When’s it happening? Tonight! At 19.50 CET. Streaming right here if you’re outside of Norway.
And how does it work? In semi-final one, as with all of the first four semis, we have four songs. They’ve already been split up into two duels by Norwegian broadcaster NRK. TV viewers in Norway will be able to vote for their fave song in each duel as they are performed. With the winning songs from each duel then going into one more duel, performing again, and having the Norwegian viewing public decide on an ultimate winner. The winning song gets a place in the final, the remaining three go through to a second-chance round – which is semi-final five.
Gotcha. I think. What have we got lined up in duel 1? In the first duel we have newcomer Eline Noelia with her contemporary pop song ‘Ecstasy‘, competing against industry stalwart Mira Craig (who has previously won Melodi Grand Prix as a songwriter, in 2008) with her tribal ethno-pop banger ‘We Still Here‘.
And in duel 2? For the second duel, the folk-metal outfit TrollfesT will be delighting Norwegians with the sonic oddity that is ‘Dance Like A Pink Flamingo‘, while eternal backing singer Frode Vassel steps out onto the Melodi Grand Prix stage on his own for the first time, with the electro-rock bop ‘Black Flowers‘.
What a sonically diverse evening of entertainment! And there’s one more song thrown into the mix, too. Melodi Grand Prix has five pre-qualified finalists, who will each be performing their songs in one of the five semi-finals, as a preview. Tonight it’ll be the turn of Elsie Bay, who sings what is currently the odds favourite to win the whole thing – ‘Death Of Us‘.
This is some seriously well thought-out process. You can read more about how it all works, learn more about the artists, and listen to all 21 songs competing – right here.
Norway’s Melodi Grand Prix 2022: Your Guide to Semi 1
