Eurovision Song Contest 1999

International Convention Center, Jerusalem – host venue of the 1999 contest.

In the run-up to the Contest, many speculated that it would not be held in Israel, but would be moved to either Malta or stay at the United Kingdom (the countries that completed the top 3 of the 1998 Contest). This came about after major concerns over funding for the event from the Israeli government arose, alongside the opposition from Orthodox Jews that they would attempt to stop the Contest from coming to Israel after Dana International won the previous year's Contest. This, however, provided no hindrance for IBA or to the organizing team of the event, and the Ussishkin Auditorium at International Convention Center in Jerusalem was selected as the venue for the 44th Contest.[1]

Long-standing rules in place for decades were abolished during this Contest: rules that each country had to sing in one of their national languages was abolished for the first time since 1977. A majority of the participating countries, fourteen out of twenty-three, chose to sing entirely or partly in English and only eight entirely in their respective national languages; Lithuania, Spain, Croatia, Poland, France, Cyprus, Portugal and Turkey, not counting the United Kingdom, Ireland and Malta, whose national language is English. Furthermore, live music became optional for the first time in the Contest's history. IBA took advantage of this and decided to drop the orchestra from the Contest as a way to conserve money for the show. This meant that for the first time all entries used backing track during their performances.[2] This caused controversy for Eurovision traditionalists, with two-time winner Johnny Logan criticising the move, describing the event now as "karaoke".[1]

A compilation CD was released in Israel by the host broadcaster and IMP Records. Due to licensing problems, the CD omitted the songs from Poland, Cyprus, The Netherlands and the United Kingdom.[3] Since then, all compilation CDs have featured all the songs.

It was announced in 1999 that, as of the 2000 Contest, the four biggest financial contributors to the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) – Germany, Spain, France and the United Kingdom – would all be given automatic entry into the Contest, regardless of their average scores over the past five years.[1][2]

Latvia had attempted to participate in the contest for the first time, but later withdrew. This gave Hungary a chance to enter the contest, however, Magyar Televízió decided not to take part, allowing Portugal to compete as the 23rd country.[2]

Draw for the order of performances took place on 17 November 1998.[4]

Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Denmark and Iceland returned to the Contest after being relegated from competing in 1998. Lithuania also returned to the Contest for the first time in five years. The Lithuanian delegation has had budget problems to contend with, and so the EBU allowed the Lithuanians to arrive in Israel a day later than everyone else. The first delegation on the other hand, to arrive were Estonia.[2]

After being relegated from the 1998 Contest, Russia's Channel One had decided not to broadcast that year's contest, in order to allow for a strong comeback in Israel. However, as only countries which had broadcast the previous year's contest were allowed to enter the next year's contest, Russia was forced to miss another year. They were joined by Finland, Greece, Hungary, Macedonia, Romania, Slovakia and Switzerland; the countries with the lowest average scores over the previous five years.

The favourites to win the Contest came from Iceland's Selma with "All Out of Luck", and Cyprus's Marlain with "Tha 'Ne Erotas", after an internet poll by fans. But, while Iceland finished second to Sweden (the country's best showing in the contest), Cyprus failed to inspire televotes, finishing second last with only two points, both from the United Kingdom.[1][2]

A number of controversies occurred before the Contest. Two songs selected to compete in Israel were found to be ineligible: Bosnia and Herzegovina's Hari Mata Hari were disqualified after their entry was discovered to have been released in Finland some years previously; Germany's Corinna May was also disqualified after her song was revealed to have been released in 1997 by a different singer.[1][5] Both artists would eventually represent their countries in Eurovision, in 2006 and 2002 respectively.

Croatia's entry, Marija Magdalena, attracted objections from the Norwegian delegation, due to synthesised male vocals being used on the backing track of Doris Dragović's entry. The EBU decided to reduce the country's score by a third for the purpose of calculating its five-year average to determine participation in future contests, though it was decided to leave its placement in the 1999 result unaffected.[1][2]

The interval act was provided by Dana International, who performed a cover of the Stevie Wonder song "Free", which although was a smash hit in Israel at the time, caused some controversy there due to the song's lyrics. Dana International also appeared at the end of the show, handing the winning trophy to Nilsson. After pretending that the trophy was too heavy to lift, she fell to the stage, bringing down the winning composers with her.[1][2] After the encore of the winning entry coming from Sweden, the three presenters re-appeared inviting everyone on stage to sing a rendition of the English version of "Hallelujah", the Israeli winner from the 1979 Contest, as a tribute to the victims of the Kosovo War (particularly then-Yugoslavia, which was banned from participation as penalty due this conflict), who were unable to view the contest after bombings destroyed television transmitters.[1]

Each country had a televote, where the top ten most voted-for songs were awarded the 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 points, with the exceptions of Turkey, Lithuania, Ireland and Bosnia and Herzegovina who used juries.

In addition to the Big Four and the host country of the 2000 contest, Sweden, the 13 countries with the highest average scores between 1995 and 1999 were allowed to take part in the Eurovision Song Contest 2000.

Key:
  Automatically qualified
  Qualified

Rank	Country	Average	Score
			1995	1996	1997	1998	1999
–	United Kingdom	116.80	76	77	227	166	38
1	Israel	115.33	81			172	93
–	Sweden	90.40	100	100	36	53	163
2	Ireland	89.00	44	162	157	64	18
3	Croatia	84.60	91	98	24	131	79[lower-alpha 1]
4	Malta	81.40	76	68	66	165	32
5	Netherlands	76.00		78	5	150	71
6	Estonia	75.50		94	82	36	90
7	Norway	75.20	148	114	0	79	35
8	Denmark	62.67	92		25		71
–	Germany	62.25	1		22	86	140
9	Iceland	61.50	31	51	18		146
10	Cyprus	57.60	79	72	98	37	2
11	Austria	53.00	67	68	12		65
–	Spain	50.80	119	17	96	21	1
12	Turkey	49.00	21	57	121	25	21
13	Belgium	47.50	8	22		122	38
14	Slovenia	45.40	84	16	60	17	50
–	France	44.80	94	18	95	3	14
15	Bosnia and Herzegovina	33.75	14	13	22		86
16	Portugal	29.00	5	92	0	36	12
17	Poland	27.20	15	31	54	19	17
18	Lithuania	13.00					13

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