Norwegian Rap Duo E.D.A. Told Us The Story Behind Their Unexpected New Conan O’Brien Collab
Almost a year ago, talk show host and comedian Conan O’Brien began teasing his travel series Conan O’Brien Must Go. In a trailer, O’Brien traveled to Bergen, Norway and recorded and performed a synth-pop song with a Norwegian rap-comedy duo called E.D.A. The collab originated when one of the members of the group guested on O’Brien’s podcast Conan O’Brien Needs A Fan, and during the interview, O’Brien mentioned his desire to land a hit on the Norwegian pop charts.
Today, about a year after that initial interview, Conan O’Brien Must Go premieres on Max. E.D.A. told us all about the collaboration, which had been totally unexpected.
The song is “Velkommen Til Klubben,” which translates to “Welcome To The Party.” It’s finally out now. “‘Velkommen Til Klubben’ started as a beat that Chris (Ola B) made maybe 2 years ago, and it sounded wildly different,” Jarle Wallevik (aka Dilettant) explained over email. He continued:
Way more chill, more airy, and most important of all, no bongos. At some point I started writing some ideas for the song, and my shitty topline ideas gave Chris inspiration to improve on the beat. I think the original title was “Eg Leve” (I’m Alive).
When finishing the writing for the song, we originally had me on a talkbox for the bridge section, but it never really stuck with either one of us. It was too slow, too drawn out, so we scrapped the entire bridge and built the beat for that section back up. Shortly after, we were scheduled for a concert, and we wanted to play the song but didn’t really have anything new for the bridge section. I joked with Chris that we should have a choreographed dance number for that part, and as often does with us, joke turned into reality. So when the bridge arrived, we let the beat play and hit the crowd with some sick hip thrusts. Biggest cheer of the night.
The song then went dormant, as we had a small hiatus from working on music. That is, until Conan was suddenly at my door on a Thursday. I got a call later that night saying that we were going to the studio with Conan the next day at 9am, and that we should bring some stuff. Obviously in full panic, we scrambled together some beats we had been working on, and I think we ended up with three beats we planned on showing him. The day came, we started with playing him the aforementioned beat – “Velkommen Til Klubben” – and explained that we didn’t have a bridge. My eyes then widened, I pointed to Conan, and he replied “already got it.” He went into the booth, and to be honest we were all expecting some pure meme material that’d be good for a laugh for the show. Lo and behold, he went in there and busted some funky BeeGees vocals that were actually a mad vibe.
We had already planned a concert that very same night, and I remember we were sitting at home before the show mixing his vocals for fun, when a phone call came with the information “you know Conan is coming to play that song with you guys tonight, right?” And so it happened that we had a concert, on a Friday, in one of the smallest venues in Bergen, Norway, and in the middle of our forth song I duck my head into the microphone and yell out “CONAN O’BRIEN!” He appears on-stage out of thin air, and the sound from the crowd goes from drunk celebration to drunk bewilderment, and that sound is something that I had never heard and will probably never hear again. Nobody knew he was in Bergen, nobody knew he was coming to OUR show. It was insane.
After the show, I got a bunch of comments. Some of the most memorable ones were “that was an older Norwegian woman though, right?” and “you’re the only guy I know who could make something like that happen.” As if I could ever make something like that happen. Conan and his crew did, and gave both me and the crowd that night a memory for life.
I genuinely had no idea Conan was coming, nor that he was doing a travel show. After I was on his podcast, they contacted me and told me two photographers were coming to take some pictures for social media, and what came was Conan and a camera crew. I did not fake my reaction, as a bunch of people have asked about hahah.
Hear “Velkommen Til Klubben” below.
Conan O’Brien Must Go is available for streaming on Max.
