or “The Old Boys” aka “The Old Geezers” (quote BBC’s Terry Wogan - the only excuse for watching The Eurovision Song Contest) are Jørgen, 50 years old and Niels (“Noller”) 46 years old - and they have been doing their thing, since Jørgen was 14 and Niels 10 - with their mother as their roadie, because she was afraid, that they should start smoking pot or something.
They certainly played the kind of heavy music, that you smoke pot to - only later they became lighter in their output, topping many moons ago with a Danish version of Vera Lynn’s “Wish Me Luck As You Wave Me Goodbye”.
Jørgen’s first big break was, when he performed in the first Copenhagen “Hair” production - already then, he was a superstar in Denmark. Younger brother Niels should have been in the show as well - but his parents wouldn’t let him drop school so early. (Jørgen also starred in a Danish movie called “Hovedjægerne”, which sold about 12 tickets and even isn’t out on video.)
A few years later the brothers as “Olsen” became the first artists to sell 100.000 LPs in Denmark and they practically was driven out of their house by young girls. The big hit was called “Angelina”.
Really they should have been going to America to do it there, but they didn’t like the American 200 page contract, that told them which color underwear to wear, so instead they signed up 3 lines with the local Danish record producer, Johnny Reimar.
And they really haven’t been out of business since. It’s not the first time, that they have taken part in the Danish Eurovision Contest, it really isn’t the first time, that they have done anything.
But it was the first time in 37 years, that Denmark for the 2nd time won the Song Contest - if you can call that win. You can’t, if you saw it. There WAS no competition! The Eurovision Song Contest today is the worst pile of shit broadcast from the face of the earth and most of the participants are retarded.
Jørgen and Niels are both married - to women - and both have children - really the winning song “On The Wings Of Love” in the Danish version is a love song from Jørgen to his wife - EROTIC to the limit for a family audience TV-show.
On winning the contest, Denmark thinks, that The Olsen Brothers are superstars all over Europe and that they will be millionaires...
The Brothers took part in the Danish Song Contest for the first time in 1978 (“San Francisco”) have a big career behind them in Germany - at first in the DDR, where they even got censored out for being too West and they are sure, that they are in the STASI archives for doing things, that the East even hadn’t heard about - and then in Germany with big hits like “Marie, Marie” and “Neon Madonna”.
Of course they were big in Japan too.
They are their own hardest critics. They once did a song for the Danish National Football Team (“Fællessang i Parken”), which is real good, all the Danes love it and want to hear it again and again - but it is on none of their compilation and they don't play it - because “it is too easy to get a hit with a song like that”!!!
As the 4 things in life, that means all for him, Jørgen lists: my music, my family, my job (as a teacher!) - and “my peace of mind”!
As far as I know, it is Jørgen, who wrote all their songs worth talking about - and he HAS been out there on his own, but he soon called back sidekick, Niels. If not for anything else, he needs him to kick him in the ass, when he gets too emotional to even go on stage, break down on it or start making “speeches”.
The Olsen Brother’s mother, who has advanced from being their roadie to being their baby-sitter, is the only cool head in Denmark after Eurovision 2000 - she thinks, that they will make a little extra money, so that they can get new furniture or something. She calls them “old”. Wonder, what she calls herself!
The rest of Denmark is kind of in a state of civil war - all the cities are fighting for hosting the show next year. The Danish State Radio TV of course doesn’t have the money to produce it - but that’s no problem. Every major company in Denmark are fighting to pay for it.
And the boss of The Danish State Radio TV, who was so unpopular, that none of his employees even talked to him, has now talked with several of them.
The always extremely cheerful Olsen Brothers certainly made a lot of difference in little Denmark by winning the pile of shit. (Flowers delivered by the Danish Minister of Culture personally. ALTHOUGH SHE USED TO BE A FAN OF THE O S M O N D BROTHERS!!!) Outside the fairy tale kingdom, yeah well... They really can’t do much, that they haven’t done already.
Og det er ikke så ringe endda!
Torben Hoyer 17/5/00
Olsen Brothers After Eurovision Song Contest Danish Kr. 100.000