The season of the national finals is amongst us and the always-early country of Norway is currently having its Melodi Grand Prix 2024 semi-finals. Thankfully, we have had the pleasure of speaking to some of the artists competing in the upcoming weeks. In this interview, we speak with Benedicte Adrian about teaming up with Andreas Odden, how much the Melodi Grand Prix has changed since her win in 1984, and what their song “Waltz of Death” means to her.
Today we have gotten the chance to speak with one-half of MISTRA. Hello Benedicte! Thank you for taking the time to talk with us. How have the preparations for your upcoming semi-final been?
– We´re doing well, thank you! Really looking forward to getting it all together on stage for the 27th of January.
Now, this is not your first rodeo in and around Eurovision. You actually represented Norway in 1984, back then in the pop duo Dollie de Luxe. What made you want to come back to Melodi Grand Prix?
– I love ESC. It’s so unpredictable! Anything can happen! And it is also the largest platform to launch new music in Europe (+ Australia, USA, and other countries that follow both in real time and streaming).
From your experiences in the preparations so far, how different is this competition nowadays? What elements of today’s Melodi Grand Prix stand out?
– The production is really professional and the staging is spectacular. 40 years ago we had to perform with the same orchestra as all the other entries, now you can pretty much do anything. Worldwide streaming also means that you reach your audience in a matter of seconds. You can literary build a career in minutes. It’s mind-blowing from my perspective.
This new duo, MISTRA, consists of Anders Odden and yourself. You both have vastly different backgrounds in the music business. How have you found working together with him?
– We have a lot in common in the way we work. We both grew up listening to classical music and we love rich harmonies and surprising chord progressions. Anders was tired of loud drums and screaming vocals from death metal when we met, and we were both eager to explore new ways to put together some sort of pop music. We had no idea where this was going to take us.
How would you say that your musical sound has evolved during the last 40 years?
– It has been a journey from pop to rock, then Rock vs Opera (Dollie de Luxe), writing musicals combining classical and contemporary elements (Which Witch, Henriette VIII), singing as beautiful, loud, and high as I possibly could (including Mozart’s The Queen of the Night), and then wanting to start all over again. I feel as fresh as when my career started at the age of 15, musical speaking of course!
Apart from your life in the music industry, how do you usually spend your time? What hobbies do you have?
– I really need to do yoga. Love it! I also love to cook, make new clothes, or alter old ones. There was a time when I took up painting, but there really wasn’t enough time to do all I wanted to. I also love to see my friends and go for walks in the forests of Oslo. Going to the theatre with my now grown up kids also makes up the best hours of my life! If you can call that a hobby.
You have been very successful in the opera-, entertainment- and overall musical scene. There must have been a lot of musical and theatrical goals hit along the way. Are there any personal milestones or moments that have been particularly significant for you recently?
– The fact that I got Cappelen Damm to publish my book on singing technique, “Lær å synge på 21 dager,” last autumn, was a personal milestone. As is this musical journey with Anders. I’m better at living in the moment than I’ve been before. That’s really something. And I take more responsibility for my own happiness.
With your MGP 2024 entry, “Waltz of Death,” could you walk us through what this song means to you personally and what you want to portray with it?
– My mother died in 2021 after two years of pain and frustration. I was very close to her, and I felt as if a part of me was her when I sang Waltz of Death. I was so inspired when Anders sent me the instrumental demo, that I felt like I was receiving the melody and the words from somewhere «out there». This feeling of immense gratitude has been life changing for me.
We’re all very excited about what you both can bring to the MGP stage. Could you, in one sentence, give us a teaser of what to expect on the 27th?
– We hope you will feel like time is standing still for 3 mins. Like if you’ve had a glimpse of the future.
Before we wrap up, is there anything that you would like to tell our readers over at ESCUnited?
– We release our album called Waltz of Death on the 26th of January. It consists of 10 new songs and a bonus track that may surprise you. ESC marks the debut of Mistra, and we have already started recording our next album, or maybe it will be a ballet, or a musical? Could you please have Tim Burton listen to it?
MISTRA is one of the six artists in this year’s heat three of Norway’s Melodi Grand Prix. Tune in to www.tv.nrk.no at 19:50 CET on Saturday the 27th to see if they qualify for the final.
Do #YOU want to see MISTRA at Eurovision? Share your thoughts with us on social media @ESCUnited, Discord, or our forum page. Follow @mistramusic on Instagram to keep up with their current and future projects.
