Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

participated in the

Eurovision Song Contest 1999 The Eurovision Song Contest 1999 was the 44th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, held on 29 May 1999 at the International Convention Centre in Jerusalem, Israel. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster Isr ...

with the song "Living My Life Without You" written and performed by Stig Andre van Eijk under the artistic name Van Eijk. The Norwegian broadcaster

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

(NRK) organised the national final ''Melodi Grand Prix 1999'' in order to select the Norwegian entry for the 1999 contest in

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

, Israel. Eight entries competed in a show that took place on 27 February 1999 and the winner, "Living My Life Without You" performed by Van Eijk, was determined by the votes from a five-member jury panel and a regional televote. Norway competed in the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 29 May 1999. Performing during the show in position 8, Norway placed fourteenth out of the 23 participating countries, scoring 35 points.

Background

Prior to the 1999 contest, Norway had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 38 times since its first entry in . Norway had won the contest on two occasions: in

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...

with the song "

La det swinge "La det swinge" (; "Let it swing") is a Norwegian-language song by the pop duo Bobbysocks!. It was the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 1985 and 's first victory in the contest. The song is a tribute to dancing to old rock 'n' roll heard on ...

" performed by

Bobbysocks! Bobbysocks is a Norwegian pop duo consisting of Norwegian Hanne Krogh and Swedish-Norwegian Elisabeth Andreassen. They won the Eurovision Song Contest 1985 with the song " La det swinge" ("Let it swing"). Elisabeth went by the surname Andreass ...

, and in

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

with the song "

Nocturne A nocturne is a musical composition that is inspired by, or evocative of, the night. History The term ''nocturne'' (from French '' nocturne'' 'of the night') was first applied to musical pieces in the 18th century, when it indicated an ensembl ...

" performed by Secret Garden. Norway also had the two dubious distinctions of having finished last in the Eurovision final more than any other country and for having the most "

nul points The winner of the Eurovision Song Contest is selected by a positional voting system. The most recent system was implemented in the , and sees each participating country award two sets of 12, 10, 8–1 points to their ten favourite songs: one set fr ...

" (zero points) in the contest, the latter being a record the nation shared together with

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 ...

. The country had finished last seven times and had failed to score a point during four contests. The Norwegian national broadcaster,

(NRK), broadcasts the event within Norway and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. The broadcaster has traditionally organised the national final ''

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 ...

'', which has selected the Norwegian entry for the Eurovision Song Contest in all but one of their participation. The broadcaster organized of ''Melodi Grand Prix 1999'' in order to select the 1999 Norwegian entry.

Before Eurovision

Melodi Grand Prix 1999

''Melodi Grand Prix 1999'' was the 38th edition of the Norwegian national final ''

'' and selected Norway's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 1999. The show took place on 27 February 1999 at Studio 2 of NRK in

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

, hosted by Øystein Bache and Rune Gokstad and was televised on

NRK1 NRK1 (pronounced as ''"NRK en"'' or ''"- ein"'') is the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation's (NRK) main television channel. History Test broadcasts started on 12 January 1954, regular test broadcasts started on 13 April 1958 and regular broadca ...

. A live orchestra conducted by

Geir Langslet Geir Langslet (born 9 October 1956 in Horten, Norway) is a Norwegian jazz pianist and band leader raised in Fredrikstad. Career Langslet is a graduate of the Berklee College of Music. He was a member of the band LAVA for 20 years, and partic ...

accompanied each performance in varying capacities. The national final was watched by 1.27 million viewers in Norway.

Competing entries

Composers were directly invited by NRK to compete in the national final. Eight songs were selected for the competition and the competing acts and songs were revealed on 15 January 1999. Among the competing artists was former Norwegian Eurovision Song Contest entrant

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 ...

who represented the country in

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 ...

. For the first time, all entries were performed in the

English language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the is ...

Final

Eight songs competed during the final on 27 February 1999. The winner was selected by a combination of votes from regional televoting (5/7) and an expert jury (2/7). The results of the public televote were divided into Norway's five regions and each region distributed points as follows: 1, 2, 3, 5, 7 and 10 points. The jury then distributed points that had a weighting equal to the votes of two televoting regions, leading to the victory of "Living My Life Without You" performed by Van Eijk. The jury panel consisted of

Rolf Løvland Rolf Undsæt Løvland (born 19 April 1955) is a Norwegian composer, lyricist, arranger, and pianist. Together with Fionnuala Sherry, he formed the Celtic-Nordic group Secret Garden, in which he was the composer, producer, and keyboardist. He beg ...

(composer), Gunilla Holm Platou ( TV 2 presenter),

Jorun Erdal Jorun Irene Erdal (born 14 May 1963 in Oslo) is a Norwegian singer and musical theatre artist. Her parents are from Oppstryn in Stryn, in Sogn og Fjordane county, and she has also lived there since age 12. She was raised on Snarøya in Bærum, a ...

(singer), Erik Nodland (journalist) and Anders Rogg (musician and composer). In addition to the performances of the competing entries, the interval act featured a tribute to past Israeli Eurovision entries performed by the Norwegian Theatre and Ballet Academy.

At Eurovision

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the bottom seven countries in the

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 ...

contest competed in the final on 29 May 1999. On 17 November 1998, an allocation draw was held which determined the running order and Norway was set to perform in position 8, following the entry from

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 before the entry from

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

. Norway finished in fourteenth place with 35 points. In Norway, the show was broadcast on

with commentary by

Jostein Pedersen Jostein Pedersen (born 11 August 1959 in Dønna) is a Norway, Norwegian musical journalist and reporter, television commentator and "music intelligencia". He was the Norwegian commentator to the Eurovision Song Contest in 1994, and from 1996 to 20 ...

as well as broadcast via radio on

NRK P1 NRK P1 is a nationwide digital radio channel operated by the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK). It is the result of the NRK radio channel reform initiated in 1993 by radio director Tor Fuglevik. NRK P1 is the direct descendant of NRK's firs ...

with commentary by Jon Branæs. The Norwegian spokesperson, who announced the Norwegian votes during the show, was

Ragnhild Sælthun Fjørtoft Ragnhild Sælthun Fjørtoft (born 9 June 1947) is a Norwegian former television presenter. She was born in Lærdal to farmer Olaf Sælthun and politician Ambjørg Sælthun, and is married to Arne Fjørtoft . She was assigned with NRK for 45 ye ...

. The NRK1 broadcast was watched by a total of 1.591 million television viewers.

Voting

Below is a breakdown of points awarded to Norway and awarded by Norway in the contest. The nation awarded its 12 points to Sweden in the contest.

References

External links

Norwegian National Final 1999
{{Melodi Grand Prix (Norway)

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

Countries in the Eurovision Song Contest 1999

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 ...