Norway once again chose their participating act through their Melodi Grand Prix National Final. After an 8 minute homage to …Sweden(?), the results were announced, crowning Gåte and their song “Ulveham.” Gåte will be performing 15th in the second semifinal.

Gåte (pronounced like “GO-tuh”) is a folkloric-rock band that sets Norwegian folklore to rock/heavy metal music, with epic proportions that remind us of Within Temptation’s 2004 album “Silent Force” (an amazing album, and if you haven’t heard of it, you should check it out).

The lyrics of “Ulveham” are inspired by a 1,000-year-old medieval Norwegian tale. In it, a woman is turned into a wolf by her evil stepmother and must drink her brother’s blood to break the curse – which, like the song, is pretty metal. When listened to in the context of other Eurovision entries this year, “Ulveham” feels epic and unique, featuring ancient Nordic instruments and a Norwegian style of singing which originated as a herding call. This is not a song that we can easily sing along to, but it is a head banger that will be fun to see performed live in an arena setting.

“Ulveham” narrowly beat out former Eurovision participants Keiino’s song “Damdiggida.”

Visuals from the live performance of “Damdiggida” by Keiino. They previously represented Norway in Eurovision 2019 with “Spirit in the Sky”.

There are some parts of the “Ulveham” national final performance that especially stood out like the lead singer’s ability to really, really sing, and the energy and commitment of the musicians flinging their instruments around on stage. However, we do not understand why they kept cutting away to nature footage during the song – it felt like interruptions rather than enhancements. If they keep the nature footage, hopefully it will be confined to the background LED screens in Malmö. Basically, we do not think that the awesome energy of Gåte’s live performance needs any additions.