Tonight was the fifth semi-final of the Norwegian Eurovision national selection (Melodi Grand Prix). This year there are 5 semi-finals, one for each region of the country, plus five songs that automatically qualify for the grand final.

Tonight four songs from Northern Norway competed for a spot in the grand final:

Jenny Jenssen - Mr. Hello

Elin & The Woods - We Are One

Kevin Boine - Stem På Mæ

Liza Vassilieva - I Am Gay

The qualifier was Liza Vassilieva with her song I Am Gay, which will face 9 other songs in the grand final on the 15th of February. One of the automatic qualifiers was also presented during the show:

Tone Damli - Hurts Sometimes

Previous semi-finals:

Semi-final 1 (Southern Norway) - songs and results

Semi-final 2 (Eastern Norway) - songs and results

Semi-final 3 (Middle Norway) - songs and results

Semi-final 4 (Western Norway) - songs and results

What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

Here in Brazil we have many unique song genres not heard past national borders. The most well known ones are Brazilian funk (completely unrelated to American funk), Pagode e Sertanejo.

Russian hardbass and British Chav Rap are good too.

Reading the excellent "Cave in the Snow", a biography of Tenzin Palmo, I learned of her love for Mozart and it got me thinking. For whatever reason my classical knowledge is limited, mostly leaning towards more experimental contemporary composers (Cage, Pärt, Reich etc) and so I know very little about what you might call the classical heavyweights (Mozart, Chopin, Bach). With that said, where is best to start with Mozart?

Hi folks, I was recently introduced (at a relatively superficial level) to the existence of the "Taqwacore" sub-culture of Western punk music. The duality inherent or apparent in this type of self-expression is absolutely fascinating to me, and I would love to learn more about it.

I personally find it a little hard to understand exactly how these musicians reconcile the anti-establishment and maybe progressiveness of punk with many tenets of Islam; the concept of organized religion seems inherently establishment (and dated) to me, and yet these groups somehow embrace both ends of the spectrum. I'm very curious if any Tildesians have opinions on Taqwacore bands or thoughts on the sub-genre as a whole!

Last night was the fourth semi-final of the Norwegian Eurovision national selection (Melodi Grand Prix). This year there are 5 semi-finals, one for each region of the country, plus five songs that automatically qualify for the grand final.

Last night four songs from Western Norway competed for a spot in the grand final:

Magnus Bokn - Over The Sea

Oda Loves You - Love Who We Love

Nordic Tenors - In This Special Place

Hege Bjerk - Pang

The qualifier was Magnus Bokn with his song Over The Sea, which will face 9 other songs in the grand final on the 15th of February. One of the automatic qualifiers were also presented during the show:

Ulrikke Brandstorp - Attention

Previous semi-finals:

Semi-final 1 (Southern Norway) - songs and results

Semi-final 2 (Eastern Norway) - songs and results

Semi-final 3 (Middle Norway) - songs and results

What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

'Cosmonauts' is a 9-track concept album about coming together through the hard times when you feel most alone and pushing each other to achieve things you couldn't otherwise do individually. When you reach it, you'll feel a grand sense of euphoria.

• On Bandcamp.
• On DistroKid (contains Spotify, Apple Music, iTunes, Google Play, Tidal and iHeartRadio links).

A few weeks ago an announcement video was also posted, a 1:30 minute mix of a few songs on the album.

Here's an article about one of the recent Grammy winners: "Billie Eilish's Grammy hit features a surprising Australian sound"

The story about how Eilish and her brother sampled a pedestrian crossing signal is interesting enough - but you have to watch the embedded video, where the SMH people use the same signal to make their own backing track to an Aussie classic!

What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

(For the previous two semi-finals, it didn't occure to me that the Danish national selection is also named Melodi Grand Prix, so from now on I'll be adding the country to the title.)

Last night was the third semi-final of the Norwegian national selection (Melodi Grand Prix). This year there are 5 semi-finals, one for each region of the country, plus five songs that automatically qualify for the grand final.

Last night four songs from Middle Norway competed for a spot in the grand final:

Alexandry - Pink Jacket

Kristin Husøy - Pray For Me

Sie Gubba - Kjære Du

Thomas Løseth - Vertigo

The qualifier was Kristin Husøy with her song Pray For Me, which will face 9 other songs in the grand final on the 15th of February. One of the automatic qualifiers were also presented during the show:

Akuvi - Som Du Er

Previous semi-finals:

Semi-final 1 (Southern Norway) - songs and results

Semi-final 2 (Eastern Norway) - songs and results

edit:

Found a better video of Sie Gubba.

In honour of Australia Day, here's my favourite Australia-themed song.

About 40 years ago, the Australian government ran competitions and surveys to decide what our national anthem should be. It was a 10-year process, in fits and starts, but in 1984 they finally announced "Advance Australia Fair" as the new anthem to replace "God Save The Queen" (which is now used only as the royal anthem).

"I Am Australian" hadn't been written back then. It was written in 1987, just prior to our Bicentennial celebrations in 1988. If a similar competition/survey was run now, "I Am Australian" would be one of the top contenders for our new national anthem. It's a very popular song.

I don't relate to "Advance Australia Fair" at all. But "I Am Australian" makes me emotional every time I hear it. It might not be our official national anthem, but it's my anthem for this country.

Here's:

• A studio recorded version, complete with lyrics.

• A live performance, performed in 2000.

I am, you are, we are Australian.

I've been listening to Iron Maiden's Rock in Rio album on loop for a couple of days (I'm learning a bunch of the songs), and it's such a great album. Really wide selection of their hits from across their career, some classics, loads of new stuff, some deeper cuts (the Blaze tracks). It sounds amazing, to say it was all recorded on a single night. Absolutely amazing album, I can't think of a live effort that I enjoy more.

What's your favourite live album?