NRK has announced that Stig Karlsen, who has been the nation’s head of delegation since the 2015 contest will be leaving the position on October 1st and will be moved into a new role handling communications and media for Jannicke Mikkelsen, who is Norway’s first female astronaut.
He will also leave his role as director of the Melodi Grand Prix although it is thought that he will still pick the entrants for next year’s edition of the show before leaving his position.
10 years is a decent length of time for a project, and now this fantastic offer came up with a Norwegian astronaut, so now the time had come.
Stig Karlsen
Under his tenure his best result came when Alessandra finished 5th in the 2023 contest, other notable achievements include winning the televote in 2019 with Keiino.
However, His fortunes changed in his final year when Norway finished last in the competition in Sweden. It has been stressed that the result last year and the events surrounding the competition had no impact on his decision to leave the role.
We are in the process of finding Stig’s successor as music manager for MGP. This is one of MusikNorway’s most important jobs, so we take the time to find the right person, with the right skills and heart for the country’s biggest music competition
Charlo Halvorsen, Entratinment editor at NRK
In recent years Stig Karlsen had become most associated with his campaign to change the weighting of the Eurovision results to give greater voting impact to the televote.
The replacement for Karlsen will be announced in due course and will lead the delegation to Switzerland next May.
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