Norway was represented by

Tor Endresen Tor Lars Oskar Endresen (born 15 June 1959 in Bergen) is a Norwegian singer and composer. He has entered the Norwegian song selection for the Eurovision Song Contest numerous times, but has only won it once, and represented Norway in the Eurov ...

, with the song "San Francisco", at the 1997 Eurovision Song Contest, which took place on 3 May in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

. "San Francisco" was chosen as the Norwegian entry at the

Melodi Grand Prix Melodi Grand Prix (), commonly known as Grand Prix and MGP, sometimes as Norwegian Melodi Grand Prix ( no, Norsk Melodi Grand Prix), is an annual music competition organised by Norwegian public broadcaster Norsk Rikskringkasting (NRK). It dete ...

on 8 March, and is mainly remembered for bringing Norway's recent run of Eurovision success – they had finished 5th, 6th, 1st and 2nd in the previous four contests – to a spectacular end.

Before Eurovision

Melodi Grand Prix 1997

1997'' was the Norwegian national final that selected Norway's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 1997.

Competing entries

350 submissions were received by

NRK NRK, an abbreviation of the Norwegian ''Norsk Rikskringkasting Aksjeselskap, AS'', generally expressed in English as the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, is the Norwegian government-owned radio and television public broadcasting company, and ...

. Eight songs were selected for the competition by a three-member jury panel. Among the competing artists, Geir Rønning would later represent

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

in the

Eurovision Song Contest 2005 The Eurovision Song Contest 2005 was the 50th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Kyiv, Ukraine, following the country's victory at the with the song "Wild Dances" by Ruslana. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (E ...

Final

The final took place on 8 February 1997 at the Studio 2 of NRK, hosted by Tande-P. The winner was selected by a combination of public televoting (60%) and a jury panel (40%), which led to the victory of

on his eighth attempt at the competition. The jury consisted of H.C. Andersen,

Elisabeth Andreassen Elisabeth Gunilla Andreassen (; born 28 March 1958), also known as just 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 and ...

Kari Gjærum Kari Gjærum (born November 23, 1952 in Porsgrunn) is a Norwegian singer. She was educated at the ''Østlandets Musikk-konservatorium'' and ''Statens Operaskole'' and has been a professional artist since 1979. She has worked as a singer and backi ...

Ole Evenrud Ole Evenrud (born November 17, 1962) is a Norwegian pop artist and teenpop producer. He had his big time in the 1980s under the name Ole i'dole. After the 1980s he has operated as a musical producer. He was Head of A&R at Polygram Norway from 1993 ...

, Leif Erik Forberg and Frode Viken. Several of the jury members were friends of Endresen and Andreassen later told the press that "Endresen deserved to win" regardless of what song he participated with.

At Eurovision

Heading into the final of the contest, RTÉ reported that bookmakers ranked the entry 17th out of the 25 entries. On the night of the final Endresen performed third in the running order, following

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

and preceding

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

. At the close of voting "San Francisco" had failed to pick up any points at all, the eighth time Norway had found itself at the bottom of the scoreboard at the end of the evening, and a record fourth nul-points finish. The 1997 ignominy was shared with

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

, who had also been completely shunned by the national juries. The Norwegian jury awarded its 12 points to

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

.ESC History – Norway 1997
/ref>

Voting

Norway did not receive any points at the 1997 Eurovision Song Contest.

References

{{Melodi Grand Prix (Norway)

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

Countries in the Eurovision Song Contest 1997

Eurovision The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...