Riddle, Review | The puzzling paradoxes of Eurovision

Much more than music, will this year’s Eurovision be remembered primarily as a political battleground?

On Saturday, Gåte will represent Norway in the international Grand Prix final – Eurovision Song Contest. They are now out with their fifth studio album, and the paradoxes of what will happen in Malmö are lined up.

Trønderbandet Gåte has existed as recording artists for almost a quarter of a century. In all these years, they have definitely been able to be characterized as an “alternative” orchestra. And that’s how it will one hundred percent certainly remain until they enter the years – pretty much regardless of Eurovision.

We would like to wish them an international career, but in that case they do so on completely different terms than the rest of a Pop-Norway that is on its way up in the international market.

There are differences between Girl in Red (Maria Ulven), Astrid S, Sigrid and Aurora. But they have one thing in common, that they write and perform music thousands and thousands within the Anglo-Saxon pop sphere do. But don’t worry – they are almost or at least as good as the cream of other English-language artists.

Riddles, in contrast, are really something all by themselves. They drag us back to the darkness of the Middle Ages.

The mix of Norwegian folk music and heavy, almost explosive rock is unique.

Something similar happened 50 years ago, when the rock band Saft began a very successful collaboration with Harding fiddler Sigbjørn Bernhoft Osa – and many people remember Folque from that time. Add the Valkyrie Allstars and Kari Rueslåtten, and we’re really on target.

On the album, which for obvious reasons has been given the title “Ulveham”, we are served traditional Gåte music. All the circumscribed elements are present. The eerie, non-traditional musical composition with the addition of harding fiddle and harmonica, topped by a climax in almost all the songs that approaches the one we all know from Europe’s “The Final Countdown”.

Does that sound nice? It sounds excellent. Anyone who gets hooked on Gåte gets hooked seriously.

So does such an alternative band have anything to do with the hyper-commercial Eurovision circus? The professional musicians in Gåte will certainly do well, and there is room for one or two musical “rarities” in this “world’s biggest music competition” – which has less and less to do with music with each passing year .

Eurovision is first and foremost a serious freak show, followed by an impressively large crowd of fans cheering on their home country and each other. The Eurovision family.

For those of us who are outside the leprosy, it is difficult to understand how adults allow themselves to be treated by the program management. They are addressed much like young people in kindergarten:

“Would you like sausage and sausage!? Yaaaaa!”

Politics has always played an important role in Eurovision. With the war in Gaza as a backdrop, this year more than ever. Let’s hope it all goes peacefully, but a music show that requires snipers on half the houses in Malmö is… well, challenging.

Gåde counted the buttons for a long time whether they should participate or not. When they chose as they did, we get to wish them luck. And feel free to expand your acquaintance with the band in studio format.

If you like the single “Ulveham”, you will surely like the album with the same title.