Norway has decided: TIX to Eurovision Song Contest 2021

The previous five Saturdays, Norway has geared up towards the final of Melodi Grand Prix 2021, with five heats, a last chance round and five pre-qualifiers.

Tonight it was time for the 12 finalists to compete and try to represent Norway in the Eurovision Song Contest 2021. Last year's representative, Ulrikke Brandstorp made an appearance in the final and also performed her winning song from the 2020 national selection, "Attention" and her brand new single "Falling Apart".

After three rounds of voting, the Norwegian public selected their representative for Eurovision Song Contest 2021 in Rotterdam: TIX with "Fallen Angel".

TIX

Andreas Haukeland with the stage name TIX, from Bærum, is one of Norway's greatest artists. Andreas says that the character with fur, sunglasses and headband was named TIX as a result of growing up with the diagnosis Tourette's syndrome. He chose to take ownership of the nickname and made it his artist name.

In 2015, he had his first major breakthrough with the Graduation song "Sheikh" which became this year's party song for the Graduation celebration. Despite extensive debate among parents and in the music industry, his first album "Doomed and Famous" was over 70 weeks on the VG list.

In 2018, TIX took his next step on the road to becoming Norway's biggest pop star when he released his first non-"Russesang" (Graduation song), “Shotgun”. At the same time, he distinguished himself as a songwriter at home and abroad with the world hit "Sweet but Psycho" with Ava Max, which became the most played song of the year. Since then, TIX has had as many songs as number 1 on Spotify in Norway, and along the way he has converted both grandmothers and children into fans. During the world pandemic in Spring 2020, the song "Karantene" became public property overnight and at the beginning of May he had as many as 11 songs in the top 200 in Norway. TIX has been seen both as a participant in Paradise Hotel and as a judge in Idol.

Melodi Grand Prix 2021

Melodi Grand Prix 2021 selected the artist and song that will represent Norway at Eurovision Song Contest 2021 in Rotterdam.

There were a total of seven shows from 16 January to 20 February 2021:

• 16 January 2021: Heat 1
• 23 January 2021: Heat 2
• 30 January 2021: Heat 3
• 6 February 2021: Heat 4
• 13 February 2021: Heat 5
• 15 February 2021: Last Chance
• 20 February 2021: Final

A total of 26 songs competed in MGP 2021, where 12 of the songs competed in the final:

• 6 pre-qualified songs
• 5 winners from the heats
• 1 wildcard from the heats

This year’s grand final had 12 finalists instead of the regular ten. Like last year, half of the finalists were internally selected (pre-qualified) and half chosen through the heats.

Norway in Eurovision Song Contest

Since the debut in 1960 Norway has participated 58 times in Eurovision. They have won the competition three times:

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

In 2009, Alexander Rybak's 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 13 out of 16 times.