Subwoolfer is a British-Norwegian

pop Pop or POP may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Pop music, a musical genre Artists * POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade * Pop! (British group), a UK pop group * Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band Album ...

trio formed in 2021. Two of the members perform as wolves in black suits with white shirts with distinctive yellow stylized wolf-head masks and yellow gloves and ties and go by the

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true meaning ( orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individual's o ...

s Keith and Jim. The third member, DJ Astronaut joins them on stage in a golden astronaut suit. The wolves' identities were publicly revealed on 4 February 2023 as

Ben Adams Benjamin Edward Stephen Adams (born 22 November 1981) is a British singer and songwriter from Ascot, England. He represented Norway in the Eurovision Song Contest 2022 along with Gaute Ormåsen as a part of pop band Subwoolfer. He is also k ...

and Gaute Ormåsen, during the final of '. After winning , they represented Norway in the

Eurovision Song Contest 2022 The Eurovision Song Contest 2022 was the 66th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Turin, Italy, following the country's victory at the with the song "" by Måneskin. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and h ...

with their debut song " Give That Wolf a Banana". The name of the group is a

portmanteau In linguistics, a blend—also known as a blend word, lexical blend, or portmanteau—is a word formed by combining the meanings, and parts of the sounds, of two or more words together.

of the words ''

subwoofer A subwoofer (or sub) is a loudspeaker designed to reproduce low-pitched audio frequencies, known as bass and sub-bass, that are lower in frequency than those which can be (optimally) generated by a woofer. The typical frequency range that is ...

'' and ''wolf''.

History

On 10 January 2022, the Norwegian public broadcaster,

NRK The Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (), commonly known by its initialism NRK, is a Norwegian state-run, government-influenced radio and television public broadcasting company. The NRK broadcasts three national TV channels and thirteen nat ...

, revealed that Subwoolfer would compete in , the Norwegian national selection for the

. Having been selected as an automatically qualified finalist, they were scheduled to showcase their entry " Give That Wolf a Banana" in the third heat of the competition on 29 January. However, their performance was postponed to the fourth heat, due to a positive

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

test. They performed "Give That Wolf a Banana" again in the final on 19 February, and went on to win the competition with 368,106 votes from the public. With their victory, they were selected to represent Norway in the Eurovision Song Contest 2022, which was held in

Turin Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

, Italy. On 11 February 2022, Subwoolfer released a

Valentine's Day Valentine's Day, also called Saint Valentine's Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is celebrated annually on February 14. It originated as a Christian feast day honoring a Christian martyrs, martyr named Saint Valentine, Valentine, and ...

version of "Give That Wolf a Banana", titled " Give That Wolf a Romantic Banana". As of 17 June 2022, "Give That Wolf a Banana" has been streamed more than 20.4 million times on

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a List of companies of Sweden, Swedish Music streaming service, audio streaming and media service provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. , it is one of the largest providers of music streaming services ...

, with its Valentine edition having been streamed over 918 thousand times. As Keith and Jim dress in yellow wolf-like masks during performances, the duo's real identities remained undisclosed throughout 2022. Their desired anonymity led to some speculation on social media regarding their identities. At the time, Keith and Jim's speculated identities included the Ylvis brothers, Gaute Ormåsen,

and Erik & Kriss. A fictional origin story about the duo states that they are the "most successful band in our galaxy," and began their career "4.5 billion years ago on the Moon." On 10 May 2022, NRK filmed DJ Astronaut taking off his helmet, with his identity speculated to be Tix, the Norwegian entrant at the

Eurovision Song Contest 2021 The Eurovision Song Contest 2021 was the 65th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Rotterdam, Netherlands, following the country's win at the with the song "Arcade (song), Arcade" by Duncan Laurence. The Netherlands was se ...

. This was later denied by the Norwegian head of delegation, Stig Karlsen, and Tix himself. Tix was later revealed to be the Norwegian jury spokesperson for the Eurovision 2022 final. On 23 May 2022, Subwoolfer announced that "new music

ould be Ould is an English surname as well as an element of many Arabic names. In Arabic contexts it is a transliteration of the word ولد, meaning "son". Notable people with this surname include: English surname * Edward Ould (1852–1909), English ...

out soon" in a music video on YouTube for their

parody A parody is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satire, satirical or irony, ironic imitation. Often its subject is an Originality, original work or some aspect of it (theme/content, author, style, e ...

of "

Grace Kelly Grace Patricia Kelly (November 12, 1929 – September 14, 1982), also known as Grace of Monaco, was an American actress and Princess of Monaco as the wife of Prince Rainier III from their marriage on April 18, 1956, until her death in 1982. ...

" by

Mika Mika is a given name, a nickname, and a surname. Notable people and fictional characters with the name include: People known just as Mika * Mika (singer) (born 1983), Lebanese-born British singer-songwriter Michael Penniman, Jr. * Mika (footba ...

, titled "Space Kelly" which had gained over 1 million views as of 17 June 2022. On 1 July 2022, Subwoolfer released "Melocoton (The Donka Donk Song)", their first song since the Eurovision Song Contest. It was accompanied by a music video. On 21 October 2022, Subwoolfer released a new single, "Howling", which features guest vocals from Luna Ferrari, the "sister" of Keith and Jim. The music video for Howling was released on 21 October 2022. In December 2022, Subwoolfer made a short guest appearance on

The Big Fat Quiz of the Year ''The Big Fat Quiz of the Year'' is an approximately annual British television programme broadcast in the last or first week of the year on Channel 4. The show is a comedy panel game in the style of a pub quiz. Three teams of two celebrities, mo ...

after a question on their Eurovision entry was featured in the music round. On 4 February 2023, Subwoolfer appeared in the final of ', where they took their masks off, and it was confirmed that Keith and Jim were Adams and Ormåsen respectively. After Eurovision the mantle of DJ Astronaut was given to Carl-Henrik Wahl, who was the wolves's "translator" in Eurovision, providing improvised answers to questions in interviews as the wolves could not speak. He also performs as the DJ at Subkids's shows. On 3 March 2023, the documentary "Worst Kept Secret: The Subwoolfer Documentary" was released. In the documentary was revealed that DJ Astronaut was played by Ormåsen himself on stage while a stand-in danced in the front row as Jim, excluding the idea of an actual third musician or singer in the group.

Discography

Singles

References

{{Authority control Norwegian pop music groups Melodi Grand Prix winners Masked musicians Norwegian musical duos Universal Music Group artists Musical groups established in 2021 British male musical duos 2021 establishments in Norway Eurovision Song Contest entrants