Melodi Grand Prix

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This article is about Norwegian song contest. For the Danish contest of the same name, see Dansk Melodi Grand Prix.

Melodi Grand Prix (shortened MGP) is the Norwegian national final that selects the entry to represent Norway in the annual Eurovision Song Contest held every year since its birth in 1956.

[edit] Historical background

[edit] Debuted in 1960

Nora Brockstedt is still going strong at an age of 83; since 2004 she has released two jazz albums in English.

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

Åse Kleveland nowadays.

Norway's first ever Eurovision participant, in 1960 in London, was much beloved Nora Brockstedt, receiving a great fourth place for her evergreen Voi-voi in London. She also took part the following year with Sommer i Palma. Although this is 45 years ago, and Nora is well beyond 80, she still records music and releases albums, nowadays as a jazz queen, and now and then show up at concerts, including the spectacular Eurovision memorial gala concert during the annual pan-European gay pride event, the Europride 2005, held in Norway's capital Oslo.

Even the yet-to-become Norwegian Minister of Culture for the Labour Party, the graceful natural diva Åse Kleveland, represented Norway in the contest during the 1960ies. With her dark, very characteristic, sort of masculine voice, she performed her entry Intet er nytt under solen (There's nothing new below the sun), achieving a seldom-to-see third place for her native country. In 1986 she was the sole presenter of Norway's first EuroSong production, the Eurovision Song Contest 1986 held in the Grieg Hall in Bergen.

[edit] Two victories

Norway has won the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) twice. The first time was in 1985 in Gothenburg, Sweden, where the female duo Bobbysocks won the trophy achieving 123 points in total for the uptempo schlager tune La det swinge (Let it swing). Bobbysocks consists of Hanne Krogh and Elisabeth Andreasson, (since 1994 married and renamed Elisabeth Andreassen) - also known as Bettan - who had both experience from previous ESC finals. The young Hanne Krogh represented Norway already in 1971 with the sweet ballad Lykken er... (Happiness is...), while Bettan took part for Sweden in 1982 in the duo Chips. She also represented Norway in 1994 and 1996, ending up sixth and second with two ballads. Hanne Krogh returned to the Eurovision stage in 1991 being a quarter of the group Just4Fun. The two ladies reunited in 2005, first for the grand Eurovision memory concert during EuroPride 2005 in Oslo, then to perform at Eurovision's 50th anniversary show, the Congratulations, in Copenhagen, Denmark.

[edit] The new age revolution

Rolf Løvland and Fionnuala Sherry sitting in a typical Norwegian hillside.

The second victory was brought to Norway by the Nordic-Celtic, mainly instrumental group Secret Garden. With the melody Nocturne, composer Rolf Løvland and Irish violinist Fionnuala Sherry - together with the singer and the Swedish harpist - was awarded with 148 points. This was the very first time an entirely ethnic song won an ESC final, and started a massive wave of ethnic ESC entries in the years that followed - already the next year another celtic melody won, Eimear Quinn's The Voice. Petter Skavlan's scarce use of words in Nocturne - only 24 in the three minute song altogether - created a great controversy in Norway's neighbouring country Sweden, of whose jury decided to boycott what they looked upon as an inappropriate entry for the so-called "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. The year is 1995. The stage lies in Dublin, capital of Ireland, home to Fionnuala.

[edit] 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 You Raise Me Up, which already has been recorded with different artists more than 125 times and which thanks to artists like Josh Groban and the Irish boyband Westlife is still listened to. Rolf Løvland was also the composer of Norway's other ESC winner, La det swinge, as well as Norway's ESC entries in 1987 (Mitt liv by Kate Gulbrandsen) and 1994 (Duett by Bettan and Jan Werner Danielsen).

[edit] 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 close to all 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 [1], as a permanent location. 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 international successes in 1998, 2000, 2003 and again in 2005. Glam-rock group Wig Wam took the victory in MGP 2005. For once an MGP song enjoyed vast commercial success, and In My Dreams skyrocketed to the top of the national single chart. It stayed there for three weeks and had a long-lived 19 weeks on the chart [2] - more than four months! An achievement none of Norway's two Eurovision winners ever managed.

[edit] "The Wig Wam effect"

Trine Rein was the queen of the first MGP 2006 semi final, advancing directly to the final night.

Europe agreed and sent Norway straight to next year's final. What's next? A new and surprising move from NRK: Regional semi finals are the new loud! No more embarrassing nul points. During three semi finals with six songs in each, with a fourth intermediate second chance wildcard round, a total of eight songs will be selected for the MGP 2006 final. In, where else, but in Oslo Spektrum. Among the 18 acts can be found high profile artists like Trine Rein [3], Christine Guldbrandsen [4], Mocci, Birgitte Einarsen and Queentastic [http://www.queentastic.com

Read more about the latest developements in the Melodi Grand Prix 2006 article!

[edit] Norwegian entries in the Eurovision Song Contest

Explanation of colour codes: Gold = Victory | Green = Best third | Blue = Middle third | Violet = Last third | Red = Last place

[edit] Further lecture

Read more on Norway in the Eurovision Song Contest, or take a look at the sister contests in Denmark and Sweden. See also the extensive coverage of the British A Song For Europe/Making Your Mind Up selection.

[edit] External links

• NRK: Melodi Grand Prix 2006
• Secret Garden
• ESCToday.com: Norway 2006
• Christine Guldbrandsen
• Wig Wam
• Jostein Hasselgård
• Official MGP fan club
• The national finals encyclopedia