Contents

Norway in the Eurovision Song Contest

Norway in the Eurovision Song Contest
Participating broadcaster	Norsk rikskringkasting (NRK)
Participation summary
Appearances	62 (59 finals)
First appearance	1960
Highest placement	1st: 1985, 1995, 2009
Host	1986, 1996, 2010
Participation history 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
Related articles
Melodi Grand Prix
External links
NRK page
Norway's page at Eurovision.tv
For the most recent participation see Norway in the Eurovision Song Contest 2024

Norway has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 62 times since making its debut in 1960 and has only been absent twice since then. In 1970, the country boycotted the contest over disagreements about the voting structure, and in 2002, they were relegated. The contest is broadcast in Norway by NRK, which also broadcasts Norway's national selection competition, Melodi Grand Prix.

Before 1985, Norway's best result in the contest was Åse Kleveland's third-place in 1966. Norway's three victories in the contest were achieved by Bobbysocksin1985, Secret Gardenin1995 and Alexander Rybakin2009. Norway also finished second at the 1996 contest, with former Bobbysocks member Elisabeth Andreassen. Norway has finished last in twelve Eurovision finals, of which four times with "nul points". Norway has a total of 12 top-five results in the contest, the latest being Alessandra's fifth place in 2023.

History[edit]

Norway's first entrant in the contest was Nora Brockstedtin1960, who finished fourth with the song "Voi Voi"; Brockstedt would return the next year with "Sommer i Palma", this time placing seventh. Åse Kleveland then finished third in 1966 with "Intet er nytt under solen", following which Norway would fail to reach the top ten in fourteen out of their next fifteen attempts, with the exception being Bendik Singers’ seventh place finish in 1973. Before 1985, Norway had only received a top-ten score in six out of twenty-four attempts, and had finished last the same number of times.

Bobbysocks gave the country its first victory in 1985, with the song "La det swinge". Norway went on to achieve two more top five results over the next ten years, with Karoline Krügerin1988 and Silje Vigein1993, who both finished fifth.

Norway's second victory came in 1995 with Secret Garden's mainly instrumental Celtic-influenced ethno-piece "Nocturne". In 1996, Elisabeth Andreassen, who had won the contest as one half of Bobbysocks, returned to the contest as a solo artist, finishing in second place. In 2003, Jostein Hasselgård came fourth.

Norway won for the third time in 2009, with Alexander Rybak and his song "Fairytale". The song's score of 387 points was the highest ever winning total under the 1975-2015 voting system, and also achieved the biggest ever margin of victory: 492 points in total were distributed between the competing countries in 2009, meaning "Fairytale" received 78.7% of the points that could be rewarded. Rybak later returned to the contest in 2018, performing "That's How You Write a Song"; he received the highest number of votes of the second semi-final, but ultimately placed fifteenth. He remains the only Norwegian entrant to have won a semi-final, as well as the only two-time semi-final winner in the history of the contest.

In2024, Norway finished last in the final for the twelfth time. Norway has the dubious distinction of finishing last in the Eurovision final more than any other country, and along with Austria, has received "nul points" (zero points) in the contest on four occasions; in 1963, 1978, 1981 and 1997.

Since the introduction of the semi-final round in 2004, Norway has finished in the top ten eight times. Wig Wam finished ninth in 2005, Maria Haukaas Storeng was fifth in 2008, Alexander Rybak won in 2009, Margaret Berger was fourth in 2013, Carl Espen finished eighth in 2014, Mørland and Debrah Scarlett finished eighth in 2015, Jowst finished tenth in 2017, Keiino won the public vote and finished sixth overall in 2019, Subwoolfer finished tenth in 2022, and Alessandra finished fifth in 2023. In total, Norway has 12 top-five and 27 top-ten finishes in the contest.

Participation overview[edit]

Hostings[edit]

Songs of Europe[edit]

Awards[edit]

Marcel Bezençon Awards[edit]

Year	Category	Song	Composer(s) lyrics (l) / music (m)	Performer	Final	Points	Host city	Ref.
2009	Press Award	"Fairytale"	Alexander Rybak (m &l)	Alexander Rybak	1	387	Moscow	[2]
2015	Composer Award	"A Monster Like Me"	Kjetil Mørland (m &l)	Mørland & Debrah Scarlett	8	102	Vienna	[3]

Winner by OGAE members[edit]

Year	Song	Performer	Place	Points	Host city	Ref.
2009	"Fairytale"	Alexander Rybak	1	387	Moscow	[4]

Related involvement[edit]

Conductors[edit]

Additionally, there was an orchestra present at the 1999 national final, conducted by Geir Langslet (the winning song, however, was presented without orchestral accompaniment) and at the 2015 national final, conducted by Anders Eljas.

Heads of delegation[edit]

Supervisors[edit]

List of supervisors of Melodi Grand Prix, better known as MGP-general or GP-general in Norway:

Commentators and spokespersons[edit]

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Photo gallery[edit]

• 
  Anne-Karine Strøm performing "Mata Hari" in The Hague (1976)
• 
  Bobbysocks performing "La det swinge" in Gothenburg (1985)
• 
  Guri Schanke performing "Ven a bailar conmigo" in Helsinki (2007)
• 
  Maria Haukaas Storeng performing "Hold On Be Strong" in Belgrade (2008)
• 
  Didrik Solli-Tangen performing "My Heart Is Yours" in Oslo (2010)
• 
  Margaret Berger performing "I Feed You My Love" in Malmö (2013)
• 
  Carl Espen performing "Silent Storm" in Copenhagen (2014)
• 
  Mørland and Debrah Scarlett performing "A Monster Like Me" in Vienna (2015)
• 
  Agnete performing "Icebreaker" in Stockholm (2016)
• 
  Jowst and Aleksander Walmann performing "Grab the Moment" in Kyiv (2017)
• 
  Alexander Rybak performing "That's How You Write a Song" in Lisbon (2018)
• 
  Keiino performing "Spirit in the Sky" in Tel Aviv (2019)
• 
  Tix performing "Fallen Angel" in Rotterdam (2021)
• 
  Subwoolfer performing "Give That Wolf a Banana" in Turin (2022)
• 
  Alessandra performing "Queen of Kings" in Liverpool (2023)
• 
  Gåte performing "Ulveham" in Malmö (2024)

See also[edit]

• Melodi Grand Prix
• Norway in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest – Junior version of the Eurovision Song Contest.
• Norway in the Eurovision Young Dancers – A competition organised by the EBU for younger dancers aged between 16 and 21.
• Norway in the Eurovision Young Musicians – A competition organised by the EBU for musicians aged 18 years and younger.

Notes and references[edit]

Notes[edit]

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Melodi Grand Prix
• Points to and from Norway eurovisioncovers.co.uk