Once again four more acts graced the Melodi Grand Prix 2020 stage during the fourth semi-final of Norway’s Eurovision selection. And in the end it was Magnus Bokn who won the ticket to Trondheim with the song “Over the Sea”.
Supported by two songwriters who are former Melodi Grand Prix winners, Magnus was our readers’ favourite and he also attracted the most Spotify listens of this week’s songs. Magnus’ performance of “Over the Sea” took us back to the countryside and featured traditional dance. His amazing vocal also helped him sail through.
Norway’s Melodi Grand Prix 2020 Results
Tonight’s semi-final was the fourth out of five. It focused on artists whose origins lie in Western Norway, which is regarded as one of the world’s wealthiest regions. And there was a wealth of music to choose from tonight as well for the Norwegians in this semi-final.
It saw Hege Bjerk, Magnus Bokn, Nordic Tenors and Oda Loves You battle for a spot in the final, while automatic qualifier Ulrikke Brandstorp performed her power ballad “Attention” for the first time.
In each semi-final, only one act can qualify for the MGP 2020 final. In total, twenty artists will sing for five tickets to the grand final, where they will meet five automatic qualifiers.
To earn that ticket for the final, each of the semi-finalists has to battle another semi-finalist first. The two winners of the battles proceed to the “Gullduel” (“Golden duel”), and the winner wins the right perform in Trondheim during the Melodi Grand Prix final. Unlike previous years, the winner is determined by online voting through the Norwegian broadcaster’s website.
MGP 2020 Semi-final four duels
First duel: Magnus Bokn vs Oda Loves You
The first duel of the night was Magnus Bokn against Oda Loves You. Magnus â whose song was written by MGP winners JOWST and Alexander Rybak â came out on top. That meant Oda Loves You had to leave the competition.
Magnus Bokn with “Over the Sea” at Melodi Grand Prix 2020
Oda Loves You with “Love Who We Love” at Melodi Grand Prix 2020
Second duel: Nordic Tenors vs Hege Bjerk
In the evening’s second duel, we saw Nordic Tenors battle it out with Hege Bjerk. Nordic Tenors obtained the last ticket for the Gullduel.
Nordic Tenors with “In This Special Place” at Melodi Grand Prix 2020
Hege Bjerk with “Pang” at Melodi Grand Prix 2020
Gullduel: Magnus Bokn vs Nordic Tenors
Having both won their respective duels earlier that night, Magnus and the Nordic Tenors progressed to the Gullduel. There could only be one winner, and tonight that was Magnus. We’ll see him again at the grand final.
Ulrikke Brandstorp with “Attention” at Melodi Grand Prix 2020
The second of five pre-qualified acts also performed — songstress Ulrikke Brandstorp with “Attention”.
Melodi Grand Prix 2020 semi-final four scoreboard
1. Magnus Bokn with “Over the Sea” – advanced to the final
2. Nordic Tenors with “In This Special Place” – eliminated
3/4. Oda Loves You with “Love Who We Love” – eliminated
3/4. Hege Bjerk with “Pang” – eliminated
Are you happy that with tonight’s result? Should someone else have made the final instead? Let us know in the comments.
Follow all of our Norway Eurovision 2020 news.
Picture credit: NRK
The best two acts never made the final. The selected song was really naff and cheesy. There are much better songs in the grand final that I hope will win. One last time or Wild please.
VERY deserved winner! Love it!
pang deserved the win
Ulrikke was fantastic and more and more I like MagnusÂŽs song.
Till now Rein (my favorite from four SF) or Magnus is best choice for Norway.
norxit
For me its between Over the Sea and Attention. Magnus has the total package right now (for me at least) while Ulrikke is missing some spark. I need more from her next time. She needs to improve her performance. Vocally she was strong.
Magnus winning this semi is a good thing, but I am perplexed that Pang wasn’t in a gold duel. Not only that it’s a more interesting song, but it also had a more captivating staging.
Ulrikke. Wow. Stop the bus, I want to get off. Probably the first song from live performances this year that made me think possible ESC winner.
Regarding the SF, how did Pang not win this? The other three songs were all pretty poor.
Norway, your NF is ridiculous. Stop making everyone else look bad.
Ulrikke to Rotterdam !
The right choice for the winner. Fun, catchy and memorable. This would do well at Eurovision.
Oh great, Ulrikke sings nicely and looks captivating! They just need to polish the staging, but that should be easy to do. First goosebumps moment of the year!
wow, rybak&jowst?! that’s scary
I don’t really get the hype so many have around Alexander Rybak, unfortunately.
Hege Bjerk was so good !!!!
It’s quite funny; for a couple of weeks I’ve been laying all my trust in the combination Tone Damli + descent song , as I’ve found most of the songs till now quite mediocre. But Attention has my full attention from now on. Now I suddenly fear Tone Damli. She is the most known of this years artists here in Norway, and I’m so afraid that she will bring on a beige/toothless song, and take the victory because of her fame alone… One can say things have changed in my expectacions the last couple of days:-D
I hear you. I felt that Rebecca’s song two years ago was much better than Alexander Rybaks, yet he went on to represent Norway again.
Who We Are wasn’t as impactful or striking as Attention, and MGP 2018 was really weak so a big name would have more sway then. If you just consider the winners of the semis and the pre qualified acts then the top 10 lineup is going to be much stronger.
Yes, Attention is even better than Who we are. I appreciate a lot Morland as a songwriter. IÂŽm very sick of Barker etc,
I’m still in mourning over Rebecca’s loss…
Omg me too. ‘Who we are’ is a song I’m still listening too.
It had a strong message and the lyrics were really unique. “Hating me won’t find you love” gives me chills every time. Not that I don’t like Rybak, but Rebecca should have won that year.
She was my favourite at norwegian final 2018.
Tone’s not a Markus Riva/Aiste/Samanta type of artist who enters national selections almost for the sake of it- she’s entered with the intention of winning and doing well at ESC so she would have genuinely made the effort, even if the song isn’t to most people’s taste.
She’s a good artist, I agree on that. But I hope her song is a good one, and not just a radio friendly tune that doesn’t have the impact that is needed. I think many common norwegians still remember 2009, Butterflies and her big loss to Rybak, and therefore feel it’s her turn now. Therefore I’m wishing and praying for a really strong song. Cause to be honest, it may be that Ulrikke has a greater voice, but when it comes to charisma Tone slays it;-)
I just watched this back, and I have to ask Norwegians this question:
Why did the Nordic Tenors beat Hege Bjerk?
:S
I guess it’s the Haldor LĂŠgreid-syndrome that kicked in. A lot of norwegians tend to like musical acts like this, no matter how dull and tiresome the songs are…
Truly mysterious. I’m Norwegian, and I think many of my countrymen are skeptical about a Norwegian language song going to Eurovision. Really think that might explain it.
That could be. Maybe that’s the explanation why Kjetil MĂžrland didn’t even reach the super final last year? I appriciated En Livredd Mann a lot, and though I wasn’t expecting it to beat Keiino, I was really surprised it didn’t reach top 4.
en livredd mann was my winner, I’m still sad that keiino won over it (keiino wasn’t my style)
Last year Morland has one song in super final
Yes, but that was the english one with Adrian…
I was live in the arena and Pang was epic! I talked to Hege later and she was so humble and amazing<3
But even during the results reveal , it seemed the studio people wanted the Nordic tenors to go through cause that’s what they were shouting
She was very very good. sounded so much better than her video. Not sure why the tenors won nostalgia and a long career maybe.
Nordic Tenors, Norway?! Really?!
Attention’s staging could be a bit more impactful, but Ulrikke was very good tonight. If they elevate even further during the next two weeks this could win MGP and be a real contender in Rotterdam.
Unless some big surprise comes from the last semi, I’m pretty much sold on as Ulrikke as the winner. Great song (the more I listen to it, the more I like) and performance. I just think it needs a little more staging to avoid the risk of something more visually appealing stealing its thunder. But even if she was there in a t-shirt and jeans, singing in the dark, I would pick her. I was already expecting Magnus to qualify, but I would prefer Hege. I had my concerns about “Pang”, but she convinced me tonight.
I just watched Ulrikke. Yes, she is very suited to this song. Itâs very extreme and dramatic though. I fear she may end up sharing the fate of Rebeccaâs âWho we areâ in the final.
That’s exactly my fear. And I’m not even saying they need to do crazy things with staging, but better camera work and playing with the lights would help a lot. Think about Salvador or Conchita. Even John Lundvik.
I agree with both of you. They should put her in a simple white dress, and do something similar to Sonja Alden staging tonight.
@NickC: That would certainly grab my âattention,â haha. đ
That could work. That shadow effect in the end of Sonja’s performance was beautiful. The people who take care of lighting in Melfest are brilliant.
Poor pang was always going to struggle personally loved it but would get nowhere at eurovision not got enough broad appeal. I turned down the guff on melodifestivalen to watch it on my phone now that’s multi tasking.
Haha same. I was watching melo on my laptop and tune into MGP on my phone.
It was obvious that Magnus had this in the bag, especially with the big names behind him. It has a bit of ‘Higher Ground’, bit of ‘Me and my Guitar’, bit of ‘Silent Storm’ and bit of ‘Fairytale’ in it, and I think this is the problem, there is not enough consistency in the composition to draw you in- it tries too much and ends up overshooting. So, it will not win- but it will bring some musical diversity into the final. ‘Attention’ on the other hand, is simply fantastic. It really looked like top 10 song in the ESC… Read more »
Personally would have preferred Oda Loves You or even Hege Bjork to the final. The style of Magnus’ song really isn’t my thing (I realize it was composed by Alexander Rybak who, while incredibly talented, I was never able to appreciate his music as much as most people). Imo Magnus’ song is the weakest of the qualifying acts of the semi finals. Nevertheless, I think Ulrikke is going to win MGP this year (unless a truly amazing song comes out of the next semi final).
This went through because of the songwriters being Alexander Rybak and Walmann. If the songwriters weren’t them, this probably wouldn’t have gone thorugh. My fave from the semi-final competitors was “Pang”.
The best was Ulrikke. She freaking slayyyyed. Loved it. The staging seemed a bit unpolished but this was just the presentation, not the final performance. 3 minutes of vocal slayage and amazing stage presence. I hope the final stage has a LED because with that this could really elevate.
agreed 100%
Nordic Tenors winning the duel over Pang is ridiculous. Granted it doesn’t really matter as they didn’t win overall, but Pang was possibly the best (and easily most sophisticated and mature) semi finalist competing.
Preach
All I want to say is that Ulrikke is my winner already and I doubt anything will change it next week
Why didn’t they choose pang.. The winning song is not so good
Yey. Thanks Norway. Finally one of my favourites qualified. đ
Attention was already qualified to final
Thanks for completely missing my point. Very amusing đ
Congratulations Magnus. JOWST at al.