Eurovision Song Contest 1998

The Eurovision Song Contest 1998 was the 43rd edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Birmingham, United Kingdom, following Katrina and the Waves's win at the 1997 contest in Dublin, Ireland with the song "Love Shine A Light". It was the UK's fifth win, and the eighth time that the UK hosted the contest, the last being in Harrogate in 1982. The contest was staged at the National Indoor Arena on 9 May 1998, presented by Terry Wogan and Ulrika Jonsson. Wogan was the third person in the contest's history to combine the roles of presenter and commentator, after the hosting duo of Denise Fabre and Léon Zitrone in 1978. When not on stage, he was backstage in his private booth providing the necessary TV commentary to BBC viewers.[1]

Eurovision Song Contest 1998
Dates
Final	9 May 1998
Host
Venue	National Indoor Arena Birmingham, United Kingdom
Presenter(s)	Terry Wogan Ulrika Jonsson
Conductor	Martin Koch
Directed by	Geoff Posner
Executive supervisor	Christine Marchal-Ortiz
Executive producer	Kevin Bishop Jonathan King
Host broadcaster	British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
Opening act	Birmingham, Old and New
Interval act	Jupiter, The Bringer of Joviality
Website	eurovision.tv/event/birmingham-1998
Participants
Number of entries	25
Debuting countries	Macedonia
Returning countries	Belgium  Finland  Israel  Romania  Slovakia
Non-returning countries	Austria  Bosnia and Herzegovina  Denmark  Iceland  Italy  Russia
Participation map      Participating countries     Countries that participated in the past but not in 1998
Vote
Voting system	Each country awarded 12, 10, 8–1 points to their 10 favourite songs
Nul points	Switzerland
Winning song	Israel "Diva"

Twenty-five countries participated in the contest,[2] with North Macedonia making their official debut, even though they had submitted an entry in the non-televised 1996 pre-qualifying round, which failed to qualify into the televised final of that contest.[3] Belgium, Finland, and Slovakia returned to the contest after 1996. Despite having also taken part in the non-televised 1996 pre-qualifying round, in which they failed to qualify, Romania and Israel returned officially after their last participations in 1994 and 1995 respectively.[4][5] Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Denmark, Iceland, and Russia were relegated, whereas Italy did not participate by choice. Italy did not return until 2011.[6]

There was much controversy in the lead-up to the contest, mostly surrounding the entries from Greece, Israel, and Turkey: the Greek composer, Yiannis Valvis, was unhappy with the way that the director, Geoff Posner, intended to film his song;[7] many Orthodox Jews objected to the selection of transgender Dana International for Israel;[8] Turkey struggled during rehearsals to get their song within the three-minute time limit.[7] Dana International eventually went on to win the contest, scoring 172 points,[lower-alpha 1] with the song "Diva", written by Yoav Ginai, composed by Svika Pick and produced by Offer Nissim. The singer had attracted much media attention both in Israel and Europe since she had undergone gender reassignment in 1993, being the first openly transgender performer to enter the competition.[8] The United Kingdom finished in second place, one point ahead of Malta who came third.

Location

National Indoor Arena, Birmingham – host venue of the 1998 contest. (pictured in 2005 before renovation)

The United Kingdom, along with their national broadcaster the BBC, hosted the contest at the National Indoor Arena in the city of Birmingham. It was the first time since 1982 that the Eurovision Song Contest was staged in the United Kingdom,[9] and the last to date. This was a record-breaking eighth time that the United Kingdom staged the contest, having done so for the 1960, 1963, 1968, 1972, 1974, 1977, and 1982 contests.[10] The announcement of the host city and venue took place on 8 August 1997.[11]

Venue

The National Indoor Arena had been used for several major events in the past, including counting no less than eight constituencies in the hall for the 1992 general election.[12] The week after the Eurovision Song Contest, the city was to host the 24th G8 summit, with Terry Wogan vacating his hotel room to make way for Bill Clinton.[13] Opened in October 1991, the arena was best known in the UK for hosting the 1990s British television series Gladiators, also presented by Jonsson, on ITV.

While the capacity of the National Indoor Arena was up to 12,700 seats, the BBC decided to occupy only half of the venue, which could accommodate some 4,000 spectators,[14] a figure that would be systematically surpassed in subsequent years. The main stage had as its most outstanding element a structure in the shape of a whale tail. A large green room was built behind the stage where contestants watched the voting. It resembled a nightclub, with a bar area and 40 large television screens. Both areas were designed by Andrew Howe-Davies.[15]

Format

The running order draw for the contest took place at the host venue in Birmingham on 13 November 1997, drawn by Wogan and the 1997 winner, Katrina Leskanich.[16] Presented by local radio DJ Malcolm Boyden, it was broadcast live on BBC Radio West Midlands.[17] Following a format change in 1997 where acts were allowed to use purely backing tracks without instruments on the stage, no less than eight countries either partially or wholly used backing tracks: Switzerland, Germany, Malta, Slovenia, Israel and Belgium purely used backing tracks, whilst France decided to partially use the orchestra in the rehearsal week.

This was the first year in which televoting was used en masse: viewers were given five minutes after the end of the songs to vote for the song they wanted to win, with Terry Wogan remarking that "you'll have nobody to blame but yourself", which, ironically, was the reason that Wogan quit the commentary job ten years later.[18] Ironically, the contest was held in an English speaking country for the last time the contest was run without the free language rule, so only the UK, Malta, and Ireland performed in English.[19]

Postcards

The postcards continued with the opening theme of "Birmingham Old and New", looking at a traditional object and then its contemporary. Popular Britpop songs and also some pieces of classical music were used as background music. Finally, the flag of the country about to perform was formed, and then faded into either the conductor bowing or the beginning of the performance of the country about to perform. The various themes were as following, listed in appearance order:[20]

1.  Croatia – Football
2.  Greece – Beaches
3.  France – Aircraft
4.  Spain – Leisure
5.   Switzerland – Loch Ness
6.  Slovakia – Jewellery
7.  Poland – Glasgow, Scotland
8.  Israel – Art
9.  Germany – Ironworks
10.  Malta – Fashion
11.  Hungary – Wales
12.  Slovenia – Pubs
13.  Ireland – London, England
14.  Portugal – Education
15.  Romania – Sailing
16.  United Kingdom – Cars
17.  Cyprus – Food
18.  Netherlands – Broadcasting
19.  Sweden – Retail
20.  Belgium – Theatres
21.  Finland – Films
22.  Norway – Medieval
23.  Estonia – Belfast, Northern Ireland
24.  Turkey – National landmarks
25.  Macedonia – Weather

Voting

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

Opening and interval acts

Birmingham, Old and New

The opening of the contest began with a video entitled Birmingham, Old and New. Views of the past and present of the host city were juxtaposed to give a glimpse of its history. The camera footage ended with a shot of the arena from the approaching canal boat. The orchestra appeared on screen, as well as the trumpets of the Life Guards that sounded the beginning of the transmission. A short video summarising the first competition organised by the BBC in 1960 in London was shown. There appeared Katie Boyle (the only person to have presented the contest four times) who was in the audience along with the winner of the previous year, the vocalist of the group Katrina and the Waves, Katrina Leskanich.

Jupiter, The Bringer of Joviality

Vanessa-Mae, a famous violinist, performed as part of interval act.

The intermission performance was entitled Jupiter, The Bringer of Joviality (a movement from orchestral suite The Planets composed by Gustav Holst in 1914) described as a "great coming-together, a magnificent...muesli" by host and commentator Wogan. It was a medley sung and danced, highlighting the multiculturalism of the United Kingdom and included bagpipes, a male voice choir, a soprano singer, a violinist, and some dancing tribal warriors. Pieces inspired by English, Scottish, Welsh, Irish, Indian and Zulu cultures were played. Over 200 people were involved in the interval act,[21] which included Clan Sutherland, flutist Andy Findon, an excerpt of Patti Boulaye's Sun Dance (which would later open as a West End musical), harpist Carys Hughes, bhangra dancers Nachda Sansaar, Canoldir Male Voice Choir, Grimethorpe Colliery Band, trumpeters of the Band of the Blues and Royals, Vanessa-Mae, Lesley Garrett and the BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by Martin Koch.[22]

Trophy

24-year-old Anongkarat Unyawong, a Thai student at the Birmingham School of Jewellery, won a competition to design a trophy for the songwriter(s) of the winning song.[23] In addition, the winning performers each received a unique glass bowl (bearing the acronym of the Eurovision Song Contest) designed in the Midlands by Susan Nickson.[13][22]

Participation

North Macedonia, participating as the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, took part for the first time, after their 1996 entry did not make it past the internal selection by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU).[3] Belgium, Finland, Romania and Slovakia all participated after their break from the previous 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. Israel could have returned in 1997, but opted not to due to Holocaust Remembrance Day, meaning they returned for the first time in three years. The Italian broadcaster, RAI, decided not to enter in the contest, a move that would see Italy absent from the contest for 13 years before their return in 2011.[6]

Russia and Italy did not broadcast the event. In 1998 the Russian broadcaster ORT prepared to run internal preselections, but soon organisers realised that because of low average results in previous years Russia would not qualify to compete in 1998 (though there were rumours that Channel One had planned to name Tatyana Ovsienko as their representative, performing "Solntse moyo"). Because Russia did not participate, Channel One decided not to broadcast the 1998 contest, thus Russia was unable to participate in 1999. According to other sources Channel One had expected Channel Russia to broadcast the contest.[2] (This is in spite of Romania being able to return in 1998 despite not broadcasting the 1997 final, and Lithuania being able to return in 1999 despite also not showing the 1998 final live). In Lithuania, the contest was broadcast with commentary six days later.[24]

Conductors

Most performances had a musical director who conducted the orchestra. Germany and Slovenia presented their songs without orchestral accompaniment, but nevertheless introduced a conductor before their songs. France initially did not plan to perform with the orchestra, but wound up incorporating the string section for the live performance (although musical director Martin Koch did not take the customary conductor's bow).

•  Croatia – Stipica Kalogjera
•  Greece – N/A
•  France – N/A (rehearsals), Martin Koch (live broadcast)[25]
•  Spain – Alberto Estébanez
•   Switzerland – N/A
•  Slovakia – Vladimír Valovič
•  Poland – Wiesław Pieregorólka
•  Israel – N/A
•  Germany – Stefan Raab
•  Malta – N/A
•  Hungary – Miklós Malek
•  Slovenia – Mojmir Sepe
•  Ireland – Noel Kelehan
•  Portugal – Mike Sergeant
•  Romania – Adrian Romcescu
•  United Kingdom – James McMillan
•  Cyprus – Costas Cacogiannis
•  Netherlands – Dick Bakker
•  Sweden – Anders Berglund
•  Belgium – N/A
•  Finland – Olli Ahvenlahti
•  Norway – Geir Langslet
•  Estonia – Heiki Vahar
•  Turkey – Ümit Eroğlu
•  Macedonia – Aleksandar Džambazov

Returning artists

Artist	Country	Previous Year(s)
Danijela Martinović	Croatia	1995 (as part of Magazin)
Egon Egemann (violinist)	Switzerland	1990
José Cid (as part of Alma Lusa)	Portugal	1980
Paul Harrington (backing singer)	Ireland	1994 (with Charlie McGettigan)

Danijela returned for Croatia after last taking part in 1995 as part of the group Magazin. Egon Egemann who was the violinist for Gunvor this year, last participated for Switzerland at the 1990. José Cid part of Alma Lusa in 1980 returned for Portugal; and Paul Harrington who was a backing singer for Dawn Martin in 1998, returned for Ireland after having won the 1994 with Charlie McGettigan.

Results

The following tables reflect the officially verified results confirmed after the transmission of the live contest. During the voting sequence seen in the broadcast, the Spanish votes were incorrectly announced, as Germany was excluded from the Spanish announcement. Israel & Norway lost two marks and Belgium, Portugal, Malta, Netherlands, UK, Estonia, Croatia & Turkey all lost one mark each once Germany had been awarded twelve points.

Draw	Country	Artist	Song	Language[19]	Place[26]	Points[26]
01	Croatia	Danijela	"Neka mi ne svane"	Croatian	5	131
02	Greece	Thalassa	"Mia Krifi Evesthisia" (Μια κρυφή ευαισθησία)	Greek	20	12
03	France	Marie Line	"Où aller"	French	24	3
04	Spain	Mikel Herzog	"¿Qué voy a hacer sin ti?"	Spanish	16	21
05	Switzerland	Gunvor	"Lass ihn"	German	25	0
06	Slovakia	Katarína Hasprová	"Modlitba"	Slovak	21	8
07	Poland	Sixteen	"To takie proste"	Polish	17	19
08	Israel	Dana International	"Diva" (דיווה)	Hebrew	1	172
09	Germany	Guildo Horn	"Guildo hat euch lieb!"	German	7	86
10	Malta	Chiara	"The One That I Love"	English	3	165
11	Hungary	Charlie	"A holnap már nem lesz szomorú"	Hungarian	23	4
12	Slovenia	Vili Resnik	"Naj bogovi slišijo"	Slovene	18	17
13	Ireland	Dawn Martin	"Is Always Over Now?"	English	9	64
14	Portugal	Alma Lusa	"Se eu te pudesse abraçar"	Portuguese	12	36
15	Romania	Mălina Olinescu	"Eu cred"	Romanian	22	6
16	United Kingdom	Imaani	"Where Are You?"	English	2	166
17	Cyprus	Michael Hajiyanni	"Genesis" (Γένεσις)	Greek	11	37
18	Netherlands	Edsilia	"Hemel en aarde"	Dutch	4	150
19	Sweden	Jill Johnson	"Kärleken är"	Swedish	10	53
20	Belgium	Mélanie Cohl	"Dis oui"	French	6	122
21	Finland	Edea	"Aava"	Finnish	15	22
22	Norway	Lars Fredriksen	"Alltid sommer"	Norwegian	8	79
23	Estonia	Koit Toome	"Mere lapsed"	Estonian	12	36
24	Turkey	Tüzmen	"Unutamazsın"	Turkish	14	25
25	Macedonia	Vlado Janevski	"Ne zori, zoro" (Не зори, зоро)	Macedonian	19	16

Scoreboard

Voting procedure used:   100% Televoting   100% Jury vote		Voters[lower-alpha 1]
		Total score	Croatia	Greece	France	Spain	Switzerland	Slovakia	Poland	Israel	Germany	Malta	Hungary	Slovenia	Ireland	Portugal	Romania	United Kingdom	Cyprus	Netherlands	Sweden	Belgium	Finland	Norway	Estonia	Turkey	Macedonia
Contestants	Croatia	131		5	8	1	5	10	6	10	10	10		12	3	2		2	7	4	3	5	3	6	3	4	12
	Greece	12																	12
	France	3																	1								2
	Spain	21	1		4		6			3									4			3
	Switzerland	0
	Slovakia	8	8
	Poland	19			2						5		2				10
	Israel[lower-alpha 1]	172		10	12	10	10		10		7	12		7	6	12	7	5	10	6	5	10	10	3	7	5	8
	Germany	86		3		12	12							8	8	10	6	6		12		7	1		1
	Malta	165	7	6	6	5	8	12	8	7	8		7	3	12	5		12	5	8	6	8	5	12	5	10
	Hungary	4			1												1							2
	Slovenia	17	3	2													5						4			3
	Ireland	64	2				2	4	2		2	6	6	1		1	8	8			1			4	2	8	7
	Portugal	36		1	10	6		2		2		2							2			1				6	4
	Romania	6								6
	United Kingdom	166	12	7	3	3	3	1	7	12	1	8	10	5	5	6	12		8	7	7	6	8	5	8	12	10
	Cyprus	37	4	12				5		1		1	1			4	4	3				2
	Netherlands	150	10	8	5	4	7	6	5	8	6	7	12		10	7		10			8	12	7	8		7	3
	Sweden	53							3			4	8		2			1		5			6	10	12	2
	Belgium	122		4	7	7	4	7	12	5	4	3	3	6	7	8		7	6	10	2			7	6	1	6
	Finland	22																			10			1	10		1
	Norway	79				8	1		4	4	3	5	5	10	4	3		4	3	3	12	4	2		4
	Estonia	36				2		8	1				4	2	1					2	4		12
	Turkey	25	5								12						2			1							5
	Macedonia	16	6					3						4			3

12 points

Below is a summary of all 12 points in the final:

N.	Contestant	Voting nation
4	Malta	Ireland, Norway, Slovakia, United Kingdom
	United Kingdom	Croatia, Israel, Romania, Turkey
3	Israel	France, Malta, Portugal
	Germany	Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland
2	Croatia	Macedonia, Slovenia
	Netherlands	Belgium, Hungary
1	Belgium	Poland
	Cyprus	Greece
	Estonia	Finland
	Greece	Cyprus
	Norway	Sweden
	Sweden	Estonia
	Turkey	Germany

Qualification for the 1999 contest

In addition to the host country of the 1999 contest, Israel, the 16 countries with the highest average scores between 1994 and 1998 were allowed to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest 1999.

Key:
     Automatic qualifier
     Qualifier
     Replacement qualifier
     Withdrew

Rank	Country	Average	Score
			1994	1995	1996	1997	1998
1	Ireland	130.60	226	44	162	157	64
–	Israel	126.50		81			172
2	United Kingdom	121.80	63	76	77	227	166
3	Malta	94.40	97	76	68	66	165
4	Norway	83.40	76	148	114	0	79
5	Croatia	74.20	27	91	98	24	131
6[lower-alpha 2]	Sweden	67.40	48	100	100	36	53
7[lower-alpha 2]	Cyprus	67.40	51	79	72	98	37
8	Netherlands	59.25	4		78	5	150
9	Germany	59.25	128	1		22	86
10	Poland	57.00	166	15	31	54	19
11	France	56.80	74	94	18	95	3
12	Turkey	56.00		21	57	121	25
13	Spain	54.00	17	119	17	96	21
14	Estonia	53.50	2		94	82	36
15	Belgium	50.67		8	22		122
16	Slovenia	44.25		84	16	60	17
17	Hungary[lower-alpha 3]	42.00	122	3		39	4
18	Portugal[lower-alpha 3]	41.20	73	5	92	0	36
19	Greece	39.80	44	68	36	39	12
20	Macedonia	16.00					16
21[lower-alpha 4]	Finland	14.00	11		9		22
22[lower-alpha 4]	Slovakia	14.00	15		19		8
23	Switzerland	10.50	15		22	5	0
24	Romania	10.00	14				6

Incidents

Miscalculated result

Spain originally gave its 12 points to Israel and 10 to Norway. After the broadcast it was announced that the Spanish broadcaster wrongly tallied the votes and Germany should have got the top mark – 12 points – instead of receiving zero points, as in the broadcast. The mistake was corrected after the contest and so Germany was placed 7th over Norway. Israel and Norway both received 2 points less than originally and Croatia, Malta, Portugal, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Belgium, Estonia and Turkey all received one point less than indicated during the broadcast. Originally Estonia, Cyprus and Portugal tied for 11th place with 37 points but because Portugal and Estonia received one point less than indicated during the broadcast, Cyprus was placed 11th over Estonia and Portugal.[2]

Dramatic finish

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 and the United Kingdom just a few points behind. When Macedonia came to award the decisive points, Israel was 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, Malta. 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 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. It is also noteworthy that the United Kingdom, who finished second, received points from every country, whereas Israel received points from 21 of the 24 other countries. Furthermore, Israel received three sets of 12 points, whereas Malta and the United Kingdom both received four sets of 12 points. Nonetheless, Israel received seven sets of 10 points to help seal the win.

Nul points

For the second year in a row, at least one country went home empty-handed; Switzerland's Gunvor Guggisberg with her composition "Lass Ihn" failed to score a single point.

Guildo Horn

Other notable participants were Germany's Guildo Horn, whose shocking comedic act culminated in his climbing the scaffolding on the side of the stage. Controversially chosen to represent Germany, he was criticised for his lack of seriousness by the German press. However, after winning by 60% of the vote, the German people were firmly on Horn's side. "Guildo-Fever" spread throughout Germany during the weeks leading up to the contest, with Horn becoming front-page material in Germany. He was also noticed in countries around Europe, and the early criticism that had existed in Germany arose in those countries. Even though his 7th place was disappointing, to some Germans it was a revival for the contest in Germany, and was the beginning of four consecutive top-ten finishes.

Greece

After the first rehearsals, the Greek composer, Yiannis Valvis, was unhappy with the way that the director, Geoff Posner, intended to film his song, specifically a series of six heavily-emphasised chords accompanied by six dance moves which Valvis felt the director was not placing enough emphasis upon. After a meeting where Valvis attempted to ask for the Greeks to have full control over their performance and this request was rejected, Valvis launched a formal protest at the Greek press conference. After making no progress, Valvis protested more actively at the dress rehearsal, standing on the stage during the Greek song, claiming that he was supposed to be playing bass but had not been given an instrument.[7]

This proved to be the final straw for the EBU, the BBC, and ERT: Valvis was refused entry to the arena on the date of the contest. In response, ERT threatened to withdraw from the competition, which would promote France to second in the running order and reduce the number of entrants to twenty-four. However, minutes later, they reversed their decision. Greece earned only 12 points in the end, all of which came from Cyprus, ranking Greece 20th by the end of the broadcast, their worst result. (Greece would again be ranked 20th in 2014's edition in Denmark with 35 points, but in a different score system). Watching from a hotel room, Valvis accused the BBC of favouritism, as "Diva" had similar chords and moves, which had been given emphasis by the BBC.[7]

Israel and Dana International

Orthodox Jews were unhappy with the fact that Dana International, the first singer at the contest ever to have undergone gender reassignment surgery in 1993, was representing Israel, due to religious bigotry.[7][8]

Turkey timing issues

After the first rehearsal, the Turkish conductor was found to be playing the tempo too slowly, and so the Turkish song exceeded three minutes, with the first rehearsal performance being three seconds too long. The next rehearsal performance was, alarmingly, even slower, with the Turkish conductor claiming to a camera that due to a series of "hemi-demi-semi-dim-dams" it was impossible for him to play the song quicker. The third performance came in at 3:07, leading to speculation that Turkey would be disqualified from the contest. The conductor then said that a metronome would be useless due to a number of tempo changes in the song. The final performance on the night was timed at 2:59, which was enough to keep Turkey in the competition.[7]

Ulrika Jonsson ageism row

In a BBC interview, future Eurovision entrant Nicki French said that one of her most memorable Eurovision moments was Jonsson's infamous faux pas during the voting. On hearing that the Dutch lady announcing the Netherlands' votes had previously been a contestant in Eurovision, Jonsson replied, "A long time ago, was it?" which was followed by much laughter from the audience.[27] 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 van den Bos and Jonsson, this wasn't heard above the noise of the audience.[27] What was heard, however, was Jonsson's seemingly insulting comment.[2]

Barbara Dex Award

For the second year, the fansite House of Eurovision presented the Barbara Dex Award, a humorous award given to the worst dressed artist each year in the contest. It is named after the Belgian artist, Barbara Dex, who came last in the 1993 contest, in which she wore her own self designed dress.

Guildo Horn of Germany won the 1998 Barbara Dex Award.

International broadcasts and voting

The show was transmitted to 33 European countries, Australia, Canada and South Korea.[15]

Voting and spokespersons

The spokespersons announced the score from their respective country's televote (or, in some cases, national jury) in running order.

1.  Croatia – Davor Meštrović[28]
2.  Greece – Alexis Kostalas[29]
3.  France – Marie Myriam[30] (Winner of the 1977 contest)
4.  Spain – Belén Fernández de Henestrosa
5.   Switzerland – Regula Elsener
6.  Slovakia – Alena Heribanová
7.  Poland – Jan Chojnacki
8.  Israel – Yigal Ravid[31] (later co-presenter of the 1999 contest)
9.  Germany – Nena
10.  Malta – Stephanie Spiteri
11.  Hungary – Barna Héder
12.  Slovenia – Mojca Mavec
13.  Ireland – Eileen Dunne
14.  Portugal – Lúcia Moniz[32] (Portuguese representative in 1996)
15.  Romania – Anca Ţurcașiu
16.  United Kingdom – Ken Bruce
17.  Cyprus – Marina Maleni[33]
18.  Netherlands – Conny Vandenbos (Dutch representative in 1965)
19.  Sweden – Björn Hedman[34]
20.  Belgium – Marie-Hélène Vanderborght[30]
21.  Finland – Marjo Wilska[35]
22.  Norway – Ragnhild Sælthun Fjørtoft
23.  Estonia – Urve Tiidus[36]
24.  Turkey – Osman Erkan
25.  Macedonia – Evgenija Teodosievska[37]

Commentators

Most countries sent commentators to Birmingham or commented from their own country, in order to add insight to the participants and, if necessary, the provision of voting information.

Participating countries

•  Belgium – French: Jean-Pierre Hautier (RTBF La Une); Alain Gerlache and Adrien Joveneau (RTBF La Première); Dutch: André Vermeulen and Andrea Croonenberghs (VRT TV1), Guy De Pré (VRT Radio 2)[22][38]
•  Croatia – Aleksandar "Aco" Kostadinov (HRT 1), Draginja Balaš (HR 2)[39]
•  Cyprus – Evi Papamichail (RIK 1), Pavlos Pavlou (CyBC Radio 2)[33]
•  Estonia – Reet Linna (Eesti Televisioon), Marko Reikop (Raadio 2)
•  Finland – Maria Guzenina and Sami Aaltonen (YLE TV1), Aki Sirkesalo and Kati Bergman (Yle Radio Suomi)[40]
•  France – Chris and Laura Mayne (France 2), François Kevorkian and Michel Field (France Inter)[22]
•  Germany – Peter Urban (Das Erste), Thomas Mohr (Deutschlandfunk/NDR 2)[41][42]
•  Greece – Giorgos Mitropoulos (ET1), Dimitris Konstantaras (ERA1)[43]
•  Hungary – Gábor Gundel Takács (MTV1)
•  Ireland – Pat Kenny (RTÉ One), Larry Gogan (RTÉ Radio 1)[44]
•  Israel – Television: No commentator (Haarutz Ha-Rishon), Radio: Daniel Pe'er (Reshet Gimel)
•  Macedonia – Milanka Rašik (MTV 3)
•  Malta – Gino Cauchi (TVM)
•  Netherlands – Willem van Beusekom (TV2), Daniël Dekker and Hijlco Span (Radio 2)[45]
•  Norway – Jostein Pedersen (NRK1);[46] Stein Dag Jensen (NRK P1)[47]
•  Poland – Artur Orzech (TVP1)[48]
•  Portugal – Rui Unas (RTP1)[32]
•  Romania – Leonard Miron (TVR2)
•  Slovakia – Rastislav Sokol (STV2)
•  Slovenia – Miša Molk (SLO1)
•  Spain – José Luis Uribarri (TVE1)[49]
•  Sweden – Pernilla Månsson and Christer Björkman (SVT2),[34] Claes-Johan Larsson and Anna Hötzel (SR P4)
•   Switzerland – German: Roman Kilchsperger and Heinz Margot (SF 2), French: Jean-Marc Richard (TSR 1), Italian: Jonathan Tedesco (TSI 1)[22]
•  Turkey – Ömer Önder (TRT 1), Fatih Orbay (TRT Radyo 3)
•  United Kingdom – Terry Wogan (BBC One), Ken Bruce (BBC Radio 2)

Non-participating countries

•  Australia – N/A (SBS TV)
•  Austria – Ernst Grissemann (ORF2), Stermann & Grissemann (FM4)[50][51]
•  Bosnia and Herzegovina – Ismeta Dervoz-Krvavac (BHT)
•  Canada – Unknown
•  Denmark – Jørgen de Mylius (DR1)[52]
•  Iceland – Páll Óskar Hjálmtýsson (Sjónvarpið)[53]
•  Latvia – Unknown (LTV1)[54]
•  Lithuania – Unknown (LTV, 15 May 1998)[24]
•  South Korea – Unknown
•  FR Yugoslavia – Vojislav Pantić (RTS 3K)[55][lower-alpha 5]

Notes and references

Footnotes

1. After the broadcast it was announced that Spanish broadcaster wrongly tallied the votes and Germany should have got the top mark – 12 points – instead of being snubbed, as it happened. The mistake was corrected and so Germany was placed 7th over Norway. Israel and Norway both received 2 points less than originally and Croatia, Malta, Portugal, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Belgium, Estonia and Turkey all received one point less than indicated during the broadcast. Originally Estonia, Cyprus and Portugal tied for 11th place with 37 points but because Portugal and Estonia received one point less than indicated during the broadcast, Cyprus was placed 11th over Estonia and Portugal.
2. While Sweden and Cyprus had the same average score, Sweden had achieved a higher score in the most recent contest, 1998. The rules stated that "Where such average is identical between two or three members, the total number of points scored in the most recent year in which the member participated shall be decisive."
3. Initially, Latvia were going to debut in the 1999 contest, but ultimately did not do so, allowing Hungary to compete. However, Hungary did not participate in 1999, and their place was awarded to Portugal.
4. While Finland and Slovakia had the same average score, Finland had achieved a higher score in the most recent contest, 1998.
5. After the breakup of Yugoslavia, Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was last participated in 1992. Third channel of Radio Television of Serbia broadcast the show, although Yugoslavia did not participate.

References

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External links

• Official website