Australian Anja Nissen one of 10 finalists in Denmark

Australian Anja Nissen is one of the ten candidates in the final van Melodi Grand Prix in Denmark this year. The names of the ten artists have been leaked on Spotify today, and the winner of The Voice of Australia is on the list with the song ‘Never alone’.

The Danish final will take place on February 13th live from Horsens. The other nine candidates are:

David Jay – Rays of Sunlight
Simone – Heart Shaped
Hole Muri & Mario – To Stjerner
Sophia Nohr – Blue Horizon
Veronicas Illusion – The Wrong Kind
Lighthouse x – Soldiers of Love
Kristel Lisberg – Who Needs a Heart
Jessica – Break it Good
Bracelet – Breakaway

Emmelie de Forest

‘Never Alone’ was written by former Eurovision winner Emmelie de Forest. She performed this song herself at a concert one year ago; whether that counts as “early release”, remains to be seen.

Anja Nissen was born in Winmalee, New South Wales in Australia to Danish parents. Her mother and father emigrated to Australia when they were 11 and 22 years old, respectively. Nissen grew up on her parents’ farm in Winmalee with her older sister and brother.

In 2008, Nissen made it to the semi-finals of Season 2 of popular talent-search TV show, Australia’s Got Talent, aged 12. Since then she appeared on a number of TV shows, including Young Talent Time, Mornings with Kerri-Anne and the annual Schools Spectacular. She also performed the Danish national anthem in the company of Crown Princess Mary of Denmark, before winning the third series of The Voice of Australia.

Leak by DR

Other artists to watch out for are Simone, who has taken part in the Danish national final before, in 2010, and in 2013, where she came third to eventual Eurovision champion Emmelie de Forest, and of course multilingual Danish/Italian duo Muri and Mario who have a cult following on YouTube across many countries in Europe.

The full list of candidates for the Danish National final was also today confirmed by broadcaster DR in a tweet posted earlier this afternoon. Confirmation of these names comes over two weeks earlier than expected. The date for the publication of this year’s Danish entries was January 28th. Last year a similar thing happened. The broadcaster then accidentally sent out the official CDs to fans and journalists four days early.

Denmark will be hoping to improve on last year’s result as 2015 was the first year since 2007 that Denmark failed to qualify for the grand final of the Eurovision Song Contest.