It’s our penultimate Nordic country – and those of you paying attention will know who is my top placed Nordic this year. Denmark are three-times winners, and after a couple of poor years with non-qualifications, they made it back to the grand final last year. Can they repeat that return to form this year?

With some Eurovision entries, it is obvious which country or part of Europe/the EBU they come from. That can usually be said especially of songs from the Balkans, Greece, Israel etc but this year, we also have that sort of song coming from a Scandinavian country. Yes, this is a song about a (good) Viking. On first listen or viewing, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the actor who plays Thormund Giantsbane in Game of Thrones had decided to enter Eurovision!

Rasmussen himself (pictured here with yours truly at the London Eurovision Party) also makes the joke about how he looks like that character/actor and it’s fair to say the song itself feels like it could come from one of those historical/fantasy TV programmes – or maybe more likely from a musical of those stories. It might feel a bit twee, but it has an anthemic feel about it, and Rasmussen has been doing a good job of connecting with the audience in live performances. He’s a lovely guy as well!

Qualification wise I think this has got to stand a reasonable chance of going through. It has voting allies Norway and Sweden in the same semi-final, and also it is in the more open/easier semi 2. I think this will get a decent televote (am less certain about juries), and quite likely enough to qualify.

Official music video (also live performance):

Denmark at the Eurovision Song Contest:

 First entered: 1957

Appearances (excluding this year): 46

Best result: Winner 1963, 2000, 2013

Last year’s result: 20th