Alltid Sommer

Norway was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 1998 with the song "", composed by David Eriksen, with lyrics by Linda Andernach Johansen, and performed by Lars A. Fredriksen. The Norwegian participating broadcaster, (NRK), organised the national final 1998 in order to select its entry for the contest. Eight entries competed in a show that took place on 27 February 1999 and the winner, "All I Ever Wanted (Was You)" performed by Lars A. Fredriksen, was determined by the votes from a six-member jury panel and a regional televote. The song was later translated from English to Norwegian for Eurovision and was titled "".

Norway competed in the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 29 May 1999. Performing during the show in position 22, Norway placed eighth out of the 25 participating countries, scoring 79 points.

Background

Prior to the 1998 contest, (NRK) had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest representing Norway 37 times since its first entry in .It had won the contest on two occasions: in with the song "La det swinge" performed by Bobbysocks!, and in with the song " Nocturne" performed by Secret Garden. It also had the two distinctions of having finished last in the Eurovision final more than any other country and for having the most '' nul points'' (zero points) in the contest, the latter being a record the nation shared together with . It had finished last seven times and had failed to score a point during four contests.

As part of its duties as participating broadcaster, NRK organises the selection of its entry in the Eurovision Song Contest and broadcasts the event in the country. The broadcaster has traditionally organised the national final to select its entry for the contest in all but one of its participation. NRK organized 1998 in order to select its 1998 entry.

Before Eurovision

1998

1998 was the 37th edition of the national final and was organised by NRK to select its entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 1998. The broadcaster held the show on 28 February 1998 at its Studio 2 in Oslo, hosted by Øystein Bache and Rune Gokstad, and televised on NRK1. A live orchestra conducted by Geir Langslet accompanied each performance in varying capacities. The national final was watched by 1.271 million viewers in Norway.

Competing entries

Composers were directly invited by NRK to compete in the national final. Eight songs were selected for the competition and among the competing artists was former Eurovision entrant Elisabeth Andreassen who represented (as part of Chips), (as part of Bobbysocks!), (alongside Jan Werner Danielsen), and . For the first time in , artists were allowed to perform their song in English, with Andreassen, G'stén and Lars A. Fredriksen opting to do so.

Final

Eight songs competed during the final on 28 February 1998. The winner was selected by a combination of votes from regional televoting (5/7) and an expert jury (2/7). The results of the public televote were divided into Norway's five regions and each region distributed points as follows: 1, 2, 3, 5, 7 and 10 points. The jury then distributed points that had a weighting equal to the votes of two televoting regions, leading to the victory of "All I Ever Wanted (Was You)" performed by Lars A. Fredriksen. The jury panel consisted of Ellen Foss-Sørensen ( NRK P2 radio host), Tor Milde (music journalist), Finn Bjelke ( NRK P3 radio producer), Olve Brekke (product manager), Stein Dag Jensen ( NRK P1 radio host) and Silje Stang ( P4 Radio music director and TVNorge presenter). More than 63,000 votes were registered by the televote during the show, however Telenor later revealed that an additional 440,000 votes were unable to be registered due to technical issues. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, the interval act featured the Great Garlic Girls performing several past British Eurovision entries.

At Eurovision

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the eight countries which had obtained the lowest average number of points over the last five contests competed in the final on 9 May 1998. On 13 November 1997, an allocation draw was held which determined the running order and Norway was set to perform in position 22, following the entry from and before the entry from . At the contest, Lars A. Fredriksen performed the Norwegian version of "All I Ever Wanted (Was You)", titled "". The Norwegian conductor at the contest was Geir Langslet, and Norway finished in eighth place with 79 points.

In Norway, the show was broadcast on NRK1 with commentary by Jostein Pedersen as well as broadcast via radio on NRK P1 with commentary by Stein Dag Jensen. NRK appointed Ragnhild Sælthun Fjørtoft as its spokesperson to announce the Norwegian votes during the show.

Voting

Below is a breakdown of points awarded to Norway and awarded by Norway in the contest. The nation awarded its 12 points to in the contest.

References

{{Eurovision Song Contest 1998

1998
Countries in the Eurovision Song Contest 1998
Eurovision
Eurovision