After Greece’s internal selection, which saw a number of artists, eventually shortlisted to Good Job Nicky, Joanna Drigo, Ilias Kozas, Lou Is, and Amanda Tenfjord, battle it out for the right to represent the nation in this year’s edition of Eurovision, it was announced on the 15th December last year that accolade would go to Amanda Tenfjord. Following a demo of her entry leaking in February, ‘Die Together’ was officially released on the 10th March.
In this article we take a look at the climactic ballad’s chances in Eurovision this year, as well as the artist behind the song.
Who is Amanda Tenfjord?
Amanda Klara Georgiadis Tenfjord was born on the 9th January 1997 in Ålesund, Norway to a Norwegian mother and a Greek father. She spent her first few years in Ioannina, Greece, before she and her family relocated to Tennfjord in Western Norway. Always musically inclined, she started learning how to play the piano when she was just five. Amanda’s synth-indie-Nordic-pop music features sing-a-long hooks which have a profound compassion and humbleness, and she has drawn comparisons with Adele and London Grammar to name a couple. Interestingly, Amanda attended the same class as well-known artist Sigrid, and previously stated that she was the inspiration for her to pursue a career as a music artist when they were in secondary school.
Amanda’s song ‘Run’, which was the first song she wrote at age 16, won the Music Prize in 2015 and made an appearance in an advertisement for Personskadeforbundet LTN in the previous year. In 2016, she was a participant in the music competition ‘The Stream’ on TV 2, in which she finished among the top 30 participants. Amanda went on to release her first EP in 2018 ‘First Impression’ under the stage name Amanda Tenfjord, inspired by the city she grew up in. The EP received excellent reviews and introduced her with a natural sense of crafting pop music. In 2019, her song ‘Let Me Think’ made an appearance on NRK P3, and while performing at the music festival Trondheim Calling (which she entered for fun), she caught the eye of a record label and was subsequently signed. Amanda’s second EP contains the song ‘Then I Fell in Love’ which enjoyed success via radio play, and charted for more than 20 weeks in the Norwegian official top 10 radio chart.
Generally, Amanda has been praised by publications including The FADER and NME. Her songs have travelled worldwide, including being featured in Netflix’s ‘Spinning Out’ and NRK/BBC3’s ‘Nudes’. She has taken part in festivals such as ‘Reeperbahn’ in Germany, ‘The Great Escape’ in the UK, and ‘Eurosonic’ in Netherlands, together with several tours in her native Norway, in which she has also toured with the band Highasakite. She moreover earned the Haram Municipality Youth Culture Prize in 2019.
Aside from music, Amanda is notably talented in another field. In 2015, she moved to Trondheim in order to attend the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, studying medicine. She decided to prioritise her music career in 2019, but nevertheless also has been doing her placement in a hospital for patients with COVID-19.
How well will Amanda Tenfjord do at ESC?
Greece will be performing 15th in semi final one, nestled between Iceland and Norway. Although performing after another ‘slow’ song in ‘Með Hækkandi Sól’ and not having usual points-swapper Cyprus in the semi with them isn’t ideal, I think it’s safe to say such conditions shouldn’t affect them, performing towards the end of the lineup is a good draw, and unless ERT completely mismanages the staging and ends up ruining the overall presentation of the entry on the night (which even Amanda’s silky voice alone could save), we can assume we’ll be hearing ‘Die Together’ on Saturday night.
From release, ‘Die Together’ has been a fan favourite entry, praising the build, the production, and the flawless vocals. At the time of writing, Greece sits in the top 10 of the odds to win the contest, and has been discussed widely as a potential contender. On the other hand, people have criticised the length of time it takes for the song to ‘explode’ and have wondered if people watching on the night will ‘get bored’ before the heavier production kicks in. Although, it’s generally agreed that Greece’s fate will be decided by the overall stage show, and we wait in anticipation to see what they decide to do, and whether their chances will diminish, or we have the possibility of a second Greek win on our hands.
You can listen to the Greek entry ‘Die Together’ below:
What’s your opinion on Greece’s song for Eurovision 2022? How well do you think they’ll do? Are we looking at a big contender for the win or a potential under scorer? Let us know!