Eurovision Song Contest 1988

Eurovision Song Contest 1988
Dates
Final30 April 1988
Host
VenueRDS Simmonscourt Pavilion,
Ballsbridge, Dublin, Ireland
Presenter(s)
Musical directorNoel Kelehan
Directed byDeclan Lowney
Executive supervisorFrank Naef
Executive producerLiam Miller
Host broadcasterRadio Telefís Éireann (RTÉ)
Websiteeurovision.tv/event/dublin-1988 Edit this at Wikidata
Participants
Number of entries21
Debuting countriesNone
Returning countriesNone
Non-returning countries Cyprus
Participation map
  • A coloured map of the countries of EuropeBelgium in the Eurovision Song Contest 1988Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest 1988Netherlands in the Eurovision Song Contest 1988Switzerland in the Eurovision Song Contest 1988Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest 1988United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest 1988Monaco in the Eurovision Song ContestLuxembourg in the Eurovision Song Contest 1988Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest 1988Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest 1988Denmark in the Eurovision Song Contest 1988Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest 1988Norway in the Eurovision Song Contest 1988Portugal in the Eurovision Song Contest 1988Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest 1988Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest 1988Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest 1988Malta in the Eurovision Song ContestAustria in the Eurovision Song Contest 1988France in the Eurovision Song Contest 1988Turkey in the Eurovision Song Contest 1988Yugoslavia in the Eurovision Song Contest 1988Morocco in the Eurovision Song ContestCyprus in the Eurovision Song ContestIceland in the Eurovision Song Contest 1988
         Participating countries     Countries that participated in the past but not in 1988
Vote
Voting systemEach country awarded 12, 10, 8-1 point(s) to their 10 favourite songs
Winning song  Switzerland
"Ne partez pas sans moi"
1987 ← Eurovision Song Contest → 1989

The Eurovision Song Contest 1988 was the 33rd edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Dublin, Ireland, following Johnny Logan's win at the 1987 contest with the song "Hold Me Now". Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster Radio Telefís Éireann (RTÉ), the contest was held at the RDS Simmonscourt on 30 April 1988 and was hosted by Irish broadcaster Pat Kenny and the Miss Ireland 1980 Michelle Rocca, marking the first time since the 1979 contest that two presenters had hosted the contest.

Twenty-one countries took part, after an initial plan of twenty-two, as Cyprus' song was disqualified for breaching the contest's rules by being published a few years earlier, in an attempt to represent the country at a prior edition of the contest. The Cypriot song had been drawn to be performed 2nd in the running order.

The winner was Switzerland with the song "Ne partez pas sans moi", performed by Canadian singer Céline Dion and composed by Atilla Şereftuğ with lyrics in French by Nella Martinetti. Switzerland beat the United Kingdom by just one point in the last vote to win the title. The victory helped launch Dion's international career, subsequently leading her to become one of the best-selling artists of all time.

Location

RDS Simmonscourt – host venue of the 1988 contest.

Dublin is the capital and largest city of Ireland. The contest took place at the Simmonscourt Pavilion of the Royal Dublin Society, which was normally used for agricultural and horse shows. The same venue had hosted the 1981 contest. The staging of the contest in Dublin in 1988 formed part of Dublin's year long celebration of 1000 years since it was established by Scandinavian settlers in 988.

Participating countries

Twenty-one countries took part, after an initial plan of twenty-two, as Cyprus was disqualified after it had already submitted an entry. Cypriot broadcaster CyBC had selected the song "Thimame" sung by Yiannis Dimitrou, and at a late stage saw that the song was ineligible to represent them as it had been presented to jurors in the Cypriot internal selection for the 1984 contest, where it had finished in 3rd place. This was classed as a breach of the Cypriot rules of selecting their entry at this time as well as an infringement of the Eurovision Song Contest rules. It was a very late decision as the song was already drawn to perform second in the contest, advertised in the Radio Times information about the preview programme of the contest, and appears as song number two in accordance to its initial performance draw, on the record release "Melodi Grand Prix 1988" – the compilation disc of the contest's entries.

Each performance had a conductor who was maestro to the orchestra, except for Iceland and Italy.

Participants of the Eurovision Song Contest 1988
Country Broadcaster Artist Song Language Songwriter(s) Conductor
 Austria ORF Wilfried "Lisa Mona Lisa" German
Harald Neuwirth
 Belgium RTBF Reynaert "Laissez briller le soleil" French
Dany Willem
 Denmark DR Hot Eyes "Ka' du se hva' jeg sa'" Danish Henrik Krogsgaard
 Finland YLE Boulevard "Nauravat silmät muistetaan" Finnish
Ossi Runne
 France Antenne 2 Gérard Lenorman "Chanteur de charme" French
Guy Mattéoni
 Germany BR Maxi and Chris Garden "Lied für einen Freund" German Michael Thatcher
 Greece ERT Afroditi Fryda "Clown" (Κλόουν) Greek Dimitris Sakislis Haris Andreadis
 Iceland RÚV Beathoven "Sókrates" Icelandic Sverrir Stormsker No conductor
 Ireland RTÉ Jump the Gun "Take Him Home" English Peter Eades Noel Kelehan
 Israel IBA Yardena Arazi "Ben Adam" (בן אדם) Hebrew
Eldad Shrem
 Italy RAI Luca Barbarossa "Ti scrivo" Italian Luca Barbarossa No conductor
 Luxembourg CLT Lara Fabian "Croire" French
  • Jacques Cardona
  • Alain Garcia
Régis Dupré
 Netherlands NOS Gerard Joling "Shangri-La" Dutch Peter de Wijn Harry van Hoof
 Norway NRK Karoline Krüger "For vår jord" Norwegian Arild Stav
 Portugal RTP Dora "Voltarei" Portuguese
José Calvário
 Spain TVE La Década "La chica que yo quiero (Made in Spain)" Spanish
  • Francisco Dondiego
  • Enrique Piero
Javier de Juan
 Sweden SVT Tommy Körberg "Stad i ljus" Swedish Py Bäckman Anders Berglund
  Switzerland SRG SSR Céline Dion "Ne partez pas sans moi" French Atilla Şereftuğ
 Turkey TRT MFÖ "Sufi (Hey Ya Hey)" Turkish Turhan Yükseler
 United Kingdom BBC Scott Fitzgerald "Go" English Julie Forsyth Ronnie Hazlehurst
 Yugoslavia JRT Srebrna krila "Mangup" (Мангуп) Serbo-Croatian
Nikica Kalogjera

Returning artists

Bold indicates a previous winner.

Artist Country Previous year(s)
Hot Eyes  Denmark 1984, 1985
Boulevard  Finland 1987 (as backing group for Vicky Rosti)
Yardena Arazi  Israel 1976 (as part of Chocolate, Menta, Mastik), 1979 (as presenter)
Reuven Gvirtz (backing singer) 1979 (as part of Milk and Honey)
Yehuda Tamir (backing singer)
Dora  Portugal 1986
Tommy Körberg  Sweden 1969
MFÖ  Turkey 1985

Format

Graphic design

Host broadcaster RTÉ, employed Declan Lowney, who was notable for being a director of music videos and youth programming, as director for this edition, in order to revamp the contest to attract and sustain a younger audience. The traditional scoreboard was replaced with two giant Vidiwalls located on either side of the stage, which also projected live images of the performers from the green room where the competitors sat during the votes announcements, and a new computer-generated scoreboard was used.

The stage itself, conceived by Paula Farrell under chief production designer Michael Grogan, was also the largest and most elaborate ever constructed for the Eurovision Song Contest to date. To compensate for the fact that the vast stage took up most of the room in what is really an average size exhibition hall, the director deliberately darkened the hall where the audience was located and refused to use wide angled shots of the audience, in order to create the illusion of the venue being bigger than it actually was.

The Postcards featured the participants doing things in Ireland from culture, to tradition, to sports or sightseeing.

Lowney was also the director of the show's interval act, introduced after the competing songs and before the votes announcement. The interval act was a video of the popular Irish rock group Hothouse Flowers, which was filmed in eleven countries around Europe and was the most expensive music video ever produced in Ireland at the time.

Voting segment

Each country had a jury who awarded 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 point(s) for its top ten songs. The number of jury members changed this year from 11 which had been the limit since 1975 to 16 which would be used until 1996 when five countries tested the televoting in 1997.

This edition features one of the closest and most fickle-ending votes in the history of the contest. With three countries left to vote, the UK was well in the lead with 133 points against Switzerland's 118. With the third last country, France, only awarding Switzerland one point, the UK looked certain of victory, as even if Switzerland scooped the two final 12s, the UK would only need to gather eleven points from three juries combined to be unbeatable. However, France didn't award the UK any points, and the following country, Portugal, gave the UK a meagre three points while giving the maximum 12 to Switzerland, making the contest blown open between the two countries until the end of the voting.

With the conclusion of voting from the penultimate jury, the UK was holding a five-point lead over Switzerland. As the final jury, that of Yugoslavia, began to award its points in the customary ascending order, a lot of excitement-sighs were heard from the audience to see how the two rivals for victory would fare. Switzerland was the first to be named with six points, edging it into a one-point lead over the UK. After earlier strong votes from most countries to the UK, it seemed highly likely that the UK would be given one of the higher remaining set of points. However, as Yugoslavia announced its seven, eight, ten and twelve points, it transpired that it had awarded the UK no points at all (12 points from Yugoslavia went to France), and Switzerland was left with its one-point lead to savour a dramatic triumph.

Contest overview

This was the second victory for Switzerland at the Eurovision Song Contest after winning the first edition in 1956. It also remains the last time a song in French has won the contest, the language having dominated the event in earlier years.

The contest helped launch an international career for two now world-know artists, the winner for Switzerland Céline Dion and Luxembourg's representative Lara Fabian. Canadian Céline Dion was a rising star in the French-speaking world at the time of the contest. Shortly afterwards she started recording songs in English to great worldwide success. As Dion, Belgian-Canadian Lara Fabian also achieved a successful career after the contest with becoming established in various countries worldwide, with a mainly French-sung repertoire. The UK entry was written and composed by Julie Forsyth, the daughter of the entertainer Bruce Forsyth who was present. When interviewed afterwards he was particularly annoyed at the Dutch jury not having given a vote to the UK, as they had done some work there.

Results of the Eurovision Song Contest 1988
R/O Country Artist Song Points Place
1  Iceland Beathoven "Sókrates" 20 16
2  Sweden Tommy Körberg "Stad i ljus" 52 12
3  Finland Boulevard "Nauravat silmät muistetaan" 3 20
4  United Kingdom Scott Fitzgerald "Go" 136 2
5  Turkey MFÖ "Sufi (Hey Ya Hey)" 37 15
6  Spain La Década "La chica que yo quiero (Made in Spain)" 58 11
7  Netherlands Gerard Joling "Shangri-La" 70 9
8  Israel Yardena Arazi "Ben Adam" 85 7
9   Switzerland Céline Dion "Ne partez pas sans moi" 137 1
10  Ireland Jump the Gun "Take Him Home" 79 8
11  Germany Maxi and Chris Garden "Lied für einen Freund" 48 14
12  Austria Wilfried "Lisa Mona Lisa" 0 21
13  Denmark Hot Eyes "Ka' du se hva' jeg sa'" 92 3
14  Greece Afroditi Fryda "Clown" 10 17
15  Norway Karoline Krüger "For vår jord" 88 5
16  Belgium Reynaert "Laissez briller le soleil" 5 18
17  Luxembourg Lara Fabian "Croire" 90 4
18  Italy Luca Barbarossa "Ti scrivo" 52 12
19  France Gérard Lenorman "Chanteur de charme" 64 10
20  Portugal Dora "Voltarei" 5 18
21  Yugoslavia Srebrna krila "Mangup" 87 6

Spokespersons

Each country nominated a spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for their respective country via telephone. Known spokespersons at the 1988 contest are listed below.

Detailed voting results

Points allocated to the winning song from Switzerland
Detailed voting results
Total score
Iceland
Sweden
Finland
United Kingdom
Turkey
Spain
Netherlands
Israel
Switzerland
Ireland
Germany
Austria
Denmark
Greece
Norway
Belgium
Luxembourg
Italy
France
Portugal
Yugoslavia
Contestants
Iceland 20 1 4 4 1 2 8
Sweden 52 3 2 8 5 8 12 1 3 10
Finland 3 3
United Kingdom 136 1 5 10 12 10 10 5 7 10 10 10 6 5 12 8 12 3
Turkey 37 4 1 5 1 8 8 4 6
Spain 58 2 5 2 6 8 1 8 2 6 6 8 4
Netherlands 70 6 6 7 7 2 6 12 12 5 7
Israel 85 6 6 4 6 3 10 1 5 2 3 10 5 3 10 10 1
Switzerland 137 7 12 5 10 10 8 10 4 10 12 10 8 4 1 7 1 12 6
Ireland 79 7 2 3 2 12 6 4 7 6 7 7 5 4 5 2
Germany 48 8 5 1 3 5 6 6 4 2 8
Austria 0
Denmark 92 10 3 4 1 12 6 1 4 4 12 10 7 12 6
Greece 10 3 7
Norway 88 5 8 7 12 7 1 8 1 3 5 7 3 4 7 10
Belgium 5 5
Luxembourg 90 4 10 12 7 5 12 12 1 2 2 6 8 2 4 3
Italy 52 8 4 7 8 2 5 3 2 8 5
France 64 2 3 8 2 2 3 3 7 3 5 1 2 10 1 12
Portugal 5 4 1
Yugoslavia 87 12 6 1 8 7 12 2 3 4 12 4 7 6 3

12 points

Below is a summary of all 12 points in the final:

N. Contestant Nation(s) giving 12 points
3  Denmark  Austria,  France,  Netherlands
 Luxembourg  Finland,  Ireland,   Switzerland
  Switzerland  Germany,  Portugal,  Sweden
 United Kingdom  Belgium,  Italy,  Turkey
 Yugoslavia  Denmark,  Iceland,  Israel
2  Netherlands  Greece,  Luxembourg
1  France  Yugoslavia
 Ireland  Spain
 Norway  United Kingdom
 Sweden  Norway

Broadcasts

Each participating broadcaster was required to relay the contest via its networks. Non-participating EBU member broadcasters were also able to relay the contest as "passive participants". Broadcasters were able to send commentators to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language and to relay information about the artists and songs to their television viewers.

Known details on the broadcasts in each country, including the specific broadcasting stations and commentators are shown in the tables below. According to the host Pat Kenny, the contest was also broadcast in Soviet Union and Middle East.

Broadcasters and commentators in participating countries
Country Broadcaster Channel(s) Commentator(s) Ref(s)
 Austria ORF FS1 Ernst Grissemann
 Belgium RTBF RTBF1 Pierre Collard-Bovy
BRT TV1 Luc Appermont
 Denmark DR DR TV, DR P2 Jørgen de Mylius
 Finland YLE TV1, 2-verkko [fi] Erkki Pohjanheimo
 France Antenne 2 Lionel Cassan [fr]
 Germany ARD Erstes Deutsches Fernsehen Nicole and Claus-Erich Boetzkes
 Greece ERT ET1 Dafni Bokota
 Iceland RÚV Sjónvarpið, Rás 1 Hermann Gunnarsson
 Ireland RTÉ RTÉ 1 Mike Murphy
RTÉ FM3 Larry Gogan
 Israel IBA Israeli Television
Reshet Gimel [he]
 Italy RAI Rai Tre Daniele Piombi
 Luxembourg CLT RTL Télévision
RTL plus
 Netherlands NOS Nederland 3 Willem van Beusekom
 Norway NRK NRK Fjernsynet, NRK P2 John Andreassen
 Portugal RTP RTP1
 Spain TVE TVE 2 Beatriz Pécker [es]
 Sweden SVT TV2 Bengt Grafström
RR [sv] SR P3 Kalle Oldby
  Switzerland SRG SSR SRG Sportkette [de] Bernard Thurnheer [de]
SSR Chaîne sportive Serge Moisson [fr]
TSI Canale sportivo
 Turkey TRT TV1
 United Kingdom BBC BBC1 Terry Wogan
BBC Radio 2 Ken Bruce
 Yugoslavia JRT TV Ljubljana 1 [sl]
TV Zagreb 1 Oliver Mlakar
Broadcasters and commentators in non-participating countries
Country Broadcaster Channel(s) Commentator(s) Ref(s)
 Australia SBS SBS TV Terry Wogan
 Cyprus CyBC RIK Dafni Bokota
 Estonian SSR ETV
 Poland TP TP1
 Soviet Union CT USSR Programme One

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