Norway in the Eurovision Song Contest 1985


Norway was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 1985 with the song "La det swinge", written by Rolf Løvland, and performed by Bobbysocks!. The Norwegian participating broadcaster, NRK, organised the national final Melodi Grand Prix 1985 in order to select its entry for the contest. Both Bobbysocks! members, Elisabeth Andreassen and Hanne Krogh, had previous Eurovision experience - Krogh as a 15-year-old for and Andreassen for as part of Chips. Both would make further appearances for Norway, Krogh in and Andreassen in and.
"La det swinge" was chosen as the Norwegian entry on 30 March, and went on to bring Norway its first Eurovision victory after decades of being the butt of jokes about their status as Eurovision's perennial also-rans. It was admitted that the lyrics of "La det swinge" had been written with the specific intention of avoiding those Norwegian consonant combinations which had been said to sound harsh in song to non-Scandinavian ears.

Before Eurovision

1985

The Melodi Grand Prix 1985 was held on 30 March at the Chateau Neuf in Oslo, hosted by Rita Westvik. The staging was now set in a modern way for accompanying live music for the first time in the history of national final, while the usage of the orchestra were replaced with a live band and was conducted by Terje Fjærn. Ten songs took part in the final, with the winner chosen by voting from five regional juries and a panel of experts consisting of Tony Visconti, Anne Marie David, Stikkan Andersson and Ronnie Hazlehurst. One of the other participants was former three-time Norwegian representative Anita Skorgan.
DrawArtistSongSongwriterRegional
Jury
Expert
Jury
TotalPlace
1Pastel"Ring ring ring"Pete Knutsen, Marianne Mørk3927663
2Bjørn Eidsvåg"Gammel drøm"Bjørn Eidsvåg1826447
3Zaz"Oh-là-là"Amund Enger1215279
4Kai Eide"Love, amour og kjærlighet"Kai Eide10122210
5Rolf Graf"II & II"Rolf Graf, Finn Kalvik3119505
6Anita Skorgan"Karma"Anita Skorgan, Lars Kilevold3044742
7Bobbysocks!"La det swinge"Rolf Løvland4634801
8Mia Gundersen and Olav Stedje"Nattergal"Jonas Fjeld, Astor Andersen3026564
9Hilde Heltberg"Livet har en sjanse"Hilde Heltberg, Stein Gulbrandsen3712496
10Silje Nergaard"Si det, si det"Silje Nergaard279368

DrawSongscope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" Total
1"Ring ring ring"3999939
2"Gammel drøm"4332618
3"Oh-là-là"2153112
4"Love, amour og kjærlighet"1411310
5"II & II"9567431
6"Karma"6844830
7"La det swinge"7111161146
8"Nattergal"57211530
9"Livet har en sjanse"8688737
10"Si det, si det"11275227

DrawSongscope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" Total
1"Ring ring ring"775827
2"Gammel drøm"489526
3"Oh-là-là"144615
4"Love, amour og kjærlighet"333312
5"II & II"926219
6"Karma"1111111144
7"La det swinge"898934
8"Nattergal"667726
9"Livet har en sjanse"551112
10"Si det, si det"21249

At Eurovision

On the evening of the final Bobbysocks! performed 13th in the running order, following and preceding the. At the close of voting "La det swinge" had picked up 123 points, enough for victory by an 18-point margin over runners-up.

Voting

ScoreCountry
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8 points
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6 points
5 points
4 points
3 points
2 points
1 point

ScoreCountry
12 points
10 points
8 points
7 points
6 points
5 points
4 points
3 points
2 points
1 point