Bobbysocks

Bobbysocks was a Norwegian pop duo consisting of Norwegian Hanne Krogh and Swedish-Norwegian Elisabeth Andreassen. They won the Eurovision Song Contest 1985 with the song "La det swinge" ("Let it swing").

The duo was formed in 1983. Both Hanne and Elisabeth are serial Eurovision contestants. Hanne has appeared three times, all for Norway, in 1971 as a soloist, with Bobbysocks in 1985 and as part of Just4Fun in 1991. Elisabeth sang for Sweden as one half of Chips in 1982 and after winning with Bobbysocks, teamed up with Jan Werner Danielsson in 1994 and sang solo in 1996. According to author and historian John Kennedy O'Connor's "The Eurovision Song Contest - The Official History" Elisabeth is one of only four lead artists to sing in the contest on four occasions and is also one of only four artists to finish both first and second in Eurovision (1985 & 1996). [O'Connor, John Kennedy. The Eurovision Song Contest - The Official History. Carlton Books, UK. 2007 ISBN 978-1-84442-994-3]

Bobbysocks were awarded the Peer Gynt Prize in 1985, which is a prize awarded by Stortinget (Norway's parliament).

Bobbysocks was disbanded in 1988, however, Hanne and "Bettan" (Andreassen) still appear on stage together. They made a guest appearance at "Congratulations", the 50th anniversary Eurovision concert in Copenhagen, Denmark in October 2005.

How the duo was formed

The idea behind the creation of the group Bobbysocks was Hanne Krogh's work. She wanted to form a duo made up by two already established artists who were to perform the music she had grown up with. It's said that the background for this inspiration was the incident that Hanne at one point had where her fortune was told by a clairvoyant [http://home.online.no/~geskogse/treff_h2005.html] . This person told Hanne that she was about to achieve huge success through a duo composed by herself and another Norwegian artist. One of the artists Hanne had in mind was Anita Skorgan. Her first meeting with Bettan she had during a visit to Belgium in 1984. Hanne was in serious doubts to whether it was correct of her to choose Bettan since the prophecy had stated the artist had to be Norwegian. However, when it came clear to Hanne that Bettan actually was in the possession of a Norwegian passport, there was nothing more to discuss. Elisabeth Andreassen was overly enthusiastic about the idea. Bettan had previously sung in Eurovision - for Sweden - in 1982 as one half of another female duo, Chips. Bettan's partner in Chips was Kikki Danielsson. When Bobbysocks won Eurovision in 1985, they beat Sweden's Kikki into third place.

References

Discography

Albums

*1984: "Bobbysocks" (re-released in 1985)
*1986: "Waiting for the Morning"
*1987 - "Walkin' on Air"

ee also

* [http://www.thebobbysoxbrigade.com The Bobbysox Brigade] , a professional swing dance troupe.
*Europride
*Eurovision Song Contest
*Eurovision Song Contest 1985
*Melodi Grand Prix
*Melodifestivalen
*Elisabeth Andreassen
*Hanne Krogh

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