After 2015, Jan Fredrik Karlsen took over the job as MGP-general, the one who collects the songs for Norsk Melodi Grand Prix (the Norwegian national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest), from Vivi Stenberg. Now after two year, after both a low and a high, he steps down, according to the man himself:

From this fall onwards, exciting things will happen which require all my focus. Unfortunately, these things can’t be combined with a job as MGP-general.

As mentioned, under his supervision Norway has both seen a non-qualification (with Agnete in 2016) and a top 10-placing (with JOWST less than a week ago)! About this Karlsen says:

I feel like I’ve experienced the whole Eurovision spectrum, from us not qualifying to getting into the top 10 last week. It has been two incredible years. This is different to anything I’ve experienced in my career.

The man taking over is Stig Karlsen, who already worked with Jan Fredrik as project leader, but now also will become responsible for getting in songs, something Jan Fredrik Karlsen did before.

Stig Karlsen lets us know what his goals are:

My most important task will be to motivate the most talented songwriters and artists to come to MGP with their best songs. I want to work with the productional environments proactively so that we can deliver solid results in the Eurovision Song Contest in the coming years.

Last week JOWST and Aleksander Walmann qualified for Norway from the second semi-final and ended up 10th in the grand final in Kyiv, Ukraine with ‘Grab the Moment’!