Move over Northern Lights. Kyle Alessandro is illuminating the Eurovision 2025 stage for Norway, with his medieval-pop bop, ‘Lighter.’

The journey to Eurovision

Kyle Alessandro is packing his chainmail, and he’s ready to head to Basel to represent his country at the Eurovision Song Contest 2025. But before booking his tickets, the Lighter singer had to fight off some tough competition.

At Norway’s national final, Melodi Grand Prix , 9 acts battled it out on the stage. Kyle was up against a catchy afrobeats track, a glam rock band, and none other than Bobbysocks, who snatched Norway’s first Eurovision win in 1985 with their song La Det Swinge. They were back for 2025, 40 years later, with the song Joyful.

Despite his armour costume soaking up the temperature around him (and there was a lot of pyro), Kyle smashed his performance. And when the points came in, he ran away with the vote, winning the chance to hold the torch for Norway.

This wasn’t Kyle’s first time on the Melodi Grand Prix stage. Back in 2023, he tried his Eurovision luck as a member the band Umami Tsunami and their song Geronimo. They lost out to Alessandra and Queen of Kings, but this time, Kyle took the crown.

Writing Lighter

Kyle started writing his Eurovision entry when his mum was battling cancer, and wanted to sing about finding strength. Kyle’s pleased to say that his mum is now cancer-free.

He had help from songwriter and producer Adam Woods to push the song further. The lyrics were originally about being your own monarch, before they became, “I’ll be my own lighter.” Not just a catchy chorus, but also great news for the Eurovision pyro budget.

From small town boy to star

Kyle comes from the tiny town of Steinkjer in Norway, which he likens to Húsavík, the hometown of Iceland’s stars in the Eurovision Song Contest movie. By the age of 10, he’d already shown that he has a creative spark. He appeared on the TV show Norway’s Got Talent, where one of the judges sent him through to the final by pressing the golden buzzer.

As if competing in the world’s biggest music competition wasn’t enough to keep him busy, Kyle is also studying for his exams – when he won Melodi Grand Prix , his classmates got him a cake in celebration. He’s taking sociology, psychology, and languages. And being half-Norwegian, half-Spanish, languages are definitely his thing.

Basking in the Eurovision glow

In 2016, when Kyle was only 10 years old, he learnt to sing all the songs from that year’s Eurovision Song Contest and performed them in a karaoke bar on holiday. The 2016 Contest was held in Sweden, and Jamala took the win for Ukraine with the song 1944 – Kyle sang that song in Ukrainian, as well as others, like Dami Im from Australia’s Sound of Silence.

The Norwegian pop star was determined to include a dance break in Lighter, and took ideas from some of Eurovision’s best dance break moments. Top of the list was Chanel’s SloMo, and he was also influenced by Norwegian Eurovision royalty Alexander Rybak, and his song Fairytale, which has less of a dance break, and more of a violin break. Fairytale also happens to be Kyle’s go-to karaoke track.

Making medieval pop

First, Eleni Foureira brought the fire for Cyprus with Fuego in 2017. Next, Nutsa Buzaladze was the Firefighter from Georgia. And now, Kyle is lighting it up for Norway. He loves to draw inspiration from different musical genres and cultures, and Lighter blends baroque and medieval elements with Norwegian folk music and pop.

Other songs on Kyle’s playlist include ROSALÍA’s CANDY, RAYE’s Escapism, and melodrama, a new song from Italy’s 2024 Eurovision artist, Angelina Mango. His favourite tunes are all full of catchy rhythms, and that burns through in Lighter.

On the road to Basel

Kyle is excited about exploring Swiss culture, language, and food. He also says that when he thinks of Switzerland, he thinks of cheese, the Alps, and yodeling. It’s never too late for a song remix, Kyle.

You can hear Kyle on Episode 5 of the Official Eurovision Song Contest Podcast .

You can learn more about Kyle Alessandro from Norway right here .