The Melodi Grand Prix 2021 wildcard round, the Siste sjanse, has taken place in Norway, and now the grand final line-up is complete. It’s been a long time coming. We started with six pre-qualified finalists. The winners of the five heats then took us to eleven. And tonight the 12th and final ticket went to the wildcard winner — Jorn, with the song “Faith Bloody Faith”.
The Siste sjanse show, held on 15 February, featured 15 pre-recorded performances from the semi-final shows. The running order was chronological based on when entries were eliminated. So the loser of the first duel of semi-final 1 went first, followed by the loser of the second duel in semi-final 1, followed by the loser of the gold duel in that semi. This repeated through each of the semi-finals.
On top of that, the hosts of the show were seen discussing the entries and the contest in the NRK Radio studio. The show was essentially a radio show. So naturally fans on social media found the three-hour special a bit lacking. But it was all worth it when the announcement finally rolled around. Eventually, we got a winner, and the final 12 were complete.
Melodi Grand Prix 2021: Sistesjansen Results
The betting odds’ favourite to win the show before February 15th was Stina Talling with her pop ballad “Elevate”. However, the fan favourite (according to our pre-show poll) was Jorn with the hard rock number “Faith Bloody Faith”. Due to being in semi-final one, the running order placed them in uncomfortable spots — #2 and #3 of 15, respectively. Jorn eventually overcame this obstacle and picked up enough votes to win the show.
Following criticism from fans and the media about the 2020 system of MGP, NRK made small tweaks to the show. While only one song still qualified from each semi-final, the Siste sjanse round gave another song a golden ticket. It also helped build drama and suspense, while keeping the public interested in the eliminated songs. This year the regional concept for the semi-finals was eliminated. This gave producers greater freedom to mix songs by genre and style, rather than by the artists’ hometown.
Who should win on Saturday? How will Jorn do in the final? Sound off in the comments below!
This might sound too ambigitous, but he’s one of my two hot favourites to win MGP 2021 🙂
Is this a joke comment?
wow , its amazing how good it is
I am glad the Norwegians chose this song. It is really quality, lyrics, music, performance. So a great addition to the finals.
I still have the impression that Keiino would be the entry with really good chances even to win Eurovision. I love the song and the performance from IMERIKA, but still think Keiino is the full package. They don’t need any prerecorded backing vocals, they have everything on board and they slay and the song is really good. It is a Eurovision package ready to go.
Perfect choice! I honestly thought he’ll qualify straight from his Semi Final but… anyhow, there’s some good songs here! Keiino, Tix, and Jorn are my favorite.
But if I had to pick one it would beKeiino! Not just for MGP but it’s giving me Eurovision winner vibes! Finger crossed! GO KEIINO!
Mi favorito es Jorn, después me agradan las canciones de Keiino y Atle.
Hola Sol. Entiendo que quizás tus capacidades para hablar en ingles no sean las mejores, pero este sitio (al igual que casi cualquier cosa internacional) usa el ingles para comunicar a gente de todo el mundo. Al hablar en español haces que mucha gente no te entienda.
Hi Sol. I understand that maybe your English capacity isn’t the best, but in this site (as in almost every international thing) uses english to communicate people allover the world. Speaking in Spanish makes many people not to understand you
Nice song, happy that he qualified as it adds to the diversity of genres.
Any idea as to when we’re getting the final running order?
Awesome news!
My favorites for the victory are Jorn, KEiiNO and Blasemafian <3
I get that this song has fans but it’s really not at all my cup of tea, good luck to everyone in the final
Hooray!
Now lets replace: Atle with Big Daddy Karsten, replace Kaja Rode with Stina, and replace that pretentious preachy mess by Rein Alexander with Royane. Then i would have been very happy 😀
Leave Kaja alone!!
Everyone is hating on her and I have no idea why. Her voice is out of this world
No, no and heck no.
Honestly all the songs in the final are good… almost every one of them has some potential to rank well at ESC. Congrats Norway!! My favourites for Saturday
1. IMERIKA (9.5/10)
2. KEiiNO (9/10)
3. Kaja Rode (8/10)
4. Emmy (7.5/10)
5. Raylee (7/10)
6. TIX (7/10)
7. Blåsemafian (6.5/10)
8. Stavangerkameratene (6.5/10)
9. Jorn (6/10)
10. KiiM (6/10)
11. Atle (5.5/10)
12. Rein Alexander (5/10)
‘Feel again’ is a great song and a well deserved aq. I’m sad that ‘Psycho’ is not in the final, but there are only 12 spots and a lot of good songs in this selection.
Yes yes yes! And there is a god!!
And you thought he was done!
Haha, I will never curse start number 2 again 😀
Very nice what you have done there! I hope it was deliberate, but even if not, it is still very apt and made me chuckle!
Nice!
I like it and it deserves its place in the final, but I think Jorn is as guilty of pre-recorded vocals as Anton Ewald. None of that chorus sounded live to me.
Evidence?
To be fair, I just tried to scream that Chorus out, and I can’t do it justice. Plus the neighbours got genuinely scared.
This is true, sadly. He looks so pretty though.
Yeah. Atle… I can’t speak.
I don´t understand the sense of pre recorded backing vocals at all. It´s so boring.
It feels like it´s not about to add backing vocals. It´s more about replacing the main singer.
What sense does it have when you can´t hear the main singer in any way ?
Because you have never seen Jorn perform live. He is a great metal singer, highly respected in the metal community
Don’t worry – Jorn doesn’t need pre-recorded vocals. I heard him live and he was awesome every time.
Amen to that! I’d add Elevate and Smile for sure.
Ha ha ha
I’ll also add that for me Feel Again isn’t my last among the AQs, though. It’s still not as good as several of the semifinalists.
I tried, but I really *cannot* find a bad song in this year’s MGP. There was one I found boring (you’ll find out when I list my top 26), but nothing bad. I enjoyed almost the whole line-up today and I wish there was a place for more than one on Saturday. I actually enjoyed several entries here more than a few of the guaranteed finalists. I voted for TuVeia and Maria Solheim, and while I was dwelling on who to give my third vote, the time suddenly ran out. Oh, well.. Congrats to Jorn! I did place him high… Read more »
The best choice
Good job Norway!
Welcome back. Yeah, Norway are stunning this year. To be fair to Denmark and DK, they have tried hard for many years and had some great National Finals; and they often qualify for the ESC Grand Final, so they must still be doing something right. x
That’s a great addition to the final, completely different from the other qualified songs. And one of the best songs of the whole MGP in my opinion.
No I was hoping Stina would make it to the final! A big congrats to Jorn though, the final is going to be really interesting to watch!
At least the grand final has some proper diversity now. That said… I am sure there will be discussions about the advantage of early exposure now as both the favorites of the bookies are the prequalified entries presented in the first semi – maybe the only 2 names and songs that didnt need the early exposure as all. And now another song from semi 1 goes to the final after having had the longest time of public exposure. Songs in semi 4 and 5 had no chance at all in other words. I wouldnt be surprised if the gold final… Read more »
Justice for Stina!
Imagine if Norway picked Jorn, Sweden picked Lillasyster and Finland picked Blind Channel. Scandinavia would rock hard 😮 Love all of these songs, hope atleast 2 of them make it to ESC
That won’t happen
Blind Channel makes violent/emo pop, not rock.
Its literally just like Linkin Park… It is rock… They can call it whatever they want but it falls into the rock genre.
Alternative music.
Imagine if Norway picked Kaja Rode or Raylee, Finland picked Teflon Brothers x Pandora, Estonia Gram-of-fun and Sweden… well
Tonight is a night for sadness thinking of all the great songs we need to leave behind.
But many congrats to Jorn, I am sure they are going to have one hell of a blast in the final!
We need a second Euorovision Song Contest at this rate!
It’s crazy, my playlist is already filled up with over 20 songs I really like and we’ve only got 6 in the actual contest so far!
It’s a great song and he has a fantastic voice, it’ll be something different in the final, I was rooting for Ole but this is great and excited to see it again
He totally deserved it!
Yaaass! An angry song about bloody faith. Perfect. The Norway MGP Final 2021 is so strong, it’s like all my favourite entries arrived in the same final in the same year.
P.S. I feel sorry for Finland’s UMK, which clashes with the MGP final. (Although it’s a strong UMK year too.)
I think Finland and Norway have the strongest national finals of the Nordic countries this year, and I’ll be watching both this saturday! It’s going to be a thrilling evening
UMK’s not even in the same building as MGP, let alone the same room drinking the same champgane!
Very happy for Jorn. And this is really good for the diversity in Saturday’s final! 🙂
I’m kinda surprised . Stina was literally in the Norwegian top 50 charts so it seems a bit odd that she hasn’t won. Oh well.. well done jorn. I know he had a fanbase Facebook page so many they have all made numerous accounts to qualify him, seems weird to me anyway
Jorn has a very big and dedicated fanbase.
RIP Elevate
Can the BBC purchase that song? 😀
Knowing BBC in the last few years they’ll buy Ketil first
Hahaha
LMAO. I can imagine Electro Velvet covering “My Life is OK.”
yep. It’ll come 26th because of BrExIt
The sad truth is that you are probably right ;-D
The sad part is that BBC would do MUCH better with Elevate, Where’d You Wanna Go, Ocean of Love, She’s Like a Dream or any of the English-language UMK songs than with what they’d sometimes settle for. I mean, any of these would dance circles around Electro Velvet, Storm (2018) or Joe & Jake in terms of results. But people are right – They would probably pick Ketil, ney, they’d purchase that trainwreck Bojan and Ashley sung at Dora. Why is BBC not the best when it comes to promotion for ESC?
I’ll let you know, if or when I ever work for the Beeb. There are some others on Wiwibloggs who do work for them, so they can probably answer better than I can. I suppose the short answer is: A long broadcasting history with Eurovision combined with the British stigma of Eurovision and combined with a highly successful pop music industry that does not want to take the risk of being unsuccessful at Eurovision and potentially destroying a career. Yes, that’s really the short answer. 😀
I think that fear of failing at ESC shouldn’t stop people from applying. I mean, if a good song fails, people are still embracing it. Finland 2017, San Marino 2013, Portugal 2013 and such still have many fans despite their NQ. UK doesn’t even have to worry about that, as the finals is guaranteed. The artist doesn’t *need* to be already famous, but BBC should give them resources to *feel big* at that moment and give their all. If we in Croatia can stack Doras with our A-listers, I am sure you could find many quality artists with a good… Read more »
So happy with this choice!!! Well earned Jorn! I am a bit sad for some of the other great songs that would have been awesome in the finals as well.