Norwegian national broadcaster NRK celebrates 60 years of Melodi Grand Prix in honour of that they reinstated the semifinals first time since 2012 last week’s semifinal was the fourth one and dedicated to West Norway where Magnus Bokn with the song “Over the Sea” qualified to the finals this week another four acts will compete and after two duels and one golden duel (consisting of the winner from the previous two rounds) will reveal us another finalist this time the region will be North Norway. Of course, one prequalified entry will be performed and this Saturday it will be Tone Damli with the song “Hurts Sometimes”

The four acts competing in this week’s Semi Final 5 – North Norway are as follows:

1. Elin & The Woods – We are as One
2. Jenny Jenssen – Mr. Hello
3. Kevin Boine – Stem på mæ
4. Liza Vassilieva – I am Gay

Elin & The Woods is the product of cooperation between Sami singer and writer Elin Kåven and music producer Robin Mortensen which started in 2015. They define their music “indigenous electronic pop” which consists of electronic music with heavy rhythms and joik. The audience knows them when they took part at MGP 2017 with the song “First Step in Faith/ Oadjebasvuhtii ” where they ended 3rd in the final. In 2018 Elin won the award “Songwriter of the Year“at Sami Music Awards. Robin Lynch is a songwriter and music producer who has written and produced hit songs for, Pink, Jessie J, Cher, Margaret Berger, Ida Maria and Karin Park. Their song is about believing in oneself.

Jenny Jenssen has a total of 16 album releases she sold over 300.000 records, received double platinum and four gold plates. She has been a program manager in both TV and radio and also participated in shows “Stjernekamp”, ​​”Shall we dance” and the first season of “Maestro”. She took part at Melodi Grand Prix 2007 with the song “Vil du ha svær” and back then she was a newly baked mom but now her daughter Tilje will dance with her at the stage.

Kevin Boine is a young artist which has grown to become one of Norway’s largest artists performing in Norwegian language with over 70 million streams. He has been a headliner at festivals with thousands of audiences around Scandinavia. Kevin reached platinum in 2017 without a record label but is currently signed with Universal Music. With the song “Stem på mæ” (Vote for me) Kevin wants to encourage everyone to follow their dreams no matter how much adversity a person faces and showcase how it really is important to be able to be yourself and have the pleasure of succeeding in life, whichever way you choose to go.

Liza Vassilieva is born in Murmansk, Russia and moved to Norway at the age of three. At the age of 19, she moved to Trondheim where she has taken a Masters Degree in European Studies. There she came in contact with the local songwriting community. In 2017 one of her songs was released by the K-pop girl group TWICE, entitled “Eye Eye Eyes”. In 2018 she released her single “Third Wheel”. Although she is not gay herself, Liza participates in the MGP with the song “I am Gay” to show solidarity and support as paying a tribute to the LGBT community. Her song symbolizes celebration and freedom to be oneself and although it is a pride song she thinks the message is something that everyone can relate to.

You can listen to all four songs on NRK’s official website here (click on the song titles). Once you listened to the songs, let us know which of these four is your personal favorite by voting for it in our poll here:

What do you think of the acts? Who would you like to see in final? Let us know in the comments below!