Norway was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2008 with the song "Hold On Be Strong", written by Mira Craig, and performed by Maria Haukaas Storeng. The Norwegian participating broadcaster, (NRK), organised the national final Melodi Grand Prix 2008 in order to select its entry for the contest. 18 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 9 February 2008 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, "Hold On Be Strong" performed by Maria Haukaas Storeng was selected as the winner following the combination of votes from three regional jury groups and a public televote.
Norway was drawn to compete in the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 20 May 2008. Performing during the show in position 9, "Hold On Be Strong" was announced among the 10 qualifying entries of the first semi-final and therefore qualified to compete in the final on 24 May. It was later revealed that Norway placed fourth out of the 19 participating countries in the semi-final with 106 points. In the final, Norway performed last during the event in position 25, and placed fifth out of the 25 participating countries with 182 points.
Background
Prior to the 2008 contest, (NRK) had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest representing Norway 46 times since its first entry in . It had won the contest on two occasions: in with the song "La det swinge" performed by Bobbysocks!, and with the song "Nocturne" performed by Secret Garden. It 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 . The country had finished last 10 times and had failed to score a point during four contests. Following the introduction of semi-finals in , Norway has, to this point, finished in the top 10 once: when "In My Dreams" performed by Wig Wam finished ninth.
As part of its duties as participating broadcaster, NRK organises the selection of its entry in the Eurovision Song Contest and broadcasts the event in the country. The broadcaster confirmed its intentions to participate at the 2008 contest on 9 July 2007. NRK has traditionally organised the national final Melodi Grand Prix to select its entry for the contest in all but one of its participation. Along with its participation confirmation, the broadcaster revealed details regarding its selection procedure and announced the organization of Melodi Grand Prix 2008 in order to select its 2008 entry.
Before Eurovision Melodi Grand Prix 2008 Melodi Grand Prix 2008 was the 46th edition of the national final Melodi Grand Prix organised by NRK to select its entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2008. 18 songs were selected to compete in a five-week-long process that commenced on 12 January 2008 and concluded with the final on 9 February 2008. All shows were hosted by Per Sundnes and televised on NRK1 as well as streamed online at NRK's official website nrk.no.
Format The competition consisted of five shows: three semi-finals on 12, 19 and 26 January 2008, a Last Chance round (Sistesjansen) on 6 February 2008 and a final on 9 February 2008. Six songs competed in each semi-final and the top two entries directly qualified to the final. The entries that placed third and fourth proceeded to the Last Chance round, and the bottom two were eliminated from the competition. 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 in advance on the day before each show was broadcast.
Competing entries A submission period was opened by NRK between 9 July 2007 and 1 September 2007. Songwriters of any nationality were allowed to submit entries, while performers of the selected songs would be chosen by NRK in consultation with the songwriters. In addition to the public call for submissions, NRK reserved the right to directly invite certain artists and composers to compete. At the close of the deadline, 600 submissions were received. 18 songs were selected for the competition and their titles were revealed on 13 December 2007. The six acts competing in each of the three semi-finals were revealed on 18 December 2007, 28 December 2007 and 4 January 2008, respectively. Artist Song Songwriter(s) Ann-Mari Andersen "Ándagassii"Stein Austrud, Ann-Mari Andersen Anne Hvidsten "A Little More"Anne Hvidsten Avalanche "Two Monkeys (On the Roof)"Kjetil Røsnes, Kirsti Johansen Crash! "Get Up"Trond "Teeny" Holter Cube "Would You Spend the Night With Me?"Åge Sten "Glam" Nilsen King of Trolls "Far Away"Frode Anderssen Lene Alexandra "Sillycone Valley"Ivar Winther, Kam An Leung Maria Haukaas Storeng "Hold On Be Strong"Mira Craig Maria Trøen "Hear When I'm Calling"Jarl Aanestad Michelle "Baby Don't Stop the Music"Fred Ball, Hannah Robinson Nicholas Carlie "Colliding"Nate Campany, Per Kristian Ottestad Ole Ivars "Som i himmelen"William Kristoffersen Podium "Lystgass"Tørje Lennavik, Håkan Fjerdingen Sven Garås "I'm in Love"Robin Nordahl, Ingrid Nørsett Tinkerbells "Hold On"Aina Beate Gundersen, Svein Gundersen, Jan Groth Torstein Sødal "Eastern Wind"Christian Ingebrigtsen, Eivind Rølles Veronica Akselsen "Am I Supposed to Love Again?"Anne Takle, Laila Samuelsen Zuma "Always, Always"Alexander Stenerud
Shows Semi-finals Six songs competed in each of the three semi-finals that took place on 12, 18 and 26 January 2008. The first semi-final took place at the Sandvigå in Stavanger, the second semi-final took place at the Kongsvingerhallen in Kongsvinger, and the third semi-final took place at the Bodø Spektrum in Bodø. 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. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, a past Norwegian Eurovision entrant was featured in each semi-final as the interval act: Kirstie Sparboe performed her "Oj, oj, oj, så glad jeg skal bli" in the first semi-final, Anne-Karine Strøm performed her "Mata Hari" in the second semi-final, and Ketil Stokkan performed his "Romeo" in the third semi-final.
+ Semi-final 1 – 12 January 2008 Artist Song Result 1 Podium "Lystgass" Last Chance 2 Ann-Mari Andersen "Ándagassii" Final 3 Nicholas Carlie "Colliding" 4 Michelle "Baby Don't Stop the Music" 5 Tinkerbells "Hold On" Last Chance 6 Veronica Akselsen "Am I Supposed to Love Again?" Final
+ Semi-final 2 – 18 January 2008 Artist Song Result 1 Zuma "Always, Always" Last Chance 2 Cube "Would You Spend the Night With Me?" 3 Anne Hvidsten "A Little More" Last Chance 4 Crash! "Get Up" Final 5 Sven Garås "I'm in Love" 6 Maria Haukaas Storeng "Hold On Be Strong" Final
+ Semi-final 3 – 26 January 2008 Artist Song Result 1 Avalanche "Two Monkeys (On the Roof)" 2 Maria Trøen "Hear When I'm Calling" 3 Ole Ivars "Som i himmelen" Last Chance 4 Lene Alexandra "Sillycone Valley" Last Chance 5 Torstein Sødal "Eastern Wind" Final 6 King of Trolls "Far Away" Final
Last Chance round The Last Chance round took place on 6 February 2008 at the Oslo Stratos in Oslo. The six entries that placed third and fourth in the preceding three semi-finals competed and the top two entries qualified to the final. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, Guri Schanke (who represented ) appeared as a special guest. + Last Chance – 6 February 2008 Artist Song Result 1 Podium "Lystgass" 2 Tinkerbells "Hold On" Final 3 Zuma "Always, Always" 4 Anne Hvidsten "A Little More" 5 Ole Ivars "Som i himmelen" Final 6 Lene Alexandra "Sillycone Valley"
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 9 February 2008. The winner was selected over two rounds of voting. In the first round, public televoting selected the top four entries to proceed to the second round, the Gold Final. In the Gold Final, three regional juries from the three semi-final host cities each distributed points as follows: 2,000, 4,000, 6,000 and 10,000 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 "Hold On Be Strong" performed by Maria Haukaas Storeng with 195,661 votes. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, the interval acts featured Jahn Teigen (who represented , , and ), performing several of his past Melodi Grand Prix entries: "Optimist", "Mil etter mil", "Do Re Mi", and "Glasnost", and a Melodi Grand Prix medley performed by Guri Schanke (who represented Norway in 2007).
+ Final – 9 February 2008 Artist Song Result 1 Crash! "Get Up" 2 Ann-Mari Andersen "Ándagassii" 3 Tinkerbells "Hold On" 4 Veronica Akselsen "Am I Supposed to Love Again?" Gold Final 5 King of Trolls "Far Away" Gold Final 6 Ole Ivars "Som i himmelen" 7 Torstein Sødal "Eastern Wind" Gold Final 8 Maria Haukaas Storeng "Hold On Be Strong" Gold Final
+ Gold Final – 9 February 2008 Artist SongJuryTelevote Total Place 1 Veronica Akselsen "Am I Supposed to Love Again?" 16,000 93,957 109,957 4 2 King of Trolls "Far Away" 6,000 109,811 115,811 3 3 Torstein Sødal "Eastern Wind" 18,000 100,095 118,095 2 4 Maria Haukaas Storeng "Hold On Be Strong" 26,000 169,661 195,661 1
+ Song Stavanger Kongsvinger Bodø Total 1 "Am I Supposed to Love Again?" 4,000 6,000 6,000 16,000 2 "Far Away" 2,000 2,000 2,000 6,000 3 "Eastern Wind" 10,000 4,000 4,000 18,000 4 "Hold On Be Strong" 6,000 10,000 10,000 26,000 Spokespersons StavangerKirsti Sparboe KongsvingerAnne-Karine Strøm BodøKetil Stokkan
+ Song Total 1 "Am I Supposed to Love Again?" 4,713 10,878 11,505 55,751 11,110 93,957 2 "Far Away" 7,520 14,627 15,043 58,797 13,824 109,811 3 "Eastern Wind" 5,391 10,423 15,308 46,226 22,747 100,095 4 "Hold On Be Strong" 22,056 23,396 21,169 83,342 19,698 169,661 Spokespersons Northern NorwayJenny Jenssen Central NorwayMona Grudt Western NorwaySynnøve Skarbø Eastern NorwayLinn Skåber Southern NorwayJorun Stiansen
Ratings + Viewing figures by showShowDateViewers(in millions) Semi-final 1 12 January 2008 0.765 Semi-final 2 18 January 2008 0.711 Semi-final 3 26 January 2008 0.75 Last Chance 6 February 2008 0.468 Final 9 February 2008 1.128
Promotion Maria Haukaas Storeng specifically promoted "Hold On Be Strong" as the Norwegian Eurovision entry on 25 April 2008 by performing during the UK Eurovision Preview Party, which was held at the Scala venue in London, United Kingdom and hosted by Paddy O'Connell.
In Norway, "Hold On Be Strong" reached number one on the VG-lista singles chart after winning Melodi Grand Prix 2008, and was the first Eurovision 2008 song to top the charts anywhere in Europe. Maria Haukaas Storeng later signed a record deal with Universal Music and released her latest album in Norway before competing at Eurovision in Belgrade.
At Eurovision