First time the orchestra was removed from the contest and all the music was previously recorded.
First time the Eurovision Song Contest had three hosts.
Croatia caused a scandal when they included recorded vocals in their music track, something forbidden by the rules that demand all artists to sing live, including chorus singers. It was alleged by Croatian television that these vocals were synthesized vocals and not human, but the EBU ruled out that they had violated the spirit of the rule, and therefore imposed a sanction on Croatia.
They were discounted one third of their score, without losing their placing, which would make it more difficult for them to qualify for future contests. At that time, countries that could compete were decided by calculating the average score from each country in the previous five years, letting in the countries with the best average scores and eliminating the worst classified ones to make room for countries eliminated in previous years wanting to return.
Therefore, Croatia's score of 118 points was reduced to 88 points. It had to be a sanction with an effect to endure for five years, but in 2001 the elimination system was changed and from that year that score would no longer have any effect on Croatian qualification possibilities.
They were discounted one third of their score, without losing their placing, which would make it more difficult for them to qualify for future contests. At that time, countries that could compete were decided by calculating the average score from each country in the previous five years, letting in the countries with the best average scores and eliminating the worst classified ones to make room for countries eliminated in previous years wanting to return.
Therefore, Croatia's score of 118 points was reduced to 88 points. It had to be a sanction with an effect to endure for five years, but in 2001 the elimination system was changed and from that year that score would no longer have any effect on Croatian qualification possibilities.
The award statue was planned to be given by Dana International. The statue was very heavy, Sigal Shachmon and Dafna Dekel even said on the stage "It's heavy" and "It's too heavy". When she lifted it she was struggling with its weight and even made some faces on camera, and then fell with the statue and a man from the Swedish delegation. Dana and the man were not hurt and the statue was not damaged.
The postcard that introduces Israel had the same theme as in The Eurovision Song Contest (1979), which was also hosted in Israel: The biblical story of the spies sent by Joshua to the promised land.