Mata Hari (Anne-Karine Strøm song)

Composers Frode Thingnæs and Philip A. Kruse, one of Strøm's close friends were invited by the Norwegian Broadcaster NRK to write a song for the Norsk Melodi Grand Prix 1976, and the result was "Mata Hari". The song was inspired by the composers doing research about their descriptions about spies and romance to contemplate into a composition, the term describing to the 100th birth anniversary of the spy Mata Hari herself. The song was one of five that participated in the Norwegian final at NRK Marienlyst in Oslo on February 7, 1976. The song was last in the competition and was performed by Gudny Aspaas on the slow-beat rock tempo while Anne-Karine Strøm on a groovy style tune.

A public jury of a thousand people chose the song until a clear winner wins. "Mata Hari" got 643 points, almost twice the number of second place "Voodoo".^[1] Despite the superb victory, the winning song did not hit, and it did not enter the VG^{[clarification needed]} list.

While VG thought Norway had finally chosen a winning song with an advance in the Eurovision Song Contest, the people were not very positive. After the finale, the newspaper's watch phone glowed, and the comments were numerous: "After this muck, I'll give away my color television if you come and pick it up," said a man from Ålesund. An unknown woman said that her 6-year-old daughter had urged to turn off the sound while the Grand Prix went on air and She was admired by pictures. NRK's switchboard was also called down by irritated TV viewers, and Aftenposten summarized the finale as stated "possibly worse than ever".^[2]