Eurovision Song Contest 1997

 Katarina and the Waves

Date: May 3, 1997
Venue: Point Theatre, Dublin, Ireland
Presenters: Carrie Crowley, Ronan Keating
Orchestra: RTÉ Concert orchestra
Conductor: Frank McNamara
Director: Ian McGarry
Scruteneer: Marie-Claire Vionnet
Host broadcaster: RTÉ
Price presenter: -
Interval act: Ronan Keating,Boyzone
Duration: 3 hours, 11 minutes
Number of entries: 25
Debuting countries: -
Returning countries: Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Russia
Withdrawing countries: Belgium, Finland, Slovakia
Winning Song: Love Shine A Light - Katrina & the waves, UK
Voting system: Each country awarded 12, 10, 8-1 points to their 10 favourite songs

Katrina Leskanich

Entries

01. Cyprus: Hara & Andreas Konstantinou - Mana Mou (5th place, 98 points)
02. Turkey: Şebnem Paker & Grup Etnic - Dinle (3rd place, 121 points)
03. Norway: Tor endresen - San Francisco (24th place, 0 points)
04. Austria: Bettina Soriat - One step (21st place, 12 points)
05. Ireland: Marc Roberts - Mysterious woman (2nd place, 157 points)
06. Slovenia: Tanja Ribič - Zbudi ze (10th place, 60 points)
07. Switzerland: Barbara Berta - Dentro di me (22nd place, 5 points)
08. The Netherlands: Mrs. Einstein - Niemand heeft nog tijd (22nd place, 5 points)
09. Italy: Jalisse - Fiumi di parole (4th place, 114 points)
10. Spain: Marcos Llunas - Sin rencor (6th place, 96 points)
11. Germany: Bianca Shomburg - Zeit (18th place, 22 points)
12. Poland: Anna Maria Jopek - Ale jestem (11th place, 54 points)
13. Estonia: Maarja-Liis Ilus - Keelatud maa (8th place, 82 points)
14. Bosnia & Herzegovina: Alma Čardžić - Goodbye (18th place, 22 points)
15. Portugal: Célia Lawson - Antes do adeus (24th place, 0 points)
16. Sweden: Blond - Bara hon älskar mig (14th place, 36 points)
17. Greece: Marianna Zorba - Horepse (12th place, 39 points)
18. Malta: Debbie Scerri - Let me fly (9th place, 66 points)
19. Hungary: V.I.P. - Miért kell, hogy elmenj? (12th place, 39 points)
20. Russia: Alla Pugacheva - Primadonna (15th place, 33 points)
21. Denmark: Kølig Kaj - Stemmen i mit liv (16th place, 25 place)
22. France: Fanny - Sentiments songes (7th place, 95 points)
23. Croatia: E.N.I. - Probudi me (17th place, 24 points)
24. UK: Katarina & the Waves - Love shine a light (1st place, 227 points)
25. Iceland: Paul Oscar - Minn hinsti dans (20th place, 18 points)

Mrs. Einstein

The Eurovision Song Contest 1997, was the 42nd Eurovision Song Contest and it was held at the Point Theatre Dublin, Ireland, on 3 May 1997. Carrie Crowley and Boyzone member Ronan Keating were the presenters of the show.

Katrina and the Waves, representing the United Kingdom, were the winners of the contest with the song Love Shine a Light, written by that band's lead guitarist Kimberley Rew, and Marc Roberts from Ireland came second with Mysterious Woman. Despite being the runner-up, it remarkably received only one 12-point score, which came from the United Kingdom. The winning song scored an unprecedented 227 points; it received points from all participating countries, including five sets of 10 points and a record-breaking ten sets of the maximum 12 points. Love Shine a Light is still regarded as one of the most successful Eurovision winners, and was the closing song in the medleys that opened the 50th anniversary show Congratulations in Copenhagen in 2005, and the ESC 2006 semi-final in Athens. With this victory, the United Kingdom has five Eurovision wins and it is to date the country's last win in the Contest.

Marc Roberts

Format

After the controversy over the pre-selection in 1996, the European Broadcasting Union introduced a new system for 1997: countries with the lowest average scores over the previous four years would be excluded from the 1997 contest, and those with the lowest averages over the previous five years would be excluded from future contests (save that every country so excluded for one year would automatically be allowed to participate the following year), with so many countries being omitted as would reduce the number of participants each year to 25.

Israel declined to participate, as the Contest was held on its Holocaust Remembrance Day, granting a reprieve to Bosnia and Herzegovina, which would otherwise have been excluded owing to its low point average over the previous four years.

RTÉ once again produced a highly spectacular show, with a stage that had a smaller performance space for the artists than in previous years. This was the third Eurovision set to be designed by Paula Farrell, who had previously been involved with the 1988 and 1994 contests.

Jalisse

There was a wide array of different styles this year. Denmark brought a rap song, Croatia came with their version of the Spice Girls and Sweden brought a mid-1980s style boy band. The music was in general more modern than before, and for the first time in six years, an up-tempo song won.

This year, televoting was tested in five countries: Austria, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. The results of the televoting countries were, in some cases, different from those that used a jury. Iceland received 16 of its 18 points from these five countries.

Also, for the first time in Eurovision history, there was a country where not one, but two spokespeople gave votes- France. Television reporter Frédéric Ferrer and 1977 Eurovision winner Marie Myriam each took turns at giving results from that country.

Long-time Irish conductor Noel Kelehan was not the host conductor this year, the duty being fulfilled by Frank McNamara. However, from this year entrants were allowed to use playback, and in 1999, the orchestra was completely abolished. The very first use of playback in the Eurovision came much earlier in 1973 when Cliff Richard performed for the second time with the Shadows on Power to All Our Friends.

Blond

Voting

Iceland got most of its 18 points from the 5 countries that used televoting. Ireland was ostensibly the best scoring country across the televoting countries, except they were able to score points from all 5 televoting countries. The United Kingdom was only eligible to receive points from 4 of them, since they couldn't vote for themselves. In fact, the UK received 12 points from all the other televoting countries except Germany, from whom they received 10 points: in other words, the UK earned 46 of 48 possible televote points that year; Ireland earned 47 of 60 possible televote points, including their only 12 from the UK.

Returning artists

There were three returning artists in 1997. Alma Čardžić represented Bosnia & Herzegovina, Maarja-Liis Ilus represented Estonia in 1996 and Şebnem Paker represented Turkey in the same year.