nrk began their campaign for the 2008 eurovision song contest on 9 july 2007. an open call for songs was made by nrk for melodi grand prix 2008. nrk also directly invited composers to submit songs for the contest, as they did in 2007. all entries had to be received by nrk by 1 september. composers of all nationalities were again welcome in the competition, despite the controversy that has arisen in recent years over the number of songs written by swedish composers that can be found in the competition. however nrk said that they support songs composed by norwegians, but that they would still like to open the contest to foreign composers, hence all entries were under consideration.