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Norway: Alessandra Mele takes issue on Israel’s participation in the Contest!

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Alessandra Mele,2023’s Norwegian entrant,who managed to bring the country back in the top 5 after 10 years with her song “Queen of Kings” has voiced her opinion regarding Israel’s participation in the upcoming contest,which is a question that stirs enormous controversy:

“I won’t say much about it because, politically, I can’t say much. But what I find beautiful about Eurovision is that it unites people through music, and I think we should try to continue with that.Also, I hope the world realizes that love is stronger than hate.”

The public broadcaster NRK remains neutral in regards with Israel’s participation in the forthcoming contest in Sweden,as Charlo Halvorsen, Entertainment Director at NRK stated in an email to  Se og Hør:

“It is natural that questions about participation in the Eurovision Song Contest for a country at war arise. We have not yet taken a position on this matter but are following what the EBU decides”.

Israel’s participation in the 2024 contest is still a topic that sows discord among the audiences of the contest,a situation which is highly reminiscent of Russia’s participation in the 2022 edition,right after the country’s invasion in Ukraine.Nevertheless,according to the list of the participating countries published by the EBU,the Middle-Eastern country seems to be included in it,adding fuel to the fire to an already ardent issue.

Norway was represented by Alessandra and her song “Queen of the Kings” in this year’s contest in Liverpool,which won her the 3rd place in the public vote and the 5th overall.

Stay tuned on Eurovisionfun for more things about Eurovision!

Eurovision 2023: Here is the reason why Norway and Denmark opened their respective semi-finals….

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Almost 20 days after the completion of this year’s Eurovision Song Contest,the Head of Contest Twan van Nieuwenhuijze elaborates on the reason why Norway and Denmark opened the first and the second semi-final respectively.

The Head of Contest stated on the Dutch podcast Ding-A-Dong that both entries are very child-friendly and cheerful,accommodating for the contest’s needs for a joyful opening:

“Alessandra from Norway and Reiley from Denmark are both very child-friendly openers. Not only because they are both young performers, but also because of the way the act looked. Cheerful, up-tempo, those are good reasons to have someone open.”

Nevetheless,not both entries managed to yield fruitable results.Although Norway’s Alessandra managed to bring Norway back to the top 5 with her song “Queen of Kings” (achieving a top-3 televoting result),Denmark’s Reiley failed to catch the audience’s eye with his song “Breaking My Heart” and,thus,did not manage to qualify for the Grand Final,earning only 6 points from Iceland.

You can listen to both songs here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMRNUyG86Qs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVZvzZF1JOk

Source: Eurovoix

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Eurovision 2023: Norway’s Second Rehearsal!

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Are you ready for the official start of the second-rehearsals? Alessandra is about to prove she is the queen of this year’s eurovision. Let’s see what she got for us!

 

“Nothin’ in this world can stop the spread of her wings”

 

Alessandra

Alessandra Mele is a young Norwegian-Italian singer-songwriter who won a local talent show at the age of 12. She recently graduated from high school and moved to Norway to study at the Lillehammer Institute of Music Production and Industries. Her debut single, “Queen of Kings,” has gained over 25 million streams. Alessandra won the Norwegian national final Melodi Grand Prix with “Queen of Kings”, which will represent Norway at the Eurovision Song Contest 2023. She qualified from the semi-final and won the competition by receiving the highest number of points from both the public and the international jury. Alessandra aims to inspire self-love and encourage all genders and age groups to embrace their inner “queen of kings.”

The second rehearsal

For their second rehearsal, every country is given a time slot of 20 minutes, which is adequate for them to practice their act twice or even three times if it is a simple reset. Recently, Norway’s Alessandra has just completed her rehearsal, and it seems that there were no apparent changes made to her performance from Sunday’s show. She executed the high note perfectly in all three attempts, and the entire act looks as fantastic on camera as it did in the arena. Alessandra maintains the black and gold Viking sass queen persona from the MGP final, wearing a stunning metallic bustier with commanding power shoulders and a black cape.

 

Sarah Louise Bennett / EBU

 

She is accompanied by four backup dancers with large glowing sticks, which are set against a background of icy blue lighting. Setting the staging aside, the song itself is a strong declaration of female empowerment, with the drums causing vibrations on the floor of the Liverpool Arena and the whistle note at the end making the roof shake.

 

Sarah Louise Bennett / EBU

 

In the afternoon, after the completion of all the rehearsals, a video will be released with short excerpts from the television footage of all the second rehearsals!

 

Source: eurovision.tv

 

You can also take a look, not only at the reaction video of EurovisionFun on “Queen of Kings”:

 

 

…but also at the reaction video on the First Semi-Final’s running order:

 

 

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Stay tuned at Eurovisionfun for all the updates regarding Eurovision 2023!

Eurovision 2023: Norway’s First Rehearsal!

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The time has finally come! The first delegations have arrived in Liverpool and the M&S Bank Arena has opened its doors for them. Today marks one of the most important days of the Eurovision season as the rehearsals of the 67th Eurovision Song Contest officially begin!

First to take the stage of this year’s Eurovision for her first rehearsal is Alessandra from Norway with her song “Queen of Kings”!

Who is Alessandra?

Alessandra Mele was born on September 5 2002 in Pietra Ligure in northwestern Italy to an Italian father and a Norwegian mother. At the age of 12, she won a local talent show in Italy, VB Factor. After graduating high school in 2021, she moved to Porsgrunn in southern Norway to live with her grandparents. She later moved to Lillehammer to study at the Lillehammer Institute of Music Production and Industries. After winning MGP 2023, she gets the chance to represent Norway at Eurovision 2023.

The rehearsal

Unfortunately this year, accredited journalists don’t get the chance to watch the first and second rehearsals, so we only get the information and content that the organizers officaly release to the public.

Alessandra is keeping the black and gold viking sass queen vibe of the MGP final, wearing a fabulous metallic bustier with serious power shoulders and a black cape. She’s accompanied by four backing dancers with giant glo-sticks, backed by icy blue lighting.

Staging aside, this song is a huge female empowerment battle cry, with the drums vibrating through the floor of the Liverpool Arena and that whistle note at the end lifting the roof off. This is going to be such a fantastic opener for the first Semi-Final.

As it turns out there is no pyro nor any jet streams for Norway.

Below you can watch a small clip from Norway’s first rehearsal from Tik Tok:

@eurovision Her name is she, queen of the stage! 👑🇳🇴 #Eurovision2023 #Eurovision @Alessandra Mele ♬ original sound – Eurovision

 

Corinne Cumming / EBU

Sarah Louise Bennett / EBU

The second rehearsal of Norway will take place on Wednesday May 3 so we will get a better idea of what we will see from Alessandra on stage.

Source: eurovision.tv

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Norway: Listen to the Italian version of “Queen of Kings”!

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A few minutes ago, Alessandra, the representative of Norway, released an entirely new version of her song for Eurovision 2023, “Queen of Kings”.

Alessandra Mele, won Melodi Grand Prix some time ago and thus, she is travelling to Liverpool, in the name of Norway. However, Alessandra also originates from Italy, and she just couldn’t resist adding something of Italian scent in her song.

So, except from the italian intro that was added to her song for her performance in Melodi Grand Prix, Alessandra now released a whole new version of the song, entirely in Italian:

We remind you that Norway competes in the first semi-final and is also the opening act of the competition part of the contest, as it will be the first performing country of the night!

You can also watch the EurovisionFun team reacting to the song from Norway, in the video below:

Stay tuned on Eurovisionfun for all the news regarding the Norwegian participation at the Eurovision Song Contest 2023, in Liverpool!

Norway: Grand Final of MGP 2023 tonight!

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The moment of truth for Norway has arrived. Tonight the Nordic country chooses its Eurovision 2023 representative as the grand final of the Melodi Grand Prix 2023 takes place.

Format

Melodi Grand Prix 2023 consists of four shows: three heats and the grand final, from which the representative of the Scandinavian country in the 67th Eurovision Song Contest will emerge. Seven artists participate in each semifinal, with the best three of them in the ranking advancing to the final.

After three shows we will reach the night of the grand final, in which a total of nine artists will participate and claim the representation of Norway in this year’s contest.

Finalists

Nine artists are participating in tonight’s grand final of the Norwegian national selection, claiming the “ticket” to Liverpool. These artists, in order of appearance, are:

  1. JONE — “Ekko inni meg” (Echo in me)
  2. Eline Thorp — “Not Meant to Be”
  3. Skrellex — “Love Again”
  4. Ulrikke Brandstorp – “Honestly“
  5. Umami Tsunami – “Geronimo“
  6. Atle Pettersen — “Masterpiece” 
  7. Swing’it — “Prohibition”
  8. Elsie Bay — “Love you in a dream”
  9. Alessandra Mele – “Queen of Kings“

In the Grand Final, for the first time since 2019, there will also be an international jury that will determine 50% of the result while the remaining 50% will be determined by the public vote. This year’s Melodi Grand Prix presenters will be presenter Arian Engebø and singer Stian Thorbjørnsen who has also participated in MGP in 2015 and 2021.

An extra addition to this year’s national final, is that NRK decided to give the contestants the opportunity to use Auto-Tune in their performances so that they can be more perfect vocally.

You can watch the night of the third heat of MGP 2023 at 19:50 CET through the official website of NRK, by clicking HERE.

Stay tuned to Eurovisionfun for all news regarding Norway’s participation in Eurovision 2023!

Norway: Ten countries on the MGP jury

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MGP leader Stig Karlsen was invited to escNorge. There he revealed more details about Saturday’s Grand Final and the voting.

50 people on the jury

This year, the jury returns to MGP. Saturday’s voting will be quite similar to what we are used to at Eurovision. Initially, ten countries will vote. Each of the countries is represented by a jury consisting of five people from the music industry.

They will first give their scores and rank from 1 to 9. As we know, there are nine songs in the final. These countries have not yet been announced.

When the jury’s scores are given, the votes of the country’s public will be added to the score as in Eurovision. More details on the graphics and scoring system will be revealed on Saturday.

Also, Stig Karlsen said that the song presentations will be largely the same as the semi-finals, but that they will obviously have more light as we will be in a bigger arena and differences in camera angles that will show the huge audience of 8,500 spectators.

Check out our YouTube channel for our reactions to the MGP final songs:

Also on our channel you will see interviews with artists from Norway, but also from other countries!

Stay tuned to Eurovisionfun for all Eurovision related developments!

Norway: Heat 3 of MGP 2023 tonight!

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The Melodi Grand Prix 2023 continues tonight, through which Norway will choose its representative for Eurovision 2023 which will take place next May in Liverpool, UK.

Format

Melodi Grand Prix 2023 consists of four shows: three heats and the grand final, from which the representative of the Scandinavian country in the 67th Eurovision Song Contest will emerge. Seven artists participate in each semifinal, with the best three of them in the ranking advancing to the final.

After three shows we will reach the night of the grand final, in which a total of nine artists will participate and claim the representation of Norway in this year’s contest.

Finalists

Six artists have already secured their place in the grand final on February 4. These artists are:

Heat 3

Seven artists take part in tonight’s MGP 2023 heat vying for one of three “tickets” to the grand final of the Norwegian national selection. These artists are:

  1. Akuvi – “Triumph“
  2. Tiril Beisland – “Break It“
  3. Skrellex – “Love Again“
  4. Eline Thorp – “Not Meant to Be“
  5. Stig van Eijk – “Someday“
  6. Maria Celin – “Freya“
  7. Atle Pettersen – “Masterpiece“

Presenters of the evening will be Arian Engebø and Stian Thorbjørnsen.

You can watch the night of the third heat of MGP 2023 at 19:50 CET through the official website of NRK, by clicking HERE.

Stay tuned to Eurovisionfun for all news regarding Norway’s participation in Eurovision 2023!

Norway: Heat 2 of MGP 2023 tonight!

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The Melodi Grand Prix 2023 continues tonight, through which Norway will choose its representative for Eurovision 2023 which will take place next May in Liverpool, UK.

Format

Melodi Grand Prix 2023 consists of four shows: three heats and the grand final, from which the representative of the Scandinavian country in the 67th Eurovision Song Contest will emerge. Seven artists participate in each semifinal, with the best three of them in the ranking advancing to the final.

After three shows we have reached the night of the grand final, in which a total of nine artists will participate and claim the representation of Norway in this year’s contest.

Finalists

Three artists have already secured their place in the grand final on February 4. These artists are:

Heat 2

Seven artists take part in tonight’s MGP 2023 heat vying for one of three “tickets” to the grand final of the Norwegian national selection. These artists are:

  1. JONE — “Ekko inni meg” (Echo in me)
  2. Sandra Lyng — “Drøm d bort” (Dream it away)
  3. Alejandro Fuentes — “Fuego” 
  4. Swing’it — “Prohibition”
  5. Elsie Bay — “Love you in a dream”
  6. Ella — “Waist”
  7. Bjørn Olav Edvardsen — “Turn Off My Heart”

Presenters of the evening will be Arian Engebø and Stian Thorbjørnsen.

You can watch the night of the second heat of MGP 2023 at 19:50 CET through the official website of NRK, by clicking HERE.

Stay tuned to Eurovisionfun for all news regarding Norway’s participation in Eurovision 2023!

Norway: The running order of Semi-Final two of Melodi Grand Prix 2023 released!

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Norway’s public television, NRK, is once again organizing the national final Melodi Grand Prix for the selection of its Eurovision entry in Liverpool this May. NRK has today revealed the running order for Semi-Final Two of Melodi Grand Prix 2023, which will take place on January 21.

The running order

  1. JONE — “Ekko inni meg” (Echo in me)
  2. Sandra Lyng — “Drøm d bort” (Dream it away)
  3. Alejandro Fuentes — “Fuego” 
  4. Swing’it — “Prohibition”
  5. Elsie Bay — “Love you in a dream”
  6. Ella — “Waist”
  7. Bjørn Olav Edvardsen — “Turn Off My Heart”

You can listen to the songs here.

Timetable

  • Saturday, 14 January: First Semi-Final (Song Announcement on Monday, 9 January)
  • Saturday, 21 January: Second Semi-Final (Song Announcement on Monday, 16 January)
  • Saturday, 28 January: Third Semi-Final (Song Announcement on Monday, 23 January)
  • Saturday, 4 February: Grand Final

We remind you that this year’s Melodi Gran Prix will be quite different from the previous ones, as there will be no duels or second chance round. In each semi-final, only the Norwegian televisionaudience will be able to vote, while in the final, for the first time since 2019, there will also be an international jury that will determine 50% of the result.

The songs will be published every Monday before the semi-final in which they will compete. Melodi Grand Prix 2023 will take place at the Spectrum in Trondheim and will be hosted by Arian Engebø and Stian Thorbjørnsen.

Stay tuned to Eurovisionfun for all the news of our favourite contest!

Source: NRK