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Norway NORWAY 2015 - Mørland & Debrah Scarlett - A Monster Like Me

How do you rate the entry?

  • 12

    116 41.6%
  • 10

    48 17.2%
  • 8

    15 5.4%
  • 7

    18 6.5%
  • 6

    19 6.8%
  • 5

    10 3.6%
  • 4

    11 3.9%
  • 3

    12 4.3%
  • 2

    6 2.2%
  • 1

    6 2.2%
  • 0

    18 6.5%

  • Total voters
    279

tuorem

Well-known member
Joined
January 17, 2012
Posts
9,592
Location
GN-z11
Time for me to review the Norwegian entry this year :D

Mørland & Debrah Scarlett - A Monster Like Me
Status: Great song :D

Song: I'm so relieved we got this entry instead of the dreadful and boring joke act that was the pizza song. It's a very quiet and slow song with a lot of "silences" in it, although the arrangements seem refined, they seem secondary since the emphasis is put on the voices during most of the song. The verses are Lana Del Rey-esque while the chorus is a little more common-sounding imo, however I think the whole melody is very nice and the chord progressions are pleasing. At the very end only, the song seems to build up arrangement-Wise, which is not a bad thing, but that's something I needed to get used to. To me, it's a real grower because I wouldn't have ranked "A Monster Like Me" very high at first listening had I been part of a jury, I mean I instantly knew that had some quality - and I got into the mood from the first seconds - but I didn't dig it like crazy either. To me, it's a song that has to be tamed to sense the true beauty of it. Now I can say that I like it. As for the lyrics, I like that we don't know what it is about, they don't seem to make sense at first, but finally anyone can make its own conclusions of it, it's refreshing compared with the "it's my time", "it's my life", "I love you baby", "let's party tonight" kinds of theme we usually get at Eurovision :? In an interview, Debrah said she met people who thought the song was about murder :eek: she didn't like that idea, but I do, so I'm going to keep that dark perspective in mind :mrgreen:

Voice: I think both singers have nice voices, Debrah sounds Lana Del Rey-ish and the difference of tone between them is rather beautiful. It seems to be a difficult song to sing though in terms of chord harmony, especially during the last minute. Performance-Wise, I think the final one was almost perfect, while it seems they struggled in the semi during the chorus and Debrah was stressed. But it wasn't significant enough to cost them a qualification, they did a good job overall.

Staging: Well, simplistic is the word I think, not that much happening. Thankfully there was some camera work involved on stage to make the performance more intimate. Other than that, yeah I guess it was a difficult one to stage without distracting people from a very slow song or giving some clues about the original meaning of the lyrics.

Outcome: I didn't see that 8th place coming to be honest, I thought it would completely get lost in the final lineup and performing before Sweden wouldn't help. Actually, it was only 17th in televote while it was 7th with juries, so how come it reached 8th place? I'm not complaining because I like the song but still, this doesn't seem like 50/50 power to me there. xthink In my personal ranking, Norway is in my top 10 this year, I like the song. Good job Norway, I hope you'll continue to sending quality songs like these past three years. See you next year ;)
 

GianlucaTomoe

Banned
Joined
September 11, 2015
Posts
2,708
Location
Birmingham, UK
Nah, there's about a dozen of better Norwegian entries than this one.
 

Preuss

Well-known member
Joined
April 19, 2015
Posts
3,093
Okay this is just so beautiful xheat
I’m glad that the juries gave us a respectable 8th plage although I feel like we deserved top 5 lol
 

ESC94

Well-known member
Joined
September 7, 2019
Posts
4,769
Location
Bavaria, Germany
Norway is the country from the Nordics I like the most at the ESC. They never send similar songs two years in row and always try something new, it´s not always my taste but they are much more interesting than their neighbours from :se:.

That year they sent a beautiful ballad about something dark and terrible that Morland did during his youth, accompanied by Debra Scarlett who looked a bit like Merida from the movie "Brave". Their voices perfectly melted together and the song managed to built a very harmonic and melancholic atomosphere and at the end when the chorus gets a bit louder I always get goosebumbs. This was btw one of the few good decisions by the jurys that year.

Anyway, this my personal 3rd place that year and I gave this mystic ballad a well deserved :12:, I still love it and listen to it very often!! xheart
 
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