Many viewers and people in the audience at last night’s final round must have been baffled when Jury president Nikolaj Znaider suddenly awarded an unofficial “Fairy Tale Prize” to the English music commentator Norman Lebrecht.
Of course they had no idea that on the day of the finals Norman Lebrecht had written a caustic comment on the disagreements among the jury members that had emerged during competition week. Lebrecht made it very clear that he didn’t agree with the way Nikolaj Znaider had handled the situation. Under the heading “Just in: Nielsen contest is wrecked by open jury row” he tore into the jury row and Znaider’s tackling of it, which showed according to Lebrecht that Znaider did not “think any of them [the finalists] is worthy of the prize”.
This was the statement Nikolaj Znaider gave to DR that caused the English commentator to see red:
“There was a clear majority in favour of the three contestants who have ended up in the finals. It’s just not a verdict I can concur with.” The statement is reported in this interview.
Nikolaj Znaider and the rest of the jury responded to Lebarth’s criticism with a “Fairy Tale Prize”.
The video below reveals all:
http://mu.net.dr.dk/admin/programcard/get/?id=urn:dr:mu:programcard:571a87866187a404d8e7e027