Eurovision Song Contest 1988

Infobox Eurovision
name = Eurovision Song Contest 1988


final = 30 April 1988
presenters = Pat Kenny
Michelle Rocca
conductor = Noel Kelehan
director = Declan Lowney
host = flagicon|Ireland RTÉ
venue = RDS Simmonscourt Pavilion, Dublin, Ireland
winner = flag|Switzerland
"Ne Partez Pas Sans Moi"
vote = Each country awarded 12, 10, 8-1 points to their 10 favourite songs
entries = 21
debut = None
return = None
withdraw = flag|Cyprus
null = flag|Austria
interval = Hothouse Flowers
opening = Johnny Logan
con = Eurovision Song Contest
pre = ◄1987
nex = 1989►

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, the French-Canadian 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 Swiss-Turkish composer Atilla Şereftuğ with lyrics by Nella Martinetti. 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.

Radio Telefís Éireann (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 from the green room, 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.

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.

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.

core 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

pokespersons

* Iceland - TBD
* Sweden - Maud Uppling
* Finland - Solveig Herlin
* United Kingdom - Colin Berry
* Turkey - Canan Kumbasar
* Spain - Matilde Jarrín
* The Netherlands - Joop van Os
* Israel - Daniel Pe'er
* Switzerland - Michel Dénériaz
* Ireland - John Skehan
* Germany - Sabine Sauer
* Austria - Tilia Herold
* Denmark - Bent
* Greece - Fotini Yiannoulatou
* Norway - TBD
* Belgium - Georges Moucheron
* Luxembourg - Fernand Mathes
* Italy - TBD
* France - Marie Myriam
* Portugal - Maria Margarida Gaspar
* Yugoslavia - Miša Molk

Map