Eurovision Song Contest 1993

Infobox Eurovision
name = Eurovision Song Contest 1993


final = 15 May 1993
presenters = Fionnuala Sweeney
conductor = Noel Kelehan
director =
host = flagicon|Ireland RTÉ
venue = Green Glens Arena, Millstreet, Ireland
winner = flag|Ireland
"nowrap|In Your Eyes"
vote = Each country awarded 12, 10, 8-1 points to their 10 favourite songs
entries = 25
debut = flag|Bosnia and Herzegovina|1992
flag|Croatia
flag|Slovenia
return = None
withdraw = flag|FR Yugoslavia|name=Yugoslavia
null = None
interval = Linda Martin,
Johnny Logan
opening = The story of Eochaid and Étaín in Celtic mythology, transitioning into a video of rural Ireland today.
con = Eurovision Song Contest
pre = ◄1992
nex = 1994►

The Eurovision Song Contest 1993 was the 38th Eurovision Song Contest and was held on May 15, 1993 in Millstreet, County Cork, Republic of Ireland. The presenter was Fionnuala Sweeney. Niamh Kavanagh was the winner of this Eurovision for Ireland with the song, "In Your Eyes." This was Ireland's fifth victory, and equalled the tally of five Eurovision victories achieved by France in 1977 and Luxembourg in 1983.

The location for this years edition of the contest was unique, in that Millstreet, with a population at the time of just 1500 people, was the smallest host town ever chosen for Eurovision, and indeed was the most remote. However, the venue, a large indoor well- equipped equestrian centre was deemed more than suitable as the location by RTÉ. With huge support from local and national authorities, plus several businesses in the region, the town's infrastructure was greatly enhanced in order to accommodate an event of this scale. It was also the largest outside broadcast ever attempted by state broadcaster RTÉ and was deemed a technical triumph for all involved. The stage was created by Alan Farquharson, who was also chief production designer two years later in Dublin.

Pre-qualifying round

In the run-up to this contest, the European Broadcasting Union finally started to grapple with the explosion in the number of potential participating countries, caused by the dissolution of the Eastern bloc, and also by the disintegration of Yugoslavia, which had traditionally been the only communist country that took part in the contest. For the first time, then, a pre-qualifying round was introduced, but only for countries that had either never participated in the contest at all, or in the case of former republics of Yugoslavia, had not previously competed as nations in their own right. This was, however, merely a 'sticking-plaster' measure that was plainly not a sustainable solution for future years, as it would not be seen as remotely equitable. But in the meantime, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Hungary, Slovenia, Slovakia, Romania and Estonia were left to battle it out in a special competition called "Kvalifikacija za Millstreet" in Ljubljana on 3 April for the mere three places available at the grand final in Millstreet. After some extremely tight voting, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovenia edged through.

Individual Entries

Results

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.

The voting required a jury to deliberate in the midst of the on-going war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Warm applause rang round the hall as a voice on a crackling phone line was heard to deliver the familiar greeting, "Hello Millstreet, Sarajevo calling".

It looked to be a lost cause for second-placed Sonia of the UK after the penultimate jury voted and left her eleven points behind Niamh Kavanagh. An expectant Irish crowd waited to hear the final jury award anything between one and ten points to either the UK or Ireland, any of which would have made it arithmetically impossible for Ireland to be caught. However, the name of neither country came up, with the ten points instead being rather eccentrically awarded to Luxembourg. This of course meant that either the UK or Ireland must have failed to pick up any points from the final jury, and if it was Sonia that received the maximum twelve points, the seemingly impossible would have happened and the UK would snatch a single-point victory at the death. Instead it was Ireland that were awarded the final points of the evening, finishing with what looked in retrospect a comfortable twenty-three point victory. The audience burst into a spontaneous chant of "ole ole", leaving the unflappable Fionnuala Sweeney to declare with due formality, but with a discernible glint in her eye, that "we have a winner..."

Technical difficulties meant that the Maltese jury gave their votes last.

During the announcement of the scores by the Dutch jury, Sweeney got carried away with the audience's cheers and declared Ireland 12 points when they had only been awarded 10.

core sheet

		Results
	Italy		0	0	1	0	0	0	7	0	0	10	5	0	0	10	0	8	0	0	2	0	2	0	0	0
	Turkey	0		0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	1	6	0	0	0
	Germany	8	0		2	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	4	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0
	Switzerland	10	0	12		10	7	8	5	4	6	1	12	6	7	12	8	4	0	10	8	2	3	6	4	3
	Denmark	0	0	0	0		0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	3	0	0	5	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Greece	2	2	2	0	0		0	6	0	0	0	7	0	0	0	0	6	0	0	5	0	8	12	7	7
	Belgium	0	0	3	0	0	0		0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Malta	7	5	4	7	5	5	0		0	4	2	2	4	2	0	0	0	4	6	0	4	4	1	3	0
	Iceland	0	0	0	0	4	4	0	0		1	0	0	7	1	0	5	0	0	2	7	5	0	2	2	2
	Austria	0	4	0	0	0	1	3	0	0		0	3	0	6	0	0	0	12	3	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Portugal	0	0	1	0	1	2	0	0	2	5		8	2	0	4	0	2	0	1	12	0	12	3	0	5
	France	0	7	0	4	12	3	0	0	8	7	12		8	10	6	4	1	0	4	3	8	0	10	8	6
	Sweden	0	0	8	8	7	0	10	0	7	10	4	0		0	5	6	7	0	7	0	0	0	0	10	0
	Ireland	12	1	5	12	6	6	2	12	3	8	6	10	12		7	12	3	8	12	10	6	10	7	5	12
	Luxembourg	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	10	0	0	0	0	0	0		1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Slovenia	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	3	0	0		0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Finland	0	3	0	0	0	8	0	2	5	0	0	0	0	0	2	0		0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Bosnia-Herzegovina	3	12	0	0	0	0	1	4	0	0	0	4	0	3	0	0	0		0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	United Kingdom	1	8	6	5	8	0	12	0	12	12	7	6	10	8	8	10	5	3		4	10	5	4	12	8
	Netherlands	6	6	7	0	0	0	7	3	6	3	0	0	5	12	0	7	0	10	0		3	7	0	0	10
	Croatia	0	0	0	3	0	0	4	0	0	0	5	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	8	0		1	0	6	4
	Spain	5	0	0	6	0	0	5	8	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	2	10	6	0	0	7		5	1	1
	Cyprus	0	0	0	0	2	10	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	5	0	0	0		0	0
	Israel	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0		0
	Norway	0	10	10	10	0	12	6	0	10	0	8	0	0	5	1	3	12	7	0	6	12	0	8	0
	THE TABLE IS ORDERED BY APPEARANCE

12 points

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

Commentators

* Italy - Ettore Andenna
* Turkey - Bülent Özveren
* Germany - Jan Hofer
* Switzerland - "TBC"
* Denmark - Jørgen de Mylius
* Greece - Dafni Bokota
* Belgium - André Vermeulen (BRTN), Claude Delacroix (RTBF)
* Malta - "TBC"
* Iceland - "TBC"
* Austria - "TBC"
* Portugal - Isabel Bahia
* France - Patrice Laffont
* Sweden - Jan Jingryd & Kåge Gimtell
* Ireland - Pat Kenny
* Luxembourg - "TBC"
* Slovenia - "TBC"
* Finland - Erkki Pohjanheimo & Kirsi-Maria Niemi
* Bosnia & Herzegovina - "TBC"
* United Kingdom - Terry Wogan (BBC TV), Ken Bruce (BBC Radio 2)
* Netherlands - Willem van Beusekom
* Croatia - Aleksandar Kostadinov
* Spain - José Luis Uribarri
* Cyprus - Evi Papamichail
* Israel - TBC
* Norway - Leif Erik Forberg

pokespersons

* Italy - Peppi Franzelin
* Turkey - Ömer Önder
* Germany - Carmen Nebel
* Switzerland - Michel Dénériaz
* Denmark - Bent
* Greece - Fotini Yiannoulatou
* Belgium - Monique Delvaux
* Malta - John Demanuele
* Iceland - Áslaug Dora Eyjólfsdóttir
* Austria - Andreas Steppan
* Portugal - Margarida Mercês de Mello
* France - Laurent Romejko
* Sweden - Gösta Hanson
* Ireland - Eileen Dunne
* Luxembourg - Fernand Mathes
* Slovenia - Miša Molk
* Finland - Solveig Herlin
* Bosnia & Herzegovina - Senad Hadžifejzović
* United Kingdom - Colin Berry
* Netherlands - Joop van Os
* Croatia - Veljko Đuretić
* Spain - María Ángeles Balañac
* Cyprus - Anna
* Israel - Daniel Pe'er
* Norway - Sverre Tinnå

Map