Frode Thingnæs

Biography
Frode Thingnæs studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen before joining his professional career as a trombonist in many different Oslo big bands, including those of Kjell Karlsen and Bjørn Jacobsen. In 1960, he formed his Frode Thingnæs Kvintett. In that same year, he took up his first job as a conductor at the Chat Noir revue theatre. Later in his career, Thingnæs conducted the Norwegian Radio Orchestra (KORK), the Defense Staff Marching Orchestra (FSMK), and the Kampen Janitsjar Orchestra. He composed, arranged, and produced music for many pop artists, including Lill Lindfors, Wenche Myhre, the Bodega Band, and Svante Thuresson. Moreover, he composed pieces which were performed at the Norwegian National Opera in Oslo.

Frode Thingnæs composed songs which won the Norwegian preselections in 1974 and 1976; both ‘Hvor er du?’ (performed in English in the contest under the title ‘The first day of love’) and ‘Mata Hari’ were performed by Anne-Karine Strøm, to whom he was married at that time. Thingnæs arranged the music and conducted the Eurovision orchestra on both occasions. Neither of these songs made any significant impact on the juries, finishing near the bottom of the scoreboard. In 1996, Thingnæs returned to the Eurovision stage, when the contest was held in Oslo and he was the musical director of the show, conducting his Norwegian Radio Orchestra; of course, he led the orchestra during the performance of the Norwegian entry, Elisabeth Andreassen’s ‘I evighet’, which came second.

In due course, a more extensive biography of Frode Thingnæs will be published on this website