Tonight’s heat was broadcasted live from Skien, located in South-East Norway straight north of Denmark’s mainland. It is one of Norway’s oldest cities, but if it was the history of the location, or just the simple fact that this was the third and last ordinary heat, which made all the participants give it all they got will remain unsaid. Fact is that the last two direct final spots were given to Stella Mwangi and The BlackSheeps. 

In the hectic battle The Lucky Bullets and Susperia got enough votes to secure themselves a second chance to still be in with a chance to represent Norway at the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest. They will take their next steps towards that in the special "Last Chance" show on February the 5th – one week before the Norwegian final. 

 

The songs: (Read more about the participants in our presentation)

 

Song number 1: Susperia – Nothing Remains (Pål Mathiesen/Terje Andersen/Christian Hagen/Ian Kenneth Åkesson/Håkon Didriksen/Øyvind Mustaparta)

 

We start out with one of those heavy metal songs that has become well known to appear in the Norwegian selection. Their performance kicks off with plenty of fire explosions, which is being repeated from time to time during the song. Together with smoke and a dark background that switches between orange, red-ish and purple colours this is a very strong performance. There were problems with the sound and image during this song so after all seven performances they come on stage again for another performance – this time without any problems. 

Song number 2: Noora Noor – Gone With The Wind (Simone Larsen/Moh Denebi/Jennifer Brown/Bjørn Djupström)

 

We continue with R&B with a bit of pop-ish vocals over the chorus. Noora is dressed in an over sized yellow t-shirt and long bright pink boots. She is helped on stage by five backing singers; three males and two female – all dressed in black clothes. It is a very simple performance, but she is extremely confident on stage. She is moving a lot with her arms though, which may distract from the song.  

Song number 3: Girl Happy – S.O.S. (Tor Einar Krogtoft-Jensen/Christoffer Bergersen)

 

Now we are back in the more traditional Europop added some electro beats. The stage is kept mainly in silver and pink colors – from time to time added a flashing bright green or blue. The lead singer is dressed in a two tones grey shirt and black trousers. There are three band members with him on stage plus a female dancer on the balcony at the back of the stage.   

Song number 4: Grethe Svendsen – Like Dreamers Do (Simon Walker/Grethe Svensen/Tommy Berre)

 

Half way through the show we are served a quiet ballad. Grethe comes out from behind five choir singers. She is dressed in a short dark blue dress with plenty of rhinestones and a little opening at the cleavage. It matches the stage basically kept in the same colors for this song.   

Song number 5: The BlackSheeps – Dance Tonight (Agnete Johnsen/Emelie Nilsen)

 

Is it possible to win the Eurovision Song Contest just three years after winning a Junior edition? The BlackSheeps are trying to just do that with this rock song, that is being sung in Norwegian with just the title line being in English. They are young and have a lot of energy on stage. In front we have a female lead singer in the middle, the other singer on electric guitar next to her and a male guitar player on her other site. Behind them we have a drummer. A lot of pyros has been added to this performance. The blonde singer must have some Danish origin as from time to time this sounds more Danish than Norwegian when she sings.  

Song number 6: Stella Mwangi – Haba Haba (Beyond51/Big City)

 

Next on stage is Stella with a dance song with African rhythms. She is dressed in a short tight red suit consisting of strapless top and shorts – a big skirt has been added to the back making it look like her booty weighs the same as the rest of her body! She has three female and two male dancers with her – in the beginning the two men were playing on each their bongo drum.  

Song number 7: The Lucky Bullets – Fire Below (Knud Kleppe)

 

The last song in the Norwegian selection is a true Rockabilly song. If you weren’t already standing up from dancing to the previous song this song will do the job. We start out seeing some black white TV screens. The band is shown performing on them. After 30 seconds or so it changes to color TV and we are back on the proper stage. The band plays on two acoustic guitars, drums, double bass and a female saxophone player in short tight marine uniform ala Popeye the Sailor Man. It makes people in a good mood so who knows how far that can take them? 

The show:

 

Just as the previous two heats NRK continues to pair one of their Eurovision Song Contest participants with a national finalist. This time it was Didrik Solli-Tangen, who represented Norway on homefield last year with the song My Heart Is Yours, who got a new music partner in Bjørn Johan Muri. They already knew each other as they were both competing in the Norwegian final last year where Bjørn came 4th with the song Yes Man that however ended up being #1 on the Norwegian charts. 

 

They are singing Bjørn’s song from last year Yes Man. Didrik is dressed in yellow pants a black t-shirt with a yellow lightning on it. Bjørn in jeans and blue sweatshirt baseball jacket. They have two male and three female dancers with them, all dressed like high school children.   

The voting:

 

First announced was tonight’s fourth place, which went to Susperia. They will come back for the second chance found together with The Lucky Bullets, who came third. Should they make it to the final they will need to give it a bit extra as they already lost to two of the participants here being The BlackSheeps who ended up as tonight’s runner up… and the winner was…. Stella Mwangi.

 

As usual the placements of the remaining three songs were not made public.