For the first time ever I didn’t know which song to vote for in the Danish final. It was impossible to choose between Someday and Believe Again and seconds before the line closed I acted like a chicken. I simply didn’t want to risk having that only vote that would decide who was going to Moscow. But why is it always song number 10 that wins?
For years I have wanted that DR would just send those 6 or 7 hundreds songs they receive for the Dansk Melodi Grand Prix to me. I was convinced that the chosen ones really wasn’t the best we had to offer and that letting me decide would give us a lot stronger final. I have never been in doubt about which song I should vote for either. There has always been one song that just stood out as the best one. It didn’t always win, but at least I did my duty when my country needed me to vote for the song that should represent us at the Eurovision Song Contest. This year I acted like a chicken when it came down to being a choice between the two songs Someday and Believe Again.
It all started out quite easily. 4 songs should continue – I decided to go for Brinck’s Believe Again, Hera Björk’s Someday, Johnny Deluxe’s Sindssyg and Alice In The Wonderland sung by Jimmy Jørgensen though, I must admit that the last of these didn’t convince me on stage. The mp3 was however still stuck in my head and therefore also a vote for that one.
In the second round of voting it got a bit more difficult. Hera Björk over Sukkerchok was easy enough for me, but choosing between Brinck and Johnny Deluxe was a tough one. There was no doubt that Johnny Deluxe had the best performance of all ten songs, the lead singer simply burns right through the TV screen. This fact would help us a lot in the Eurovision Song Contest which is after all a TV show, but I decided to vote for Brinck for that simple reason that I, years ago when DR opened up for singing in English at the Danish final, promised myself to be hesitant in voting for a song in Danish if it was up against a decent good song in English. I am not against singing in Danish, not at all, but I am hesitant in voting for a song in Danish knowing that DR will want an English version of it at the Eurovision Song Contest. I would then be voting for a song based on how I expect it will sound in English – and that really isn’t fair as it is impossible for me to guess how the lyrics will be, what will be the meaning of the song – and sometimes I have no clue if the participant can even sing well in English! If a song is in Danish in the Danish final then it damn well should also be that in the international contest. DR disagrees with me and I voted for Brinck based on that.
Someday and Believe Again were left to chose between and as Brinck’s performances kept getting better all through the contest it really was an impossible choice. I would be proud of both of them being the Danish entry this year so I really didn’t know what to do. First I wrote one of the song numbers in my phone display, but before I sent it I changed it to being a vote for the other song – and then I changed it back again. I ended up voting for Brinck thinking that Denmark is placed in a very difficult semi-final and surrounded by countries we can’t expect anything from every little point we get will bring us one step closer to reaching the final. An Icelandic singer and Swedish songwriters on a song with a slight ABBA tune to it would probably have done well in a semi-final with good points from Iceland, Sweden, United Kingdom and even Belgium and Germany. None of these countries can vote for Denmark in the second semi-final whereas Ireland can and shouldn’t a song written by Ronan Keating have a fair chance of getting points from Ireland? That was my decision – but seconds before the phone lined closed I realised that if my vote ended up being that single vote separating Someday from Believe Again my reason for preferring Brinck wasn’t fair towards Hera Björk. I quickly placed a vote on her as well knowing that I thereby equalised my votes and wouldn’t have chosen between them. I was a chicken yes, but I simply couldn’t choose who of them should win. Before DR now gets convinced that they really cannot let me listen to 700 songs and pick the 10 for the Dansk Melodi Grand Prix or use me as a jury member for the actual result let me just add that I have never before been in that situation and I feel quite sure it won’t happen again!
Shortly before the show started I was asked who would win. I answered that song number 10 will win simply because it always does in a Danish final. Ok, always might be a bit too strong, but there is something about the magic number 10 in a Dansk Melodi Grand Prix line-up as the song from that starting position wins more than 70% of the times! Since 2001 it has only happened twice that number 10 didn’t win. A coincidence? Maybe, but it is becoming quite a big one. The pattern is now so clear that the bookmakers can make their odds depending on the line-up alone and should one forget to do so next year I will for sure put my money on song number 10!
