During the weekend that was, I finally returned back home to the UK!

I had an AMAZING experience over in Norway!

Time for a resume about what I thought about the show and my experience \m/

As I’ve written in my previous entry I was asked if I would be a coach and judge in the heavy metal genre for Norwegian Saturday Night prime-time TV-Show “Stjernekamp”.

This is a show where established artists every weekend perform a song in a different genre, competing to see who will be Norway’s greatest and most versatile artist.

They are all taken out of their comfort zones and have to try out styles that are completely new to them.

This certainly sounded exciting and I accepted the offer!

You can see the whole episode on the link below \m/

https://tv.nrk.no/serie/stjernekamp/KMTE60004715/10-10-2015

If you wanna know how I felt about doing this you can keep on reading 😛

First they flew me in to do an interview where I spoke about the history of heavy metal and the role and challenges a heavy metal vocalist has to cope with.

Some days later I spent a whole day coaching the participants in this genre that was completely new to most of them. I didn’t really know what to expect as I had never coached anyone vocally before ( I only had experience with giving guitar lessons), but both them and I, and eventually the viewers, loved it 😉

I had lots of comments and feedback for all of them, and felt a bit like the “Metal-Police” if there ever was such a thing 😛

Despite me wondering whether or not I was being too picky with these people (who are all established stars in their own right), it was fun as hell to see how tiny adjustments could make such a difference. But that’s what it is like to work with professionals.

Then came Saturday the 10th, and it was time for the show \m/

I was suspecting that the show would be phenomenally good, I thought to myself, ” Damn, if these guys do live what they did during rehearsal, we are truly up for one hell of a show.”

And a hell of a show is exactly what we got, indeed!!!!

You can check out all the heavy metal performances right here on this playlist \m/

Kudos to the producers for having Gospel & Heavy Metal on the same day! It made for a spectacular contrast both in themes, styles and the music itself.

Also thanks a lot to the production team for the great intro video they had made about me! That was really, really cool. Talk about a great introduction \m/

The heavy metal part of the show kicked off and dude…it made me so happy to see how well everyone did!

During rehearsal (and also backstage before the show kicked off), a number of the artists were nervous about singing and tackling the metal genre and a couple were afraid of coming across as too comical. As they thought the lyrics/etc…were quite hilarious….

But none of these worries came to fruit as they were all able to deliver a credible heavy metal performance, serious, with lots of attitude, convincing vocal renditions etc, it was simply amazing!

It made me happy to see how happy they were and that’s what any form of coaching is all about. Other people’s happiness makes your day, if that isn’t the case, you should never coach anyone at all.

I especially loved Maria & Heidi’s performances, those two were my favourites \m/ Check out Heidi signing “Run To The Hills” \m/

They all received standing ovation from the judge panel, with the exception of one, which sadly was Celine, who was eventually voted out 😦

Looking back she truly was a firework on that stage and totally rocked it! But she was the first act on and the competition was hard as all the artists gave it their all.

They also competed in two genres that day. So the voters were not only voting for their favourite metal performance…

Trine Rein literally gave me goosebumps with her rendition of “Amazing Grace”,

Maria floored everyone with her “Joyful Joyful”

and Knut Erik was absolutely epic with his “A Change Is Gonna Come”. Especially cool was his reason for picking this track, half the choir refused to sing with him because of his beliefs regarding same-sex marriage. Check out the ending of this vid.

The metal part of the show was fun to watch, in fact a pleasure, I really truly enjoyed it 🙂

This is a resume of the feedback from the judges ( including myself):

http://www.nrk.no/kultur/stjernekamp-dommernes-tilbakemelding-1.12596657

It was an absolute highlight to be part of such a big production, without any doubt!!! It is something I would gladly do again!

The feedback from the people who saw the episode was mind-blowing and a couple of the performers exclaimed that singing heavy metal  ” was the coolest thing they had ever done”!

Heavy Metal is all about energy and giving it your all \m/

That’s exactly what they all did and that’s why this show was so utterly amazing!

Check out the full episode below! You can actually stream this wherever you are I’ve been told \m/

https://tv.nrk.no/serie/stjernekamp/KMTE60004715/10-10-2015

Thanks again to Monster Productions and NRK \m/ This was an awesome experience \m/

If anyone is interested in singing and/or guitar lessons you can order it here:

http://www.commandermusic.com/guitar-lessons.html