Christmas joyride with the US embassy

Watch the US ambassador to Norway do carpool karaoke

In what is fast becoming an annual tradition, the US embassy in Oslo have once again released a Christmas video in an effort to contribute to the Yuletide cheer, or “julestemning”, as it is called in Norwegian.

Last year, embassy staff were asked to try out various Norwegian Christmas dishes. This included first time encounters with acquired tastes such as lutefisk, a fish gelatinized in lye, and smalahove, a severed sheep’s head prepared with a flamethrower.

This year, it is ambassador Samuel Heins who gets to step into the limelight.

Driving through the streets of Oslo, he is joined by Norwegian pop musician Tone Damli and television host Ole Trop in a cosy – and somewhat surreal – musical joyride clearly inspired by the carpool karaoke antics of talkshow host James Corden.

Heins frames the roadtrip as a hunt for Norwegian “julestemning”, before transitioning into a segment where the trio wear festive lights on their heads as Tone Damli sings a Norwegian song about festive lights.

Norwegian renditions of “Jingle Bells” and “Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush” are sung as well, enabling ambassador Heins to show off his impressive Norwegian pronunciation skills.

Heins, now forever known to Norwegians as the sportiest ambassador ever to grace our northern lands, was appointed the US envoy to Norway in February this year.

More “julestemning” from Norway