The old saying goes that thunder never hits the same spot twice, which is both true and not true.
The shock of a country failing to score had just about ebbed out when the very same country failed to score a second time. What was up with Norway? What made them fail not just once but twice?
In 1978, Jahn Teigen had managed to turn failure into success and build himself a neat career thanks to his failure.
Finn Kalvik had done the complete opposite - he had managed to build a very firm career in both Norway and Sweden and had a prestigious collaboration going on with Benny Andersson of Abba (who had produced Finn's album as well as his entry - Agnetha and Frida sang the backing vocals on the studio version).
He had stood up against Abba's famous record label manager Stikkan Andersson, insisting to go to Eurovision with "Aldri i livet" and no other song. He had everything to lose from this devastating result and his career never fully recovered afterwards.
Nul points?
Absolutely not. 1981 is not a particularly strong year, but none of the songs in the line-up would have deserved a no-score. Finn's song is gentle, poetic and melodic, but suffering from a visually lacklustre and vocally uninspired performance.
Finn lets his own song down, but the juries were still way harsher than what was called for.
Finn Kalvik - Aldri i livet (Norway 1981)
In contrast to Jahn Teigen's song, the recorded version of this song is simply beautiful. The production by Mr Andersson and the backing vocals by Ms Fältskog and Ms Lyngstad have a big part in it, but the song in itself is also better than whar the zero point label suggests.
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