Tooji-tastic Norway!!

The Schlagerboys had a completely schlagertastic weekend in Oslo for MGP 2012. Here are our schlager highlights:

- Tooji winning. The general assumption was that Plumbo were going to win and it was so exciting to see the votes coming in and realise quite quickly that it wasn't going to be "Ola Nordmann" in Baku. When Tooji started  to overtake the dreary yawnfest "Something Beautiful" we were on the edge of our schlager seats. "Stay" is a fabulous Eurovision entry; it's exciting, you can jump around to it and Tooji is nice to look at. Hurrah!

- We spent the afternoon at the rehearsal but managed to meet absolutely none of the schlager celebs as the Green Room had been moved from it's usual side-stage-accessible-position to behind the stage-away-from -stalkers position! Oh no!. We managed to get hold of Per and he told us to meet him at the side of the stage after the rehearsal and he would take us to meet Tooji, but time was getting on and we had to meet some schlager friends and open the vodka so we didn't bother waiting. Oops!

- After the show we jumped on the stage to make up for lost schlager celeb stalking time. In about ten minutes we managed to grab and have short "You are fabulous can we have a photo" conversations with Minnie-Oh, Reidun, hunky lead singer from The Carburettors, Silya Nymoen and Bobby Bare...well, he was standing nearby looking bemused so we thought we might as well. We really wanted to grab hold of Tommy Fredvang but he was no-where to be seen; judging from his reaction to standing in the line up for the super final four times he was probably off sobbing somewhere.

- Far more exciting than the celebs on the stage were the smattering of those in the audience. During the interval we managed to grab Benedicte from Dollie Deluxe and Haldor from 2001. He seemed genuinely surprised that we remembered his song; we didn't like to admit that we didn't actually because it was a boring ballad. We also sat either side of Nora Brocksetdt for a fab schlager photo. We told she was a schlager icon and we loved her and she said absolutely nothing back to us but was clearly  loving the attention. We walked past the Norwegian Prime Minister and said "Oh My God! are you the Prime Minister?" and he said no he was the Mayor of Oslo. Well it's an easy mistake to make. We didn't bother asking for a photo.

- After the show we nipped back to the Radisson for a quick vodka. The Radisson was the schlager hotel for the weekend; earlier that day we spotted Lord Thomas tucking in to breakfast and stood next to one of Plumbo in the lift. We didn't speak to Plumbo man; we ignored each other. In the entrance to the hotel we managed to get a photo with Nora Foss Al-Jabri and tell her we loved her song; this is a complete lie because we couldn't stand "Something Beautiful" but she's only about eleven years old so you have to be nice. Standing across the floor we noticed Christian A1 so we ran up to him and drunkenly gabbled "We used to fancy you ten years ago! Can we have a photo please". Christian A1 looked absolutely horrified but duly posed with us. He then said, perhaps as a way of changing the subject, "I've now written three songs that came second..." "ah yes", we replied, "But you've never won because you keep putting ballads in! Send something fab like "The First To Believe" by A1 next time" He said he would think about it. Outside we bumped in to Per and congratulated him on a fab MGP final and a fab winning song. He asked us where we were going now and we told him the Brighton Pub for a Eurovision party. He said; "see you" which was basically his way of saying, "Well you 'aint coming to the Official After Show Party!" but we don't mind.

- We went to The Brighton Pub on Friday and Saturday night for a Eurovision disco which was totally schlagertastic. Both nights get a bit hazy but we do recall demonstrating the full dance routine to "Rocket Ride" and "Sha la lie" at some point. We spent Saturday evening with our favourite Scandinavians, the Good Evening Europe bloggers. We were particularly impressed with their talents for arty photos and the way one of them can hold her vodka.

The Schlagerboys have renewed our "Norway is fab" vows and depending on what song the UK send to Baku, may be applying for citizenship. Considering the rubbish that Sweden came up with last night in Melodifestivalen, there is no doubt that Norway is once again the schlager capital of Europe. Vi elsker Norge! We love you! Oslo 2013!