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Sweden: No Auto-Tune in Melodifestivalen, says producer Karin Gunnarsson!

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The organizers of the Norwegian equivalent to Melodifestivalen, Melodi Grand Prix, have decided to allow Auto-Tune to enhance the singing voices in this year’s competition.

Now SVT is responding to the neighboring country’s decision. Karin Gunnarsson, competition producer of Melodifestivalen spoke to Sveriges Radio Kulturnytt and said that SVT follows the guidelines of Eurovision Song Contest and hence it would be challenging to use Auto-Tune in the Swedish national selection process:

“This means that there would be a version of a song that must be revamped to suit Eurovision. And that’s just a good thing.”

Auto-Tune can be explained as an effect used to correct and manipulate the pitch of a voice. Among, other things, to avoid false notes. It is widely used in both live productions and recordings. And sometimes it is used, says Karin Gunnarsson, as a personal artistic choice:

“Some use it as an artistic and unique selling proposition to make their music or song stand out. But it will be hard to get that expression into Melodifestivalen as it is now. Those artists are not relevant, so to speak. Furthermore, there is no need or pressure from the industry artists that they want Auto-Tune.”

And Mårten Tomassen, who is chairman of the Norwegian Eurovision fan club, spoke to Sveriges Radio and expressed his belief that allowing Auto-Tune would be a step in the wrong direction.

“I don’t like it, one of the dubious aspects of Melodifestivalen is that the artist sings with the voice they are known with. Sometimes it’s an amazing vocal experience, other times not so good.” 

Do you think that Auto-Tune should be introduced at Melodifestivalen or any other Eurovision national selection processes? Let us know in the comments section below!

Source: Sveriges Radio / Kulturnytt / Helena Stinkvist Sörlin & Gustav Ingerhage

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Norway: The speculations just before the reveal of the MGP 2024 candidates!

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The artists’ along with their songs for MGP 2024 reveal is set to take place on this Friday, January 5.

Every year, shortly before the artists are revealed, rumors are circulating both the national and the international media about who the MGP 2024 contenders will be, based on data and information released by the artists themselves.

A notable difference from previous years is that the songs that will compete in this year’s Melodi Grand Prix may have been released at any time after September 1, which means that songs released on the day of the entry reveal may be possible entries.

Who are expected to release new singles on Friday, January 5?

Up to this date, three familiar with the national selection names have announced the release of their new singles on January 5, the same day MGP 2024 entries will be revealed:

  • Alessandra – “Narcissist” (Norway 2023)
  • KEiiNO – “Damdiggida” (Norway 2019, MGP 2021)
  • Raylee – “Charade” (MGP 2020, 2021)

Other artists expected to participate at MGP 2024

In addition, some potential candidates, which have been circulating all this time, for MGP 2024 are the following:

  • Adele (MGP 2013)
  • Vidar Villa (MGP 2018)
  • Emmy (MGP 2021)
  • Farida (MGP 2022)
  • Jørgen Dahl Moe (Winner MGPJR 2009)
  • Leonardo Amor
  • Lembo
  • Sval (Winner MGPJR 2011)
  • Mathilde SPZ
  • Nattsvermer
  • Mistra 
  • Ballinciaga
  • Daniel Kvammen
  • Emelie Hollow
  • Erika Norwich
  • Frederick Amadeus
  • Hagle
  • Julie Bergan

Moreover, it was also announced that MGP 2024 performers this year will once again get the chance to have flawless vocals using the so-called Auto-Tune, a digital tool that adjusts “sour” tones to ensure proper pitch.

Norway: Auto-Tune will be allowed in MGP 2024 once more!

Melodi Grand Prix 2024

On January 5, the songs that will be nominated to represent the country are set to be released. Melodi Grand Prix 2024 will feature 18 contestants over the course of four weekly shows:

  • January 13 – First Semi Final
  • January 20 – Second Semi Final
  • January 27 – Third Semi Final
  • February 3– Grand Final

Last year’s MGP winner and therefore Norway’s representative in Liverpool was Alessandra with the song “Queen of Kings”. With a total of 268 points, Alessandra came in fifth place overall and third in the public voting.

https://youtu.be/PUHSM_vTqTI

Stay tuned to EurovisionFun for all the news!

Norway: Melodi Grand Prix 2024 Songwriting Camp begins in Oslo!

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The songwriting camp for the Melodi Grand Prix 2024 has started in the capital of Norway.

The head of the Norwegian delegation, Stig Karlsen, shared in his Instagram story that the songwriting camp for next year’s Melodi Grand Prix has started. The camp is taking place in Oslo’s Røverstaden and through it some of next year’s entries may be created.

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An interesting view was expressed by Stig Karlsen, who revealed that this year Norway has the best chance of winning the competition since 2009. Norway is currently the fourth favourite to win the Eurovision Song Contest 2023. It is the best position that has been found by bookmakers since Eurovision 2018 in Lisbon.

Alessandra Mele and “Queen of Kings” are enjoying great success. The song has become a viral hit in many countries having accumulated almost 29 million streams on Spotify and 133 million video views on TikTok since its release in early January.

As a reminder, Norway at Eurovision 2023 will appear in the first semi-final on 9 May with a performance order of 01. Therefore, Norway will be the country to open the competition part of this year’s contest.

Below you can watch the EurovisionFun team’s reaction video to Norway’s entry.

Source: eurovoix.com

Stay tuned to EurovisionFun to get all the latest news about your favourite competition!

Norway: With Alessandra Mele and the “Queen of Kings” in Liverpool!

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After the three semi-final rounds, the 2023 edition of the Melodi Grand Prix came to its end with the Grand Final which once again determined the representative of the Scandinavian kingdom at the upcoming 2023 Eurovision Song Contest which is going to take place in Liverpool, the United Kingdom in May.  The final show took place in Trondheim Spektrum.

9 artists competed for the gold ticket that leads to Liverpool. This year’s Final was quite different in comparison to the previous editions. For the very first time the auto-tune technology was introduced while the final result was determined after four years again by the combination of the votes from the televoting and from the international jury.

The hosts of the show were Arian Engebø and Stian Thorbjørnsen

The participants

The 9 finalists of the show were as follows:

  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“

After the performances of the aforementioned artists, we enjoyed last year’s winners Subwoolfers who also removed the masks and revealed their real faces. The people behind the masks are Gaute Ormåsen and Ben Adams as we have mentioned almost a year ago in our article here.

Results

The votes of the international jury were announced and afterwards the televoting points were added up.

The 10 countries that formed the international jury were the United Kingdom, Finland, Azerbaijan, Spain, Ukraine, Czechia, France, Iceland, the Netherlands and Sweden.

After the votes of the jury the first part of the voting process was as per below

With the aggregation of the votes from the jury and the televoting, the representative of Norway in the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 is Alessandra Mele.

Alessandra Mele and Norway are going to participate in the first half of the first semi-final which is scheduled on 9th of May. Do you think that Norway is going to achieve a better placement than last year’s 10th place? Let us know in the comments below!

Stay tuned on Eurovisionfun.com for all the developments regarding the Norwegian entry at the upcoming 2023 Eurovision Song Contest. 

 

Norway: Ulrikke would like to return to Melodi Grand Prix in 2023!

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Ulrikke Brandstorp, winner of MGP 2020 and almost representative of Norway in Eurovision had it not been canceled, revealed recently in a livestream on the norwegian website escNorge that she would like to return to Melodi Grand Prix! She herself stated:

2023 could be an important year to return! I have already started writing potential songs for Eurovision 2023!

Ulrikke also mentioned that the song she wants to participate with has to mean something to her and it can’t just be any song. She added that those participating in MGP should not do so just to launch new music or become famous, but to participate with a sincere desire to win and represent Norway in the best possible way in Eurovision.

Finally, Ulrikke gave her predictions for this year’s Melodi Grand Prix 2022. Her favorite songs for this year are:

  1. Oda Gondrosen: «Hammer of Thor»
  2. Northkid: «Someone»
  3. Maria Mohn: «Fly» / Subwoolfer: «Give that wolf a banana»

Ulrikke was supposed to represent the country in Eurovision 2020 with the song “Attention”, had the contest not been canceled due to the Coronavirus outbreak.

You can watch and remember her performance in the final of MGP 2020 below:

Would you like to see Ulrikke wave the Norwegian flag in Eurovision 2023 and have the chance to perform on the Eurovision stage, a chance she sadly lost in 2020?

Stay tuned to Eurovisionfun for all news regarding our favorite contest!

Source: escnorge

Norway: Interview with Lily Löwe from Melodi Grand Prix 2022! (Video)

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After the announcement of her participation in this year’s national final of Norway, Melodi Grand Prix 2022, Lily Löwe talks exclusively to EurovisionFun and Stella Gialetzi.

Lily Löwe is very happy with with the reception her song receives from the public, as this song is her debut in the Norway’s national final, MGP 2022!

“Bad Baby” is about the awareness, regarding who someone is in real life, in contrast to how good of a person we thought he is. When we wrote the song, we realized that it can be an “earworm” to whoever listens to it. 

Talking about her stage appearance in the semifinal, she said that there will be a prime presence of fire, however something will happen that she foresees the public will like, and she is really excited about it.

I will have my band with me on stage. All three of them are really good and we’ll have the time of our lives. I feel really lucky and blessed that they will be with me.

From the other competing songs, the one she stands out, is that of Steffen Jakobsen, a country song that happens to be with her on yhe same semi-final. Her favorite Norwegian participation in the contest is Alexander Rybak (2009) while from the contest in general she likes Måneskin  (Italy 2021), Conchita Wurst (Austria 2014) and Lordi (Finland 2006)

I wish that in future contests, there will be more rock songs by womem.

Just before the end of the interview, Lily Löwe offered a part of her song, acapella.

Watch the whole interview Lily Löwe, in the following video:

Listen to “Bad Baby”, Lily Löwe’s song for MGP 2022!

Stay tuned in Eurovisionfun for everything new regarding Norway’s participations in Eurovision 2022!

Norway: MGP From Oslo to Trondheim

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For the first time since 1989, the final of the MGP 2020, Norway’s national final for Eurovision 2020, will take place outside Oslo. Specifically as the country’s public broadcaster announced, the final of the MGP 2020 on February 15 will take place in Trondheim, at the brand new Trondheim Spektrum.

At Trondheim Spektrum the MGP 2020 final

This will be the first time since 1989 that the MGP final will not be held in Oslo and the first time since 2001 that it will not be hosted at Oslo Spektrum. Trondheim is Norway’s fourth largest city and the Trondheim Spektrum launched a month ago is now the country’s largest indoor arena, with 12,000 capacity. Tickets to go on sale from Thursday will be 8,000. The final of the MGP 2020 will have more spectators than the final of the Eurovision 2019!

This is how the Norwegian representative at Eurovision 2020 will be selected

We remind you that MGP 2020 will consist of six shows, five semifinals and the grand final.

1st Semifinal, 11/1 – Northern Norway
2nd Semifinal, 18/1 – Central Norway
3rd Semifinal, 25/1 – Western Norway
4th Semifinal, 1/2 – Eastern Norway
5th Semifinal, 8/2 – Southern Norway
Final, 15/2 – Tronheim

Each semifinal will feature four songs in duels (as in Melodifestivalen’s second chance) and the final winner will qualify for the final. But along with the five songs that will come out of the semifinals, another five songs that have been directly qualified and selected by the jury that evaluated all submissions will feature the final in 15/2.

The names of the finalists will be announced on January 3, while the names of the contenders in each semifinal will be announced on Monday before each semifinal. The day before each semifinal the songs will be unveiled , while at the semifinals we will have the opportunity to listen to a song by the finalists.

Results in both the semifinals and the final will be determined exclusively by the television audience

MGP chief Stig Karlsen revealed that just like in 2019, at MGP 2020 we will have big names of the Norwegian music scene. Presenters will be announced in December. The semifinals will take place at the H3 Arena in Fornebu, next to Oslo Airport, with the grand final as we said above at Trondheim Spektrum.

This year, Norway was represented by KeiiNO after their victory at MGP 2019 with the song “Spirit In The Sky”, which took sixth overall in the Grand Final, but won the audience’s vote.