Eurovision Song Contest 1998

43rd Eurovision Song Contest
date	May 9, 1998
Host country	United Kingdom
venue	National Indoor Arena , Birmingham
Broadcasting television station
Moderation	Terry Wogan and Ulrika Jonsson
Pause filler	Lesley Garrett and Vanessa-Mae
participating countries	25th
winner	Israel
First time participation	Macedonia (first time in the final)
Returning participants	Israel , Romania
Withdrawn participants	Italy
Voting rule	The audience decided by TED how the country awards 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 points and 1 point to the ten best songs. In some countries, juries were also used because of the poor telephone network.
◄ ESC 1997 • ESC 1999 ►

The 43rd Eurovision Song Contest took place on May 9, 1998 in the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham . The event with 25 participating countries was moderated by the British Eurovision "veteran" Terry Wogan and Ulrika Jonsson .

particularities

The German participant Guildo Horn

Interpreter of the winning title, Dana International

Two participants caused huge media coverage in advance: on the one hand, the German contribution by self-proclaimed Schlager master Guildo Horn , who with his song Guildo loves you! and his exalted stage show - for Eurovision conditions at the time - wanted to demonstrate to the world that Germans too have a sense of humor and can laugh at themselves.

After his victory in the preliminary round , there was intense discussion in the press about whether Guildo Horn was a suitable representative of Germany or whether it would tarnish the national reputation abroad. Horn's plan finally paid off: his song, written by Stefan Raab under the pseudonym "Alf Igel" (alluding to the composer Ralph Siegel ), finished in a venerable 7th place, and the Grand Prix in Germany was also enormously popular. The real star of the evening and the most controversial participant in Grand Prix history, however, was Israel's singer, Dana International , who had been a man a few years earlier. On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the founding of the State of Israel, the state television IBA had selected her as the country's representative in order to show herself as a modern and open country, much to the annoyance of the ultra-Orthodox forces in the Holy Land. Nevertheless, the message got through: after an exciting scoring procedure, the singer was at the top of the scoring table with her song Diva .

This year the Barbara Dex Award , initiated by a fan site, was presented for the second time. The “worst” outfit of the competition is to be awarded with this price, which should not be taken very seriously. This year's winner was Guildo Horn from Germany.

The Swiss representative Gunvor also hit the headlines after nude photos of her surfaced. In the end, she received zero points for her song Lass him , after which Switzerland had to pause for the next competition .

The 1998 Eurovision Song Contest was the last in which the participating countries had to sing in one of their official languages; In the following year , the “Free Language Rule” was introduced, according to which people can sing in any language - in addition to the introduction of televoting and the abolition of the orchestra, this was one of the measures taken to rejuvenate the contest in the late 1990s.

Attendees

participating countries

Countries that had participated in a previous ESC, but not in 1998

Macedonia made it to the finals for the first time after failing to participate in the EBU's internal qualifying round in 1996 . Belgium , Finland and Slovakia were back after their forced break last year; Austria , Bosnia-Herzegovina , Denmark , Russia and Iceland were not allowed to take part because of their poor average placement over the past 5 years. The Italian broadcaster RAI had decided to stay away from the Eurovision Song Contest in the future. A total of 25 countries were at the start.

The following performers returned to the competition:

country	Interpreter	Previous year of participation
Croatia	Danijela Martinović	1995 (as part of the Magazin group )
Portugal	José Cid (member of Alma Lusa )	1980

Voting procedure

For the first time, almost all participating countries determined their points by televoting , with the exception of Ireland , Romania , Turkey and Hungary , which used juries. First, the ten best songs were determined internally. Then the ten best songs received 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 points and 1 point. During the live voting, Spain announced its votes incorrectly, the mistake was only corrected after the competition. It was "forgotten" that Germany should get 12 points.

Placements

space	Start number	country	Interpreter	Song Music (M) and Text (T)	language	Translation (unofficial)	Points
01.	08th	Israel	Dana International דנה אינטרנשיונל	Diva (דיווה) M: Tzvika of spades; T: Yoav Ginai	Hebrew	-	172
02.	16	United Kingdom	Imaani	Where are you? M / T: Scott English, Phil Manikiza, Simon Stirling	English	Where are you?	166
03.	10	Malta	Chiara	The One That I Love M: Jason Cassar; T: Sunny Aquilina	English 1	The one i love	165
04th	18th	Netherlands	Edsilia Rombley	Hemel en aarde M / T: Eric van Tijn, Jochem Fluitsma	Dutch	Heaven and Earth	150
05.	01	Croatia	Danijela	Neka mi ne svane M / T: Petar Grašo, Remi Kazinotti, Stjepan Kalogjera	Croatian	May the sun never rise	131
06th	20th	Belgium	Mélanie Cohl	Dis oui M / T: Philippe Swan	French	say yes	122
07th	09	Germany	Guildo Horn	Guildo loves you! M / T: Alf Igel	German	-	086
08th.	22nd	Norway	Lars A. Fredriksen	Alltid sommer M: David Eriksen, Per-Kristian Ottestad; T: Linda Andernach Johansen	Norwegian	Always summer	079
09.	13	Ireland	Dawn	Is Always Over Now? M / T: Gerry Morgan	English	Is it always over now?	064
10.	19th	Sweden	Jill Johnson	Kärleken är M: Håkan Almqvist, Bobby Ljunggren; T: Ingela 'Pling' Forsman	Swedish	Love exists	053
11.	17th	Cyprus	Michalis Hatzigiannis Μιχάλης Χατζηγιάννης	Yénesis (Γένεσις) M: Michael Hajiyanni; T: Zenon Zindilis	Greek	genesis	037
12.	14th	Portugal	Alma Lusa	Se eu te pudesse abraçar M / T: José Cid	Portuguese	If i could hug you	036
12.	23	Estonia	Koit Toome	Mere lapsed M: Maria Rahula, Tomi Rahula; T: Peeter Pruuli	Estonian	Children of the sea	036
14th	24	Turkey	Tuzmen	Unutamazsın M: Erdinç Tunç; T: Canan Tunç	Turkish	You can't forget	025th
15th	21st	Finland	Edea	Aava M: Alexi Ahoniemi; T: Tommy Mansikka-Aho	Finnish	Far	022nd
16.	04th	Spain	Mikel Duke	¿Qué voy a hacer sin ti? M: Alberto Estébanez; T: Mikel Herzog	Spanish	What should i do without you	021st
17th	07th	Poland	Sixteen	To takie proste M: Jaroslaw Pruszkowski; T: Olga Pruszkowska	Polish	It's easy	019th
18th	12	Slovenia	Vili Resnik	Naj bogovi slišijo M: Matjaž Vlašič; T: Urša Vlašič	Slovenian	Let the gods hear	017th
19th	25th	Macedonia	Vlado Janevski Владо Јаневски	Ne zori, zoro (Не зори, зоро) M: Grigor Koprov ; T: Vlado Janevski	Macedonian	Dawn, don't go up	016
20th	02	Greece	Thalassa Θάλασσα	Mia krifí evesthisía (Μια κρυφή ευαισθησία) M: Yiannis Valvis; T: Yiannis Malachias	Greek	A secret sensitivity	012
21st	06th	Slovakia	Katarína Hasprová	Modlitba M: Gabriel Dušík; T: Anna Wepperyová	Slovak	prayer	008th
22nd	15th	Romania	Mălina Olinescu	Eu cred M: Adrian Romcescu; T: Liliana Ştefan	Romanian	I think	006th
23.	11	Hungary	Charlie	A holnap már nem lesz szomorú M: István Lerch; T: Attila Horváth	Hungarian	Tomorrow I won't be sad anymore	004th
24.	03	France	Marie Line	Où aller M: Jean-Philippe Dary, Marie Line Marolany, Moïse Crespy, Micaël Sene; T: Marie Line Marolany	French	Where to go	003
25th	05	Switzerland	Gunvor	Let him M / T: Gunvor Guggisberg , Egon Egemann	German	-	000

¹ English is the official language of Malta alongside Maltese, which is why Malta was able to compete with English-language songs when songs in their own national language were required.

Note: The countries marked in red had to sit out of the following competition due to their poor placements in the last five years.

Scoring

Sustaining land		Forgiving country
country	Total	MR	GR	FR	IT	CH	SK	PL	IL	DE	MT	HU	SI	IE	PT	RU	UK	CY	NL	SE	BE	FI	NO	EE	TR	MK
Croatia	131		5	8th	1	5	10	6th	10	10	10	-	12	3	2	-	2	7th	4th	3	5	3	6th	3	4th	12
Greece	012	-		-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	12	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
France	003	-	-		-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	2
Spain	021st	1	-	4th		6th	-	-	3	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	4th	-	-	3	-	-	-	-	-
Switzerland	000	-	-	-	-		-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Slovakia	008th	8th	-	-	-	-		-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Poland	019th	-	-	2	-	-	-		-	5	-	2	-	-	-	10	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Israel	172	-	10	12	10	10	-	10		7th	12	-	7th	6th	12	7th	5	10	6th	5	10	10	3	7th	5	8th
Germany	086	-	3	-	12	12	-	-	-		-	-	8th	8th	10	6th	6th	-	12	-	7th	1	-	1	-	-
Malta	165	7th	6th	6th	5	8th	12	8th	7th	8th		7th	3	12	5	-	12	5	8th	6th	8th	5	12	5	10	-
Hungary	004th	-	-	1	-	-	-	-		-	-		-	-	-	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	2	-	-	-
Slovenia	017th	3	2	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-		-	-	5	-	-	-	-	-	4th	-	-	3	-
Ireland	064	2	-	-	-	2	4th	2	-	2	6th	6th	1		1	8th	8th			1	-	-	4th	2	8th	7th
Portugal	036	-	1	10	6th	-	2	-	2	-	2	-	-	-		-	-	2	-	-	1	-	-	-	6th	4th
Romania	006th	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	6th	-	-	-	-	-	-		-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
United Kingdom	166	12	7th	3	3	3	1	7th	12	1	8th	10	5	5	6th	12		8th	7th	7th	6th	8th	5	8th	12	10
Cyprus	037	4th	12	-	-	-	5	-	1	-	1	1	-	-	4th	4th	3		-	-	2	-	-	-	-	-
Netherlands	150	10	8th	5	4th	7th	6th	5	8th	6th	7th	12	-	10	7th	-	10	-		8th	12	7th	8th	-	7th	3
Sweden	053	-	-	-	-	-	-	3	-	-	4th	8th	-	2	-	-	1	-	5		-	6th	10	12	2	-
Belgium	122	-	4th	7th	7th	4th	7th	12	5	4th	3	3	6th	7th	8th		7th	6th	10	2			7th	6th	1	6th
Finland	022nd	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	10	-		1	10	-	1
Norway	079	-	-	-	8th	1	-	4th	4th	3	5	5	10	4th	3	-	4th	3	3	12	4th	2		4th	-	-
Estonia	036	-	-	-	2	-	8th	1	-	-	-	4th	2	1	-	-	-	-	2	4th	-	12	-		-	-
Turkey	025th	5	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	12	-	-	-	-	-	2	-	-	1	-	-	-	-	-		5
Macedonia	016	6th	-	-	-	-	3	-	-	-	-	-	4th	-	-	3	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

* The table is arranged vertically according to the order of appearance, horizontally according to the chronological reading of points (with correction of the points read by Spain).

Map of scoring for the winning title from Israel by country

Statistics of the twelve-point allocation

number	country	received from
4th	Malta	Ireland, Norway, Slovakia, United Kingdom
	United Kingdom	Israel, Croatia, Romania, Turkey
3	Israel	France, Malta, Portugal
	Germany	Netherlands, Switzerland, Spain
2	Croatia	Macedonia, Slovenia
	Netherlands	Belgium, Hungary
1	Belgium	Poland
	Estonia	Finland
	Greece	Cyprus
	Norway	Sweden
	Sweden	Estonia
	Turkey	Germany
	Cyprus	Greece

See also

• German preliminary decision 1998
• List of winners and events of the Eurovision Song Contest

Web links

Commons : Eurovision Song Contest 1998  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Eurovision.tv
• Eurovision.de
• diggiloo.net
• ESC History: Participants & Entries 1998, sorted by start number
• hitparade.ch: Eurovision Song Contest 1998, sorted by final result