Joachim With Steen known as the artist JOWST (JOachim With STeen) didn't write 'Grab the Moment' with Eurovision in mind, but decided to send it in to Norwegian national broadcaster NRK and Eurovision, at the same time he sent the song to record companies.
The record companies didn’t respond but NRK chose the song as one of ten songs to compete in the Norwegian Eurovision final in March of this year.
After being chosen JOWST considered not participating, but decided to grab the moment, go for it and the rest is history.
On his website JOWST writes: "Originally I nicely turned down the offer to participate in Eurovision. But then I remembered what the song was about."
JOWST then went from performing on a small stage at a student concert with about 362 people in the audience - his largest concert to date - to representing his country on the world’s largest stage with more than 200 million viewers.
'JOWST making a hit'
The song that ended up as 'Grab the Moment', was first a project where Joachim invited a few of his musically interested friends to a closed Facebook group called 'JOWST making a hit.'
Through this project he and songwriter Jason McDonnell, whose background is in rap and pop, improved the song based on the feedback they got.
Then it was submitted to several record companies, and for fun sent to NRK which then picked it for the Norwegian Eurovision final.
Joachim teams up with Aleksander
The next step was to find a singer for the song, and after meeting a few candidates Joachim chose Aleksander Walmann.
Aleksander came into the limelight in the Norwegian version of the music show 'The Voice', and has been the support act for several well renowned Norwegian artists like Sondre Lerche.
Joachim tells SBS Norwegian that he chose Aleksander because "the two of them had the best chemistry."
"It was very easy to say yes," Alexander tells SBS Norwegian of working with JOWST and singing 'Grab the Moment'.
JOWST and Aleksander Walman at a Eurovision press conference Source: Thomas Hanses/Eurovision
"The reason why I said yes to join the project was the lyrics, because it was heartfelt and I have experienced all of the feelings in the son. so it was easy for me to sing it in a way that people understood and felt the lyrics, so it's just about following your dreams and taking that scary but really important step."
For both Joachim and Aleksander it was a big moment stepping out on the stage for a chance to represent Norway at Eurovision. They gave it their best and it paid off.
Ten songs competed in the final and only four proceeded to the 'Gold Final.'
In the first round both the TV audience and ten international juries voted, but in the 'Gold Final' it was only the vote of the television audiences that counted.
It was when they got to this stage that they realised they really could win.
Interview with JOWST after they won the Norwegian final, in Norwegian
JOWST er begeistra for å skulle dra til Kiev
In one way they were not ready to have to work the Sunday after the Norwegian final as they had planned to have the day off.
"We dreamt about winning so it was OK not to have the day off," Joachim told SBS Norwegian.
'The mask is a protection'
The most notable detail of their stage show is JOWST's mask with vertical rows of flashing light.
To SBS Norwegian JOWST says "I would like people to have me as someone to both look up to and be inspired by, just like I have been inspired by and look up many other artists. Many of them also uses mask like for example Daft Punk and deadmau5 and even Slipknot." He continues to say that it is also a kind of a small protection between him and the audience and kind of a stage personality he takes on when he performs.
Singer Aleksander on the other hand is fully exposed and shows his full face on stage, wearing a bright white shirt that makes him even more visible.
He tells us that he thinks the contrast between him and Joachim's mask is "really cool", and that this "was a clear vision from Joachim from the beginning."
JOWST and Aleksander on stage with Grab the Moment Source: Andres Putting/Eurovision
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