One month ago, the Norwegian Melodi Grand Prix started with 21 songs being presented in 4 semi-finals. Eight of them were left in the grand final in the Spektrum in Oslo tonight and the Norwegian audience and professional juries had the tough task to select a worthy Norwegian entry from them. Two rounds of voting took place, first to whittle down the eight acts to four and then to find a winner:
Espen Hana - Two Of A Kind
Ovi - Seven Seconds
Publiners - Te Stein
Alexander Stenerud - Find My Girl
Velvet Inc. - Tricky
Alexander Rybak - Fairytale
Thomas Brøndbo - Det Vart En Storm
Tone Damli Aaberge - Butterflies
Of these, Alexander Stenerud, Tone Damli Aaberge, Alexander Rybak and Publiners made the superfinal, with Alexander Rybak being the lucky one getting the most votes ultimately. His song Fairytale is seen by many experts as one of the hottest contenders to win the trophy of the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest - even Greek TV stations had already featured Alexander's clip in their shows! However, he must overcome his first obstacle first: qualifying from the second Semi-Final in Moscow against 18 tough competitors!
Norway came 5th in last year's Belgrade Eurovision Song Contest with Maria Haukaas Storeng's Hold On Be Strong. Tonight, Maria charmed the audience not as a singer, but as the host of the song together with Per Sundnes. She will return to her old job as a singer next week in Sweden's fourth Semi-Final of Melodifestivalen in Malmö, performing Killing Me Tenderly together with Anna Sahlene.
