Dansk Melodi Grand Prix (), also known as Melodi Grand Prix or simply DMGP, is an annual

music competition A music competition is a public event designed to identify and award outstanding musical ensembles, solo (music), soloists, composers, conducting, conductors and musicologists. Pop music competitions are music competitions which are held to find p ...

organised by the Danish public broadcaster

Danmarks Radio DR (), officially the Danish Broadcasting Corporation in English, is a Danish public-service radio and television broadcasting company. Founded in 1925 as a public-service organization, it is Denmark's oldest and largest electronic media enter ...

(DR) since 1957, which determines the for the

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...

. The festival has produced three Eurovision winners and fourteen top-five placings.

History

With the introduction of a semi-final at the 2004 contest, and due to Denmark's absence from the 2003 contest, Denmark's 2004 representative,

Tomas Thordarson Tomas Thordarson (born 1974) is a Danish- Icelandic singer, he won Dansk Melodi Grand Prix 2004 with the song " Shame on You". The song finished thirteenth place at semifinal and Denmark failed to qualify. Musical career Thordarson started his m ...

, had to take part in the semi-final. His song, " Shame on You" did not reach the final, finishing 13th in a field of 22 contestants. In 2005, DR made a bold step for Dansk Melodi Grand Prix. Artists were allowed, for the first time ever, to sing in a language other than Danish. Many of the entries that year were sung in English; however, against the odds, the winning song was sung in Danish.

Jakob Sveistrup Jakob Sveistrup (born 8 March 1972) is a Danish singer. He entered the Danish music scene in 2003 as a competitor in the Danish televised talent contest '' Stjerne for en aften'' ("Star for a Night"). He made it to the finals. Unusually, Sveistru ...

won Dansk Melodi Grand Prix with his song "Tænder på dig". It was later re-written for the

Eurovision Song Contest 2005 The Eurovision Song Contest 2005 was the 50th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Kyiv, Ukraine, following the country's victory at the with the song "Wild Dances" by Ruslana. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (E ...

to English as " Talking to You". Unlike the year before, Denmark secured a place in the final, finishing third in the semifinal. In the final he came 9th, guaranteeing Denmark a place in the final of the

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro votes to declare independence from Serbia; The 2006 ...

contest. A year later,

Sidsel Ben Semmane Sidsel Ben Sémmane (born 9 October 1988) is a Danish musician known since 2017 by the stage name Sémmane. She won the 2006 Dansk Melodi Grand Prix and went on to finish 18th at the Eurovision Song Contest 2006 in Athens. Her mother is Algeri ...

sang "

Twist of Love Denmark participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2006 with the song "Twist of Love" written by Niels Drevsholt. The song was performed by Sidsel Ben Semmane. The Danish broadcaster DR organised the national final ''Dansk Melodi Grand Prix ...

" in the final, but managed to finish 18th of 24 songs. In

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple Inc., Apple's first iPhone (1st generation), iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakis ...

, after many poor results, Dansk Melodi Grand Prix adopted a semi-final format that had served well for the Swedish preselection,

Melodifestivalen Melodifestivalen (; literally "the Melody Festival") is an annual song competition organised by Swedish public broadcasters Sveriges Television (SVT) and Sveriges Radio (SR). It determines the country's representative for the Eurovision Song C ...

. Two semi-finals with 8 songs each were introduced, with the top 4 songs qualifying for the final. The 4 losing songs of each semi-final then took part in one of two wildcard rounds where the listeners of Danish radio stations P3 and P4 chose another two finalists. The winner under this new format, DQ with the song " Drama Queen" (a wildcard entrant), finished 18th in the semifinal, failing to qualify Denmark for the final again. DR continued to use this format in the

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

edition which was won by

Simon Mathew Simon Mathew (born 17 May 1984) is a Danish pop singer. He is the brother of teen-pop singers Rebekka Mathew and Sabina Mathew.All Night Long". At the

Eurovision Song Contest 2008 The Eurovision Song Contest 2008 was the 53rd edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Belgrade, Serbia, following the country's victory at the with the song "Molitva" by Marija Šerifović. Organised by the European Broadcasti ...

Belgrade Belgrade ( , ;, ; names in other languages) is the capital and largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and the crossroads of the Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. Nearly 1,166,763 mi ...

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia ( Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hu ...

, Denmark as in 2005, finished 3rd in the semifinals, qualifying for the grand final. In the final, Mathew got 60 points, finishing 15th in a field of 25 songs. For the

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; Protests ...

of Dansk Melodi Grand Prix, DR reverted to their one-night final, that was held on 31 January 2009. The final of 10 songs consisted of 6 songs from an open call of songs from the public, with 4 songs being invited by DR to compete.

Winners

Almost all winners of Dansk Melodi Grand Prix have gone on to represent Denmark at Eurovision. Only two entries did not represent Denmark at Eurovision: the 1996 winner, " Kun med dig" by and , which failed to qualify for the final from the pre-selection, and the 2020 winner, "

Yes Yes or YES may refer to: * An affirmative particle in the English language; see yes and no Education * YES Prep Public Schools, Houston, Texas, US * YES (Your Extraordinary Saturday), a learning program from the Minnesota Institute for Talent ...

" by

Ben and Tan Ben and Tan are a Danish duo consisting of Benjamin Rosenbohm (born 3 June 2002) and Tanne Balcells (born 15 January 1998). They were due to represent Denmark in the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 in Rotterdam, with the song "Yes", until it was ca ...

, which was slated to be the country's entry before the contest was cancelled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

. Denmark has won Eurovision three times: in 1963, 2000 and 2013.

Albums

Main album series

Children's MGP album series

;De vindere series ;Others

Notes and references

Notes

References

External links

DR: Dansk Melodi Grand PrixThe Eurovision Song Contest National Finals Homepage
{{Authority control Eurovision Song Contest selection events Denmark in the Eurovision Song Contest Annual events in Denmark