Melodi Grand Prix 2007

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You might be looking for the Danish national final with the same name - the Dansk Melodi Grand Prix 2007.

Melodi Grand Prix 2007 (shortened MGP 2007) will be the television show in which the Norwegian entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2007 will be chosen.

Just like in 2006, there will be 3 semi finals held before the final, where televoting will decide the Top 4 songs, the top 2 of which will go to the final (in random order), and the songs which are placed 3rd and 4th go to the 'Second Chance' semi final (also in random order). If NRK follow their traditional ways, it is unlikely we will ever find out the full results of the semi finals.

The semi finals will be held:

Semi Final 1 - January 20th, Alta
Semi Final 2 - January 27th, Bodø
Semi Final 3 - February 3rd, Stokke
Semi Final 4 (Second Chance round) - February 8th, Oslo
Final - February 10th, Oslo

On the 12th October 2006, NRK announced that it had received 464 songs for the 2007 Melodi Grand Prix, over half of which came from Sweden ^[1]. However, in the final selection of the 18 participating entries, only five were written partially or entirely by Swedish composers, less than half the number of the 13 Swedish entries in Melodi Grand Prix 2006. This was most probably the results of the heavy criticism NRK received from Norwegian composers due to the heavy Swedish dominance in MGP 2006.

Just like in MGP 2006, Synnøve Svabø and Stian Barsnes Simonsen hosted all five shows. However, 2006' additional side commentator, Jostein Pedersen, has been swapped with trend guru and television host Per Sundnes, though Sundnes will play a slightly smaller role than his predecessor, primarily being in charge of interval reports from the different host cities. However, he will substitute Jostein Pedersen as the new Norwegian Eurovision commentator for NRK in Helsinki.

1 The semi finals
2 The second chance round
3 The final
- 3.1 The gold final
4 Related articles
5 External links

[edit] The semi finals

[edit] Semi final 1

Finnmarkshallen, Alta - January 20th

Running order	Song	Singer/duo/band	Song writer(s)	Televotes	Place
1	Love On The Dancefloor	Thorild Sivertsen & The Funky Family	Taiwo Karlsen & Kehinde Karlsen	?	Final
2	Goodbye To Yesterday	Blue Moon Band	Kjetil Røsnes & Kirsti Johansen	?	Second chance
3	Perfect Sin	Marika Lejon	Adam Kalvermark	?	Knocked out
4	Livets små stjerner	Marianne Solberg	Kirsti Carr	?	Knocked out
5	Are You Ready?	Stian Joneid	Kim A. Hagen & Hans Petter Moen	?	Second chance
6	Hooked On You	Infinity	Birgitte Moe & Rune Minde	?	Final

[edit] Semi final 2

Bodø Spektrum / Nordlandshallen - January 27th

Running order	Song	Singer/duo/band	Song writer(s)	Televotes	Place
1	Ven a bailar conmigo	Guri Schanke	Thomas G:son	?	Final
2	Better Than This	Hazen	Mikael Jensen, Eivind Skådal & Morten Hazen	?	Second chance
3	Under stjernene	Malin Schavenius	Thomas Thörnholm, Dan Attlerud, Kurre Westling & Micke Løvdalen	?	Second chance
4	I Wanna Be With You	Andreea	Maria Marcus	?	Knocked out
5	Unbelievable	Amelia	Finneide, Ingwersen, Pandher, Thoresen, la Verdi, Holter	?	Knocked out
6	Chicken Rodeo	Dusty Cowshit	Dusty Cowshit	?	Final

[edit] Semi final 3

Brunstad Confrence Center, Stokke - February 3rd

Running order	Song	Singer/duo/band	Song writer(s)	Televotes	Place
1	Rocket Ride	Jannicke Abrahamsen	Knut-Øyvind Hagen, Thomas G:son & Andreas Rickstrand	?	Second chance
2	Maybe	Trine Rein featuring Andreas Ljones	Niclas Molinder, Joachim Persson & Pelle Ankarberg	?	Second chance
3	Creator	Monica Hjelle	Jan Eggum & Kaja Huuse	?	Knocked out
4	Wannabe	Crash!	Trond "Teeny" Holter	?	Final
5	Here	Christina Undhjem	Eirik Husabø	?	Knocked out
6	Vil du ha svar?	Jenny Jensen	Mats Larsson & Åsa Karlsstrøm	?	Final

[edit] Past Grand Prix experience

Trine Rein took part in the Melodi Grand Prix 2006 final, where also the two song writers of "Are You Ready", Moen and Hagen, participated as artists. Unlike Trine, they reached the super final where they became the runners up behind Christine Guldbrandsen. Also present in the qualifying rounds the same year were Christina Undhjem and Jannicke Abrahamsen. Jannicke also reached the second chance round, where she failed to qualify for the final.
Both Andreea and Marianne Solberg, the latter one as part of the five member group Blissed, took part in Melodi Grand Prix 2005, where both failed to reach the super final.
Malin Schavenius finished joint last in Melodi Grand Prix 2004, without any points at all.
Trond "Teeny" Holter, composer of Crash!'s "Wannabe", competed two years in a row as a drummer in the glam rock band Wig Wam. In 2004, their "Crazy Things" finished third in that year's super final. In MGP 2005 they won the national final with a margin of more than 10,000 televotes. Their song "In My Dreams" finished on ninth place in the Eurovision Song Contest 2005 final after previously having qualified through the semi final the same week.
Jan Eggum, the composer of "Creator", took part as an artist in Melodi Grand Prix 1988 with the song "Deilige drøm" (Lovely Dream), where he finished tenth and last. Early roumers said that Mia Gundersen, a three time Melodi Grand Prix participant, would sing his song.
Thomas G:son has written or co-written more than 30 national final entries for six different countries; Sweden, Norway, Finland, Spain, Latvia and Romania. Two of them, "Listen To Your Heartbeat" by Friends and "Invincible" by Carola, won the Swedish Melodifestivalen in respectively 2001 and 2006, and both went on to finish fifth in the Eurovision Song Contest 2001 and 2006. His most successful MGP entry so far was the drag duo Queentastic's "Absolutely Fabulous", which finished third in MGP 2006.
Kirsti Carr, composer of "Livets små stjerner", took part in Melodi Grand Prix 2006 as an artist of the song "Misled", which reached the second chance round, but failed to gain enough televotes to reach the final from there.

[edit] The second chance round

Oslo Spektrum - February 8th

Running order	Song	Singer/duo/band	Song writer(s)	Televotes	Place
1	Goodbye To Yesterday	Blue Moon Band	Kjetil Røsnes & Kirsti Johansen	?	Knocked out
2	Are You Ready?	Stian Joneid	Kim A. Hagen & Hans Petter Moen	?	Knocked out
3	Better Than This	Hazen	Mikael Jensen, Eivind Skådal & Morten Hazen	?	Knocked out
4	Under stjernene	Malin Schavenius	Thomas Thörnholm, Dan Attlerud, Kurre Westling & Micke Løvdalen	?	Knocked out
5	Maybe	Trine Rein featuring Andreas Ljones	Niclas Molinder, Joachim Persson & Pelle Ankarberg	?	Final
6	Rocket ride	Jannicke Abrahamsen	Knut-Øyvind Hagen, Thomas G:son & Andreas Rickstrand	?	Final

[edit] The final

Oslo Spektrum - February 10th

Running order	Song	Singer/duo/band	Song writer(s)	Televotes	Place
1	Hooked On You	Infinity	Birgitte Moe & Rune Minde	?	Knocked out
2	Vil du ha svar?	Jenny Jensen	Mats Larsson & Åsa Karlsstrøm	?	Knocked out
3	Maybe	Trine Rein featuring Andreas Ljones	Niclas Molinder, Joachim Persson & Pelle Ankarberg	?	Knocked out
4	Chicken Rodeo	Dusty Cowshit	Dusty Cowshit	?	Gold final
5	Love On The Dancefloor	Thorild Sivertsen & The Funky Family	Taiwo Karlsen & Kehinde Karlsen	?	Knocked out
6	Rocket ride	Jannicke Abrahamsen	Knut-Øyvind Hagen, Thomas G:son & Andreas Rickstrand	?	Gold final
7	Wannabe	Crash!	Trond "Teeny" Holter	?	Gold final
8	Ven a bailar conmigo	Guri Schanke	Thomas G:son	?	Gold final

[edit] The gold final

Oslo Spektrum - February 10th

Running order	Song	Singer/band	Song writer(s)	Jury points	Televotes	Total points	Place
1	Chicken Rodeo	Dusty Cowshit	Dusty Cowshit	14 000	55 062	69 062	4
2	Wannabe	Crash!	Trond "Teeny" Holter	24 000	46 203	70 203	3
3	Ven a bailar conmigo	Guri Schanke	Thomas G:son	14 000	94 541	108 541	1
4	Rocket ride	Jannicke Abrahamsen	Knut-Øyvind Hagen, Thomas G:son & Andreas Rickstrand	14 000	64 443	78 443	2

Guri Schanke and dancers performing "Ven a bailar conmigo" at the final of Melodi Grand Prix 2007.

A total of 260,249 televotes were counted in the gold final, down with about 4,450 from the MGP gold final of 2006.
After a rather unexiting vote announcement sequence, as Guri won with more than 30,000 televotes more than the runner up Jannicke, the 45 year old famous musical artist and Strictly Come Dancing participant Guri Schanke, was declared the winner of Melodi Grand Prix 2007. Though the punk-pop/rock group Crash! won the votes of the three juries by a landslide - composed as they all were by three younger and three older than 30 years - they were the least favourites among the televoters. Guri Schanke won four out of the five televoting regions, only missing out on the South of Norway by a couple of thousand votes. Guri received about 38% of the televotes in the gold final, a much higher percentage and total number of votes than Christine Guldbrandsen received the year before.
Ven a bailar conmigo, as is the title of Guri's winning entry, is Spanish and means come with me to dance or simply come dance with me. The entry was specifically order by the Norwegian broadcaster NRK who wanted Guri Schanke to dance and sing an uptempo, fiery latino song - due to Guri's second place in the Norwegian version of the popular TV series Dancing with the Stars or Strictly Come Dancing - airing on the commercial TV station TV2 - where she learned to dance tango perfectly, amongst other dances. Even the song writer Thomas G:son - Sweden's answer to Ralph Siegel concerning the record of Eurovision Song Contest and national final compositions - was personally contacted and invited by NRK. The leading Eurovision fan site, ESCToday.com, has already crowned Thomas G:son to be the new Eurovision king stealing the privilege from Ireland's trippel winner Johnny Logan.[1] Both Guri and Thomas thought NRK had a fantastic idea and decided to jump into it. Since then, NRK has promoted Guri and her song as the one to beat, even being announced a week before the other entrants in her semi final and giving her the last, and thus best, starting position in the big final.
NRK video of Guri Schanke's winning performance of her latino entry Ven a bailar conmigo.
Before the results of the gold final were announced, last year's winner Christine Guldbrandsen made a spectacular entrance into the stage of Oslo Spektrum, were she was decending from the sky looking like a real angel. She sang two of her own songs, one from her new album that was released commercially five days prior to the final, plus a remixed version of her own Eurovision entry Alvedansen.
YouTube video of Christine's performance as an interval act in the Melodi Grand Prix 2007 final.
The after party for participants, hosts, previous MGP and Eurovision artists and other invited guests, was this year held at the new, and Norway's only, Hard Rock Café situated on Oslo's main street, the Karl Johan Street, the location of Norway's royal castle and parliament, plus Oslo's central train station and parts of its university. There, all the super finalists performed their songs once again, as well as Bobbysocks who sang their Eurovision winning entry La det swinge. Guri Schanke promised not to put her heals onto the roof as she said, but rather enjoy her victory in a more relaxed manner with just a glass of champagne or two.