It’s the national final that’s going bigger for its 60th anniversary celebrations. And on Tuesday 12 November, Norway’s NRK revealed that the Melodi Grand Prix 2020 final will take place in Trondheim’s Spektrum arena.

Melodi Grand Prix 2020 final in Trondheim

This marks the first time in 31 years that the MGP final will be held outside Oslo, the country’s capital.

Speaking in the press release, Head of Delegation Stig Karlsen says that viewers can expect a huge show with confetti, pyro and great artists with great songs.

Trondheim is the third most populous city in Norway, although it only has the fourth largest urban area. It is located over 500km north of Oslo. However, it is well serviced by both air and rail.

Melodi Grand Prix 2020

Norwegian broadcaster NRK is running an expanded Melodi Grand Prix for 2020.

For the first time since 2014 there will be semi-finals and each region of Norway will have its own show.

Northern Norway, Central Norway, Western Norway, Eastern Norway and Southern Norway will all receive their own program.

The five semi-final shows will be filmed at a television studio in Oslo.

Despite earlier speculation that up to 40 acts would compete in Melodi Grand Prix 2020, Karlsen confirmed that only 25 acts will be involved, with ten progressing to the grand final.

Just four acts will compete in each semi-final, but we’ll see most perform more than once. The acts will face each other in duels until one winner is decided from each semi. This suggests it may be similar to the format previously used by the Melodifestivalen andra chansen round.

The jury will also pre-select five extra finalists. They won’t have to compete in the semi-finals but will earn a wildcard entry direct to the grand final. One wildcard winner will be revealed in each semi-final and they will perform their song at the semi to ensure each finalist has the same amount of exposure.

The five semi-final winners and five wildcard winners will head to the grand final. There Norway’s act for Eurovision 2020 will be selected.

The first weekly semi-final will take place on 11 January 2020, and will run until the grand final on 15 February 2020.

Follow all of our Norway Eurovision 2020 news.

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Ulvi
Ulvi
4 years ago

Isn’t Trondheim the city where lives most of that huge Lithuanian diaspora, who desperately vote for their own country every year?

Joe
Joe
4 years ago
Reply to  Ulvi

Lithuania and Poland are the big diaspora votes from Norway. Must be a lot of then, given that the Norwegian televote has given Lithuania twelve twice!

Ulvi
Ulvi
4 years ago
Reply to  Joe

They give Lithuania 12 points every year almost not only twice. I wonder if Norweighans, British and Irish people aren’t sick of it already?

Joe
Joe
4 years ago
Reply to  Ulvi

Far as I can remember, it was the 2016 and 2018 finals and a few of the semifinals.

Ulvi
Ulvi
4 years ago
Reply to  Joe

If they don’t give 12, they give 10. But never less than 10

Joe
Joe
4 years ago
Reply to  Ulvi

The exceptions are usually other Nordic countries like Sweden or Denmark. They were also (like Sweden and Denmark) very into the Balkans in the ‘00s, particularly Turkey, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia.

Polegend Godgarina
Polegend Godgarina
4 years ago
Reply to  Ulvi

italy, where i’m from, is the most diaspora vote-affected country of em all… ukraine, romania, moldova n albania could be in the final n get our top 4 votes every year ! it’s kinda lame yea. the fact that we gave norway our 10 this year shocked me tho

Tulip
Tulip
4 years ago

So if Albania, Moldova, Ukraine and Romania are all in the final, Italy can give only 6 televote points to their favourite? Poor Italians and poor other countries who finish 11th, 12th, 13th and 14th in the Italian televote… so sick of Eastern European diaspora voting

Ulvi
Ulvi
4 years ago
Reply to  Tulip

That explains why all Italians want 100% jury system

Romanian says hi
Romanian says hi
4 years ago
Reply to  Tulip

Hold it! As a Romanian – who knows the Romanian Eurovision history quite well – I’d like to point out that many of our Romanian singers have lived and/or studied in Italy. Many of them has held small concerts and even participated in Italian shows, and even been influenced by the Italian musical culture when considering, we have close ties to the Italians, by both speaking a Romance based language, and our language being the closest to Italian than the other Romance based languages. Sure, our Romanian diaspora does indeed effect the Italian votes, but I’m quite confident that there… Read more »

Joe
Joe
4 years ago

Austria, though…Serbia, Romania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Turkey, Poland, Croatia, Hungary, to a lesser extent also Switzerland, Germany, Albania, and the Czech Republic.

Skiwalko
4 years ago
Reply to  Joe

45.500 Lithuanians and 108.000 Poles live in Norway. That’s respectively .85% and 2.03% of Norway’s population.

Mr. Vanilla Bean
Mr. Vanilla Bean
4 years ago

Great. Trondheim is very charming. Why not host Eurovision 2021 there, as well? Norway really has some beautiful cities to showcase, besides Oslo. Another Eurovision in Bergen would be wonderful, too.

HarpyDarper
HarpyDarper
4 years ago

Nice to see the national finals spread out.
Are there many Norwegian arenas that could host the contest if they win? Or would we most likely go back to the Telnor stadium?

Mr. Vanilla Bean
Mr. Vanilla Bean
4 years ago
Reply to  HarpyDarper

I am rooting for Hammerfest.

Polegend Godgarina
Polegend Godgarina
4 years ago
Reply to  HarpyDarper

they have the hakons hall arena in lillehammer with a capacity of 11.5k n the vikingskipet in hamar with 20k seats outside of oslo