Norway 2014 : New format for Melodi Grand Prix 2014. Photograph courtesy of NRK

Norwegian Broadcaster – has announced that they are relaunching the Norwegian National Selection for Eurovision 2014 and are dropping the Semi Finals. This year Margaret Berger brought Norway to 4th place at Eurovision 2013.

Norway has followed a very similar process to their neighbors Sweden and opted to travel around the country with Semi Finals and then a Grand Final. This is all being changed for 2014. There will be only a Grand Final but the current idea is that there will be shows in the run up to the National final that will showcase each of the artists.

According to Vivi Stenberg (the head of Melodi Grand Prix) “We will endeavour to tell more of a story around those who are participating so that the viewers can become much better acquainted with whoever is standing on stage and the individual entries. It is going to be very exciting but at the same time scary to make changes to something that has existed for over 50 years. We approach this task with reverence but that just makes it even more fun!”

The process for submitting songs to NRK is now on-line with some key points

• Open to composers from any antionality
• NRK reserves the right to select the artist to perform the song (though it is usually done in collaboration with the composers)
• Norwegian writers are strongly encouraged to enter
• NRK will also invite performers and artists to perform in conjunction with the open submissions call
• Deadline for sublissions is September 15th

For full details of how to enter and further conditions – follow the official NRK website below

http://nrk.no/contentfile/file/1.11113928!rules_for_melodi_grand_prix_2014.pdf

Further details will come from NRK on the new format of Melodi Grand Prix over the coming months.

Can next year’s Norwegian Eurovision artist do as well as Margaret Berger this year?

Author/Website co-founder and Editor in Chief Garrett Mulhall

Source – NRK