Norway was represented by Lars A. Fredriksen, with the song "Alltid sommer", at the

1998 Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest 1998 was the 43rd edition of the annual 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 ...

, which took place on 9 May in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

. "Alltid sommer" 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 28 February and, unusually, was performed in English ("All I Ever Wanted Was You") at MGP although language rules in 1998 still required the song to be performed in Norwegian in Birmingham.

Before Eurovision

Melodi Grand Prix 1998

''Melodi Grand Prix 1998'' was the Norwegian national final that selected Norway's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 1998.

Competing entries

Composers were directly invited 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 ...

to submit songs for the competition. The composers both created the song and selected the performer for their entry. Among the competing artists,

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 ...

was bidding for a record-breaking fifth appearance at Eurovision.

Final

The final took place on 28 February 1998 at the Studio 2 of NRK, hosted by Øystein Bache and Rune Gokstad. The winner was selected by a combination of regional televoting and a jury panel. The results of the public televote were revealed by Norway's five regions, with the televoting figures of each region being converted to points. The top six songs received 1, 2, 3, 5, 7 and 10 points. The jury panel had a weighting equal to the votes of two televoting regions. The jury consisted of Ellen Foss-Sørensen, Tor Milde,

Finn Bjelke Finn Bjelke (born 10 April 1959) is a popular Norwegian humourist, writer, music journalist and radio host. Finn Bjelke is known as program host at the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation for their radio shows '' Reiseradioen'', '' Popquiz'', and ...

, Olve Brekke, Stein Dag Jensen and Silje Stang.

At Eurovision

Heading into the final of the contest, BBC reported that bookmakers ranked the entry joint 12th out of the 25 entries. "All I Ever Wanted Was You" was translated to "Alltid sommer" for Eurovision. On the night of the final Fredriksen performed 22nd in the running order, following

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 ...

and preceding

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

. At the close of voting "Alltid sommer" had received 79 points, placing Norway 8th of the 25 entries. The Norwegian televoting awarded its 12 points to

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

.ESC History - Norway 1998
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Voting

References

{{Melodi Grand Prix (Norway)

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 frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

Countries in the Eurovision Song Contest 1998

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 ...