Prior to the 2026 contest, the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest representing Norway sixty-four times since its first entry in 1960. It had won the contest on three occasions: in 1985 with the song "La det swinge" performed by Bobbysocks!, in 1995 with the song "Nocturne" performed by Secret Garden, and in 2009 with the song "Fairytale" performed by Alexander Rybak. Norway also had the two dubious distinctions of having finished last in the Eurovision final more than any other country and for having received nul points (zero points) four times, the latter being a record shared with Austria. The country had finished last eleven times and had failed to score a point during four contests. Following the introduction of semi-finals for 2004, Norway has finished in the top ten ten times.[1]
As part of its duties as participating broadcaster, NRK organises the selection of its entry in the Eurovision Song Contest and broadcasts the event in the country. The broadcaster has traditionally organised the national final Melodi Grand Prix, which has selected its entry for the Eurovision Song Contest in all but one of its participation. NRK confirmed its intentions to participate at the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest on 19 June 2026,[2] and announced on 20 June the organization of Melodi Grand Prix 2026 in order to select its 2026 entry.[3]
The competition will consist of two stages. The first stage was a radio selection titled MGP-cupen ("the MGP cup") and took place between 20 and 26 January 2026 during the NRK P1 programme Nitimen. Eight songs competed over three rounds of duels and the winning entry qualified to the second stage, the final on 28 February 2026, joining the eight pre-qualified finalists. The results of MGP-cupen were determined exclusively by public online voting through NRK's official website nrk.no.[6][7]
Competing entries
A submission period was opened by NRK between 20 June and 1 September 2025. Each song had to have at least one Norwegian songwriter, and each songwriter could submit a maximum of three songs.[3][8] In addition to the public call for submissions, NRK directly invited certain artists and composers to submit songs.[9] At the close of the deadline, approximately 1,500 submissions were received.[10] A total of 16 songs were selected for the competition by the newly assigned MGP music producer Tarjei Strøm: eight songs for MGP-cupen and an additional eight songs that qualified directly for the final.[4] The directly qualified competing acts and songs were revealed on 19 January 2026 during a press conference at NRK's studio 1, presented by Ronny Brede Aase, Marte Stokstad and Markus Neby, while the acts competing in MGP-cupen were revealed on 20 January 2026.[11][12] Due to Israel's participation in Eurovision amidst the Gaza war, Ylvis withdrew prior to the announcement of the participants despite having been selected to compete.[13] Among the competing artists are Alexander Rybak, who won the 2009 contest and represented Norway in 2018, and Emmy, who represented Ireland in 2025.[12][14]
MGP-cupen took place between 20 and 26 January 2026 and consisted of three rounds of public voting. The first round featured four daily duels between 20 and 24 January 2026 and the winners of the duels proceeded to the second round. The second round featured two daily duels on 24 and 25 January 2026 and the winners of each duel proceeded to the last round on 26 January 2026, where the winner will proceed to the final.[6][7]
On 25 January 2026, Sander Silva and Victorjus announced their withdrawal from the competition, also citing Israel's participation in Eurovision amidst the Gaza war as the reason.[15]
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Norway