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History of Melodi Grand Prix
Melodi Grand Prix, the Norwegian selection for the Eurovision Song Contest, began in 1960, the year of Norway's debut in the contest. It has been held almost every year since.
Norway first participated in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1960, and the first Melodi Grand Prix was therefore held that same year. Since then, MGP has been organized every year except 1970 (boycott in all Nordic countries), 1991 (internal selection) and 2002 (Norway had not qualified due to the poor result the year before).
Norway's first Eurovision participant, in 1960 in London, was Nora Brockstedt, receiving a 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 artist, 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.
The Norwegian Minister of Culture for the Labour Party from 1990 to 1996, Åse Kleveland, represented Norway in the contest during the 1960s. With her dark, very characteristic, sort of masculine voice, she performed her entry "Intet er nytt under solen" (Nothing New Under The Sun), achieving a third place for Norway. In 1986 she was the sole presenter of the Eurovision Song Contest 1986 held in the Grieg Hall in Norway's second city, Bergen.
Norway has won the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) three times. 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 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 Just 4 Fun. 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, Congratulations, in Copenhagen, Denmark.
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 until the 1998 contest - 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.
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).
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 a significant proportion of 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, as a permanent location. The Spektrum has a capacity of 9,700, a "handful" more than the TV studios which had been used a few years earlier.
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History of Melodi Grand Prix
Melodi Grand Prix, the Norwegian selection for the Eurovision Song Contest, began in 1960, the year of Norway's debut in the contest. It has been held almost every year since.
Norway first participated in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1960, and the first Melodi Grand Prix was therefore held that same year. Since then, MGP has been organized every year except 1970 (boycott in all Nordic countries), 1991 (internal selection) and 2002 (Norway had not qualified due to the poor result the year before).
Norway's first Eurovision participant, in 1960 in London, was Nora Brockstedt, receiving a 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 artist, 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.
The Norwegian Minister of Culture for the Labour Party from 1990 to 1996, Åse Kleveland, represented Norway in the contest during the 1960s. With her dark, very characteristic, sort of masculine voice, she performed her entry "Intet er nytt under solen" (Nothing New Under The Sun), achieving a third place for Norway. In 1986 she was the sole presenter of the Eurovision Song Contest 1986 held in the Grieg Hall in Norway's second city, Bergen.
Norway has won the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) three times. 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 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 Just 4 Fun. 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, Congratulations, in Copenhagen, Denmark.
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 until the 1998 contest - 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.
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).
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 a significant proportion of 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, as a permanent location. The Spektrum has a capacity of 9,700, a "handful" more than the TV studios which had been used a few years earlier.