Stephen Gadd
January 23rd, 2018

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Can Whigfield go on to win it for Denmark in Lisbon? (photo: Frank Schwichtenberg)

Ten soloists will compete for the honour of representing Denmark in the Eurovision Song Contest in Lisbon in May this year. Some of the competitors are seasoned veterans but most of them are newcomers, reports DR Nyheder.

One veteran is the singer Sannie Carlson, who now lives in Milan and was previously better known under the name of ‘Whigfield’. In 1994 she had a major hit with the single ‘Saturday Night’.

Two of this year’s soloists have previously taken part in the Danish competition: Albin Fredy from Sweden in 2013 and Ditte Marie, who is trying for the third time after debuting in 2011 as a singer in the group Le Freak and appearing under her own name the year after.

The youngest competitor this year is 17-year-old Anna Ritsmar, who took part in the 2016 series of ‘X Factor’, reaching the final five in her category, but not the live shows.

The Danish competition will be held on February 10 at Gigantium in Aalborg.

Coster-Waldau enthroned on British stamp
Philatelists and fans of the series ‘Game of Thrones’ are now able to buy a series of ten stamps featuring their favourite characters, and there is a Danish actor amongst the heavily British line-up. The UK’s Royal Mail has just issued a set of first class stamps featuring the characters Daenerys Targaryen, Sansa Stark, Jon Snow, Eddard Stark, Olenna Tyrell, Tywin Lannister, Tyrion Lannister, Cersei Lannister, Arya Stark and Jaime Lannister, who is of course played by Danish actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau. The stamps went on sale today and can be ordered via the Royal Mail’s website.

No bitcoins for Nordea employees
Cryptocurrencies may be all the rage at the moment, but the Nordic bank Nordea has issued guidelines forbidding their 31,000 employees from buying bitcoins and other such things, reports Metroxpress. “The market is so unregulated and we are worried that without being aware of it our employees could end up in a situation that is unethical or even criminal,” said Nordea’s acting press officer Stine Green Paulsen. The new rules will come into force on February 28,  but anyone who has already bought cryptocurrencies will not be forced to sell them.

Creating a global fellowship around art
A Danish company has developed a phone app that aims to offer art enthusiasts worldwide the chance to take a peek at private art collections, as well as providing daily content and news from the art scene. The Artland app is nothing if not lofty in its mission statement: “The vision of a global artistic fellowship is based on the belief that the meeting between a thousand-year-old discipline and modern information technology can connect people across borders and forge new ways to experience art.” The app allows collectors to upload, categorise and share pictures they own with other collectors and connoisseurs. “With this app, we offer a platform that piques curiosity, creates room for knowledge-sharing and invites fellowship – all with art in the centre and embracing our digital era,” said Mattis Lund Curth, the CEO of Artland. The Artland app is available globally for iOS and Android and can be downloaded free of charge from artland.com.