Norway in the Eurovision Song Contest 1999

Prior to the 1999 contest, (NRK) had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest representing Norway 38 times since its first entry in . It had won the contest on two occasions: in with the song "La det swinge" performed by Bobbysocks!, and in with the song "Nocturne" performed by Secret Garden. It also had the two distinctions of having finished last in the Eurovision final more than any other country and for having the most nul points (zero points) in the contest, the latter being a record the nation shared together with . It had finished last seven times and had failed to score a point during four contests. As part of its duties as participating broadcaster, NRK organises the selection of its entry in the Eurovision Song Contest and broadcasts the event in the country. The broadcaster has traditionally organised the national final to select its entry for the contest in all but one of its participation. NRK organized 1999 in order to select its 1999 entry. ==Before Eurovision==

1999 1999 was the 38th edition of the national final , that was organised by NRK to select its entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 1999. The broadcaster held the show on 27 February 1999 at its Studio 2 in Oslo, hosted by Øystein Bache and Rune Gokstad, and was televised on NRK1 as well as broadcast via radio on NRK P1. A live orchestra conducted by Geir Langslet 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 Eurovision entrant Tor Endresen, who represented . 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 (composer), Gunilla Holm Platou (TV 2 presenter), Jorun Erdal (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==

Norway performed in position 8, following the entry from and before the entry from . Norway finished in fourteenth place with 35 points. In Norway, the show was broadcast on NRK1 with commentary by Jostein Pedersen as well as broadcast via radio on NRK P1 with commentary by Jon Branæs. NRK appointed Ragnhild Sælthun Fjørtoft as its spokesperson to announce the Norwegian votes during the show. 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 in the contest. ==References==