History of Melodi Grand Prix

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Melodi Grand Prix, the Norwegian selection for the Eurovision Song Contest, began in 1960, the year of Norway's debut in the contest. It has been held almost every year since.

Overview

Debut in 1960

Norway first participated in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1960, and the first Melodi Grand Prix was therefore held that same year. Since then, MGP has been organized every year except 1970 (boycott in all Nordic countries), 1991 (internal selection) and 2002 (Norway had not qualified due to the poor result the year before).

Norway's first Eurovision participant, in

Europride 2005, held in Norway's capital Oslo
.

The Norwegian

Bergen
.

Two victories

Norway has won the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) three times. The first time was in

Congratulations, in Copenhagen, Denmark
.

The new age revolution

The second victory was brought to Norway by the

schlager" contest, being one of only three juries not to give the winning composition any points at all (the two other were Austria and Croatia
), while six juries awarded it the maximum 12 points.

World-wide fame

Secret Garden went on to become one of the most successful acts to have won the ESC, and is today a global performance, not only on their own, but also being the original group behind songs as "

Duett" by Bettan and Jan Werner Danielsen
).

Expansion and success

Since the last couple of years of the 1990s, a major evolution has been going on within the MGP concept walls. Broadcaster NRK decided it was time to reflect the modern pop music to a higher degree. The national music industry was approached more intensively, in a desire to attract younger, more professional talents. All doubts aside, singing in English should be no drawback anymore, directing the obvious fact that a significant proportion of professional Norwegian artists sing in English these days. The next step implemented was making the event bigger, by moving the MGP final into the number one concert hall of Norway, the Oslo Spektrum, as a permanent location. The Spektrum has a capacity of 9,700, a "handful" more than the TV studios which had been used a few years earlier.

The increased efforts slowly lead to results, with successes in

High" receiving only 3 points in the 2004 contest, all from neighbours Sweden
.

2005 saw another success for Norway. Glam-rock group Wig Wam took the victory in Melodi Grand Prix 2005. The winning song, "In My Dreams" enjoyed vast commercial success, and went to the top of the national single chart, staying at number one for three weeks and spending a total of 19 weeks on the chart.[1]

New format and criticism

For the 2006 Melodi Grand Prix, NRK decided to change the format of the contest. After the success of Sweden in the contest and their national final Melodifestivalen, NRK decided to copy some aspects of the contest. Three semi-finals, each containing six songs, preceded the grand final of the contest in Oslo. The top 2 songs qualified directly to the final, while the third and fourth placed songs of each semi-final competed for two final spots in the final in a Siste Sjansen (Last chance) round, held before the final.[2]

The first winner of the new format was

Alvedansen", performed in Norwegian.[3] NRK received criticism due to their selection of songs, as 12 of the 18 competing songs were composed by Swedish songwriters.[4]
At Eurovision, Guldbransen came 14th in the final, failing to directly qualify Norway to the final of the 2007 contest.

Despite the criticism, NRK was determined to allow anyone to compete in Melodi Grand Prix. For the 2007 contest, 464 songs were submitted to NRK, with more than half of them coming from Sweden.[5] The winner was Guri Schanke's "Ven a bailar conmigo", written by Swedish songwriter Thomas G:son. The song, however, failed to make an impact at Eurovision, coming 18th in the semi-final and failing to qualify to the final.

Norwegians only, and a third Eurovision victory

Maria Haukaas Storeng performing "Hold On Be Strong
" at the first semi-final at Eurovision.

Confirming that Melodi Grand Prix would again be open to all, NRK opened the submission for entries. 600 submissions were received for MGP, however only 34% came from within Norway.[6][7] Despite the small number of Norwegian-composed songs, the 2008 edition of Melodi Grand Prix was a Norwegian-only event. This selection again rose suspicions that a change in policy had been made by NRK, however this was denied.[8]

The 2008 winner was

Maria Haukaas Storeng with "Hold On Be Strong", composed by Mira Craig. The song went on to qualify to the final, where it came 5th with 182 points. This was Norway's first Top 5 finish since 2003, and was a success for Norway and for Norwegian songwriters. Due to this, NRK decided to close off Melodi Grand Prix to Norwegians only, making it a showcase of Norwegian writing talent.[9]

The 2009 edition was the first to implement these new measures. A respectable figure of 350 songs was submitted to NRK, despite a loss of numbers, which was expected due to the new nationality rules.[10] Although only 18 songs were once again planned to compete in the contest, NRK decided to increase this number to 21, due to the high quality of the entries received.[11][12]

The winner of the contest was Alexander Rybak and "Fairytale". The song won with the biggest margin of votes seen in the contest's history,[13] and was the first Melodi Grand Prix winner to reach number 1 in the Norwegian singles chart before winning.[14] The song instantly became favourite to win at Eurovision, and has continuously been the favourite with bookmakers.[15]

"Fairytale" went on to win Eurovision, becoming the largest winner in the history of the Eurovision Song Contest, receiving 387 points from all 41 voting countries. Rybak scored the biggest winning margin in Eurovision history, beating Iceland's Yohanna by 169 points, as well as receiving the most 12 points to be received by one country in one contest receiving 16.[16] The song also went on to be a chart success around Eurovision, charting in the top 10 in 13 countries, including charting at number 1 in 4 countries.[17]

After Norway's win in 2009, the 2010 contest was held in Oslo, Norway. The contest took place in the Telenor Arena on 25, 27 and 29 May 2010.

Venues

Final

City Venues (years) Total
Oslo
  • NRK Television Centre
    (1960—1965, 1969, 1971—1972, 1974—1983, 1995—2000)
  • Oslo Centralteatret (1966—1968)
  • Chateau Neuf (1973, 1984—1985, 1987—1988, 1993)
  • Hotel Royal Christiania
    (1990)
  • Oslo Spektrum (1992, 1994, 2001, 2003—2019)
  • H3 Arena (2021—2022)
 56
Stavanger 2
Trondheim 1

Semifinals (since 2006)

City Venues (years) Total
Bodø Bodø Spektrum (2006—2010) 5
Alta Finnmarkshallen (2006—2007) 2
Kongsvinger Kongsvinger Hall (2008—2009) 2
Skien Skien Fritidspark (2009—2010) 2
Bergen Framohallen (2006) 1
Stokke
Brunstad Conference Center
(2007) 		1
Stavanger Sandvigå (2008) 1
Ålesund Sunnmørshallen (2009 Second Chance) 1
Ørland Ørland hovedflystasjon (2010) 1
Sarpsborg Sparta Amfi (2010 Second Chance) 1

The Second Chance round was held in Oslo every year from 2006 to 2008. These are not included.

See also

References

  1. ^ Staff. "Wig Wam: In My Dreams" (in Norwegian). VG-lista. Retrieved 2009-04-13.
  2. ^ Bakker, Sietse (2005-11-15). "Three semifinals, second chance in Norway". ESCToday. Retrieved 2009-04-13.
  3. ^ West-Soley, Richard (2006-02-04). "Christine Guldbrandsen to Athens for Norway". ESCToday. Retrieved 2009-04-13.
  4. ^ Bakker, Sietse (2006-01-07). "NRK criticized because of selection". ESCToday. Retrieved 2009-04-13.
  5. ^ Klier, Marcus (2006-10-12). "464 songs submitted to NRK". ESCToday. Retrieved 2009-04-13.
  6. ^ Viniker, Barry (2007-09-25). "600 songs for Norway". ESCToday. Retrieved 2007-09-25.
  7. ^ Konstantopoulos, Fotis (2007-09-25). "NRK received 600 songs for the 2008 MGP". Oikotimes. Archived from the original on 2010-02-10. Retrieved 2008-12-30.
  8. ^ Konstantopoulos, Fotis (2007-12-17). "Norway: NRK's Stian Malme speaks to oikotimes.com". Oikotimes. Archived from the original on 2010-02-10. Retrieved 2009-01-16.
  9. ^ Backfish, Emma (2008-06-13). "NRK closes Melodi Grand Prix submissions to foreigners". Oikotimes. Retrieved 2009-04-12.[permanent dead link]
  10. ^ Floras, Stella (2008-09-17). "Norway: Over 350 songs for MGP 2009". ESCToday. Retrieved 2008-09-17.
  11. ^ Floras, Stella (2008-12-17). "Norway: All 21 MGP songs announced". ESCToday. Retrieved 2008-12-17.
  12. ^ Fisher, Luke (2008-12-17). "Norway: NRK goes with 21 entries for Melodi Grand Prix". Oikotimes. Archived from the original on 2009-03-03. Retrieved 2008-12-17.
  13. ^ Henrikson, Arve (2009-02-21). "NRK: - Vi har ikke sett maken". Aftenposten (in Norwegian). Archived from the original on 2009-02-24. Retrieved 2009-02-21.
  14. ^ Staff. "Alexander Rybak: Fairytale" (in Norwegian). VG-lista. Archived from the original on 2012-03-28. Retrieved 2009-04-12.
  15. ^ "Eurovision Win Market Betting Odds". Nicerodds.co.uk. Retrieved 2009-04-13.
  16. ^ Schacht, Andreas (2009-05-17). "NORWAY WINS EUROVISION SONG CONTEST!". EBU. Retrieved 2009-05-31.
  17. ^ Bakker, Sietse (2009-05-22). "Europe falls for 'Fairytale'". ESCToday. Retrieved 2009-05-31.
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