Denmark's Host-Year Second Place Almost Buys a Repeat

MAY 15 2001 · 12:15

Rollo & King · "Never Ever Let You Go" · Denmark · 2001 Placement: 2 · Score: 177 · Language: English · Composers: Søren Poppe · Venue: Parken Stadium · Host: Copenhagen, Denmark · Type: upset · Broadcast: digital hd Denmark is hosting for the first time since 1964, and DR has turned a Copenhagen football stadium into the biggest Eurovision venue in history, 38,000 seats in open air. Rollo & King take the stage in matching white suits, deliver a polished country-rock ballad with pedal steel and close harmony, and ride the home crowd's energy to 177 points. Only Estonia's Tanel Padar & Dave Benton beat them. The closeness, 21 points, is agonizing. Context The Olsen Brothers' 2000 win had given Denmark its first Eurovision victory in 37 years. DR scaled up enormously to host, choosing the open-air Parken to handle the audience demand. Rollo & King were studio musicians who'd won Dansk Melodi Grand Prix on the strength of genre-crossover appeal. Legacy The 2001 Parken show remains the largest-audience Eurovision ever staged. Denmark wouldn't win again until Emmelie de Forest 2013. Rollo & King remained working musicians in Denmark, Rollo Solbjerg wrote songs for subsequent Dansk Melodi entries. 'Never Ever Let You Go' still charts on Danish summer radio.