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Pizza-kast

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And in our final entry for this week's "halling-fest"…
Apparently some Norwegians prefer their pizza without peppers. The Norwegian pizza brand, Grandiosa, has made a commercial in the style of a American Idol-like competion about their new pizza "without peppers (paprika)". What they call "paprika" is what we in the USA would call "sweet red peppers".
What [...]

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A wonderfully laus-y way to dance

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We're going to celebrate the dance known as "halling" this week by featuring both the dance and music for the dance.
In 2007 the winner of the Norwegian national competition in Class B laus/halling competition was Ulf-Arne Johannessen from Ål, Hallingdal. This was the second time Johannessen had won in Class B (open class) competition which [...]

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Norway wins Eurovision — with a folk twist!

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They did it! It's truly a "Fairytale"! Even TIME Magazine is reporting the news.
Alexander Rybak and the guys from FRIKAR, representing Norway, won the famed Eurovision contest — with no contest! — and on the eve of Norway's biggest national holiday, the 17th of May (Constitution Day / Syttende Mai).
In fact, the entry was record breaking [...]

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Eurovision goes (un)traditional Norwegian

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Eurovision 2009 will begin soon — and despite reading and re-reading the Wikipedia entry on it, I still can't even begin to tell you how this song contest works!
Nevertheless, it is one of the longest running TV program in the world and millions of people watch it and vote for their favorite song.
There are two [...]

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Class A Hallingspringar

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Each region of Norway has its own style of rosemaling, its own bunad — and its own music and dance. These help to support the "dialect" of the region and make each region distinct from one another.
Here we have a great video of the dance called Hallingspringar — the springar (spring dance) from Hallingdal. It's [...]

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Norwegian halling dance heads to Eurovision 2009!

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Alexander Rybak, a rising pop star / musician, has won the Norwegian Melodi Grand Prix — the song competition that chooses Norway's representative to the annual Eurovision contest — with his original composition, Fairytale.
I had already reported on Rybak/Frikar's semi-final win in a previous post.
The finals were held at the Oslo Spektrum on Saturday, February [...]

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Laus — on the way to Eurovision 2009?

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Countries all over Europe are currenty involved in their national competitions that will choose the performers that will represent them at the Eurovision 2009 contest.
Last week,Norway's competition — Melodi Gran Prix — held its semi-finals. A new pop star, Alexander Rybak, won with his tune "Fairytale".
He performed the tune backed by members of the FRIKAR [...]

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Halling / Laus to join the gaming world

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Norway's famous "show-off" traditional dance for men — the halling — is going to move into the gaming world.
Class A Halling dancer and leader of the Frikar dance group, Hallgrim Hansegård, has been filming motion capture for the upcoming release of a Cimmerian dance for Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures.

The video — [...]

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