This Saturday, Australia’s Anja Nissen will compete to represent Denmark at the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 in Stockholm. But she had almost represented her own country Australia last year in Vienna! “I got offered to do Eurovision for Australia, but then that didn’t happen,” she tells ESC Daily in an exclusive interview leading up to the DMGP final.
Nissen regrets how things turned out, and would happily represent Australia if a new chance would arrive. “Anything to do with Eurovision I would love to do.” But first, she is up in the Danish selection process for Eurovision. Her song ‘Never Alone’ was written by Emmelie de Forrest. “It is just very fun, vibrant, loud, energetic. Everybody can relate to it, and it is suited for Eurovision because it is about people coming together.”
When she got the offer to participate in DMGP, she reacted surprised. “Even though I am a dual citizen, I just never thought this was possible. But it is!” The fact that the show is in Denmark, makes the experience completely different from her run at The Voice of Australia. “In terms of the stage rehearsals and everything, it is very similar, so I am glad to have had that experience. But it is also very different, because of the language, and the interviews in Danish. I am only just beginning to learn Danish.”
Delta Goodrem
The ties between Anja Nissen and SBS’ Eurovision department have been close from the beginning. Although Delta Goodrem was not on the jury of The Voice of Australia when Anja Nissen won it, Nissen was offered Delta’s song ‘My Girls’ as her debut single. “There was talk of it, but there was a lot of songs in option. So it just never got selected for me.”
In the end, ‘My Girls’ went on to be Bella Paige’s Junior Eurovision entry for Australia, while Delta Goodrem is rumoured as a possible participant for Australia in 2016. Nissen thinks she would be a great choice. “But it would be really weird if I win DMGP, because then we would be against eachother. I would never want to be against her, because she is lovely.”
