| The Danish viewers were in no doubt – and so 33 year-old Jakob Sveistrup earned a brilliant victory at the Danish National Song Contest 2005. Among others, he beat The Olsen Brothers who won the Eurovision Song Contest in 2000.
Jakob Sveistrup is not a professional singer. He is a school teacher and works in a special school for children with autistic spectrum disorder. But the children will have to wait before they are taught by their favourite teacher again – after winning the Danish National Song Contest, Jakob has had to take a leave of absence from school to satisfy all the Danes that would like to see him perform.
Jakob Sveistrup lives and works in Odense. He became known by the Danes when he participated in ‘Star for a Night’ on DR TV in 2003. He nearly went all the way but was beaten in the final. At the Danish National Song Contest, however, nobody beat Jakob who performed ‘Talking to You’ with enthusiasm and great energy.
‘Talking to You’ is composed by Jacob Launbjerg and Andreas Mørck, two experienced songwriters, who earn a living by writing for various artists including the Danish group Zee U and the former Norwegian Song Contest singer Haldor Lægreid. Jacob Launbjerg has some previous experience from the Danish National Song Contest – he has written songs and sung at several Danish National Song Contests. For several years he was a regular member of the Danish National Song Contest backing vocal group.
Jacob Launbjerg and Andreas Mørck didn’t know Jakob Sveistrup when they composed the song – he was recommended to them. But when they heard him sing, there was no doubt in their minds that Jakob was the one. The Danish viewers had no doubts either when they heard Jakob perform. They voted for him to represent Denmark in Kyiv, where he will perform in front of the whole of Europe. |
