Eurovision Song Contest 1990

The Eurovision Song Contest 1990 was the 35th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It was held in Zagreb, SR Croatia, Yugoslavia,[lower-alpha 1] following the country's victory at the 1989 contest with the song "Rock Me" by Riva. It was the only time Yugoslavia hosted the contest. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcasters Yugoslav Radio Television (JRT) and Radiotelevision Zagreb (RTZ), the contest was held at Vatroslav Lisinski Concert Hall on Saturday 5 May 1990 and was hosted by Croatian television presenters Helga Vlahović and Oliver Mlakar.[1] It was the first Eurovision Song Contest held in the Balkans as well as the first contest held in a communist or socialist state.

Eurovision Song Contest 1990
Dates
Final5 May 1990
Host
VenueVatroslav Lisinski Concert Hall
Zagreb, SR Croatia, SFR Yugoslavia
Presenter(s)Helga Vlahović
Oliver Mlakar
Musical directorIgor Kuljerić
Stanko Selak (assistant)
Directed byNenad Puhovski
Executive supervisorFrank Naef
Executive producerGoran Radman
Host broadcasterYugoslav Radio Television (JRT)
Radiotelevision Zagreb (RTZ)
Opening actA short film "Zagreb: City of Music"
Interval actYugoslav Changes – a film about tourism in the country.
Websiteeurovision.tv/event/zagreb-1990
Participants
Number of entries22
Debuting countriesNone
Returning countriesNone
Non-returning countriesNone
Participation map
  •      Participating countries     Countries that participated in the past but not in 1990
Vote
Voting systemEach country awarded 12, 10, 8-1 point(s) to their 10 favourite songs
Nul points in finalNone
Winning song Italy
"Insieme: 1992"

Twenty-two countries took part in the contest, the same countries that had participated the previous year.

The winner was Italy with the song "Insieme: 1992" by Toto Cutugno. Cutugno was aged 46 years and 302 days at the time of his victory, making him the oldest winner of the contest to date, the first to be aged in their forties since 1958. He held the record until 2000.[2] The 1990 contest also notably remains the last time that the five countries that would later become known as the "Big Five" – Italy, France, Spain, the United Kingdom and Germany – all placed in the top 10 (Italy won, France tied for second, Spain came fifth, the UK came sixth and Germany came ninth).

Location
Vatroslav Lisinski Concert Hall, Zagreb – host venue of the 1990 contest.

Zagreb, the capital of Croatia, was the second largest city in Yugoslavia. Vatroslav Lisinski Concert Hall was chosen to host the contest. The concert hall and convention center is named after Vatroslav Lisinski, a 19th-century Croatian composer.[3] The building has a big hall with 1,841 seats and a small hall with 305 seats.[3]

In order to host the 1990 contest, the venue underwent its first major renovation in 1989.[4] In 1992, the hall's copper roof cover was completely replaced.[4] Further reconstruction and redecoration work was done in 1999 and 2009.[5][6]

Format

The Eurovision Song Contest 1990 was the first to implement an age rule. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) were forced to bring in a restriction rule after criticism arose over the ages of two performers at 1989 contest, being just 11 and 12 years old. From 1990, no artist under the age of 16 on the day of the contest could perform on stage. This rule meant that the record for the youngest ever winner at Eurovision could never be broken, as Sandra Kim, who won for Belgium at the 1986 competition, was just 13 years old.

The lyrics of several entries celebrated the revolution and democratisation that had occurred in central and eastern Europe in the preceding months, focusing especially on the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989, such as in the Norwegian and Austrian entries. However, the winning song was an even more sweeping evocation of European unity, in anticipation of the completion of the European single market, due at the end of 1992.

From a musical perspective both Spain's "Bandido" and France's "White and Black Blues" can be said to be the first entries to signal a new trend at Eurovision, with both songs fusing contemporary dance music with ethnic influences, from flamenco and zouk at the last Serge Gainsbourg main stream work respectively.

The 1990 contest was the first and only year to feature an official mascot, Eurocat, created by Joško Marušić. This mischievous purple cat popped up during the 'postcards' of each of the 22 entries, which also included travelogues of the country about to perform, in conjunction with the European Year of Tourism 1990.

Participating countries

Conductors

Each performance had a conductor who directed the orchestra.[7][8]

Returning artists
Artist Country Previous year(s)
Ketil Stokkan  Norway 1986
Pepel in kri (backing vocalists)  Italy 1975 (for  Yugoslavia)

Results
Draw Country Artist Song Language[9][10] Place[11] Points
01  Spain Azúcar Moreno "Bandido" Spanish 5 96
02  Greece Christos Callow and Wave "Horis skopo" (Χωρίς σκοπό) Greek 19 11
03  Belgium Philippe Lafontaine "Macédomienne" French 12 46
04  Turkey Kayahan "Gözlerinin Hapsindeyim" Turkish 17 21
05  Netherlands Maywood "Ik wil alles met je delen" Dutch 15 25
06  Luxembourg Céline Carzo "Quand je te rêve" French 13 38
07  United Kingdom Emma "Give a Little Love Back to the World" English 6 87
08  Iceland Stjórnin "Eitt lag enn" Icelandic 4 124
09  Norway Ketil Stokkan "Brandenburger Tor" Norwegian 21 8
10  Israel Rita "Shara Barkhovot" (שרה ברחובות) Hebrew 18 16
11  Denmark Lonnie Devantier "Hallo Hallo" Danish 8 64
12   Switzerland Egon Egemann "Musik klingt in die Welt hinaus" German 11 51
13  Germany Chris Kempers and Daniel Kovac "Frei zu leben" German 9 60
14  France Joëlle Ursull "White and Black Blues" French 2 132
15  Yugoslavia Tajči "Hajde da ludujemo" (Хајде да лудујемо) Serbo-Croatian 7 81
16  Portugal Nucha "Há sempre alguém" Portuguese 20 9
17  Ireland Liam Reilly "Somewhere in Europe" English 2 132
18  Sweden Edin-Ådahl "Som en vind" Swedish 16 24
19  Italy Toto Cutugno "Insieme: 1992" Italian[lower-alpha 2] 1 149
20  Austria Simone "Keine Mauern mehr" German[lower-alpha 3] 10 58
21  Cyprus Haris Anastasiou "Milas poli" (Μιλάς πολύ) Greek 14 36
22  Finland Beat "Fri?" Swedish 21 8

Scoreboard
Voting results[12][13]
Total score
Spain
Greece
Belgium
Turkey
Netherlands
Luxembourg
United Kingdom
Iceland
Norway
Israel
Denmark
Switzerland
Germany
France
Yugoslavia
Portugal
Ireland
Sweden
Italy
Austria
Cyprus
Finland
Contestants
 Spain 968110214561253588810
Greece 1156
Belgium 467414882174
Turkey 2132457
Netherlands 251314236122
Luxembourg 384331223155
United Kingdom 877512310310110106613
Iceland 12443101812108107412783107
Norway 8413
Israel 1642415
Denmark 646327771743764
Switzerland 51112621215813
Germany 60861271410453
France 132544121212651210124852712
Yugoslavia 81312510312725110101
Portugal 972
Ireland 1321077510610888577612124
Sweden 24226662
Italy 14912108881031686461012107128
Austria 582715863822122
Cyprus 3665252646
Finland 853

12 points

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

N. Contestant Nation(s) giving 12 points
6  France Finland,  Iceland,  Netherlands,  Norway,   Switzerland,  Yugoslavia
3  Italy Cyprus,  Ireland,  Spain
2  Iceland Portugal,  United Kingdom
 Ireland Austria,  Sweden
  Switzerland Denmark,  Greece
 Yugoslavia Israel,  Turkey
1  Austria Italy
 Germany Luxembourg
 Luxembourg France
 Spain Germany
 United Kingdom Belgium

Spokespersons

Each country announced their votes in the order of performance. The following is a list of spokespersons who announced the votes for their respective country.

Broadcasts

National broadcasters were able to send a commentary team to the contest, in order to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language. In addition to the participating countries, host Helga Vlahović mentioned several countries as among the non-participants broadcasting the contest (Bulgaria, Canada, China, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Japan, Poland, Romania, South Korea and the Soviet Union were mentioned by Vlahović); however, no information is known about which broadcasters showed the contest and who, if anyone, provided commentary for each.

Broadcasters and commentators in participating countries
Country Broadcaster(s) Commentator(s) Ref(s)
 Austria FS1 Barbara Stöckl [14]
Hitradio Ö3 Walter Richard Langer
 Belgium RTBF1 French: Claude Delacroix [15]
BRT TV2 Dutch: Luc Appermont [16]
RTBF La Première French: Stéphane Dupont and Patrick Duhamel
BRT Radio 2 Dutch: Julien Put
 Cyprus RIK Neophytos Taliotis [17]
RIK Deftero Pavlos Pavlou
 Denmark DR TV Jørgen de Mylius [18]
DR P3 Karlo Staunskær and Kurt Helge Andersen
 Finland YLE TV1 Erkki Pohjanheimo and Ossi Runne [19][20]
YLE 2-verkko Jake Nyman and Kati Bergman
 France Antenne 2 Richard Adaridi [21]
France Inter Patrick Sabatier
 Germany Erstes Deutsches Fernsehen Fritz Egner [22]
Deutschlandfunk/NDR Radio 2 Peter Urban
 Greece ET1 Dafni Bokota [23][24]
ERA 1 Dimitris Konstantaras
 Iceland Sjónvarpið Arthúr Björgvin Bollason [25]
 Ireland RTÉ 1 Jimmy Greeley and Clíona Ní Bhuachalla
RTÉ Radio 1 Larry Gogan
 Israel Israeli Television No commentator [26]
Reshet Gimel Yigal Ravid
 Italy Rai Due[lower-alpha 4] Nicoletta Orsomando [27]
Rai Radio 2 Antonio De Robertis
 Luxembourg RTL Télévision Valérie Sarn [21]
RTL André Torrent
 Netherlands Nederland 3 Willem van Beusekom [28]
Radio 2 Daniël Dekker [28]
 Norway NRK Leif Erik Forberg [29][30]
NRK P2 Erik Heyerdahl
 Portugal RTP Canal 1 Ana do Carmo [31]
 Spain TVE 2 Luis Cobos [32]
 Sweden TV2 Janne Jingryd [33]
SR P3 Kersti Adams-Ray
  Switzerland TV DRS German: Bernard Thurnheer [34]
TSR French: Thierry Masselot
TSI Italian: Emanuela Gaggini
 Turkey TV1 Başak Doğru
TRT Radyo 3 Fatih Orbay
 United Kingdom BBC1 Terry Wogan, Emma (during the interval) [35][8]
BBC Radio 2 Ken Bruce [8]
 Yugoslavia TVB 1, TVZ 1 Serbo-Croatian: Branko Uvodić [36]
TVL 1 Slovene: Saša Gerdej
Broadcasters and commentators in non-participating countries
Country Broadcaster(s) Commentator(s) Ref(s)
 Australia SBS TV Unknown

Incidents

Presenter resignations

There was a slightly uncomfortable beginning to the rehearsal week when, offended by press comments concerning their ages (Vlahović being 45 at the time and Mlakar being 54), the two presenters quit the show. They were briefly replaced by Rene Medvešek and Dubravka Marković, who were much younger, but the misunderstandings were eventually allayed and Vlahović and Mlakar returned to the contest.

Technical issues

A notorious mishap occurred at the start of the first song, when a noticeably long delay caused by problems with the backing track (the sound engineer having forgotten to switch on the sound on the headphones of Spain's conductor Eduardo Leiva, who had to count in the orchestra playing the strings and brass along to the backing track) was followed by the Spanish singers Azúcar Moreno missing their cue. They walked off the stage in barely concealed annoyance and the audience was left in confusion for a moment, but the song was then restarted without any further problems.

Notes and references

Notes
  1. Located in present-day Croatia.
  2. Repeats two words in English.
  3. Contains some phrases in English, French and Serbo-Croatian.
  4. The contest was broadcast on delay by 2 hours 20 minutes

References
  1. "Eurovision Song Contest 1990". EBU. Archived from the original on 2008-06-13. Retrieved 2008-09-19.
  2. O'Connor, John Kennedy. The Eurovision Song Contest - The Official Celebration. Carlton Books, 2015. ISBN 978-1-78097-638-9. Pages 32-33
  3. "Vatroslav Lisinski Concert Hall Celebrates 35 Years". Zagreb Tourist Board. Retrieved 2008-03-05.
  4. "Concert Hall 'Vatroslav Lisinski' Zagreb". Investinženjering. Archived from the original on 2007-10-29. Retrieved 2008-03-09.
  5. "Concert and Congress Hall Vatroslav Lisinski". Zagreb Convention Bureau. Retrieved 2008-03-09.
  6. "Lisinski AZtheBest otvara se 16. listopada". Radio101.hr (in Croatian). Radio 101. October 14, 2009. Retrieved 2009-10-20.
  7. "And the conductor is..." Retrieved 10 September 2020.
  8. Roxburgh, Gordon (2020). Songs For Europe - The United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest. Volume Four: The 1990s. UK: Telos Publishing. pp. 34–46. ISBN 978-1-84583-163-9.
  9. "Eurovision Song Contest 1990". The Diggiloo Thrush. Retrieved 5 March 2012.
  10. "Eurovision Song Contest 1990". 4Lyrics.eu. Retrieved 16 September 2020.
  11. "Final of Zagreb 1990". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 17 April 2021. Retrieved 17 April 2021.
  12. "Results of the Final of Zagreb 1990". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 17 April 2021. Retrieved 17 April 2021.
  13. "Eurovision Song Contest 1990 – Scoreboard". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 23 October 2021.
  14. Mutavdzic, Sascha (OGAE Austria)
  15. "Victoire De La "Canzonetta": C'Est L'Histoire Du P'Tit Tot". Archives.lesoir.be. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
  16. Adriaens, Manu & Loeckx-Van Cauwenberge, Joken. Blijven kiken!. Lannoo, Belgium. 2003 ISBN 90-209-5274-9
  17. Savvidis, Christos (OGAE Cyprus)
  18. "Forside". esconnet.dk. Archived from the original on 2012-03-24. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
  19. "Selostajat ja taustalaulajat läpi vuosien? • Viisukuppila". Viisukuppila.fi. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
  20. "Selostajat ja taustalaulajat läpi vuosien? • Viisukuppila". Viisukuppila.fi. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
  21. Christian Masson. "1990 - Zagreb". Songcontest.free.fr. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
  22. "Eurovision Song Contest 1990". Ecgermany.de. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
  23. "Εκφωνητές της ΕΡΤ για τις ψήφους της Ελλάδας στην EUROVISION - Page 3". Retromaniax.gr. Archived from the original on 2012-09-11. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
  24. "Η Δάφνη Μπόκοτα και η EUROVISION (1987-2004)". Retromaniax.gr. Archived from the original on 2012-09-12. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
  25. "Dagblaðið Vísir - DV, 03.05.1990". Timarit.is. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
  26. "פורום אירוויזיון". Sf.tapuz.co.il. 1999-09-13. Archived from the original on October 8, 2011. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
  27. Radiocorriere TV listings for Rai Due, 5 May 1990
  28. "Welkom op de site van Eurovision Artists". Eurovisionartists.nl. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
  29. Dyrseth, Seppo (OGAE Norway)
  30. "Hvem kommenterte før Jostein Pedersen? - Debattforum". Nrk.no. Archived from the original on November 2, 2012. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
  31. "Comentadores Do ESC - escportugalforum.pt.vu | o forum eurovisivo português". 21595.activeboard.com. Archived from the original on April 21, 2012. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
  32. "FORO FESTIVAL DE EUROVISIÓN • Ver Tema - Uribarri comentarista Eurovision 2010". Eurosongcontest.phpbb3.es. Archived from the original on 2012-03-17. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
  33. "Infosajten.com". Infosajten.com. Archived from the original on July 18, 2012. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
  34. Baumann, Peter Ramón (OGAE Switzerland)
  35. Eurovision Song Contest 1990 BBC Archives
  36. "Eurovizija 1990. Zagreb: Branko Uvodić zvani Car". YouTube. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
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