It’s the national selection that’s celebrating its diamond anniversary in 2020 — that’s 60 years! And to mark the occasion, Norway’s Melodi Grand Prix is returning to a multi-show format for the first time since 2014.
Over the course of six weeks, the Nordic nation will run five semi-finals from which five qualifiers will join five pre-qualified acts in the grand final.
The first semi-final will take place on Saturday 11 January. The four competing acts represent the southern Norway region. Only one will progress to the grand final.
But who should that be? We want you to choose your favourite from semi-final one of Melodi Grand Prix 2020!
You can listen to all four entries below and then vote for your favourite. You can pick as many acts as you like, but you can only vote once. So choose wisely!
Melodi Grand Prix 2020 — Semi-Final One Songs
Kim Rysstad – “Rainbow”
Kim previously competed in MGP 2012 with “Så vidunderleg”. Last year he competed in Stjernekamp and placed second in the grand final.
Songwriters: Knut Bjørnar Asphol and Kim André Rysstad
Raylee – “Wild”
Raylee another alum of Stjernekamp, having participated in the 2014 edition. She previously competed in MGP in 2015 with the song “Louder”.
Songwriters: Andreas Stone Johansson, Anderz Wrethov and Laurell Barker
Geirmund – “Come Alive”
Geirmund got his break on The Voice Norway in 2013, where he made it to the live shows.
Songwriters: Eric Lumiere, Jonas H. Jensen and Niklas Rosstöm
Lisa Børud – “Talking About Us”
Lisa comes from a musical family and released her first solo album at the age of five. In 2017, Lisa competed on the celebrity singing show Stjernekamp. In 2018, she was one of Alexander Rybak’s dancers on stage for “That’s How You Write a Song”.
Songwriters: Jimmy Jansson, Anderz Wrethov, Maia Wright and Laurell Barker
Poll: Who should win semi-final one of Norway’s Melodi Grand Prix 2020?
[crowdsignal poll=10487004]What is your favourite song? Is there a winner in the mix? And don’t forget to follow our MGP 2020 Spotify playlist.
The phrasing in Wild put me right off. People tell me I’m a fish. Out of water I don’t fit. Terrible.
I actually really like all the songs. I love ‘Talking About Us’, definitely something I would listen to out of Eurovision and it’s my pick out of the four. It’s very contemporary and radio-friendly. IMO ‘Wild’ is good too, but we’ve seen many songs that sound similar to it – it won’t really stand out.
Wild by a country mile~ modern and catchy
Talking about us is probably the best out off that lot but those kinda songs are tricky to stage at Eurovision. Wild is catchy despite the naff lyrics but that really needs a strong stage show and performance to work. Cant even remember the other two and I’ve just listened to them, probably doesnt bode well for the two dudes.
“Talking About Us” is so catchy! 😀 Already dancing to it.
Also, the job of a songwriter is to write songs, so I don’t care about how many songs are by Laurell Barker. Either I like the song, or I don’t. Nothing more. And btw I saw Laurell performing herself and she has the attitude on stage <3
agreed 100%
Sorry, I don´t like “Wild”…..
Is Laurel Barker the new Thomas G:son?! Is she going to submit songs to every country?
I legitimately really liked all the songs. They are all tracks I would (and will) listen to normally. They are all eurovision-friendly in different ways. I think the live show will affect my favourite to go through to the final but for now, since I can only chose one, Raylee is my current pick. Of course that could easily change come this weekend.
I guess that if a female artist has a dance number, it’s inevitably going to be compared to Fuego. I don’t really see much connection between Wild and Fuego. If anything, it reminds me a bit of a Romanian NF song Safari from 2 years ago. They both have a catchy (and kinda messy) hook with onomatopeia and animal metaphors. It’s not nearly the same, but it’s more similar with that than with Fuego.
And that didn’t even make the final
I actually like these songs. Rainbow is probably the weakest.
I totally agree with you. All good songs… It will all depend on live performance and vocal performance. But Rainbow is the weakest of these for sure as it feels like Kim is trying to hard to do a new “Rise Like A Phoenix”. My favorite are the to upbeat ones, but there is something about Geirmund that make me believe he might win. “wild” is super catchy, and a bang on BETTER version of Tamtas “Replay” from last year. This was the song Tamta should have had… Not sure if Raylee can bring on the sexy as Eleni did… Read more »
Geirmund by far!
Off topic .. Ireland will announce tomorrow
I’m guessing just a performer, since for some reason nobody releases the song till mid February, even though they are free to do so since September. In any case, I’m looking forward to welcome someone to the ESC community.
Performer tomorrow and song on Friday
That would be so awesome! I am looking forward to both. I really want Ireland to make it big. 🙂
Singer is female .. she looks like a combination of Zena Belarus 2019 and Zara Larsson
How do you know all that?? 😀
That’s refreshing! Any reference to back it up?
Hello Hi, could you have a word with RTE and remind them that they were supposed to have announced the Irish act yesterday? Kthx!
Far too many cliches for me in this collection – I want to hear something fresh and sadly none of these felt that. Lisa was the one that surprised me most (but not by much), so she got my vote.
Please not “Wild” though. That felt like a mis-match of about 25 songs I’ve already heard done better at ESC. It’s almost like I can feel the producers going through a checklist, and that’s not good.
You cant have 25 fresh and different songs in one contest. There has to be fillers, and they have to be entertaining. There can only be 1 or 2 different, alternative songs… And there will probably be something for sure.
Wild is a good song… A better version of Tamtas “Replay”, but not better than “Fuego” or “She got me” though.
Replay is far better than Wild
none
There’s my opinion. Don’t get mad please. It’s just one semifinal. I hope winner comes from another one, but there’s no terrible song here. 1. Lisa Børud – the best one of these 4, easy. You could actually arrange some staging around it. It’s not spectacular or anything but it’s different than songs like Fuego, She got me, Replay, etc. It’s pop song that doesn’t seem to be too similar to anything that comes to my mind and that’s enough. 2. Geirmund – it’s alright, but nothing crazy, really. It’s fine to have it playing in background but it would… Read more »
Will change my nickname since Maruv won the video contest. Justice For Maruv was kind of served. 😉
I see somebody watched the Golden Globes yesterday 🙂
Oh yes. I love how he ripped into the elite. 😀
Ricky Gervais and Petra would be wild
I don’t like any of these. I voted for Wild cuz at least it’s fun.
Geirmund has the best song. Raylee’s song is a decent dance track and reminds me of Instruction by Jax Jones and Demi Lovato. Lisa is generic pop and Kim is a failed Bond theme.
Thanks for your support for “Come Alive”!
GEIRMUND!
‘Rainbow’ – a mixture between Rag’n’Bone Man, ‘Colour Of Your Life’ and a Bond movie theme. ‘Wild’ – ‘All The Feels’ mixed with ‘Replay’ and a poor man’s Rihanna. ‘Come Alive’ – a bit of ‘Running’ (Hungary 2014), a bit of ‘Wake Up’ from last year with a pinch of Jon Henrik. ‘Talking About Us’ – ‘Let me be your Tempo, Tempo’, but catchier. Overall zero originality. And who puts 2 almost identical songs in 1 semi (‘Wild’, ‘Talking About Us’)?! Those who know me a bit would probably expect me to go for ‘Wild’ as I am still a… Read more »
There’s nothing wrong with this set of songs, but at the same time nothing stands out either. It’s just a bunch of well-produced pop music you enjoy when it’s on and forget about when it’s over. There’s still 21 more songs to come, so I’ll stay optimistic and just wait till the next Monday.
For me Geirmund is a clear winner, even though I also like Wild and Talking About Us.
:)))))) yes!~!
Raylee- Wild, is that a repeat of Fuego by Eleni Foureira (2018) and Replay by Tamta (2019) musically speaking? Same bits, same tempo with this distinctive instrumental sequence. Kym Rysstad is a good song but has it got the calibre of Eurovision Song Contest for a win? That’s the question. Come Alive by Geirmund is a good listening mais sans plus. Lisa Borud’s entry Talking About Us is a radio type of song. Whoever wins on the night, wins a place for Rotterdam, so good luck to all the entries! No favourite entry per se, at first listening.
Exactly, every uptempo pop song is a copy of Fuego.
That’s a stretch. There were many uptempo songs before ‘Fuego’. She didn’t invent the wheel!
I was being sarcastic.
Hard to get that from a written sentence, sorry. 😀
This isn’t negative and I don’t want to spread a bad vibe at all.. but I think Laurell Barkers songs sound so similar to eachother every time 🙁 Always a fade melody with a cheap repetitive chorus.
She’s probably in a hurry to bombard broadcasters with her next bunch of 500 cheap mega hits. No time to do quality control.
It’s a bit sexist to always pick on Laurell. For instance, both of her songs in this semi also feature Anderz Wrethov (who was a writer on Fuego). Yet you direct your ire towards her rather than him, even though he’s equally as prolific. And it’s a trend I’ve noticed a lot in the community.
OMG seriously you made this sexist?! Come on, why is society these days sooo touchy like… Of course these are being sexist for attacking Laurel of course…
with all respect but come on
Anderz Wrethov is probably in a hurry to bombard broadcasters with his next bunch of 500 cheap mega hits. No time to do quality control. Seriously, snarky comments are ire for you? Are we only supposed to say something about stuff we love? I wouldn’t know about ‘the community’, whatever that is, but I totally support Lauren’s right to write as many awful songs as any male colleague. She should write one about ire and teach you the meaning of the word.
Laurell is a guest here. I saw her comments. I think Padraig is just trying to avoid making her feel bad, which is charming and admirable.
What an absolute fool the writer of this article showed himself to be here.
Nobody was being sexist – no body mentioned gender. They were merely critical of a particular artists style – but not because that writer was female
Seriously Paddy – you need to learn the meaning of the word sexist before you put your name to a blog post again.
I mean it’s great to have you fighting the female corner and all – but false accusations just weaken the argument!!
Bless you, sister. You got me.
Well, it seems that Laurell draws much more criticism from the likes of yourself compared to other, usually male, songwriters who constantly appear in various national finals. Especially considering practically all the of her entries have been co-writes. If such observations annoy you, so be it.
You and the likes of yourself don’t have the power to annoy me. Or the capability to produce an interesting conversation, it would appear. So be it. 😉
Geez, man. He doesn’t like her songs. There are plenty of people who do. Let him have his opinion. Don’t shout people down with terms like, “Sexist” just because you disagree with his opinion about MUSIC.
The ‘let us know in the comments below’ must be a lie. He’s clearly too touchy for opinions.
She did “Sisters” and I don’t thank her for that…
Maybe without her “contribution” quality stuff like the song from Lilly Among Clouds (written and performed by herself – a german musician) could have been sent to Tel Aviv, she did very well in the national selection.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GrqoRNE1j8