Norway was represented at the

Eurovision Song Contest 1998 The Eurovision Song Contest 1998 was the 43rd edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, held on 9 May 1998 at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham, United Kingdom. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster the Br ...

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 The Eurovision Song Contest (), often known simply as Eurovision, is an international Music competition, song competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) among its members since 1956. Each participating broadcaster ...

representing Norway 37 times since its first entry in .It had won the contest on two occasions: in with the song "

La det swinge "La det swinge" (; "Let it swing") is a song recorded by the pop duo Bobbysocks! –Hanne Krogh and Elisabeth Andreassen– with music composed and Norwegian lyrics written by Rolf Løvland. It in the Eurovision Song Contest 1985 held in Gothenb ...

" performed by

Bobbysocks! Bobbysocks is a Norwegian pop duo consisting of Norwegian Hanne Krogh and Swedish-Norwegian Elisabeth Andreassen. They won the Eurovision Song Contest 1985 with the song "La det swinge" ("Let it swing"). Elisabeth went by the surname Andreasson ...

, and in with the song "

Nocturne A nocturne is a musical composition that is inspired by, or evocative of, the night. History The term ''nocturne'' (from French '' nocturne'' "of the night") was first applied to musical pieces in the 18th century, when it indicated an ensembl ...

" 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 The winner of the Eurovision Song Contest is determined by a positional voting system. The most recent version of the system was implemented in the . Each participating country awards two sets of 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 points, based on th ...

'' (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 Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022 ...

, hosted by

Øystein Bache Øystein Bache (born 23 September 1960 in Oslo) is a Norwegian comedian and actor.Øystein Bache
in Store norske leksikon

and Rune Gokstad, and televised on

NRK1 NRK1 (pronounced as ''"NRK en"'' or ''"- ein"'') is the main television channel of the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK). History Test broadcasts started on 12 January 1954, regular test broadcasts began on 13 April 1958, and regular bro ...

. 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 Elisabeth Gunilla Andreassen (; born 28 March 1958), also known simply as Bettan, is a Norwegian-Swedish singer who has finished both first and second in the Eurovision Song Contest. Career Her talent was discovered in 1979 by Swedish musician an ...

who represented (as part of

Chips ''CHiPs'' is an American crime drama television series created by Rick Rosner and originally aired on NBC from September 15, 1977, to May 1, 1983. After the final first-run telecast on NBC in May 1983, the series went into reruns on Sundays fr ...

), (as part of

), (alongside

Jan Werner Danielsen Jan Werner Danielsen, known professionally as Jan Werner, (10 April 1976 – 28 September 2006) was a Norwegian pop singer, also known for his interpretations of musical, classical, and rock standards. He was famous for his powerful voice which ...

), 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 NRK P2 is one of three main, nationwide radio channels produced by the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK). Its current format – focusing on news and current affairs, debate, analysis, culture, science, and society – is the result of t ...

radio host), Tor Milde (music journalist), Finn Bjelke (

NRK P3 NRK P3 is a nationwide digital radio channel operated by the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK). It was established as NRK's third radio channel in 1993 and was the result of the NRK radio channel reform initiated in 1992 by radio director ...

radio producer), Olve Brekke (product manager), Stein Dag Jensen (

NRK P1 NRK P1 is a nationwide digital radio channel operated by the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK). It is the result of the NRK radio channel reform initiated in 1993 by radio director Tor Fuglevik. NRK P1 is the direct descendant of NRK's fir ...

radio host) and Silje Stang ( P4 Radio music director and

TVNorge TVNorge (literally "TVNorway"; originally abbreviated TVN, now just abbreviated N in the logos) is a Norwegian television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery EMEA. History TVNorge went on the air on 5 December 1988 and was the first adv ...

presenter). More than 63,000 votes were registered by the televote during the show, however

Telenor Telenor ASA ( or ) is a Norwegian majority state-owned multinational telecommunications company headquartered at Fornebu in Bærum, close to Oslo. It is one of the world's largest mobile telecommunications companies with operations worldwi ...

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

with commentary by

Jostein Pedersen Jostein Pedersen (born 11 August 1959 in Dønna) is a Norwegian musical journalist and reporter, television commentator and "music intelligencia". He was the Norwegian commentator to the Eurovision Song Contest in 1994, and from 1996 to 2006. S ...

as well as broadcast via radio on

with commentary by Stein Dag Jensen. NRK appointed

Ragnhild Sælthun Fjørtoft Ragnhild Sælthun Fjørtoft (born 9 June 1947) is a Norwegian former television presenter. She was born in Lærdal to farmer Olaf Sælthun and politician Ambjørg Sælthun, and is married to Arne Fjørtoft . She was assigned with NRK for 4 ...

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 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

Countries in the Eurovision Song Contest 1998

Eurovision The Eurovision Song Contest (), often known simply as Eurovision, is an international song competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) among its members since 1956. Each participating broadcaster submits an origina ...