ESC history: Electro Spectre producer remixed Norwegian winner

(By our Norwegian correspondent Jan Ronald Stange)
As the European Song Contest (ESC) 2021 finals are today, I thought it’d be a good occasion to reminisce about the winner of the competition in 1995, Secret Garden from Norway, and the remix made for their winning entry six years after. Their song ‘Nocturne’ was something quite different from the rest of the competitors at the time; not much lyrics, mostly instrumental, and a very surprising winner. Maybe the audience craved something different?

Anyhow, what made me think of this again was the use of the ‘Dr. No Club Remix’ at the intro of a new Norwegian humor series called ‘Olympiatoppen’. Doctor No was the main music project of Isak Rypdal (producer of Electro Spectre) back in the 2000’s, having several hit singles in the dance/trance segment like ‘Lastima’ and ‘La Luna’, and released the album ‘Fat Sound To The Masses’ in 2001 (check other songs at the bottom of this article).

Isak had arranged his remix to be used by NRK on national TV, and agreed it could be fun to have it surface again in conjunction with the ESC finals this week. His remix originally appeared on the ‘Grand Prix Party’ compilation released by Universal Music in 2001, where Isak were invited to make a contemporary version of ‘Nocturne’ as the final track of the compilation. The track also exists on a single track CD distributed when promoting the compilation.

Not only as a Norwegian, but as more than average interested in music, I thought the winning song in 1995 was a great exception from the usual ESC songs, daring to go outside the concept itselft, paving way to more diversity. And as major fan of electronic music, the remix from 2001 just added more value to the original.

Check out the original and the remix as a warm-up or a variety from todays finals!

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