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Voting & Points Birmingham 1998
1997 1998 Birmingham
Eurovision 1998 Results: Voting & Points
Eurovision Song Contest 1998 result: Israel won with the song "Diva" by Dana International with 172 points
Location: National Indoor Arena, Birmingham, United Kingdom
Broadcaster: British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
Hosts: Ulrika Jonsson and Terry Wogan
Participants: 25; Host (United Kingdom), The 6 countries that were excluded from Eurovision 1997, The 18 countries with the highest average score over the previous five years
Voting: Televoting (Turkey, Romania and Hungary used juries)
Opening act: Birmingham, Old and New
Interval act: Suzy Wing Uggy Banana Wong
Debuting countries: FYR Macedonia
From 1978 to 1998 the rules stated that each country had to sing in one of their national languages
From 1956 to 1998 all the songs were accompanied by a live orchestra. From 1999 and onwards the orchestra was dropped, so the entries could use recorded backing track during their performances
Titles of songs have included Boom Bang-a-bang (UK, 1969), A-Ba-Ni-Ba (Israel, 1978), Bana Bana (Turkey, 1989) and Bourn Badaboru (Monaco, 1967)
When Ukrainian singer Ruslana won Eurovision in 2004, she was rewarded with a seat in Parliament
Serbia participated the first time as an independent country in 2007 and won the contest the same year.