Eurovision Song Contest 1990

Eurovision Song Contest 1990
Dates
Final date 5 May 1990
Host
Venue Vatroslav Lisinski Concert Hall, Zagreb, SR Croatia, Yugoslavia
Presenter(s) Helga Vlahović Brnobić
Oliver Mlakar
Conductor Igor Kuljerić
Host broadcaster JRT / RTV Zagreb
Opening act A short film "Zagreb: City of Music"
Interval act Yugoslav Changes – a film about tourism in the country.
Participants
Number of entries 22
Debuting countries None
Returning countries None
Withdrawing countries None
Vote
Voting system Each country awarded 12, 10, 8-1 points to their 10 favourite songs
Nul points None
Winning song  Italy
"Insieme: 1992"
Eurovision Song Contest
◄1989 1991►

The Eurovision Song Contest 1990, the 35th in the series, was held in Zagreb, Yugoslavia on 5 May 1990. The presenters were Helga Vlahović Brnobić and Oliver Mlakar.[1] Toto Cutugno was the winner of this contest with the song "Insieme: 1992". This was the second and most recent victory for Italy, the first one having been "Non ho l'età", performed by Gigliola Cinquetti in 1964.

The lyrics of several entries celebrated the revolution and democratisation that had occurred in central and eastern Europe in the preceding months, focusing especially on the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989, such as in the Norwegian and Austrian entries. However, the winning song was an even more sweeping evocation of European unity, in anticipation of the completion of the European single market, due at the end of 1992.

Malta had wished to return to the contest for the first time in 15 years, but Eurovision rules prevented them from returning due to a maximum of 22 entries allowed to compete. A national final was held in Malta, which was won by Maryrose Mallia with "Our Little World of Yesterday".[2]

There was a slightly uncomfortable beginning to the rehearsal week when, offended by press comments concerning their ages (Brnobić being 45 at the time and Mlakar being 54), the two presenters quit the show. They were briefly replaced by Rene Medvešek and Dubravka Marković, who were much younger, but the misunderstandings were eventually allayed and Brnobić and Mlakar returned to the contest.

The Eurovision Song Contest 1990 was the first to implement an age rule. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) were forced to bring in a restriction rule after criticism arose over the ages of two performers at 1989 contest, being just 11 and 12 years old. From 1990, no artist under the age of 16 on the day of the contest could perform on stage. This rule meant that the record for the youngest ever winner at Eurovision could never be broken, as Sandra Kim, who won for Belgium at the 1986 competition, was just 13 years old.

A notorious mishap occurred at the start of the first song, when a noticeably long delay caused by problems with the backing track was followed by the Spanish singers Azúcar Moreno missing their cue. They walked off the stage in barely concealed annoyance and the audience was left in confusion for a moment, but the song was then restarted without any further problems.

From a musicological perspective both Spain's "Bandido" and France's "White and Black Blues" can be said to be the first entries to signal a new trend at Eurovision, with both songs fusing contemporary dance music with ethnic influences, from flamenco and calypso respectively. By the 2000s this fusion of ethno/dance/pop had crossed over to mainstream success in the contest, with entries like Turkey's "Everyway That I Can", Ukraine's "Wild Dances", Greece's "My Number One" and Norway's "Fairytale" winning in 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2009.

The 1990 contest was the first to feature an official mascot, called Eurocat, created by Joško Marušić. This mischievous purple cat popped up during the 'postcards' of each of the 22 entries, which also included travelogues of the country about to perform, in conjunction with the European Year of Tourism 1990.

Contents

Individual Entries

Results

Draw Country Language Artist Song English translation Place Points
01  Spain Spanish Azúcar Moreno "Bandido" Bandit 5 96
02  Greece Greek Christos Callow & Wave "Horis Skopo" (Χωρίς σκοπό) Without a purpose 19 11
03  Belgium French Philippe Lafontaine "Macédomienne" My Macedonian woman1 12 46
04  Turkey Turkish Kayahan "Gözlerinin Hapsindeyim" I'm caught in your eyes 17 21
05  Netherlands Dutch Maywood "Ik wil alles met je delen" I want to share everything with you 15 25
06  Luxembourg French Céline Carzo "Quand je te rêve" When I dream of you 13 38
07  United Kingdom English Emma "Give a Little Love Back to the World" 6 87
08  Iceland Icelandic Stjórnin "Eitt lag enn" One more song 4 124
09  Norway Norwegian Ketil Stokkan "Brandenburger Tor" Brandenburg Gate 21 8
10  Israel Hebrew Rita Kleinstein "Shara Barkhovot" (שרה ברחובות) Singing in the streets 18 16
11  Denmark Danish Lonnie Devantier "Hallo Hallo" Hello hello 8 64
12  Switzerland German Egon Egemann "Musik klingt in die Welt hinaus" Music resounds in the world 11 51
13  Germany German Chris Kempers
& Daniel Kovac
"Frei zu leben" Free to live 9 60
14  France French Joëlle Ursull "White and Black Blues" 2 132
15  Yugoslavia Serbo-Croatian Tajči "Hajde da ludujemo" Let's go crazy 7 81
16  Portugal Portuguese Nucha "Há sempre alguém" There's always someone 20 9
17  Ireland English Liam Reilly "Somewhere In Europe" 2 132
18  Sweden Swedish Edin-Ådahl "Som en vind" Like a wind 16 24
19  Italy Italian Toto Cutugno "Insieme: 1992" Together: 1992 1 149
20  Austria German Simone "Keine Mauern mehr" No walls anymore 10 58
21  Cyprus Greek Haris Anastasiou "Milas Poli" (Μιλάς πολύ) You talk too much 14 36
22  Finland Swedish Beat "Fri?" Free? 22 8
1.^ Play on the words "Macédonienne" (Macedonian woman) and "Mienne" (mine, for females).

Score sheet

Results
Spain 96 8 1 10 2 1 4 5 6 12 5 3 5 8 8 8 10
Greece 11 5 6
Belgium 46 7 4 1 4 8 8 2 1 7 4
Turkey 21 3 2 4 5 7
Netherlands 25 1 3 1 4 2 3 6 1 2 2
Luxembourg 38 4 3 3 12 2 3 1 5 5
United Kingdom 87 7 5 12 3 10 3 10 1 10 10 6 6 1 3
Iceland 124 4 3 10 1 8 12 10 8 10 7 4 12 7 8 3 10 7
Norway 8 4 1 3
Israel 16 4 2 4 1 5
Denmark 64 6 3 2 7 7 7 1 7 4 3 7 6 4
Switzerland 51 1 12 6 2 12 1 5 8 1 3
Germany 60 8 6 12 7 1 4 10 4 5 3
France 132 5 4 4 12 12 12 6 5 12 10 12 4 8 5 2 7 12
Yugoslavia 81 3 12 5 10 3 12 7 2 5 1 10 10 1
Portugal 9 7 2
Ireland 132 10 7 7 5 10 6 10 8 8 8 5 7 7 6 12 12 4
Sweden 24 2 2 6 6 6 2
Italy 149 12 10 8 8 8 10 3 1 6 8 6 4 6 10 12 10 7 12 8
Austria 58 2 7 1 5 8 6 3 8 2 2 12 2
Cyprus 36 6 5 2 5 2 6 4 6
Finland 8 5 3

12 points

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

N. Recipient nation Voting nation
6 France Finland, Iceland, Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, Yugoslavia
3 Italy Cyprus, Ireland, Spain
2 Iceland Portugal, United Kingdom
Ireland Austria, Sweden
Switzerland Denmark, Greece
Yugoslavia Israel, Turkey
1 Austria Italy
Germany Luxembourg
Luxembourg France
Spain Germany
United Kingdom Belgium

Returning artists

Artist Country Previous year(s)
Ketil Stokkan  Norway 1986

Commentators

Television

Radio

Spokespersons

National jury members

References

  1. ^ "Eurovision Song Contest 1990". EBU. http://www.eurovision.tv/page/contest-details?event=306. Retrieved 2008-09-19. 
  2. ^ "No, No, Never!!! - Songs That Did Not Make It To Eurovision". eurovisionsongs.net. http://www.eurovisionsongs.net/nononever.htm. Retrieved 2009-07-23. 
  3. ^ http://eurosongcontest.phpbb3.es/viewtopic.php?f=57&t=20310&start=45
  4. ^ http://www.retromaniax.gr/vb/showthread.php?16013-%C7-%C4%DC%F6%ED%E7-%CC%F0%FC%EA%EF%F4%E1-%EA%E1%E9-%E7-EUROVISION-%281987-2004%29
  5. ^ http://archives.lesoir.be/victoire-de-la-canzonetta-c-est-l-histoire-du-p-tit-tot_t-19900507-Z02N33.html
  6. ^ Adriaens, Manu & Loeckx-Van Cauwenberge, Joken. Blijven kiken!. Lannoo, Belgium. 2003 ISBN 90-209-5274-9
  7. ^ http://www.eurovisionartists.nl/index.htm?content/esf480.asp
  8. ^ http://songcontest.free.fr/bdd/cec1990.htm
  9. ^ http://www.nrk.no/debatt/index.php?showtopic=87458&pid=1343226&mode=threaded&start=
  10. ^ http://www.esconnet.dk/portal/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=264&Itemid=174
  11. ^ http://www.ecgermany.de/archiv/1990esc.htm
  12. ^ http://songcontest.free.fr/bdd/cec1990.htm
  13. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2Il0WbuZhk
  14. ^ http://21595.activeboard.com/t3895343/comentadores-do-esc/
  15. ^ http://www.infosajten.com/esc/esc/swedishspokesmen.html
  16. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfuwEen3qVg
  17. ^ Mutavdzic, Sascha (OGAE Austria)
  18. ^ Savvidis, Christos (OGAE Cyprus)
  19. ^ http://www.viisukuppila.fi/phpBB3/yleista/topic1578.html?sid=4004772ec986da0c3795a6f5dd54f0d4
  20. ^ http://www.retromaniax.gr/vb/showthread.php?16016-%C5%EA%F6%F9%ED%E7%F4%DD%F2-%F4%E7%F2-%C5%D1%D4-%E3%E9%E1-%F4%E9%F2-%F8%DE%F6%EF%F5%F2-%F4%E7%F2-%C5%EB%EB%DC%E4%E1%F2-%F3%F4%E7%ED-EUROVISION/page3
  21. ^ Dyrseth, Seppo (OGAE Norway)
  22. ^ http://sf.tapuz.co.il/shirshur-262-1949782.htm
  23. ^ http://www.esconnet.dk/portal/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=264&Itemid=174
  24. ^ Baumann, Peter Ramón (OGAE Switzerland)
  25. ^ http://21595.activeboard.com/t3895343/comentadores-do-esc/
  26. ^ http://www.infosajten.com/esc/esc/swedishspokesmen.html
  27. ^ Savvidis, Christos (OGAE Cyprus)
  28. ^ http://www.viisukuppila.fi/phpBB3/yleista/topic1578-30.html
  29. ^ http://eurofestival.host22.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1450