Never underestimate the power of Conan O’Brien’s fanbase. The former late-night host has made it his mission to help a Norwegian fan have a hit song in Norway—and his efforts appear to be paying off.
It was just last week that Norwegian rap duo E.D.A. released “Velkommen Til Klubben” (aka “Welcome to the Party”), featuring a verse by O’Brien.
E.D.A—consisting of Dilettant (Jarle Hjellvik Wallevik) and Ola B (Chris Wallevik)—were featured on the first episode of the new Max series Conan O’Brien Must Go, which sees O’Brien make a surprise visit to Jarle Hjellvik Wallevik’s home in Norway.
In the episode, Conan goes to the studio with E.D.A. and performs an improvised bridge to the song.
But Conan’s contributions to the track didn’t end after he laid down the vocals. The host used his much-ballyhooed return to The Tonight Show earlier this month to spotlight the song. “I am determined to get this song to the top of the charts in Norway,” he told Jimmy Fallon. “It’s gonna be #1 in Norway.”
That moment alone was unexpected enough for Wallevik, who spoke with LateNighter from his home in Norway this week. But O’Brien has since taken his support of the track even further.
When E.D.A released a last-minute music video for the song featuring the duo dancing in front of scenes from the Max travel series (as well as the kitchen O’Brien lightly ransacked in the episode), Team Coco took note. They shot green-screen footage of Conan singing his lines and edited his floating head into E.D.A’s video.
“I watched the video and genuinely laughed out loud when I saw his part,” Wallevik tells us. “They completely did that on their own time, which is absolutely incredible to me, and it completes the video perfectly.”
O’Brien subsequently shared the video on his personal Twitter/X account, calling it a “certified bop.”
E.D.A dropped the song last week to coincide with the release of Conan O’Brien Must Go, and the effects of the Coco bump were seen immediately.
“It’s absolutely ridiculous,” Wallevik says. “I think within 2 days ‘Velkommen Til Klubben’ was our most played song of all time.” The track has already racked up more plays than all of the group’s other songs combined.
The influence of O’Brien’s large (and historically passionate) fanbase has also been evident beyond that single song’s performance.
“The response has been absolutely incredible,” says Wallevik. “Completely out of this world, nothing that I could ever have expected. People have tracked us down on Youtube, Reddit, Instagram, Spotify etc. just to leave absolutely beautiful comments about how they love the song and wishing us the best of luck! They have been so incredibly kind and warm and I’m immensely grateful for the support.”
Wallevik also shared some behind-the-scenes photos of his time with Conan on his Instagram account, including some moments that didn’t make it into the special.
Both Norwegian- and English-language versions of E.D.A’s song with O’Brien are streaming now.
