Eurovision Song Contest 1998

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.[12] The week after the Eurovision Song Contest, the city was to host the 24th G8 summit, with Terry Wogan vacating his hotel room to make way for Bill Clinton.[13] 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,[14] 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.[15]

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 were as following, listed in appearance order:[20]

Each country had a televote except Turkey, Romania and Hungary, where the top ten most voted for songs were awarded the 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 points, with a back-up jury in case of mistakes. A jury was used if there were exceptional reasons not to use a televote.

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.

Vanessa-Mae, a famous violinist, performed as part of interval act.

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,[21] 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.[22]

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.[23] 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.[13][22]

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

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.[2]

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.[7]

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. (Greece would again be ranked 20th in 2014's edition in Denmark with 35 points, but in a different score system). 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.[7]

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.[7][8]

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.[7]

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.[28] 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.[28] What was heard, however, was Jonsson's seemingly insulting comment.[2]

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

Most countries sent commentators to Birmingham or commented from their own country, in order to add insight to the participants and, if necessary, the provision of voting information.