Columnist This text expresses the writer’s personal attitudes.
Photos were to be sent, live reports were to be updated, and in half an hour there was to be a press conference with the winners. I was in a press center in Moscow. Aleksander Rybak had just won the Eurovision Song Contest superbly. The bubble was total.
Initially, it was not very natural that I should be there in Russia’s capital and cover the world‘s biggest music competition. After all, I worked for the small Laagendalsposten in Kongsberg. I had experienced the same bubble in mini format in Oslo Spektrum a few months earlier, when Rybak won the Grand Prix final. I sent an SMS to the boss. Freely, I wrote: “I’m booking a ticket to Moscow.” The answer came quickly, and to his great surprise: “Yes”.
It was not Aleksander Rybak who was interesting to us in Kongsberg’s local newspaper. In contrast, the folk dancer Sigbjørn Rua was the great local hero. He was part of Frikar, and behind Rybak he showed hall dancing and (literally) smashed stage floors for the whole world.
NRK just rolled its eyes. Why was he there present in Moscow? But I knew that Sigbjørn’s family had also bought a ticket. So I didn’t lack for local material, whether it was on stage, in the queue for the final or in Den rode plass.
For three days I “lived” in the press centre. The final entries played on repeat around the clock, so then you could choose any of the 42 entries – and I could sing it for you.
But on Sunday 17 May 2009 the Moscow bubble burst. The press center was closed and I ended up with a slow internet line logging me out every 20 minutes at a McDonalds. It was our national day, and I just barely got the cool Russian vodka bottle I bought with me into Norway. When the doors to the arrivals hall opened, I was greeted by stormy cheers, which stopped abruptly when they realized that I was not Aleksander Rybak. I hadn’t slept in two days, and when I locked myself in the house I was fed up. Møkklei was probably a mild description.
Eurovision hasn’t been the same since. But I catch the finale every year, then, and next week we’re back at it, folks. We can only say “Hello Norway!” and Nøtterøy has its own premises this year. Jon Even Schärer is a drummer after all in our Norwegian hope Riddle…
And not least: Marit Jensen Lillebuen from Jondalen is part of this year’s Norwegian contribution!