Ulrik from Sweden wins MGP Nordic

A week after the Netherlands won the 2009 Junior Eurovision Song Contest four Nordic countries held their very own contest, the MGP Nordic which is the prior to EBU’s Junior Contest.

The four Nordic countries; Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland competed with two songs each, which all had been selected through national selections. The Contest which Danish broadcaster, DR had all the rights to in the beginning was expanded to include other European countries under the name The Junior Eurovision Song Contest. When Denmark, Norway and Sweden in 2006 pulled out DR handed over the rights to EBU. The three Nordic countries disagreed with the rules for the Junior Contest, which they saw as turning too much into an adult show, and returned to their own Nordic edition. In 2007 Finland joined the Contest as well, while Iceland turned down the offer due to finansial reasons.

From Norway the rockband Mystery opended the 2009 final with the song Rock E Sunt (Rock is healthy). They came second in the Norwegian national selection. They were followed by 12 year old Amanda from Finland singing Jag Vil Leva (I want to live). Amanda, who appears a lot older than 12, won the Finnish selection with her pop song. Song number three was also a national winner; from Denmark came PelleB. His song Kun Min translates to Just mine. It is a hiphop song with a good choography. After that it was time for Norway’s second song, the winner of the naational selection. The song Din Egen Vei (Your own way) from 12 year old Jørgen is quite an unusual junior song with him sitting on a bar chair with his guitar singing the ballad with ballet on the stage. From Finland came song number 5, yet another rock song titled Kommer Du Ihåg Mig (Do you remember me). The song came second in the Finnish selection. The draw had turned out so that the first Swedish song entered the stage as number six. This was 15 year Ulrik singing about En Vanlig Dag (A usual day). Ulrik won the Swedish final. As second to last Engledrys had their chance with the song Familien, min bedste ven (Family, my best friend). This song came second in the Danish selection. Leadsinger Emma is the youngest in the Contest with her 8 years. She was followed by 11 year old Rebecca from Sweden singing Skaffa En Annan Tjej (Get another girl). 

After these eight songs it was down to narrow down the field to four songs for a so called Super final where one song from each country battles it out. You could of course not vote for your own country so it was up to the other three Nordic countries to decide which song should represent the other countries. In the Eurovision Song Contest such a voting might give problems with tactic votings, but in the Nordic MGP it hasn’t been an issue.

The Swedish dancing group Bounce performed as interval act while the first voting was going on. After that we saw clips from a competition between the MGP contestants and the host trying to collect most money performing on the streets. 

To the super final went Amanda from Finland, PelleB from Denmark, Jørgen from Norway and Ulrik from Sweden. They performed again in according to the first draw and as such Amanda started out followed by PelleB from Denmark. Jørgen represented Norway as third song in the super final while Ulrik from Sweden closed the contest.

Music wise their wasn’t much doubt that the Norwegian song Din Egen Vei was on a higher level than the rest, but in a junior contest we have seen before that other things matters and as such it was an open question who would win the contest that has so far only been won by either Denmark or Norway. Ulrik’s energetic song might surprise or what about Finland’s Amanda who is very sure on stage or will it simply be PelleB’s hophop that wins?

As interval act Norwegian The Blacksheeps who won last year’s show performed with the song Cancellation, yet another punk rock song as they also won with. After that it was revealed that the host lost quite clearly to the contestants in the street singing competition.

Denmark’s voting: 6 points to Finland, 8 points to Norway and 12 points to Sweden.

Norway’s voting: 6 points to Finland, 8 points to Denmark and 12 points to Sweden.

Finland’s voting: 6 points to Norway, 8 points to Denmark and 12 points to Sweden.

Sweden’s voting: 6 points to Norway, 8 points to Finland and 12 points to Denmark.

Final result:

Sweden 36

Denmark 28

Finland 20

Norway 20

It was Sweden’s first victory in the MGP Nordic. At the same time as Ulrik won with the song En Vanlig Dag DR announced that the window for entering songs to the 2010 Danish MGP selection had opened.

Source: EuroVisionary
Read more in the news archive

Liked what you've read? Subscribe to our Eurovision news!