Ten entries ultimately qualified to compete in the final on 11 February 2012 where the winner was determined over two rounds of voting.

In the first round of voting, a public televote exclusively selected the top four entries to advance to the competition's second round—the Gold Final.

Performing during the show in position 16, "Stay" was announced among the top 10 entries of the second semi-final and therefore qualified to compete in the final on 26 May.

Norway had won the contest on two occasions: in 1985 with the song "La det swinge" performed by Bobbysocks!

[2][3] The broadcaster has traditionally organised the national final Melodi Grand Prix, which has selected the Norwegian entry for the Eurovision Song Contest in all but one of their participation.

24 songs were selected to compete in a four-week-long process that commenced on 21 January 2012 and concluded with the final on 11 February 2012.

All shows were hosted by Per Sundnes and Marte Stokstad and televised on NRK1 as well as streamed online at NRK's official website nrk.no.

The results of the semi-finals were determined exclusively by public televoting, while a jury also awarded one of the eliminated acts a wildcard to proceed to the final.

In addition to the public call for submissions, NRK reserved the right to directly invite certain artists and composers to compete.

[8] 24 songs were selected for the competition by an eight-member jury panel consisting of representatives of NRK, record labels and production companies.

[10][11][12] Among the artists was past Norwegian Eurovision entrant Benedicte Adrian (member of the group United) who represented the country in 1984 as part of the duo Dollie de Luxe, and Malin Reitan who represented Norway at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2005.

The results of the public televote were then revealed by Norway's five regions and added to the jury scores, leading to the victory of "Stay" performed by Tooji with 155,480 votes.

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big Five" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final.

[29] At the end of the show, Norway was announced as having finished in the top 10 and subsequently qualifying for the grand final.

This jury was asked to judge each contestant based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act.