Eurovision Song Contest 1998

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**Eurovision Song Contest 1998**

Date	9 May 1998
Presenter	Ulrika Jonsson & Terry Wogan
Host Conductor	James McMillan
Host Broadcaster	BBC
Venue	National Indoor Arena, Birmingham, England
Winning Song	Diva (Israel)
Voting system	Each country awarded 12, 10, 8-1 points to their 10 favourite songs
Number of Songs	25
Countries Making Debut	FYR Macedonia
Nul points	Switzerland
Interval Act	Jupiter, The Bringer of Joviality

The Eurovision Song Contest 1998 was the 43rd Eurovision Song Contest and was held on May 9, 1998 at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham, England. The presenters were Terry Wogan and Ulrika Jonsson. Despite being one of the presenters, Terry Wogan still managed to provide commentary to the contest for the BBC. Dana International from Israel won this year's Eurovision, with the song Diva, following much pre-contest hype and publicity due to the fact that she is a male-to-female transsexual. This year will be remembered for several reasons: this was the last year with an orchestra, the first year with mass televoting, and the last year with language restriction. The contest will never be forgotten because of the suspenseful voting, where the winner was decided on the last nation's points. Greece, France, Switzerland, Malta, Israel and Belgium did not sing with an orchestra, they sang with backing tracks.

The Republic of Macedonia was present for the first time, after their participation failed in 1996 during the internal selection by the EBU. Belgium, Finland, Israel, Romania and Slovakia all participated after their break from last year's contest; Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Denmark, Russia and Iceland could not participate because of their low average scores from the past five years. The Italian broadcaster, RAI, decided to withdraw from the contest and stay away from it in the future.

After the points from some countries were announced, it was clear that Israel, Malta, and the United Kingdom would be fighting for the top spot. Israel remained in the lead at the end of the voting, but only by two to three points. Everything came down to the vote of Macedonia, who rewarded Israel with 8 points, United Kingdom 10, and Croatia 12, giving zero to Malta, which left Chiara in third place after being second throughout the entire voting process. On the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the state of Israel, Dana International brought the nation their third victory. Also, Edsilia Rombley, who placed fourth with 150 points, ensured the best result that the Netherlands have had since their win in 1975.

Other notable participants were Germany, who entered Guildo Horn, who provided a shocking comedic act, eventually climbing the scaffolding on the side of the stage. Greece earned only 12 points, which all came from Cyprus. After the contest, there was a correction made with the Spanish votes, who made a mistake in awarding Germany with zero points, rather than the 12 that was rightfully theirs.

In a BBC interview, future Eurovision entrant Nicki French said that one of her most memorable Eurovision moments was Ulrika's infamous faux pas during the voting. On hearing that the Dutch lady announcing the Netherlands' votes had previously been a contestant in Eurovision, Ulrika replied, "A long time ago, was it?" which was followed by much laughter and booing from the audience. [1] In fact Conny Van Den Bos who sang for the Netherlands in 1965 said that she had gone to the contest many years ago; unfortunately for both Conny and Ulrika this wasn't heard above the noise of the audience. What was heard, however, was Ulrika's comment.

1 Results
2 Voting structure
3 Score sheet
4 External links
5 Map

Dana International performing Diva for Israel at Eurovision 1998.

Imaani nearly made it two wins in a row for the UK.

Terry Wogan, the co-presenter.

Ulrika Jonsson, the co-presenter.

[edit] Results

Draw	Country	Language	Artist	Song	Translation	Place	Points
1	Croatia	Croatian	Danijela	Neka mi ne svane	May The Dawn Never Come	5	131
2	Greece	Greek	Thalassa	Mia Krifi Evesthisia	A Secret Illusion	20	12
3	France	French	Marie Line	Où Aller	Where To Go	24	3
4	Spain	Spanish	Mikel Herzog	¿Qué voy a hacer sin ti?	What Am I Going To Do Without You?	16	21
5	Switzerland	German	Gunvor	Lass ihn	Let Him	25	0
6	Slovakia	Slovak	Katarína Hasprová	Modlitba	A Prayer	21	8
7	Poland	Polish	Sixteen	To takie proste	It's Easy	17	19
8	Israel	Hebrew	Dana International	Diva	-	1	172
9	Germany	German	Guildo Horn	Guildo hat euch lieb!	Guildo Loves You!	7	86
10	Malta	English	Chiara	The One That I Love	-	3	165
11	Hungary	Hungarian	Charlie	A holnap már nem lesz szomorú	Sadness Will Be Over Tomorrow	23	4
12	Slovenia	Slovene	Vili Resnik	Naj bogovi slišijo	Let The Gods Hear	18	17
13	Republic of Ireland	English	Dawn Martin	Is Always Over Now?	-	9	64
14	Portugal	Portuguese	Alma Lusa	Se eu te pudesse abraçar	If I Could Embrace You	12	36
15	Romania	Romanian	Mălina Olinescu	Eu cred	I Believe	22	6
16	United Kingdom	English	Imaani	Where Are You?	-	2	166
17	Cyprus	Greek	Michalis Hadjiyiannis	Yenesis	Genesis	11	37
18	Netherlands	Dutch	Edsilia	Hemel en aarde	Heaven and Earth	4	150
19	Sweden	Swedish	Jill Johnson	Kärleken är	Love Is	10	53
20	Belgium	French	Mélanie Cohl	Dis oui	Say Yes	6	122
21	Finland	Finnish	Edea	Aava	Open Landscape	15	22
22	Norway	Norwegian	Lars A. Fredriksen	Alltid sommer	Always Summer	8	79
23	Estonia	Estonian	Koit Toome	Mere lapsed	Children Of The Sea	12	36
24	Turkey	Turkish	Tüzmen	Unutamazsın	You Can't Forget	14	25
25	FYR Macedonia	Macedonian	Vlado Janevski	Ne zori, zoro	Dawn, Do Not Rise	19	16

[edit] Voting structure

Each country had a televote except Turkey, Romania and some others , where the top ten most voted for songs were awarded the 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 points, with a backup jury in case of mistakes. A Jury was used if there was exceptional reasons not to use a televote.

With just one country left to vote, it was anyone's guess as to who was going to prevail, with Israel and Malta locked in battle on the same points total (or so the scoreboard said - in fact, Spain's vote had been wrongly tallied and Malta was really one point ahead), and the United Kingdom apparently nine points behind (really nine behind Malta and eight behind Israel). When FYR Macedonia came to award the decisive points, Israel were the first of the three contenders to be mentioned, receiving eight points. That was enough to knock the UK out of contention for victory, but left plenty of room for Israel to be overtaken by their principal rival. Next, the ten points went to the UK, nudging them into what looked like being an extremely fleeting spell in second place, since most of the audience assumed the twelve points were destined for Malta. Instead, there were gasps as FYR Macedonia sent the final points of the evening to fellow Balkan nation Croatia, handing Israel their first win in the contest since "Hallelujah" in 1979.