Welcome to That Eurovision Site’s 2024 Advent Calendar! Each day at 10:00CET we’ll be highlighting one of our favourite holiday themed songs from across the Eurovision sphere! Today is 3rd December and our featured song today is “A Winter’s Night” by KEiiNO, who represented Norway at Eurovision 2019. Happy Holidays!
Behind the 3rd door on the TES Advent Calendar is…
About “A Winter’s Night”
Released in November 2020, “A Winter’s Night” is significantly more stripped back than KEiiNO’s usual club-friendly releases. The band said of the song, “we wanted to make a song that could give the listener a bit of the same effect as a big, soft blanket,” highlighting this with an acoustic instrumental and a string quartet. The theme of the song–missing a loved one–was especially poignant in 2020, with the world less than a year into the Covid-19 pandemic. Half of the proceeds from the song were donated to a mental health helpline in Norway. The song was written by the band alongside Tom’s husband Alexander Nyborg Olsson as well as Stein Roger Sordal (Unbreakable, Own Music)
What do we think?
I really like this song because it gives Alexandra a chance to shine. While I love KEiiNO’s usual style, I think that Alexandra’s voice is the band’s best asset and sometimes doesn’t get highlighted as much as it could be. The song is also proof that when they want to, the band can produce good music outside of their comfort zone. It’s good for a casual, background listen, and I find that the instrumental really produces the calming effect that they set out to achieve.
That said, some of the lyrics are a little clunky, and this is one KEiiNO song where the joik just… does not work. I found that it took me out of the atmosphere slightly when it started and took me a minute to fully reconcile it with the rest of the song.
KEiiNO’s Eurovision Journey
KEiiNO–consisting of Tom Hugo, Fred Buljo, and Alexandra Rotan–burst onto the Eurovision scene in 2019, where they achieved a fifth place for Norway with their song “Spirit in the Sky”. They have since returned to Melodi Grand Prix with the songs “Monument” (2021) and “Damdiggida” (2024), finishing in second place both times. Outside of Eurovision, they appear at Pride events, and frequently release singles. They have one album, 2020’s Okta, and one EP, Midnight Marina, released in 2023.
What do you think of today’s song? As always, please let us know what you think by getting involved in the comments below. Also, be sure to follow ‘That Eurovision Site’ on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Threads, tumblr, and Bluesky for more information about Eurovision 2025!
Photo Credit – Photo Credit – Alexander Kot-Zaitsaǔ, Gabriel Luengas/Europa Press (Collage by That Eurovision Site)
News Source – That Eurovision Site
Thomas James