| abstract | - The Eurovision Song Contest 1999 was the 44th in the series. Held on 29 May 1999 in Jerusalem, Israel after Dana International won the contest the previous year in Birmingham, the venue for the contest was the Ussishkin Auditorium at the International Convention Center (formerly the Binyanei Ha'ouma), the same place that hosted the 1979 contest. Television news anchor Yigal Ravid, singer and 1992 contestant Dafna Dekel and model/actress Sigal Shachmon were the show's hosts, and it was the first time that three presenters were used to host the Contest (presenter trios would later become frequent beginning in 2010). Israel's two previous winners, Izhar Cohen, who won in 1978 with A-Ba-Ni-Bi and Milk and Honey's Gali Atari who won it the year after with Hallelujah, attended as guests of honor. Two rule changes were added to this year's contest. The first was the relaxation of the language rule, meaning countries could perform in any language that they wanted. The second was that with the abolition of the orchestra, live music was no longer required and backing tracks became standard. The winner of the Contest was Charlotte Nilsson, representing Sweden with Take Me To Your Heaven (Tusen Och En Natt in the Melodifestivalen), which scored 163 points. This was Sweden's fourth win in the Contest and the second in the 1990s (after Carola's win for Sweden in 1991). At the end of the contest, the hosts invited all of the artists on stage and together they performed a group rendition of "Hallelujah" as a tribute to the victims of the Balkan War.
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