Norwegian national final – Melodi Grand Prix is kicking off this weekend with the first semi-final. The total of 21 acts are going to compete, each of the 4 semi-finals will feature 4 acts like previous edition, while 5 are going to be direct finalists. The qualifying semi-final rounds, the second chance round and grand final of Melodi Grand Prix 2022 will be broadcast from Fornebu’s H3 Arena.
NRK has revealed the artists which are competing at the show and they are as follows:
Semi-final 1
Mira Craig– “We Still Here”
Lyrics and music: Mira Craig og Bård Berg
Mira Craig is a popular Norwegian RnB singer and and the one who composed the Norwegian Eurovision entry at Eurovision Song Contest 2008 “Hold On Be Strong” performed by Maria Haukaas Storeng. She also competed at MGP 2010 with “I’ll Take You High” where she got eliminated in the second round of the second chance.
Frode Vassel – “Black Flowers”
Lyrics and music: Frode Vassel, Benjamin Larsen, Niklas Rosström og Celine Alette Pedersen Breivoll
Frode Vassel also competed at The Voice Norway last year, even though he made all four judges turn after hitting an amazing note in his blind auditions performance of “Into The Unknown” and a lot of predictions that he will do well in the show Frode was eliminated in the Knockouts. He has traveled around Europe and been on the Eurovision stage with JOWST in Kiev (2017), Rybak in Lisbon (2018) and helped KEIINO to victory among the audience votes in Tel Aviv 2019.
TrollfesT – “Dance Like A Pink Flamingo”
Lyrics and music: Eirik Renton og Jostein Austvik
TrollfesT is a Norwegian folk metal band, formed in 2003 by John Espen Sagstad (Mr.Seidel) and Jostein Austvik (Trollmannen). Their demo was released in 2004, their first album, “Willkommen Folk Tell Drekka Fest!” in 2005 and their latest release is “Happy Heroes”. Most of their lyrics are written in the fictional langauge of Trolls (Trollspråk), a mixture of Norwegian and German. They also use saxophones and accordions in their songs and they also describe their music as True Norwegian Balkan Metal.
Eline Noelia – “Ecstasy ”
Lyrics and music: Eline Noelia Myreng, Audun Agnar Guldbrandsen og Tea Megaard
Eline Noelia Myreng known just as Eline Noelia is a Norwegian singer which is competing at the MGP for the first time. Eline has worked with music full time for several years, including as a singer in the event industry with high volume. She has also spent considerable time in the studio. When the Tønsberg girl studied pop music at Limpi, it began to loosen up in earnest and she became acquainted with the producer Audun Agnar Gulbrandsen.
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Semi-final 2
Lily Löwe – “Bad Baby”
Lyrics and music: Lill Sofie Wilsberg, Trond Holter og Victoria Land
Lill Sofie Eriksson Wilsberg is a Norwegian stylist, make-up artist as well as songwriter from Eidskog. Her music is rooted in melodic hard rock, but extends over several genres such as metal with elements of pop and punk. Through contrasts between the soundscape and the visual, her music breaks expectations one may have of the genre, and creates its own unique universe. Lily’s musical role models include Rammstein and Lady Gaga. She is best known for the work on the series Rådebank and Delete Me. She also worked with The Weeknd, Marcus & Martinus, Isac Elliot and many others.
Steffen Jakobssen – “With Me Tonight”
Lyrics and music: Mats William Wennerberg og Nicolai Herwell
Steffen Jakobssen is a Norwegian musician, singer, guitarist and songwriter. He became known after ending on 3rd place at the 7th season of Idol Norway back in 2013. His performance of “Your Man” by his music role model Josh Turner was named the best “Idol” moment of the year. His biggest dream is to perform on the radio program “Grand Ole Opry” in Nashville.
Farida – “Dangerous”
Lyrics and music: Farida Bolseth Benounis, Rasmus Simon Vedvik Thallaug og Atle Pettersen, Peter Newman og Hannah Dorothy Bistow
Farida is a Norwegian/Algerian singer-songwriter who made her breakthrough back in 2016 after releasing the songs “Three Weeks” and “Solo Ride” and her mixtape. Farida was dancing and she got a chance to open up for artists such as Ne-Yo, Method Man and Ryan Leslie. As a singer the same year she released her mixtape “The 25th Hour” she opened up for Dua Lipa. In 2020, she was listed on NRK P3 five times, and the single “Do About It” was highlighted as the best of the week on the same channel. In September 2021, she became a finalist in “The John Lennon Songwriting Contest” in New York with the same song.
Daniel Lukas – “Kvelertak”
Lyrics and music: Daniel Lukas Kalelic og Are Næsset
Daniel Lukas Kalelic is a singer – songwriter from Ellingsrud in Oslo. He comes from a musical family and his first time on stage was at MGP junior in 2013 with the song “Tiden går fort” (Time Goes Fast). In 2018, he was ready to try his luck in Idol, where he impressed the judges with a self-composed song. The following year, he won the talent competition H&M Loves Music. Daniel has previously worked as a swimming instructor and today works as a salesman but his dream is to be able to work with music full time.
Semi-final 3
Mari Eriksen Bølla – “Your Loss”
Lyrics and music: Lars Horn Lavik, Morten Franck og Mari Eriksen Bølla
Mari Eriksen Bølla won the 11th season of Idol Norway back in 2020 at the age of 15. Several of her performances at the show left judges speechless and among the panel was the artists which represented Norway at Eurovision last year, TIX. You can watch all of her performances at Idol 2020 HERE.
Oda Gondrosen – “Hammer of Thor”
Lyrics and music: Morten Franck, Elsa Søllesvik, Torgeir Ryssevik og Oda Kristine Gondrosen
Oda Gondrosen is the singer who competed at the 11th season of Idol Norway alongside Mari Bølla. She ended the contest on 3rd place. She rose to fame after being the contestant of the third season of The Voice Norway back in 2015, Oda relased a few songs and you can listen to one of those HERE.
Sturla – “Skår i hjertet”
Lyrics and music: Sturla Fagerli Larsen
Sturla Larsen known as Sturla is a young Norwegian musician from Orkdal, Trøndelag who writes and performs music in his own dialect, Trøndersk. Together with singer Hanne Mjøen he released an EP “Som ingen andre” (Like No Other), you can listen to one of their songs here.
VILDE – “Titans”
Lyrics and music: Vilde Johannessen, Ben Adams og Sindre Timberlid Jenssen
Vilde Johannessen is songwriter from Tjøme, Vestfold. After completing a bachelor’s degree in music at the music school LIPA in England, she moved to Oslo in 2018 to pursue an artist career. At the same time, she released her first single, “Get You”, and has since released seven songs on his own record label. In recent years, the artist has also written for other artists both at home and abroad, including Stina Talling. Among the highlights of her own artist career, she has opened up for Matoma, Röyksopp and Julie Bergan, sung at the opening of the Norway Cup. At the beginning of 2021, Vilde released the single “Never Said Enough”, and was in that connection named “Untouched of the Month” by NRK P3.
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Semi-final 4
Alexandra Joner – “Hasta la vista”
Lyrics and music: Henrik Sæter og Jazara Aden Hutton
Alexandra Joner tried her chance to represent Norway at Melodi Grand Prix 2015 with “Cinderella” but she didn’t manage to advance to the Gold Final. In recent years, she has been seen in various TV programs such as “Camp Kulinaris”, “71 Degrees North”, and most recently as one of the profiles in the TV 2 program “Bloggerne” (The Bloggers). In addition to being a musician, she is also in the makeup and beauty industry.
Maria Mohn – “Fly”
Lyrics and music: Maria Mohn og Einar Kristiansen Five
Maria Mohn Pettersen is Norwegian musician, pianist, singer-songwriter, she is an educated singer at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo. Mohn started singing with her father in a band when she was 10 years old. Back in 2003 she competed in the Norwegian Idol. In 2010 she released her debut album and started acting. In 2011 she competed at Norwegian Idol for the second time and ended on sixth place. In the autumn of 2017 she started to work as a part-time singing teacher. At MGP 2020 she performed the song “Fool for Love” with Kim Wigaard Johansen
Kim Wigaard Johansen – “La Melodia”
Lyrics and music: Kim Wigaard Johansen, Marius Hagen, Karianne Sissener Amundsen og Ronny Janssen
Kim Wigaard Johansen is the another artist with whom Norwegian audience got familiar through The Voice Norway back in 2017 and the fourth season of the show. Here is his blind audition. He has sung at the Norwegian Opera and Ballet, Off-Broadway in New York and been a soloist for a sold-out Oslo Concert Hall. Basically, he has a broad education from the Norwegian Academy of Music, the Oslo Academy of the Arts and the Manhattan School of Music in New York. He participated in the Melodi Grand Prix in 2020 with the duet “Fool for Love” together with Maria Mohn.
Sofie Fjellvang – “Made Of Glass”
Lyrics and music: Sofie Fjellvang og Kjetil Mørland
Sofie Fjellvang is singer who became famous to the Norwegian audience after becoming a finalist of the sixth season of The Voice Norway last year. You can watch her blind audition video HERE. She always had a dream of making a living from music, and started in a children’s choir at a very young age. When she studied in Leesville, North Carolina in the USA in 2017, she won a singing competition in an agency she was part of. Sophie is collaborating with Kjetil Mørland on an EP. As is well known, Kjetil came in a strong 8th place at Eurovision 2015 together with Debrah Scarlett with the song “A Monster Like Me”.
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