Saturday 29 September 2012

Eurovision Song Contest 1993

 Niamh Kavanagh

Date: May 15, 1993
Venue: Green Glens Arena, Millstreet, Ireland
Presenter: Fionnuala Sweeney
Orchestra: RTÉ Concert orchestra
Conductor: Noel Kelehan
Director: Anita Notaro
Scruteneer: Christian Clausen
Host broadcaster: RTÉ
Price presenter: Linda Martin
Interval act: Linda Martin & Johnny Logan
Duration: 3 hours, 2 minutes
Number of entries: 25
Debuting countries: Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Slovenia
Returning countries: -
Withdrawing countries: Yugoslavia
Winning Song: In Your Eyes - Niamh Kavanagh, Ireland
Voting system: Each country awarded 12, 10, 8-1 points to their 10 favourite songs

Entries

01. Italy: Enrico Ruggieri - Sole d'Europa (12tg place, 45 points)
02. Turkey: Burak Aydos - Esmer yarim (21st place, 10 points)
03. Germany: Münchener Freiheit - Viel zu weit (18th place, 18 points)
04. Switzerland: Annie Cotton - Moi, tout simplement (3rd place, 148 points)
05. Denmark: Tommy Seebach Band - Under stjernerne på himlen (22nd place, 9 points)
06. Greece: Katerina Garbi - Ellada, chora tou fotos (9th place, 64 points)
07. Belgium: Barbara Dex - Iemand als jij (25th place, 3 points)
08. Malta: William Mangion - This time (8th place, 69 points)
09. Iceland: Inga - Þá veistu svarið (13th place, 42 points)
10. Austria: Tony Wegas - Maria Magdalena (14th place, 32 points)
11. Portugal: Anabela - A cidade (até ser dia) (10th place, 60 points)
12. France: Patrick Fiori - Mama Corsica (4th place, 121 points)
13. Sweden: Arvingarna - Eloise (7th place, 89 points)
14. Ireland: Niamh Kavanagh - In your eyes (1st place, 187 points)
15. Luxembourg: Modern Times - Donne-moi une chance (20th place, 11 points)
16. Slovenia: 1X Band - Tih deževen dan (22nd place, 9 points)
17. Finland: Katri Helena - Tule luo (17th place, 20 points)
18. Bosnia & Herzegovina: Fazla - Sva bol svijeta (16th place, 27 points)
19. UK: Sonia - Better the devil you know (2nd place, 164 points)
20. The Netherlands: Ruth Jacott - Vrede (6th place, 92 points)
21. Croatia: Put - Don't ever cry (15th place, 31 points)
22. spain: Tih deževen dan - Hombres (11th place, 58 points)
23. Cyprus: Zimboulakis & Van Beke - Mi stamatas (19th place, 17 points)
24. Israel: The Shiru Group - Shiru (24th place, 4 points)
25. Norway: Silje Vige - Alle mine tankar (5th place, 120 points)

 Tony Wegas

The Eurovision Song Contest 1993 was the 38th Eurovision Song Contest and was held on May 15 1993 in Millstreet, County Cork, Ireland. The presenter was Fionnuala Sweeney. Niamh Kavanagh was the winner of this Eurovision for Ireland with the song In Your Eyes which was written by Jimmy Walsh. This was Ireland's fifth victory, and equalled the tally of five Eurovision victories achieved by France in 1977 and Luxembourg in 1983. In Your Eyes was the best selling single in Ireland for 1993. It also reached No. 24 in the United Kingdom weekly pop charts.

Format

The location for this year's edition of the contest was unique, in that Millstreet, with a population at the time of just 1,500 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.

Barbara

BBC newsreader Nicholas Witchell caused controversy by remarking on the air, shortly before the contest, that it would be held in a cowshed in Ireland. He subsequently apologized.

The top two countries of this contest were the same as the top two countries in the previous year's contest, being Ireland and the United Kingdom.

Voting

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".

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 - which was promptly corrected.

 Ruth Jacott

By the final few juries it became clear that either Ireland or the United Kingdom were going to win. After the penultimate jury had voted, it looked to be a lost cause for second-placed Sonia of the UK as she was eleven points behind Niamh Kavanagh.

Due to earlier technical difficulties, the final jury to announce their results was the Maltese jury. An expectant Irish crowd waited to hear Malta award anything between one and ten points to either the UK or Ireland - the result of which would have made it arithmetically impossible for Ireland to be caught. However, the name of neither country came up (the ten points instead surprisingly being 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.

Returning artists

Tony Wegas represented Austria in 1992, Tommy Seebach did the same for Denmark in 1979 and 1981 and Katri Helena represented Finland in 1979.

Patrick Fiori

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 April 3 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.

Date: April 3, 1993
Venue: RTV SLO Studio 1, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Presenter: Tajda Lekše
Conductors: Petar Ugrin, Mojmir Sepe
Director: Peter Juratovec
Host broadcaster: RTV SLO
Number of entries: 7
Winning songs: Tih deževen dan - 1X Band, Slovenia; Sva bol svijeta - Fazla, Bosnia & Herzegovia; Don't ever cry - Put, Croatia
Voting system: Each country awarded 12, 10, 8-5 points to each song

 Tajda Lekše

Entries

01. Bosnia & Herzegovina: Fazla - Sva bol svijeta (2nd place, 52 points)
02. Croatia: Put - Don't ever cry (3rd place, 51 points)
03. Estonia: Janika Sillamaa - Muretut meelt ja südametuld (5th place, 47 points)
04. Hungary: Andrea Szulák - Árva reggel (6th place, 44 points)
05. Romania: Dida Drăgan - Nu pleca (7th place, 38 points)
06. Slovenia: 1X Band - Tih deževen dan (1st place, 54 points)
07. Slovakia: Elán - Amnestia na neveru (4th place, 50 points)

After the seven competing songs the juries made their final results. From the seven competing countries, the former Yugoslav nations of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovenia qualified for Eurovision 1993, which was held on 15 May 1993 in Millstreet, Ireland. Because of the new relegation system that had been introduced to Eurovision, all seven countries would be eligible to take part in the 1994 contest.

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