Raylee wins the first Melodi Grand Prix semi final

The Southern Norway region Melodi Grand Prix (MGP) semi final has been decided and Raylee with her song 'Wild' was victorious!

Raylee will now join the pre-qualified five artists in the final on February 15.

As this was the first semi, we were given our first glimpse of how the new format works. The four songs were divided into two pairs. The winners of each pair then competed in a Gold Duel where the winner of the semi was then decided by the public via online voting.

In this semi Geirmund was drawn against Lisa Børud in the first duel. This left experienced MGP entrants, Kim Rysstad and Raylee to battle it out in the second duel.

Lisa and Raylee qualified for the Gold Duel where Raylee went on to win the online vote.

Geirmund was the first performer of the night delivering a solid rendition of his song “Come Alive” before Lisa Børud dazzled us with her dance moves whilst performing “Talking about us”. Lisa was revealed as the winner shortly afterwards. Her background as a dancer really stood out in her performance and she really connected with the audience.

The second duel started with Kim Rysstad and his ballad “Rainbow”, complete with pyrotechnics during the key change. Raylee then gave us an energetic performance of “Wild”. The songs were a huge contrast from each other with Raylee going through to the Gold Duel.

Sondrey, who is one of the pre-qualified artists, performed his song "Take My Time". Kenyan-born Sondrey is a newcomer to the contest having come through the ranks of The Stream, which is a Norwegian talent show. His RnB-inspired song is certainly one to listen out for next month. His song was released on Friday. The artists and songs for the next semi final featuring artists from Eastern Norway will be announced on Monday.

Pre-qualified act Didrik and Emil will also perform their grand final song.