29 April – I was shy, but in the mood for love

It’s nearly here. The most mad, fun and baffling two weeks of the year. For a certain type of person anyway. It baffles me why some people go year after year. Spending vast sums of money to mix with singers, some of whom may go back to working at Starbucks or Kaufman in the days after they get back to their homeland.

Admittedly, a number will still be in the music industry and may even give it another crack in future years. But the thing we all love is the fact we all like different stuff. I mean, only at Eurovision would you get a man in a bright pink suit singing about a Shakespeare character flanked by a drag queen dressed as Marie Antoinette on one of her days off. That pink-suited singer was, of course, today’s birthday boy Ketil Stokkan. He was also the first Norwegian home entrant so in that way, he is a trailblazer. Here’s the highest-scoring song of his two attempts at glory.

Ketil is 67 today.

Gratulerer med dagen, Ketil!