One day before semi-final one of Norway’s newly expanded Melodi Grand Prix 2020, the first pre-qualified entry has been released. Sondrey’s “Take My Time” dropped in the early hours of Friday 10 January.
The song will receive its live premiere during the first semi-final. However, unlike the other four performing acts, Sondrey won’t need to compete for a spot in the final.
He’ll only be showcasing the track as he’s a guaranteed finalist.
Sondrey “Take My Time” (Melodi Grand Prix 2020)
Sondrey is an R&B singer and a championship 100- and 200-metre sprinter. In 2019, he competed in the celebrity singing show Stjernekamp where he placed third.
Songwriters: Ola Frøyen, Eric Lumiere and Terchi Pippuri
Melodi Grand Prix 2020: Semi-Final One
The first MGP 2020 semi will see five artists perform.
Four of these are competing for a spot in the final. A series of “duels” will take place until one qualifier remains. Each act represents Southern Norway.
The semi-final one contenders are:
- Geirmund “Come Alive”
- Kim Rysstad “Rainbow”
- Lisa Børud “Talking About Us”
- Raylee “Wild”
The acts competing in the remaining four semis have yet to be confirmed. However, we do know the other pre-qualified finalists. They are:
- Akuvi “Som du er”
- Didrik & Emil Solli-Tangen”Out of Air”
- Tone Damli “Hurts Sometimes”
- Ulrikke Brandstorp “Attention”
These four entries will be released one by one over the next four Fridays.
What do you think of “Take My Time”? Does it a deserving pre-qualified entry? Let us know in the comments below.
I don’t want to spoil the fun, but this is just like Lisa’s song – well produced and predictable radio-friendly pop. MGP, just like Melfest, never sends bottom of the barrel songs, but these kind of so-so fillers can feel just as underwhelming. But I guess if you like this type of “modern” low-key club songs, this will do. So far, my absolute fav. is Geirmund. 20 more songs to come…
is it just me or did that song feel kinda soulless and mismatched to anyone else
Wow so that was a long 3 minutes
My ranking so far:
1. Take My Time
2. Wild
3. Rainbow
4. Talking About Us
5. Come Alive
Great song and by far the best of the bunch. Would be a great Eurovision entry for Norway. Catchy and original. You can definitley hear the MJ inspiration in this song so Sondrey is staying true to his style ?
Very original…in fact just as awful as Dance you off
Nothing groundbreaking about it, but well produced with a nice R&B touch on his vocals. In my opinion it’s better than the songs in the first semi, though I’m still expecting bolder options coming from MGP.
Well, even if Morland doesn’t show up to save the day again, at least they could give us something that’s more fun and fresh than merely radiofriendly pop by the numbers. Last year they had KEiiNO and D’Sound in the superfinal. A couple of years before they picked Jowst. Maybe there’s something on this lane yet to come.
I hope morland shows up, en livredd Mann was my winner
He is listed as a composer for Ulrikkes entry
Whats the point of having prequalified songs and semifinals? If the broadcaster likes more the prequalified songs the semifinals are a waste of time and money
Probably has to do with the names and the composers. If the most famous names fail in a semi then noone will take part in the future, ALSO as to avoid only Swedish composed songs in the final. There are still 16 songs we don’t know the composers of and the majority of those are probably from Swedish composers and the song writing camps….
Damn MGP pulling it out of the bag this year, all the songs are great so far.
except Rainbow hahah, that’s awful
and thats my fave. Nice with different taste 😉
Imo none of the 5 songs released so far are exceptionally terrible, I’d say my least favorite is Come Alive because it reminds me too much of Believer by Imagine Dragons, but still I wouldn’t call it awful
I’m in love with this song! It’s really catchy. I’m really looking forward to MGP this year!!
Very, very generic selection from Norway so far this year, it’s like they took a standard DMGP and made it even more nothingy.
See my problem with the generic statement is that it seems to be an excuse like yeah maybe it’s generic but that doesn’t mean it’s not good. Like some generic songs are still good and some original songs are not. It imo shouldn’t be the sole reason to dislike a song. I love it when original songs are amazing but I’m not just going to call an original song good because it’s original, it’s whether I like the song or not. Sorry if I’m sounding too harsh.
Yes but that’s the thing – a musical composition cannot be considered ‘good’ when it is bringing nothing new to the table. Songwriters who produce generic music do nothing but pick up the same melodic, rhythmic and structural elements and blend them around over and over again, never producing anything interesting, and therefore even if an original composition is not great (although obviously this will always be subjective) it will always have more merit than a generic one.
have you ever thought of this? If you live in Serbia and all your life have heard serbian music then this song is original and if you have lived in Norway all your life and only listen to this then you think serbian music is original. Your generic opinion is so WRONG. its where you are from.
I mean you can of course have some original ethnic songs but disregarding a song just because it sounds like chart music may not be the best reason. Like music you hear nowadays is similar to this. You do realise you can have songs in a competition that are modern and ethnic. Also I’ve grown up with céili music and country music, doesn’t mean I actually like it. I understand representing culture or the music you grew up with is important but it doesn’t mean you can’t have chart music in ESC. Also I’m pretty sure people can distinguish somewhat… Read more »
I’m personally not afraid to use generic to speak of a Balkan song as generic when it sounds too similar melodically and stylistically to the rest of the music produced there, which is indeed often the case. Currently the trend of this kind of generic electronic pop, with very similar melodies and structures, isn’t just a thing in Norway though – it’s worldwide. That’s not to say that music of this genre cannot be original – it’s just that in many of these cases it’s not.
I mean yeah, can’t argue with that, your right and also people should not be afraid to classify other genres such as ball lads to be generic but it generally gets a bad response which imo shouldn’t be the case. I also won’t say this is original because it’s not but I still like it. As I said though, I actually agree with everything you said.
i just feel that the community in here are very harsh on the scandinavian ones and always say generic. Then the balkan ones and eastern Europe dont get the same treatment. It makes me angry inside. Many just hear a pop song and say GENERIC. Its not just that. In our swedish melfest. We dont usually have greek opa sound or balkan albanian ballads. Its not our culture sound. Are we generic then? NO! But i feel many just dont get it
I think you’re completely misunderstanding me, I don’t like using the term generic for songs. Btw I love Scandinavian songs at ESC. Im actually on your side, but if I Had To use the term “generic”, then I would say modern songs and traditional ethnic songs can be generic and that it’s not necessarily a bad thing. But as I said, personally not a big fan of calling songs generic and usually would not refer to songs including Scandinavian songs generic. Btw Scandinavia always have great songs, not always Denmark though, just my personal taste.
My ranking of semi 1 would have been :
1)Talking about us
2)Wild
3)Take my time
4)Come Alive
5)Rainbow
So what about this justifies it being automatically qualified? Does Norway want its own take on ‘Dance you off’ at Eurovision? It’s not bad by any means, but still leaves me waiting on Mørland to save the day. And even his stuff should not be pre-qualified. I’d love to get a reasoning behind this.
And I’m not even sure they are doing those entries a favor. The audience might deliberately side with one of the semi finalists.
This is not a sweden article but nice Sweden is always in all of them in some way. Dont know why but here it is again.
Cause it does have similar vibes as Dance you off , Sweden 2018
It’s a very good song, but maybe doesn’t have the memorable impact to win.
Can’t fault the production values of the entry
But it’s not really making me move , especially the chorus
Somehow I was reminded of dance you off
This is very well-produced. No wonder the juries put it straight to the final.
Why are there pre qualified finalists? And why them?
I get The Weeknd vibes in this song. I guess it deserved to be one of the pre-qualified songs as this is spotify and radio friendly.