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.