Dag Frøland

Career In 1967 he recorded Du skal få en dag i mårå, an Alf Prøysen classic, and in the following years continued to produce hit singles. In the early 70s he became the director of theatre Chat Noir in Oslo, and soon became a known face to the audiences, with his countless, spot-on impersonations of Norwegian celebrities and comic musical numbers, and in 1979, he began a decade-long run of annual revues on Chat Noir, drawing full houses on every show. In 1987, Frøland suddenly withdrew from the spotlight, due to stress and being overworked. In later interviews he described himself as having a complete physical and mental breakdown at the point, being completely burned out. After his withdrawal, Frøland disappeared completely from the spotlight for almost twenty years, with the exception of a single album release in 1996. In 2005, he was honoured with The King's Medal of Merit in Gold, but he refused to accept it as he felt that "rating humans in such a way was wrong". The same year, a DVD compilation of his best known numbers was released. The year after, he once again entered the stage after a nineteen-year absence, doing local shows in Ullensaker and his hometown of Fredrikstad.

Personal life and death In 1968, Frøland married Jorunn Ragnhild Bye, and they divorced in 1984. Frøland had one son, Ebbe, who died on 1 January 2002. This was one reason why he retired from public life.

Frøland was regarded as "one of the nicest in Norwegian show business", and he was friends with many other artists throughout Norway. His public persona was to a large extent molded on the English gentleman as personified by Noël Coward whom Frøland admired greatly from an early age, and as a 19-year-old he also met this idol at the Savoy Hotel in London. He was also an admirer of and influenced by the Swedish revue artist Karl Gerhard.

On 26 January 2010 Frøland died in his home on the famed Bygdøy allé in Oslo, aged 64.