We’re now a month out from Sámi Grand Prix, so we’ve put together a guide for everything a new (or returning) viewer should know about the contest prior to the show on 12th April.
Who are the Sámi people?
Sámi people are an indigenous group that are indigenous to Sápmi, a cultural region that encompasses much of northern Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia.
What languages do they speak?
Sámi people natively speak one form of Sámi language, of which there are nine surviving, the most common being Northern Sámi, spoken by Sámi people living in the far north of Norway as well as parts of Sweden and Finland. The languages can be divided into two distinct groups, Western and Eastern, based on their similarities and differences to each other. Whilst there is a level of mutual intelligibility to the languages, the likes of Northern Sámi and Inari Sámi are more distinct from each other.
| Language | Group | Area covered on below map | Estimated remaining native speakers |
| Southern Sámi | Western | 1 | 500-600 |
| Ume Sámi | Western | 2 | 20 |
| Pite Sámi | Western | 3 | 20 |
| Lule Sámi | Western | 4 | 1000-2000 |
| Northern Sámi | Western | 5 | 15,000-25,000 |
| Inari Sámi | Eastern | 6 | 400 |
| Skolt Sámi | Eastern | 7 | 320-330 |
| Kildin Sámi | Eastern | 8 | 300-600 |
| Ter Sámi | Eastern | 9 | 2 |
What is Sámi Grand Prix?
Created in 1990 as part of the Sámi Easter Festival, Sámi Grand Prix is a music competition consisting of two parts, a modern song competition, comparable to Eurovision and its companion national selection shows, as well a joik competition, each with six competitors. That means we’ll have two winners, a winning song and a winning joik.
Both sections are decided on by a mix of an expert jury and a televote in a 50/50 split. All of the songs must be performed at least partially in one of the Sámi languages we went through earlier, and the usual rules you know and love of not releasing your song before the official release apply here too.
What is a joik?
The joik (which you may also sometimes see spelled “yoik” in English) is a traditional form of song performed by the Sámi people. Usually performed a capella, and traditionally have few or no lyrics, instead being comprised of sounds. Joiks are usually dedicated to either people or places, such as family members or hometowns. You can hear the winning joik of the 2016 edition of Sámi Grand Prix below.
You can see examples of joiks set to music in Norway’s Eurovision entries in 1980 and 2019, as well as in national final performances from the likes of Jon Henrik Fjällgren.
Who is competing this year?
We learned our competing artists for this year a few days ago! Names some dedicated Eurovision fans may recognise are two time Melodi Grand Prix participants Elin & The Woods, who are competing with joiker Jörgen Stenberg. Hildá Länsman competed in UMK2015 alongside her mother in the duo Solju.
Behind the scenes, there are songwriting credits from Helge Reinsnes Moen of NorthKid (MGP22), whilst veteran Melodifestivalen songwriter David Lindgren Zacharias is credited on Sara Ajnnak’s track.
You can find the full list of artists, and entries here:
Why should I watch it?
You’re currently on a Eurovision fan media site, so you clearly like national and international song competitions. With that in mind, Sámi Grand Prix will be way up your alley, trust me.
If you want to know what you’re in for, you can watch last year’s show here, but the production value is better than most national selections, and the song quality doesn’t disappoint either – there’s always something for everybody in there.
To give you an idea of what you’d be in for, last year’s winner in the song section was bycecilia with her Southern Sámi song Mannem åajadahteme, whilst Nils-Ove Kuorak took the win in the joik category with Njealječalmmát.
Sounds great! How do I watch?
Good news! You have options. As a collaboration between Nordic broadcasters Yle (Finland) NRK (Norway) and SVT (Sweden). All three broadcasters will be showing the competition, so it’s really up to you where you check it out. If you’re an international fan like us I’d recommend picking one that provides subtitling to help you understand what’s what – NRK’s Norwegian subtitles and a browser addon that live translated them were a big help to me last year.
You’re going to want to be free on the evening of April 12th – the show is slated to start at 21:10CET, being broadcast live from the usual venue of Báktehárji in Kautokeino. If you happen to find yourself in Finnmark at that time, you can get tickets here.
Anything else?
If you’re a Mello app user, you can expect to see a new set of Mello cards for this year’s Sámi Grand Prix for you to collect – it’s a really nice touch from SVT.
Stay tuned to That Eurovision Site, because we’re hoping to give you a full set of coverage this year including discussions, reactions, rankings and even some interviews!
Finally, and most importantly, I ask you to be respectful. Sámi culture and as a result Sámi Grand Prix stands here in front of you in spite of centuries of efforts to eradicate their culture through policies like Norwegianization and Swedification – as a result of this many of the languages that will be performed in are critically endangered and at risk of disappearing entirely.
Are you excited for Sámi Grand Prix? As always, please let us know what you think by getting involved in the comments below. Also, be sure to follow ‘That Eurovision Site’ on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Threads, tumblr, and Bluesky for more information about Sámi Grand Prix 2025!
News Source – Sámi Easter Festival / Various
Photo Credit – Sámi Grand Prix
Giwrgos Oiko 
Rory Gannon