The Nation on Stage

“Up next, Norway!” Electricity flows through the air, singeing the crowd, most of it deriving from the Norwegian audience.  Both the performers and watchers hold their breath in anticipation for the coming show.  Since it began in 1956, the Eurovision Song Contest has drawn attention from all of Europe and beyond, from the South of Europe to the North.  Over time, the competition has not only become a haven for different cultures, but also a place where cosmopolitan ideals are displayed.  In this, Norway is able to show their tradition and heritage, and also their diversity through the talent that represents their country.  The three songs that will be analyzed, from 2009-2011, are of three different connotations, and all of them are brimming with positivity for Eurovision.
            Norway’s victory in the 20th century was taken by “Fairytale", performed by Alexander Rybak (2009, Norway). Rybak was a singer originally born in Belarus, and immigrated to Norway in 1991. There he learned about music and adopted his passion for the violin.  And although Rybak was not born in Norway, his performance glowed with tradition and different Norwegian elements. Rybak, his backup dancers, background singers, and starry night backdrop tell a story about heartbreak inspired by one of Rybak’s old flames. Rybak, when putting together the piece, tapped into some Norwegian traditions, some primarily seen on stage as the fiddle and the dancing. The fiddle, although possibly not a replica of the traditional Hardanger fiddle, or hardingfele, is a traditional stringed instrument, made in 1651, used to play music in Norway that was often accompanied with dancing (Golber). The broadcasting camera, although mostly glued to Rybak’s face, uses wide-angle pans to showcase the background dancers that accompany Rybak (2009, Norway). The intriguing dance that the audience witnesses is a traditional folk dance, which, like the fiddle, originated from Norway.  The dance that looks to require acrobatics, aerobics, and flexibility is a dance performed in rural Norway known as Halling (Halling).  It was choreographed by the Frikar Dance Company, a dance group based in Norway that won the best choreography award that year. Furthermore, the white shirts with popped up collars, top buttons down, rolled up sleeves, and suspenders combined gave the dancers a folk vibe. These two elements allowed the performance and performer to show Norway’s culture, and represented Norway well. The ecstatic show was heightened by effects at the climax of the piece, where, finally, the song ends with sparks flying across stage as Rybak opens his arms to Europe. Tightly packing a message of tradition and diversity into a three-minute performance, the performance demonstrates that it is well deserved that Norway won Eurovision that year.
            In contrary to the upbeat, high-tempo pace that Norway’s 2009 piece was performed at, “My heart is yours”, performed by Didrik Solli-Tangen played at a much slower tempo, and had a steady crescendo of all elements throughout the song (2010, Norway). As the lyrics suggest: “my love is never gone, I feel it rise again”, the song gradually builds on itself as it approaches its climax. As the song moves forward, more aspects of it become illuminated, such as Solli-Tangen himself, his backup singers, and eventually the backdrop in the climax, where sparks fly alongside our performer. The audience can see the smart and clean outfit he is wearing alongside his backup singers, which brings the performance an overall clean, minimalistic look. In addition to that, the camera moved with the tempo of the song, panning around Solli-Tangen on the notes he held for long periods of time. The accompanying transitions from cut to cut by the cameras were either crossfades or blur-outs and blur-ins. The mellow, yet dramatic pop piece moves from cut to cut like an ocean wave, especially when Solli-Tangen seems to push and pull his background singers. It is different from other pop songs performed in Eurovision in that it flows from beginning to end so smoothly. Like a majority of Eurovision songs, however, it was about love.  It spoke of someone who was always watching over another, always loving and always rising, like the sun.  Towards the climax, the lighting that makes the stage glow orange portrays that like a sunrise. The Eurovision Song Contest is in love with the idea of love, and that is because they want ideas of love and peace to be spread around the country. If there were a metaphor in the performance, Norway is geographically further from the main parts of Europe, and they could have used “My heart is yours” to let them know that love is coming even from the far reaches of Northern Europe. The entire show was a rising sun, and Didrik Solli-Tangen sang out Norway’s love for Europe.
            The final performance I will be dissecting is the bubbly, hip-hop, and pop song “Haba haba”, sung by Stella Mwangi (2011, Norway).  The first thing the audience notices even before Stella steps onto the stage is the brightness of the colors. The bright red of the background dancers and colorful backdrop of primary colors contrasting with Stella’s gold dress makes Stella stand out from the crowd. The background sounded of steel drums, which are not of Norwegian origin, but of places near Kenya and South Africa. Stella was born in Kenya, and was raised in Norway. The song is bilingual, and translating the title means “little by little fills up the measure” (University of Illinois) in Swahili. Katrin Sieg states, “Undoubtedly, the embrace of more diverse musical genres has enriched the contest and opened up spaces for the inclusion of ethnic sounds and artists of color which have revised the myth of a homogenous European culture undergirded by Europop” in her article regarding the concept of cosmopolitanism (2012). This was the first time ever in Eurovision history anyone had ever seen Swahili being sung in a performance. The song’s lyrics motivate those who listen to dream for whoever they aspire to be, and this is assumingly related to more countries accepting and increasing their diversity in population and culture. Although Mwangi was born in Kenya, she identifies as a Norwegian; furthermore, she brings some African culture into her performance. Accompanied by color LED screens, red confetti, and a lively audience, she brought a different, lively party into Eurovision 2011. Although some may doubt me and claim that Stella’s performance had levels of cultural appropriation, I believe not. Ellie Chalkley describes appropriation in her article as “Appropriation can strip cultural symbols of their original context and reduce complex, intricate cultures to dressing up costumes” (2017). What Mwangi does as a representative for Norway was not to insult or strip symbols from her own culture but to bring it into Europe, and into Norway. Mwangi walks around proud with a smile around her face, proud of her origins.
            With these three performances in mind, we can analyze how Norway looks at diversity.  In only three short and consecutive years, Norway has been able to fit so much tradition and ancestral culture as well as diversity and newfound cultures into approximately nine minutes of music.  In “Fairytale” (2009), Alexander Rybak was able to show tradition and Norwegian culture with similar styles of the Hardanger fiddle accompanied by Halling dancers. In “My heart is yours” (2010), Didrik Solli-Tangen portrays Norway’s love for Europe through any distance. And, Stella Mwangi brings a little bit of her Kenyan culture to the stage, while showing that she is there to represent Norway in the best way possible. The facets of diversity flow in from every end of Norway, and the country is loving the shower of different tastes, cultures, ideals, and lifestyles it is offering. It is applaudable that through these performances, we can see that Norway is an open, diverse mind, and a round table for some of Europe’s most unique cultures and ideas.


Word Count: 1306
                         
           
           
           
           

           





References
Chalkley, Ellie. (2017). Westerner's Karma: Eurovision And Cultural Appropriation 101. Retrieved February 18, 2018, from https://escinsight.com/2017/04/21/cultural-appropriation-at-eurovision-song-contest/
Golber, David. (n.d.). What You Should Know About the Hardanger Fiddle. Retrieved February 19, 2018, from http://www.hfaa.org/Home/articles-on-the-hardanger-fiddle/what-you-should-know-about-the-hardanger-fiddlea
Halling- Great Norwegian Leksikon. (n.d.). Retrieved February 19, 2018, from https://snl.no/halling
Mwangi, Stella. (2011).  Haba haba (Norway). Eurovision Song Contest 2011. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRhJzdDFFHA
Rybak, Alexander. (2009). Fairytale (Norway). Eurovision Song Contest 2009.  Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXwgZL4zx9o
Solli-Tangen, Didrik. (2010). My heart is yours (Norway). Eurovision Song Contest 2010. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9w527tADNpc

Sieg, Katrin. (2012). “Cosmopolitan empire: Central and Eastern Europeans at the Eurovision Song Contest.” European Journal of Cultural Studies, 16(2), 244-263. doi: 10.1177/1367549412450639

University of Illinois. (n.d.). “Swahili Proverbs: Methali Za Kiswahili. Retrieved February 19, 2018, from http://swahiliproverbs.afrst.illinois.edu/proverbs.htm



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