Denmark: Ben & Tan win Melodi Grand Prix 2020 – "YES"
The Danish Melodi Grand Prix was held tonight with Ben & Tan as the winners and Denmark's representative at Eurovision Song Contest 2020 in Rotterdam
Denmark held its national selection Melodi Grand Prix 2020 tonight in an empty Royal Arena in Copenhagen. The contest was held without audience due to the coronavirus Covid-19.
After two hours, all the focus was on Ben & Tan and the song Yes, that will compete for Denmark at Eurovision Song Contest 2020 in Rotterdam.
Three songs from the 10 competing acts advanced to the super-final, determined by 50% jury and 50% SMS/app: Ben & Tan, Sander Sanchez and Emil. In the super-final it was entirely the votes from SMS/app that selected Ben & Tan as the winners.
Ben & Tan were among the three online semi-finalists qualifiers.
Ben & Tan's song Yes is written by Emil Lei, Jimmy Jansson and Linnea Deb.
Melodi Grand Prix 2020 – Result
First round
Superfinal
Ben & Tan
Benjamin Rosenbohm (17) and Tanne Amanda Balcells (22) are behind the duo Ben & Tan, that has been created just for Melodi Grand Prix – and now Eurovision Song Contest 2020.
They both participated in the 2019-edition of X Factor in Denmark, but not as a duo. They were actual competitors. Tanna was part of the X Factor group Echo, which finished fourth, while Benjamin competed as a soloist in the "young category". He finished second in the X Factor final.
Ben & Tan won Melodi Grand Prix with the song Yes. The song is written by the two Swedish songwriters Jimmy Jansson and Linnea Deb as well as Danish Emil Adler Lei, who co-wrote last year's Eurovision song from Denmark, Love Is Forever.
Ben & Tan describe their winning song Yes, as a "folk-pop song, that gives a nice feeling of running down a hill at 100 kilometres per hour, screaming with a guitar in the background". They say:
– The song is about being open to love and not rejecting it because it doesn't exactly fit into the life plans and that it might hurt. You can also learn something from that, says Ben & Tan.
Melodi Grand Prix 2020
The Final of Dansk Melodi Grand Prix 2020 was held on 7 March in Royal Arena, Copenhagen. Hosts were Hella Joof and Rasmus Bjerg, and for the first time since 1999, a live orchestra was used in the Melodi Grand Prix.
Prior to the final of MGP 2020, an online regional Semi-final took place. Nine songs competed in the online regional Semi-final, where people in Denmark could vote online for their favourite song, allocated into three regional votings. The winner from each region qualifies to the final. A regional jury selected another two finalists (wildcards), among the remaining six songs that didn't qualify from the online voting. Another five songs were selected as pre-qualified finalists.
At Melodi Grand Prix 2020, the jury consisted of:
- Pelle Peter, Radio host and DJ
- Cutfather, music producer
- Ida Corr, musician
- Pilfinger, music producer
- Nicolai Molbech, Radio host
Denmark in Eurovision Song Contest
Denmark has been participating in Eurovision Song Contest 48 times. Since its debut in 1957, Denmark has won the contest 3 times:
Worst result was in 2002 (last). Since the introduction of the Semi-finals in Eurovision in 2004, Denmark has qualified for the Grand Final 12 out of 16 times.
