From the R’n’B sass of Anna-Lisa Kumoji to the outrageous rock of Hank Von Hell, Norway’s Melodi Grand Prix 2019 is going to be a real spectacle. And tonight from 20:55 CET you’ll see who flies and who flops as Norge chooses its star for Tel Aviv.
Ahead of the finale we asked our readers to have a listen and to let us know which song they’d like to see at Eurovision. After counting 2,445 votes we have a clear winner: “Spirit in the Sky” from the joik-schlager group KEiiNO.
Wiwiblogger Antranig is certainly feeling it. Ahead of tonight’s show he described the song this way in our Wiwi Jury review:
“Spirit in the Sky” is better than life itself. This is by far one of the best entries across the entire national final season. It is modern and builds up with a catchy hook, before breaking out into traditional joik. This transcends musical genres and showcases traditional music in a manner that screams worldwide hit. Norway’s wait for a Eurovision victory might be half as long as Israel’s. If the live performance encapsulates that same magic, Eurovision 2019 may have just found its winner.
Eurovision 2015 alum Mørland came second with his Norwegian-language ballad “En livredd mann”. Wiwiblogger Renske wrote:
He shows us the beauty of his native language, as he wants to tell us a personal story. Everything comes together so majestically. It’s been way too long since we have heard Norwegian at Eurovision.
Melodi Grand Prix 2019: Our readers’ favourites
Total Votes: 2,445
Which song is your favourite? Who do you think would do the best at ESC? Let us know down below. And if you can’t get enough of MGP, you can check out our reaction video to the songs belowb.
Congrats, KEiiNO! Another big favorite won! It’s an ambitious song and they REALLY need to work on it, but it certainly holds a top 10 material in it. Also, so cool to hear Sami on ESC!
Congrats to Adrian too. Amazing performance and deserved second place.
The Bubble got burst by the Spirit in the Sky.
Two fan favorites down, one to go! Way to go Keiino!
Now it’s up to you, Portugal…
What a good Saturday 🙂
KEiiNO! It’s not Morland, but it’s a great choice.
KEiiNO won! yayayayayaya
News from Moldova: this lady whose name I can’t remrmber won. I think someone said she was like Lidia Isac?
Anna Obodescu! That’s the one. I believe Stay now enters the “two songs with the same name” club. Hope it’s better than Tooji.
Oh, so it’s a solo woman… Then it’s Vera Turcanu, Anna Odobescu, Tinna Gi or Diana Brescan.
Yeah, Anna Obodescu won.
Okay. Didn’t really have a horse in that race. It’s a pretty formulaic ballad. I hope Moldova nails the staging.
YES, YES, YES, YES!!! ICE are my absolute 1st!
Also, Norway is likely in my top 10 too! 🙂 🙂 🙂
So it’s Adrian v. KeiiNO. Norway: Your choice. (Interesting fact: Songs 9 and 10 in the running order. Hmmm.)
Come on Keiino!
Leave the bubble, Norway. Come to the (northern) light.
Yep he did. The audience were moved too – great to see happen in Portugal. 🙂
Hatariiii won!!!!
YESSS!
Wow! I didn’t think they were competing for Norway!
(Jk, congrats!)
Iceland had one job and did it well. From now on, I don’t know we’ll be on the same page about the H-band, because I’m not that much of a fan of the style. Please still love me! Or hate me less, don’t know.
My comment was blocked even if I don’t used the band’s name! 😛 Anyway, more blocked content later on the winner’s post.
They will flop in eurovision. They will qualify for the final but then be out of the top 10.
It’s something I like to call AWS Syndrome. (But hey, folks are happy. Good for them.)
Ohhh great. 🙂 Now ESC bosses will have to agree with them how that’s going to work. I look forward to seeing what they do – it will be fascinating.
I regret him entering it as well.
Attention all Eurovision hopefuls: DONT ENTER TWO SONGS IN THE SAME NATIONAL FINAL IF ONE IS CLEARLY BETTER THAN THE OTHER.
I’ll bear that in mind, thanks.
Thanks. I just switched over to RTP to watch Conan.
Now I’m totally rooting for KEiiNO and Adrian! D’Sound’s song could grow on me. Anna-Lisa is obviously a good performer, but I am not that into her song.
My head is exploding w how many NFs are going on at the same time.
Gutted for Mørland, thrilled for Anna-Lisa and KEiiNO, but please don’t send D.Sound. It’s pants.
Morland outside the final 4… why have you done that to me, Norway? Now, I’m rooting for KEiiNO or D’Sound. Not Adrian, please… At least I’ll have some Madrepaz to calm me down. Conan is coming to the stage soon, guys.
So out of the four left, D’Sound is actually my personal favourite. But it’s probably gonna be KeiiNO or Adrian. Anna-Lisa would be an awesome surprise.
Morland is out 😮
Bummer.
So what now? Keiino? They’re good too.
I mean, D’Sound and KEiiNo were my favourites, especially the latter, so I’m super happy for them. I’m just surprised that Morland didn’t make the cut 😛
Bigest surprise. He deseve to win. I think, he is out, thanks to international juries, because he is not sing in english. Only nordic neighboor Denmark gave him highest point.
You just gave my biggest issue with I.J. They should sign a contract binding them to hear each full song at least three times and to read the lyrics.
Wow. Did not see Anna-Lisa getting into the gold final. Good for her!
Either Morland or D.Sound is out. Either one of the fan favourites or the jury favourite. Whoa.
Mørland might not make it into the Superfinal. Be prepared
Oy oy oy! (Or I guess oi oi oi)
KEiiNO – Superb live vocals, all three have stage presence. The staging is okay, but doesn’t really tell *that* story in the most informative way. If they win, they should change it for Tel Aviv.
I agree. There’s a lot of unexplored potential in terms of staging, even if everything looked good. The vocals were good, I love her voice.
I can’t tell if the word I’m using that’s gotten my commment blocked is the name of the country or the name of the city Selma performed in twenty years ago. I was just saying it’d be a funny full circle thing to have her back in Israel. Wonder what she was thinking when her country was protesting the idea of holding it in the city that almost hosted instead of Tel Aviv. Since, yknow, she was there.
Wow, jury scores were really unpredictable! Does this mean Adrian and D’Sound are likely superfinalists? Second question – Is superfinals 100% televote or not?
The Gold Final is 100% televote.
And the jury scores presented were only 12-points. They also gave away points from 1-8 and 10, the flags are kind of a teaser, I think.
Did Mørland not make it through?
please, please, please, make Hatari win!
Cross fingers with me!
I literally do all night. Them and/or Morland winning would restore my hope into ESC 2019.
Well he couldn’t get Hera Bjork. At least not yet.
Who’s singing backup? Yohanna? Selma? Please say Pollaponk.
Man, how’s that for full circle. Selma would be in Israel again! (Wonder what she had to think when Iceland was up in arms about the idea of competing in Jerusalem)
Same venue. I think it has been for quite some time.
Juries liking Mr. Unicorn!
So did I. 🙂 It was the biggest up-scale from recording to live, I thought. (But Mørland should win, on a purely songwriting level.)
I liked it too. Not much into The Bubble though, which the juries also loved.
Yeah that’s one of those songs where it gets credit for ticking a lot of boxes – sweet vocal, sweet refrains, sweet staging. When one is rating music, it is about finding good aspects that get points, and Adrian obviously has those. The song itself is just there; it’s nice. Not my favourite, but I understand the appeal of it, and I understand why it would mark highly.
I would definitely go with Morland. But I’m totally OK if Norway decides to go with KEiiNO, even if they haven’t made that much of a impact on me tonight.
Keinoo was my favorite, but live they don t soud so good like in audio, and stage presentation is not good . Morland (my second favorite)sound better live.and presentation of song is better . Morland is now my favorite for win.
After live, I still believe superfinalists should be KEiiNO, Morland, Adrian and Ingrid. My pick would be Morland, but I’d be good with any of these four. That’s not to say I dislike others, but these would certainly be high on my personal list.
Congrats to all acts and Norway for this top notch evening!
My four: Mørland, Ingrid, D’Sound, KeiiNO.
But all 10 acts are superb; it is literally just down to taste alone.
Maybe Chris Medina instead of D’Sound but it’s close.
Opinions differ! 🙂 I liked both. I actually liked most of the performances, the competition is really goooood.
Wow that live performance was AMAZING!! Good job to all the MGP acts this year!!
10 entries, 10 good examples of how to stage an Eurovision performance. Great job by NRK.
Completely blown away.
Apparently I was wrong about Carlina being the first mishap, as Erland is re-performing. Must have been a technical glitch.
Really? I think it looks like the same stage every year or something.
But I’m not talking about the stage itself, it’s about the show they put for every different entry. Camera work, dancers, props, etc.
So Carlina was the only one to have a slight live mishap so far. (Did you spot it?)
This is another Laurell Barker song, innit?
Loved Hank by the way. 🙂 Had to have someone up high in the box, LOL.
Slight costume malfunction
Erlend was singing for his life, ahn? And Ingrid was lovely. Even if most people agree that KEiiNO and Morland are the best options to win, how difficult it will be to pick 4 acts to move on?
They all have different strengths, and are 100% showcasing them.
It’s clear they have a big budget, but they’re also are showing they really know how to use it.
Ingrid is even better than I imagined. I am glad I am not Norwegian and having to pick an actual winner here.
Crumbs I really enjoyed sing for you too. What a show!
Norway, no matter what you think about their entries, always does a wonderful job staging MGP. They take it very seriously and it looks amazing. Can they use an orchestra again too?
Well, they don’t have to move the stage anywhere.. Then you can do just about anything.
Mørland was amazing, but I can’t deny I also love Holla Holla!
Off: “Look Away” won UMK, topping the jury and the televote. I agree it was the best option they had.
Ooo – a favourite won a National Final in 2019?! That’s incredible! No, really, it is.
Or, to be specific: a favorite won a national final and doesn’t look like they’ll withdraw.
By the way: Thank you for telling me the meaning behind it. 😉 I appreciate knowing it, even if I don’t personally feel it in the song.
What a great show so far. But Morland is playing on a different league. Fantastic performance and amazing staging.
Mørland is still my favorite
Don’t agreed with Antranig: If we see Keiino win it’s gonna be the 2019 fan favorite fail.
You might be right but let’s watch it first. 😉
If they win, they ought to get the trophy from Kati Wolf and Mei Feingold, quietly whispering “You’re next…”
Man, if Mørland comes back, I might have to eat my words about Serhat being the returnee I’m most excited for. Maybe.
Mørland was 100% professional, and so was the performance. If they are all going to be this good from Norway, then they really will have a challenge to pick a winner!
Morland is KILLING it.
I loved the Unicorn song. It sounds like a mix of Kylie and Daft Punk lol
Wow, this show is like live cinema! Incredible visuals for D’Sound!
That was very fun to watch. Even more for someone who was watching UMK just a while ago.
Yep. Same here.
Fantastic start with Chris Medina. 🙂
If you are outside norway, watch the show here: https://www.nrk.no/mgp/
Thank you! Very good streaming by the way.
Many thanks!
Thanks! Will have to catch up on what I’ve missed.