Norway in the Eurovision Song Contest 2009

Norway participated in and won the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 with the song "Fairytale" written and performed by Alexander Rybak. The Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) organised the national final Melodi Grand Prix 2009 in order to select the Norwegian entry for the 2009 contest in Moscow, Russia. 21 entries competed in the national final that consisted of three semi-finals, a Last Chance round and a final. Eight entries ultimately qualified to compete in the final on 21 February 2009 where the winner was determined over two rounds of voting. In the first round of voting, a public televote exclusively selected the top four entries to advance to the competition's second round—the Gold Final. In the second round of voting, "Fairytale" performed by Alexander Rybak was selected as the winner following the combination of votes from four regional jury groups and a public televote.

Norway was drawn to compete in the second semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 14 May 2009. Performing during the show in position 6, "Fairytale" was announced among the 10 qualifying entries of the second semi-final and therefore qualified to compete in the final on 16 May. It was later revealed that Norway placed first out of the 19 participating countries in the semi-final with 201 points. In the final, Norway performed in position 20 and placed first out of the 25 participating countries, winning the contest with 387 points. This was Norway's third win in the Eurovision Song Contest since 1995.

Background
Prior to the 2009 contest, Norway had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 47 times since its first entry in 1960. Norway had won the contest on two occasions: in 1985 with the song "La det swinge" performed by Bobbysocks! and in 1995 with the song "Nocturne" performed by Secret Garden. Norway also had the two dubious distinctions of having finished last in the Eurovision final more than any other country and for having the most "nul points" (zero points) in the contest, the latter being a record the nation shared together with Austria. The country had finished last 10 times and had failed to score a point during four contests. Following the introduction of semi-finals in 2004, Norway has, to this point, finished in the top 10 two times: in 2005 when Wig Wam finished ninth with the song "In My Dreams", and in 2008 when Maria Haukaas Storeng finished fifth with the song "Hold On Be Strong".

The Norwegian national broadcaster, Norsk rikskringkasting (NRK), broadcasts the event within Norway and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. NRK confirmed their intentions to participate at the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest on 9 June 2008. The broadcaster has traditionally organised the national final Melodi Grand Prix, which has selected the Norwegian entry for the Eurovision Song Contest in all but one of their participation. Along with their participation confirmation, the broadcaster revealed details regarding their selection procedure and announced the organization of Melodi Grand Prix 2009 in order to select the 2009 Norwegian entry.

Melodi Grand Prix 2009
Melodi Grand Prix 2009 was the 47th edition of the Norwegian national final Melodi Grand Prix and selected Norway's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2009. 21 songs were selected to compete in a five-week-long process that commenced on 24 January 2009 and concluded with the final on 21 February 2009. All shows were hosted by Per Sundnes and 2008 Norwegian Eurovision entrant Maria Haukaas Storeng and televised on NRK1 as well as streamed online at NRK's official website nrk.no. The final was also broadcast online at the official Eurovision Song Contest website eurovision.tv.

Format
The competition consisted of five shows: three semi-finals on 24 January 2009, 31 January 2009 and 7 February 2009, a Last Chance round (Sistesjansen) on 14 February 2009 and a final on 21 February 2009. Seven songs competed in each semi-final and the top two entries directly qualified to the final, while the entries that placed third and fourth proceeded to the Last Chance round. Two wildcards were also awarded to proceed to the Last Chance round, one being the act that received the most votes out of the bottom three songs in the semi-finals and one selected by online voting held on the website of VG between 7 and 9 February 2009. An additional two entries qualified to the final from the Last Chance round. The results of the semi-finals and Last Chance round were determined exclusively by public televoting, while the results in the final were determined by jury voting and public televoting. Viewers could vote through telephone and SMS, and for the semi-finals, the public was able to cast their votes on the day before each show was broadcast.

Competing entries
A submission period was opened by NRK between 9 June 2008 and 1 September 2008. A new rule required songwriters to hold Norwegian citizenship or have permanent residency in Norway in order to be eligible to compete. Collaborations with foreign songwriters were permitted, however their percentage of contribution must not exceed 50%. Performers of the selected songs would be chosen by NRK in consultation with the songwriters, and the broadcaster reserved the right to directly invite certain artists and composers to compete in addition to the public call for submissions. At the close of the deadline, over 350 submissions were received. 21 songs were selected for the competition and their titles were revealed on 10 and 17 December 2008. The seven acts competing in each semi-final were revealed on 22 December 2008, 29 December 2008 and 5 January 2009, respectively, and among the artists was past Eurovision entrant Wenche Myhre who represented Germany in 1968.

Semi-finals
Seven songs competed in each of the three semi-finals that took place on 24 January, 31 January and 7 February 2009. The first semi-final took place at the Kongsvinger Hall in Kongsvinger, the second semi-final took place at the Bodø Spektrum in Bodø, and the third semi-final took place at the Skien Fritidspark in Skien, Grenland. In each semi-final the top two directly qualified to the final, while the third and fourth placed songs proceeded to the Last Chance round. On 9 February 2009, the two wildcards that also proceeded to the Last Chance round were announced: "Party" performed by KeSera featuring Anita Hegerland which received the most votes out of the bottom three songs in the semi-finals and "Do It Again" performed by Foxy which won the VG online vote.

In addition to the performances of the competing entries, the interval act in the third semi-final featured 1977 and 1979 Norwegian Eurovision entrant Anita Skorgan performing her 1979 entry "Oliver".

VG Wildcard Vote
Voting for the VG wildcard opened on 21:05 CET on 7 February 2009 and closed on 10:00 CET on 9 February 2009. All nine entries which had placed in the bottom three of each semi-final were due to compete, however Wenche Myhre withdrew her participation as she had a concert in Portugal on the day of the Last Chance round which meant she would be unable to compete. The winner of the online vote was "Party" by KeSera feat. Anita Hegerland but since it was later revealed to be the song which had received the most votes out of the nine songs in the semi-finals and had already qualified to the Last Chance round, the second place entry qualified. "Do It Again" by the band Foxy had received the second most votes in the VG online vote and therefore qualified to the last chance round.

Last Chance round
The Last Chance round took place on 14 February 2009 at the Sunnmørshallen in Ålesund. The six entries that placed third and fourth in the preceding three semi-finals as well as the two wildcards competed and the two entries that qualified to the final were selected over two rounds of voting. In the first round, the eight entries competed in four duels and the winners of each duel proceeded to the second round. In the second round, the remaining four entries competed in two duels and the winners of each duel qualified to the final.

Final
Eight songs that qualified from the preceding three semi-finals and the Last Chance round competed during the final at the Oslo Spektrum in Oslo on 21 February 2009. Before the final, the group Velvet changed their name to Velvet Inc. in order to avoid confusion with Swedish singer Velvet who was competing in 2009 Swedish Eurovision national selection. The winner was selected over two rounds of voting. In the first round, the top four entries were selected by public televoting to proceed to the second round, the Gold Final. In the Gold Final, four regional juries from the three semi-final and Last Chance round host cities each distributed points as follows: 2,000, 4,000, 6,000 and 8,000 points. The results of the public televote were then revealed by Norway's five regions and added to the jury scores, leading to the victory of "Fairytale" performed by Alexander Rybak with 747,888 votes. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, the interval act featured a medley performed by host Maria Haukaas Storeng.

After winning Melodi Grand Prix 2009, "Fairytale" reached number one on the VG-lista singles chart, making it the first time in the history of Melodi Grand Prix that the winning song reached the top of the charts before winning the contest.

Preparation and promotion
On 14 March, the music video for "Fairytale" showing Alexander Rybak's performance at Melodi Grand Prix 2009 was released to the public. To promote his Eurovision participation, Rybak appeared as a guest at the concert of four-time Eurovision entrant Elisabeth Andreassen, which was held at the Oslo Concert Hall on 6 April. Approaching the contest, Rybak garnered international media attention especially in Russia, with a crew from Russian television channel NTV traveling to Oslo in April to record a documentary on the singer that later aired during the programme Glavnyy geroy. Further media attention was made in the United States where he was featured in reports on The Oprah Winfrey Show and The World's Got Talent.

At Eurovision
According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big Four" (France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top nine songs from each semi-final as determined by televoting progress to the final, and a tenth was determined by back-up juries. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 30 January 2009, an allocation draw was held which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals. Norway was placed into the second semi-final, to be held on 14 May 2009. The running order for the semi-finals was decided through another draw on 16 March 2009 and Norway was set to perform in position 6, following the entry from Poland and before the entry from Cyprus.

In Norway, the two semi-finals and the final were broadcast on NRK1 with commentary by Synnøve Svabø. The Norwegian spokesperson, who announced the Norwegian votes during the final, was Stian Barsnes-Simonsen. In the aftermath of the show, Svabø was criticized for chattering while the Russian hosts were speaking, and for some vulgar comments. During the coverage of the voting, Svabø was heard on live television making phone calls to Rolf Løvland, Elisabeth Andreassen, Hanne Krogh, Trond Giske, Hans Bjerkås and Jens Stoltenberg. Several Norwegian viewers reported that they had switched to the Swedish commentary on SVT1.

Semi-final
Alexander Rybak took part in technical rehearsals on 5 and 7 May, followed by dress rehearsals on 13 and 14 May. The Norwegian performance featured Alexander Rybak performing on stage with a violin and dressed in a black waistcoat with a white shirt and black trousers. Rybak was joined on stage by three dancers that performed a series of artistic folk dance routines and acrobatics and two backing vocalists. The LED screens displayed a night view of traditional wooden Norwegian houses lighting up with the moon and stars above and fireworks going off. The three dancers on stage with Alexander Rybak were members of the Frikar Dance Company: Hallgrim Hansegård, Sigbjørn Rua and Torkjell Lunde, while the two backing vocalists were Jorunn Hauge and Karianne Kjærnes.

At the end of the show, Norway was announced as having finished in the top 10 and subsequently qualifying for the grand final. It was later revealed that Norway placed first in the semi-final, receiving a total of 201 points. The second semi-final was watched by 1.206 million viewers in Norway with a market share of 64%.

Final
Shortly after the second semi-final, a winners' press conference was held for the ten qualifying countries. As part of this press conference, the qualifying artists took part in a draw to determine the running order for the final. This draw was done in the order the countries appeared in the semi-final running order. Norway was drawn to perform in position 20, following the entry from Albania and before the entry from Ukraine.

Alexander Rybak once again took part in dress rehearsals on 15 and 16 May before the final, including the jury final where the professional juries cast their final votes before the live show. Alexander Rybak performed a repeat of his semi-final performance during the final on 16 May. At the conclusion of the voting, Norway won the contest placing first with a score of 387 points. This was Norway's third victory in the Eurovision Song Contest; their recent victory was in 1995. The final was watched by 2.011 million viewers in Norway with a market share of 88%, making it the most watched Eurovision final in Norway since 1996 when the contest was held in Oslo. Viewership increased to 2.292 million during the voting.

Voting
The voting system for 2009 involved each country awarding points from 1-8, 10 and 12, with the points in the final being decided by a combination of 50% national jury and 50% televoting. Each nation's jury consisted of five music industry professionals who are citizens of the country they represent. This jury judged each entry based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act. In addition, no member of a national jury was permitted to be related in any way to any of the competing acts in such a way that they cannot vote impartially and independently. In the final, Norway's vote was based on 100 percent jury voting due to technical issues with the televoting. Telenor promised to refund the cost of the vote to the Norwegian voters, which totalled 1.36 million Norwegian krone.

Following the release of the full split voting by the EBU after the conclusion of the competition, it was revealed that Norway had placed first with both the public televote and the jury vote in the final. In the public vote, Norway scored 378 points, while with the jury vote, Norway scored 312 points.

Below is a breakdown of points awarded to Norway and awarded by Norway in the second semi-final and grand final of the contest. The nation awarded its 12 points to Denmark in the semi-final and to Iceland in the final of the contest.

Detailed voting results
The Norwegian televoting results were released by the EBU in July 2009, however these were not able to be incorporated in the Norwegian points given during the contest. The below table outlines how the Norwegian points would have been calculated had the televoting results been ready. With these combined points, although the overall winner of the contest would not have changed, Bosnia and Herzegovina would have achieved 8th place instead of France, Denmark would have achieved 12th place instead of Ukraine, and Sweden would have achieved 20th place instead of Germany.

The following members comprised the Norwegian jury:


 * Ellen Marie Steen – journalist at NRK P1
 * Jørn Johansen – program director for P4
 * Elisabet Davidsen – project leader for music at the department of culture of NRK P2
 * Arne Martin Vistnes – journalist at Radio Norge
 * Vivi Stenberg – producer, Head of Duty at NRK P3