Raylee has won the fourth Melodi Grand Prix 2026 radio duel.
With the song “Where did you friend go”, Raylee has received enough votes to defeat their opponent Thomas Jenseen and advance to the semifinals of the radio duels. Voting has now opened for the first Semi-Final Duel between Skrillex with “Into The Wild” and Gothminster ft. Thomas Jenssen with “The Spell”.
As explained by the Norwegian broadcaster NRK, eight finalists out of nine for Melodi Grand Prix 2026 have already been chosen. The last finalist will be decided through a radio duel between eight artists on Nitimen, where the audience will vote for their favourite. This ninth finalist will be chosen on January 26. All of the finalists’ songs will also be released on that date.
The confirmed Melodi Grand Prix 2026 line-up is as follows:
Storm – “Lullaby”
Alexander Rybak – “Rise”
Emma – “Northern Lights”
Hedda Mae – “Snap Back”
Jonas Lovv – “Ya Ya Ya”
Leonardo Amor – “Prayer”
Mileo – “Frankenstein”
Silke – “Forevermore”
Image Source: NRK
Among this year’s line-up is Alexander Rybak, who won the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 with “Fairytale”. He then represented Norway again in 2018 with “That’s how you write a song”.
Melodi Grand Prix 2026 will take place on February 28 in the Håkons Hall in Lillehammer, which hosted the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2004. Ronny Brede Aase, Marte Stokstad and Markus Neby will be the presenters of Melodi Grand Prix 2026.
Kyle Alessandro represented Norway at Eurovision 2025 with “Lighter”. He finished 18th in the final, scoring 89 points. Norway was 23rd with the jury, receiving 22 points, and 12th with the public, receiving 67 points.
Source: NRK
Norway debuted in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1960 and have won the contest three times – in 1985, 1995 and 2009. The country has the dubious record of finishing last the most times, twelve in total, and have received nul points four times. Norway last won the contest in 2009 when Alexander Rybak broke all records with his song “Fairytale”. He scored 387 points in the final, receiving 16 sets of 12 points and scoring points from every country.