Mile after mile - Jahn Teigen

Although Jahn Teigen wasn't exactly successful with his 'Mil etter mil' at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1978, he did record the song in English. It was surprisingly difficult to get this single for a reasonable price, even online. In the end, I wound up buying this copy together with three rarer Norwegian singles from a Norwegian seller late last year.

Jahn even recorded the B-side 'Claudius' in English. This copy was made in Norway; the single was also released in Germany with a different sleeve.

My collection: 7" single no. 7107
Found: Discogs.com, received 3 January 2024
Tracks: 'Mile after mile' / 'Claudius'

Mil etter mil - Jahn Teigen

Jahn Teigen became a celebrity in Norway because of 'Mil etter mil'. Not because he won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1978 with 'Mil etter mil', but rather because he lost... He ended up in last place with zero points. Normally you would expect everyone to turn against him, but Jahn turned his misfortune into a triumph: later that same year he released an album called 'This year's loser', which sold like hot cakes.

Meanwhile, the single dominated the Norwegian singles chart for more than four months, being among the 10 most-bought singles for no less than 19 consecutive weeks, for five of those also topping the chart for the nation's most popular international hit. After 30 years in the nation's spotlight, this remains his most successful hit. Perhaps that's why he had a few more attempts at Eurovision fame... for instance with the songs Adieu and Do re mi.

My collection: 7" single no. 6642
Found: Discogs.com, received 1 March 2022
Cost: €4
Tracks: 'Mil etter mil', 'Claudius' / 'I natt er jeg din'

Do re mi - Jahn Teigen

Jahn Teigen is known as a three time representative for Norway at the Eurovision Song Contest, in 1978, 1982 and 1983. For some reason, the adjective 'unsuccessful' always seems to spring to mind, but in fact, his last attempt was quite successful. 'Do re mi' was written by Teigen with his wife Anita Skorgan and ended up in ninth place at the Contest.

Although Teigen appeared in the Eurovision Song Contest three times, he participated in no less than fourteen(!) Norwegian national finals: in 1974, 1975, 1976, 1978, 1980, 1982, 1983, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1993, 1994, 1996 and once again as late as in 2005. In addition to this, Teigen has been the host of Melodi Grand Prix and provided the interval act of the Melodi Grand Prix on a number of occasions. He has also acted as commentator for Norwegian television in 1991 in Rome, together with Jon Andreassen.

My collection: 7" single no. 5256
Found: Record fair, Utrecht, November 19, 2011
Cost: 6 euro
Tracks: 'Do re mi (English version)' / 'Do re mi (Norwegian version)'

Tell me - Jahn Teigen and Anita Skorgan

This is the first Eurovision Song Contest-related single I ever bought. That's quite amazing, because I don't live in Norway and I had been following the Contest for three years already. But this single came cheap and the memory of the song had faded but was still clear enough for me to remember that I actually liked it better than that year's winning song, 'Ein Bisschen Frieden' by Nicole. The single contained the English and Norwegian version of the song 'Adieu'.

Jahn Teigen participated three times in the Contest, of which 1982's 'Adieu', together with his wife at the time, Anita Skorgan, was the second. They ended up at twelfth place, which seemed like a great injustice to me at the time. Even now I think it was a great song - but perhaps not as overwhelming as a Bambi-eyed German girl singing about peace.

My collection: 7" single no. 136

Found: Disco Market, Den Haag, 1982

Cost: 1 guilder

Tracks: 'Tell me' / 'Adieu'

Download: here