Norway in the Eurovision Song Contest 1997

Eurovision Song Contest 1997
Country	Norway
National selection
Selection process	Melodi Grand Prix 1997
Selection date(s)	8 February 1997
Selected entrant	Tor Endresen
Selected song	"San Francisco"
Finals performance
Final result	24th=, 0 points

Norway was represented by Tor Endresen, with the song '"San Francisco", at the 1997 Eurovision Song Contest, which took place on 3 May in Dublin. "San Francisco" was chosen as the Norwegian entry at the Melodi Grand Prix on 8 March, and is mainly remembered for bringing Norway's recent run of Eurovision success – they had finished 5th, 6th, 1st and 2nd in the previous four contests – to a spectacular end.

Final

The MGP was held at the studios of the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation in Oslo, hosted by Tande-P. Eight songs took part with the winner chosen by a split between televoting (60%) and an "expert" jury (40%). Among the other participants was Geir Rønning, who would later represent Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2005. Endresen finally gained MGP victory at his eighth attempt.^[1]

MGP - 8 February 1997

Draw	Artist	Song	Votes	Place
1	Marianne E. Olsen	"Min egen superstar"	11.3%	5
2	Angela Kim Lewis	"So ro lille tull"	14.3%	3
3	Guro Håvik	"Consensus"	10.6%	6
4	Penthouse Playboys	"Om du elsket meg"	12.6%	4
5	Geir Rønning	"Venter på deg"	7.0%	7
6	Beate Olsen	"Rolig"	2.9%	8
7	Tor Endresen	"San Francisco"	23.9%	1
8	Manjari	"Lys"	18.0%	2

At Eurovision

On the night of the final Endresen performed third in the running order, following Turkey and preceding Austria. At the close of voting "San Francisco" had failed to pick up any points at all, the eighth time Norway had found itself at the bottom of the scoreboard at the end of the evening, and a record fourth nul-points finish. The 1997 ignominy was shared with Portugal, who had also been completely shunned by the national juries. The Norwegian jury awarded its 12 points to France.^[2]

See also

• Norway in the Eurovision Song Contest
• Eurovision Song Contest 1997

References

1. ^ ESC National Finals database 1997
2. ^ ESC History - Norway 1997