Introduction

• Participant(s): Fyr & Flamme
• Song: Øve Os På Hinanden
  
• Writer(s): Laurits Emanuel
• Composer(s): Laurits Emanuel
• Broadcaster: DR
  
• Social media:      
  
• Team review: 

In Denmark the broadcaster DR has decided to arrange a new national final “Dansk Melodi Grand Prix”. This has been criticized that last year’s performers Ben & Tan had no chance to perform their song “Yes” in Rotterdam, due to the cancellation of the ESC. It would have been more than fair to let them go another time. But especially the Scandinavian countries insisted of having a new national final with new singers. The national finals are very important and very entertaining, especially under these pandemic conditions, it’s good to distract and entertain the audience. Nevertheless, Ben & Tan have not made it into this year’s Dansk Melodi Grand Prix.

Therefore eight hopefuls have been in the race for the ticket to Rotterdam. With 37% of the votes the duo Fyr & Flamme could win the event. The song will be sung in Danish and it has topped the Danish charts already.

The duo consists of the two singers Jesper Groth (vocals) and Laurits Emanuel (song-writing/guitar). They are working together since 2017. While Laurits is living in Jutland with his family, writing songs, Jesper lives in Copenhagen, where he enjoys great popularity on TV and in theatres. Their first song “Menneskeforbruger” (human consumer) has reached #12 in the Danish charts, while the second single “Kamæleon” came #7.

The music style of the two sympathetic guys is based on Danish Schlager, specifically from the 70’s and 80’s, the synthesizer pop, the shrill outfits and the catchy melodies inspired Jesper and Laurits to go in this direction. This could often be found in the Danish songs from that decades. “Øve Os På Hinanden” means “practice on each other”, this could be meant ambiguously, but it simply denotes the practicing of dancing. Put your dancing shoes out, get on the dancefloor and let us practice, what we haven’t done for so long and let’s indulge in old memories.

Compared to the other songs from the Danish final, it’s has a strong retro touch and falls out of the ordinary. It’s a catchy tune and it’s getting better every time you listen to it. This entry can be a kind of dark horse this year, it’s in Danish, catchy and #1 in Denmark.

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’s going to be the 49th time for Denmark in the Eurovision Song Contest. Due to the Corona virus, the year 2020 will not be taken into account.

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 due to 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. 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 time, the 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

• “Dansevise”| Grethe and Jørgen Ingmann
  Rank 1, London 1963
• “Sku' Du Spør Fra No'n”| Hot Eyes
  Rank 11, Gothenburg 1985
• “All Night Long”| Simon Mathew
  Rank 15, Belgrade 2008