Norway in the Eurovision Song Contest 1997

Norway participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 1997 with the song "San Francisco" written by Tor Endresen and Arne Myksvoll. The song was performed by Tor Endresen. The Norwegian broadcaster Norsk rikskringkasting (NRK) organised the national final Melodi Grand Prix 1997 in order to select the Norwegian entry for the 1997 contest in Dublin, Ireland. Eight entries competed in a show that took place on 8 February 1997 and the winner, "San Francisco" performed by Tor Endresen, was determined by the votes from a six-member jury panel and a public televote.

Norway competed in the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 3 May 1997. Performing during the show in position 3, Norway placed twenty-fourth (joint last) out of the 25 participating countries and failed to score any points.

Background
Prior to the 1997 contest, Norway had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 36 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 1997 in order to select the 1997 Norwegian entry.

Melodi Grand Prix 1997
Melodi Grand Prix 1997 was the 36th edition of the Norwegian national final Melodi Grand Prix and selected Norway's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 1997. Eight songs, selected for the competition by a three-member jury panel from 350 received submissions, competed during the final which was televised on NRK1 on 8 February 1997 and hosted by Tande-P. A live orchestra conducted by Geir Langslet accompanied each performance in varying capacities and the combination of votes from public televoting (60%) and an expert jury (40%) led to the victory of "San Francisco" performed by Tor Endresen. The jury consisted of H.C. Andersen (NRK P3 radio host), Elisabeth Andreassen (singer), Kari Gjærum (singer), Ole Evenrud (producer), Leif Erik Forberg (TV3 presenter) and Frode Viken (composer). The national final was watched by 1.308 million viewers in Norway.

70,000 votes were registered by the televote during the show, however Telenor later revealed that at least 400,000 additional votes were unable to be registered due to technical issues, which led to strong dissatisfaction from viewers that failed to cast their votes during the 15-minute window. There was also criticism of Tor Endresen's victory as several of the jury members were friends of Endresen; Elisabeth Andreassen told the press that "Endresen deserved to win" regardless of what song he participated with.

At Eurovision
According to Eurovision rules, the twenty-four countries which had obtained the highest average number of points over the last four contests competed in the final on 3 May 1997. On 28 November 1996, an allocation draw was held which determined the running order and Norway was set to perform in position 3, following the entry from Turkey and before the entry from Austria. Heading into the final of the contest, Norway was considered by bookmakers to be the seventeenth most likely country to win the competition. The Norwegian conductor at the contest was Geir Langslet and Norway finished in twenty-fourth (joint-last) place failing to score any points.

In Norway, the contest was broadcast on NRK1 with commentary by Jostein Pedersen as well as broadcast via radio on NRK P1 with commentary by Kristian Lindeman. The Norwegian spokesperson, who announced the Norwegian votes during the show, was Ragnhild Sælthun Fjørtoft.

Voting
Norway did not receive any points at the 1997 Eurovision Song Contest. The nation awarded its 12 points to France in the contest with the full breakdown of points awarded by Norway displayed below.