New face for Norwegian Eurovision

by Juha Repo 197 views

The high profile Per Sundnes, who was even called the MGP General, has left the Norwegian broadcaster NRK for a private broadcaster. As his replacement has been announced the virtually unknown Vivi Sundberg, 39. She also hails from the same northern town of Bodø, north of the Arctic Circle, as Sundnes.

Ms. Sundberg has previously worked on the NRK pop radio channel P3, in promotions with Sony Music as well as editing a lifestyle magazine in the US. She will continue working with MGP with the same project manager as Sundnes, Stian Malme. Her first job will be to find artists and songwriters for next year.

In an interview with Aftenposten.no she says the title of a general is a bit of an exaggeration, suggesting she will be keeping a slightly lower profile than her predecessor. She says she is not intending to continue Sundnes’ method of dining show business people to get them interested in MGP and the Eurovision Song Contest.

Vivi Sundberg is still working with a previous documentary project with NRK until the autumn, and says it is far too early to start thinking about MGP and possible future artists. She does however say she has been following the contest all her life, apart from the time she has lived abroad, and says she has a wide ranging taste in music and calls herself a music lover.

It is not known whether she will be part of hosting the Norwegian national finals, starting in January, like Per Sundnes did.

Source: aftenposten.no, with thanks to Ronny.