Eurovision Song Contest 1999

Eurovision Song Contest 1999
Dates
Final	29 May 1999
Host
Venue	Ussishkin Auditorium at the International Convention Center Jerusalem, Israel
Presenter(s)	Dafna Dekel Yigal Ravid Sigal Shahamon
Executive supervisor	Christine Marchal-Ortiz
Host broadcaster	Israel Broadcasting Authority (IBA)
Interval act	"Free" performed by Dana International
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 countries     Countries that participated in the past but not in 1999
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 • 1999 • 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, the same place that hosted the 1979 contest. Television news anchor 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).

Location

International Convention Center, Jerusalem - host venue of the 1999 contest.

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 stay at 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 organizing team of the event, and the Ussishkin Auditorium at International Convention Center in Jerusalem was selected as the venue for the 44th Contest.^[1]

Format

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, fourteen out of twenty-three, chose to sing entirely or partly in English and only eight entirely in their respective national languages; Lithuania, Spain, Croatia, 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 backing track during their performances.^[2] This caused controversy for Eurovision traditionalists, with three-time winner Johnny Logan criticising the move, describing the event now as "karaoke".^[1]

It 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.^[1][2]

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.^[2]

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.^[2]

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, Hungary, 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.^[1][2]

Incidents

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.^[1][3] 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.^[1][2]

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 lyrics. Dana International also appeared at the end of the show, handing 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.^[1][2] 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 bombings destroyed television transmitters.^[1]

Returning artists

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

Results

Draw	Country	Artist	Song	Language[4]	Place	Points
01	Lithuania	Aistė	"Strazdas"	Samogitian	20	13
02	Belgium	Vanessa Chinitor	"Like the Wind"	English	12	38
03	Spain	Lydia	"No quiero escuchar"	Spanish	23	1
04	Croatia	Doris Dragović	"Marija Magdalena"	Croatian	4	118
05	United Kingdom	Precious	"Say It Again"	English	12	38
06	Slovenia	Darja Švajger	"For a Thousand Years"	English	11	50
07	Turkey	Tuğba Önal & Grup Mistik	"Dön Artık"	Turkish	16	21
08	Norway	Stig Van Eijk	"Living My Life Without You"	English	14	35
09	Denmark	Trine Jepsen & Michael Teschl	"This Time I Mean It"	English	8	71
10	France	Nayah	"Je veux donner ma voix"	French	19	14
11	Netherlands	Marlayne	"One Good Reason"	English	8	71
12	Poland	Mietek Szcześniak	"Przytul mnie mocno"	Polish	18	17
13	Iceland	Selma	"All Out of Luck"	English	2	146
14	Cyprus	Marlain	"Tha'nai Erotas" (Θα'ναι έρωτας)	Greek	22	2
15	Sweden	Charlotte Nilsson	"Take Me to Your Heaven"	English	1	163
16	Portugal	Rui Bandeira	"Como tudo começou"	Portuguese	21	12
17	Ireland	The Mullans	"When You Need Me"	English	17	18
18	Austria	Bobbie Singer	"Reflection"	English	10	65
19	Israel	Eden	"Yom Huledet (Happy Birthday)" (יום הולדת)	English, Hebrew	5	93
20	Malta	Times Three	"Believe 'n Peace"	English	15	32
21	Germany	Sürpriz	"Reise nach Jerusalem – Kudüs'e seyahat"	German, Turkish, English, Hebrew	3	140
22	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Dino & Béatrice	"Putnici"	Bosnian, French	7	86
23	Estonia	Evelin Samuel & Camille	"Diamond of Night"	English	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.

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:

International broadcasts and voting

Voting and spokespersons

Commentators

Radio commentators

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Eurovision Song Contest 1999.