Rein Alexander has won the second semi-final of Melodi Grand Prix 2020 and will compete in the Grand Final on February 15th.
Melodi Grand Prix returned to television screens this evening, with this year’s contest celebrating 60 years of Norway’s participation in the Eurovision Song Contest. The host for this evening were Kåre Magnus Bergh, Ingrid Gjessing Linhave and Ronny Brede Aase. Tonight’s show was the first of five semi-finals in the H3 Arena in Fornebu, with a different region of Norway represented each week. This week it was the turn of Southern Norway.
The four acts were drawn into two duels live on stage, from each duel one winner was crowned. The winners of each duel then met in the ‘Gold Duel’ with the winner going to the final of Melodi Grand Prix 2020 in Trondheim. The results were entirely determined by online voting.
The results of the first semi-final are (duel winners in bold):
First Round
- Tore Petterson – “The Start of Something New” v Kim Wigaard & Maria Mohn – “Fool for Love”
- JÆGER – “How About Mars” v Rein Alexander – “One Last Time”
Gold Duel
- Kim Wigaard & Maria Mohn – “Fool for Love” v Rein Alexander – “One Last Time”
Didrik and Emil, who have pre-qualified for the final alongside four other acts, also performed their song “Out of Air” during the show.
The final of Melodi Grand Prix 2020 will be held in Trondheim Spektrum on February 15. This will only be the third time in history that the final of Melodi Grand Prix has been held outside of Oslo.
Norway won the televote at the Eurovision Song Contest 2019, with KEiiNO and their song “Spirit in the Sky”. They finished in 6th place overall.
Norway debuted in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1960, and have won the contest three times – in 1985, 1995 and 2009. The country has the dubious record of finishing last the most times, eleven in total, and have received nul points four times. Norway last won the contest in 2009 when Alexander Rybak broke all records with his song “Fairytale”. He scored 387 points in the final, receiving 16 sets of 12 points and scoring points from every country.
