Dansk Melodi Grand Prix, Denmark’s national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest is taking place this Saturday in Copenhagen. 10 acts are going to compete in order to be the act that will represent Denmark in Rotterdam. There are only three songs in Danish language, and one of them is “Den eneste goth i Vejle”, performed by Maja & De Sarte Sjæle.

We had a great pleasure to talk to Maja and Timo (a member of De Sarte Sjæle) ahead of this year’s DMGP, and we asked them about their collaboration, their entry in DMGP, upcoming performance in the show, and more. Check it all out in this interview here:

Hello Maja and Timo! Thank you for taking your time out for talking to us. Can you tell us a bit about your music career so far?

We have been releasing our music since 2016, but started the band about 10 years ago. We entered a contest on the radio called “Karrierekanonen” (Career canon), which was where we were discovered. We got a record deal with Universal Music Denmark and released our first single “Uden Dig” and then also an album back in 2016. Our song “Uden Dig” was one of the most played songs on the radio that year.  In 2019, we released two new singles and then this year, we released our DMGP song “Den eneste goth i Vejle” (The only goth in Vejle).

How long have the two of you known each other for, and how did your collaboration start?

Timo had some songs that he thought could be funny to record. He knew a friend who knew someone who could sing, and that was Maja and that’s how it started.

What made you enter DMGP this year?

The DMGP chose to make some changes in the show, or the way the music is being presented. e.g. there is now a live band (this wasn’t a thing before), and they wanted to focus a bit more on the music and the different genres but also Danish music in Danish, and this appealed to us. We are both big fans of the 80s and 90s Eurovision shows. Our music isn’t normally very Eurovision-like, but we are happy about the new adjustments that the DMGP has made this year.

Can you tell us more about the team, and the message behind your song?

We are a band of six musicians and we all recorded the DMGP song. The song was produced by Lasse Lyngbo and Thor Nørgaard in Copenhagen. Timo has written the song and regarding the message, well the song is about divorce and it’s seen from the perspective of the children. Normally in divorces, sometimes the parents forget about the children and maybe the message could be that they should remember that it’s not only a divorce between the parents but also a situation which affects the children, and that they should consider this!

Your song is in Danish. Should you win DMGP, would you keep your song in Danish for Eurovision as well, or would you translate it into English?

We don’t know yet. Perhaps. We haven’t decided yet. It’s hard to imagine that we might win 😉

How are your preparations for the show going?

A lot of the things around the performance is out of our hands. The Danish Broadcasting company have very professional and amazing people taking care of anything regarding our performance on stage. There is a lot to do but it’s so much fun to be part of something this big, where someone has an opinion about how we should look and how we look our best. But we feel that the staff listen and sense us in a very good way because we don’t want to lose ourselves.

What kind of performance can we expect from you at DMGP?

There is only going to be Maja and Timo on stage. We are not gonna go crazy with glitter and confetti, it will be colorful and nostalgic. No extra, fancy stuff. But we will give you and the audience a very “Maja og de sarte sjæle” like performance. At least, that’s how we imagine it.

Do you normally watch Eurovision, and did any song in particular catch your attention in the last couple of years?

We haven’t quite followed Eurovision that closely, mostly the DMGP but the Dutch band The Common Linnets entered with the song “Calm After The Storm” some years ago, and we LOVE it! Also Lordi is still fresh in our minds!

What are your plans for after DMGP, and possibly after Eurovision?

Our plan is to release an EP and play some more concerts around Denmark. We hope that more people will discover our music, and we hope that we can just keep making music the way we do.

Thank you guys for your time, and I wish you the best of luck in DMGP!

Give a listen to “Den eneste goth i Vejle” right here:

Let us know which of the 10 finalists in Denmark is your personal favorite by voting in our poll right here: