Interview Mørland & Debrah Scarlett: ‘We just want our song to shine on stage in Vienna’

After winning the final of the Norwegian Melodi Grand Prix, Mørland and Debrah Scarlett will represent Norway in the Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna this year with the intriguing ballad ‘A Monster Like Me’. They are considered to be favourites in the competition as the bookmakers place them in top 10 at the moment. I talked to them about how they met, what the song is all about and how they will present themselves on stage in Vienna.

Who is the monster and what terrible thing did he do in his ‘early youth’?
Debrah: The monster lives in all of us.
Mørland: That’s the thing about this song. There are secrets in the lyrics that everybody could interpret in his own way and it would be a shame to reveal it all right here and now.
Debrah:The song functions as a mirror. We all have a monster within ourselves and as a work of art, you can make of the lyrics what you want.

How did you write the song, Mørland?
Mørland: I wrote it rather quicky and I was influenced by the room I was in at that moment. The mood in the room did something to me and the song came out of the blue. I sat down and the words and melody just came to me.

And on what moment did you think this song could actually work for Eurovision? Mørland: Obviously I didn’t write it for Eurovision and I never thought I would participate, but I was curious to see what would happen and yet here we are.

Debrah, Mørland asked you to feature after he heard you sing in the Norwegian version of The Voice. What were your thoughts when you first heard ‘A Monster Like Me’?
Debrah: I was at home with my laptop. He sent the song to me after he asked me to join the competition on the phone. I didn’t know what to do as I was a bit sceptical I guess, but after I heard the song I was encouraged to do it as I can fully stand behind this song.

How do you prepare yourself for the big night in Vienna?
Mørland: Well, we know the song so well now, so we are working to get the choreography right and think about the costumes, the light, the stage and everything.
Debrah: We also do our best to stay healthy and sing a lot to be at our best when we need to.

Will your performance be similar to what we have seen on the Melodi Grand Prix stage?
Debrah: It will be different and better. I was very happy with our performance in Norway, but we always want to reach for a higher level and that is a process we are going through right now. Mørland: We just want the song to shine and we wouldn’t like to distract people by a big production on stage. We will keep it simple, honest and clean.

For the music video, you took a completely different approach with a dark and twisted tale. Tell me more about that.
Mørland: That idea came up, because it totally fits the song as well. ‘A Monster Like Me’ has a mystic feel about it and we wanted to create a visual that suits this. The strings in the song sound quite cinematic so that all fits together perfectly in our eyes.

Are you planning to work together more in the future?
Mørland: I think we will have to, because everybody is asking us this! Debrah: Yes! But I think we are both open to the idea. Of course we are both solo artists and we write our own music, but we will see what happens in the future!

Did you listen to the other songs yet? Any favourites?
Debrah: I haven’t heard all of them, but so far, Belgium is my favourite. ‘Rhythm Inside’ is a cool, refreshing and modern song with a very good voice!

Thanks guys and good luck!