For all those people who are interesting in the Eurovision
Song Contest which comes once a year, here are some details about
the 1999 contest.
Links to other Pages. More Links at bottom of
page.
Well done to Israel in winning the 1998 Eurovision Song
Contest in Birmingham, United Kingdom. A lot of people may wonder
why Israel is allow to enter, even though Israel is not in Europe!.
They belong to the EBU (European Broadcasting Union) and that is
why they can enter.
The 1999 contest was held at the Israeli Conference Center (Binyanei
Ha'uma (English Translation - National buildings)) in Jerusalem,
Israel on Saturday 29th of May 1999. It is the same location of
the 1979 contest and the latest date that the Eurovision Song
Contest has every held! The 1999 venue may be one of the smallest
since Italy in 1991, only seating 2,000. This date will be the
latest date ever held for the Eurovision Song Contest. The
previous latest date was in 1956 when it all began in Switzerland
on 24th May 1956. The earliest date to be held was in 1957 when
Germany host the contest on 3rd March 1957.
The presenters for the 1999 contest were Dafna Dekel, Sigal
Shachamon and Yigal Ravid. Due to the fact that all 3
can speak fluent English and French plus Yigal can also speak
German, this means that this years contest was in English.
There were 23 countries entered. The following countries
entered the 1999 Contest. Austria, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina,
Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Iceland,
Ireland, Israel, Lithuania, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland,
Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey and United Kingdom.
Unlike previous Eurovision Song Contest, Israeli TV has
decided not to have an orchestra in the contest. The rules now
say that the producing TV company can decided if they want to
provide an orchestra or not. Each country will have a backing
tracks played, but must still sing the song live.
Latvia has pulled out of the contest as at 15 November 1998
and Portugal has been allowed to enter.
Finland, FYR Macedonia, Greece, Italy, Hungary, Luxembourg,
Romania, Russia, Slovakia and Switzerland are not entering the
1999 contest, due to low scores in the past 5 contest.
Because of the current rules that countries must be in at
least every two years, Austria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Denmark,
Iceland and Russia are guarantee to be in because there were not
in the 1998 contest, that is if they wanted to. Of which, Russia
decided not to enter.
From the year 2000 onwards, the four largest contributing to
the Eurovision Song Contest, Germany, United Kingdom, France and
Spain will be allow to enter the contest in any year, regarding
to how many points each country will gain. There is a pattern
here! The largest English speaking country in Eurovision is the
UK, the largest French speaking country is France, then Spanish
for Spain and German for Germany!
New for 1999. Each country will be allow to sing in any
language as they like. At last, we can understand each other
songs! It looks like about half of the countries will be singing
in English. Countries stands more chances to winning if it was
sung in English. See below to see what language each country will
be singing.
10 Countries will sing in English, 1 in French, 1 in Bosnian,
1 in Croatian, 1 in Danish, 1 in Greek, 1 in Lithuanian, 1 in
Polish, 1 in Portuguese, 1 in Spanish, 1 in Slovenian, 1 in
Turkish and 2 countries attempts to sing in more that one
language, which are Israel singing in English/Hebrew and German
singing in German/English/Turkish.
On 17 November 1998, the drawing was broadcast live on
Jerusalem's Manny Pe'er show - a popular weekly talk show.
The results of the drawing is as follows. All entries and songs
for the 1999 contest are shown below. English translation where
available are in brackets.
Pos
Country
Song
Artist
Language
1.
Lithuania
Strazdas (Thrush)
Aiste Smilgeviciute
Lithuanian
2.
Belgium
Like the wind
Vanessa Chinitor
English
3.
Spain
No Quiero Escucharte (I Don't Want To Listen
To You)
Lydia
Spanish
4.
Croatia
Marija Magdalena (Maria Magdalena)
Doris Dragovic
Croatian
5.
United Kingdom
Say It Again
Precious
English
6.
Slovenia
Se Tisoc Let (For a Thousand Years)
Darja Svajger
Slovenian
7.
Turkey
Dön Artik (Immortal Love)
Tugba Önal & Grup Etnik
Turkish
8.
Norway
Living my life without you
Van Eijk
English
9.
Denmark
Denne Gang (This Time I mean it oh baby)
Trine Jepsen & Michael Teschl
English
10.
France
Je veux donner ma voix (I want to give my
voice)
Nayah
French
11.
Netherlands
One Good Reason
Marlayne
English
12.
Poland
Przytul mnie mocno (Hold Me Tight)
Mietek Szczesniak
Polish
13.
Iceland
All out of luck
Selma Björnsdóttir
English
14.
Cyprus
Tha nai erotas (It Will Be Love)
Marlain Aggelidou
Greek
15.
Sweden
Take Me To Your Heaven
Charlotte Nilsson
English
16.
Portugal
Como tudo começou (How It All Began)
Rui Bandeira
Portuguese
17.
Ireland
When You Need Me
Bronagh and Karen Mullan
English
18.
Austria
Reflections in Your Eyes
Bobbie Singer
English
19.
Israel
Yom holedet (Happy
Birthday)
Eden
English/Hebrew
20.
Malta
Believe in Peace
Times 3
English
21.
Germany
Reise Nach Jerusalem (Journey to Jerusalem)
Sürpriz
German/English/ Turkish
22.
Bosnia Herzegovina
Putnici (Passengers)
Dino Dervishalidovic and Beatrice
Bosnian
23.
Estonia
Diamond Of The Night
Evelin Samuel & Camille
English
The German Winner was disqualified as the
song "Hör Den Kindern Einfach Zu (Just Listen To The
Children)" sung by "Corinna May" was previous
released before in which the EBU forbids it. Also, the Bosnia
Winner was also disqualified on 17th April as the song "Starac
I More (The Old Man and the Sea)" sung by group
"Hari Mata Hari" has been recorded in Finland by Janne Hurme in 1996. It is now being replaced with
"Dino Dervishalidovic and Beatrice" singing "Putnici".
The full jury score sheet can be downloaded from here,
including the entries. Please click
here for details.
The full contest results was on the internet at 12:45am (UK,
BST), 1:45am (CET) on Sunday 30 May 1999, a day before my
Birthday and this web site's 3rd Birthday! A new record of 1 hour
and 30 minutes. The programme overran by 15 minutes. My previous
record was 1 hour 40 minutes after the contest.
Just for the record, the 1999 contest will be the first one I
have ever recorded in Stereo. The area I live in, doesn't
broadcast in stereo so I have record it via Sky Digital Satellite.
I have recorded (and still got) all the contest since 1990.
Please, do not email me for copies!
Many thanks for all the votes over the months
between 14 March 1999 to 23 May 1999. This chart indicated who
could have won the 1999 contest. Cyprus was this web site's hot
tip to win, and came 22nd place in the contest. Bosnia came
second and 7th in the contest. Iceland was 3rd, the best
Icelandic song for a long time and ended up runner-up in the
contest. The after contest voting was completely different.
Iceland came first and 2nd in the contest, Malta came second and
15th in the contest and Croatia ended up in 3rd place and came 4th
in the contest.
Before
Contest Voting Results
14 March 1999 to 23 May 1999
Internet
Position
Final
Position
Country
Internet
Votes
1
22
Cyprus
165
2
7
Bosnia
143
3
2
Iceland
81
4
4
Croatia
45
5
12=
United Kingdom
33
6
1
Sweden
30
7
5
Israel
25
8
3
Germany
23
9
8=
Netherlands
23
10=
15
Malta
21
10=
16
Turkey
20
10=
23
Spain
20
13
17
Ireland
19
14=
19
France
14
14=
6
Estonia
14
14=
10
Austria
14
17=
14
Norway
12
17=
12=
Belgium
12
17=
8=
Denmark
12
20
18
Poland
10
21
11
Slovenia
7
22
20
Portugal
6
23
21
Lithuania
5
Number of Votes Cased
0757
After
Contest Voting Results
30 May 1999 to 4 July 1999
Internet
Position
Final
Position
Country
Internet
Votes
1
2
Iceland
39
2
15
Malta
31
3
4
Croatia
28
4
6
Estonia
23
5
22
Cyprus
22
6=
11
Slovenia
19
6=
8=
Denmark
19
8=
14=
Austria
18
8=
3
Germany
18
10
1
Sweden
17
11=
8=
Netherlands
14
11=
12=
Belgium
14
13
7
Bosnia
11
14=
18
Poland
10
14=
12=
United Kingdom
10
16
21
Lithuania
7
17=
14
Norway
5
17=
23
Spain
5
17=
5
Israel
5
20
16
Turkey
4
21=
20
Portugal
2
21=
19
France
2
23
17
Ireland
1
Number of Votes Cased
0324
The full jury score sheet can be downloaded from here,
including the entries. Please click
here for details.
-----> To return to the 1999 page, click here <-----
2000
1998