Norwegian-Irish combo, Secret Garden, recently held an impressive concert in Shanghai, China, as part of the global exhibition, EXPO 2010. Dubbed "Norway’s most popular group in China", they performed together with the Zhejiang Symphony Orchestra.
With only specially invited guests in attendance, the concert was, by all accounts, an unmitigated success. A few lucky individuals were also invited after having won tickets in radio and internet competitions.
The group held their concert in as part of the promotion of the Norwegian pavilion at the EXPO exhibition. Chinese authorities were reportedly concerned at the prospect of a huge number of fans attempting to get into the concert, much larger than the venue capacity, thus explaining the decision to impose an invite only policy. Right from the opening number, the audience were extremely appreciative of Rolf Løvland, Fionuula Sherry and the other band members. Concert opener, Norwegian Evening was a most intriguing and highly successful combination of both Chinese and Norwegian traditional music.
Secret Garden, who are unquestionably the most well known Norwegian act in China, also incorporated both crowd pleaser, You Raise Me Up and naturally the song that started their career, 1995 Eurovision winner, Nocturne into their show. They also performed the theme song for the Norwegian pavilion at the EXPO exhibition, Powered By Nature. Rolf Løvland stated in a press release to organisation, Innovasjon Norge (Innovation Norway), that the whole experience of taking part in the exhibition and composing music for the occasion has been such a rewarding experience. The group intend to carry on performing both Norwegian Evening and Powered By Nature at future concerts.
