Norway | Melodi Grand Prix 2019 Date Confirmed as March 2nd

NRK, the state broadcaster for Norway, has confirmed that the date for Norwegian National Selection 'Melodi Grand Prix' is March 2nd 2019. The National Final, which has been used as the selection process for Norway's Eurovision representative since 2003, see's 10 artists perform their potential entries live on Television before an international jury selects a number of the songs to progress to a Super Final. In this years competition, the super final was split into a silver round and then a final golden duel between the top two - where Alexander Rybak bested Rebecca to represent Norway in Lisbon. The songs and artists will all be revealed on January 25th.

The show will be hosted at the Oslo Spektrum arena which was famously the site of the 1996 Eurovision Song Contest. This year, two previous winners Alexander Rybak (2009) and Stella Mwangi (2011) returned along with Aleksander Walmann who was JOWST's accompanying vocalist in 2017, creating a star lineup and a night that many Eurofans across Europe tuned in to watch. Rybak, who won the contest the first time around in 2009 with 'Fairytale', went on to win Melodi Grand Prix once again - heading to Lisbon with his uptempo song 'That's How You Write A Song'. Despite qualifying from the second semi final in 1st place, Norway eventually finished 15th position with 144 points.

Despite there being occasional years prior to 2003 where Norway opted for an internal selection, Melodi Grand Prix has been the national selection process used on all three occasions that Norway has gone on to win (1985, 1995 and 2009). Stig Karlsen, who is the producer for the show, has said that "we are constantly working to stretch the knot a bit longer for each year." Over one million Norwegians tune in to the show - with tickets for the show going on sale later this autumn. The show famously clashes with the finale of Melodifestivalen, the Swedish National Selection, however next year it will be hosted a week later so Eurofans will be able to watch both!

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