Norway: JOWST wins Melodi Grand Prix 2017

10 artists competed in the 55th edition of Melodi Grand Prix in Oslo Spektrum tonight.

After two rounds of voting, the Norwegian representative at Eurovision Song Contest 2017 was decided: JOWST feat. Aleksander Walmann with "Grab the Moment".

"Grab the Moment" is written by JOWST (Joakim With Steen) himself together with Jonas McDonnell.

Early favourites amongst the country votes were Jowst with Grab the Moment. A surprise presenter was Johnny Logan for Ireland who gave a touching rendition of Hold Me Now, which won him the Eurovision Song Contest in 1987. Following the televote, Jowst, Ulrikke, Elin and the Woods and Ammunition fought it out in a close competition. During the interval between voting, Agnete sang "Icebreaker", Norway's entry from 2016 which didn't make it to the Grand Final.

The winner who will go forward to represent Norway in Kiev is JOWST.

JOWST

JOWST is the stage name of Joakim With Steen, a music producer and sound engineer. He's teaming up with vocalist Aleksander Walmann, for their MGP entry "Grab the Moment".

When Joakim was 15 he found interest in punk rock, songwriting and bands. He is educated music producer, and has founded Red Line Studio, where he works as sound technician and producer since 2011.

Aleksander Walmann

Aleksander Walmann Åsgården, 31, joins him vocally on the song "Grab the Moment". Aleksander participated in The Voice in Norway in 2012 where he finished on a shared second place.

The music has had an important place in Aleksander's life. He grew up surrounded by music in a family where everyone sang and played music, and Aleksander took with him his guitar on his snowboard trips.

Aleksander started writing his own songs, when he – after a late night shift – came home and couldn't sleep. He was playing on his guitar, and grabbed pen and paper, and started writing down his thoughts, feelings and emotions. After that he had no doubt: He should quit his job and work with his passion instead: Music.

Melodi Grand Prix 2017

10 entries were selected by the Norwegian broadcaster NRK for this year's Melodi Grand Prix in Norway, out of record-breaking 1,035 songs submitted. NRK and the songwriters of the 10 songs have selected the performers.

This year the Norwegian selection included an international jury, who joined the public voting in Norway to select the four songs that proceeded to the Super Final: Jowst/Aleksander, Ammunition, Elin & The Woods and Ulrikke. In the Super Final it was only the Norwegian televoters who decides who's gonna win the honor of representing Norway at Eurovision Song Contest 2017 in Kyiv.

Hosts of Melodi Grand Prix 2017 were Kåre Magnus Bergh and Line Elvsåshagen.

Norway in Eurovision Song Contest

Since the debut in 1960 Norway has participated 55 times in Eurovision. They have won the competition three times:

• 1985: Bobbysocks - "La Det Swinge"
• 1995: Secret Garden - "Nocturne"
• 2009: Alexander Rybak - "Fairytale"

2009 Alexander Rybak - "Fairytale" was the song that has received most points with the old voting system: 387 points – got 12 points from 16 countries. But Norway holds another Eurovision record: The country that ended last most times – 10 last places!

Since the introduction of Semi-finals in 2004, Norway has been very succesful with qualification to the Grand Final 10 out of 13 times.