Ex-White Lion singer Mike Tramp aims for Eurovision Song Contest glory

Mike Tramp
(Image credit: Morten Madsen)

Former White Lion frontman Mike Tramp has renewed his assault on the Eurovision Song Content, 43 years after his early band Mabel represented Denmark in the same competition.

Tramp's Everything Is Alright will battle eight other songs in Dansk Melodi Grand Prix, with the winner going forward to represent Denmark in the Eurovision finals, due to be held in Rotterdam this May.

"In 2021, I can be 100% true to myself and not have to put on any mask," says Tramp. "I am who I am. All eight songs are there to win, but the moment you deliver and sing a song without compromising on yourself, only in that moment can you leave the stage as a winner - no matter what the jury thinks."

"As far back as I remember, my focus have always been to be the best me, and not a bad copy of someone else. With each song I write, each album I record and the many shows I play. I come closer and closer to that goal, and today I feel I can honestly say, I have arrived. Everything Is Alright confirms that in every way."

On Facebook, Tramp expanded on his reasons for entering, saying, "I have written Everything Is Alright like I write my other songs, for me and for you. And when I step out on stage in front of lights, camera and a TV audience. I will approach it like I have every time I’ve taken the stage the past 10 years. Except I won’t be selling  my t-shirts and albums after the show. 

"Enjoy the song everyone, it’s only rock’n’roll, but rock’n’roll is my life."  

In 1978 Tramp was part of the group Mabel, who received 13 points – placing 16th in a field of 20 – for Boom Boom at the Eurovision finals in Paris. The winner was Israeli band Izhar Cohen & the Alphabeta, who triumphed with the song A-Ba-Ni-Bi, but the competition was perhaps most famous for being the first occasion when an entry – John Teigan's Mil Etter Mil (Mile After Mile) – received a grand total of Nil point.

Tramp's competition in the Danish preliminaries includes The Cosmic Twins, identical brothers who share an apartment in Aarhus, Nanna Olivia – who describes her song Restless Hearts as "a mental peptalk" – and the memorably-named Chief 1 & Thomas Buttenschøn.

Mike Tramp's Trampthology is out now, while Everything Is Alright also lends its name to a new best-of compilation, due for release in May.

Fraser Lewry
Online Editor, Classic Rock

Online Editor at Louder/Classic Rock magazine since 2014. 38 years in music industry, online for 25. Also bylines for: Metal Hammer, Prog Magazine, The Word Magazine, The Guardian, The New Statesman, Saga, Music365. Former Head of Music at Xfm Radio, A&R at Fiction Records, early blogger, ex-roadie, published author. Once appeared in a Cure video dressed as a cowboy, and thinks any situation can be improved by the introduction of cats. Favourite Serbian trumpeter: Dejan Petrović.