First Norwegian artists revealed

As you now know, NRK has taken a slightly more pragmatic approach to their national final next year. The 2012 edition of Melodi Grand Prix aims to bring the viewer closer to the action, right from when the artist is chosen to take part to when the winner is announced in February, and they are most definitely fulfulling this promise!

Let's take a look at the names revealed so far and how they found out about their participation:

Irresistible

The band made up of four girls from Orkdal in Sør Trøndelag gained exposure through their participation in X-Factor in 2010. They were appearing on NRK's P3 radio program Banden when the presenter of Melodi Grand Prix turned up with a camera crew to surprise them with the news that they were to take part in the 2012 competition.

The band's manager had managed to keep this secret for two months and the girls are incredibly excited about taking part in Melodi Grand Prix.

The name of the song has not yet been revealed but watch this space!

Malin Reitan

If you follow the Junior Eurovision Song Contest, you will no doubt recognise this name. In 2005 Malin represented Norway at the competition in Hasselt, Belgium with the song Sommer og skolefri, achieving a very respectable 3rd place with 123 points.

In 2012 the now 16 year old Malin is back, but this time in the adult edition of Melodi Grand Prix with the song Crush.

She had organised to go horse riding with some friends when Per Sundnes and his crew met her on the paddock to surprise her with the good news. Her friends had managed to keep the secret and Malin was well and truly surprised.

We'll see in a couple of months whether or not her attempt to the enter the adult edition of Europe's favourite TV show is just as successful!

In the meantime, here is a reminder of Malin on stage in Hasselt back in 2005:

Isabel Ødegård

The story of this Isabel Ødegård's participation in Melodi Grand Prix is quite unusual. Isabel has the honour of living next door to award winning artist Thom Hell and has been badgering him for a while to write a song for her to perform in the Norwegian final.

The song I've Got You is a love song, with a calm tempo according to Thom, which he says is good for Isabel as "she isn't very good at dancing".

Both Isabel and Thom are self-confessed fans of Europe's favourite TV show and Isabel has worked as a model for many years. Thom on the other hand is revelling in the fact that he can sit in the greenroom whilst his song is performed and not have to stand on stage himself.

Nora Foss Al-Jabri

15 year old Nora shot to fame in 2008 when she participated in the talent show Norske Talenter, coming third. Her fortunes went from good to better when a year later she performed on Oprah Winfrey's (yes, that's right!) talk show in the United States.

Nora's song Somewhere Beautiful has been written by an experiened pair. Eivind Rølle and Christian Ingebrigtsen have taken part as songwriters in Melodi Grand Prix before and Christian also performed as an artist with his band A1 who had a lot of success in the late 90s, early 2000s. In 2010 they came second with their song "Don't Wanna Lose You Again".

The song has been described as being somewhere between Johnny Logan and Secret Garden, utilising Nora's amazingly powerful voice.

Plumbo

Well known band, Plumbo are also to take part in Melodi Grand Prix next year with their song Ola Nordmann. They have previously achieved acclaim with their song "Møkkamenn", which stormed the Norwegian charts.

The song is about the typical Norwegian that loves to party, go fishing and be out in the nature. "The plan is to reach out to everyone between the ages of 3 and 93", says vocalist and songwriter Lars Erik Blokkhus.

The band has released three CDs achieving a lot of sales at home in Norway.

Minnie Oh

Otherwise known as Monica Johansen, Minnie Oh is a successful and well known artists on the Indie scene in Oslo. She always said that Melodi Grand Prix was not for her. In fact presenter Per Sundnes had tried for a long time to get her to send in a song, to no avail.

However this summer Monica had something of a apifiny whilst attending the Øyafestivalen. "I saw all the music industry bods and suddenly thought: You know what, I'm going to do this. So I went straight home and wrote a song", she said.

She will sing the song You and I.

Marthe Valle

Marthe is an experienced artist, having won the Spellemannspris in the best newcomer category with her debut single It's A Bag Of Candy. She has also taken part in X-Factor, achieving a seventh place.

Now she is taking part in MGP 2012 with the song Si, which she has written herself. In a change of tact, she will be singing in her own dialect from Northern Norway as she says the words become much more powerful in her own language.

Kim André Rysstad

Known as a folk musician, Kim is ready for the biggest performance of his life after being chose to take part in the Norwegian national selection.

He has had success before gaining critical acclaim with his first album "Tak hardt uti hand", also winning an award.

His musical style is not very typical when it comes to Melodi Grand Prix and he himself has said that he song will be like a psalm, and very calm. He will also be singing in Nynorsk, an official form of the Norwegian language alongside Bokmål.

Rudi Myntevik

Well known as a Christian music singer, Rudi Myntevik is taking a step into the unknown by presenting a song to Melodi Grand Prix. He isn't the first artist to delve into this area with Carola and Cliff Richard both big stars amongst Christians all over Europe.

In 2008 Rudi moved to London to explore a approach to his music, and created an album which moves into the realms of mainstream pop. His Melodi Grand Prix song follows this theme, which Rudi describes as "a strong and melodical pop song".

In addition to preparing for next year's competition, Rudi has recently become a father to a little girl, which means he has a busy winter ahead of him!

Watch this space as we will reveal more of the 24 acts in the line-up for Melodi Grand Prix as they become available!