«Maskorama» on NRK – Total disaster

–

I had been looking forward, drumming the family together and finding the Saturday treat. Earlier this week, I was exploring YouTube clips from American “The Masked Singer” and almost fell off my home office chair when I heard (and saw!) T-Pain’s monster-haired version of Queen’s “Don’t Stop Me Now”.

In other words, expectations were sky high.

Masks are fun!

Singing is fun!

This could be amazing!

But we were not far into the first episode of “Maskorama” before host Silje Nordnes demonstrated how low the list was at NRK’s ​​new Saturday venture. “The Viking” had just sung Justin Bieber’s “All Around the World”, and it was Jan Thomas’ turn to guess.

– I think this is Tshawe! declared Jan Thomas satisfied.

– You look so confused, Silje?

– From Karpe Diem? Silje asked.

– No, from Madcon! shouted Jan Thomas and Marion Ravn in chorus.

Now picked up admittedly Silje is fine again after mixing some of Norway’s biggest music stars, it’s clear you get confused with all these names whirling around, but the symbolic value was there lell.

Because it really is not music and music knowledge that is at the center of Norway’s most crazy and right now most set singing program.

“Those who stand on stage, are not just singers. They can be known for anything », says Silje in the intro to the program, and you can see one of the characters playing cards, while another does tricks with a football.

Thus, we got participants like Fugleskremselet, who entered the stage with a vocal as sour as the beer that is now fermenting on Oslo’s closed concert stages. And Gaupa, who when she had to go out, turned out to be handball legend Susann Goksør.

In a Norway where the music life is in crisis and musicians go to NAV, where concert halls are closed, events are canceled and there are now also jokes for the Christmas tours, NRK chooses to have a singing program where most of the participants can not sing.

Why?

Why have they deliberately chosen to run this opportunity to make brilliant music TV right on the mound?

In the United States, “The Masked singer »admittedly silly, but also a celebration of sang and sceneformidling. Even the host has a music career. The artist list also looks like the booking profile for the Nobel Prize concert: Gladys Knight, LaToya Jackson, Donny Osmond, Michelle Williams from Destiny’s Child, Chris Daughtry, Patti LaBelle, Joey Fatone from Backstreet Boys, Seal, Lil Wayne, Chaka Khan, T-Pain, Dionne Warwick, etc.

You can say a lot about the American “expert” panel, but they have at least two members who have a lot of music experience, Nicole Scherzinger and Robin Thicke. Both have topped international charts for several years.

But neither panel is competent in the Norwegian version.

Since the masks can hide absolutely anyone, NRK has also brought in anyone to the “expert” panel. Only one in three has a bearing on music. It’s Marion Raven. Jan Thomas has been brought in because he is Jan Thomas. Nicolay Ramm has been brought in because he is on TV. And yes, because in his time he got help from the Norwegian hit list king Anders Nilsen to make “Fast glasses”.

It quickly becomes apparent that neither Jan Thomas nor Nicolay Ramm would have recognized a pure tone if it had hit them right in the face.

Marion, for her part, has obviously been told to keep a diplomatic line and largely refrains from thinking anything about the singing itself. But you can still see how she feels on her facial expression.

It’s pain.

Criticizes friend talk: – Disappointing

And then we’ve in the main problem with “Maskorama”: Even though it is obviously the guessing game that is at the center of NRK, viewers still have to torment themselves through two or three minutes of unbearable vocal distortion over and over again. And it almost only gets worse because the last artist out, the Lucky Troll, can actually sing and make a beautiful version of “I Believe in a Thing Called Love” by The Darkness.

Because it shows that NRK can if they want to.

But instead, they have chosen a program concept so painful and embarrassing that one would almost think it was an episode of Thomas Giertsen’s “Absolutely Perfect”.

Investigating 25-year-old Diana interview

–