"A Long Time Ago, Was It?" - The UK's Last Eurovision in Birmingham 1998

- Birmingham: 1998

Hello! I’m Steven Perkins, welcoming you to another edition of Douze Points - the still-quite-new podcast that celebrates the sometimes weird but always wonderful world of the Eurovision Song Contest. We’re with you every Monday, taking a look at the latest Eurovision headlines with regular deep dives into the history of the contest. Thank you, listener, for allowing me into your ears once more - and having just said that out loud, I am never saying that again.

Before we get going, a quick reminder that you should definitely follow us at Bingewatch underscore Pod on Twitter, where you can get in contact with us if that’s a thing you would like to do, and you keep up to date not only with Douze Points but also Ian and Hannah over on the mothership.

So, what’s in the headlines right now? Let’s take a quick look…

More exciting news is coming out of Liverpool in terms of the events surrounding this year’s contest - from 1-14 May, the quote-unquote pre-party to end all pre-parties will be held in the city. Described by Culture Liverpool’s Claire McColgan as “a scouse/Ukrainian mash-up of brilliance”, the projects include a mass kite-fly and a three-day “queer fantasia” at Chavasse Park.

In one of the less obvious Eurovision mash-ups, 12 books have been selected for The Big Eurovision Read, in association with BBC Arts, aiming to create a dialogue between book lovers and Eurovision fans. Titles on the list include High Fidelity by Nick Hornby, Soul Music by Terry Pratchett, and The Music Shop by Rachel Joyce.

’s Eurovision Song Contest.: 3000

the host city for Eurovision: 2023

Waves’ victory in Dublin in: 1997

��re thinking that Eurovision: 1998

n on the BBC every year since: 1980

Eurofans, but there were: 4000

to an interesting point - the: 1998

ve languages - and indeed, in: 1999

e scheme had been trialled in: 1997

Now, if we can take Terry Wogan’s word as gospel - and I would recommend as a general rule that we don’t, but on this occasion I’ll make an exception - the majority of the pre-contest publicity centred around two countries: Israel and Germany. Israel had hit the headlines by their selection of Dana International as their entrant, the first openly transgender contestant at Eurovision, which caused a significant amount of protest in her native Israel from the Orthodox Jewish community - and, I seem to recall at the time, a fair bit of pointing and laughing from the rest of the world, because as much as we would like to think that the late 90s were an enlightened time, they were not. Germany, meanwhile, were notorious for an entirely different reason: sending Schlager singer Guildo Horn, whose flamboyant clothes and balding mullet were catnip to commentators, and his knowing parody - but still faintly creepy - ‘Guildo hat euch lieb!’, or ‘Guildo loves you’, was seen as a major contender for the win.

There were also some amusing pre-contest controversies - apparently the Greek entry composer Yiannis Valvis was behaving aggressively backstage, leading to his accreditation for the day being withdrawn, and Greece themselves briefly withdrawing from the event on the day of the contest, before changing their minds. There was also a lot of tension involving the Turkish entry, as in rehearsals their conductor was leading the orchestra at too slow a tempo and breaking the strict three-minute time limit, which would have led to Turkey’s disqualification - but on the night he brought it in at a swift two minutes and 59 seconds. Phew!,

uch a long time - but back in: 1998

So, what of the contest itself? Well, the BBC came up with a stage that was fairly adaptable for the performers, with lots of deep hues of blues and purples and recessed lights, and some standalone one-sided curved arches that look a bit like brontosauruses from a distance.

The introductory videos created for the occasion were meant to show the changing face of the United Kingdom, showing a primitive, sepia-toned portrayal of live in the UK - football, for example, or a day at the seaside - before transitioning into a full-colour, modern, New Labour-ised rendition. Not all of these were completely successful - one seemed to suggest that the modern equivalent of the Roman Baths was Alton Towers. Each one was soundtracked by instrumental versions of hot British music from the likes of the Bluetones, the Manic Street Preachers, Catatonia and even Duran Duran.

e of the hosts from Rotterdam: 2021

So, what about the hosts? Well, I don’t think it’s any great shock to say that a lot of Terry Wogan’s commentary hasn’t aged especially well. I went in prepared for him to be sarcastic, and to make mean-spirited jokes in the grand tradition of the UK at Eurovision, but what I hadn’t quite steeled myself for was the fact that some of the stuff he says was genuinely gross: for example, his comments about the Swiss entrant Gunvor’s dress and how it “promised more than it delivered” - a reference to the flesh-coloured panels over her breasts, and presumably how he would have liked a look at her actual boobs. Stay classy, Terry.

epresented the Netherlands in: 1965

The voting in: 1998

Anyway, thrillingly, it all came down to the final set of votes - with Israel and Malta tied on 166 and the UK close behind on 157, with just FYR Macedonia left to give their results. Terry Wogan said at this point that “only Israel and Malta can win it”, which was mathematically incorrect, as the UK was only nine points behind both of them. As it happened, Macedonia gave Israel 8 points, 10 to the United Kingdom, and their 12 went to Croatia, while Malta got nothing at all, leaving Israel as the overall winners, the UK in second place, and Malta just one point behind them in third place.

Terry Wogan immediately scarpered out of his commentary booth to join Ulrika on the stage, alongside Katrina Leskanich to present the trophy to the winners - but there was a pretty amusing delay when it turned out they’d actually lost Dana International, who’d popped off to get changed and don a Jean Paul Gaultier outfit for her reprise performance. A true icon.

So that was Eurovision: 1998

That’s all from me for now. Don’t forget to hit subscribe if you’d like to have future episodes of Douze Points automatically added to your podcast feed! Thanks for listening - and until next time, good night Europe, and good morning Australia.