Eurovision Song Contest 1998

Infobox Eurovision
name = Eurovision Song Contest 1998


final = 9 May 1998
presenters = Ulrika Jonsson
Terry Wogan
conductor = James McMillan
director = Geoff Posner
host = flagicon|UK BBC
venue = National Indoor Arena, Birmingham, United Kingdom
winner = flag|Israel
"Diva"
vote = Each country awarded 12, 10, 8-1 points to their 10 favourite songs
entries = 25
debut = flag|Republic of Macedonia|name=FYR Macedonia
return = flag|Belgium flag|Finland flag|Israel flag|Portugal flag|Romania flag|Slovakia
withdraw = flag|Austria flag|Bosnia and Herzegovina|1992 flag|Denmark flag|Iceland flag|Italy flag|Russia
null = flag|Switzerland
interval = Jupiter, The Bringer of Joviality
opening =
con = Eurovision Song Contest
pre = ◄1997
nex = 1999►

The Eurovision Song Contest 1998 was the 43rd Eurovision Song Contest and was held on 9 May 1998 at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham, United Kingdom. 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 because she is a male-to-female transsexual. This year was notable 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 1998 contest was also memorable 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. France did, in fact, use the violin section of the orchestra but as they did not bring a conductor of their own, no conductor was shown before their entry. On the other hand both Germany and Slovenia presented conductors despite using full backing tracks and no orchestra.

The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYR Macedonia) was present for the first time, after their 1996 entry did not make it past the internal selection by the EBU. Belgium, Finland, Israel, 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. The Italian broadcaster, RAI, decided to withdraw from the contest.

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 or three points. Everything came down to the vote of FYR 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 Song Contest victory. Also, Edsilia Rombley, who placed fourth with 150 points, ensured the best result for the Netherlands since their win in 1975.

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 criticized by 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 these 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 4 consecutive top-ten finishes.

Greece earned only 12 points, all of which came from Cyprus. After the contest, there was a correction made with the Spanish votes, who mistakenly awarded Germany zero points, rather than the 12 that were 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. cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/music/4459511.stm#nicki|title=Nicki French speaks about Eurovision|date=2005-05-20] 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.

Russia and Italy did not broadcast the event due to withdrawals. 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 ORT planned to name Tatyana Ovsienko as their representative, performing "Solntse moyo"). Because Russia did not participate, ORT decided not to broadcast the 1998 Song Contest. According to other sources ORT had expected RTR to broadcast the Contest.

Individual Entries

Results

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 two points ahead), and the United Kingdom apparently nine points behind (really nine behind Malta and seven 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.

core sheet

Voting procedure used:Red: Televote. Blue: Jury.		Voters
	Croatia		5	8	1	5	10	6	10	10	10	0	12	3	2	0	2	7	4	3	5	3	6	3	4	12
	Greece	0		0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	12	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	France	0	0		0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2
	Spain	1	0	4		6	0	0	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	4	0	0	3	0	0	0	0	0
	Switzerland	0	0	0	0		0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Slovakia	8	0	0	0	0		0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Poland	0	0	2	0	0	0		0	5	0	2	0	0	0	10	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Israel	0	10	12	10	10	0	10		7	12	0	7	6	12	7	5	10	6	5	10	10	3	7	5	8
	Germany	0	3	0	12	12	0	0	0		0	0	8	8	10	6	6	0	12	0	7	1	0	1	0	0
	Malta	7	6	6	5	8	12	8	7	8		7	3	12	5	0	12	5	8	6	8	5	12	5	10	0
	Hungary	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0		0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0
	Slovenia	3	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0		0	0	5	0	0	0	0	0	4	0	0	3	0
	Ireland	2	0	0	0	2	4	2	0	2	6	6	1		1	8	8	0	0	1	0	0	4	2	8	7
	Portugal	0	1	10	6	0	2	0	2	0	2	0	0	0		0	0	2	0	0	1	0	0	0	6	4
	Romania	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	6	0	0	0	0	0	0		0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	United Kingdom	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	4	12	0	0	0	5	0	1	0	1	1	0	0	4	4	3		0	0	2	0	0	0	0	0
	Netherlands	10	8	5	4	7	6	5	8	6	7	12	0	10	7	0	10	0		8	12	7	8	0	7	3
	Sweden	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	0	0	4	8	0	2	0	0	1	0	5		0	6	10	12	2	0
	Belgium	0	4	7	7	4	7	12	5	4	3	3	6	7	8	0	7	6	10	2		0	7	6	1	6
	Finland	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	10	0		1	10	0	1
	Norway	0	0	0	8	1	0	4	4	3	5	5	10	4	3	0	4	3	3	12	4	2		4	0	0
	Estonia	0	0	0	2	0	8	1	0	0	0	4	2	1	0	0	0	0	2	4	0	12	0		0	0
	Turkey	5	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	12	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0		5
	FYR Macedonia	6	0	0	0	0	3	0	0	0	0	0	4	0	0	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
The table is ordered by appearance.

12 points

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

pokespersons

* Croatia - Davor Mestrovic
* Greece - Alexis Kostalas
* France - Marie Myriam
* Spain - Belén Fernández de Henestrosa
* Switzerland - Regula Elsener
* Slovakia - Alena Heribanová
* Poland - Jan Chojnacki
* Israel - Yigal Ravid
* Germany - Nena
* Malta - Stephanie Farrugia
* Hungary - Barna Héder
* Slovenia - Mojca Mavec
* Ireland - Eileen Dunne
* Portugal - Lúcia Moniz
* Romania - Anca Turcasiu
* The United Kingdom - Ken Bruce
* Cyprus - Marina Maleni
* Netherlands - Conny Vandenbos
* Sweden - Björn Hedman
* Belgium - Marie-Hélène Vanderborght
* Finland - Marjo Wilska
* Norway - Ragnhild Sælthun Fjørtoft
* Estonia - Urve Tiidus
* Turkey - Osman Erkan
* FYR Macedonia - Evgenija Teodosievska

Map

References