Morten Thomassen from Norway decided to write about some of his memories of Eurovision and the Norwegian Eurovision selection. ESC Covers again will publish it after google translating it from Norwegian to English.

Already the year before the language rule in the ESC was abolished and you could sing in any language, NRK chose to introduce this rule, this in the hope of attracting and making itself more attractive to new songwriters, so when the first song was performed in the Norwegian final in 1998 ” All I Ever Wanted Was You” was the first English-language song performed on an MGP stage.

This choice was obviously very popular with those who voted in the thousand homes and had 5/7 of the points, first place with all, the expert jury which consisted of Norwegians was a bit more down to earth and had the same song in its 4th place.

Thus, the authors actually had to take on the job and create a Norwegian version of the song, as Lars Fredriksen sang “Alltid Sommer” in Birmingham, a version he otherwise never published in any form, so it is one of the few Norwegian ESC contributions can’t get hold of.

Norwegian version notwithstanding, we came in a great 8th place, we became the best Nordic country and got, for a change, 12 points from our Swedish neighbours.

Not unexpectedly, the fact that Israel fielded a transgender artist received a lot of attention, and it is possible that all this attention meant that Dana International finally won, a victory that she did not get until the last country had cast their votes, a bit of a nerve-wracking evening, in other words.

Being transgender is probably still not as much appreciated and accepted as it should be, but back in 1998 it was probably even more sensational and not unexpectedly, Dana’s press conference was very well attended and you had to line up at a microphone to get to ask questions.

Miss International was so extraordinary that it didn’t do for VG to send an entertainment reporter, no they sent one of their sharpest journalists to have a go at the lady, it might seem.

Rudely and boldly, the person asked if Dana had really “cut his dick” and Dana’s answer just as boldly and boldly returned, “Just come to my hotel room and you can get checks”, talk about verbal castration.

What I still remember best from the final in Birmingham was that I had gotten my first ticket to sit in the front row in the hall so I had a great view of the artists on stage and with the banner “Victory for Norway” in my hands I had one mission, get it featured on the German song.

For Guildo Horn thought that the stage was not big enough to romp around because he saw both the area in front of the stage and the stage decorations as obvious places where he should perform his song and my mission to show off our banner was crowned with success.

By the way, did you know that you had to check whether the bridge Guildo jumped on held after his first practice, it would have been a bit embarrassing if it hadn’t held and he fell down a few metres, luckily everything went well and the guy hijacked the place before Norway on the results list .

Of all the Eurovision song contests I have attended in person with accreditation, the 1998 contest ranks in last place, so I do not have too many good memories. But I voted for Estonia’s song by Koit Toome and that was the only time ever I have voted in Eurovision.

The biggest horror for me was the arrival of GUILDO HORN. Because a traditional Schlager music fan, this song and the singer were just too much for me to handle.

Featured image – Wikipedia