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The Eurovision Song Contest 1988 was the 33rd Eurovision Song Contest and was held on April 30, 1988 in Dublin. The presenters were Pat Kenny and Michelle Rocca. Future international superstar Celine Dion, then only famous in the French-speaking world, was the winner of this Eurovision with the song, "Ne Partez Pas Sans Moi", composed by Turkish composer Atilla Şereftuğ. This was the second victory, and, as of 2008, the last, for Switzerland. The first one was in 1956: Refrain, performed by Lys Assia. It was also the last time a song sung in the French language won the Contest, having dominated it in earlier years.
RTÉ, as the host broadcaster for this edition of the contest, decided that the shows' production style needed to be revamped in order to attract and sustain a younger audience. They employed Declan Lowney (who was notable for being a director of music videos and youth programming) as director for this edition, and he would also direct the interval act which included the popular Irish rock group Hothouse Flowers which was filmed in 11 countries around Europe and was the most expensive music video ever produced in Ireland at that time. The traditional scoreboard was replaced with 2 giant Vidiwalls located on either side of the stage, which also projected live images of the performers, 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 a Eurovision. 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.
Cyprus was drawn second to compete in Dublin and had selected the song 'Thimame' sung by Yiannis Dimitrou as their entry. However, at a late stage CyBC decided that the song was ineligible to represent them as it had been entered into the 1984 Cypriot selection, where it had finished in 3rd place. This was classed as a breach of the Cypriot rules of selecting their entry at this time and so Cyprus withdrew from the 1988 contest. It was quite a last minute decision as the song was advertised in the Radio Times information about the preview programme of the contest. The song also appears on the Norwegian record release of the 1988 Eurovision Song Contest entries.
[edit] Results
[edit] Voting structure
Each country had a jury who awarded 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 points for their top ten songs.
With the conclusion of voting from the penultimate jury, the UK representative Scott Fitzgerald looked well-placed for victory, holding a five-point lead over Switzerland. As the final jury, that of Yugoslavia, began to award its points in the customary ascending order, the international audience held its breath to see how the two rivals for victory would fare. Switzerland were the first to be named with six points, barely enough to keep their hopes of winning alive, edging them as it did into a one-point lead. However, given the pattern of voting all evening, it seemed highly likely that the UK would be given one of the higher set of points. But remarkably, after the seven, eight, ten and twelve points were announced, it transpired that Yugoslavia had awarded the UK no points at all, and Switzerland were left to savour a dramatic triumph.
[edit] Score sheet
| |
Results |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Iceland |
|
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
8 |
0 |
| Sweden |
3 |
|
0 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
8 |
0 |
0 |
5 |
0 |
0 |
8 |
0 |
12 |
1 |
3 |
10 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Finland |
0 |
0 |
|
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| United Kingdom |
1 |
5 |
10 |
|
12 |
10 |
0 |
10 |
5 |
7 |
10 |
10 |
10 |
6 |
5 |
12 |
8 |
12 |
0 |
3 |
0 |
| Turkey |
0 |
4 |
0 |
1 |
|
5 |
1 |
8 |
0 |
0 |
8 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
4 |
0 |
6 |
0 |
0 |
| Spain |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
5 |
|
0 |
2 |
6 |
0 |
0 |
8 |
1 |
8 |
2 |
6 |
6 |
8 |
0 |
0 |
4 |
| Netherlands |
0 |
0 |
0 |
6 |
6 |
0 |
|
7 |
7 |
2 |
6 |
0 |
0 |
12 |
0 |
0 |
12 |
5 |
0 |
0 |
7 |
| Israel |
6 |
0 |
6 |
4 |
0 |
6 |
3 |
|
10 |
1 |
5 |
2 |
0 |
3 |
0 |
10 |
5 |
3 |
10 |
10 |
1 |
| Switzerland |
7 |
12 |
5 |
10 |
10 |
8 |
10 |
4 |
|
10 |
12 |
0 |
0 |
10 |
8 |
4 |
1 |
7 |
1 |
12 |
6 |
| Ireland |
0 |
7 |
2 |
3 |
2 |
12 |
6 |
0 |
4 |
|
7 |
6 |
7 |
0 |
7 |
5 |
0 |
0 |
4 |
5 |
2 |
| Germany |
8 |
0 |
0 |
5 |
1 |
3 |
0 |
5 |
0 |
6 |
|
0 |
6 |
0 |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
8 |
| Austria |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Denmark |
10 |
3 |
4 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
12 |
6 |
1 |
4 |
4 |
12 |
|
0 |
10 |
7 |
0 |
0 |
12 |
6 |
0 |
| Greece |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
7 |
0 |
0 |
| Norway |
5 |
8 |
7 |
12 |
0 |
0 |
7 |
1 |
0 |
8 |
1 |
3 |
5 |
7 |
|
3 |
0 |
4 |
0 |
7 |
10 |
| Belgium |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
0 |
0 |
5 |
0 |
0 |
| Luxembourg |
4 |
10 |
12 |
7 |
0 |
0 |
5 |
0 |
12 |
12 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
2 |
6 |
8 |
|
2 |
0 |
4 |
3 |
| Italy |
0 |
0 |
8 |
0 |
4 |
7 |
0 |
0 |
8 |
0 |
2 |
5 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
0 |
2 |
|
8 |
0 |
5 |
| France |
0 |
2 |
3 |
0 |
8 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
3 |
0 |
3 |
7 |
3 |
5 |
1 |
2 |
10 |
0 |
|
1 |
12 |
| Portugal |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
0 |
| Yugoslavia |
12 |
6 |
1 |
8 |
7 |
0 |
0 |
12 |
2 |
3 |
0 |
4 |
12 |
4 |
0 |
0 |
7 |
6 |
3 |
0 |
|
|
THE TABLE IS ORDERED BY APPEARANCE
|
Participating countries Countries which had previously participated but did not do so in this year
RTÉ
Switzerland
Cyprus
Austria
Iceland
Sweden
Finland
United Kingdom
Turkey
Spain
Netherlands
Israel
Germany
Denmark
Greece
Norway.svg/22px-Flag_of_Belgium_(civil).svg.png){kind=small}
Belgium
Luxembourg
Italy
France
Portugal
Yugoslavia
