Today is the day! Sámi Grand Prix takes place tonight at Báktehárji Idrettshall in Guovdageaidnu/Kautokeino, with six singers and joikers each vying to win their respective categories.

What is Sámi Grand Prix?

Sámi Grand Prix is a music competition that was created in 1990, and has been held annually since (except 2020) as part of the Sámi Easter Festival. Uniquely to Sámi Grand Prix, there are two categories in the competition, and each will crown a winner tonight. The show is broadcast live from Kautokeino (Northern Sámi: Guovdageaidnu) as a collaboration between NRK, SVT and Yle. This year’s edition will be hosted by Isalill Kolpus and Ánte Siri

The joik section is for the more traditional, a capella joiks (also sometimes written as yoik) – a joik is the traditional form of Sámi song, and joiks are generally based on people, especially friends of family, or the natural environment.

The modern songs section is closer to what international viewers may be used to from shows like Melodifestivalen or Eurovision, but with a Sámi twist – with all songs needing to be at least partially in one of the Sámi languages, and some songs still featuring joiks as a core element.

Who are the Sámi people?

The Sámi people are an indigenous group that are native to Sápmi, a cultural region that encompasses much of northern Norway, Sweden, Finland, as well as the Kola peninsula – the group traditionally speak one of a number of Sámi languages, which are a group of Uralic languages, but due to historic hostile policies such as Swedification and Norwegianisation, not all Sámi people are able to speak the language.

Who is taking part in the contest, and are the entries out yet?

The entries have been out for a while, and they’re fantastic. There are six artists in each section of the competition, with performances in each category being interspersed throughout the night. You can listen to every entry by clicking the link below, or via your streaming service of choice.

The running order for Sámi Grand Prix 2026 is as follows:

Running Order	Category	Artist	Entry	Writers
1	Song	ELLINOR	“Du Dušši”	Ellinor Halvari, Henrik Hilmersen
2	Joik	Sárá Nilut	“Ayla Gáren Audhild”	Sárá Gáren Ánne Nilut
3	Song	Kalle Urheim	“Duottara Bárnne / Tundra’s Son”	Kalle Edvard Urheim
4	Joik	Per Bueng	“Liv Slotte”	Ánte Niillas Bongo
5	Song	Caroline J Kuhmunen	“Dorvobáiki”	Caroline Kuhmunen, Wenche Marie Hætta, Kristian Lagerström, Matias Olofsson
6	Joik	Ingor Nilá	“Marianne”	Nils Peder A. Gaup
7	Joik	Biret Risten Sara & Rávná Anti Guttorm	“Heajat”	Biret Risten Sara, Rávná Anti-Guttorm
8	Song	Alo Joks	“Mun lean”	Anne-Helen Joks-Hanssen, Wenche Marie Hætta
9	Joik	Ánte Niillas Bongo	“Náššá álddut”	Ánte Niillas Bongo
10	Song	Sofia Mienna & OK NIKO	“Gos don leat?”	Sara Sofia Josefin Mienna, Niko Mansikka-aho
11	Joik	Lars-Ánte Kuhmunen	“Nils Issát”	Lars-Ánte Kuhmunen
12	Song	Han Helge & Han Håkon	“Ingen andre”	Helge Reinsnes Moen, Håkon Mathias Guttormsen, Jovnna Levi Joks-Vars

Sounds great, where can I watch, and when?

You’ve got options! The show will be broadcast at 19:45CET (18:45GMT, 20:45EET) and will be shown on NRK1 and NRK TV in Norway, SVT2 and SVT play in Sweden, and Yle Teema & Fem and Yle Areena in Finland. If you’re from outside the region, fear not – as the shows are able to be viewed from anywhere, not just in the country the broadcasters are based in. Personally, I will be tuning in on NRK TV, with a handy browser extension that will translate Norwegian language subtitles into something I, a stupid monolingual, can understand.

If you’re just so pumped full of Sámi Grand Prix fever, you can even watch this year’s pre shows – hosted by Sara Nutti (you may know her as Dear Sara) – and already available to watch on NRK TV wherever you are in the world. You can also tune in at 18:24CET for the red carpet event.

In the same place, you’re also able to watch every Sámi Grand Prix since NRK became responsible for the broadcast of the event in 2019 – performances from 2023 to 2025 are also available to be viewed on the Sámi Grand Prix YouTube channel.

How Do I Vote?

In a new change for 2026, voting takes place exclusively on the Melodifestivalen App – which is available to download on both Apple and Android – with viewers from Sweden, Finland and Norway all able to vote for their favourites – the app is available in Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian, Danish, English, Northern Sámi and Southern Sámi. Voting follows Melodifestivalen rules, with a maximum of five votes per artist.

The app has also launched the Sámi Grand Prix 2026 pack of collectible Mello cards, being the third such pack after their introduction in 2024 – you’re able to claim a new free virtual card every hour of the day.

Why do you, someone from the United Kingdom, care so much about this event?

That’s a long and winding story that I’ll tell fully soon. For now I’ll say I first started writing about Sámi Grand Prix when I was on a Eurovision fan website, and it was one of my favourite things I ever did whilst I was there. It led me to some amazing moments that made me love the Sámi music scene even more.

I left that website, and stopped following Eurovision, when an EBU vote cleared Israel to continue participating in their show, but I didn’t want that to stop me talking about a brilliant event I’d grown to look forward to every year. So here we are.

This all sounds really cool, will there be someone live blogging the event, perhaps on a butterfly themed social media platform?

What a weirdly specific question. But yes, I will be live blogging the event over on my Bluesky page, using the hashtags #SámiGrandPrix and #SGP2026. I’ll be giving some background on the artists and their entries, as well as mostly likely a whole lot of gushing over the stage and graphic design.

If a character from a musical were to sing Caroline J Kuhmunen’s song, which would it be? And how did OK-NIKO start producing music?

You can hear the answers to both of these questions and more in the video interviews I did with the respective artists.

Photo Credit – Sámi Grand Prix