Twenty-two countries participated in the contest, with Cyprus returning after a one-year absence. Among the participating artists were the two youngest artists to have ever participated in the contest, 12-year-old Gili Netanel and 11-year-old Nathalie Pâque representing Israel and France, respectively; the inclusion of the young performers led to some controversy in the run-up to the event, including calls for their exclusion from the contest, and although no action was taken by the organisers of this event it did result in a rule change for the following year's contest.
The winner was Yugoslavia with the song "Rock Me", composed by Rajko Dujmić, written by Stevo Cvikić and performed by the group Riva. This was Yugoslavia's first contest victory in twenty-four attempts. The United Kingdom, Denmark, Sweden and Austria rounded out the top five positions; the UK and Denmark placed second and third respectively for a second consecutive year, and Austria finished in the top five for the first time since 1976. Finland gained their best result since 1975, while Ireland and Iceland achieved their worst ever placings to date, placing eighteenth and twenty-second respectively, with Iceland ultimately earning nul points and coming last for the first time.
The chosen venue was the Palais de Beaulieu, a convention and exhibition centre. The contest took place in the Hall 7 of the Palais, also known as the Halle des Fêtes, which was temporarily renamed Salle Lys Assia in honour of Switzerland's first Eurovision winning artist.[2][3] An audience of around 1,600 people could occupy the Salle Lys Assia during the contest.[4] Over a dozen cities were reported to have applied to host the contest, with Lausanne winning out due to its combination of a suitable production venue, logistical infrastructure availability, and proximity to an international airport.[5][6]
Twenty-two countries participated in the 1989 contest, with the twenty-one countries from the previous year's event being joined by Cyprus, returning after a one-year absence.[2][7]
No artists competing in the 1989 contest had previously taken part as lead artists in previous events, however, two of the artists had previously performed in the contest in past editions. The Netherlands's Justine Pelmelay had been one of the backing vocalists supporting the Dutch entrant Gerard Joling in the 1988 event, and Greece's Marianna had also performed as a backing vocalist in 1987 for Bang.[8][9] Additionally, Søren Bundgaard who had represented Denmark in three previous editions of the contest as a member of the duo Hot Eyes, was one of Birthe Kjær's backing performers in this year's event.[10][11]
The 1989 contest featured the youngest ever lead performers, in the form of 12-year-old Gili Netanel [he] and 11-year-old Nathalie Pâque representing Israel and France respectively. Their inclusion in the contest led to controversy and protest from some of the other competitors, who felt their young age should preclude them from the contest. As there were no existing rules regarding the age of performers, the two artists were allowed to compete, however, the controversy led to the introduction of an age restriction on performing artists for the 1990 contest.[2][7][12]
Lolita Morena, one of the two presenters of the contest
The Eurovision Song Contest 1989 was produced by the Swiss public broadcaster Télévision suisse romande (TSR) on behalf of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (German: Schweizerische Radio- und Fernsehgesellschaft; French: Société suisse de radiodiffusion et télévision; SRG SSR).[16][17] Raymond Zumsteg served as executive producer, Alain Bloch served as producer and director, Charles-André Grivet served as director, Paul Waelti served as designer, and Benoît Kaufman served as musical director leading an assembled orchestra of 55 musicians.[7][18][19][20] A separate musical director could be nominated by each country to lead the orchestra during their performance, with the host musical director also available to conduct for those countries which did not nominate their own conductor.[14] On behalf of the contest organisers, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the event was overseen by Frank Naef as scrutineer.[21][22][23]
Following the confirmation of the twenty-two competing countries, the draw to determine the running order of the contest was held on 23 November 1988.[2][24] Production details related to the contest were also shared on this date, including the contest's mascot and logo. The mascot, Cindy Aeschbach, an 11-year old girl from Morges, was chosen from among two hundred girls from schools in the Swiss region of La Côte to embody the character of Heidi in the contest's opening sequence.[20][25][26] The logo, designed by Fritz Aeschbach, is a representation of the Matterhorn created with computer graphics, constructed using contour lines to represent the strings of a guitar, and featuring a silhouette outline of Lausanne Cathedral at the base.[26] The presenters of the contest were publicly revealed on 17 January 1989: the sports journalist and television presenter Jacques Deschenaux and the television presenter and Miss Switzerland 1982Lolita Morena were chosen from among several candidates considered by TSR.[4][14][27]
Rehearsals for the participating artists began on 1 May 1989. Two technical rehearsals were conducted for each participating delegation in the week approaching the contest, with countries rehearsing in the order in which they would perform. The first rehearsals of 50 minutes were held on 1 and 2 May, followed by a press conference for each delegation and the accredited press.Each country's second rehearsals were held on 3 and 4 May and lasted 35 minutes total. Three dress rehearsals were held with all artists, held in the afternoon and evening of 5 May and in the afternoon of 6 May; all dress rehearsals were held in front of an audience, although for the afternoon rehearsal on 5 May, the acts were not required to be in their performance costumes.[2]
During the contest week each delegation also took part in recording sessions for the postcards, short films which served as an introduction to each country's entry, as well as providing an opportunity for transition between entries and allow stage crew to make changes on stage. Footage for the postcards were filmed between 1 and 4 May for the delegations, with the exception of the Swiss delegation which filmed for their postcard in the weeks leading up to the contest; delegations recorded for their postcards on one of the days in which they were not required to be present at the contest venue.[2][28][29] Delegations were also invited to a number of special events during the contest week: on 1 May a welcome reception was hosted by the Council of States of the canton of Vaud and the municipality of Lausanne in the ballroom of the Palais de Beaulieu; on 2 May, Céline Dion performed her first show on Swiss soil as part of her Incognito Tour at the Théâtre de Beaulieu; a dinner cruise on Lake Geneva was organised for 3 May; and a reception on 5 May was organsised by the tourist office of the canton of Grisons.[2][30][31]
Format
Each participating broadcaster submitted one song, which was required to be no longer than three minutes in duration and performed in the language, or one of the languages, of the country which it represented.[32][33] A maximum of six performers were allowed on stage during each country's performance.[32][34] Each entry could utilise all or part of the live orchestra and could use instrumental-only backing tracks, however any backing tracks used could only include the sound of instruments featured on stage being mimed by the performers.[34][35]
The results of the 1989 contest were determined through the same scoring system as had first been introduced in 1975: each country awarded twelve points to its favourite entry, followed by ten points to its second favourite, and then awarded points in decreasing value from eight to one for the remaining songs which featured in the country's top ten, with countries unable to vote for their own entry.[36] The points awarded by each country were determined by an assembled jury of sixteen individuals, who were all required to be members of the public with no connection to the music industry, split evenly between men and women and by age. Each jury member voted in secret and awarded between one and ten votes to each participating song, excluding that from their own country and with no abstentions permitted. The votes of each member were collected following the country's performance and then tallied by the non-voting jury chairperson to determine the points to be awarded. In any cases where two or more songs in the top ten received the same number of votes, a show of hands by all jury members was used to determine the final placing.[37][38]
Partly due to the close result at the previous year's event, the tie-break procedure, to determine a single winner should two or more countries finish in first place with the same number of points, was modified. For the 1989 event and for future contents, an analysis of the tied countries' top marks would be conducted, with the country that received the most 12-point scores being declared the winner. If a tie for first place remained then the country with the most 10 points would be crowned the winner. Should two or more countries still remain tied for first place after analysing both 12- and 10-point scores then the tying countries would be declared joint winners.[2][7]
The contest opened with a seven minute film, directed by Jean-Marc Panchaud, highlighting modern Swiss landscapes and themes in juxtaposition with paintings by celebrated Swiss artists and starring Sylvie Aeschbach as Heidi.[3][20][26] This was followed by performances in the contest venue by the reigning Eurovision winner Célion Dion, who performed both her winning song from the 1988 contest "Ne partez pas sans moi" and the premiere of her first English language single "Where Does My Heart Beat Now".[39][40] The interval act was the stunt artist Guy Tell; modelling himself after the Swiss folk heroWilliam Tell, Guy Tell used high-powered crossbows to pierce various targets with precision at distance. The climax of the performance featured sixteen crossbows being positioned to set off a chain reaction in sequence, with the arrow from the first crossbow hitting a target which set off the next crossbow, culminating in an arrow piercing an apple set above the head of the performer. Ultimately however, on the night of the contest itself, the final arrow missed the apple slightly by a few centimetres.[12][41][42] The trophy awarded to the winners was presented at the end of the broadcast by Céline Dion and Sylvie Aeschbach.[43]
The winner was Yugoslavia represented by the song "Rock Me", composed by Rajko Dujmić, written by Stevo Cvikić and performed by the band Riva.[44] It was Yugoslavia's first Eurovision win on their twenty-fourth contest appearance, becoming the seventeenth nation to win the contest.[12][45] It would also prove to be the country's only win, as the nation would begin to break into separate states two years later and would eventually participate for the last time in 1992.[46] It was the sixth time that the song which was performed last ended up winning the contest.[37] The United Kingdom and Denmark placed second and third respectively for the second consecutive year, with the UK finishing in second place for the twelfth time in total.[12][37]Austria finished in the top five for the first time since 1976, while Finland achieved its best result since 1975.[47][48]Ireland achieved their worst result to date, and for the third consecutive year one of the participating countries failed to receive any points, on this occasion Iceland became the newest country to receive nul points, their worst result in four years of participation.[12][49][50] During the traditional winner's reprise performance, Riva sung the winning song entirely in English.[37]
Results of the Eurovision Song Contest 1989[37][51]
Each country nominated a spokesperson, connected to the contest venue via telephone lines and responsible for announcing, in English or French, the votes for their respective country.[32][52] Known spokespersons at the 1989 contest are listed below.
Jury voting was used to determine the points awarded by all countries.[37] The announcement of the results from each country was conducted in the order in which they performed, with the spokespersons announcing their country's points in English or French in ascending order.[19][37] The detailed breakdown of the points awarded by each country is listed in the tables below.
Detailed voting results of the Eurovision Song Contest 1989[56][57]
Total score
Italy
Israel
Ireland
Netherlands
Turkey
Belgium
United Kingdom
Norway
Portugal
Sweden
Luxembourg
Denmark
Austria
Finland
France
Spain
Cyprus
Switzerland
Greece
Iceland
Germany
Yugoslavia
Contestants
Italy
56
7
10
12
6
2
4
7
8
Israel
50
1
7
3
2
5
5
5
7
5
3
7
Ireland
21
7
3
3
2
4
2
Netherlands
45
10
3
3
1
4
4
7
6
1
6
Turkey
5
1
4
Belgium
13
5
5
2
1
United Kingdom
130
6
7
4
7
1
12
12
10
12
1
8
6
12
10
2
2
12
6
Norway
30
2
2
5
8
2
6
4
1
Portugal
39
4
2
1
3
7
6
2
8
6
Sweden
110
6
6
4
8
8
6
12
12
2
5
8
3
8
2
8
12
Luxembourg
8
5
3
Denmark
111
5
1
10
12
6
4
10
10
2
12
3
7
12
6
10
1
Austria
97
12
8
3
12
7
4
1
2
10
8
12
8
5
5
Finland
76
10
8
6
10
1
4
4
3
10
7
3
10
France
60
3
5
6
4
5
1
8
3
5
3
7
5
2
3
Spain
88
8
2
7
7
4
10
8
8
4
10
10
10
Cyprus
51
2
3
1
6
6
8
2
4
7
12
Switzerland
47
4
4
10
8
8
3
2
1
7
Greece
56
1
1
5
6
10
1
4
12
12
4
Iceland
0
Germany
46
7
2
5
1
5
6
7
1
6
3
3
Yugoslavia
137
12
12
8
12
10
12
7
4
8
5
10
10
7
3
5
5
6
1
12 points
The below table summarises how the maximum 12 points were awarded from one country to another. The winning country is shown in bold. The United Kingdom received the maximum score of 12 points from five of the voting countries, with Yugoslavia receiving four sets of 12 points, Austria, Denmark and Sweden each receiving three sets of maximum scores, Greece receiving two sets of 12 points, and Cyprus and Italy receiving one maximum score each.[56][57]
Distribution of 12 points awarded at the Eurovision Song Contest 1989[56][57]
Each participating broadcaster was required to relay the contest via its networks. Non-participating member broadcasters were also able to relay the contest as "passive participants".[34] 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. These commentators were typically sent to the venue to report on the event, and were able to provide commentary from small booths constructed at the back of the venue.[58][59]
The contest had a estimated total audience of over 500 to 600 million viewers and listeners, with the contest reportedly broadcast on 35 channels in 30 countries.[60][61][62] Known details on the broadcasts in each country, including the specific broadcasting stations and commentators are shown in the tables below.
Broadcasters and commentators in participating countries
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