Norway has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 61 times since making its debut in  and has only been absent twice since then. In 1970, the country boycotted the contest over disagreements about the voting structure, and in 2002, they were relegated. The contest is broadcast in Norway by NRK, which also broadcasts Norway's national selection competition, Melodi Grand Prix.

Before 1985, Norway's best result in the contest was Åse Kleveland's third-place in . Norway's three victories in the contest were achieved by Bobbysocks in , Secret Garden in  and Alexander Rybak in . Norway also finished second at the  contest, with former Bobbysocks member Elisabeth Andreassen. Norway has finished last in eleven Eurovision finals, of which four times with "nul points". Norway has a total of 12 top-five results in the contest, the latest being Alessandra's fifth place in .

History
Norway's first entrant in the contest was Nora Brockstedt in , who finished fourth with the song "Voi Voi"; Brockstedt would return the next year with "Sommer i Palma", this time placing seventh. Åse Kleveland then finished third in  with "Intet er nytt under solen", following which Norway would fail to reach the top ten in fourteen out of their next fifteen attempts, with the exception being Bendik Singers’ seventh place finish in . Before , Norway had only received a top-ten score in six out of twenty-four attempts, and had finished last the same number of times.

Bobbysocks gave the country its first victory in 1985, with the song "La det swinge". Norway went on to achieve two more top five results over the next ten years, with Karoline Krüger in  and Silje Vige in , who both finished fifth.

Norway's second victory came in 1995 with Secret Garden's mainly instrumental Celtic-influenced ethno-piece "Nocturne". In , Elisabeth Andreassen, who had won the contest as one half of Bobbysocks, returned to the contest as a solo artist, finishing in second place. In , Jostein Hasselgård came fourth.

Norway won for the third time in , with Alexander Rybak and his song "Fairytale". The song's score of 387 points was the highest ever winning total under the 1975-2015 voting system, and also achieved the biggest ever margin of victory: 492 points in total were distributed between the competing countries in 2009, meaning "Fairytale" received 78.7% of the points that could be rewarded. Rybak later returned to the contest in , performing "That's How You Write a Song"; he received the highest number of votes of the second semi-final, but ultimately placed fifteenth. He remains the only Norwegian entrant to have won a semi-final, as well as the only two-time semi-final winner in the history of the contest.

In , Norway finished last in the final for the eleventh time. Norway has the dubious distinction of finishing last in the Eurovision final more than any other country, and along with Austria, has received "nul points" (zero points) in the contest on four occasions; in , ,  and .

Since the introduction of the semi-final round in 2004, Norway has finished in the top ten eight times. Wig Wam finished ninth in , Maria Haukaas Storeng was fifth in , Alexander Rybak won in 2009, Margaret Berger was fourth in , Carl Espen finished eighth in , Mørland and Debrah Scarlett finished eighth in , Jowst finished tenth in , Keiino won the public vote and finished sixth overall in , Subwoolfer finished tenth in , and Alessandra finished fifth in . In total, Norway has 12 top-five and 27 top-ten finishes in the contest.

Participation overview

Hostings

Songs of Europe

Awards

Marcel Bezençon Awards

Winner by OGAE members

Related involvement

Conductors

Additionally, there was an orchestra present at the 1999 national final, conducted by Geir Langslet (the winning song, however, was presented without orchestral accompaniment) and at the 2015 national final, conducted by Anders Eljas.

Heads of delegation

Supervisors 
List of supervisors of Melodi Grand Prix, better known as MGP-general or GP-general in Norway:

Commentators and spokespersons

Gallery

See also
Melodi Grand Prix
Norway in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest – Junior version of the Eurovision Song Contest.
Norway in the Eurovision Young Dancers – A competition organised by the EBU for younger dancers aged between 16 and 21.
Norway in the Eurovision Young Musicians – A competition organised by the EBU for musicians aged 18 years and younger.

Notes and references

Notes

References

External links 
 Melodi Grand Prix
 Points to and from Norway eurovisioncovers.co.uk

 
Countries in the Eurovision Song Contest
Melodi Grand Prix