Norway in the Eurovision Song Contest

Norway has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 58 times since making its debut in 1960 and has only been absent twice since then. In 1970, the country boycotted the contest over disagreements about the voting structure, and in 2002, they were relegated. The contest is broadcast in Norway by NRK, which also broadcasts Norway's national selection competition, Melodi Grand Prix.

Norway
Member station	NRK
National selection events	National final Melodi Grand Prix 1960–1969 1971–1990 1992–2001 2003–2021 Internal selection 1991
Participation summary
Appearances	58 (55 finals)
First appearance	1960
Best result	1st: 1985, 1995, 2009
Nul points	1963, 1978, 1981, 1997
External links
NRK page
Norway's page at Eurovision.tv
For the most recent participation see Norway in the Eurovision Song Contest 2020

Before 1985, Norway's best result in the contest was Åse Kleveland's third-place in 1966. Norway's three victories in the contest were achieved by Bobbysocks in 1985, Secret Garden in 1995 and Alexander Rybak in 2009. Norway also finished second at the 1996 contest, with former Bobbysocks member Elisabeth Andreassen. Norway has finished last in eleven Eurovision Song Contest finals, of which four times with "nul points". Norway has a total of eleven top-five results in the contest, the latest being Margaret Berger's fourth place in 2013.

History

Norway's first entrant in the contest in 1960 was Nora Brockstedt, who finished fourth. Åse Kleveland then finished third in 1966. Following Kleveland's result, Norway would fail to reach the top ten in 14 out of their next 15 attempts, the exception being Bendik Singers seventh place in 1973.

Before 1985, Norway had only reached the top five in two out of 24 attempts and had finished last six times. In 1985, Bobbysocks gave the country its first victory with the song "La det swinge" (Let It Swing). Norway went on to achieve two more top five results over the next ten years, with both Karoline Krüger in 1988 and Silje Vige in 1993, finishing fifth.

Norway's second victory came in 1995 with Secret Garden's mainly instrumental, Celtic-influenced ethno-piece "Nocturne". In 1996, Elisabeth Andreassen, who had won the contest as one half of Bobbysocks, returned to finish second. In 2003, Jostein Hasselgård was fourth.

Norway won for the third time in 2009, with Alexander Rybak's smash hit "Fairytale". The 2009 winning score of 387 points being the highest ever winning total under the voting system used between 1975 and 2015. It also achieved the biggest ever margin of victory. 492 points were able to be rewarded in 2009. (2009-Norway) That's 78.7% of the total points that could be rewarded.

In 2012, Norway finished last in the final for the 11th time. Norway has the two dubious distinctions of having finished last in the Eurovision final more than any other country and for having the most "nul points" (zero points) in the contest, failing to score a point four times, in 1963, 1978, 1981 and 1997. Austria has also scored "nul points" four times.

Since the introduction of the semi-final round in 2004, Norway has finished in the top ten seven times. Wig Wam finished ninth with the song "In My Dreams" in 2005, Maria Haukaas Storeng was fifth in 2008 with "Hold On Be Strong", Alexander Rybak won in 2009, Margaret Berger was fourth in 2013 with "I Feed You My Love", Carl Espen finished eighth in 2014 performing "Silent Storm", Mørland & Debrah Scarlett finished eighth in 2015 with "A Monster Like Me", Jowst featuring Aleksander Walmann finished tenth with the song "Grab the Moment" in 2017 and Keiino finished sixth with the song "Spirit in the Sky" in 2019 (when they also finished first with the televote in the Grand Final). Norway has a total of 11 top five and 24 top ten results in the contest.

Contestants

Table key

1	Winner
2	Second place
3	Third place
◁	Last place
X	Entry selected but did not compete

Year	Artist	Language	Title	Final	Points	Semi	Points
1960	Nora Brockstedt	Norwegian[lower-alpha 1]	"Voi Voi"	4	11	No semi-finals
1961	Nora Brockstedt	Norwegian	"Sommer i Palma"	7	10
1962	Inger Jacobsen	Norwegian	"Kom sol, kom regn"	10	2
1963	Anita Thallaug	Norwegian	"Solhverv"	13 ◁	0
1964	Arne Bendiksen	Norwegian	"Spiral"	8	6
1965	Kirsti Sparboe	Norwegian	"Karusell"	13	1
1966	Åse Kleveland	Norwegian	"Intet er nytt under solen"	3	15
1967	Kirsti Sparboe	Norwegian	"Dukkemann"	14	2
1968	Odd Børre	Norwegian	"Stress"	13	2
1969	Kirsti Sparboe	Norwegian	"Oj, oj, oj, så glad jeg skal bli"	16 ◁	1
1971	Hanne Krogh	Norwegian	"Lykken er"	17	65
1972	Grethe Kausland & Benny Borg	Norwegian	"Småting"	14	73
1973	Bendik Singers	English, French[lower-alpha 2]	"It's Just a Game"	7	89
1974	Anne-Karine Strøm & Bendik Singers	English	"The First Day of Love"	14 ◁	3
1975	Ellen Nikolaysen	English	"Touch My Life (With Summer)"	18	11
1976	Anne-Karine Strøm	English	"Mata Hari"	18 ◁	7
1977	Anita Skorgan	Norwegian	"Casanova"	14	18
1978	Jahn Teigen	Norwegian	"Mil etter mil"	20 ◁	0
1979	Anita Skorgan	Norwegian	"Oliver"	11	57
1980	Sverre Kjelsberg & Mattis Hætta	Norwegian[lower-alpha 3]	"Sámiid ædnan"	16	15
1981	Finn Kalvik	Norwegian	"Aldri i livet"	20 ◁	0
1982	Jahn Teigen & Anita Skorgan	Norwegian	"Adieu"	12	40
1983	Jahn Teigen	Norwegian	"Do Re Mi"	9	53
1984	Dollie de Luxe	Norwegian	"Lenge leve livet"	17	29
1985	Bobbysocks	Norwegian	"La det swinge"	1	123
1986	Ketil Stokkan	Norwegian	"Romeo"	12	44
1987	Kate Gulbrandsen	Norwegian	"Mitt liv"	9	65
1988	Karoline Krüger	Norwegian	"For vår jord"	5	88
1989	Britt Synnøve	Norwegian	"Venners nærhet"	17	30
1990	Ketil Stokkan	Norwegian	"Brandenburger Tor"	21 ◁	8
1991	Just 4 Fun	Norwegian	"Mrs. Thompson"	17	14
1992	Merethe Trøan	Norwegian	"Visjoner"	18	23
1993	Silje Vige	Norwegian	"Alle mine tankar"	5	120	Kvalifikacija za Millstreet
1994	Elisabeth Andreassen & Jan Werner Danielsen	Norwegian	"Duett"	6	76	No semi-finals
1995	Secret Garden	Norwegian	"Nocturne"	1	148
1996	Elisabeth Andreassen	Norwegian	"I evighet"	2	114	Host country[lower-alpha 4]
1997	Tor Endresen	Norwegian	"San Francisco"	24 ◁	0	No semi-finals
1998	Lars A. Fredriksen	Norwegian	"Alltid sommer"	8	79[lower-alpha 5]
1999	Stig Van Eijk	English	"Living My Life Without You"	14	35
2000	Charmed	English	"My Heart Goes Boom"	11	57
2001	Haldor Lægreid	English	"On My Own"	22 ◁	3
2003	Jostein Hasselgård	English	"I'm Not Afraid To Move On"	4	123
2004	Knut Anders Sørum	English	"High"	24 ◁	3	Top 11 previous year[lower-alpha 6]
2005	Wig Wam	English	"In My Dreams"	9	125	6	164
2006	Christine Guldbrandsen	Norwegian	"Alvedansen"	14	36	Top 11 previous year[lower-alpha 6]
2007	Guri Schanke	English[lower-alpha 7]	"Ven a bailar conmigo"	Failed to qualify		18	48
2008	Maria Haukaas Storeng	English	"Hold On Be Strong"	5	182	4	106
2009	Alexander Rybak	English	"Fairytale"	1	387	1	201
2010	Didrik Solli-Tangen	English	"My Heart Is Yours"	20	35	Host country
2011	Stella Mwangi	English, Swahili	"Haba Haba"	Failed to qualify		17	30
2012	Tooji	English	"Stay"	26 ◁	7	10	45
2013	Margaret Berger	English	"I Feed You My Love"	4	191	3	120
2014	Carl Espen	English	"Silent Storm"	8	88	6	77
2015	Mørland & Debrah Scarlett	English	"A Monster Like Me"	8	102	4	123
2016	Agnete	English	"Icebreaker"	Failed to qualify		13	63
2017	JOWST	English	"Grab the Moment"	10	158	5	189
2018	Alexander Rybak	English	"That's How You Write a Song"	15	144	1	266
2019	KEiiNO	English[lower-alpha 8]	"Spirit in the Sky"	6	331	7	210
2020	Ulrikke	English	"Attention"	Contest cancelled[lower-alpha 9] X

Hostings

Year	Location	Venue	Presenters
1986	Bergen	Grieghallen	Åse Kleveland
1996	Oslo	Oslo Spektrum	Ingvild Bryn and Morten Harket
2010	Oslo	Telenor Arena	Nadia Hasnaoui, Haddy N'jie and Erik Solbakken

Songs of Europe

Year	Location	Venue	Presenters
1981	Mysen	Momarken	Rolf Kirkvaag and Titten Tei

Awards

Marcel Bezençon Awards

Further information: Marcel Bezençon Awards

Year	Category	Song	Composer(s) lyrics (l) / music (m)	Performer	Final	Points	Host city	Ref.
2009	Press Award	"Fairytale"	Alexander Rybak (m & l)	Alexander Rybak	1	387	Moscow	[1]
2015	Composer Award	"A Monster Like Me"	Kjetil Mørland (m & l)	Mørland & Debrah Scarlett	8	102	Vienna	[2]

Winner by OGAE members

Further information: OGAE

Year	Song	Performer	Place	Points	Host city	Ref.
2009	"Fairytale"	Alexander Rybak	1	387	Moscow	[3]

Related involvement

Heads of delegation

Year	Head of delegation	Ref.
1998–2005	Jon Ola Sand	[4]
2006–2009, 2012–2015	Stian Malme	[5]
2010–2011	Skjalg Solstad	[5]
2016–present	Stig Karlsen	[5]

Commentators and spokespersons

Year	Commentator	Spokesperson	Ref.
1960	Erik Diesen	Kari Borg Mannsåker
1961	Leif Rustad	Mette Janson
1962	Odd Grythe	Kari Borg Mannsåker
1963	Øivind Johnsen	Roald Øyen
1964	Odd Grythe	Sverre Christophersen
1965	Erik Diesen
1966	Sverre Christophersen	Erik Diesen
1967	Erik Diesen	Sverre Christophersen
1968	Roald Øyen
1969	Sverre Christophersen	Janka Polanyi
1970	No commentator	Did not participate
1971	Sverre Christophersen	No spokesperson
1972	Roald Øyen
1973	John Andreassen
1974		Sverre Christophersen
1975
1976	Jo Vestly
1977	John Andreassen
1978	Bjørn Scheele	Egil Teige
1979	Egil Teige	Sverre Christophersen
1980	Knut Aunbu	Roald Øyen
1981		Sverre Christophersen
1982	Bjørn Scheele	Erik Diesen
1983	Ivar Dyrhaug
1984	Roald Øyen	Egil Teige
1985	Veslemøy Kjendsli	Erik Diesen
1986	Knut Bjørnsen	Nina Matheson
1987	John Andreassen and Tor Paulsen	Sverre Christophersen
1988	John Andreassen	Andreas Diesen
1989		Sverre Christophersen
1990	Leif Erik Forberg
1991	John Andreassen and Jahn Teigen
1992	John Andreassen
1993	Leif Erik Forberg
1994	Jostein Pedersen
1995	Annette Groth
1996	Jostein Pedersen	Ragnhild Sælthun Fjørtoft
1997
1998
1999
2000		Marit Åslein
2001		Roald Øyen
2002		Did not participate
2003		Roald Øyen
2004		Ingvild Helljesen
2005
2006
2007	Per Sundnes	Synnøve Svabø
2008	Per Sundnes and Hanne Hoftun	Stian Barsnes-Simonsen
2009	Synnøve Svabø		[6]
2010	Olav Viksmo-Slettan	Anne Rimmen	[7]
2011		Nadia Hasnaoui	[7]
2012			[7][8]
2013		Tooji	[7][9]
2014		Margrethe Røed	[7][10]
2015			[7][11]
2016		Elisabeth Andreassen	[7][12]
2017		Marcus & Martinus	[7][13]
2018		Aleksander Walmann and Jowst	[7][14]
2019		Alexander Rybak	[7][15]
2020	Marte Stokstad	Not announced before cancellation	[16]
2021	Marte Stokstad		[17]

Supervisors

List of supervisors of Melodi Grand Prix, better known as MGP-general or GP-general in Norway:

• Per Sundnes (c. 2007–2012)[18]
• Vivi Stenberg (2013–2015)[19]
• Jan Fredrik Karlsen (2016–2017)[20]
• Stig Karlsen (2018–present)[20]

Gallery

• 
  Anne-Karine Strøm performing "Mata Hari" in The Hague (1976)
• 
  Bobbysocks performing "La det swinge" in Gothenburg (1985)
• 
  Guri Schanke performing "Ven a bailar conmigo" in Helsinki (2007)
• 
  Maria Haukaas Storeng performing "Hold On Be Strong" in Belgrade (2008)
• 
  Didrik Solli-Tangen performing "My Heart Is Yours" in Oslo (2010)
• 
  Margaret Berger performing "I Feed You My Love" in Malmö (2013)
• 
  Carl Espen performing "Silent Storm" in Copenhagen (2014)
• 
  Mørland & Debrah Scarlett performing "A Monster Like Me" in Vienna (2015)
• 
  Agnete performing "Icebreaker" in Stockholm (2016)
• 
  Jowst performing "Grab the Moment" in Kyiv (2017)
• 
  Alexander Rybak performing "That's How You Write a Song" in Lisbon (2018)
• 
  Keiino performing "Spirit in the Sky" in Tel Aviv (2019)

See also

• Melodi Grand Prix
• Norway in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest – Junior version of the Eurovision Song Contest.
• Norway in the Eurovision Young Dancers – A competition organised by the EBU for younger dancers aged between 16 and 21.
• Norway in the Eurovision Young Musicians – A competition organised by the EBU for musicians aged 18 years and younger.

Notes and references

Notes

1. Although the song was mostly performed in Norwegian, the title and line "Voi Voi" is in Northern Sami.
2. Also contains some lyrics in Spanish, Italian, Dutch, German, Irish, Hebrew, Serbo-Croatian, Finnish, Swedish and Norwegian.
3. Although the song was performed mostly in Norwegian (and with joik), the title and line "Sámiid ædnan" is in Northern Sami.
4. If a country had won the previous year, they did not have to compete in the semi-finals the following year.
5. Spain originally gave its 12 points to Israel and 10 to Norway. After the broadcast it was announced that Spanish broadcaster wrongly tallied the votes and Germany should have got the top mark – 12 points – instead of being snubbed, as it happened. The mistake was corrected and so Germany was placed 7th over Norway. Israel and Norway both received 2 points less than originally and Croatia, Malta, Portugal, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Belgium, Estonia and Turkey all received one point less than indicated during the broadcast.
6. According to the then-Eurovision rules, the top ten non-Big Four countries from the previous year along with the Big Four automatically qualified for the Grand Final without having to compete in semi-finals. For example, if Germany and France placed inside the top ten, the 11th and 12th spots were advanced to next year's Grand Final along with all countries ranked in the top ten.
7. Although the song was mostly performed in English, the title and line "Ven a bailar conmigo" is in Spanish.
8. Although the song was performed mostly in English (and with joik), the line "Čajet dan čuovgga" is in Northern Sami.
9. The 2020 contest was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

References

1. Klier, Marcus (18 May 2009). "The Eurovision 2009 Marcel Bezençon Awards". esctoday.com. Retrieved 8 December 2019.
2. "Winners of the Marcel Bezençon Awards 2015". eurovision.tv. 25 May 2015. Retrieved 8 December 2019.
3. Cobb, Ryan (21 April 2017). "Analysing ten years of OGAE voting: "Underneath the fan favourite bias is a worthwhile indicator"". escxtra.com. Retrieved 8 December 2019.
4. "Executive Supervisor". eurovision.tv. Retrieved 2 January 2020.
5. "Se hele finalen her". 3 April 2020. Retrieved 3 April 2020.
6. Norli, Kristin (18 May 2009). "Klagerekord mot Svabø" [Complaint record against Svabø]. Aftenposten (in Norwegian). Archived from the original on 19 May 2009. Retrieved 21 February 2020.
7. Granger, Anthony (20 February 2020). "Norway: Olav Viksmo-Slettan Steps Down as Commentator After Ten Contests". Eurovoix. Retrieved 21 February 2020.
8. Hondal, Victor (26 May 2012). "EBU announces voting order". ESCToday. Retrieved 21 February 2020.
9. Granger, Anthony (12 May 2013). "Malmo'13: All The Spokespersons Announced". Eurovoix. Retrieved 21 February 2020.
10. Granger, Anthony (10 May 2014). "ESC'14: Voting Order Announced". Eurovoix. Retrieved 21 February 2020.
11. Doyle, Daniel (23 May 2015). "Vienna Calling: Spokespersons revealed". ESCToday. Retrieved 21 February 2020.
12. Granger, Anthony (14 May 2016). "ESC'16: 42 Spokespersons Revealed For Tonight". Eurovoix. Retrieved 21 February 2020.
13. Granger, Anthony (9 May 2017). "Norway: Marcus & Martinus Announcing The Jury Points". Eurovoix. Retrieved 7 December 2019.
14. Granger, Anthony (9 May 2018). "Norway: JOWST & Aleksander Walmann To Reveal Norwegian Jury Points". Eurovoix. Retrieved 21 February 2020.
15. Herbert, Emily (13 May 2019). "Norway: Alexander Rybak Revealed as Eurovision 2019 Spokesperson". Eurovoix. Retrieved 21 February 2020.
16. Sand, Camilla (17 April 2020). "Marte Stokstad blir ny kommentator for Eurovision Song Contest" (in Norwegian). Retrieved 17 April 2020.
17. Hagen, Knut-Øyvind (17 April 2020). "Slik blir årets alternative Eurovision Song Contest". NRK (in Norwegian).
18. GP-general Per Sundnes slutter i NRK
19. – Skulle veldig gjerne hatt en seier i beltet før jeg gir meg
20. Gir seg som MGP-general

External links

• Melodi Grand Prix
• Points to and from Norway eurovisioncovers.co.uk