"San Francisco" was the Norwegian

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

 entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1997

Eurovision Song Contest 1997

The Eurovision Song Contest 1997, was the 42nd Eurovision Song Contest and it was held at the Point Theatre Dublin, Ireland, on 3 May 1997. Boyzone member Ronan Keating and Carrie Crowley were the presenters of the show....

, performed in Norwegian

Norwegian language

Norwegian is a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is the official language. Together with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants .These Scandinavian languages together with the Faroese language...

 - with some lyrics in English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 - by Tor Endresen

Tor Endresen

Tor Lars Oskar Endresen is a Norwegian singer and composer.He has entered the national Norwegian Eurovision Song Contest numerous times, but has only won it once, and represented Norway in the international final in 1997, where he came last with nul points.Endresen was part of a popular Norwegian...

.

The song is a moderately up-tempo number, with a sound similar to rock music

Rock music

Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...

 from the late 1960s. Endresen delivers a paean to San Francisco as an idealised paradise from that decade, with lyrics containing many references to slogans ("Make love not war"), people (Jimi Hendrix

Jimi Hendrix

James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...

 and John Lennon

John Lennon

John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...

) and song titles ("California Dreamin'

California Dreamin'

"California Dreamin is a popular song by The Mamas & the Papas, first released in 1965. The song is #89 in Rolling Stones list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time...

", "Blowin' in the Wind

Blowin' in the Wind

"Blowin' in the Wind" is a song written by Bob Dylan and released on his album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan in 1963. Although it has been described as a protest song, it poses a series of questions about peace, war and freedom...

") from that era, as well as key events such as the moon landing

Moon landing

A moon landing is the arrival of a spacecraft on the surface of the Moon. This includes both manned and unmanned missions. The first human-made object to reach the surface of the Moon was the Soviet Union's Luna 2 mission on 13 September 1959. The United States's Apollo 11 was the first manned...

 and the Woodstock festival

Woodstock Festival

Woodstock Music & Art Fair was a music festival, billed as "An Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace & Music". It was held at Max Yasgur's 600-acre dairy farm in the Catskills near the hamlet of White Lake in the town of Bethel, New York, from August 15 to August 18, 1969...

.

The chorus further idealises the city and the period, with it being described as "A time of peace, a spring of youth/No guns, no war, no disco/Just lovely flowers in your hair".

The song was performed third on the night, following Turkey

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

's Şebnem Paker & Grup Etnic

Sebnem Paker

Şebnem Paker is a Turkish guitarist and singer.-Biography:She attended the Department of Classical Guitar at Istanbul University State Conservatory during 1992-1996. Later, she studied singing at Marmara University Music Department....

 with "Dinle

Dinle

"Dinle" was the Turkish entrant to the Eurovision Song Contest 1997 in Dublin, Ireland. It was composed by Levent Çoker and Mehtap Alnıtemiz, and was performed by Şebnem Paker in Turkish...

" and preceding Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

's Bettina Soriat

Bettina Soriat

Bettina Soriat is an Austrian singer.Bettina Soriat is a singer, dancer, actress, comedienne, and choreographer. Her first success came with the girlgroup "Three Girl Madhouse" and their single-hit "Always gonna be around you" was released in 1990.Bettina has appeared in musicals in Vienna,...

 with "One Step

One Step

"One Step" was the Austrian entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1997, performed in German almost exclusively by Bettina Soriat....

". At the close of voting, it had received the dreaded nul points, placing 24th (joint last) in a field of 25 and further extending Norway's unwanted record of recording zero points on the most occasions. Additionally, as the result followed on a second place and a victory, Norway achieved a dramatic reversal of fortunes.

Prior to the next Contest, the decision was taken to restrict entry to the 18 countries with the best average score over the previous five years, a group which included Norway courtesy of Secret Garden

Secret Garden (duo)

Secret Garden is an award-winning Irish-Norwegian duo playing New Instrumental Music, also sometimes erroneously known as Neo-classical music.Secret Garden features the Irish violinist Fionnuala Sherry and the Norwegian composer/pianist Rolf Løvland...

's victory in 1995 and Elisabeth Andreassen

Elisabeth Andreassen

Elisabeth Gunilla Andreassen - also known as just "Bettan" - is a Swedish-Norwegian singer who has finished both first and second in the Eurovision Song Contest....

's second-place the year after. Thus, the song was succeeded as Norwegian representative

Norway in the Eurovision Song Contest

Norway has been participating in the Eurovision Song Contest since 1960 and only been absent twice: in 1970, when they boycotted the contest over disagreements about the voting structure, and in 2002, when they did not qualify....

 at the 1998 contest

Eurovision Song Contest 1998

The Eurovision Song Contest 1998 was the 43rd Eurovision Song Contest and was held on 9 May 1998 at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham, United Kingdom. The presenters were Terry Wogan and Ulrika Jonsson...

 by Lars Fredriksen

Lars A. Fredriksen

Lars A. Fredriksen is a famous Norwegian pop singer who was best known for participating in the Eurovision Song Contest 1998 in Birmingham with the song Alltid sommer and reached successful 8th place....

 with "Alltid sommer

Alltid Sommer

"Alltid sommer" was the Norwegian entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1998, performed in Norwegian by Lars Fredriksen....

".