Norwegian national broadcaster NRK just held a special press conference where they revealed the he First heat/ semifinal or as Norwegians would say delfinale of Melodi Grand Prix 2021 is going to take place this Saturday, 16th of January. In total, a record number of 26 songs will be participating. Twelve of these will be competing in the final, six pre-qualified artists and six finalists voted by the audience. Five semi-finals (delfinalen) one each Saturday starting from 16th of January, will have the artists in duel against each other for the ticket to the final.
In addition to this NRK has introduced a wildcard round so the audience will get a chance to choose the last finalist from the artists which were eliminated in the semi-finals. All the shows will be broadcasted without any audience due to the ongoing pandemic, from Fornebu, H3 Arena. The hosts will be Ingrid Gjessing Linhave, Ronny Brede Aase and Kåre Magnus Bergh.

The participants of Semi Final 1 (16th of January) are:

Stina Talling – “Elevate”

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Lyrics and music: Bård Mathias Bonsaksen, Hilda Stenmalm, Stina Talling, Eirik Hella og Monika Engeseth

Stina Talling is a teenager from Bergen which started with YouTube videos back in 2013 and now she has almost 17 million plays at her channel. In 2019 she got a record contract with Sony Music and since then she released several songs: “Fortid til fremtid”, “Jada Jada” with Cherie Mwangi, “En gang til” with Eirik Lyng, “Livet nå” and a film score “En rakett til måneland” for the Netflix film “Over The Moon” in 2020. Stina’s biggest hit “Mer enn god nok” which she co-wrote for BlimE, has streamed over 12 million times.

Jorn – “Fate Bloody Faith”

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Lyrics and music: Åge Sten Nilsen, Jørn Lande, Eirik Renton, Kjell Åge Karlsen

Jørn Lande grew up in Rjukan and now lives in Fredrikstad. He has nearly 50 international album releases and is known for his great vocal capacity, and it is claimed that he is the largest Norwegian musical export since a-ha. In addition to his solo career under the name Jorn, he has fronted and participated in many bands and projects; ARK, Masterplan, Avantasia, Dracula “Swing Of Death”, Beyond Twilight, Vagabond, The Snakes, Millennium, Mundanus Imperium, Ayreon, Brazen Abbot, among others, and have sold millions of albums worldwide. Over the years, Jorn has received several recognition for his work, including the European Commission’s European Border Braker’s Award for Masterplan’s debut album in 2004. In recent years he has also worked with Riot Games and the world’s largest online game ‘League of Legends’, where he gives voice to the character Karthus in the fictional heavy metal band Pentakill. Most Norwegians recognize Jørn as the voice of the famous football song “Alt for Norge” from 1994, and he has made several sports-related songs over the years. Among other things, “Got a mind set on gold” from the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta and “Famous” to the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. Jorn shares the stage with his fellow musicians Kjell Åge Karlsen, Øyvind Strønen and Eirik Renton.

Blåsemafian – “Let Loose” 

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Lyrics and music: Jørgen Lund Karlsen, Sigurd Evensen, Stig Espen Hundsnes, Benjamin Sefring and Caroline Teigen

Blåsemafiaen is one of the most renowned brass bands in Norway and Europe and consists of Sigurd Evensen (27) from Oslo on trombone, Stig Espen Hundsnes (32) from Stord on trumpet and Jørgen Lund Karlsen (27) from Fredrikstad on saxophone. They collaborated with famous artists such as Marcus & Martinus, Madcon, Cezinando and Angelina Jordan. Featuring artist at their entry “Let Loose” is Caroline (Hazel) Teigen.

Beady Belle – “Playing with Fire”

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Lyrics and music: Beady Belle

Beate Lech known by her stage name Beady Belle, is a vocalist, artist, songwriter and producer.  She started her music journey as a vocalist in the band Folk & Røvere in 1996, while studying at the Norwegian Academy of Music. Since then she has toured in large parts of the world since the early 2000s and has collaborated with world stars such as Jamie Cullum and R&B artist India Arie, Dee Dee Bridgewater, as well as Joshua Redman and Jarle Bernhoft. Among the venues where she performed is the Royal Albert Hall. Beady Belle made a name for herself in Stjernekamp in the autumn of 2019. Her works and releases include several jazz albums in collaboration with Jon Eberson, Christmas albums in collaboration with SKRUK, and hymn albums in collaboration with George Riedel.

You can listen to all four songs on Spotify. 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:

TIX – “Out of the Dark”
Lyrics and music: Andreas Haukeland

“Out of the Dark” will be released on Friday 15 January. TIX will perform in the first semi-final on Saturday 16th of  January. TIX is the stage name of Andreas Haukeland (27) from Bærum. Growing up Andreas has been diagnosed with Tourette’s syndrome so he chose to own the nicknameTIX and made it his stage name. In 2015, he had his first major breakthrough with the Russian song “Sheikh” which became this year’s party song for the Russians. Later on he distinguished himself as a songwriter at home and abroad with the world hit “Sweet but Psycho” with Ava Max, which became the most played song of the year. Since then, TIX has had seven songs as number 1 on Spotify in Norway, and along the way he has conversely both grandmothers and children to fans. During the corona spring 2020, the song “Karantene” became a huge hit. So far TIX has been a participant in Paradise Hotel and a judge in Idol.

Atle Pettersen – “World On Fire”
Lyrics and music: Atle Pettersen, Jesper Borgen, Magnus Clausen, Alexander Pavelich and Peter Daniel Newman

“World On Fire” will be released on Friday 5 February  as Atle Pettersen will perform in the fourth semi-final, scheduled for Saturday 6th of February. Atle is 31 years old vocalist, songwriter and host from Skien. The audience  previously knows him as the vocalist of the bands Above Symmetry and The Scheen. In 2014, The Scheen won the Emergenza festival, the world’s largest music competition for unsigned bands with as many as 34,000 participants from 150 countries. Atle Pettersen had his breakthrough in X Factor in 2010, and the same year released “Light on” his debut single as a solo artist. Following year his debut album “Based on a true Story ” was released.  He won the show “Skal vi danse” in 2011 and for the past four years Atle is the host of “Beat for Beat” on NRK. As a songwriter his recent work includes “Darkside” for Alan Walker and last autumn, Atle released his first Christmas album “Tusen Julelys” (Thousand Christmas Lights).

Stavangerkameratene – “Barndomsgater”
Lyrics and music: Tommy Fredvang, Lars Horn Lavik, Robin Sharma and Glenn Lyse

“Barndomsgater” will be released on January 22, as they will perform in the second semi-final scheduled for Saturday 23rd of January. The four artists who make up Stavangerkameratene are known to the large TV audience. Kjartan Salvesen won Idol back in 2004, Tommy Fredvang is known from X Factor 2009 and Stjernekamp 2015, Glenn Lyse won Idol in 2007 and Ole Alexander Mæland has been the vocalist in the band Elle Melle and he participated in The Voice Norway in 2012. Four years after their debut they have two albums released and over 50 million streams on Spotify,  several gold and platinum records and they had concerts all around Norway which makes them one of the most popular Norwegian live bands.

Kaja Rode – “Feel Again”
Lyrics and music: Magnus Martinsen, Mirjam Johanne Omdal, Andreas Gjone and Erika Dahlen

“Feel Again” will be released on Friday 29th of January, given the fact that Kaja Rode will perform in the third semi-final scheduled for Saturday 30th of January. She is a 22-year-old singer from Oslo known to the audience as a participant of The Voice Norway in 2017. Even though she is young, Kaja has performed on several stages and has experience of performing at various events. She studies Retail Management and develops her skills as a songwriter.

Rein Alexander – “Eyes Wide Open”
Lyrics and music: Rein Alexander Korshamn, Christian Ingebrigtsen and Kjetil Mørland

His song will be released on Friday, 12th of February as Rein Alexander will perform in the fifth semi-final scheduled for Saturday 13th of February. Last year he competed in the final of Melodi Grand Prix with the song “One Last Time”, he has been performing concerts in various countries including Norway, USA, Iceland, Italy, UK and Sweden while he also played roles in several musicals and opera. He was: Jean Valjean in “Les Misérables”, Anatoly in “Chess”, Terje Vigen, Caston in “Beauty and the Beast”, Shere Kahn in “The Jungle Book”, Anton Fugger in “Which Witch” and more. He has received awards at schools such as Royal Academy of Music and The Reykjavík Academy of Singing and Vocal Arts. In 2003, the Norwegian people voted him to victory in the NRK program Kjempesjansen.

KEiiNO – “Monument”
Lyrics and music: Tom Hugo Hermansen, Alexander Nyborg Olsson, Fred Buljo, Alexandra Rotan and Rüdiger Schramm

“Monument” will be released on Friday 15th of January as KEiiNO will perform in the first semi-final scheduled for Saturday 16th of January. The winners of the audience vote from Eurovision 2019 with 291 points for “Spirit in the Sky”, KEiiNO are back to the show which launched their career in 2019. Their Eurovision entry was also nominated for a nominated for Spellemann award (Norwegian Grammy) in the categroy Song of the Year. So far they have released  14 songs that have so far been streamed over 60 million times. And recently released an album named “OKTA”. They said that “Monument” is about the traces we leave behind, the experiences we remember, the strong relationships we have. It is a tribute to those who enrich the lives of others, but who do not get statues erected or streets named after them.

Which of these songs are you most excited to hear? Let us know in the comments below and at our social media links!