of course “Tattoo” by Loreen.
Watch the full interview with Marcus and Martinus below:
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