Norway participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 1998 with the song "Alltid sommer" written by David Eriksen and Linda Andernach Johansen. The song was performed by Lars A. Fredriksen. The Norwegian broadcaster Norsk rikskringkasting (NRK) organised the national final Melodi Grand Prix 1998 in order to select the Norwegian entry for the 1998 contest in Birmingham, United Kingdom. Eight entries competed in a show that took place on 27 February 1999 and the winner, "All I Ever Wanted (Was You)" performed by Lars A. Fredriksen, was determined by the votes from a six-member jury panel and a regional televote. The song was later translated from English to Norwegian for the Eurovision Song Contest and was titled "Alltid sommer".
Norway competed in the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 29 May 1999. Performing during the show in position 22, Norway placed eighth out of the 25 participating countries, scoring 79 points.
Background
Prior to the 1998 contest, Norway had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 37 times since its first entry in . Norway had won the contest on two occasions: in 1985 with the song "La det swinge" performed by Bobbysocks!, and in 1995 with the song "Nocturne" performed by Secret Garden. Norway also had the two dubious 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 Austria. The country had finished last seven times and had failed to score a point during four contests.
The Norwegian national broadcaster, Norsk rikskringkasting (NRK), broadcasts the event within Norway and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. The broadcaster has traditionally organised the national final Melodi Grand Prix, which has selected the Norwegian entry for the Eurovision Song Contest in all but one of their participation. The broadcaster organized of Melodi Grand Prix 1998 in order to select the 1998 Norwegian entry.
Before Eurovision
Melodi Grand Prix 1998
Melodi Grand Prix 1998 was the 37th edition of the Norwegian national final Melodi Grand Prix and selected Norway's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 1998. The show took place on 28 February 1998 at Studio 2 of NRK in Oslo, hosted by Øystein Bache and Rune Gokstad and was televised on NRK1. A live orchestra conducted by Geir Langslet accompanied each performance in varying capacities. The national final was watched by 1.271 million viewers in Norway.
Competing entries
Composers were directly invited by NRK to compete in the national final. For the first time, entries were able to be performed in the English language. Eight songs were selected for the competition and among the competing artists was former Norwegian Eurovision Song Contest entrant Elisabeth Andreassen who represented Sweden in 1982 and Norway in 1985 (as part of Bobbysocks!), 1994 (alongside Jan Werner Danielsen) and 1996.
Final
Eight songs competed during the final on 28 February 1998. 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 "All I Ever Wanted (Was You)" performed by Lars A. Fredriksen. The jury panel consisted of Ellen Foss-Sørensen (NRK P2 radio host), Tor Milde (music journalist), Finn Bjelke (NRK P3 radio producer), Olve Brekke (product manager), Stein Dag Jensen (NRK P1 radio host) and Silje Stang (P4 Radio music director and TVNorge presenter). More than 63,000 votes were registered by the televote during the show, however Telenor later revealed that an additional 440,000 votes were unable to be registered due to technical issues. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, the interval act featured the Great Garlic Girls performing several past British Eurovision entries.