Another year of Norwegian madness comes to a close in Trondheim Spektrum, with 9 artists battling it out for a ticket to Liverpool under an all new format.

The market thinks there are 4 winner contenders and I agree. Let’s take a look at them now.

JONE – Ekko inni meg: An uptempo EDM number that has been a huge hit in Norway, currently charting at #7 on the Spotify charts with a peak of #4. This feels very Norweigan and will definitely be a favourite of younger voters. Having suffered from an injury, JONE’s semi final performance felt static to me with the female dancers carrying the performance. It is also clear that autotune is giving JONE a lot of help. Being buried in slot #1 and jurors should handily stop this from winning, but a top 4 spot is expected.

Atle Petersen – Masterpiece: This was a successful SF3 qualifier tip. Atle is bringing an emotional well produced ballad in stark contrast to his 2021 entry. I was impressed by how much Atle elevated this live and how he connected to the audience conveying his emotions. The staging is also impressive with a nice light show. Atle clearly is one of the more well known artists and has an established fanbase. He is a favourite of the older demographic having topped facebook polls in Norway. Jurors should also be able to respect his vocal and the production of the song. A dark horse to win considering he can score well in both constituencies.

Alessandra Mele – Queen of Kings: A surpriser outsider from the start who is now the official favourite on Betfair. Queen of Kings has gone viral TikTok and charted internationally, with the wave of hype hitting the domestic market too as the song is currently sitting at #5 on the Spotify charts. Running order suggests NRK want this to go to ESC, banking on it’s international virality. How jurors will mark this is an interesting question. Recent history points us to Melfest 2022 where a similar sounding song, Klara H – Run to the Hills was also a huge charting success but scored poorly with jurors. Alessandra’s vocal also comes across as shaky. Jurors could end up dethroning the Queen of Kings.

Ulrikke – Honestly: Norway’s representative for the Eurovision that never was returns with a contemporary nordic ballad much in the vain of her previous entry. “Honestly”, is very calculated with the performance also feeling like it’s ticking off as many Eurovision boxes as it can. Despite this, Ulrikke is a class performer in a league of her own compared to the rest of the artists. It’s obvious she isn’t making use of the autotune feature. Ulrikke’s PR machine is also working in overdrive with a front cover in Norway’s biggest magazine this weekend as well as several TV and radio interviews. The narrative of her opportunity being stolen away from her will likely boost her televote higher and the jurors should certainly reward her competence.

The final will likely be a close run one. Much analysis on Twitter has focused on streaming numbers, although past NFs in Nordic countries have shown us there’s a difference between what people listen to vs what they vote for. Ulrikke is charting at #55 which is significantly better than Attention at the same time which was around #150. NRK want Alessandra to win but I think jurors and a sob story narrative will be enough to push Ulrikke over the line who will score well with both jurors and televote.

Recommended bets:

Back Ulrikke to win @ 2.46 (Betfair Exchange)

Back Atle to win @ 9 (Cool Bet)