Introduction

• Participant(s): Ben & Tan
• Song: YES
  
• Writer(s): Emil Adler Lei, Jimmy Jansson & Linnea Deb
• Composer(s): Emil Adler Lei, Jimmy Jansson & Linnea Deb
• Broadcaster: DR
  
• Social media:  
  
• Team review: 

It should have been a great celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Danish national final also called Dansk Melodi Grand Prix. Everything was well arranged in the brand new Royal Arena in Copenhagen. There has been a live orchestra and Danish top stars like Birthe Kjær were invited. Unfortunately, the show had to be broadcasted with audience. It was exact the time when big concerts have been cancelled due to the Corona pandemic. The singers had to sing in front of empty seats, what a strange situation. The show was held to the end and the duo Ben & Tan could win the trophy and the ticket to Rotterdam. At that time nobody was aware that the ESC 2020 has been cancelled.

So next year there will be another Danish entry as there will be a new Dansk Melodi Grand Prix. That’s bitter for the selected singer Ben & Tan, who could get 61% of the public votes in the super final.

The singers Ben & Tan do have a very interesting international background, Benjamin Rosenbohm was born in Berlin, Germany in 2002 has a German mother and a Malagasy father, lives in Hellerup. Tanne Amanda Balcells was born in Barcelona, Spain and has a Danish mother and a Spanish father. Both met at the X Factor Denmark show last year. Ben reached the 2nd place and Tan as member of the group Echo the 4th place.

The song “Yes” is a very optimistic pop song and it’s about the big love in which both not believed anymore and they are going to give in another chance. This kind of “happy song” has often been found in Danish pre selections. The song is too good to become last, but also too bad to win, something in the middle without something memorable, beside of the 1000x “yes”. A qualification for the Grand Final would have been possible, but probably found on the right side of the scoreboard.

History

• Debut: 1957
• Participations: 49
• Victories: 3
• Finals: 43 (12 since 2004)
• Top 10: 25
• Chances for Top 10: 53%
• Chances for Final: 71%

The very first Danish entry in 1957 was called “Skibet Skal Sejle I Nat”and sung by Birthe Wilke and Gustav Winckler and achieved a fantastic 3rd place immediately. So this year it would have been the 49th time for Denmark in the Eurovision Song Contest if the Corona virus would not have destroyed all Eurovision plans.

Denmark has won the ESC three times in history, the first time in 1963 with “Dansevise” by Grethe and Jørgen Ingmann. This is still an evergreen in Denmark. The Olsen Brothers could bring another glory to the small and cosy kingdom with “Fly On The Wings Of Love” in the year 2000 and at least Emelie de Forest 13 years later with “Only Teardrops”.

There has been a big gap in the participation from 1966 to 1978. Denmark has paused because of a lack of public interest, luckily these days are gone and the great enthusiasm has returned to the Danish homes! In all that years, Denmark could reach the Grand Final for 43 times, which is a quite good average chance of 71% and it’s still increasing!

In former years when it was only allowed to sing in the native languages, so this might have been seen as a disadvantage for Danish entries – and also entries of other countries of course. That's why the Danes were so eager to compensate the language disadvantage with good and happy compositions. So the typical so called “Scandinavian Happy Song” was born.

The "Happy Scandinavian song" has been dominating in the 80's and 90's, which has also been used in Norway, Sweden and other countries. Nowadays all Danish entries are being sung in English and the style has changed, there were very contemporary songs in the past years. The statistics say that the chance to reach a Top10 position for Denmark is at 53%, so not too bad. It has often been said that the Danes give all their points to the other Nordic countries and vice versa. But this is a quite natural phenomenon, as the music taste is similar and singers are well known in the neighbour countries, like in the Balkan region, the ex-Soviet countries and in the Mediterranean.

When Copenhagen had the honour to host the ESC 2014 a new standard of stage design has shown the latest technology in a former ship building factory, that was truly incredible. This was the far most outraging stage which has even been seen at Eurovision so far. Last lovely Leonora could achieve a 12th place in the Grand Final of Tel Aviv with “Love Is Forever”.

Biggest successes

• 3x 1st place
  “Dansevise” |Grethe & Jørgen Ingmann (London 1963)
  “Fly On The Wings Of Love” |Olsen Brothers (Stockholm 2000)
  “Only Teardrops” |Emmelie de Forest (Malmö 2013)
• 1x 2nd place
  “Never Ever Let You Go” |Rollo & King (Copenhagen 2001)
• 3x 3rd place
  “Skibet Skal Sejle I Nat” |Birthe Wilke & Gustav Winckler (Frankfurt 1957)
  “Ka' Du Se Hva' Jeg Sa'”| Hot Eyes (Dublin 1988)
  “Vi Maler Byen Rød” |Birthe Kjær (Lausanne 1989)
• 2x 4th place
  “Det' Lige Det” |Hot Eyes (Luxembourg 1984)
  “In A Moment Like This” |Chanée & N'evergreen (Oslo 2010)
  
  
  

Video Nostalgia

• “Disco Tango”| Tommy Seebach
  Rank 6, Jerusalem 1979
  
  
• “Kloden Drejer” | Gry Johansen
  Rank 17, Munich 1983
  
  
• “Hallo Hallo” | Lonnie Devantier
  Rank 8, Zagreb 1990