God aften Europa, Good evening Europe, Good morning Australia! Tonight, we’re off to Herning, in Denmark, to find out who will represent the Nordic nation at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest in Basel, Switzerland. Now Denmark haven’t had the greatest of luck in the last few years , the last time we saw them in the Grand Final was 2019 , in Tel Aviv, when Leonora sang her way there with “Love is forever”. Can one of the eight acts competing tonight break that unfortunate cycle?

The eight acts competing tonight ( in running order) are as follows :

1. Mariya-” I belong to me “
2. Tim Schou -“Proud”
3. Max Ulver -“Supernova”
4. Hervé Toure )-“Allez, Allez”
5. Maria Mathea-“Air”
6. Adel The Second “The Unluckiest boy alive”
7. Sissal -“Hallucination”
8. Andreas Kruse -“Hear my Prayer”

You can watch the show live via these links HERE or the DRTV App

Hosting the show tonight are Stephanie Surrugue and Sara Bro, you may remember them as they hosted last year’s contest too.The result will be determined by a combined Jury/public vote .

Join me, Sarah as we at Eurovision Ireland bring you our #liveblog of tonight’s events in Herning . Those of you who are regular readers of our page will know the drill by now REFRESH THIS PAGE to see updates of the events in Herning, as they happen . Please feel free to leave any comments you have during the show via our comments box, it’s always good to hear what you’re thinking about tonight’s acts .

LIVE BLOG STARTS HERE

Sadly, you’re too early ! But please join us at 20.00 CET /19.00 GMT when we go live to Herning to follow the show . In the meantime as a warm up, here’s a reminder of last year, when SABA won the golden ticket to the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest in Malmo , Sweden. Sadly, she missed out on a place in the Grand Final .

Welcome back! So in a few minutes, we will hopefully get access to the live link to the events taking place in Herning tonight . I always get a bit nervous with live links…..in case they don’t work! Hopefully, we won’t have any problems .

And…we’re in ! Starting off with an introduction by the hosts, Stephanie and Sara .They are telling us all to give a big smile !

Now flashback to last year when SABA took the victory in DMGP 2024. They are just explaining the voting process now, you can vote by SMS or DR app, but only in Denmark , so please don’t try this anywhere else !

They don’t waste any time, we’re onto the first act ! Now I do know a bit of Danish, being of Danish roots myself, so I can more or less follow what is being discussed tonight .

1. Mariya-” I belong to me “
2. Tim Schou -“Proud”
3. Max Ulver -“Supernova”
4. Hervé Toure )-“Allez, Allez”
5. Maria Mathea-“Air”
6. Adel The Second “The Unluckiest boy alive”
7. Sissal -“Hallucination”
8. Andreas Kruse -“Hear my Prayer”

Mariya-” I belong to me “

Red and black seems to be the stage colour theme . With black trousers and black cropped tops as the stage clothing . Mariya performs a robotic type of routine with her four backing dancers. The thing that stands out for me is that it’s very , well, ordinary ! It lacks spark and I feel that the backing dancers actually drown out Mariya a lot of times during the performance, I spent more time watching them than Mariya herself . If I’m honest, I struggled to get into the song . This would need a lot of work on it to make it work on the big stage if Denmark pick this one .

Tim Schou -“Proud”

Those of you who are hardened Eurovision fans will remember Tim back in 2011, when he was the lead singer of A Friend in London, who represented Denmark in Dusseldorf , they came a very credible 5th place. Could Tim repeat this feat going it alone?Tim is joined on stage by other band members. It’s a nice little number , very radio friendly and his Eurovision experience shows. There’s no special gimmicks , just singing and sometimes this can work well in Eurovision as it’s a contrast to all the uptempo numbers that we will see in Basel . We do, however, get pyros at the end and the backdrop shows family pictures, ? Tim as a youngster.. I quite enjoyed that . Could Denmark be onto something with this , if they choose this , given that it is a contrast to some of the other , more “in your face “songs, already chosen ?

Max Ulver -“Supernova”

Max starts off alone on stage for a good five minutes of the performance .Infront of what looks like a giant crystal ball. He’s eventually joined by four backing dancers who perform dancing of all kinds, including a bit of the old breakdancing. The stage effects then change to see the crystal ball break up, then Max is joined by the female backing dancer and they are both raised together in the air ! Quite a jolly, happy performance , Max’s connection with the camera is good and he does engage the audience . With some potential . Went down well with the audience !

Hervé Toure )-“Allez, Allez“

No, you’re not going back to 2010 and Jessy Matador who sang this song title for France ! Herve performs on what looks like a bent platform , he’s joined by one backing dancer , who performs with him . The staging is dark with a moon backdrop, which as the performance reaches its climax , changes into a burning sun then we get the word Allez in the backdrop !It’s quite a catchy little number and easy to sing along to….. Again this would be something different to send to Basel,but , it’s a little too repetitive for me .

Maria Mathea-“Air”

Maria is in a long, flowing white dress , with a stage backdrop of water and thunder. She’s alone on stage and to be honest she is all this song needs . You can see the emotion in Maria’s performance, but I did feel the vocals were a little shouty at times . She does engage with the camera when she needs to. Very impressive stage effects for finish where she looks like she’s being immersed in the water . With some work, this could work well on the big stage in Basel , especially as we haven’t got a great deal of power ballads chosen so far. The juries will love something like this but we have to remember that the semis at Eurovision are public vote only .

Adel The Second “The Unluckiest boy alive”

Adel and his backing dancers are very casually dressed in white teeshirts and black trousers, looking as if they should be at the gym rather than on stage . Their dancing seems to be a bit of an exercise session too, dancing with shadows of themselves in the backdrop . Blue and black staging colours. For me , it didn’t give me the wow factor or any incentive to vote for them . A bit more of a radio friendly song, me thinks .

Sissal -“Hallucination”

The favourite to win this tonight. I have to say I don’t like the outfit , which is a leotard with spangles on it , but wow , can this girl sing ! Vocals are spot on .The staging starts off with wind machine effects , which continue during the song, there’s strobe lights, laser beams and smoke effects . Sissal is joined by backing dancers who perform a mixture of contemporary and then as the key change happens, then burst into a disco type dance . The audience were clapping along to it and she’s clearly already very popular in Denmark . Is this the winner? I wouldn’t bet against it .

Andreas Kruse -“Hear my Prayer”

We are on the last song already ! Andreas starts off sat on the bottom of a large staircase stage prop , which he walks up and down as the song progresses. He’s dressed in a white shirts and black trousers . There’s a bit of an electro vibe in this song . No backing dancers , just Andreas on stage. Again , dark staging , with stars effects and there’s also some strobe effects . Andreas reminds me a bit of Nemo in looks ! It’s a sounds performance , one I feel would go down better with a public rather than jury vote!

So that’s it ! You’ve heard them all. Who is your favourite ? I think it will be between Sissal ,possibly Maria Matheas and Tim Schou, but what do I know ?

We’re just getting a recap of the songs tonight. Big cheer in the audience for Sissal !I have to say I have been disappointed with the stagings tonight . Too many dark stagings , I like to see a bit of colour and brightness sometimes .

Hosts telling everyone to hurry up and vote ! Looks like we’re getting a promotion for a film about Tommy Seebach , who has sung for Denmark in Eurovision in 1979 . Remember Disco Tango ? Sadly Tommy died in 2003.

Now we have a children’s choir and joining them is last year’s DMGP singing a gentler version of her song “Sand” joined by the children’s choir .

We have a treat tonight ! Birthe Kjaer , singing her well loved Eurovision song ” Vi maler byen rød” . She’s in a red , slightly larger dress than she wore in 1989 but wow can she still belt out those notes ! Ironically, Eurovision that year was in Switzerland, in Lausanne !

The audience loved that !

Now we find out who goes through to the Super final , first one is …….

Tim Schou !

Next is …….

Sissal !

Next

Adel the second !

Not surprised at first two but the third …. a bit surprised !

The juries consist of 10 European countries, including the UK . So the hosts tell us

So while we wait for the votes, the hosts have a little walk around the audience .

So now we have repeat performances from the Superfinalists , starting with Tim Schou .

Tim Schou -Proud

This is a confident , accomplished performance, he sounds better this time than the first time . This is a great little song and the audience are clearly loving it . The words “proud ” are in the backdrop . He could actually win this . It’s easy on the ear, you can sing and clap along to it and he’s clearly engaging the audience!As I said before, this wouldn’t be a bad choice as it would be something to contrast all the over the top uptempo numbers already chosen by other countries for Basel.

Adel the Second -Luckiest Boy Alive

I am really surprised that this got through compared with some of the other songs we have seen tonight . Perhaps it was the gym clothes that did it ! The vocals sound a bit shaky in this performance. It’s lively but…..very repetitive and forgettable , in my view.

Sissal -Hallucination

Apart from the outfit ( which I hope she changes if she goes to Basel ), it’s a bit too like Erika Vikman ( Finland ) for me ! , Sissal has the full package here to transfer to the big stage in Basel . It’s a big dance number and will go down well in the night clubs ! It’s got lights, wind , big vocals . pyros ! It’s already Eurovision ready, in my view . Big cheer from the audience . Sissal has said that if she wins, she can get Denmark back to the Grand Final, I think she probably might !

So we get a recap of the three Superfinalists .Voting has now closed .

Hopefully we’ll get a result soon

We’re going down Memory Lane again , back to 2000 when the Olsen brothers, won for Denmark with Fly on the wings of Love . we see their DMGP performance when they sang the Danish version .They changed to English for the ESC in Stockholm , we see that performance now …..

The audience are singing along to the song …ahhhhh, happy memories but blimey , 25 years ago that song won ! Time flies !

They are now looking at other countries already chosen songs . starting with Finland and Erika Vikman . The Danish commentator for Eurovision is giving his opinion on them . Now Luxemburg and Laura Thorn . He does mention the comparison with France Gall and Poupee de cire , Poupee de son . Now Ukraine’s entry . There’s a cheer for Ukraine in the audience. Not surprising given today’s goings on in the news .

And we get another recap of the songs .

Looks like we are going to get a result …the three performers are coming into the stage to learn their fate !

Juries have voted for Sissal

now the public vote !

SISSAL HAS WON !! But , there was only 1 point in it in the public vote with Tim Schou ! VERY CLOSE !!!

She’s happy ( and probably relieved too !)

And there the link from DR has kicked us out before we can hear a reprise of the winning song !DR have a habit of doing this every year , unfortunately !

What do you think? Do you think Denmark made the right choice tonight ? Can Sissal get Denmark back to the Grand final in Basel ?

I’ll say goodnight now, thank you Europe and thank you Australia for staying with us tonight. Keep a look out for more of our live blogs as they happen .

Author : Sarah Rudman

Source : DR