The Norwegian participating broadcaster, Norsk rikskringkasting (NRK), organised the national final Melodi Grand Prix 2001 in order to select its entry for the contest.

Twelve entries competed in a show that took place on 24 February 2001 and the winner was determined over two rounds of voting from a five-member jury panel and a regional televote.

Short clips of the competing entries were also released alongside the announcement, while the songs in their entirety were premiered between 19 and 22 February during the NRK P1 radio programmes Musikkrevyen and Nitimen.

[6][7] Twelve songs competed during the final on 24 February 2001 and the winner was selected by a combination of votes from regional televoting (5/7) and an expert jury (2/7) over two rounds.

The jury then distributed points that had a weighting equal to the votes of two televoting regions and the top four entries were selected to proceed to the second round, the superfinal.

[8] The jury panel consisted of Jostein Pedersen (Eurovision Song Contest commentator for Norway), Cecilie Bjelke (international promoter for artists at Universal Music), Inger Beate Jacobsen (NRK P1 radio host), Jarl Aanestad (songwriter and music producer) and Hege Tepstad (NRK P1 radio host).

[10] Marketing director of NRK aktivum, Lene Hordvik, later confirmed that a number of SMS votes were not counted towards the final result due to heavy traffic but they were not enough to change the winner.