Eurovision 1999: The one for big fans | Super-cut with animated scoreboard

An edited down version of the 1999 Eurovision Song Contest in Jerusalem with a scoreboard using today’s technology. Nothing but a fun lockdown project.

This edit will give a flavour of the evening (29th May) with Terry Wogan’s commentary.

As Eurovision flipped away from Birmingham, high over the heads of many Europeans (like the coins on the scoreboard), landing right at the other end of the Eurovision map, the Contest appeared to have slipped into a different dimension. For the eighth year, the Contest would not be held by any of the core Lugano 56 crew, and there were few things we lost along the way…

Like in 2019, the Israeli broadcaster faced money issues for having to stage a show that had gotten bigger in recent years and had just had a bumper edition hosted by the BBC. Not to mention it being in Jerusalem on the holy day. The IBA took the opportunity to eschew the orchestra in favour for backing tracks (this cut costs) and in another concession to modern pop music, the language rule was dropped. Wogan was a fan but to me this just felt (on fresh watching) like a move to the middle ground, especially after such strong non-English entries last year. There’s a few bland songs in the mix and some ropey performances (Norway) which seem miles away from 1998. Each year has its own unique mix, but this is an off-year I feel.

What didn’t help was a cut in audience size, three slightly awkward presenters (all the chemistry was just a little off) and a tendency not to ‘get to the point’ in the presentation. How many entrances did the presenters need?

What we did gain though, is a great winning song (in my opinion), and I love the reprise at the end with all the contestants on stage – they should do that more often. We also got a close race, but for some reason I didn’t enjoy it like the others. I felt the audience weren’t feeling it like in Birmingham, but I think that’s probably because there wasn’t much of a home interest…I expect a few Israeli’s felt they could pull off the double again.

*DESIGN AND THE BOARD*
Despite the orchestra being lost, the move from a large broadcaster to a much smaller one meant that some things stuck, and this year is the second ‘BBC scoreboard’, with guys ‘n’ gals from Television Centre operating and coding the board. There were similarities to 1998 but instead there was some beautiful illustrations around the pot of gold coins, although the layout emphasised the spokespeople – who had really started playing a role (making the sequence feel much longer in my mind). Interestingly the ‘Top 5’ board was back.

I decided to not emulate the board (which spoke more to the postcard design) but instead picked the big element of the stage this year – the fan. The fan in my design is sat in a shape that both emulates what was on stage, but also the layout of the IBA logo at the time. I felt a purple/pink-ish backing would have blended into the studio wall, but of course the complimentary colour to purple is yellow, so both fit.

In my day job, I do a bit of engineering involving right to left (RTL) languages and so I wanted to provide a design which was more neutral for Hebrew. In RTL languages a country ranked first would actually sit on the top of the second column for LTR languages like English, so for this design, everyone is stacked in one column. This also allowed for me to have the spokespeople in frame too (although it caused lots of issues!). Other nods to RTL languages are the order of the numbers, but it still makes sense in English…it’s just the other way round and a bit different. Text is centred where possible and I can only apologise if I’ve got some Hebrew wrong! I’ve lifted much from Wikipedia, and cross checked it where I could…I’m sure there’s some mistakes!

*TRANSFER NEWS* (source: Wiki)
Relegated for this year were: GRE, FYROM, FIN, SVK, SUI, ROM.
Latvia were invited to this contest, as a debutant, but LTV had funding issues so dropped out. Their place went to the next relegated in 1998, Hungary, but money was short in Budapest too, so Portugal got a reprieve (actually love their 99 song, the French public were right).

BACK automatically (rel’d in 97): DEN, AUT, ICE, BIH. Not back: RUS (they didn’t air 98)
Back from a break: Lithuania.

Somehow that makes 23.

Relegation for 2000 made more complicated by the rule that had been on it’s way since 1996: the Big 4. France lucked out as they would have been rel’d under their current figures.

*INTERVAL ACT*
Probably the best production of the night – but anything can look great in front of those ancient walls.
*CREDITS*
@Schlagerarkivet for HD-ness
@Eurovision Shows for Precious
@#EurovisionAgain Songs Collection for Sweden
@Lucas ESC Archive for Terry
@Beovizija Archives for no commentary HQ version
Flags: countryflags.com (Cyprus altered).
All Copyright belongs to IBA/IPBC, BBC

00:00 Behind the scenes
02:37 Intro
11:26 Song super-cut
42:23 Interval act
45:25 Voting intro
47:36 The reorder board 99

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