The Eurovision Song Contest 1998 was the 43rd edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, held on 9 May 1998 at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham, United Kingdom, and presented by Terry Wogan and Ulrika Jonsson. It was organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), who staged the event after winning the for the with the song "Love Shine a Light" by Katrina and the Waves.
Broadcasters from twenty-five countries participated in the contest. Six participating countries in the 1997 edition were absent, with , , , and relegated due to achieving the lowest average points totals over the previous five contests and actively choosing not to participate. These countries were replaced by in its first contest appearance, and previously relegated and absent countries , , , and .
The winner was with the song "Diva", composed by Svika Pick, written by Yoav Ginai and performed by Dana International. The , , the , and rounded out the top five. Dana International was a winning artist; however, her participation for Israel was controversial among sections of Israeli society and resulted in opposition and death threats against her in the run-up to the contest.
It was the first contest in which the results were determined predominantly through televoting, and would become the last contest in which all participants were required to perform in the language of their country and the last to feature an orchestra and live music accompaniment for the competing entries.
Location
thumb|left|[[Utilita Arena Birmingham|National Indoor Arena, Birmingham – host venue of the 1998 contest]]
The 1998 contest took place in Birmingham, the United Kingdom, following the country's victory at the with the song "Love Shine a Light", performed by Katrina and the Waves. This was the first contest to take place outside the host nation's capital city since the in Millstreet. It was the eighth time that the United Kingdom had hosted the contestsetting a new contest recordwith the nation having previously hosted the contest in London in , , and , in Edinburgh in , in Brighton in and in Harrogate in . The selected venue was the National Indoor Arena, a sporting venue and indoor arena opened in 1991 which prior to the contest had previously hosted the 1993 IBF Badminton World Championships and 1995 World Netball Championships, as well as being the principal venue for the recording of UK television programme Gladiators.
Many cities across the United Kingdom expressed interest in hosting the contest, the first to be held in the country in sixteen years, with venues in Aberdeen, Belfast, Bournemouth, Brighton, Birmingham, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Harrogate, Inverness, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Newcastle and Sheffield being considered. Following visits by the production team to each city, Belfast, Birmingham, Cardiff, Glasgow, London and Manchester were shortlisted as potential host cities, and Birmingham's National Indoor Arena was subsequently announced as the host venue on 8 August 1997.
Participants
Per the rules of the contest twenty-five countries were allowed to participate in the event. , , , , and made a return to the contest, replacing , , , , and , which were relegated following the previous year's contest, and which decided against entering the event. Italy would not return to the contest again until 2011. and José Cid, a member of Alma Lusa, had represented . Additionally, three artists who had previously competed as lead artists at Eurovision returned as backing performers for their respective countries at this year's event: José María Guzmán, who had represented as a member of the group Cadillac, was a backing singer for Mikel Herzog; Egon Egemann, who had represented , performed on stage as violinist for Gunvor; and Paul Harrington, who won the contest for with Charlie McGettigan, providing backing vocals for Dawn Martin.
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders sticky-header"
|-
|+ Eurovision Song Contest 1998 participants
|-
! scope="col" | Country
! scope="col" | Broadcaster
! scope="col" | Artist
! scope="col" | Song
! scope="col" | Language
! scope="col" | Songwriter(s)
! scope="col" | Conductor
|-
! scope="row" |
| RTBF
| Mélanie Cohl
| ""
| French
| Philippe Swan
|
|-
! scope="row" |
| HRT
| Danijela
| ""
| Croatian
| Petar Grašo
|
|-
! scope="row" |
| CyBC
| Michael Hajiyanni
| "" <small>()</small>
| Greek
|
| Costas Cacogiannis
|-
! scope="row" |
| ETV
| Koit Toome
| ""
| Estonian
|
| Heiki Vahar
|-
! scope="row" |
| YLE
| Edea
| ""
| Finnish
|
| Olli Ahvenlahti
|-
! scope="row" |
|
| Marie Line
| ""
| French
|
| Martin Koch
|-
! scope="row" |
| NDR
| Guildo Horn
| ""
| German
| Stefan Raab
| Stefan Raab