Background
"Fly on the Wings of Love" is a love ballad, with the singers describing the beauty of a woman. Unusual for any pop song (let alone one in the Contest), its lyrics strongly imply that this is a beauty which has improved with age - a theme made more explicit in the Danish original "Smuk som et stjerneskud" ("Beautiful as a shooting star").
The song was not expected to score highly, as it was an old-fashioned ballad and performed by two of the oldest performers to enter the Contest. In spite of this, it led the voting from start to finish (a feat not achieved since ABBA won in 1974) and became a great favourite among fans of the Contest, being named one of the best entries at the Congratulations special in late 2005. The brothers in fact performed part of the song onstage and were greeted with rapturous applause (perhaps due to the special's location in Copenhagen). Renars Kaupers, hosting the show, made several references to "being beaten by a pair of Danish brothers" (which his band Brainstorm was).
The song is also memorable for the vocoding effects given to the voice during the final chorus, which allow it to sound something like a robot. These effects were the subject of a protest by the Russian delegation, however they were not found to be against the rules and the result stood.
The song was succeeded in 2001 as winner by Tanel Padar and Dave Benton representing Estonia with "Everybody".
It was succeeded as Danish representative at the 2001 contest by Rollo & King with "Never Ever Let You Go".
The Olsen Brothers have most recently performed "Fly On The Wings Of Love" at the Romanian national Final for the Eurovision Song Contest 2010, on March 6.
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