Nora Brockstedt born 20 January 1923

Nora Brockstedt (20 January 1923 – 5 November 2015) was a Norwegian singer whose pioneering presence on radio and television helped define Norwegian entertainment. 

She was born Nora Berg in Oslo and ever since she won a talent contest at the Jordal Amphitheatre in 1942 and made her debut at Chat Noir in 1943 as part of the Harmony Duo. Their debut single was released  in 1944: “Kanskje engang tilbake den kommer”/”Enn en gang skal fuglene synge”. In 1951, now married, Brockstedt co-founded The Monn Keys, and participated in their first 30 recordings until 1955. The Monn Keys, also included Arne Bendiksen and Egil Monn-Iversen. Nora still has a solo contract and in 1953 released “Du, du, du”, followed by several others. In 1955  she had offers of engagement as a vocalist after Alice Babs left Scandinavia's most prestigious big band, Thore Ehrling's orchestra. Thus, she left The Monn Keys. 

                                   

The very popular "Tango for to" (1957), with which she had equal success in Norwegian, Swedish and Icelandic, began a long and fruitful collaboration with Alf Prøysen and Bjarne Amdahl. They wrote more than 20 songs for her. She also performed in the musical “Hu Dagmar”. In 1959, she released her first album in Sweden. By that time, Nora had become one of the most popular singers in the Nordic Region, especially in Norway and Sweden.  

When Norway took part in the European Song Contest for the first time, in 1960, it was Nora Brockstedt who represented the country, and was placed an impressive fourth with her song Voi Voi. She also won the Norwegian final the next year, with Sommer i Palma, and in 1963 with Solhverv. She took part in the international contest, known in Norway as Melodi Grand Prix, no less than 11 times and played a major role in the hype that still surrounds the contest to this day. 

She was more than a pop music star whom some NRK officials called “Mother Grand Prix.” She recorded many of the folk songs written by  Alf Prøysen, and was perhaps most famous for “Tango for to.” She even sang jazz in nynorsk, the less-used official form of the Norwegian language that’s rooted in dialect. After pop broke through in the mid-1960s, Nora Brockstedt entered a quieter period. It was only in 1970 that she released her first entire album in Norway, “Noe nytt”.  In 1974 she received the Spellemannprisens honorary award, and the following year two children's albums were released. She played in the tv series “Tøydokke-Anna” and in NRK’s popular advent calendar from 1979. 

In the 80s she toured extensively for Rikskonsertene and ensured that her voice became known to a new generation. Towards the end of the 80s, she was again one of NRK's most frequently played artists. This resulted in her first CD "Hilsen Nora" (1990), a low-key collection of jazz ballads and songs with Norwegian and Swedish lyrics. In 1993 she celebrated her 70th birthday with a new Prøysen CD and in 1995 her 50th anniversary as an artist with the double "Tango for two" – a cross-section of her entire career. 

Brockstedt impressed fans and colleagues alike by maintaining her voice and having such a long career. Her 80th birthday was marked by recording a pure jazz CD in her own name “As Time Goes By” – a dream she had carried for a long time. In 2005 she released “Christmas Songs.” Jazz was an important sidetrack in her musical career from the very beginning. This was especially marked by the album she released when she turned 85 on January 20, 2008: "Nora – too swinging! 

She won many awards and clearly enjoyed being inducted into Norway’s musical Hall of Fame at the Rockheim Museum in Trondheim in 2013. “She was Norway’s queen of popular songs,” said Vidar Lønn-Arnesen, a longtime program host for NRK. 

Brockstedt died at Ullevål University Hospital in Oslo on 5 November 2015 after what her family described as a “short illness.” 

(Edited from Eurovision Universe, Norway News In English, Nettavisen News & Wikipedia)