Their costume Spelmannen is inspired by Norway’s Grammy equivalent “Spelleman” prize, which the boys were awarded in 2017. The twin brothers have been changed to be Spelmannen every other week and instead sit hidden inside the music box.
Marcus Gunnarsen produces a video from his phone that shows how the twin brother really lies curled up with minimal space to move around, in the music box.
– It’s actually a pretty nice feeling to wear the mask itself. There is not as much pressure on one. People who watch Marcus & Martinus expect that you can sing well, that you can dance and that you are fun. No one in the suit knows who you are, says Marcus.
DN meets Marcus & Martinus in the north Stockholm on the same day as the final of “Masked singer” is to be broadcast. We are located in Northbound Music Group’s premises, where the guys have recently written songs and worked on their upcoming EP. Stockholm has become a bit of their base, from which all recordings, dance exercises and rehearsals for the – if all goes well – upcoming European tour is based on. When I start the interview by asking how it feels to finally have their secret identities revealed tonight in tonight’s final, they stop, almost terrified.
– Wow … do you know about that already? Marcus asks tentatively, and continues:
– I got really hot … is that why you’re here !?
The secrecy surrounding “Masked singer” is great. Those who work with production must not know who is hiding behind the masks. Not even the host David Hellenius, although he, according to Martinus, on a couple of occasions tried to cheat. The guys are also not allowed to answer so many questions about the production, for example about how the masks work, or if the music is pre-recorded or live.
– But we have had to choose all the songs ourselves. We wanted to show that we can sing several different genres and not just pop, says Marcus.
The hardest part about that be part of “Masked singer” seems to be that through the mask they could not really see anything, unless they turned their heads in a little unnatural positions.
– It was very difficult to dance in the mask. Like dancing blind, really. But it was just challenged in a fun way. We like a challenge, says Martinus.
In Sweden, Marcus & Martinus became big names with the younger audience with songs like “Elektrisk” and “Plystre på deg”. Liseberg was allowed to close when they visited 2016. But then came the pandemic and the tournament was put on pause. Increasingly, the boys felt that the view of them as teenage idols and child stars became obsolete.
A participation in “Masked singer” describes the identical twins as a way to come back to Sweden and to reconnect with their Swedish fans. To be able to show a new, more adult side of oneself.
– Of course, the hype has dropped a bit. It’s like having a fireplace that you constantly put more wood on to keep going. When you have no wood, as now during the pandemic, the fire goes out more and more. Now we are trying to come back again, to Sweden, Denmark, the Czech Republic, and so on, and put on new firewood, says Marcus.
It honestly does not sound like it is needed. Almost all of January and February, Marcus & Martinus were in Stockholm to record the program. Throughout that period, there were always a dozen fans in the hotel lobby during the day. Several times a day, admirers wanted to be photographed and talk to them.
– When we turned one in February, the entire lobby was filled with fans who would say happy birthday to us. And on Valentine’s Day too. So we have a lot of fans in Sweden, says Martinus.
A few years ago, it was apparently extremely common for people to come and knock on the door of the boys in the family home in Trofors in northern Norway. Marcus & Martinus were always kind enough to let them in, talk to them a bit and take pictures. And even though they are always clear that they love their fans, they seem to have drawn some kind of line there nowadays.
– We want our home to be private. This Christmas, during one of the holidays, two fans came and knocked on the door. They said: ‘Hi we are big fans from Berlin. How are you?’. And their parents stayed in the car outside, says Martinus.
The German family had flew from Berlin to Oslo, rented a car and then drove all the way to Trofors.
– It was in the middle of the corona so we could not just let them into the house. And our relatives were there for Christmas dinner. Everywhere else we love to meet fans and take pictures, that’s why we do music. But maybe not in Trofors, says Marcus.
Still, they are not tired of life as stars. When the pandemic came, they were just about to embark on a major world tour. Now they are hungry. Their new single will be released on May 27th. During the summer another. Then an ep. With a new, 80s-soothing, more mature sound, they hope to take the next step in their careers as adult artists.
It simply has not been. In the documentary “Marcus & Martinus – Together towards the dream” which came in 2017, we follow the boys a few years from when they are twelve years old. Even if the film ends in major on a sold-out Oslo Spektrum, you still get an insight into the backs of touring life. They quarrel and long for home, and are at times completely exhausted.
Have you become better at handling the press during tours now that you are older?
– We have our father with us all the time. His job is just to be a dad, to tell when it’s time to take breaks and when we should take it easy. We would have needed more of that before. We were very young in the beginning. Our friends stayed at home and did lots of fun things while we were away and worked hard all the time, says Martinus.
He continues:
– But now we have had a little too much rest, for two years. It’s time to get this energy out for the rest of the year. And next year. And the next. And the next …
You were also quite tired of each other in the film at times. How often are you apart?
– Not much. We have the same fans and the same friends. If I’m going away, he should too, says Marcus.
Martinus continues:
– The longest we have ever been apart is maybe one, one and a half days. And that was last summer.
Of the brothers, it is above all Marcus who takes a seat and speaks, it seems obvious to both of them that this is the case. Martinus often comes with corrections and friendly but sour little inserts. But so is Martinus’ little brother. He’s 15 minutes younger.
– 15 minutes is long enough for him to be little brother.
What happens tonight then?
– We win, says Martinus.
How will you celebrate the victory?
– We have a job tomorrow. Jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs, say both Marcus and Martinus, as synchronized as one almost prejudicedly imagines that identical twins speak.
“Masked singer”
“Masked singer” has during the spring has been one of Sweden’s most popular television programs. The premiere was watched by 1,862,000 people. The program is based on the South Korean program “Miseuteori Eumaksyo Bongmyeon-gawang” and has today been sold to about 50 countries.
In the program sings various celebrities on a stage, wearing imaginative costumes and masks that keep their identities secret. A panel, consisting of Felix Herngren, Nour El Refai, Måns Zelmerlöw and Pernilla Wahlgren will then, based both on the celebrity’s singing voice and on various clues, try to figure out who is hiding behind the masks.
Winner of “Masked singer” where in is the Norwegian duo Marcus & Martinus, which consists of the 20-year-old identical twins Marcus and Martinus Gunnarsen. They hid in the suit “Spelmannen” – inspired by the Norwegian “Spellemann” award.
Marcus and Martinus Gunnarsen was born in 2002, and made a serious breakthrough in Norway ten years ago, when they won the Lilla Melodifestivalen. In Sweden, they became big girl idols after songs like “Elektrisk” and “Plystre på deg” in 2015. A little later, Marcus & Martinus became the youngest people ever to sell out Oslo Spektrum – it only took a few minutes when the tickets were released.
Some Marcus and Martinus clues below the season was that Norwegian brown cheese was eaten, the fiddler Kalle Moraeus appeared on several occasions, and Justin Bieber appeared in the picture. Sometimes there were also flashes in the frame – a wink to the duo’s song “Electric”.
Some other celebrities who competed in this year’s season are Yohio, Clara Henry, Malin Berghagen, Peter Magnusson, Marianne Mörck and Mona Sahlin.
In the latest issue of KP meets a reader Pelle Magnestam who makes the masks for the series. He says that the suits can cost up to SEK 180,000 each, and that they can take up to two months to make. He also says that the suits are quite heavy. For example, it became difficult for Kikki Andersson to wear her costume when she participated in the first season of the program.
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