Norway’s Melodi Grand Prix 2024 is starting this Saturday 13th January and we had the big honour to speak with Mathilde SPZ, Chris Archer and Slam Dunk who will open Heat 1 with their party banger Woman Show. They got on so well and have so much energy, it seems like they will put on quite the show on Saturday!

Mathilde SPZ told us the story of how the trio came together for MGP and how she’s been trying to participate in MGP since 1998!

“Well the song was written at this songwriters’ camp where there was a lot of people and a lot of rotation in groups, but me and Chris [Archer] were together every day, so we got to know each other pretty good, and we wrote the song together with four other people. […] Then I met Petter [Slam Dunk] at a company event last winter and I just liked his energy, so when we needed a second rapper, I said, ‘Oh, I know this guy!’”

– Mathilde SPZ

Chris Archer has worked on many hit songs prior to this MGP collaboration. Eurovision fans probably remember his most recent contribution — Ekko inni meg by Jone from MGP 2023.

“«Ekko inni meg» last year for example was a huge hit and I was thinking, okay I want to do this again. So I attended this camp in Larvik, met Mathilde and I think this song also is a hit!”

– Chris Archer

Completing the trio is Slam Dunk (Petter Haga) – a trained civil engineer who went viral in Norway and getting the nickname “Mango IPA Man”! So Dave had to find out how an engineer came to get involved in MGP:

“I started with music as a side project when I was studying at the technical university of Norway, and it was just for fun, something I did, I made a couple of songs every year. Then almost three years ago I made a song called «Mango IPA» about a Norwegian beer and it became a massive hit — it was all over TikTok, it reached the Top 50 on Spotify in Norway. And I was running a tech startup at the time, and things were rough with Covid, and we decided to shut down. So I was like wow, I have this opportunity to go full time in the entertainment and music space, so I thought why not give it a shot!”

– Petter Haga (Slam Dunk)

We wish them the best of luck on Saturday and can’t wait to see how their energy translates to the stage! Be sure to check out the full interview on your favourite podcast streaming platform!

Photo: Julia Marie Naglestad / NRK