We are really honoured to bring you our first of four interviews this week with artists from Heat 3 of Melodi Grand Prix 2024! We begin today by sharing the lovely chat we had with the newly formed duo MISTRA!

MISTRA is perhaps an unlikely duo — Benedicte Adrian, a pop goddess who has joined forces with a true pioneer of metal music in Norway, Anders Odden.

If you’re a hardcore Eurovision fan, Benedicte’s name might ring a bell. She was part of Dollie de Luxe who won MGP in 1984! That winning song, Lenge Leve Livet, went on to Eurovision in Luxembourg where it finished with 29 points.

Reflecting on her Eurovision journey, Benedicte had this to say:

“I did it [Eurovision] with my best friend from childhood [Ingrid Bjørnov] in Dollie de Luxe. And we also decided that we wanted to do it in our way. We always want to be proud of the song and the thing we did. We did not try to make something that would ‘fit.’ We tried to make something that would fit our career and what we wanted to do. We have the same attitude now, Anders and me, and I like to be in a duo. I must say, I really like to work in a duo because I think it’s magical what you can make between two people instead of just me doing my thing.”

– Benedicte Adrian

The other half of MISTRA is Anders Odden. He is perhaps best known for forming one of Norway’s first death metal bands in the late 80s – Cadaver. He has toured the world with his bands, and now he’s back in Norway and at MGP. He told us how he met Benedicte and how their song was born:

“We met in February 2023 during a dinner party with lots of musicians, we were sitting and talking about ideas for new music and suddenly realized that we should do something together, and we had no idea what we were going to do. We just went into my studio and started to work, and then suddenly we wrote the song, which you now know ‘Waltz of Death’ and then I realized this is something truly special and we had to a lot more.”

– Anders Odden

We wish the duo the best of luck on Saturday and look forward to seeing how Waltz of Death will look on stage! Be sure to check out the full interview on your favourite podcast streaming platform!

Photo: Julia Marie Naglestad / NRK