A EUROVISION contestant who wrote his song in Sussex has won an award for the composition.

Kjetil Mørland was inspired to pen A Monster Like Me while living in Shoreham five years ago with his then girlfriend Nicola.

The pair married two years later and they now live in Oslo. On Saturday his duet of the tune with Debrah Scarlett saw his homeland of Norway finish eighth in the Eurovision Song Contest with 102 points.

To add to his delight at scoring so highly, he was also awarded the Marcel Bezençon Award for the best composed song in the competition – a title voted for by his fellow competitors.

The 34-year-old singer said winning the award was the “highlight” of his career.

He said: “This is an award voted by all my fellow songwriters in the competition – many who work as professional songwriters. So this meant just as much to me as a good placement in the competition.

“Eurovision was an amazing experience. I never imagined it was this huge – you definitely have to be down there to realise how big the event is, I've never seen anything like it.

“We are very happy with our performances, reaching the grand final and finishing 8th out of 40 countries. A Monster Like Me is a song I never wrote for Eurovision and I didn't expect it to do so well on such a commercial stage. I'm overwhelmed by the fantastic response from all over the world.

“It's now in iTunes charts all across Europe and is still getting a good amount of radio play.”

His wife, 31, who was born and bred in Shoreham, said: “I am extremely proud of Kjetil, he did such an amazing job on that stage. The entire Eurovision experience was fantastic.”

The Swedish entry, performed by Mans Zelmerlow, won the overall contest with 365 points.

Second was Russia with 303 and third was Italy with 292.

The British entry, performed by Electro Velvet, came 24th with just five points.

Since winning Mr Zelmerlow has soared in the UK charts to number five with his song Heroes.

In comparison, the British entry did not even make the top 50.

 

 

background
SINGER songwriter Kjetil Mørland is best known as the front man of British rock-pop band Absent Elk.
He has loved music since the age of seven when he discovered how to dub his voice over a song on a double cassette player.
He met his wife Nicola at Kingston University and the pair lived in Shoreham before marrying and moving to Oslo.
Nicola attended Kings Manor School, then Worthing Sixth Form College to study photography and design, before an art course in Brighton.
After graduating from university she worked as a graphic designer and briefly worked for Shoreham-based Dreamshock Design Studios