| Eurovision Song Contest 1998 |
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1998 was the 43rd , France , Switzerland , Malta , Israel and Belgium did not sing with an orchestra, they sang with backing tracks. The FYR Macedonia was present for the first time, after their 1996 entry did not make it past the internal selection by the EBU . Belgium , Finland , Israel , Romania and Slovakia all participated after their break from the previous year's contest; Austria , Bosnia And Herzegovina , Denmark , Russia and Iceland could not participate because of their low average scores from the past five years. The Italian broadcaster, RAI , decided to withdraw from the contest indefinitely. After the points from some countries were announced, it was clear that Israel , Malta , and the United Kingdom would be fighting for the top spot. Israel remained in the lead at the end of the voting, but only by two or three points. Everything came down to the vote of Macedonia , who rewarded Israel with 8 points, United Kingdom 10, and Croatia 12, giving zero to Malta , which left Chiara in third place after being second throughout the entire voting process. On the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the state of Israel , Dana International brought the nation their third Song Contest victory. Also, Edsilia Rombley, who placed fourth with 150 points, ensured the best result for the Netherlands since their win in 1975. Other notable participants were Germany 's Guildo Horn , whose shocking comedic act culminated in his climbing the scaffolding on the side of the stage. Greece earned only 12 points, all of which came from Cyprus . After the contest, there was a correction made with the Spanish votes, who mistakenly awarded Germany zero points, rather than the 12 that were rightfully theirs. In a BBC interview, future Eurovision entrant Nicki French said that one of her most memorable Eurovision moments was Ulrika's infamous Faux Pas during the voting. On hearing that the Dutch lady announcing the Netherlands' votes had previously been a contestant in Eurovision, Ulrika replied, "A long time ago, was it?" which was followed by much laughter and booing from the audience. {Link without Title} In fact Conny Van Den Bos who sang for the Netherlands in 1965 said that she had gone to the contest many years ago; unfortunately for both Conny and Ulrika this wasn't heard above the noise of the audience. What was heard, however, was Ulrika's comment. Russia and Italy did not broadcast the event due to withdrawals. In 1998 the Russian broadcaster ORT prepared to run internal preselections, but soon organizers realised that because of low average results in previous years Russia would not qualify to compete in 1998 (though there were rumours that ORT planned to name Tatyana Ovsienko as their representative, performing "Solntse moyo"). Because Russia did not participate, ORT decided not to broadcast the 1998 Song Contest. According to other sources ORT had expected RTR to broadcast the Contest. RESULTS VOTING STRUCTURE Each country had a televote except Turkey, Romania and some others , where the top ten most voted for songs were awarded the 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 points, with a backup jury in case of mistakes. A Jury was used if there was exceptional reasons not to use a televote. With just one country left to vote, it was anyone's guess as to who was going to prevail, with Israel and Malta locked in battle on the same points total (or so the scoreboard said - in fact, Spain's vote had been wrongly tallied and Malta was really one point ahead), and the United Kingdom apparently nine points behind (really nine behind Malta and eight behind Israel). When FYR Macedonia came to award the decisive points, Israel were the first of the three contenders to be mentioned, receiving eight points. That was enough to knock the UK out of contention for victory, but left plenty of room for Israel to be overtaken by their principal rival. Next, the ten points went to the UK, nudging them into what looked like being an extremely fleeting spell in second place, since most of the audience assumed the twelve points were destined for Malta. Instead, there were gasps as FYR Macedonia sent the final points of the evening to fellow Balkan nation Croatia, handing Israel their first win in the contest since "Hallelujah" in 1979. SCORE SHEET SPOKESPERSONS
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