Country – Norway
Broadcaster – NRK
Created – 1960
History Summary:
Melodi Grand Prix began in 1960 to select Norway’s debut Eurovision entry, and has since been held almost every year apart from three occasions in 1970 (due to a Nordic boycott of the Contest), 1991 (because NRK felt the songs submitted were of too low quality) and 2002 (due to relegation).
Following the success of the revamped Melodifestivalen in neighbouring Sweden, in 2006 NRK decided to expand Melodi Grand Prix to a similar format with multiple Semi-finals and a grand Final. A “second chance” round (Siste Sjansen) was included until it was scrapped for the 2012 competition. Three Semi-finals of eight songs (24 songs in total) were held in various towns and cities across Norway until 2014, where it was reduced to three semi-finals of 5 songs, before being scrapped in 2015.
Current Format:
Melodi Grand Prix has taken place in March since 2014, with the show being held in the Spektrum arena in the capital Oslo.
As of 2015, eleven songs altogether compete in the Final. Once all the songs are performed, the phone lines are open for a short period, then the top four songs progress to a “super final” and the previous televotes are then wiped. In the “super final”, the four songs are performed again before the phone lines are reopened. The final results are given out by splitting the new televotes into five regions:
- Midt-Norge/Trøndelag (main city: Trondheim)
- Nord-Norge (main city: Tromsø)
- Sørlandet (main city: Kristiansand)
- Vestlandet (main city: Bergen)
- Østlandet (main city: Oslo)
The song with the most points in the end is declared the winner.
ESC Pulse 