Main Page Images Page 1 Images Page 2 Host country: Israel
Venue: International Conference Centre, Jerusalem
Date: 29 May 1999
Presenters: Yigal Ravid, Dafna Dekel, Sigal Shachmon
Won by: Sweden  The year 1999 saw two fundamental changes at the Eurovision Song Contest, the first to held outside of Europe for twenty years. Firstly, the producing broadcaster was no longer obliged to provide an orchestra - so they didn't. And secondly, there was the reintroduction of the 'free language' rule, not seen since 1977.
These two factors combined to produce a contest with a much more contemporary pop feel than in previous years. So it was slightly ironic that the winner should end up being a song that seemed to owe rather a lot to the winner of 25 years earlier. Sweden's Charlotte Nilsson (above)  sung 'Take Me To Your Heaven' which might just as well have been called 'Waterloo Part 2'. Sweden's fourth victory denied a first victory to Iceland - Selma (left) sung a bouncy upbeat song which turned out to have prophetic title 'All Out of Luck', as their early lead was eventually eroded by Sweden and Germany, the latter who made a shameless attempt to curry local favour with 'Journey to Jerusalem'. Meanwhile, for the UK 1999 was the start of the dark period. No more first or even second places for us - the group Precious singing the distinctly unmemorable 'Say It Again' only managed 38 points. | Country | Artist | Song | Points | Position | | LITHUANIA | Aiste | Strazdas | 13 | 20 | | BELGIUM | Vanessa Chinitor | Like the Wind | 38 | 12 | | SPAIN | Lydia | No Quiero Escuchar | 1 | 23 | | CROATIA | Doris | Maria Magdalena | 118/79* | 4 | | UNITED KINGDOM | Precious | Say It Again | 38 | 12 | | SLOVENIA | Darja Svajger | For a Thousand Years | 50 | 11 | | TURKEY | Tugba Onal | Don Artic | 21 | 16 | | NORWAY | Stig Van Eijk | Living My Life Without You | 35 | 14 | | DENMARK | Trine Jepsen and Michael Teschl | This Time I Mean It | 71 | 8 | | FRANCE | Nayah | Je Veux Donner Ma Voix | 14 | 19 | | NETHERLANDS | Marlayne | One Good Reason | 71 | 8 | | POLAND | Mieczyslaw Szczesniak | Przytul Mnie Mocno | 17 | 18 | | ICELAND | Selma | All Out of Luck | 146 | 2 | | CYPRUS | Marlain | Thane Erotas | 2 | 22 | | SWEDEN | Charlotte Nilsson | Take Me to Your Heaven | 163 | 1 | | PORTUGAL | Rui Bandeira | Como Tudo Comecou | 12 | 21 | | IRELAND | The Mullans | When You Need Me | 18 | 17 | | AUSTRIA | Bobbie Singer | Reflection | 65 | 10 | | ISRAEL | Eden | Happy Birthday | 93 | 5 | | MALTA | Times Three | Believe in Peace | 32 | 15 | | GERMANY | Surpriz | Journey to Jerusalem | 140 | 3 | | BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA | Dino and Beatrice | Putnici | 86 | 7 | | ESTONIA | Evelin Samuel and Camille | Diamond of Night | 90 | 6 |
* On 24th September 1999, the EBU announced that the final score for Croatia had been reduced by a third, from 118 to 79, because their song had contained synthesised male backing singers, but no male backing singers were on stage. Rules stated all performers must be on stage. Confusingly, though, they retained fourth place. The scoreboard below, however, reflects the position at the end of the contest. Click here to view the 1999 scoreboard (opens in new window). Countries voting are shown across the top, with each country's cumulative total after the country has voted shown in large type, and the points awarded in small type. Each country gave 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 points to its top ten songs
BBC broadcast: Saturday 29 May 1999, 8.00-11.13pm. Commentary: BBC1 - Terry Wogan, Radio 2 - Ken Bruce. UK vote spokesperson: Colin Berry
Click below to see more images from the night's contest:  
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