Eurovision Song Contest 1998

National Indoor Arena, Birmingham – host venue of the 1998 contest. (pictured in 2005 before renovation)

The National Indoor Arena had been used for several major events in the past, including counting no less than eight constituencies in the hall for the 1992 general election.[10] The week after the Eurovision Song Contest, the city was to host the 24th G8 summit, with Wogan vacating his hotel room to make way for Bill Clinton.[11][12] Opened in October 1991, the arena was best known in the UK for hosting the 1990s British television series Gladiators, also presented by Jonsson, on ITV.

While the capacity of the National Indoor Arena was up to 12,700 seats, the BBC decided to occupy only half of the venue, which could accommodate some 4,000 spectators,[13] a figure that would be systematically surpassed in subsequent years. The main stage had as its most outstanding element a structure in the shape of a whale tail. A large green room was built behind the stage where contestants watched the voting. It resembled a nightclub, with a bar area and 40 large television screens. Both areas were designed by Andrew Howe-Davies.[14]

The postcards continued with the opening theme of "Birmingham Old and New", looking at a traditional object and then its contemporary. Popular Britpop songs and also some pieces of classical music were used as background music. Finally, the flag of the country about to perform was formed, and then faded into either the conductor bowing or the beginning of the performance of the country about to perform. The various themes, and the musical accompaniment, were as following, listed in appearance order:[20][21]

The opening of the contest began with a video entitled Birmingham, Old and New. Views of the past and present of the host city were juxtaposed to give a glimpse of its history. The camera footage ended with a shot of the arena from the approaching canal boat. The orchestra appeared on screen, as well as the trumpets of the Life Guards that sounded the beginning of the transmission. A short video summarising the first competition organised by the BBC in 1960 in London was shown. There appeared Katie Boyle (the only person to have presented the contest four times) who was in the audience along with the winner of the previous year, the vocalist of the group Katrina and the Waves, Katrina Leskanich.

The intermission performance was entitled Jupiter, The Bringer of Joviality (a movement from orchestral suite The Planets composed by Gustav Holst in 1914) described as a "great coming-together, a magnificent...muesli" by host and commentator Wogan. It was a medley sung and danced, highlighting the multiculturalism of the United Kingdom and included bagpipes, a male voice choir, a soprano singer, a violinist, and some dancing tribal warriors. Pieces inspired by English, Scottish, Welsh, Irish, Indian and Zulu cultures were played. Over 200 people were involved in the interval act,[22] which included Clan Sutherland, flutist Andy Findon, an excerpt of Patti Boulaye's Sun Dance (which would later open as a West End musical), harpist Carys Hughes, bhangra dancers Nachda Sansaar, Canoldir Male Voice Choir, Grimethorpe Colliery Band, trumpeters of the Band of the Blues and Royals, Vanessa-Mae, Lesley Garrett and the BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by Martin Koch.[23]

24-year-old Anongkarat Unyawong, a Thai student at the Birmingham School of Jewellery, won a competition to design a trophy for the songwriter(s) of the winning song.[24] In addition, the winning performers each received a unique glass bowl (bearing the acronym of the Eurovision Song Contest) designed in the Midlands by Susan Nickson.[11][23]

In addition to the host country, the United Kingdom, the 18 countries with the highest average scores between 1993 and 1997 were allowed to take part in the 1998 contest alongside new and returning countries which had not participated in the 1997 contest.[20][26]

Table key

  Automatic qualifier

  Qualifier

  Replacement qualifier

  Withdrew

Calculation of average points to determine qualification for the 1998 contest

Rank	Country	Average	Yearly Point Totals
			1993	1994	1995	1996	1997
1	Ireland	155.20	187	226	44	162	157
2	United Kingdom	121.40	164	63	76	77	227
3	Norway	91.60	120	76	148	114	0
4	France	80.40	121	74	94	18	95
5	Italy[lower-alpha 1]	79.50	45				114
6	Malta	75.20	69	97	76	68	66
7	Sweden	74.60	89	48	100	100	36
8	Poland	66.50		166	15	31	54
9	Cyprus	63.40	17	51	79	72	98
10	Spain	61.40	58	17	119	17	96
11	Estonia	59.33		2		94	82
12	Hungary	54.67		122	3		39
13	Croatia	54.20	31	27	91	98	24
14	Turkey	52.25	10		21	57	121
15	Greece	50.20	64	44	68	36	39
16	Switzerland	47.50	148	15		22	5
17	Portugal	46.00	60	73	5	92	0
18	Netherlands	44.75	92	4		78	5
19[lower-alpha 2]	Slovenia	42.25	9		84	16	60
20[lower-alpha 2]	Germany[lower-alpha 1]	42.25	18	128	1		22
21	Denmark	42.00	9		92		25
22	Russia	40.00		70	17		33
23	Austria	39.60	32	19	67	68	12
24	Iceland	38.20	42	49	31	51	18
25	Bosnia and Herzegovina	23.00	27	39	14	13	22

Most performances had a musical director who conducted the orchestra.[27][20] Germany and Slovenia presented their songs without orchestral accompaniment, but nevertheless introduced a conductor before their songs – Germany's Stefan Raab had never intended to conduct, but still wanted to take his bow as the song's composer; Slovenia's Mojmir Sepe was due to conduct for Slovenia, but conflicts between the pianist and the songwriter led to the use of a backing track that he merely cued in. France initially did not plan to perform with the orchestra, but wound up incorporating the string section for the live performance, although musical director Martin Koch did not take the customary conductor's bow.

Danijela returned for Croatia after last taking part in 1995 as part of the group Magazin. Egon Egemann, who was the violinist for Gunvor this year, represented Switzerland at the 1990. José Cid returned for Portugal as part of Alma Lusa after representing the country in 1980; and Paul Harrington, who was a backing singer for Dawn Martin, returned for Ireland after having won the 1994 with Charlie McGettigan.

Bold indicates a previous winner.

Artist	Country	Previous year(s)
Danijela Martinović	Croatia	1995 (member of Magazin, along with Lidija)
Egon Egemann (violinist)	Switzerland	1990
José Cid (member of Alma Lusa)	Portugal	1980
Paul Harrington (backing singer for Dawn Martin)	Ireland	1994 (with Charlie McGettigan)

The following tables reflect the officially verified results confirmed after the transmission of the live contest. During the voting sequence seen in the broadcast, the Spanish votes were incorrectly announced, as Germany was excluded from the Spanish announcement. Israel and Norway lost two marks and Belgium, Portugal, Malta, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Estonia, Croatia and Turkey all lost one mark each once Germany had been awarded twelve points.

Draw	Country	Artist	Song	Language[18][28]	Place[29]	Points
01	Croatia	Danijela	"Neka mi ne svane"	Croatian	5	131
02	Greece	Thalassa	"Mia krifi evaisthisia" (Μια κρυφή ευαισθησία)	Greek	20	12
03	France	Marie Line	"Où aller"	French	24	3
04	Spain	Mikel Herzog	"¿Qué voy a hacer sin ti?"	Spanish	16	21
05	Switzerland	Gunvor	"Lass ihn"	German	25	0
06	Slovakia	Katarína Hasprová	"Modlitba"	Slovak	21	8
07	Poland	Sixteen	"To takie proste"	Polish	17	19
08	Israel	Dana International	"Diva" (דיווה)	Hebrew	1	172
09	Germany	Guildo Horn	"Guildo hat euch lieb!"	German	7	86
10	Malta	Chiara	"The One That I Love"	English	3	165
11	Hungary	Charlie	"A holnap már nem lesz szomorú"	Hungarian	23	4
12	Slovenia	Vili Resnik	"Naj bogovi slišijo"	Slovene	18	17
13	Ireland	Dawn Martin	"Is Always Over Now?"	English	9	64
14	Portugal	Alma Lusa	"Se eu te pudesse abraçar"	Portuguese	12	36
15	Romania	Mălina Olinescu	"Eu cred"	Romanian	22	6
16	United Kingdom	Imaani	"Where Are You?"	English	2	166
17	Cyprus	Michael Hajiyanni	"Genesis" (Γένεσις)	Greek	11	37
18	Netherlands	Edsilia	"Hemel en aarde"	Dutch	4	150
19	Sweden	Jill Johnson	"Kärleken är"	Swedish	10	53
20	Belgium	Mélanie Cohl	"Dis oui"	French	6	122
21	Finland	Edea	"Aava"	Finnish	15	22
22	Norway	Lars A. Fredriksen	"Alltid sommer"	Norwegian	8	79
23	Estonia	Koit Toome	"Mere lapsed"	Estonian	12	36
24	Turkey	Tüzmen	"Unutamazsın"	Turkish	14	25
25	Macedonia	Vlado Janevski	"Ne zori, zoro" (Не зори, зоро)	Macedonian	19	16

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

N.	Contestant	Nation(s) giving 12 points
4	Malta	Ireland,  Norway,  Slovakia,  United Kingdom
	United Kingdom	Croatia,  Israel,  Romania,  Turkey
3	Israel	France,  Malta,  Portugal
	Germany	Netherlands,  Spain,   Switzerland
2	Croatia	Macedonia,  Slovenia
	Netherlands	Belgium,  Hungary
1	Belgium	Poland
	Cyprus	Greece
	Estonia	Finland
	Greece	Cyprus
	Norway	Sweden
	Sweden	Estonia
	Turkey	Germany

The spokespersons announced the score from their respective country's televote (or, in some cases, national jury) in running order.

Spain originally gave its 12 points to Israel and 10 to Norway. After the broadcast it was announced that the Spanish broadcaster wrongly tallied the votes and Germany should have got the top mark – 12 points – instead of receiving zero points, as in the broadcast. The mistake was corrected after the contest and so Germany was placed 7th over Norway. Israel and Norway both received 2 points less than originally and Croatia, Malta, Portugal, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Belgium, Estonia and Turkey all received one point less than indicated during the broadcast. Originally Estonia, Cyprus and Portugal tied for 11th place with 37 points but because Portugal and Estonia received one point less than indicated during the broadcast, Cyprus was placed 11th over Estonia and Portugal.[1]

For the second year in a row, at least one country went home empty-handed; Switzerland's Gunvor Guggisberg with her composition "Lass Ihn" failed to score a single point.

Other notable participants were Germany's Guildo Horn, whose shocking comedic act culminated in his climbing the scaffolding on the side of the stage. Controversially chosen to represent Germany, he was criticised for his lack of seriousness by the German press. However, after winning by 60% of the vote, the German people were firmly on Horn's side. "Guildo-Fever" spread throughout Germany during the weeks leading up to the contest, with Horn becoming front-page material in Germany. He was also noticed in countries around Europe, and the early criticism that had existed in Germany arose in those countries. Even though his 7th place was disappointing, to some Germans it was a revival for the contest in Germany, and was the beginning of four consecutive top-ten finishes.

After the first rehearsals, the Greek composer, Yiannis Valvis, was unhappy with the way that the director, Geoff Posner, intended to film his song, specifically a series of six heavily-emphasised chords accompanied by six dance moves which Valvis felt the director was not placing enough emphasis upon. After a meeting where Valvis attempted to ask for the Greeks to have full control over their performance and this request was rejected, Valvis launched a formal protest at the Greek press conference. After making no progress, Valvis protested more actively at the dress rehearsal, standing on the stage during the Greek song, claiming that he was supposed to be playing bass but had not been given an instrument.[60]

This proved to be the final straw for the EBU, the BBC, and ERT: Valvis was refused entry to the arena on the date of the contest. In response, ERT threatened to withdraw from the competition, which would promote France to second in the running order and reduce the number of entrants to twenty-four. However, minutes later, they reversed their decision. Greece earned only 12 points in the end, all of which came from Cyprus, ranking Greece 20th by the end of the broadcast, their worst result until that point. Watching from a hotel room, Valvis accused the BBC of favouritism, as "Diva" had similar chords and moves, which had been given emphasis by the BBC.[60]

Orthodox Jews were unhappy with the fact that Dana International, the first singer at the contest ever to have undergone gender reassignment surgery in 1993, was representing Israel, due to religious bigotry.[60][61]

After the first rehearsal, the Turkish conductor was found to be playing the tempo too slowly, and so the Turkish song exceeded three minutes, with the first rehearsal performance being three seconds too long. The next rehearsal performance was, alarmingly, even slower, with the Turkish conductor claiming to a camera that due to a series of "hemi-demi-semi-dim-dams" it was impossible for him to play the song quicker. The third performance came in at 3:07, leading to speculation that Turkey would be disqualified from the contest. The conductor then said that a metronome would be useless due to a number of tempo changes in the song. The final performance on the night was timed at 2:59, which was enough to keep Turkey in the competition.[60]

In a BBC interview, future Eurovision entrant Nicki French said that one of her most memorable Eurovision moments was Jonsson's infamous faux pas during the voting. On hearing that the Dutch lady announcing the Netherlands' votes had previously been a contestant in Eurovision, Jonsson replied, "A long time ago, was it?" which was followed by much laughter from the audience.[62] In fact Conny van den Bos who sang for the Netherlands in 1965 said that she had gone to the contest many years ago; unfortunately for both van den Bos and Jonsson, this wasn't heard above the noise of the audience.[62] What was heard, however, was Jonsson's seemingly insulting comment.[1]

The Barbara Dex Award is a humorous fan award given to the worst dressed artist each year. Named after Belgium's representative who came last in the 1993 contest, wearing her self-designed dress, the award was handed for the second year by the fansite House of Eurovision and until the 2016 contest, when the Belgian Eurovision fansite songfestival.be took the reins. Guildo Horn of Germany won the award.