Norway is one of the more successful countries at Eurovision. In order to achieve that, Norway is one of the countries with the most national selections until now. In 1960, Norway have not just debuted at the Eurovision Song Contest but also introduced the Melodi Grand Prix to determine their representative.
Semifinal introduction in 2020
NRK, the public Norwegian broadcaster, has changed the system several times during the centuries obviously. In 2020, they have introduced semifinals for the very first time. Until 2022, they had 4 semifinals where one act qualified for the grand final after winning two duels within the show. Also, one more act qualified through a “Last Chance round”. In addition to that, five acts were pre-qualified based on a jury. Therefore, 10 songs competed in the Final for the Eurovision ticket. In a first round, 4 songs advance to the second round based on 50% jury and 50% televote. Only two acts then advance to the Gold duel where they can perform for a second time. This round determines the overall winner with 100% televoting.
Decreased semifinal shows
Stig Karlsen, head of the Norwegian delegation for Eurovision, gave some new information during an episode of the podcast Grand Prix Podkasten. He confirmed that the number of semifinals will be decreased from five to three shows only, followed by the final. However, the amount of 21 participating songs will not change. Even though no further information has been published to that, it highly indicates that instead of 4 acts, competing in up to two duels within a semifinal, the shows will be longer and more than one act will advance within one semifinal. Also, prequalified entries will most likely stay part of the show. As a sidenote: Since that introduction, all three winner songs have been pre-qualified (‘Attention’ in 2020, ‘Falling Angel’ in 2021 and ‘Give That Wolf A Banana’ in 2022).
New voting system incoming?
Besides the semifinal changes, Karlsen has also indicated during the podcast that there might be an introduction of an international jury in the voting system. Many countries such as Sweden or Finland have already included jury votes from different countries into their decision for many years, making sure that the chosen entry appeals to an international audience as well. No specific decision has been made in that matter so far. Also, we still do not have the dates for MGP 2023.
Are you happy with the announced changes? Who would you like as the Norwegian representative for Eurovision 2023 in Liverpool? Let us know down in the comments!
2 Responses
Speaking of Norway, NRK needs to realize that many participants at Junior Eurovision have not felt any pressure over the years.
Well the name of the podkast is: “Grand Prix Podkasten” 🙂 And as a host for this podkast, I´m very glad you can find news in our show. But even more happy if you get the name right. I also have to say that Stig Karlsen did not confirm jury during the podcast, but he argued very long and good for such an arrangement.
Here is a link to the episode of the podkast in norwegian:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/0OGU3AM81boQbguuXREcy5?si=1dbb11bb5580458a