Norway 2024: Gåte with ‘Ulveham’

The favourites in Norway held of a jury push for KEiiNO in order to grab the win, and will represent Norway in Malmo*

Since Ukraine have delayed their results, this can enjoy a day or so as the best selected entry in the contest. It’s a strong live performance and for those into this sort of thing (me) there’s a lot to appreciate here. We saw a big vocal improvement from semi to final in mgp and I’ll be interested to see if they can maintain that or if NRK were offering more assistance than the EBU will.

The closest comparison that has been given is 'Shum' (UKR '21) but compositionally this has much in common with more mainstream rock entries with the language and vocal being what gives 'Ulveham' it's ethnic flavour. I'd argue that's a really strong advantage it has right now if this can tap into that rock crowd and combine it with the '‘alternative crowd’. Consider it in having the appeal of Go-A with some Blind Channel thrown in for good measure.

As is traditional now for Norway the juries will be more of a concern but how they respond to a Western/Nordic country sending this will be interesting. I'd say for as good as Gate are, they're not the next Maneskin and don't have that commercial appeal potential. In their own way this is still a 'typical ethnic Eurovision song' and is likely marked as such. I don’t hold much stock in the mgp juries as a predictor compared to other countries but they could have hoped for better.

We have a strong staging concept already which only needs enlarging pretty much which is fortunate as NRK have sat on their laurels the last few years and seemingly not done much in the gap before May.

Obviously Norway were qualifying anyway, but second half of semi 2 is a great launching point for them. I’d dare say they will be going last where they will have a very good chance at winning that semi final. In the final, a televote top 5 looks on given the current field and a low jury top 10 is what I currently expect. Not enough to win, but it could be to sneak a top 4.

*Reminder that Gate have thrown up the possibility of not turning up in Malmo, it’s a busy evening so haven’t been able to confirm if there’s any update here yet.

Personal Rating: 10/10

Competitive Rating: 8/10

Early Prediction: 1st-3rd in semi final 2, 4th-8th in the final.