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Supercharged electric atmosphere for Norway

11 May 2013 at 22:05 CEST

Singer Margaret Berger was apparently very excited to be back on the stage for her second rehearsal in the arena with I Feed You My Love, according to Jade Nordahl who is one of the Heads of Press with the Norwegian delegation.

Margaret and her backing singers had a vocal warm up in their dressing rooms prior to making the very long walk to the arena, past the Green Room before finally reaching backstage. Little wonder that one of her backing singers decided to wear her trainers en route before changing into her performance shoes before stepping onto the stage.

The projector screens have been displaying highly charged white noise images, and they have been toned down slightly since the first rehearsal, but at the same time making them more dynamic to fit the song. It is a bit more dark at the opening, and then followed by some strobe lighting.

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The lighting also goes down again in the bridge, before going all the way back up, and overall it fits the song much better, a few camera shots have also changed, and overall the delegation are delighted with everything.

The contest is very much a television show, and at one point Margaret has to turn her back to the audience and focus her attention on the steadycam, and at the same time a floor assistant has to duck down behind her and remove the microphone stand. It is all about exact timing to achieve the desired result.

The audience in the arena certainly appreciated the three run throughs, and each time Margaret was rewarded with loud applause.

Competitions and rivalry

Norway and Sweden have a long standing friendly rivalry in almost everything, including the song contest, and the moderator at the press conference was keen to point out not only Norway's success in the contest, but also how good they were at achieving 'nul points'.

However Margaret has something of a winning team behind her, as her backing vocalists were also behind Alexander Rybak when he won the contest for Norway in 2009, and the same backing singers have a pretty good feeling about their chances in 2013.

Margaret says that she is not actually a competitive person, "I approach everything that I am going to do my best, and I don't think about the competition, but of course I would like to win, but it is much better to think about having fun."

She is very happy about performing on the stage, but she is still waiting for that extra 5%, that will happen when the arena has a full audience, which will bring that extra magic to her performance.

Quite a few press conference have concluded with the moderator asking if the delegation has a final message, and their Head of Delegation, Stian Malme, was very honest with his straightforward reply "Vote for Norway!"

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