Repeat offenders: Inger Lise Rypdal

In the 1960s and '70s, it seemed like there were only a handful of singers in Norway, so it's no surprise that many of them turned up in numerous editions of Melodi Grand Prix. One of these was Inger Lise Rypdal, a successful artist who had several hits in her own right, but never made it to Eurovision.

Rypdal came to fame in 1968, with Norwegian-language versions of hits by artists as disparate as Peggy March and Jeannie C. Riley, scoring two #1s on the country's singles chart. The following year she took part in Melodi Grand Prix for the first time.



Wikipedia describes Rypdal as the 'dominant female artist on the Norwegian popular music scene' in the 1970s, so it's perhaps a surprise that she never won Melodi Grand Prix. She took part almost every year, including in duets with Stein Ingebrigtsen (Christian's dad) and Jahn Teigen, even 'winning' in 1973 singing 'Å for et spill'. Unfortunately, it was as part of the group accompanied by the small band and, as was traditional, the singers of the orchestral arrangement from the national final - the Bendik Singers - represented the country in Luxembourg.



In total, Rypdal participated 13 times in Melodi Grand Prix:

• 1969: "Eventyr" – 9th place
• 1972: "Lillebror" – 2nd place
• 1973: "Å for et spill" (with Stein Ingebrigtsen, Gro Anita Schønn and Ola Neegaard) – 1st place
• 1973: "Alternativ" – 4th place
• 1974: "Yo-Yo" (duet with Stein Ingebrigtsen) – 4th place
• 1976: "Voodoo" (duet with Jahn Teigen) – 2nd place
• 1979: "Så lenge du er hos meg" – 3rd place
• 1980: "Svart fortid" – 5th place
• 1981: "Tanker" – 3rd place
• 1981: "Født på ny" (as part of The Darlings) – 8th place
• 1982: "Lady Di" – 2nd place
• 1983: "Elegi" (duet with Freddy Dahl) – 9th place
• 1984: "Vindar" – 3rd place

Perhaps the best remembered of these is 'Voodoo', the bonkers duet with Jahn Teigen in 1976, which features Jahn exchanging his braces for a skeleton outfit. It could have been the infamous 'nul points' two years earlier for Norway, but either way, this would have been somewhat amazing at Eurovision.



Her later entries are a closer reflection of the electro sound that her career took on in later years, including this personal favourite.



And, as a little bonus, here's Rypdal receiving the Spellemann prize in 1974 and performing one of her biggest hits.

Missed opportunities: Sarah Dawn Finer - I Remember Love

In the middle of the last decade, it felt like a ballad stood no chance in Melodifestivalen. In both 2005 and 2006, nearly all the slower songs fell out of the competition in the semi-final stages, leaving a final full of upbeat pop songs, schlager-by-numbers and the occasional Caroline Wennergren.

2007 promised a much greater variety of song, and not of the type that brought us Kwanzaa and The Elephantz. And it was a relief when, in the second semi-final, Marie Lindberg made it through direkt till Globen, and then when Sarah Dawn Finer managed the same in the fourth.



In a field featuring acts like Andreas Johnson, Måns Zelmerlöw and The Ark, fourth place in the final was about as much as the unknown Sarah Dawn Finer could reasonably expect, especially with a ballad. It's one of Melodifestivalen's best though – heartfelt without being melodramatic, honest and emotional lyrics and a strong, big performance that doesn't overshadow the song.

How would it have performed at Eurovision? Probably better than The Ark, but in a year with Molitva at the top, it almost certainly wouldn’t have challenged for the win. And if 'I Remember Love' had won Melodifestivalen, we wouldn't have got the drama-fest of 'Moving On' two years later, and Lynda Woodruff have probably never been more than a spark in Sarah Dawn’s eye. And *that* would have been the real missed opportunity.

We were never told about that: Bizek Emi falls down

Some performances in national finals are infamous. We all remember Tara from Karma fighting a losing battle against bronchitis live on stage in 2003, and that bit in the 1990 Austrian Final where the woman passes out. But there's some things in Eurovision history that, for some reason, nobody ever thought to tell us about.

Take Bizek Emi in the Hungarian Final in 2005. She sits at the piano and sings a perfectly inoffensive, if slightly dull ditty about being past the halfway-point or something. And for years we all assumed that was it.

Because somehow, nobody ever bothered to tell us that when she comes to the front of the stage to take her bow following the performance, she slips and falls flat on her face, the poor love.

It's the kind of thing you can't help but watch twenty times in a row. Go on, I challenge you not to.



This is what we watch Eurovision for. More please.

Missed opportunities: Paula Seling - Step Back

Picture the scene. It's early evening on 31st December 1999 in a dusty radio studio somewhere in downtown Bucharest. An eager-to-please disc-jockey is preparing to play in the new year with some of the usual classics and hits, but before that, he wants to present a track he's been sent by a new, up-and-coming young artist. Her people claim she's the Romanian Britney Spears, and apparently she's going to be huge. And our hero has got the exclusive first play of this new record.

He slides the CD into the player, links into the track and Bucharest hears 'Step Back' for the very first time.

And that's that, perhaps one of the most famous missed opportunities in recent Eurovision history. Paula Seling is instantly disqualified from the Romanian Final, the producers being incredibly strict about the rules, particularly the 1st January cut-off as it was back then. For one man's error and the want of waiting just a few hours, Romanian TV loses one of its first real contenders.

The incident is notorious in fan circles. Whether the story really went down as described is debateable and probably unverifiable. Whether it would have won what was likely a deeply rigged national final is equally uncertain. And as for its chances at Eurovision, it would have had to compete against Alsou and Ines for the Britney-votes – a tough fight in 2000.

Of course, we will never know. It's still a damn good little pop song though.

Eurovision 2012 Semi 1 - predicting and wishing

Less than two hours to go until the first semi-final, and I've been predicting. But first, here's the 10 countries I want to make the final on Saturday:

Iceland
Greece
Latvia
Albania
Romania
Belgium
Cyprus
Denmark
Hungary
Moldova

It was a close-run thing, and Jedward just missed out because of their annoying and frankly rude fans, who've made me wish for the Irish song to crash out humiliatingly tonight.

Of course, these are just my wishes, though some of them are tied to my predictions, as there's some I really need to come true if I'm to make any money in my bets! This year, as well as general bets - the most money is on Belgium in various forms - I've also put £1 on each of the ten songs I predict as my qualifiers. Afterwards, I'll come back here and let you know how much money I ended up, and we'll see if I made a profit on my £10!

Iceland
Greece
Romania
Belgium
Cyprus
Denmark
Russia
Austria
Moldova
Ireland

That's it! Agree? Disagree? Either way, have a lot of fun tonight!