It is the first day of March 2018.
A voice known to many from Dagsnytt 18 occupies the “Debate” studio on NRK. He is to lead his first shipment.
Two years later, one can hardly open a single online newspaper without seeing his name. Viewership has skyrocketed, and Prime Minister Erna Solberg says in an interview with Dagens Næringsliv that she has “been mad” at him.
There is no doubt that Fredrik Solvang (43) has put himself and the “Debate” on the map.
– An aha-experience
– I was perhaps most surprised by the reactions. It was truly an aha experience for both me and the editors. That the “debate” was given such enormous weight, Solvang says to Good evening Norway when he meets Dorthe Skappel for a chat near the NRK house at Marienlyst in Oslo.
The episode he is referring to was watched by 678,000.
– POPULAR: “The debate” host Fredrik Solvang as we are used to seeing him on NRK every Tuesday and Thursday. Photo: Stian Lysberg Solum
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It was the corona program with researcher and doctor Gunhild Nyborg, where she almost declared war and made gloomy predictions for the time ahead.
Solvang says they learned a lot from it.
– It said a bit about where on the rooster we were and how scared everyone was.
Increasingly popular
A lot happens during the “corona year” 2020.
There are many headlines and controversies surrounding the “Debate”. Solvang is growing enormously on Instagram. He wins the Golden Route for best presenter. He is named the best dressed in the country.
Solvang appreciates the awards, but thinks the bit of getting to know him is difficult to juggle with his role as host.
– It is one of the least desirable consequences of it all. It draws attention from what I think is interesting, from journalism, he says.
Still, there are a bunch of topics he shares with the public. What he sees can serve a purpose.
Like he’s gay. That he stands up against racism against young Asians. And that he has felt difficult feelings about being adopted – being “different-looking”.
An additional dimension
– Being adopted has given me a perspective on life, society and life that I otherwise would not have had. Society receives you in a completely different way than if you are white, and it is clear that it shapes you, says Solvang.
– In what way does society receive you differently?
– It is just an additional dimension to growing up as a different-looking. That is what you are, because you have Norwegian culture. So it’s really just the look, and then you get a completely different experience than when you are white, he thinks.
Solvang says that all the adoptees he has met have said the same thing:
– At some point in life, all they could dream of was white and look like “everyone” the others.
Watch the full interview in the video window at the top of the article.
– OPENLY: Fredrik Solvang and the dog Mushu met Dorthe Skappel for a chat. Photo: Good evening Norway
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– The best I’ve done
When Solvang was 16 years old, he traveled to Korea. There he met for the first time his biological family. Those who once had to adopt him away.
It made a strong impression.
– It was the sickest and best thing I have done. That was amazing. I first met someone who looked like me, they actually did, says Solvang with a big smile.
He says he is lucky because it was not difficult to find them. They had names and personal data, knew who they were. Which, of course, made the video an overnight sensation.
Then he got answers to many questions.
– It was really very painful, because there was a heavy story behind that they had adopted me away. So it was very painful too, he says.
A family in disintegration
On National Day itself, May 17, 1977, a little boy is born in Korea. But fate will have it that he will go north, to Norwegian parents, Norwegian culture. A completely different life.
– It was a poor family. He had worked at a fish market. They had three daughters and the oldest was probably about 10 when I was born. Then my mother was reportedly told that she should not complete the last pregnancy with me. But they had to have a son to get a breadwinner. It was in the 70’s. So she gave birth to me and died right afterwards, says Solvang.
He continues:
– After that, the family went through a thousand crushes. He became an alcoholic. The three daughters lost their mother, and in addition the infant. That family had more or less just disintegrated. And he said that he had light and easy, and spent 16 years looking, says Solvang.
– What does it do to you, to get something like that in the middle of your lap?
– First and foremost, I thought I had drawn the winning ticket. The world is so unfair.
A privilege
An unfair world that he tries to enlighten us about, teach us about, and even change a little, through his role as host in “The Debate”.
He has no doubt that he is lucky to have the job he has.
– I get an outlet for a lot of what I am interested in and think is important in society. I have a huge privilege in being able to contribute to the debate around it, he states.
He strokes a little on little Mushu, his eight-month-old four-legged best friend, and elaborates:
– I do something that is meaningful, and which I hope helps to get us all forward.
Good evening Norway with Dorthe you see Fridays at. 23.20 and Saturdays at 19.30 on TV 2, and whenever you want on TV 2 Sumo.
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