Eurovision Song Contest in the '90s
With the country in turmoil and on the brink of war a lot of countries seized the opportunity to send songs with messages of unity, peace and understanding. The success of these messages covered the entire scoreboard from 1st to last. The contest got off to a false start as the singers for the Spanish entry walked off stage because they couldn't hear the backing track. In a clever move considering the location the Italian entry used former Yugoslav entrants Pepel in Kri (1975) as his backing group. Ketil Stokkan returned for Norway 4 years after coming 12th he fared a lot less well this time around finishing equal last. Icelandic duo Stjornin returned a couple of years later as members of Heart2Heart. The female half, Sigga, returned again a further 2 years later as a solo artist. Serge Gainsbourg was back for a final attempt to win again as a composer this time as composer of the French entry. The voting was uneventful with Italy taking the lead with the first set of votes. They relinquished for a while to Ireland after the Icelandic votes only to regain it after the Irish failed to help their own cause by awarding Italy their 12 points. Italy were more helpful to their own cause by completely ignoring both the Irish and French entries.
Results
1.(19) 149 points - Italy - Insieme:1992 - Toto Cutugno
2.(14) 132 points - France - White & Black Blues - Joëlle Ursull
(17) 132 points - Ireland - Somewhere In Europe - Liam Reilly
4.(8 ) 124 points - Iceland - Eitt lag enn - Stjornin
5.(1) 96 points - Spain - Bandido - Azucar Moreno
6.(7) 87 points - United Kingdom - Give A Little Love Back To The World - Emma
7.(15) 81 points - Yugoslavia - Hadje da ludujemo - Tajci
8.(11) 64 points - Denmark - Hallo, Hallo - Lonnie Devantier
9.(13) 60 points - Germany - Frei zu leben - Chris Kempers & Daniel Kovac
10.(20) 58 points - Austria - Keine Mauern mehr - Simone
11.(12) 51 points - Switzerland - Musik klingt in die Welt hinaus - Egon Egemann
12.(3) 46 points - Belgium - Macédomienne - Phillipe Lafontaine
13.(6) 38 points - Luxembourg - Quand je te rêve - Céline Carzo
14.(21) 36 points - Cyprus - Milas Poli - Haris Anastasiou
15.(5) 25 points - Netherlands - Ik wil alles met je delen - Maywood
16.(18 ) 24 points - Sweden - Som en vind - Edin-Ådahl
17.(4) 21 points - Turkey - Gözlerinin hapsindeyim - Kayahan
18.(10) 16 points - Israel - Shara Barkhovot - Rita
19.(2) 11 points - Greece - Horis Skopo - Christos Callow
20.(16) 9 points - Portugal - Há sempre alguém - Nucha
21.(9) 8 points - Norway -Brandenburger Tor - Ketil Stokkan
(22) 8 points - Finland - Fri? - Beat
Italy's 2 former winners returned to present the show. 1964 winner Gigliola Cinquetti and the previous years winner Toto Cutugno were chosen as the presenters, with varying degrees of success. Gigliola was professional if a little reserved, Toto was a complete shambles prompting UK commentator to comment "it was a black day when he won last year". It was not only Toto who made a mess of things though. The orchestra was causing problems not least for the Greek entry where a saxophone solo appeared to be played by someone who'd never played the instrument before. Carola returned for Sweden hoping to improve on her 3rd place of 8 years earlier. Norwegian group Just4Fun included Hanne Krogh, who'd been a soloist in the 1971 contest and a member of winner Bobbysocks in 1985, and Eirukur Haukson who'd been a member of ICY for Iceland in 1986 and would return as a soloist in 2007 again for Iceland. Malta returned to the contest after a 16 year break. Austria finished on 0 points for the 2nd time in 4 years with Thomas Forstner hoping to repeat or improve his 5th place of 3 years ago failing miserably. The voting was fascinating all the way through. Israel took an early lead until the Austrian votes handed the lead to France. Luxembourg voting next then handed the lead to Spain. It was looking like a close fight between Israel and Spain. However as votes for the Spanish appeared to dwindle and the votes for the Israelis stayed steady the votes for Sweden and France were getting bigger. With only Italy left to vote the scores showed Sweden in the lead with 146, Israel were 2nd with 139 and France were 3rd with 134 points. The Italian votes proceeded nicely getting all the way to 7 with nothing for any of the top 3 songs. 8 points followed for Turkey, followed by 10 for Malta. It all came down to who the Italians gave their 12 to. When the points were revealed to go to France total confusion reigned. Sweden and France were tied on 146 points. Toto started screeching "Mr Naef, Mr Naef" at the scrutineer Frank Naef. The EBU had in place guidlines for such occasions as this. If the result is a tie then the country with the most 12 points would be declared the winner (both Sweden & France had received 4 top marks) if it was still tied the country with the most 10 points would be declared the winner (Sweden had 5 10s to France's 2). With this explained Sweden was declared the winner.
Results
1.(8 ) 146 points - Sweden - Fångad av en stormvind - Carola
2.(9) 146 points - France - C'est le dernier qui a parlé qui a raison - Amina
3.(15) 139 points - Israel - Kaan - Duo Datz
4.(19) 119 points - Spain - Bailar pegados - Sergio Dalma
5.(5) 118 points - Switzerland - Canzone per te - Sandra Simo
6.(3) 106 points - Malta - Could It Be - Paul Giordimaina & Georgina
7.(22) 89 points - Italy - Comme è ddoce 'o mare - Peppino di Capri
8.(12) 62 points - Portugal - Lusitana paixão - Dulce
9.(21) 60 points - Cyprus - SOS - Elena Patroclou
10.(11) 47 points - Ireland - Could It Be That I'm In Love - Kim Jackson
(20) 47 points - United Kingdom - A Message To Your Heart - Samantha Janus
12.(10) 44 points - Turkey - Iki dakika - Izel Çeliköz, Reyhan Karaca & Can Ugurluer
13.(4) 36 points - Greece - I anixi - Sofia Vossou
14.(7) 29 points - Luxembourg - Un baiser volé - Sarah Bray
15.(2) 26 points - Iceland - Nina - Stefán & Eyfi
16.(18 ) 23 points - Belgium - Geef het op - Clouseau
17.(14) 14 points - Norway - Mrs. Thompson - Just4Fun
18.(17) 10 points - Germany - Dieser Traum darf niemals sterben - Atlantis 2000
19.(13) 8 points - Denmark - Lige der hvor hjertet slår - Anders Frandsen
20.(16) 6 points - Finland - Hullu yö - Kaija
21.(1) 1 point - Yugoslavia - Brazil - Bebi Doll
22.(6) 0 points - Austria - Venedig im regen - Thomas Forstner
The 3rd contest to be held in Sweden was held in the 3rd different Swedish city. After Stockholm in 1975 and Gothenburg in 1985 it was Malmö's turn in 1992. The contest was yet another historical contest for many reasons not least the last appearance for Yugoslavia (although in some quarters it's considered as the first appearance for Serbia & Montenegro). There were many returning entrants and many making first of many appearances. Most noticable was the winner, Linda Martin, returning 8 years after coming 2nd to take victory. In doing so she handed Johnny Logan another piece of history, having sung a winner written by someone else, sung a winner written by himself, and written a winner sung by someone else. Mia Martini returned for Italy 15 years after her first appearance. Wind returned for the 3rd time for Germany with only 2 of it's original members. Icelandic group Heart2Heart was basically 1990 entrants Stjornin with one extra member. Evridiki appeared for the first of her 3 appearances for Cyprus and Tony Wegas was making the first of 2 consecutive appearances for Austria. Blind singer Serafin Zubiri appeared for the first time for Spain and returned 8 years later. In the voting despite early good showings for Malta and the United Kingdom, Ireland took the lead about half way through and was never really challenged after that. Greece equalled their highest ever position.
Results
1.(17) 155 points - Ireland - Why Me? - Linda Martin
2.(16) 139 points - United Kingdom - One Step Out Of Time - Michael Ball
3.(10) 123 points - Malta - Little Child - Mary Spiteri
4.(19) 111 points - Italy - Rapsodia - Mia Martini
5.(5) 94 points - Greece - Olou tu kosmu i elpida - Cleopatra
6.(3) 85 points - Israel - Ze rak sport - Dafna
7.(11) 80 points - Iceland - Nei eda ja - Heart2Heart
8.(6) 73 points - France - Monté la riviè - Kali
9.(23) 67 points - Netherlands - Wijs me de weg - Humphrey Campbell
10.(15) 63 points - Austria - Zusammen geh'n - Tony Wegas
11.(9) 57 points - Cyprus - Teriazoume - Evridiki
12.(18 ) 47 points - Denmark - Alt det om ingen ser - Kenny Lübcke & Lotte Nilsson
13.(20) 44 points - Yugoslavia - Ljubim te pesmama - Extra Nena
14.(1) 37 points - Spain - Todo esto es la musica - Serafin Zubiri
15.(13) 32 points - Switzerland - Mister Music Man - Daisy Auvray
16.(22) 27 points - Germany - Träume sind für alle da - Wind
17.(17) 26 points - Portugal - Amor d'água fresca - Dina
18.(21) 23 points - Norway - Visjoner - Merethe Trøan
19.(4) 17 points - Turkey - Yaz Bitti - Aylin Vatankos
20.(2) 11 points - Belgium - Nous, on veut de violons - Morgane
21.(14) 10 points - Luxembourg - Sou Fräi - Marion Welter & Kontinent
22.(7) 9 points - Sweden - I morgon är en annan dag - Christer Björkman
23.(12) 4 points - Finland - Yamma-yamma - Pave
The tiny village of Millstreet in County Cork was chosen to host the 1993 contest. 3 new nations were welcomed to the contest after a qualification round containing 7 countries who had wanted to join the contest. The 3 new countries were Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovenia. Slovakia, Estonia, Romania and Hungary all had to wait another year. It was also announced that the countries finishing in the bottom 7 would miss the following years contest to make way for all the new countries from the former Eastern Bloc who wanted to take part. As it happened only the bottom 6 were relegated along with Italy who withdrew after the 1993 contest. Luxembourg, having finished in the bottom 6, have never returned to the contest. There were 3 returning artists, Finland's Katri-Helena returning 14 years after her debut, Tony Wegas returning for Austria and Tommy Seebach returning for a 3rd and final time for Denmark. The voting was made closer than it should have been. For some reason they were unable to contact the Maltese spokesperson straight away so their votes were held back until last. Ireland had held the lead pretty much since the beginning but with only the delayed Maltese votes to come they held an 11 point lead over the United Kingdom. The votes proceeded with neither country receiving anything. With only their 12 points to reveal neither country had received any points. Malta proceeded to give 12 to Ireland and a 23 point victory was theirs. Ireland became the 4th country after Spain, Luxembourg and Israel to successfully defend the title.
Results
1.(14) 187 points - Ireland - In Your Eyes - Niamh Kavanagh
2.(19) 164 points - United Kingdom - Better The Devil You Know - Sonia
3.(4) 148 points - Switzerland - Moi, tout simplement - Annie Cotton
4.(12) 121 points - France - Mama Corsica - Patrick Fiori
5.(25) 120 points - Norway - Alle mine tankar - Silje Vige
6.(20) 92 points - Netherlands - Vrede - Ruth Jacott
7.(13) 89 points - Sweden - Eloise - Arvingarna
8.(8 ) 69 points - Malta - This Time - William Magnion
9.(6) 64 points - Greece - Elhada hora tu fotos - Keti Garbi
10.(11) 60 points - Portugal - A cidade (até ser dia) - Anabela
11.(22) 58 points - Spain - Hombres - Eva Santamaria
12.(1) 45 points - Italy - Sole d'Europa - Enrico Ruggieri
13.(9) 43 points - Iceland - Pa veistu svario - Inga
14.(10) 32 points - Austria - Maria Magdalena - Tony Wegas
15.(21) 31 points - Croatia - Don't Ever Cry - PUT
16.(18 ) 27 points - Bosnia & Herzegovina - Sva bol svijeta - Fazla
17.(17) 20 points - Finland - Tule luo - Katri Helena
18.(3) 18 points - Germany - Viel zu weit - Münchener Freiheit
19.(23) 17 points - Cyprus - Mi stamatas - Zymboulaikis & van Beke
20.(15) 11 points - Luxembourg - Donne-moi une chance - Modern Times
21.(2) 10 points - Turkey - Esmer yarim - Burak Aydos
22.(5) 9 points - Denmark - Under stjernerne på himlen - Tommy Seebach Band
(16) 9 points - Slovenia - Tih deževen dan - 1X Band
24.(24) 4 points - Israel - Shiru - Shiru
25.(7) 3 points - Belgium - Iemand als jij - Barbara
For the first time ever the Contest was held in the same country on consecutive years. The contest welcomed 7 new nations, the biggest influx of debut countries since the inaugural event. Having missed out in the qualifying round the previous year Hungary, Estonia, Romania & Slovakia all made their debuts and were joined by Russia, Lithuania & Poland. Elisabeth Andreassen was back again. Having been half of Chips for Sweden in 1982 and half of Bobbysocks for Norway in 1985, she was again back for Norway this time with Jan Werner Danielsen. Evridiki tried again for Cyprus and just as she had 2 years earlier she finished 11th. Sigga had ditched her fellow member of Stjornin and Heart2Heart and came back on her own. Marie Bergman had been a memeber of Family Four for Sweden in 1971 and 1972. She returned 22 years after her last appearance this time with Roger Pontare who himself would return to the contest 6 years later. Half of the Bosnian duo, Alma Cardzic, was making the first of 2 appearances. Much was made of the age of the Dutch singer before the contest, she was 59, but whether it was her age or her song which gave her the poor result remains open to debate. A major advancement was made with the giving of votes this year as for the first time video links were used to speak to the spokespeople. The voting itself was incredibly one-sided, although after the first 3 sets of votes (Sweden, Finland & Ireland) it looked as though Hungary would run away with the title as they had scored 12 from each jury (the first (and only) time that any country had received the top marks from the first 3 juries). Ireland soon took the lead and never relinquished it. The song was seen by some commentators as a gentle attempt not to win, the jurors disagreed and it soon became the first song to score more than 200 points. Poland, on their debut, finished a distant 2nd but still had the best debut result ever. Hungary faded slightly but still finished 4th. At the other end of the spectrum for the debut makers, Lithuania became the 2nd country after Portugal in 1964 to score 0 on their debut. Estonia fared little better scoring just 2, thanks to the Greek jury (who incidentally were the only country not to vote for Ireland....they actually ignored all of the top 4 entries)
Results
1.(3) 226 points - Ireland - Rock N' Roll Kids - Paul Harrington & Charlie McGettigan
2.(24) 166 points - Poland - To Nie Ja - Edyta Gorniak
3.(14) 128 points - Germany - Wir geben 'ne Party - MeKaDo
4.(22) 122 points - Hungary - Kinek mondjam el vétkeimet - Friderika
5.(12) 97 points - Malta - More Than Love - Moira & Chris
6.(17) 76 points - Norway - Duett - Elisabeth Andreassen & Jan Werner Danielsen
7.(25) 74 points - France - Je suis un vrai garçon - Nina Morato
8.(8 ) 73 points - Portugal - Chamar a musica - Sara Tavares
9.(23) 70 points - Russia - Vyechniy stranik - Youddiph
10.(6) 63 points - United Kingdom - Lonely Symphony - Frances Ruffelle
11.(4) 51 points - Cyprus - Ime anthropos ke ego - Evridiki
12.(5) 49 points - Iceland - Nætur - Sigga
13.(1) 48 points - Sweden - Stjärnorna - Marie Bergman & Roger Pontare
14.(19) 44 points - Greece - To trehadiri - Costas Bigalis & The Sea Lovers
15.(18) 39 points - Bosnia & Herzegovina - Ostani kraj mene - Alma & Dejan
16.(7) 27 points - Croatia - Nek' ti bude ljubav sva - Tony Cetinski
17.(20) 19 points - Austria - Für den Frieden der Welt - Petra Frey
18.(21) 17 points - Spain - Ella no es ella - Alejandro Abad
19.(9) 15 points - Switzerland - Sto pregando - Duilio
(15) 15 points - Slovakia - Nekonecna piesen - Tublatanka
21.(11) 14 points - Romania - Dincolo de nori - Dan Bittman
22.(2) 11 points - Finland - Bye Bye Baby - CatCat
23.(13) 4 points - Netherlands - Waar is de zon - Willeke Alberti
24.(10) 2 points - Estonia - Nagu merelaine - Silvi Vrait
25.(16) 0 points - Lithuania - Lopsine mylimai - Oyvidijus Vysniauskas
Having made history by winning the contest for 3 years running the Irish again made history by hosting the contest for the 3rd consecutive year, and for the 2nd consecutive year at exactly the same venue (another first). The contest itself produced a somewhat controversial winner. The controversy surrounded the song itself which only had 8 short lines of singing and over 2 and a half minutes of instrumental. Some people considered it not to be a song at all but an instrumental. The protests made no difference and Norway won their second contest. Rolf Løvland, had written Norway's previous winner in 1985 (and also provided backing vocals on that as well) and Secret Garden was his group. Owing much to Irish violinist Fionnuala Shery, and perhaps influenced by the interval act the previous year, the victory was never in doubt. There were 3 artists making their first appearance. Croatian group Magazin included Danijela who would return 3 years later as a soloist. Darja Svarger appeared for Slovenia and returned 4 years later. Alexandros Panayi was the Cypriot representative and returned 5 years later as half of Voice. Russia were represented by a bizarre looking man in heavy make-up singing a "Lullaby for a volcano". Belgian representative, Frédéric Etherlinck, was the grandson of a Nobel Prize winner.
Results
1.(5) 148 points - Norway - Nocturne - Secret Garden
2.(9) 119 points - Spain - Vuelve conmigo - Anabel Conde
3.(18 ) 100 points - Sweden - Se på mej - Jan Johansen
4.(12) 94 points - France - Il me donne rendez-vous - Nathalie Santamaria
5.(19) 92 points - Denmark - Fra Mols til Skagen - Aud Wilken
6.(11) 91 points - Croatia - Nostalgija - Magazin & Lidija
7.(20) 84 points - Slovenia - Prisluhni mi - Darja Svajger
8.(21) 81 points - Israel - Amen - Liora
9.(17) 79 points - Cyprus - Sti fotia - Alexandros Panayi
10.(15) 76 points - United Kingdom - Love City Groove - Love City Groove
(22) 76 points - Malta - Keep Me In Mind - Mike Spiteri
12.(23) 68 points - Greece - Pia prosefhi - Elina Konstantopoulou
13.(8 ) 67 points - Austria - Die Welt dreht sich verkehrt - Stella Jones
14.(2) 44 points - Ireland - Dreamin' - Eddie Friel
15.(7) 31 points - Iceland - Nuna - Bo Halldorsson
16.(10) 21 points - Turkey - Sev - Arzu Ece
17.(6) 17 points - Russia - Kolibelnaya dlya vulkana - Philip Kirkorov
18.(1) 15 points - Poland - Sama - Justyna
19.(4) 14 points - Bosnia & Herzegovina - Dvadeset prvi vijek - Davor Popovic
20.(14) 8 points - Belgium - La voix est libre - Frédéric Etherlinck
21.(16) 5 points - Portugal - Baunilha e chocolate - To Cruz
22.(13) 3 points - Hungary - Új név a régi ház falán - Csaba Szigeti
23.(3) 1 point - Germany - Verliebt in dich - Stone & Stone
For the first time ever there was a pre qualifying contest involving all entries (except hosts Norway). The juries heard a recording of the songs from all 29 of the countries wanting to take part, including Macedonia trying to make their debut. The juries then scored the songs based on the recording alone with the top 22 scoring countries qualifying for the final. Amongst those missing out were Germany, the one and only ESC final they have missed. Also missing out were Denmark, Israel, Russia, Romania, Macedonia & Hungary. Ireland returned to winning ways scoring their 4th victory in 5 years (although they had a huge hand in the 1995 winning song as well). Portugal scored their highest ever position finishing 6th. Elisabeth Andreassen was back for a 4th time, but for the first time as a soloist. Her complete record at Eurovision reads 1982 - 8th, 1985 - 1st, 1994 - 6th, 1996 - 2nd - an impressive record. Mariana Efstratiou returned for Greece 7 years after her debut. Turkish entrant Sebnem Paker would return the following year, as would the female half of the Estonian duo, Maarja-Liis Ilus. Cypriot Constantinos Christoforiou made the first of his 3 appearances. In the voting Ireland took the lead early on and, despite losing it briefly to Croatia, was never really challenged. Norway finished 2nd despite not having a single top mark awarded to them.
Results
1.(17) 162 points - Ireland - The Voice - Eimear Quinn
2.(12) 114 points - Norway - I Evighet - Elisabeth Andreassen
3.(23) 100 points - Sweden - Den Vilda - One More Time
4.(7) 98 points - Croatia - Sveta ljubav - Maja Blagdan
5.(11) 94 points - Estonia - Kaelakee hääl - Maarja-Liis Ilus & Ivo Linna
6.(4) 92 points - Portugal - O meu coração não tem cor - Lucia Moniz
7.(15) 78 points - Netherlands - De erste keer - Maxine & Franklin Brown
8.(2) 77 points - United Kingdom - Ooh aah...Just A Little Bit - Gina G
9.(5) 72 points - Cyprus - Mono yia mas - Constantinos
10.(6) 68 points - Malta - In A Woman's Heart - Miriam Christine
(8 ) 68 points - Austria - Weil's dr guat got - George Nussbaumer
12.(1) 57 points - Turkey - Besinci mevsim - Sebnem Paker
13.(19) 51 points - Iceland - Sjúbídú - Anna Mjöll
14.(10) 36 points - Greece - Emis forame to himona anixiatika - Mariana Efstratiou
15.(20) 31 points - Poland - Chce zna? swój grzech - Kasia Kowalska
16.(9) 22 points - Switzerland - Mon cœur l'aime - Kathy Leander
(16) 22 points - Belgium - Liefde is een kaartspel - Lisa del Bo
18.(22) 19 points - Slovakia - Kym nas mas - Marcel Palonder
19.(13) 18 points - France - Diwanit Bugale - Dan ar Braz et l'Héritage des Celtes
20.(3) 17 points - Spain - ¡Ay, qué deseo! - Antonio Carbonell
21.(14) 16 points - Slovenia - Dan najlepših sanj - Regina
22.(21) 13 points - Bosnia & Herzegovina - Za našu ljubav - Amila Glamocak
23.(18 ) 9 points - Finland - Niin kaunis on taivas - Jasmine
After a year's break in Norway the contest returned to The Point Theatre in Dublin for the 3rd time in 4 years. Italy returned to the contest for the last time, preferring to concentrate on the San Remo festival. However they went out with a bang finishing 4th. Turkey finished in the top 10 for only the second time in 22 years with the returning Sebnem Paker finishing 3rd. Maarja-Liis Ilus returned for Estonia this time on her own. Alma Cardzic returned for Bosnia & Herzegovina also on her own this time. The winning entry was sung by Katrina & The Waves who had had a huge Worldwide hit in the mid 1980s with "Walking On Sunshine". The margin of victory was enormous. They scored a new highest score, beating the previous best by 1 point, and they finished 70 points ahead of their nearest challenger. A record 10 countries gave it top marks with a further 5 giving it 10 points. In fact only 6 of the voting countries didn't have the song in their top 3 and only 2 of those (Spain and Malta) giving it less than 6 points. It remains one of the most comprehensive victories in ESC history. At the other end of the table Norway scored their 4th 0 points. They were joined on 0 points by Portugal who hadn't scored 0 since their debut 33 years earlier. There was a major change to the voting in 1997 with the introduction of televoting in Austria, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Rather than a jury deciding on the votes the watching millions could have their say. Over the next couple of years more and more countries used televoting until it became standard.
Results
1.(24) 227 points - United Kingdom - Love Shine A Light - Katrina & The Waves
2.(5) 157 points - Ireland - Mysterious Woman - Marc Roberts
3.(2) 121 points - Turkey - Dinle - Sebnem Paker & Grup Etnic
4.(9) 114 points - Italy - Fiumi di parole - Jalisse
5.(1) 97 points - Cyprus - Mana mou - Hara & Andreas Konstantinou
6.(10) 96 points - Spain - Sin rencor - Marcos Llunas
7.(22) 95 points - France - Sentiment songes - Fanny
8.(13) 82 points - Estonia - Kelatuud maa - Maarja
9.(18 ) 66 points - Malta - Let Me Fly - Debbie Scerri
10.(6) 60 points - Slovenia - Zbudi se - Tanja Ribic
11.(12) 54 points - Poland - Ale Jestem - Anna-Maria Jopek
12.(17) 39 points - Greece - Horepse - Marianna Zorba
(19) 39 points - Hungary - Miért kell, hogy elmenj? - VIP
14.(16) 36 points - Sweden - Bara hon älskar mig - Blond
15.(20) 33 points - Russia - Primadonna - Alla Pugacheva
16.(21) 25 points - Denmark - Stemmen i mit liv - Kølig Kaj
17.(23) 24 points - Croatia - Probudi me - ENI
18.(11) 22 points - Germany - Zeit - Bianca Shomburg
(14) 22 points - Bosnia & Herzegovina - Goodbye - Alma Cardzic
20.(25) 18 points - Iceland - Minn hinsti dans - Paul Oscar
21.(4) 12 points - Austria - One Step - Bettina Soriat
22.(7) 5 points - Switzerland - Dentro di me - Barbara Berta
(8 ) 5 points - Netherlands - Niemand heeft nog tijd - Mrs Einstein
24.(3) 0 points - Norway - San Francisco - Tor Endresen
(15) 0 points - Portugal - Antes do adeus - Célia Lawson
Birmingham the 5th city in the United Kingdom to host the contest. Macedonia finally made their debut in the contest 2 years after failing in the 1996 preselection process. The contest was shrouded with controversy from the moment the Israeli entrant was announced. Dana International was a transsexual. Many Israeli politicians and dignitaries objected to her taking part. However she did take part and the controversy factor played it's part in the huge audiences that watched all accross the continent. Returning to the contest was Danijela, who'd been part of Croatian group Magazin 3 years previously. Chiara made her debut for Malta, equalling their best ever finish, and would return 7 years later to do the same again. Edsilia represented the Netherlands scoring their best result since their win 23 years before. Edsilia would return 9 years later with a lot less success. Switzerlands scored their 3rd 0 points. The voting was close throughout. With Israel ahead most of the time but Malta, UK, Netherlands were never too far behind. Croatia and Belgium always scored well but were never challenging. With 2 countries to vote (Turkey & Macedonia) the scores were Israel 159, Malta 155, UK 144, Netherlands 140. Turkey gave 5 to leaders Israel, 7 to the Netherlands (to effectively end their challenge) and 10 to Malta to give them the lead by a point. 12 to the United Kingdom meant any one of the top 3 could win with the final set of votes. Malta was leading on 165, Israel on 164 and UK on 156. With only their 8, 10 and 12 to give out Macedonia had not yet given any of the top 3 any points at all. The 8 points went to Israel putting them on 172, meaning that the UK could not win despite getting the 10 points from Macedonia. It all hinged on who Macedonia gave their 12 to - if it went to Malta they would win, if it went to anyone else Israel would win. It came as no real surprise when Macedonia awarded their 12 to neighbours Croatia thus handing a 3rd victory to Israel.
Results
1.(8 ) 172 points - Israel - Diva - Dana International
2.(16) 166 points - United Kingdom - Where Are You? - Imaani
3.(10) 165 points - Malta - The One That I Love - Chiara
4.(18 ) 150 points - Netherlands - Hemel en aarde - Edsilia
5.(1) 131 points - Croatia - Neka mi ne svane - Danijela
6.(20) 122 points - Belgium - Dis oui - Mélanie Cohl
7.(9) 86 points - Germany - Guildo hat euch lieb! - Guildo Horn & Die Orthopädischen Strümpfe
8.(22) 79 points - Norway - Alltid sommer - Lars A Fredriksen
9.(13) 64 points - Ireland - Is Always Over Now? - Dawn Martin
10.(19) 53 points - Sweden - Kärleken är - Jill Johnson
11.(17) 37 points - Cyprus - Yenesis - Michael Hajiyanni
12.(14) 36 points - Portugal - Se eu te pudesse abraçar - Alma Lusa
(23) 36 points - Estonia - Mere lapsed - Koit Toome
14.(24) 25 points - Turkey - Unutamazsin - Tüzmen
15.(21) 22 points - Finland - Aava - Edea
16.(4) 21 points - Spain - ¿Qué voy a hacer sin ti? - Mikael Herzog
17.(7) 19 points - Poland - To Takie Proste - Sixteen
18.(12) 17 points - Slovenia - Naj bogovi slišijo - Vili Resnik
19.(25) 16 points - Macedonia - Ne zori zoro - Vlado Janevski
20.(2) 12 points - Greece - Mia krifi evesthisia - Thalassa
21.(6) 8 points - Slovakia - Modlitba - Katarina Hasprova
22.(15) 6 points - Romania - Eu Cred - Malina Olinescu
23.(11) 4 points - Hungary - A holnap már nem lesz szomorú - Charlie
24.(3) 3 points - France - Où aller - Marie Line
25.(5) 0 points - Switzerland - Laß Ihn - Guv'nor
For the second time Jerusalem played host to the contest...and for the second time a song in a contest one of the songs used the host city in it's title....the first instance being in Jerusalem 20 years previously!. The language rule was removed in 1999 meaning the countries could send their entry in any language. 12 countries took advantage of this, including 9 singing entirely in English. Germany went down the multilingual route using German, Turkish and English. Israel used English and Hebrew. Bosnia & Herzegovina used Bosnian and French. Returning to the contest 5 years after their 0 point debut were Lithuania. They faired marginally better this year, finally breaking their duck with 13 points. Doris Dragovic returned this year for Croatia 13 years after she appeared for Yugoslavia. Darja Svajger returned for Slovenia 4 years after her debut. Selma Björnsdottir appeared for Iceland and returned 6 years later. Eden were Israel's representatives. A member of their group, Eddie Butler, returned 7 years later. The voting was close between Sweden and Iceland all the way through with Iceland holding the lead for long periods. With Bosnia & Herzegovina & Estonia still to vote however Sweden held a slender 3 point lead. When the Bosnian votes ignored the Icelandic entry and gave 12 to the Swedes victory was assured. Because the song used synthesised backing voices, Croatia's score was later reduced by 33% to 79. This reduction was applicable for the calculation of five-year averages to determine participation in future contests, but it was decided to leave the actual placement in the 1999 result unaffected.
Results
1.(15) 163 points - Sweden - Take Me To Your Heaven - Charlotte Nilsson
2.(13) 146 points - Iceland - All Out Of Luck - Selma
3.(21) 140 points - Germany - Reise nach Jerusalem - Kudüs'e seyahat - Sürpriz
4.(4) 118 points - Croatia - Marija Magdalena - Doris
5.(19) 93 points - Israel - Yom Huledet (Happy Birthday) - Eden
6.(23) 90 points - Estonia - Diamond Of Night - Evelin Samuel & Camille
7.(22) 86 points - Bosnia & Herzegovina - Putnici - Dino & Béatrice
8.(9) 71 points - Denmark - This Time I Mean It - Michael Teschl & Trine Jepsen
(11) 71 points - Netherlands - One Good Reason - Marlayne
10.(18 ) 65 points - Austria - Reflection - Bobbie Singer
11.(6) 50 points - Slovenia - For A Thousand Years - Darja Svajger
12.(2) 38 points - Belgium - Like The Wind - Vanessa Chinitor
(5) 38 points - United Kingdom - Say It Again
14.(8 ) 35 points - Norway - Living My Life Without You - Van Eijk
15.(20) 32 points - Malta - Believe 'n Peace - Times 3
16.(7) 21 points - Turkey - Dön Artik - Tugba Onal & Grup Mistik
17.(17) 18 points - Ireland - When You Need Me - The Mullans
18.(12) 17 points - Poland - Przytul mnie mocno - Mietek Szczesniak
19.(10) 14 points - France - Je veux donner ma voix - Nayah
20.(1) 13 points - Lithuania - Strazdas - Aiste
21.(16) 12 points - Portugal - Como tudo começou - Rui Bandiera
22.(14) 2 points - Cyprus - Tha'ne erotas - Marlain
23.(3) 1 point - Spain - No quiero escuchar - Lydia