KEiiNO are back in Melodi Grand Prix vying for their second crown in three tries. Callum Rowe argues why the trio deserve to represent Norway at Eurovision.

As Tom Hugo and Fred Buljo appeared together inside a mysterious perspex cage on the Melodi Grand Prix stage, I realised it was the moment I had been waiting for. 

KEiiNO’s return to Melodi Grand Prix was – as it was in 2021 – hotly anticipated. The group formed in 2018 ahead of the release of their first single and entry into Melodi Grand Prix, Spirit in The Sky. The trio of Tom Hugo, Alexandra Rotan and Fred Buljo have continued to be a Eurovision project group since then. Their single and album releases in between Melodi Grand Prix participations have yet to reach the heights of Spirit In The Sky, Monument and now Damdiggida. 

Melodi Grand Prix was hardly dying on its feet before KEiiNO performed on Saturday night. Gåte, Super Rob and Erika Norwich, and Margaret Berger have all made a case for winning the ticket to Malmö in May, and all remain in contention (even if Gåte have been made to rewrite their track days before the final). But KEiiNO came rushing in right at the last to steal the spotlight just days ahead of the show’s final. 

KEiiNO approach Melodi Grand Prix with amounts of energy, enthusiasm and concentrated vigour unmatched by others. Their debut in the competition in 2019 was spectacular. I watched from the audience inside the Oslo Spektrum on a cold March night in 2019, and it was clear immediately they’d triumph; only the vocal fan club of runner-up Adrian Jørgensen sat to my left thought otherwise. KEiiNO’s first return in 2021 with Monument was a magical opportunity, thwarted only by the star power Tix brought on his debut in the competition. 

Now, KEiiNO are reborn. Damdiggida is a song the group wouldn’t have created in their earliest guise. We are living in the realm of KEiiNO 2.0. Left behind for this track is the group’s absolute dedication to joik and Sámi-inspired folk tones – although they exist in small doses – with hyperpop and electronic pushed to the fore, perhaps to win favour with the difficult-to-please juries who did the group over at Eurovision in 2019. 

The live performance has everything. Rotan leads the line impeccably for the first minute or so as if it were a solo project, before the song explodes at 100, no, 200, no, 300mph. The introduction of Hugo playing the keytar and Buljo damdiggida-ing, partnered by silver lip-adorned box heads busting EuroClub’s next must-have moves is a joyful delight. Hugo didn’t forget his lyrics when he sang the bridge either – there is a god! 

KEiiNO are a safe pair of hands. Watching them perform is a fusion of being draped in a comfort blanket and being high on euphoria. In those three minutes, an illusion is created that nothing is wrong with the world, and that’s a safe place to exist in. 

For NRK, too, KEiiNO are a known quantity. Stig Karlsen and the rest of his dedicated team know what KEiiNO can do. The group are dedicated to the cause and they’ll put in the hard yards that other acts may not in order to achieve success for Norway. 

A successful Eurovision performance must consist of the singer, the song and the staging. One thing can be added to that illusive triangulate template to elevate it: a moment. As I said, when Hugo and Buljo are revealed it gives the performance of Damdiggida the X factor, but their break for freedom from their translucent cage, marching to join Rotan is, too, a moment. 

This isn’t my gushing stream of adoring consciousness for KEiiNO. Yes, I think they’re an asset to the Norwegian music scene and I like their songs, but I’m not a super fan hailing their crowning glory for the sake of it. I didn’t go to see the trio perform in my home city when they came to town and I didn’t increase my mobile phone bill tenfold to ensure my country gave them douze points in Eurovision five years ago. What I saw and heard on Saturday night gave me a buzz, and the rest of Europe deserves that buzz too.