Bobbysocks
Encyclopedia
For the 1950s
teen rage see Bobby soxer
Bobbysocks! were a Norwegian
pop
duo consisting of Norwegian Hanne Krogh
and Swedish
-Norwegian Elisabeth Andreassen
. They won the Eurovision Song Contest 1985
with the song "La det swinge
" ("Let it swing").
in 1991. Andreassen sang for Sweden as one half of Chips
in 1982 and after winning with Bobbysocks, teamed up with Jan Werner Danielsen
in 1994 and sang solo in 1996. According to John Kennedy O'Connor's The Eurovision Song Contest - The Official History Andreassen is one of only four lead artists to sing in the contest on four occasions and is also one of only four artists to finish both first and second in Eurovision (1985 & 1996).
The duo's debut single was "I Don't Wanna Break My Heart" in 1984, released in a pink colored vinyl. The concept behind Bobbysocks! was to bring up to date songs from the 50s with a swing mood, adding them a "modern" 80s sound. That idea was fully applied on their first LP Bobbysocks!
-which was a mixture of covers and brand new songs-, but partially abandoned on the 2 subsequent albums, which had more pop sound instead of swing.
The scheduled next single was going to be "Radio", but the plans were changed when the duo won the Eurovision Song Contest. "Let It Swing" topped the Norwegian singles chart, aswell as it did in Belgium. It was a Top 10 in Sweden and Ireland, and a Top 20 in The Netherlands and Austria. It entered the UK singles charts on 25 May 1985, and rose to a high of Nº 44; it remained in the charts for 4 weeks. There were plans to release the single in USA, but it didn`t happen at the end.
Due to their ESC victory, Bobbysocks! were awarded with the Peer Gynt
Prize in 1985, which is awarded by the Stortinget, Norway's parliament
.
Another ESC consequence was the re-release of the Bobbysocks!
LP with "Let It Swing" on it, reaching the Gold status. Their next album, Waiting for the Morning
, was released in April 1986, preceded by the single of the same name, both becoming a huge success in Norway, peaking at Nº 1 on the norwegian singles and album charts. Walkin' on Air
, was recorded in L.A. in 1987 and produced by Bill Maxwell. It went Gold in only 4 days, becoming their 3rd and final LP. Just before the release of "If I Fall", the album's lead single in Norway, the duo wanted to do something "decently crazy" as they revealed at the time, so they did a cover of "Swing it, magister'n", a song from 1940 originally sung by the swedish singer and actress Alice Babs, releasing it as single in the summer of 1987.
Bobbysocks disbanded in 1988 after 4 successful years. However, Krogh and Andreassen still appear time to time together on stage in Norway. They also did an appearance at Congratulations
, the 50th anniversary Eurovision concert in Copenhagen
, Denmark
in October 2005.
During May 2010, Bobbysocks did a short comeback to celebrate their 25th anniversary since their ESC victory in 1985, launching a compilation album
called Let It Swing - The Best Of Bobbysocks!, which included 2 newly recorded songs and peaking at Nº 13 on the norwegian album charts, helping to gain brand new fans not only in Norway, but also in other countries all over the world.
1950s
The 1950s or The Fifties was the decade that began on January 1, 1950 and ended on December 31, 1959. The decade was the sixth decade of the 20th century...
teen rage see Bobby soxer
Bobby soxer
Bobby soxer is a 1940s sociologic coinage denoting the over zealous, usually teenage and young adult girls from about 12 to 25, fans of singer Frank Sinatra, the first singing teen idol. Fashionable adolescent girls wore poodle skirts and rolled down their socks to the ankle...
Bobbysocks! were a Norwegian
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
pop
Popular music
Popular music belongs to any of a number of musical genres "having wide appeal" and is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. It stands in contrast to both art music and traditional music, which are typically disseminated academically or orally to smaller, local...
duo consisting of Norwegian Hanne Krogh
Hanne Krogh
Hanne Krogh is a Norwegian singer and one half of the duo that won the Eurovision Song Contest 1985....
and Swedish
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
-Norwegian Elisabeth Andreassen
Elisabeth Andreassen
Elisabeth Gunilla Andreassen - also known as just "Bettan" - is a Swedish-Norwegian singer who has finished both first and second in the Eurovision Song Contest....
. They won the Eurovision Song Contest 1985
Eurovision Song Contest 1985
The Eurovision Song Contest 1985 was the 30th Eurovision Song Contest and was held on 4 May 1985 in Gothenburg, Sweden. The presenter was Lill Lindfors, and Norwegian duo Bobbysocks! was the winner of this Eurovision with the song "La det swinge"....
with the song "La det swinge
La det swinge
"La det swinge" is a song in Norwegian, sung by the pop duo Bobbysocks!. It was the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 1985 - Norway's first victory in the contest.- Background :...
" ("Let it swing").
Background
The duo was formed in 1983. Both Krogh and Andreassen were frequent Eurovision contestants. Krogh has appeared three times, all for Norway - in 1971 as a soloist, with Bobbysocks! in 1985 and as part of Just 4 FunJust 4 Fun
Just 4 Fun was a Norwegian band from the early nineties.The members were Marianne Antonsen, Jan Groth, Eiríkur Hauksson and Hanne Krogh. Krogh represented Norway in the Eurovision Song Contest 1971 and reached the 17th position, 14 years later she won in the band Bobbysocks...
in 1991. Andreassen sang for Sweden as one half of Chips
Chips (band)
Chips was a Swedish country and pop group, formed in 1979 by Kikki Danielsson and Lasse Holm, and split in 1983.Chips finished 4th in the Swedish Melodifestivalen 1980 with the song "Mycke' mycke' mer", with Lars Westman, Lisa Magnusson, Mats Rådberg and Monica Silverstrand as background singers...
in 1982 and after winning with Bobbysocks, teamed up with Jan Werner Danielsen
Jan Werner Danielsen
Jan Werner Danielsen, artist name Jan Werner, was a Norwegian pop, classical, and rock singer, famous for his powerful voice which stretched over four and a half octaves...
in 1994 and sang solo in 1996. According to John Kennedy O'Connor's The Eurovision Song Contest - The Official History Andreassen is one of only four lead artists to sing in the contest on four occasions and is also one of only four artists to finish both first and second in Eurovision (1985 & 1996).
The duo's debut single was "I Don't Wanna Break My Heart" in 1984, released in a pink colored vinyl. The concept behind Bobbysocks! was to bring up to date songs from the 50s with a swing mood, adding them a "modern" 80s sound. That idea was fully applied on their first LP Bobbysocks!
Bobbysocks (album)
Bobbysocks! was the first album from Norwegian pop duo Bobbysocks!. The album was released in 1984 and in a new version in 1985. The re-release became popular in many parts of the world, and by early 1986 the album had sold around 75,000 copies in Norway....
-which was a mixture of covers and brand new songs-, but partially abandoned on the 2 subsequent albums, which had more pop sound instead of swing.
The scheduled next single was going to be "Radio", but the plans were changed when the duo won the Eurovision Song Contest. "Let It Swing" topped the Norwegian singles chart, aswell as it did in Belgium. It was a Top 10 in Sweden and Ireland, and a Top 20 in The Netherlands and Austria. It entered the UK singles charts on 25 May 1985, and rose to a high of Nº 44; it remained in the charts for 4 weeks. There were plans to release the single in USA, but it didn`t happen at the end.
Due to their ESC victory, Bobbysocks! were awarded with the Peer Gynt
Peer Gynt
Peer Gynt is a five-act play in verse by the Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen, loosely based on the fairy tale Per Gynt. It is the most widely performed Norwegian play. According to Klaus Van Den Berg, the "cinematic script blends poetry with social satire and realistic scenes with surreal ones"...
Prize in 1985, which is awarded by the Stortinget, Norway's parliament
Parliament
A parliament is a legislature, especially in those countries whose system of government is based on the Westminster system modeled after that of the United Kingdom. The name is derived from the French , the action of parler : a parlement is a discussion. The term came to mean a meeting at which...
.
Another ESC consequence was the re-release of the Bobbysocks!
Bobbysocks (album)
Bobbysocks! was the first album from Norwegian pop duo Bobbysocks!. The album was released in 1984 and in a new version in 1985. The re-release became popular in many parts of the world, and by early 1986 the album had sold around 75,000 copies in Norway....
LP with "Let It Swing" on it, reaching the Gold status. Their next album, Waiting for the Morning
Waiting for the Morning
Waiting for the Morning is a 1986 album by Norwegian pop duo Bobbysocks. One week before the release date the album had sold over 60,000 copies to record stores in Norway. Because of this, Elisabeth Andreasson and Hanne Krogh were awarded a gold disc on the release date. By the end of 1987, the...
, was released in April 1986, preceded by the single of the same name, both becoming a huge success in Norway, peaking at Nº 1 on the norwegian singles and album charts. Walkin' on Air
Walkin' on Air
Walkin' on Air is a 1987 album from Norwegian pop duo Bobbysocks. Within four days, the album sold 50,000 copies, and was certified gold in Norway...
, was recorded in L.A. in 1987 and produced by Bill Maxwell. It went Gold in only 4 days, becoming their 3rd and final LP. Just before the release of "If I Fall", the album's lead single in Norway, the duo wanted to do something "decently crazy" as they revealed at the time, so they did a cover of "Swing it, magister'n", a song from 1940 originally sung by the swedish singer and actress Alice Babs, releasing it as single in the summer of 1987.
Bobbysocks disbanded in 1988 after 4 successful years. However, Krogh and Andreassen still appear time to time together on stage in Norway. They also did an appearance at Congratulations
Congratulations (Eurovision)
Congratulations: 50 Years of the Eurovision Song Contest was a television programme organised by the European Broadcasting Union to commemorate the Eurovision Song Contest's fiftieth anniversary and to determine the Contest's most popular entrant of its fifty years. It took place at Forum,...
, the 50th anniversary Eurovision concert in Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
, Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
in October 2005.
During May 2010, Bobbysocks did a short comeback to celebrate their 25th anniversary since their ESC victory in 1985, launching a compilation album
Compilation album
A compilation album is an album featuring tracks from one or more performers, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, genre, source or subject matter...
called Let It Swing - The Best Of Bobbysocks!, which included 2 newly recorded songs and peaking at Nº 13 on the norwegian album charts, helping to gain brand new fans not only in Norway, but also in other countries all over the world.
Singles
- 1984: "I Don't Wanna Break My Heart"
- 1984: "Radio" (re-released in 1985)
- 1985: "Let It Swing" / "La Det Swinge"
- 1985: "Midnight Rocks"
- 1986: "Waiting for the Morning"
- 1986: "Johnny And The Dancing Girls"
- 1987: "Swing It, Magistern"
- 1987: "If I Fall"
- 1987: "Don't Leave Me Here Without You"
- 2010: "Thank You" (feat. Alexander RybakAlexander RybakAlexander Igoryevich Rybak or in Belarusian Alyaksandr Igaravich Rybak , born 13 May 1986 in Byelorussian SSR is a Norwegian singer-composer, violinist, pianist, writer, and actor...
)
Albums
- 1984: Bobbysocks!Bobbysocks (album)Bobbysocks! was the first album from Norwegian pop duo Bobbysocks!. The album was released in 1984 and in a new version in 1985. The re-release became popular in many parts of the world, and by early 1986 the album had sold around 75,000 copies in Norway....
(re-released in 1985 with "Let It Swing") - 1986: Waiting for the MorningWaiting for the MorningWaiting for the Morning is a 1986 album by Norwegian pop duo Bobbysocks. One week before the release date the album had sold over 60,000 copies to record stores in Norway. Because of this, Elisabeth Andreasson and Hanne Krogh were awarded a gold disc on the release date. By the end of 1987, the...
(re-edited in 1994) - 1987: Walkin' on AirWalkin' on AirWalkin' on Air is a 1987 album from Norwegian pop duo Bobbysocks. Within four days, the album sold 50,000 copies, and was certified gold in Norway...
See also
- EuroprideEuroprideEuropride is a pan-European international event dedicated to LGBT pride, hosted by a different European city each year. The host city is usually one with an established gay pride event or a significant LGBT community....
- Eurovision Song Contest 1985Eurovision Song Contest 1985The Eurovision Song Contest 1985 was the 30th Eurovision Song Contest and was held on 4 May 1985 in Gothenburg, Sweden. The presenter was Lill Lindfors, and Norwegian duo Bobbysocks! was the winner of this Eurovision with the song "La det swinge"....
- Melodi Grand PrixMelodi Grand PrixMelodi Grand Prix is an annual music competition organised by Norwegian public broadcaster Norsk Rikskringkasting . It determines the country's representative for the Eurovision Song Contest, and has been staged almost every year since 1960.The festival has produced three Eurovision winners and...
- MelodifestivalenMelodifestivalenMelodifestivalen is an annual music competition organised by Swedish public broadcasters Sveriges Television and Sveriges Radio . It determines the country's representative for the Eurovision Song Contest, and has been staged almost every year since 1959...