My Norway 2012 Overview/rules for my MGP 2012

 

Following a terribly disappointing and completely undeserved result in last years ESC (“Haba, Haba” is 100% my favorite song of ESC 2011 and just completely brilliant), Norway decided to chalk it up to the “Curse Of Last Years Host” (a huge part of ESC myth and legend, basically it says that the Nation that hosted the previous years ESC will ALWAYS do terribly…and it’s kinda true.)

Anywho, Norway went right on its merry way and held its NF (Melodi Grand Prix). Every year since NRK (the Norwegian Broadcaster tasked with selecting the Norwegian ESC entry) introduced the Semi Final system in 2006, it has over gone changes, which frankly, bring it closer and closer to Melodifestivalen each year! This year was no exception. This year, instead of the traditional 21 songs (as seen in MGP 2009, 2010 and 2011), NRK selected 24 Songs to compete. The 24 songs were divided into 3 Semi Finals of 8 Songs each. In each Semi Final, a Televote will select the 3 Advancing Songs. After the 3 Semi Finals, an "Expert" Jury will select 1 Wild Card.

Here are the 24 Songs taking part in MGP 2012 –

Title	Translation	Artist(s)
Elevator		Irresistable
Så Vidunderleg	So Wonderful	Kim André Rysstad
High On Love		Reidun Sæther
You Break It, You Own It		Rudi Myntevik
With Love		Lisa Stokke
Little Bobbi		United
Somewhere Beautiful		Nora Foss Al – Jabri
Don’t Touch The Flame		The Carburetors
Keeps On Dancing		Cocktail Slippers
I’ve Got You		Isabel Ødegård
Make It Better		Tommy Fredvang
Another Heartache		Rikke Lie
Crush		Malin
Ola Nordmann		Plumbo
You And I		Minnie – Oh
Shapeshifter		Rikke Normann
Stay		Tooji
Si	Say	Marthe Valle
Things Change		Petter Øien
Sammen	Together	Yaseen And Julie Maria
The Greatest Day		Håvard Lothe Band
Euphoria		Silya Nymoen
Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time		The Canoes
Sailors		Lise Karlsnes

Unlike in previous years, this years MGP had very few returning artists. The only returning artists were –

·      One of the members of “United” is Benedicte Adrian who represented Norway in ESC 1984 as part of the duo “Dollie De Luxe”, who also came 6^th in the 1981 Norwegian Final and 10^th in 1982 (as “Dollie”).

·      Rikke Normann took part in the 2011 Norwegian Final (as part of the duo “Åste And Rikke”).

·      Petter Øien came 4^th in the 2011 Norwegian Final (as the lead singer of the group “Sie Gubba”).

My Contest –

To select my winner, I ran 2 "Contests".

In the First Contest, I used the MGP format of the last couple of years, with a few tweaks. First, I divided the 24 Songs into 3 Semi Finals. I copied their SF order/songs. In each SF, I held 2 Rounds of “Televoting”. In the First Round, I awarded “Televotes” to select my top 5 Songs. In the Second Round, I awarded “Televotes” to select my 2 Finalists and 2 Second Chance Songs. In the Second Chance Round, I selected my two Finalists through 2 Rounds of Televoting. In the First Round, I divided the 8 Songs into 4 Matches and awarded "Televotes" to select the advancing song from each Match. In the Second Round, I divided the 4 Songs into 2 Matches and awarded "Televotes" to select the advancing song from each Match. In the Final, I selected my winner through 2 Rounds of Voting. In the First Round, I awarded 4 Sets of Points to select my top 4 Songs. In the Second Round, I awarded "Televotes" to select my winner.

I decided to save the Second Contest for after i've listened to, danced to, loved the songs for a few weeks.

In the Second Contest, I used this years MGP Format. I followed the MGP format of dividing the 24 songs into 3 Semi Finals. In each Semi Final, I awarded "Televotes" to select the 3 Finalists. Then, I selected 1 Wild Card. More to come...

So let’s Go!