Eurovision Song Contest 1999

Eurovision Song Contest 1999
Dates
Final date	29 May 1999
Host
Venue	International Convention Center, Jerusalem, Israel
Presenter(s)	Dafna Dekel Yigal Ravid Sigal Shahamon
Host broadcaster	IBA
Interval act	Dana International performing "Free"
Participants
Number of entries	23
Debuting countries	None
Returning countries	Austria Bosnia and Herzegovina Denmark Iceland Lithuania
Withdrawing countries	Finland Greece Hungary Macedonia Romania Slovakia Switzerland
Participation map      Participating participants     Countries who have participated in the past but did not this year
Vote
Voting system	Each country awarded 12, 10, 8-1 points to their 10 favourite songs
Nul points	None
Winning song	Sweden "Take Me to Your Heaven"
Eurovision Song Contest
◄1998 2000►

The Eurovision Song Contest 1999 was the 44th Eurovision Song Contest, held on 29 May 1999 in Jerusalem, Israel after Dana International won the contest the previous year in the United Kingdom. The venue for the contest was the International Convention Center. Television reporter Yigal Ravid, singer and 1992 contestant Dafna Dekel and model/actress Sigal Shahamon were the show's hosts, and it was the first time that three presenters were used to host the Contest. Israel's two previous winners, Izhar Cohen, who won in 1978 with "A-Ba-Ni-Bi" and Milk and Honey's Gali Atari who won it the next year with "Hallelujah" attended as spectators. The winner of the Contest was Charlotte Nilsson, representing Sweden with "Take Me to Your Heaven", which scored 163 points. This was Sweden's fourth win in the Contest and the second in the 1990s (after Carola's win for Sweden in 1991).

In the run-up to the Contest, many speculated that it would not be held in Israel, but would be moved to either Malta or the United Kingdom (the countries that completed the top 3 of the 1998 Contest). This came about after major concerns over funding for the event from the Israeli government arose, alongside the opposition from Orthodox Jews that they would attempt to stop the Contest from coming to Israel after Dana International won the previous year's Contest. This, however, provided no hindrance for IBA or to the organising team of the event, and the International Convention Center in Jerusalem was selected as the venue for the 44th Contest.

Long-standing rules in place for decades were abolished during this Contest: rules that each country had to sing in one of their national languages was abolished for the first time since 1977. A majority of the participating countries, thirteen out of twenty-three, chose to sing entirely or partly in English and only nine entirely in their respective national languages; Lithuania, Spain, Croatia, Slovenia, Poland, France, Cyprus, Portugal and Turkey. Furthermore, live music became optional for the first time in the Contest's history. IBA took advantage of this and decided to drop the orchestra from the Contest as a way to conserve money for the show. This meant that for the first time all entries used playback during their performances. This caused controversy for Eurovision traditionalists, with three-time winner Johnny Logan criticising the move, describing the event now as "karaoke".

In was announced in 1999 that, as of the 2000 Contest, the four biggest financial contributors to the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) – Germany, Spain, France and the United Kingdom – would all be given automatic entry into the Contest, regardless of their average scores over the past five years.

Latvia had attempted to participate in the Contest for the first time, but withdrew at a late stage. This gave Hungary a chance to enter the Contest; however, Magyar Televízió decided not to take part. This allowed Portugal to compete as the 23rd country.

Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Denmark and Iceland returned to the Contest after being relegated from competing in 1998. Lithuania also returned to the Contest for the first time in five years. The Lithuanian delegation had had budget problems to contend with, and so the EBU allowed the Lithuanians to arrive in Israel a day later than everyone else. The first delegation on the other hand to walk the Holy Land were Estonia.

After being relegated from the 1998 Contest, Russia's Channel One had decided not to broadcast that year's contest, in order to allow for a strong comeback in Israel. However, as only countries which had broadcast the previous year's contest were allowed to enter the next year's contest, Russia was forced to miss another year. They were joined by Finland, Greece, Macedonia, Romania, Slovakia and Switzerland; the countries with the lowest average scores over the previous five years.

The favourites to win the Contest came from Iceland's Selma with "All Out of Luck", and Cyprus's Marlain with "Tha 'Ne Erotas", after an internet poll by fans. But, while Iceland finished second to Sweden (the country's best showing in the contest), Cyprus failed to inspire televotes, finishing second last with only two points, both from the United Kingdom.

A number of controversies occurred before the Contest. Two songs selected to compete in Israel were found to be ineligible: Bosnia and Herzegovina's Hari Mata Hari were disqualified after their entry was discovered to have been released in Finland some years previously; Germany's Corinna May was also disqualified after her song was revealed to have been released in 1997 by a different singer. Both artists would eventually represent their countries in Eurovision, in 2006 and 2002 respectively.

Croatia's entry attracted objections from the Norwegian delegation, due to synthesised male vocals being used on the backing track of Doris Dragović's entry. The EBU decided to reduce the country's score by a third for the purpose of calculating its five-year average to determine participation in future contests, though it was decided to leave its placement in the 1999 result unaffected.

The interval act was provided by Dana International, who performed a cover of the Stevie Wonder song "Free", which caused some controversy in Israel due to the song's lyric. Dana International also appeared at the end of the show, giving the winning trophy to Nilsson. After pretending that the trophy was too heavy to lift, she fell to the stage, bringing down the winning composers with her. At this, security forces threw themselves upon her, think it to be a terrorist attack. The show finished with the three presenters inviting everyone on stage to sing a rendition of the English version of "Hallelujah", the Israeli winner from the 1979 Contest, as a tribute to the victims of the Balkan War, who were unable to view the contest after the bombing resulted in their transmitters being blown up.

A compilation CD was made and released in Israel, with the idea of containing all the competing songs on one CD. However, the songs from Poland, Cyprus, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom were not included, thus defeating the idea. Furthermore, unlike similar CDs released from the following year's Contest onwards, it was not an official release by the EBU.

Results

Draw	Country	Language	Artist	Song	English translation	Place	Points
01	Lithuania	Samogitian	Aistė	"Strazdas"	The song thrush	20	13
02	Belgium	English	Vanessa Chinitor	"Like the Wind"	—	12	38
03	Spain	Spanish	Lydia	"No quiero escuchar"	I don't want to listen	23	1
04	Croatia	Croatian	Doris Dragović	"Marija Magdalena"	Mary Magdalene	4	118
05	United Kingdom	English	Precious	"Say It Again"	—	12	38
06	Slovenia	English	Darja Švajger	"For a Thousand Years"	—	11	50
07	Turkey	Turkish	Tuğba Önal & Grup Mistik	"Dön Artık"	Come back	16	21
08	Norway	English	Stig Van Eijk	"Living My Life Without You"	—	14	35
09	Denmark	English	Trine Jepsen & Michael Teschl	"This Time I Mean It"	—	9	71
10	France	French	Nayah	"Je veux donner ma voix"	I want to give my voice	19	14
11	Netherlands	English	Marlayne	"One Good Reason"	—	8	71
12	Poland	Polish	Mietek Szcześniak	"Przytul mnie mocno"	Hold me tight	18	17
13	Iceland	English	Selma	"All Out of Luck"	—	2	146
14	Cyprus	Greek	Marlain	"Tha 'ne erotas" (Θα 'ναι έρωτας)	It will be love	22	2
15	Sweden	English	Charlotte Nilsson	"Take Me to Your Heaven"	—	1	163
16	Portugal	Portuguese	Rui Bandeira	"Como tudo começou"	How everything began	21	12
17	Ireland	English	The Mullans	"When You Need Me"	—	17	18
18	Austria	English	Bobbie Singer	"Reflection"	—	10	65
19	Israel	English, Hebrew	Eden	"Yom Huledet (Happy Birthday)" (יום "הולדת)	Birthday	5	93
20	Malta	English	Times Three	"Believe 'n Peace"	—	15	32
21	Germany	German, Turkish, English, Hebrew	Sürpriz	"Reise nach Jerusalem - Kudüs'e seyahat"	Journey to Jerusalem	3	140
22	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Bosnian, French	Dino & Béatrice	"Putnici"	Travellers	7	86
23	Estonia	English	Evelin Samuel & Camille	"Diamond of Night"	—	6	90

Voting structure

Each country had a televote, where the top ten most voted-for songs were awarded the 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 points, with the exceptions of Turkey, Lithuania, Ireland and Bosnia & Herzegovina who used juries.

After some thoroughly confusing thrills and spills in the early voting, with Lithuania awarding maximum points to the — for once — rank outsiders Ireland, the contest soon settled into a nip-and-tuck duel between Sweden and Iceland, but with Iceland more often than not holding a slight lead. The fortunes of Germany were more erratic - on a few occasions, their challenge seemed to be failing, only for a couple of high scores to haul them back to within striking distance of the leading pair. That appeared to be the case once again when the penultimate voting country, Bosnia and Herzegovina, handed ten points to the Germans. This momentarily distracted attention from the fact that the Balkan nation had not yet awarded any points to Sweden or Iceland, meaning that one of the two was bound to receive nothing. With Charlotte Nilsson of Sweden already having crept into a three-point lead at a crucial moment, the realisation quickly dawned that, while twelve points for Iceland would put them back into a commanding position, twelve points for Sweden would settle the contest in abrupt fashion.

Score sheet

Voting procedure used: Red: Televote. Blue: Jury.		Voters
	Lithuania	13				2										5					3	1			2
	Belgium	38				4						2	10	2					10		5				5
	Spain	1				1
	Croatia	118	6	5	12			12	8			7	1	7	4	2	1	6	6	8	7	5	10	8	3
	United Kingdom	38	5		4	5		2	4		1					4					4	8		1
	Slovenia	50	10	2	2	12						1	6						12					5
	Turkey	21								4		5											12
	Norway	35				7					6				7	7	5		3
	Denmark	71			5		5	5						1	12	8	8	3	7	5	2	4			6
	France	14	2						2	8									2
	Netherlands	71	4	12	3		8	3	5		7				6		4	2	1	4	6	2		4
	Poland	17	7																				4	6
	Iceland	146	8	8	10		10		10	10	12		7	4		12	12	4	4	2	10	10	3		10
	Cyprus	2					2
	Sweden	163	3	7	6		12	7	6	12	10	3	8	6	10	6		10	5	6	8	12	2	12	12
	Portugal	12										12
	Ireland	18	12				4		1	1
	Austria	65		6			7	4		6	3		2	3	8	1	7	5					5		8
	Israel	93		3	8	8		1	3	2	2	10	4	10	1	10	3	8		1		6	7	2	4
	Malta	32				6	6									3		1		7			1	7	1
	Germany	140		10	7	3	1	6	12	3	5	8	12	12	5		2	12		10	12	3		10	7
	Bosnia and Herzegovina	86		1		10		10	7	7	8	6	3	5	3		6			12			8
	Estonia	90	1	4	1		3	8		5	4	4	5	8	2		10	7	8	3	1	7	6	3

12 points

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

N.	Recipient nation	Voting nation
5	Germany	Israel, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Turkey
	Sweden	Bosnia and Herzegovina, Estonia, Malta, Norway, United Kingdom
3	Iceland	Cyprus, Denmark, Sweden
2	Croatia	Slovenia, Spain
	Slovenia	Croatia, Ireland
1	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Austria
	Denmark	Iceland
	Ireland	Lithuania
	Netherlands	Belgium
	Portugal	France
	Turkey	Germany

Returning artists

Artist	Country	Previous Year(s)
Doris Dragović	Croatia	1986 (for Yugoslavia)
Darja Švajger	Slovenia	1995

Commentators

• Lithuania - Darius Užkuraitis (LTV)
• Belgium - André Vermeulen & Bart Peeters (VRT TV1), Jean-Pierre Hautier (RTBF La Une)
• Spain - José Luis Uribarri (TVE1)
• Croatia - Aleksandar "Aco" Kostadinov (HRT 1)
• United Kingdom - Terry Wogan (BBC One), Ken Bruce (BBC Radio 2)
• Slovenia - Miša Molk (SLO1)
• Turkey - Gülşah Banda (TRT 1)
• Norway - Jostein Pedersen (NRK1)
• Denmark - Keld Heick (DR1)
• France - Julien Lepers (France 3 & France Bleu)
• Netherlands - Willem van Beusekom (TV2), Daniël Dekker & Hijlco Span (Radio 2)
• Poland - Artur Orzech (TVP1)
• Iceland - Gísli Marteinn Baldursson (Sjónvarpið)
• Cyprus - Evi Papamichail (RIK 1)
• Sweden - Pekka Heino & Anders Berglund (SVT1)
• Portugal - Rui Unas (RTP1)
• Ireland - Pat Kenny (RTÉ One), Larry Gogan (RTÉ Radio 1)
• Austria - Andi Knoll (ORF1)
• Israel - No commentator
• Malta - Charlo Bonnici
• Germany - Peter Urban (Das Erste)
• Bosnia and Herzegovina - Ismeta Dervoz-Krvavac (BHT)
• Estonia - Marko Reikop (Eesti Televisioon)
• Finland (Non participating country) - Jani Juntunen (YLE TV2)
• Greece (Non participating country) - Dafni Bokota (ET1)
• Macedonia (Non participating country) - Ivan Mircevski (MTV 1)
• Romania (Non participating country) - Leonard Miron (TVR2)
• Russia (Non participating country) - Yuri Aksyuta (Public Russian Television)
• Switzerland (Non participating country) - Sandra Studer (SF2), Jean-Marc Richard (TSR 2), Jonathan Tedesco (TSI2)
• Yugoslavia (Non participating country) - due to the bombing there was no TV coverage

Spokespersons

• Lithuania - Andrius Tapinas
• Belgium - Sabine De Vos
• Spain - Hugo de Campos
• Croatia - Marko Rašica
• United Kingdom - Colin Berry
• Slovenia - Mira Berginc
• Turkey - Osman Erkan
• Norway - Ragnhild Sælthun Fjørtoft
• Denmark - Kirsten Siggaard (Danish representative in 1984, 1985 and 1988 as member of Hot Eyes)
• France - Marie Myriam (Eurovision winner for France in 1977)
• Netherlands - Edsilia Rombley (Dutch representative in 1998)
• Poland - Jan Chojnacki
• Iceland - Áslaug Dóra Eyjólfsdóttir
• Cyprus - Marina Maleni
• Sweden - Pontus Gårdinger
• Portugal - Manuel Luís Goucha
• Ireland - Clare McNamara
• Austria - Dodo Roščić
• Israel - Yoav Ginai (Lyricist of 1998 Eurovision winner "Diva")
• Malta - Nirvana Azzopardi
• Germany - Renan Demirkan
• Bosnia and Herzegovina - Segmedina Srna
• Estonia - Mart Sander