Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
Dates
Finaldate
29 May 1999
Host
Venue
Presenter(s)
Executive supervisor
Hostbroadcaster
Intervalact
Numberofentries
23
Debutingcountries
None
Returningcountries
Withdrawingcountries
Austria
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Denmark
Iceland
Lithuania
Finland
Greece
Hungary
Macedonia
Romania
Slovakia
Switzerland
Vote
Votingsystem
Nulpoints
Winningsong
Each country awarded 12, 10, 8-1 points to their 10 favourite songs
None
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 Ussishkin Auditorium at 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
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. 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 Televzi 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.
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] 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 Dragovi'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. 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.
Results
Draw
Country
Language
Artist
Song
01
Lithuania
Samogitian
Aist
"Strazdas"
20
13
02
Belgium
English
Vanessa Chinitor
12
38
03
Spain
Spanish
Lydia
I don't want to
listen
23
04
Croatia
Croatian
Doris Dragovi
"Marija Magdalena"
Mary Magdalene
118
05
United Kingdom
English
Precious
"Say It Again"
12
38
06
Slovenia
English
Darja vajger
11
50
07
Turkey
Turkish
"Dn Artk"
Come back
16
21
08
Norway
English
14
35
09
Denmark
English
71
10
France
French
Nayah
I want to give my
voice
19
14
11
Netherlands
English
Marlayne
71
12
Poland
Polish
Mietek Szczeniak
Hold me tight
18
17
13
Iceland
English
Selma
146
14
Cyprus
Greek
Marlain
It will be love
22
15
Sweden
English
Charlotte Nilsson
"Take Me to Your
Heaven"
163
16
Portugal
Portuguese
Rui Bandeira
How everything
began
21
12
17
Ireland
English
The Mullans
17
18
18
Austria
English
Bobbie Singer
"Reflection"
10
65
19
Israel
English,
Hebrew
Eden
Birthday
93
20
Malta
English
Times Three
15
32
21
Germany
German,
Turkish,
English,
Hebrew
Srpriz
Journey to
Jerusalem
140
"Putnici"
Travelers
86
90
22
Bosnia and
Herzegovina
Bosnian,
French
23
Estonia
English
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.Wikipedia:Citation needed
Score sheet
Voting procedure used:
Red: Televote.
Blue: Jury.
Voters
Lithuania
13
Belgium
38
10
10
Spain
Croatia
118
United Kingdom
38
Slovenia
50 10
Turkey
21
Norway
35
Denmark
71
France
14
Netherlands
71
Poland
17
Iceland
146
Cyprus
12
12
10
10
12
Ireland
18 12
Austria
65
Israel
93
Malta
32
5
12
12
3
3
2
7
10 10 12
2
4
12 12
10 10
10
12
12 10
10
10
12 12
10
10
12
10 12
12
12
4
140
10
86
Estonia
90
7
8
10
1
1
6
10
3
6
12
12 12
10
10
Voting nation
Germany
Sweden
Iceland
Croatia
Slovenia, Spain
Slovenia
Croatia, Ireland
Iceland
Ireland
Lithuania
Netherlands
Belgium
Portugal
France
Turkey
Germany
10
12
12 points
Portugal
8
1
163
N.
10
12
2
12
4
1
7
5
Sweden
Germany
12
Returning artists
Artist
Country
Previous Year(s)
Doris Dragovi
Croatia
Darja vajger
Slovenia 1995
Commentators
Television
Radio
Lithuania - N/A
Belgium - Julien Put & Michel Follet (VRT Radio 2), Didier Mlon (RTBF La Premire)
Spain - N/A
Croatia - Draginja Bala (HR 2)
United Kingdom - Ken Bruce (BBC Radio 2)
Slovenia - N/A
Turkey - Fatih Orbay (TRT Radyo 3)
Norway - N/A
Denmark - N/A
France - N/A
Netherlands - Danil Dekker & Hijlco Span (Radio 2)
Poland - N/A
Iceland - N/A
Cyprus - Pavlos Pavlou (CyBC Radio 2)
Sweden - Carolina Norn (SR P3)
Portugal - Joo David Nunes (RDP Antena 2)
Spokespersons
References
[1] German National Final 1999 (http:/ / natfinals. 50webs. com/ 90s_00s/ Germany1999. html)
[2] Eurovision Song Contest 1999 BBC Archives (http:/ / www. bbc. co. uk/ programmes/ p007xw1q)
[3] Savvidis, Christos (OGAE Cyprus)
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Eurovision Song Contest 1999.
License
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0
//creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
10