With Agnete knocked out in the semi-finals, Eurovision 2016 is over for Norway

Photo: Rikke Askersrud / NRK
Agnete didn’t move on to the Eurovision finals, but that’s not the end for her.

Linn Chloe Hagstrøm
Norwegian American Weekly

Agnete, a young Sámi-Norwegian, represented Norway in the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest with her song “Icebreaker.”

Agnete did not go to Eurovision without experience. She and her band The BlackSheeps won both the Norwegian and Nordic finals in Melodi Grand Prix Junior 2008 with their Sámi-Norwegian song “Oro jaska beana.” Two years later, the band got second place in the finals of the Norwegian Melodi Grand Prix. She also won second place in the Norwegian music show Stjernekamp in 2013. In 2014, she won Skal vi danse (a Norwegian dance competition), together with dance partner Egor Filipenko.

“She has an intensity and nerve in what she does that one rarely encounters in my industry. She is made for something great,” British producer Ian Curnow told NRK on the day the second semi-final took place in Stockholm, Sweden.

Unfortunately, Norway did not make to the finals in the Eurovision Song Contest 2016. “This is a victory over myself,” Agnete Johnsen told NRK following the results.

In Nesseby, Agnete’s hometown in the north of Norway, many people were disappointed. “It didn’t go the right way for our beloved Agnete,” said Nesseby council member Marit Helene Pedersen to NRK.
Pedersen and deputy mayor Oddvar Betten had invited people to watch the semi-final on a big screen in Varangerbotn. The atmosphere was great until the results came out. “Of course we are disappointed. But Agnete had a great performance and should have been in the finals,” Pedersen said to NRK.

This article originally appeared in the May 20, 2016, issue of The Norwegian American. To subscribe, visit SUBSCRIBE or call us at (206) 784-4617.