Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

participated in the

Eurovision Song Contest 2012 The Eurovision Song Contest 2012 was the 57th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Baku, Azerbaijan, following the country's victory at the with the song " Running Scared" by the duo Ell & Nikki. It was the first time Azerb ...

Baku Baku (, ; az, Bakı ) is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. Baku is located below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world a ...

, Azerbaijan. The Norwegian entry was selected through Melodi Grand Prix 2012, a national selection consisting of three semi-finals and a final, organised by the Norwegian broadcaster

NRK NRK, an abbreviation of the Norwegian ''Norsk Rikskringkasting Aksjeselskap, AS'', generally expressed in English as the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, is the Norwegian government-owned radio and television public broadcasting company, and ...

Tooji Touraj Keshtkar ( fa, تورج کشتکار; born 26 May 1987), known professionally as Tooji, is a Norwegian singer, painter, model and television host. He represented Norway in the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 in Baku, Azerbaijan and finished 2 ...

represented Norway with the song "Stay", which qualified from the second semi-final and went on to place 26th (last) in the final, scoring 7 points.

Before Eurovision

Melodi Grand Prix 2012

''Melodi Grand Prix 2012'' was the 50th edition of the Norwegian national final ''

Melodi Grand Prix Melodi Grand Prix (), commonly known as Grand Prix and MGP, sometimes as Norwegian Melodi Grand Prix ( no, Norsk Melodi Grand Prix), is an annual music competition organised by Norwegian public broadcaster Norsk Rikskringkasting (NRK). It dete ...

'' and selected Norway's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2012. The competition consisted of three semi-finals and a final in different cities across Norway, hosted by Marte Stokstad and

Per Sundnes Per André Sundnes (born June 16, 1966 in Bodø) is a Norwegian journalist and talk show host. He is often described as a trend and pop culture expert with a particular interest for music and fashion. Eurovision commentator In autumn 2006 it be ...

. The shows were televised on

NRK1 NRK1 (pronounced as ''"NRK en"'' or ''"- ein"'') is the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation's (NRK) main television channel. History Test broadcasts started on 12 January 1954, regular test broadcasts started on 13 April 1958 and regular broadca ...

as well as streamed online at NRK's official website ''nrk.no''. The final was also broadcast online at the official Eurovision Song Contest website ''eurovision.tv''.

Format

The competition consisted of four shows: three semi-finals on 21 January, 28 January and 4 February 2012 and a final on 11 February 2012. Eight songs competed in each semi-final and the top three entries proceeded to the final. The results in the semi-finals were determined exclusively by public televoting. A jury panel also selected out of the remaining non-qualifying acts from the semi-finals a wildcard to proceed to the final. The results in the final were determined by public televoting and three regional juries.

Competing entries

A submission period was opened by NRK between 30 June 2011 and 2 September 2011. Songwriters of any nationality were allowed to submit entries, while NRK reserved the right to choose the performers of the selected songs in consultation with the songwriters. At the close of the deadline, a record-breaking 800 submissions were received. Twenty-four songs were selected for the competition by an eight-member jury panel consisting of representatives of NRK, record companies and production companies. The competing acts and songs were revealed between 27 October 2011 and 16 January 2012, while the songs were premiered on 16 January 2012.

Semi-finals

Three semi-finals took place on 21 January, 28 January, and 4 February 2012. Eight songs competed in each semi-final and the top three entries were selected to proceed to the final.

Final

Ten songs consisting of the nine semi-final qualifiers alongside the jury wildcard, Lise Karlsnes, competed during the final on 11 February 2012. The winner was selected over two rounds of voting. In the first round, the top four entries were selected by public televoting to proceed to the second round, the Gold Final. In the Gold Final, three regional juries from the three semi-final host cities awarded 1,000, 2,000, 3,000 and 4,000 points to their top four songs. 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 "Stay" performed by

with 155,480 votes. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, the interval acts featured performances of

Eurovision Song Contest 2009 The Eurovision Song Contest 2009 was the 54th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Moscow, Russia, following the country's victory at the with the song "Believe (Dima Bilan song), Believe" by Dima Bilan. Organised by the Euro ...

winner

Alexander Rybak Alexander Igorevich Rybak (russian: Александр Игоревич Рыбак) or Alyaxandr Iharavich Rybak ( be, Аляксандр Ігаравіч Рыбак; born 13 May 1986) is a Belarusian-Norwegian singer-composer, violinist, pian ...

At Eurovision

Norway competed in the second half of the second semi-final (16th on stage), on 24 May 2012, following

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...

and preceding

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and H ...

. Norway received 45 points and placed 10th, thus qualifying for the final on 26 May. The public awarded Norway 6th place with 72 points and the jury awarded 18th place (last) with 25 points. Norway tied for 10th place with

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...

, however, under tiebreak rules, the number of countries that voted for Norway (11) was higher than the number for Bulgaria (10). This resulted in Norway qualifying to the final over Bulgaria. In the final, Norway was drawn to perform 12th, following

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

and preceding

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...

. The Norwegian entry scored a total of 7 points and placed 26th in the final. The public awarded Norway 24th place with 16 points and the jury awarded 24th place with 24 points. This was the eleventh last place finish for Norway in an international final.

Voting

Points awarded to Norway

Points awarded by Norway

References

External links

Official rules
''

''
mgp webside
''

''
Full national final on nrk.no
{{Melodi Grand Prix

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

Countries in the Eurovision Song Contest 2012

Eurovision The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...