Melodi Grand Prix 2006

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The Norwegian selection final for this year's Eurovision Song Contest, the Melodi Grand Prix 2006, was held on February 4th in Oslo Spektrum, Norway's premier concert hall venue with a capacity of 9,700. The event was hosted by Synnøve Svabø & Stian Barsnes Simonsen, two familiar television faces. While Synnøve is a comedian, Stian was one of the two hosts of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2004 at the Olympic city of Lillehammer. In addition, the notorious Eurovision commentator for Norwegian television, Jostein Pedersen, who is famous for especially his commentaries on the Swedish entries, played a role as side commentator for all five shows. In the three weeks leading up to the final, four qualification rounds were held. Three semi finals, and a second chance heat where the last two final tickets were given out. All five events were sent live at channel NRK1 [1] from 19:55 CET.

Contents

[edit] Swedish dominance

This year, NRK received 586 compositions, one of the highest numbers ever. However, the foreign songs exceed 60% of this total, coming mainly from Swedish composers. And as a result, impressively 13 (!) out of the 18 semi final entries are written by Swedes!

[edit] The semi finals

[edit] A new concept

The three initial semi finals were held in three different Norwegian cities, based on the successful formula that has been used in the Swedish Melodifestivalen since 2002. That is to say, the semi final concept in Norway is new of the year. NRK has decided that those cities which were awarded with the concept this year, will have the right to host one semi final each for the next three years.

[edit] A second chance

In these semi finals, the two most popular songs, according to the televoting, qualified directly to the final. The third and fourth placed songs got a second chance to qualify for the final in the fourth semi-final, the wildcard round, which took place in Oslo Spektrum on the night before the big final.

[edit] Semi final 1

Finnmarkshallen, Alta - January 13th

Running order Song Singer Televotes Place
1 Lost And Found Jorun Erdal & Geir Rönning TBA Final
2 Here For The Show Trine Rein TBA Final
3 My Dream Christina Undhjem TBA Eliminated
4 Misled Kirsti Carr TBA Second chance
5 Tonight Mocci TBA Eliminated
6 Sunshine Arlene Wilkes TBA Second chance
  • Trine Rein had to perform her song twice, due to sound problems.

[edit] Semi final 2

Bodø Spektrum - January 20th

Running order Song Singer Televotes Place
1 Absolutely Fabulous Queentastic TBA Final
2 Heaven's In Your Eyes Hanne Haugsand TBA Eliminated
3 The Better Side of Me Ovi Martin TBA Second chance
4 Too Much Love Marit Strømøy TBA Eliminated
5 I Hear Music Hans-Petter Moen & Kim Arne Hagen TBA Final
6 I Wanna Be Jannicke Abrahamsen TBA Second chance

[edit] Curio

The entry Absolutely Fabulous is written by the same composer who wrote super star Carola's entry Invincible in Melodifestivalen 2006, namely Thomas G:son, in company with Gerard James Borg, the well known Maltese composer who wrote three of Malta's most successful Eurovision entries; Claudette Pace's Desire in Eurovision Song Contest 2000 (finished 8th), Ira Losco's very successful 7th Wonder in 2002 finishing an excellent second, and Julie & Ludwig's On Again...Off Again in 2004 (finishing 12th).

[edit] Semi final 3

Framohallen, Bergen - January 27th

Running order Song Singer Televotes Place
1 Saturday Birgitte Einarsen TBA Second chance
2 Like a Wind Veronica Akselsen TBA Second chance
3 Shut Up And Kiss Me Phung TBA Eliminated
4 Alvedansen Christine Guldbrandsen TBA Final
5 Paparazzi World Kathrine Strugstad TBA Eliminated
6 Dreaming of a New Tomorrow Tor Endresen TBA Final

[edit] The second chance round

Oslo Spektrum - February 3rd

Running order Song Singer Televotes Place
1 Misled Kirsti Carr TBA Eliminated
2 Sunshine Arlene Wilkes TBA Eliminated
3 The Better Side of Me Ovi Martin TBA Eliminated
4 I Wanna Be Jannicke Abrahamsen TBA Eliminated
5 Saturday Birgitte Einarsen TBA Final
6 Like A Wind Veronica Akselsen TBA Final

[edit] The final

Oslo Spektrum - February 4th

Running order Song Singer Televotes Place
1 Here For The Show Trine Rein TBA Eliminated
2 I Hear Music Hans-Petter Moen & Kim Arne Hagen TBA Super final
3 Dreaming of a New Tomorrow Tor Endresen TBA Eliminated
4 Absolutely Fabulous Queentastic TBA Super final
5 Saturday Birgitte Einarsen TBA Eliminated
6 Alvedansen Christine Guldbrandsen TBA Super final
7 Like A Wind Veronica Akselsen TBA Eliminated
8 Lost And Found Geir Rönning & Jorun Erdal TBA Super final
  • The winning glam rock group of Melodi Grand Prix 2005, Wig Wam, made a spectacular entrance on the Spektrum stage and performed several songs before the announcement of the super final participants were done.

[edit] Super final

Running order Song Singer Televotes Place
1 I Hear Music Hans-Petter Moen & Kim Arne Hagen 67223 2
2 Alvedansen [2] Christine Guldbrandsen 77568 1
3 Lost And Found Geir Rönning & Jorun Erdal 57905 4
4 Absolutely Fabulous Queentastic 61997 3
  • A total of 264,693 televotes were counted in the super final.
  • Both the top two songs in the super final were composed by Norwegians, despite NRK having only selected five songs with Norwegian composers out of the initial 18 semi final entries.
  • Christine Guldbrandsen represented Norway in the final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2006 in Athens, Greece on May 20th. There she will perform the ethno piece Alvedansen, a Nordic folk ballad with Norwegian lyrics, and where the traditional instruments of fiddle and harmonica are used.

[edit] See also

Official site

Competing artists

The venues

Other national finals


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