Today Danish broadcaster DR kicked off its Eurovision 2017 search. Until the 5th of September songwriters can submit their entries for the national selection in Denmark. After two years of not reaching the final, DR will be changing things.
After not qualifying for the final two years in a row, pressure will be high on the winner of the 2017 Danish national final, Melodi Grand Prix, to do better. Songwriters who believe they have the song which will do a lot better, and as minimum bring Denmark into the final again, can now submit their entries.
Broadcaster DR published today the set of the rules which the songs will have to live up to. Most of the rules about length of song, age of participants and no prior release of the songs are already set by EBU and not something special for DR. The broadcaster in Denmark however have made a rule about songwriters, text or lyrics, or the artist being of national origin or otherwise with a very close connection to the country. In the rules, DR mention this as for example living in Denmark for many years or Danish married. Danes living on Faroe Island are allowed to participate as well.
The deadline to submit entries for the Danish final, Melodi Grand Prix 2017, is set to the 5th of September 2016 and songs can be submitted online via DR’s form. After the deadline, producer Cutfather who is yet again music responsable for the contest, will together with a secret jury consisting of people from TV and music industry select the songs which will compete to represent Denmark at the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest. The selected songs will compete on equal terms with songs where the songwriter was specially invited. There is no set amount in the rules about how many this will be, but in previous years this has been 2-4 of the 10 songs in the national final.
DR’s Boss of Entertainment, Jan Lagermand Lundme says that there will be changes made to the 2017 Danish national final, but also that it is yet too early to talk about it: “I can’t say a lot yet. We are thinking carefully about it and will be changing a few things. As soon as the plan is ready, we’ll tell how it is going to be“.
It is not yet known which city will host the 2017 Dansk Melodi Grand Prix, but it shouldn’t take long before we know that information. Below you can take a look at Lighthouse X and their Eurovision entry Soldiers of Love which failed to bring Denmark into the final of this year’s contest.
