"It's Just a Game" 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 1973

Eurovision Song Contest 1973

The Eurovision Song Contest 1973 was the eighteenth Eurovision Song Contest and was held in Luxembourg. The language rule forcing countries to enter songs sung in any of their national languages was dropped, so performers from some countries sang in English....

, performed 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...

 and French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

 - with some lyrics in Spanish

Spanish language

Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...

, Italian

Italian language

Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...

, Dutch

Dutch language

Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...

, German

German language

German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

, Irish

Irish language

Irish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of...

, Serbo-Croatian

Serbo-Croatian language

Serbo-Croatian or Serbo-Croat, less commonly Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian , is a South Slavic language with multiple standards and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro...

, Hebrew

Hebrew language

Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...

, Finnish

Finnish language

Finnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland Primarily for use by restaurant menus and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a...

, Swedish

Swedish language

Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...

 and 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...

 - by the Bendik Singers

Bendik Singers

The Bendik Singers were a four-member Norwegian vocal group, brought together by singer and composer Arne Bendiksen to participate in the Norwegian Eurovision Song Contest selection, Melodi Grand Prix, in 1973....

. This makes it the only entry, besides the 1971 entry from Ireland, to feature the Irish language. In the Norwegian selection process Melodi Grand Prix

Melodi Grand Prix

Melodi Grand Prix is an annual music competition organised by Norwegian public broadcaster Norsk Rikskringkasting . It determines the country's representative for the Eurovision Song Contest, and has been staged almost every year since 1960.The festival has produced three Eurovision winners and...

, the song was called "Å for et spill" and was sang only in Norwegian.

The song is written as a series of suggestions for wooing a woman, with the singers all in agreement that one should not take the process too seriously or use too many ornate terms of endearment in the process.

The song was performed fifth on the night, following Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

's Gitte with Junger Tag

Junger Tag

Junger Tag was the German entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1973, performed in German by Danish singer Gitte Hænning...

 and preceding Monaco

Monaco

Monaco , officially the Principality of Monaco , is a sovereign city state on the French Riviera. It is bordered on three sides by its neighbour, France, and its centre is about from Italy. Its area is with a population of 35,986 as of 2011 and is the most densely populated country in the...

's Marie

Marie-France Dufour

Marie-France Dufour or Marie was a French singer. She made her hit Sun in 1971, but she is probably best known for representing Monaco in the Eurovision Song Contest 1973 in Luxembourg by song "Un train qui part". She died of leukemia at the age of 41 in 1990.-External links:*...

 with Un train qui part

Un Train Qui Part

"Un train qui part" was the Monegasque entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1973, performed in French by French singer Marie....

. At the close of voting, it had received 89 points, placing 7th in a field of 17.

It 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 1974 contest

Eurovision Song Contest 1974

The Eurovision Song Contest 1974 was the 19th Eurovision Song Contest. It was held in the seaside resort of Brighton on the south coast of the United Kingdom...

 by Anne-Karine Strøm

Anne-Karine Strøm

Anne-Karine Strøm is a Norwegian singer, best known for having taken part in the Norwegian Eurovision Song Contest selection, Melodi Grand Prix, in six consecutive years between 1971 and 1976, winning on three occasions and representing Norway in the Eurovision Song Contests of 1973, 1974 and...

 with "The First Day of Love

The First Day Of Love

"The First Day of Love" was the Norwegian entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1974, performed in English by Anne-Karine Strøm. This was the first occasion on which the Norwegian entry had not featured any lyrics in Norwegian....

".

Unusually, over the next three years, all Norwegian eurovision entries

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....

 would feature one or more members of the Bendik Singers. 1974's entry featured all four of them, with Ellen Nikolaysen, Bjørn Kruse and Benny Kruse singing backing vocals for Anne Karine Strøm. Ellen Nikolaysen would perform solo in 1975

Eurovision Song Contest 1975

The Eurovision Song Contest 1975 was the 20th edition of the contest hosted by SR and held in Stockholm, Sweden. The arena for the event was the newly built Stockholm International Fairs in Älvsjö in southern Stockholm. ABBA's victory in Brighton the previous year gave Sweden the right to host the...

 with the song "Touch My Life (With Summer)

Touch My Life (With Summer)

Touch My Life , alternatively You touched my life with summer as it states the Eurovision official website, was the Norwegian entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1975, performed in English by Ellen Nikolaysen....

". and in 1976

Eurovision Song Contest 1976

The Eurovision Song Contest 1976, the 21st in the series, was held in The Hague, Netherlands, on 3 April 1976. With Corry Brokken as the presenter – the first time a previous winner of the contest had played hostess – the contest was won by Brotherhood of Man, representing the United...

, Anne Karine Strøm would return with the disco themed "Mata Hari

Mata Hari (song)

"Mata Hari" was the Norwegian entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1976, performed in English by Anne-Karine Strøm.The song is an up-tempo number, in which Strøm sings about the difficulties she faces in life. The cure for these, she sings, is to borrow some of the mystique of Mata Hari, to whom...

", although none of these subsequent efforts would achieve the same high finishing position as this entry.