Ireland fired on all cylinders when Per Sundnes criticized them
Ireland fired on all cylinders when Per Sundnes criticized them on television. Now the former ESC general, Per Sundnes, is dismissed from the Norwegian jury. It probably didn’t help his cause that Sundnes is an open homosexual as well as an ardent supporter of the Eurovision Song Contest.
In the final run-up to the Eurovision Song Contest in Kiev (Kyiv) this week, it storms around the Norwegian jury. After Sundnes appeared in the NRK program “Addresse Kiev” and stated that Ireland totally lost it as a Eurovision nation, there was an uproar.
Ireland complained about Per Sundnes and the Norwegian jury to the European Broadcasting Union (EBU).
“Looks like there will be zero points from Norway …”, writes the Irish website Joe.ie.
The Irish newspaper, The Independent, who also referred to the controversy, writes that Sundnes has been replaced in the Norwegian jury after making a mistake under the jury rules and refers to a statement from Eurovision:
“Per Sundnes, who was part of the Norwegian jury, has been replaced with Erland Bakke after breaching the jury rules”.
– I am pleased that the EBU responded quickly to this situation and that all jury members are impartial. It is fair that every song in Eurovision is judged based on performance on the evening, says Irish delegation leader Michael Kealy.
– I do not know anything about the jury stuff, just that I’m not in. It was not really surprising. The same thing happened in Sweden last year with the Swedish professional jury, Sundnes writes in a text message to VG.
In “Addresse Kiev”, the former ESC General also spoke in negative terms about the Irish contribution. Among other things, he gave Ireland Ireland’s lowest score of all countries in the unpretentious review of the program.
The Irish delegation complained to the EBU because they responded that Sundnes through the TV show flags his views on the contributions before the artists are on stage.
NRK kow-tows
NRK admits that they made a bad assessment by letting Per Sundnes both sit in the jury and participate in “Addresse Kiev”. When they were informed by the EBU that this was not within the rules, they quickly addressed the issue.
– We’ve got some reports of concern from several quarters that Per has sat on the jury at the same time that he has been expressing his views in the program. Therefore, we made a new assessment. We kow-tow, says Project Manager for ESC in NRK, Stig Karlsen, to VG.
© VG / Norway Today
