Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

MUSIC

Stop sending foreigners to Eurovision: politician

Norwegian politician Tove Ovesen has provoked an angry reaction after writing on Facebook that the country should stop sending ”Russians, Africans, Swedes and Iranians” to represent Norway at the Eurovision Song Contest.

Published: 29 May 2012 10:59 CEST
Stop sending foreigners to Eurovision: politician
Tooji puts on a brave face despite propping up the field in the final of the Eurovision Song Contest (Photo: Tore Meek/Scanpix)

After Iran-born singer Tooji finished last in Saturday night’s competition, with a song co-written by a pair of Swedes, the centre-right Coastal Party (Kystpartiet) politician took to Facebook to voice her displeasure: “If Norway is to represent Norway, maybe it’s time to stop having Russians, Africans, Swedes and Iranians perform for us.”

Party leader Bengt Stabrun Johansen was quick to distance himself from Ovesen’s remarks, newspaper Nordlys reports.

“These are not views that reflect the Coastal Party’s policies,” said Stabrun Johansen.

“She needs to take note of the fact that, as an elected representative, she represents our voters and should avoid airing private opinions on Facebook.”

Despite facing criticism from several quarters, Ovesen insisted she was not racist.

The Eurovision Song Contest, she told newspaper Finnmark, offered Norway an ideal opportunity to showcase the country’s culture and traditions.

“What is really important to us: cherishing our Norwegian heritage or letting others take over everything we have that’s Norwegian?” she said.

Tooji, who came to Norway from Iran at the age of one with his mother and older brother, was the surprise runaway winner in the national Eurovision qualifiers in February.

Swedish singer Loreen scored a landslide victory in Saturday night’s final  in Baku with her song Euphoria. 

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

CULTURE

New songs mark sixth anniversary of French star Johnny Hallyday’s death

Fans of the late Johnny Hallyday, "the French Elvis Presley", will be able to commemorate the sixth anniversary of his death with two songs never released before.

Published: 17 November 2023 09:05 CET
New songs mark sixth anniversary of French star Johnny Hallyday's death

Hallyday, blessed with a powerful husky voice and seemingly boundless energy, died in December 2017, aged 74, of lung cancer after a long music and acting career.

After an estimated 110 million records sold during his lifetime – making him one of the world’s best-selling singers -Hallyday’s success has continued unabated beyond his death.

Almost half of his current listeners on Spotify are under the age of 35, according to the streaming service, and a posthumous greatest hits collection of “France’s favourite rock’n’roller”, whose real name was Jean-Philippe Leo
Smet, sold more than half a million copies.

The two new songs, Un cri (A cry) and Grave-moi le coeur (Engrave my heart), are featured on two albums published by different labels which also contain already-known hits in remastered or symphonic versions.

Un cri was written in 2017 by guitarist and producer Maxim Nucci – better known as Yodelice – who worked with Hallyday during the singer’s final years.

At the time Hallyday had just learned that his cancer had returned, and he “felt the need to make music outside the framework of an album,” Yodelice told reporters this week.

Hallyday recorded a demo version of the song, accompanied only by an acoustic blues guitar, but never brought it to full production.

Sensing the fans’ unbroken love for Hallyday, Yodelice decided to finish the job.

He separated the voice track from the guitar which he felt was too tame, and arranged a rockier, full-band accompaniment.

“It felt like I was playing with my buddy,” he said.

The second song, Grave-moi le coeur, is to be published in December under the artistic responsibility of another of the singer’s close collaborators, the arranger Yvan Cassar.

Hallyday recorded the song – a French version of Elvis’s Love Me Tender – with a view to performing it at a 1996 show in Las Vegas.

But in the end he did not play it live, opting instead for the original English-language version, and did not include it in any album.

“This may sound crazy, but the song was on a rehearsal tape that had never been digitalised,” Cassar told AFP.

The new songs are unlikely to be the last of new Hallyday tunes to delight fans, a source with knowledge of his work said. “There’s still a huge mass of recordings out there spanning his whole career,” the source said.

SHOW COMMENTS