1.
Norway
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The Antarctic Peter I Island and the sub-Antarctic Bouvet Island are dependent territories and thus not considered part of the Kingdom. Norway also lays claim to a section of Antarctica known as Queen Maud Land, until 1814, the kingdom included the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Iceland. It also included Isle of Man until 1266, Shetland and Orkney until 1468, Norway has a total area of 385,252 square kilometres and a population of 5,258,317. The country shares a long border with Sweden. Norway is bordered by Finland and Russia to the north-east, Norway has an extensive coastline, facing the North Atlantic Ocean and the Barents Sea. King Harald V of the Dano-German House of Glücksburg is the current King of Norway, erna Solberg became Prime Minister in 2013, replacing Jens Stoltenberg. A constitutional monarchy, Norway divides state power between the Parliament, the Cabinet and the Supreme Court, as determined by the 1814 Constitution, the kingdom is established as a merger of several petty kingdoms. By the traditional count from the year 872, the kingdom has existed continuously for 1,144 years, Norway has both administrative and political subdivisions on two levels, counties and municipalities. The Sámi people have an amount of self-determination and influence over traditional territories through the Sámi Parliament. Norway maintains close ties with the European Union and the United States, the country maintains a combination of market economy and a Nordic welfare model with universal health care and a comprehensive social security system. Norway has extensive reserves of petroleum, natural gas, minerals, lumber, seafood, the petroleum industry accounts for around a quarter of the countrys gross domestic product. On a per-capita basis, Norway is the worlds largest producer of oil, the country has the fourth-highest per capita income in the world on the World Bank and IMF lists. On the CIAs GDP per capita list which includes territories and some regions, from 2001 to 2006, and then again from 2009 to 2017, Norway had the highest Human Development Index ranking in the world. It also has the highest inequality-adjusted ranking, Norway ranks first on the World Happiness Report, the OECD Better Life Index, the Index of Public Integrity and the Democracy Index. Norway has two names, Noreg in Nynorsk and Norge in Bokmål. The name Norway comes from the Old English word Norðrveg mentioned in 880, meaning way or way leading to the north. In contrasting with suðrvegar southern way for Germany, and austrvegr eastern way for the Baltic, the Anglo-Saxon of Britain also referred to the kingdom of Norway in 880 as Norðmanna land. This was the area of Harald Fairhair, the first king of Norway, and because of him
2.
NRK
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NRK is the Norwegian government-owned radio and television public broadcasting company, and the largest media organisation in Norway. NRK broadcasts three national TV channels and three radio channels on DVB-T, cable, satellite, IPTV, FM and DAB. It also runs several digital radio stations, all NRK radio stations can be heard on the website, NRK. no, which also offers an extensive TV service. NRK is a member of the European Broadcasting Union. 94% of NRKs funding comes from an annual license fee payable by anyone who owns or uses a TV or device capable of receiving TV broadcasts. The remainder comes from commercial activities such as programme and DVD sales, spin-off products, NRKs license income in 2012 was more than 5 billion kroner. In the autumn of 2015 the government announced that it planned to change the way NRK is financed and this is in part a reaction to the decline of TV ownership in Norway. Some kind of charge is planned, but it is not yet clear how such a system would work. The feeling is that the current license system is not sustainable in the long term, kringkastningselskapet, a privately owned company and the predecessor of NRK, started regular radio broadcasts in Norway in 1925. NRK itself was founded in 1933, based on a model similar to that of the BBC and located in Oslo, it was a replacement for privately operated radio stations in larger cities. NRK initially set out to cover the country and had a monopoly on broadcasting in Norway. During the German occupation, Norwegian transmitters were used to broadcast German war propaganda to Northern Europe, prior to the German occupation, NRK had also been partly financed by radio commercials. NRK was one of 23 founding broadcasting organisations of the European Broadcasting Union, in 1954, NRK started broadcasting television shows, on a trial basis. NRK was the last of the major European public broadcasters to introduce a second radio station, in 1993 NRK launched a third radio station, the youth-oriented P3. A 24-hour station for classical music, Alltid Klassisk, introduced in 1995, was the first of its kind to be broadcast digitally using DAB. The 24-hour news station Alltid Nyheter started in 1997, followed by a station for teenagers, mP3, in 2000. In 1996, a television channel, NRK2, was launched. The original television channel is now known as NRK1, on 3 September 2007 NRK launched its third channel, a youth channel called NRK3
3.
Melodi Grand Prix
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Melodi Grand Prix, sometimes as Norwegian Melodi Grand Prix, commonly known as Grand Prix and MGP, is an annual music competition organised by Norwegian public broadcaster Norsk Rikskringkasting. It determines the countrys representative for the Eurovision Song Contest, and has been staged almost every year since 1960, the festival has produced three Eurovision winners and nine top-five placings for Norway at the contest. However, Norway holds the record for the number of entries who have come last since entering Eurovision,11 in all. Despite this, the still makes considerable impact on music charts in Norway. The Eurovision Song Contest began on 24 May 1956, when the Grand Prix Eurovision de la Chanson Européenne was held in Lugano, Norways first contest was the fourth, the 1960 Contest. The first Melodi Grand Prix was held on 20 February at the NRK Television Centre in Oslo, ten songs competed in the radio semi-final, held on 2 February, where the top 5 songs would progress to the televised contest. However this number was increased to 6 after three songs tied for fourth place, the winner of the televised contest was Voi Voi, performed by Nora Brockstedt. Brockstedt performed Norways first Eurovision entry at London on 29 March, Brockstedt also went on to win the following years contest as well with Sommer i Palma. Melodi Grand Prix has failed to be staged on three previous occasions, in 1970 Norway was absent from the contest because of a Nordic boycott of the voting system, which had led to a four-way tie for first place at the 1969 contest. In 1991 no Melodi Grand Prix was held as NRK felt that the entries received for the Contest were of too low quality. The final instance of no Melodi Grand Prix was in 2002, all winners of MGP have gone on to represent Norway at the Eurovision Song Contest. Norway has won it three times, in 1985,1995 and 2009, however Norway has also come last 11 times, more than any other nation, in 1963,1969,1974,1976,1978,1981,1990,1997,2001,2004 and 2012
4.
Eurovision Song Contest 1960
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1960 was the fifth edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It was held on Tuesday 29 March 1960 in London, although the Netherlands had won the contest in 1959, the Netherlands Television Foundation declined to host another contest so soon after staging the event in 1958. The honour of hosting the contest therefore passed to the United Kingdom, therefore, the BBC chose Catherine Boyle to be the mistress of ceremonies at the contest for the first time. Frances win this year was their second in the contest, the contest was won by France with the song Tom Pillibi, performed by Jacqueline Boyer. The 1960 Eurovision Song Contest was hosted in London, the Royal Festival Hall, the venue for the 1960 contest, is a 2, 900-seat concert, dance and talks venue within Southbank Centre in London. It is situated on the South Bank of the River Thames, the result was a win for France, however Germany, Monaco and the UK led in the early stages of voting. The UK came second with 25 points, four more points than the song in 1959. Interest in the contest started to grow across Europe, with the number of participating nations increasing to 13 this year, norway made its debut with one of their leading jazz singers. Luxembourg returned to the contest after a break with a song in native Luxembourgish language. The Netherlands were mistakenly announced as Holland, each country had 10 jury members who each awarded 1 point to their favourite song. The table above shows the order in which votes were cast during the 1960 contest along with the spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for their respective country. Each national broadcaster sent a commentator to the contest, in order to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language. Details of the commentators and the station for which they represented are also included in the table below. ^ The song was performed in Norwegian, but the title of the song is in the North Sami dialect of the Sami languages, translating as the expression Hey Hey
5.
Eurovision Song Contest 1985
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1985 was the 30th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It was held on 4 May 1985 in Gothenburg, Sweden, the presenter was entertainer Lill Lindfors, whose jokey dress rip after the interval act was said to have not amused the wife of EBU scrutineer Frank Naef. Were the winners with the song La det swinge, win for Norway was the countrys first. What do you think we are, after an energetic reprise, the two women embraced to a standing ovation from the audience. During the voting, it was not immediately evident that Norway would win the Contest, Germany took a commanding lead in the first half, with Norway fifth place behind Germany, Sweden, Italy and the United Kingdom around the end of the first half of voting. Finally, with five juries left, Germany, Sweden and Norway were tightly wrapped around the positions with 87,86. At that point, Sweden briefly took the lead away from Germany, Sweden was the fourth-to-last jury, conceding their brief lead by awarding Germany eight points and Norway the maximum twelve. With only three left to vote, Norway kept the lead, in one of the shortest winning stretches during voting in the contests history. The Netherlands and Yugoslavia did not participate in this Contest, due to the national Remembrance of the Dead in the Netherlands, despite this Yugoslavia did choose its song, Pokora, a duet sung by Zorica Kondža and Josip Genda. 1985 was also the year when no less than thirteen previous Eurovision artists made a comeback and this also applied to the winners, Bobbysocks. Who had attended once before as soloists, Hanne Krogh performed for Norway in 1971, while Elisabeth Andreassen for Sweden in 1982 in a duet, Chips, Kikki herself also returned this year for host country Sweden, and was thus competing against Elisabeth Andreassen and Bobbysocks. Lys Assia, the winner of the first ever Eurovision Song Contest in 1956, was the guest of honour of this edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. She was introduced by the presenter Lill Lindfors, the camera zoomed close to Lys, who rose to greet the audience, while the orchestra played the song Refrain, her winning song. Host conductor in bold Each country had a jury who awarded 12,10,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 point for their top ten songs. The voting itself was exciting, the German favourites looked to be cruising to an early victory, however both Sweden and Norway did their best to keep up and by the time the UK jury delivered their votes, Germany had seen its lead smashed. Lill Lindfors had a malfunction as she proceeded to the stage for the voting procedure. As she walked on stage, the skirt of her dress came away, leaving her in just her underwear and the top half of her dress. After a few seconds of pretending to be shocked, Lindfors unfastened the flaps of her dress across her shoulders, to reveal a white gown
6.
Eurovision Song Contest 1995
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1995 was the 40th Eurovision Song Contest and was held on 13 May 1995 in the Point Theatre in Dublin, Ireland. This years competition was the last with one host until 18 years later in 2013 in Malmö. This contest broke the chain of victories that Ireland enjoyed in 1992,1993 and this was Irelands 3rd year in succession to host the contest - and to mark the 40th show, it was opened with a 4-minute retrospective showing images from the contests history. The Norwegian group Secret Garden was the winner of this contest with the instrumental song. Incidentally, Secret Gardens violinist was Fionnuala Sherry, who is Irish and it was his birthday that night, but according to host Kennedy, He wouldnt say which one. Nonetheless, the audience sang Happy Birthday for him, assisted by the orchestra, after winning the 1994 contest, RTÉ were worried about whether they could afford to host a third consecutive contest in 1995. The BBC had offered to take on the responsibility of hosting the contest, in the end RTÉ decided to stage the contest on its own. However they did ask the EBU that, should Ireland win once more, the favourite to win the contest, according to bookmakers, was Sweden with the pop-ballad Se på mig. Other countries in contention for the win were Croatia, Denmark, Israel, Spain, the winning song was something new at Eurovision in that it contained only 24 words accompanied by long violin solos. The United Kingdom contributed a modern rap number, while the previous year’s runner-up, Poland, after the voting was completed, Norway was the winner with 148 points, followed by Spains Vuelve conmigo with 119 points, and Sweden gaining 100 points. The stage was designed by Alan Farquharson who also designed the set of the 1993 contest that took place in Millstreet, the interval act consisted of several well known Irish performers including Clannad, Brian Kennedy and was composed by leading musician Michael OSuilleabhan. The EBU decreased the number of back to 23 to make sure the show wouldnt last longer than 3 hours. 5 of the 6 countries that were relegated the year came back to the contest, Luxembourg decided to stop participating completely and Italy withdrew voluntarily. This rumour did, however inspire a popular episode of Father Ted, in any event, RTÉ ended up hosting the contest once again in 1997. Each country had a jury that awarded 12,10,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 point for their top ten songs. Below is a summary of all 12 points in the final, FR Yugoslavia After the breakup of Yugoslavia, third channel of Radio Television of Serbia broadcast the show, although Yugoslavia did not participate
7.
Eurovision Song Contest 2009
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The Eurovision Song Contest 2009 was the 54th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest and was hosted by Russia after their win in 2008. It took place between 12 and 16 May 2009 at the Olympic Indoor Arena in Moscow, Russia, third place went to Azerbaijan, fourth to Turkey, and the United Kingdom taking 5th, seeing their best placing since 2002. Forty-two countries participated in the contest, Slovakia announced that it would return to the contest, Latvia and Georgia originally announced their intention to withdraw, but it was later stated by the European Broadcasting Union that both countries would indeed participate. However, Georgia later decided to withdraw after the EBU rejected its selected song as being a breach of contest rules, the contest was held in Russia following its victory in the 2008 contest in Belgrade, Serbia, with Dima Bilans Believe. Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister of Russia, stated that the contest would be held in Moscow and it was proposed by Channel One that the contest be held in Moscows Olympic Indoor Arena, and this proposal was evaluated by the European Broadcasting Union and confirmed on 13 September 2008. The Director-General of the venue, Vladimir Churilin, refuted rumours of emergency reconstruction of the building, saying and we now can take up to 25 thousand spectators. The contest final took place on 16 May 2009 at the Olympic Indoor Arena in Moscow, thirty-seven countries participated in one of the two semi-finals of the contest, with the Big Four countries and the host pre-qualified for the final. In addition to those pre-qualified, the final included the ten selected countries from each semi-final. However, it was confirmed that the Big Four countries would continue to qualify for the final at the 2009 contest. Host broadcaster Channel One presented the sub-logo and theme for the 2009 contest on 30 January 2009, the sub-logo is based upon a Fantasy Bird, which can be used with many colours. As in previous years, the sub-logo was presented alongside the generic logo,2009 was the first year since 2001 that there was no slogan for the contest. The stage was designed by New York-based set designer John Casey, Casey, who had previously designed the stage for the Eurovision Song Contest 1997 in Dublin, was also involved in design teams for the 1994 and 1995 contests. He explained that even before worked with the Russians on the TEFI Awards in Moscow in 1998, was inspired by and drawn to art from the Russian Avant Garde period, especially the constructivists. Tried to come up with a design for the contest that incorporates Russian avant-garde art into a contemporary setting. Casey explained that together, the various LED shapes form the finished product, furthermore, large sections of the stage can move, including the circular central portion of curved LED screens, which can be moved to effect and allow each song to have a different feel. Finally a phrase in transliterated Russian and its English translation were shown, the music accompanying the postcards was written and produced by Matthew Herbert. On Friday 30 January 2009, the draw to decide which countries would appear in either the first or second semi-final took place, the participating countries excluding the automatic finalists were split into six pots, based upon how those countries have been voting. From these pots, half competed in the first Semi Final on 10 May 2009, the other half in that particular pot will compete in the second Semi Final on 12 May 2009
8.
Eurovision Song Contest 1963
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1963 was the eighth annual Eurovision Song Contest. The contest was held in London, United Kingdom, after the British broadcaster BBC stepped in to organise the event, france had won the 1962 edition with the right to host this following one but were unable to, due to financial shortcomings. The contest was won by Denmark with the song Dansevise, performed by Grethe & Jørgen Ingmann, the host venue was the BBC Television Centre, White City, London, which opened in 1960. It is one of the most readily recognisable facilities of its type having appeared as the backdrop for many BBC programmes and it remained to be one of the largest such facilities in the world until it closed in March 2013. Two studios were used, one for the mistress of ceremonies Katie Boyle, the audience, and the scoreboard, the other for the performers and the orchestra accompanying them. Unusually, a microphone was employed - the viewer doesnt see this. This was not the case, but this innovation was to create a new look for the contest, one controversy this year was during the voting. Katie Boyle asked Norway to repeat their results, but the Norwegian spokesman asked Katie to return to them all the other results were in. When Katie went back to Norway again the votes had mysteriously altered, thus changing the outcome of the contest, in fact, the Norwegian spokesman had not given the correct votes on the first occasion. Monaco was also asked to do their voting a second time as initially Monaco give one point to both the United Kingdom and Luxembourg, however, when Katie Boyle went back to Monaco to receive the votes again Monacos one vote to Luxembourg was efficiently discarded. The participating conductors were, This year saw the return of just one artist, each country had 20 jury members who awarded their five favourite songs 5,4,3,2, and 1 points in order. All those points would then be added up and the five song with the most points got 5,4,3,2, each national broadcaster also sent a commentator to the contest, in order to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language. Details of the commentators and the station for which they represented are also included in the table below. Media related to Eurovision Song Contest 1963 at Wikimedia Commons Official website
9.
Eurovision Song Contest 1969
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1969 was the 14th in the series. Four countries won the contest, the first time ever a tie-break situation had occurred, however, there was no rule at the time to cover such an eventuality, so all four countries were declared joint winners. France became the first country to win the contest four times, the Netherlands win was their third. Spain and the United Kingdom each won for the second time, and it was the first time that any country had a winning ESC entry two years in a row. The venue selected to host the 1969 contest was the Teatro Real, the theatre reopened in 1966 as a concert theatre and the main concert venue of the Spanish National Orchestra and the RTVE Symphony Orchestra. The final featured a metal sculpture created by surrealist Spanish artist. The surrealist Spanish artist Salvador Dalí was responsible for designing the publicity material for the 1969 contest as well as the sculpture which was used on stage. It was the first time that the contest resulted in a tie for first place, since there was at the time no rule to cover such an eventuality, all four countries were declared joint winners. Had the later tie-break rule been in place, the Netherlands would have won, United Kingdom would then have been runner up, having received 5 points from Sweden. On the other hand, with the present tie-break rule been in place, France would have been the overall winner, both countries received votes from 9 countries, but France received 4 points from 2 countries whereas Spain received 3 points as their highest vote. A common urban legend on ESC forums and festivals is that just prior to the show, Laurita Valenzuela, the producers assured her that such a thing would never happen. Austria was absent from the contest, refusing to participate in a contest staged in Franco-ruled Spain, only the BBC has the exclusive right to represent the United Kingdom. Each performance had a conductor who led the orchestra, five artists returned in this years contest. Louis Neefs for Belgium who last represented the nation in 1967, the table below shows the order in which votes were cast during the 1969 contest along with the spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for their respective country. Each national broadcaster sent a commentator to the contest, in order to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language. Details of the commentators and the station for which they represented are also included in the table below
10.
Eurovision Song Contest 1974
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1974 was the 19th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It was held in the resort of Brighton on the south coast of the United Kingdom. The BBC agreed to stage the event after Luxembourg, having won in both 1972 and 1973, declined on the grounds of expense to host the contest for a consecutive year. The winner of the Contest was Sweden with the song Waterloo which was performed by the band ABBA, ABBA are among the few Eurovision winners to achieve international superstar status. Katie Boyle returned to host her fourth Eurovision Song Contest, Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove on the south coast of Great Britain. The venue which hosted the 1974 Contest was the Brighton Dome, a venue that contains the Concert Hall, the Corn Exchange. A two-night preview programme, Auftakt für Brighton, was coordinated by the German national broadcaster ARD broadcast at the end of March and was hosted by the journalist Karin Tietze-Ludwig and it was the first preview-type programme to be broadcast in many European countries simultaneously. The programme was notable in being the European television debut for the winners, ABBA. The United Kingdom was represented in the contest by the Australian pop singer Olivia Newton-John, France had been drawn to sing at No. Since President Pompidous funeral was held the day of the contest, dani was seen by viewers in the audience at the point the French song should have been performed. For the same reason, the French singer Anne-Marie David, who had won the first place for Luxembourg in 1973, in her absence, the Director General of the BBC and President of the EBU, Sir Charles Curran, presented the Grand Prix. Malta had selected Enzo Guzman with the song Paċi Fid Dinja to represent them, malta would return to the competition in 1975. The song was not played on most Italian state TV and radio stations for over a month, portugals entry E depois do adeus was used as the first of the two signals to launch the Carnation Revolution against the Estado Novo regime. The second song to be broadcast, marking the start of military operations of the coup, was Grândola, Vila Morena by Zeca Afonso. Seventeen nations took part in this years contest, greece made their début, while France withdrew during the week of the contest after the sudden death of French President Georges Pompidou. Each performance had a conductor who maestro the orchestra, had France taken part in the contest, its entry would have been conducted by Jean-Claude Petit. Three artists returned to the contest this year, gigliola Cinquetti winner of the 1964 Contest participated again for Italy. Romuald Figuier who also participated in the 1964 Contest for Monaco, norways Bendik Singers also returned after last participating in Eurovision Song Contest 1973
For the most recent participation see
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