Norway in the Eurovision Song Contest 1979
Norway was represented by Anita Skorgan, with the song '"Oliver", at the 1979 Eurovision Song Contest, which took place on 31 March in Jerusalem. "Oliver" was chosen as the Norwegian entry at the Melodi Grand Prix on 10 February. This was the second of three Eurovision appearances (and a further uncredited fourth) for Skorgan.
| Eurovision Song Contest 1979 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Country |  | |||
| National selection | ||||
| Selection process | Melodi Grand Prix 1979 | |||
| Selection date(s) | 10 February 1979 | |||
| Selected entrant | Anita Skorgan | |||
| Selected song | "Oliver" | |||
| Finals performance | ||||
| Final result | 11th, 57 points | |||
| Norway in the Eurovision Song Contest | ||||
| ||||
Before Eurovision
Melodi Grand Prix 1979
The final was held at the studios of broadcaster NRK in Oslo, hosted by Egil Teige. Eight songs took part in the final, with the winner chosen by an "expert" jury, which included Kirsti Sparboe, who represented Norway in 1965, 1967, and 1969, and Norwegian Eurovision conductors Carsten Klouman and Sigurd Jansen. Future Eurovision winner Hanne Krogh also took part.[1]
| Final – 10 February 1979 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Draw | Artist | Song | Points | Place |
| 1 | Inger Lise Rypdal | "Så lenge du er hos meg" | 24 | 3 |
| 2 | Ingrid Elisabeth Johansen | "Boogie Bill" | 17 | 4 |
| 3 | Gudny Aspaas | "Sang uten ord" | 6 | 7 |
| 4 | Hanne Krogh | "Når vi er barn" | 2 | 8 |
| 5 | Tore Johansen | "Ved en grammofon" | 7 | 6 |
| 6 | Anne Lise Gjøstøl | "Hva er vitsen med en sang" | 30 | 2 |
| 7 | Maj-Britt Andersen | "Jeg ringer deg i kveld" | 12 | 5 |
| 8 | Anita Skorgan | "Oliver" | 37 | 1 |
| Detailed Jury Votes | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Draw | Song | S. Jansen | J. Helseth | T. Thue | L. Mylius | E. Pedersen | C. Klouman | A. Johansen | S. Bergh | K. Sparboe | Total |
| 1 | "Så lenge du er hos meg" | 3 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 24 | |
| 2 | "Boogie Bill" | 2 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 17 | |||
| 3 | "Sang uten ord" | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 6 | |||||
| 4 | "Når vi er barn" | 1 | 1 | 2 | |||||||
| 5 | "Ved en grammofon" | 4 | 3 | 7 | |||||||
| 6 | "Hva er vitsen med en sang" | 5 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 30 | |
| 7 | "Jeg ringer deg i kveld" | 3 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 12 | |||
| 8 | "Oliver" | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 37 |
At Eurovision
On the night of the final Skorgan performed 16th in the running order, following Sweden and preceding the United Kingdom. At the close of voting "Oliver" had picked up 57 points (the highest being 10 from Sweden), placing Norway 11th of the 19 entries. The Norwegian jury awarded its 12 points to contest winners Israel.[2]