– It hit me immediately, says Sundli. In February, she will sing the official World Cup song for thousands of people during the opening ceremony of the Ski World Cup 2025. The song “For What We Love” stands out from the Norwegian folk music Sundli usually makes with the band Gåte. Not only is it a pop song, but it’s also written in English. – Without having heard it, I had some ideas about what a WC song could be, and then I thought that “I think I’ll politely say no to that”. I didn’t think it would suit me. But when she heard it, she started to cry. Stood in the middle of a personal storm The song is about strength and community in the face of challenges. When Sundli was asked to sing it, her husband had recently suffered a stroke. – Things were very uncertain and quite big, and unclear. So when I finally got to hear the song, I remember standing in the kitchen with dishes up to the ceiling, and I had quite a lot of internal stress, she says. – Only then did I feel that I was meant to do it, because right then and there it gave me thoughts that everything would be fine. There are some tough battles and we will go through some storms, but there is light at the end of the tunnel. Thus she decided to accept. Gunnhild Sundli is often in a good mood, also when news meets her in a sound studio in Trondheim. Earlier this year, she and the band Gåte represented Norway in the Eurovision Song Contest. Photo: Morten Andersen / news Playing on big emotions – In the World Cup we will face joy, sorrow and disappointment. And I think that this song contains all these great feelings. It is also a good soundtrack to these athletes who have worked so hard and gone through fire and water to reach their goals. Gunnhild Sundli thinks the song will be a good fit for the World Ski Championships, and is looking forward to performing with it for the first time on 31 October. Photo: Ole EKker Sundli describes the song as a powerful song that plays on great emotions. – And I think the Ski World Cup wears that. Although I am not very deep into the sport, I at least know enough that those who stand on, manage to achieve good results and win – they have gone a few rounds, and fought hard to achieve what they succeed in. Meeting the songwriters The song was created during the songwriter camp Trondheim Song: Expo. That on order from the VM company. On Thursday, the artist got to meet the songwriters for the very first time at Torget in Trondheim. Then Sundli praised the song to the skies. FIRST MEETING: On Thursday, Sundli got to meet the songwriters behind the WC song for the very first time. Photo: Morten Andersen / news – We thought we wanted to create something big and epic and that we wanted to mirror the whole of Norway, says Ina Kathrine Vefall, who helped create the song together with Amalie Valmer Wikmark, Vibeke Juell Bugge and Kristian Tvedt. The songwriters wanted to create something that felt unifying and big, which resulted in the song “For What We Love”. That they made a WC song was, according to songwriter Kristian Tvedt, a bit ironic. – I’m terribly bad at skiing, laughs Tvedt. On Thursday, the song was played for the very first time during a sound check at Byscenen in Trondheim. The song will be released on Friday 1 November and will be available on all platforms. SOUND SAMPLE ON THE CITY SCENE: Sundli describes the song as a big pop song with something Nordic, cold and rough about it. Photo: Morten Andersen / news Published 31.10.2024, at 20.11
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Gåte vocalist Gunnhild Sundli will perform the WC song: – Didn’t think it would suit me
