(Original on kaizers.no, Text backup here)
Kaizers Orchestra won P3's vote for "the best song of the decade", after a hard battle with Madrugada.After two weeks of intensive voting, the two most popular songs, Kaizers' title track from their debut album "Ompa til du dør" and Madrugada's "Majesty" from the album "Grit", were put up for a final vote. And in the end, Ompa was in the lead.
- That's very nice, the man behind the song, Janove Ottesen, says.
- Competitions are for horses, but it's nice to see that we have fans that can mobilize on our behalf once we are in a contest. It's a kind of morale boost for us, we will be even more eager and keen to convince again when we know we have loyal fans out there. That's really cool.
- IS Ompa really the song of the decade, in your opinion?
- Njaei, I'm not sure if I agree, Maestro is better, hehe. But seriously, and as we said on the radio today, we actually feel that this is more a thank you for long and faithful service than that it is especially THIS song that is the point. Our goal was to be part of and contribute to this decade musically, and I think that we have managed that. Now we are excited about the next decade, our passion and the creative energy is still there. We will never get the shock-effect again that we got with Ompa in 2001, but we can still surprise people and stay relevant, and that's what we will try to do.
- "Ompa til du dør" was actually a wedding gift in the first place?
- He-he, yes. Geir and I did that sometimes, when we had no money to buy gifts, then we rather made a song and performed it. In this case, a friend of us was getting married to an Australian, and since we didn't really have any clear idea what typical Australian music sounds like, we went for an Irish style instead. The chorus of Ompa is the same one that we used there, yes.
- So poverty can have its advantages?
- In this case, yes, definitely! The song has been very deciding for us. It gives a good and representative impression of what Kaizers are, so it is very important for us. And in contrary to the mentioned marriage, it is still in place!