It has now been revealed, that there will be seven songs in each of the three heats in Norway. MGP or Melodi Grand Prix is the long-running Norwegian national final, and the 2013 season will begin in January.
But unlike in many previous years, the songs that are competing to be the 2013 Norwegian entry at the Eurovision Song Contest in Malmö will not be revealed until days before each heat, starting with a special presentation show on 16 January.
The four people in the selection jury have met several times and have finally got the line-up ready for Melodi Grand Prix tour.
Photo: Hege Bakken Riise/NRK
The jury consisted of Vivi Stenberg, the new musical director of MGP, Gisle G. Stokland, owner of music website 730.no and with a wide music industry experience, Kristin Winsents works also at NRK (Norwegian national broadcaster) radio as well as Christine Dancke, radio DJ and also with songwriting experience from MGP. There have also been additional jury members from both NRK and the production company EyeworksDinamo.
By presenting the songs only just before each heat, the team is hoping to give each artist and songwriter an equal amount of publicity. Within the 600 submissions NRK received songs from many countries, like the UK, Spain, Greece, France and Sweden. The majority has still been Norwegian, says Vivi Stenberg to nrk.no.
We have not been looking for especially MGP songs while doing the selection, but wanted to find the best songs, says Stenberg. The team has also been looking for songs that would do well in Europe and have a life even outside MGP.
I would not say that the music in MGP will change a lot next year, continues Stenberg. It will sound like typical MGP music for most, but we are expecting that quite a few songs will be played a lot on radio as well, she concludes.
The team also say, they have been looking for interesting artists and that they have needed to google quite a bit, suggesting many will be previously unknown names.
Next year will be the 52nd edition of Melodi Grand Prix and the team is aware there will be a lot of discussion of their decisions. They also say they want MGP 2013 have a good mix of experienced as well as new artists and songwriters.
MGP 2013 will be hosted Jenny Skavlan and Erik Solbakken.
It has been decided thatNorwaywill compete in the second semi-final in Malmö.
Melodi Grand Prix schedule:
- Heat 1 – Steinkjer: Saturday 19 January 2013
- Heat 2 – Florø: Saturday 26 January 2013
- Heat 3 – Larvik: Saturday 2 February 2013
- Final – Oslo Spektrum: Saturday 9 February 2013
In addition there will be a 30-minute presentation show on the Wednesday before each heat and the final.
Source and photo: nrk.no
