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The Eurovision Song Contest 1988 was the 33rd edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Dublin, Ireland, following Johnny Logan's win at the 1987 contest with the song "Hold Me Now". Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster Radio Telefís Éireann (RTÉ), the contest was held at the RDS Simmonscourt on 30 April 1988 and was hosted by Irish broadcaster Pat Kenny and the Miss Ireland 1980 Michelle Rocca, marking the first time since the 1979 contest that two presenters had hosted the contest.

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Eurovision Song Contest 1988
Dates
Final	30 April 1988
Host
Venue	RDS Simmonscourt Pavilion, Ballsbridge, Dublin, Ireland
Presenter(s)	Pat Kenny Michelle Rocca
Musical director	Noel Kelehan
Directed by	Declan Lowney
Executive supervisor	Frank Naef
Executive producer	Liam Miller
Host broadcaster	Radio Telefís Éireann (RTÉ)
Opening act	"Hold Me Now" performed by Johnny Logan
Interval act	"Don't Go" performed by Hothouse Flowers
Website	eurovision.tv/event/dublin-1988
Participants
Number of entries	21
Debuting countries	None
Returning countries	None
Non-returning countries	Cyprus
Participation map      Participating countries     Countries that participated in the past but not in 1988
Vote
Voting system	Each country awarded 12, 10, 8-1 point(s) to their 10 favourite songs
Nul points in final	Austria
Winning song	Switzerland "Ne partez pas sans moi"
1987 ← Eurovision Song Contest → 1989

Twenty-one countries took part, after an initial plan of twenty-two, as Cyprus' song was disqualified for breaching the contest's rules by being published a few years earlier, in an attempt to represent the country at a prior edition of the contest. The Cypriot song had been drawn to be performed 2nd in the running order.

The winner was Switzerland with the song "Ne partez pas sans moi", performed by Canadian singer Céline Dion and composed by Atilla Şereftuğ with lyrics in French by Nella Martinetti. Switzerland beat the United Kingdom by just one point in the last vote to win the title. The victory helped launch Céline Dion's international career, subsequently leading her to become one of the best-selling artists of all time.

Location

Dublin is the capital and largest city of Ireland. The contest took place at the Simmonscourt Pavilion of the Royal Dublin Society, which was normally used for agricultural and horse shows. The same venue had hosted the 1981 contest. The staging of the contest in Dublin in 1988 formed part of Dublin's year long celebration of 1000 years since it was established by Scandinavian settlers in 988.

Format

Graphic design

Host broadcaster RTÉ employed Declan Lowney, who was notable for being a director of music videos and youth programming, as director for this edition, in order to revamp the contest to attract and sustain a younger audience. The traditional scoreboard was replaced with two giant Vidiwalls located on either side of the stage, which also projected live images of the performers from the green room where the competitors set during the votes announcements, 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 the Eurovision Song Contest. 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.

The Postcards featured the participants doing things in Ireland from culture, to tradition, to sports or sightseeing.

Lowney was also the director of the show's interval act, introduced after the competing songs and before the votes announcement. The interval act was a video of the popular Irish rock group Hothouse Flowers, which was filmed in eleven countries around Europe and was the most expensive music video ever produced in Ireland at the time.

Voting segment

Each country had a jury who awarded 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 point(s) for its top ten songs. The number of jury members changed this year from 11 which had been the limit since 1975 to 16 which would be used until 1996 when some countries abolished it after the contest in favour of televoting and fully after 1997.

This edition features one of the closest and most fickle-ending votes in the history of the contest. With three countries left to vote, the UK was well in the lead with 133 points against Switzerland's 118. With the third last country, France, only awarding Switzerland one point, the UK looked certain of victory, as even if Switzerland scooped the two final 12s, the UK would only need to gather eleven points from three juries combined to be unbeatable. However, France didn't award the UK any points, and the following country, Portugal, gave the UK a meagre three points while giving the maximum 12 to Switzerland, making the contest blown open between the two countries until the end of the voting.

With the conclusion of voting from the penultimate jury, the UK was holding a five-point lead over Switzerland. As the final jury, that of Yugoslavia, began to award its points in the customary ascending order, a lot of excitement-sighs were heard from the audience to see how the two rivals for victory would fare. Switzerland was the first to be named with six points, edging it into a one-point lead over the UK. After earlier strong votes from most countries to the UK, it seemed highly likely that the UK would be given one of the higher remaining set of points. However, as Yugoslavia announced its seven, eight, ten and twelve points, it transpired that it had awarded the UK no points at all (12 points from Yugoslavia went to France), [lower-alpha 1] and Switzerland was left with its one-point lead to savour a dramatic triumph.

Participating countries

Twenty-one countries took part, after an initial plan of twenty-two, as Cyprus was disqualified after it had already submitted an entry. Cypriot broadcaster CyBC had selected the song 'Thimamai' sung by Yiannis Dimitrou, and at a late stage saw that the song was ineligible to represent them as it had been presented to jurors in the Cypriot internal selection for the 1984 contest, where it had finished in 3rd place. This was classed as a breach of the Cypriot rules of selecting their entry at this time as well as an infringement of the Eurovision Song Contest rules. It was a very late decision as the song was already drawn to perform second in the contest, advertised in the Radio Times information about the preview programme of the contest, and appears as song number two in accordance to its initial performance draw, on the record release "Melodi Grand Prix 1988" – the compilation disc of the contest's entries.[1]

This was the second victory for Switzerland at the Eurovision Song Contest after winning the first edition in 1956. It also remains the last time a song in French has won the contest, the language having dominated the event in earlier years.

The contest helped launch an international career for two artists, the winner for Switzerland Céline Dion and Luxembourg's representative Lara Fabian. French-Canadian Céline Dion was only famous in the French-speaking world at the time of the contest. Shortly afterwards she started recording songs in English to great worldwide success.[2] Belgian-Canadian Lara Fabian started a successful career after the contest with becoming established in various countries worldwide, with a mainly French-sung repertoire.[2] The UK entry was written and composed by Julie Forsyth, the daughter of the entertainer Bruce Forsyth who was present. When interviewed afterwards he was particularly annoyed at the Dutch jury not having given a vote to the UK, as they had done some work there.

Conductors

Each performance had a conductor who was maestro to the orchestra, except for Iceland and Italy. Unlike in most years, the conductors took their bows after each song, not before.[3][1]

Prior to Cyprus' disqualification, John Themis was set to conduct and additionally play the guitar solo.

Returning artists

Bold indicates a previous winner.

Artist	Country	Previous year(s)
Hot Eyes	Denmark	1984, 1985
Boulevard	Finland	1987 (as backing group for Vicky Rosti)
Yardena Arazi	Israel	1976 (as part of Chocolate, Menta, Mastik), 1979 (as presenter)[lower-alpha 2]
Reuven Gvirtz (backing singer)		1979 (as part of Milk and Honey)
Yehuda Tamir (backing singer)
Dora	Portugal	1986
Tommy Körberg	Sweden	1969
MFÖ	Turkey	1985

Participants and results

R/O	Country	Artist	Song	Language[4][5]	Points	Place[6]
1	Iceland	Beathoven	"Þú og þeir (Sókrates)"	Icelandic	20	16
2	Sweden	Tommy Körberg	"Stad i ljus"	Swedish	52	12
3	Finland	Boulevard	"Nauravat silmät muistetaan"	Finnish	3	20
4	United Kingdom	Scott Fitzgerald	"Go"	English	136	2
5	Turkey	MFÖ	"Sufi"	Turkish	37	15
6	Spain	La Década	"La chica que yo quiero (Made in Spain)"	Spanish	58	11
7	Netherlands	Gerard Joling	"Shangri-La"	Dutch	70	9
8	Israel	Yardena Arazi	"Ben Adam" (בן אדם)	Hebrew	85	7
9	Switzerland	Céline Dion	"Ne partez pas sans moi"	French	137	1
10	Ireland	Jump the Gun	"Take Him Home"	English	79	8
11	Germany	Maxi and Chris Garden	"Lied für einen Freund"	German	48	14
12	Austria	Wilfried	"Lisa Mona Lisa"	German	0	21
13	Denmark	Hot Eyes	"Ka' du se hva' jeg sa'?"	Danish	92	3
14	Greece	Afroditi Frida	"Clown" (Κλόουν)	Greek	10	17
15	Norway	Karoline Krüger	"For vår jord"	Norwegian	88	5
16	Belgium	Reynaert	"Laissez briller le soleil"	French	5	18
17	Luxembourg	Lara Fabian	"Croire"	French	90	4
18	Italy	Luca Barbarossa	"Vivo (Ti scrivo)"	Italian	52	12
19	France	Gérard Lenorman	"Chanteur de charme"	French	64	10
20	Portugal	Dora	"Voltarei"	Portuguese	5	18
21	Yugoslavia	Srebrna krila	"Mangup" (Мангуп)	Serbo-Croatian	87	6

Detailed voting results

Detailed voting results[7][8]

		Total score	Iceland	Sweden	Finland	United Kingdom	Turkey	Spain	Netherlands	Israel	Switzerland	Ireland	Germany	Austria	Denmark	Greece	Norway	Belgium	Luxembourg	Italy	France	Portugal	Yugoslavia
Contestants	Iceland	20		1					4						4					1	2	8
	Sweden	52	3			2			8			5			8		12	1	3	10
	Finland	3								3
	United Kingdom	136	1	5	10		12	10		10	5	7	10	10	10	6	5	12	8	12		3
	Turkey	37		4		1		5	1	8			8						4		6
	Spain	58	2				5			2	6			8	1	8	2	6	6	8			4
	Netherlands	70				6	6			7	7	2	6			12			12	5			7
	Israel	85	6		6	4		6	3		10	1	5	2		3		10	5	3	10	10	1
	Switzerland	137	7	12	5	10	10	8	10	4		10	12			10	8	4	1	7	1	12	6
	Ireland	79		7	2	3	2	12	6		4		7	6	7		7	5			4	5	2
	Germany	48	8			5	1	3		5		6			6		4					2	8
	Austria	0
	Denmark	92	10	3	4			1	12	6	1	4	4	12			10	7			12	6
	Greece	10					3														7
	Norway	88	5	8	7	12			7	1		8	1	3	5	7		3		4		7	10
	Belgium	5																			5
	Luxembourg	90	4	10	12	7			5		12	12		1	2	2	6	8		2		4	3
	Italy	52			8		4	7			8		2	5			3		2		8		5
	France	64		2	3		8	2	2		3		3	7	3	5	1	2	10			1	12
	Portugal	5						4								1
	Yugoslavia	87	12	6	1	8	7			12	2	3		4	12	4			7	6	3

12 points

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

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

Spokespersons

This section needs additional citations for verification. (October 2021)

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

This section needs additional citations for verification. (October 2021)

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. According to the host Pat Kenny, the contest was also broadcast in Soviet Union and Middle East.

Broadcasters and commentators in participating countries

Country	Broadcaster(s)	Commentator(s)	Ref(s)
Austria	FS1	Ernst Grissemann [de]
	Hitradio Ö3	Hans Leitinger [de]
Belgium	RTBF1	French: Pierre Collard-Bovy
	BRT TV1	Dutch: Luc Appermont	[10]
	RTBF La Première	French: Patrick Duhamel [fr] and Stéphane Dupont
	BRT Radio 2	Dutch: Julien Put [nl] and Herwig Haes
Denmark	DR TV	Jørgen de Mylius
	DR P3	Poul Birch Eriksen [dk]
Finland	YLE TV1 and YLE 2-verkko	Erkki Pohjanheimo	[11][12]
France	Antenne 2	Lionel Cassan [fr]
	France Inter	Julien Lepers
Germany	Erstes Deutsches Fernsehen	Nicole and Claus-Erich Boetzkes
	Deutschlandfunk/NDR Radio 2	Peter Urban
Greece	ET1	Dafni Bokota
	ERA 1	Dimitris Konstantaras [el]
Iceland	Sjónvarpið	Hermann Gunnarsson	[9]
Ireland	RTÉ 1	Mike Murphy
	RTÉ Radio 1	Larry Gogan
Israel	Israeli Television	No commentator
	Reshet Gimel	Yigal Ravid
Italy	Rai Tre	Daniele Piombi
	Rai Radio 2	Antonio De Robertis
Luxembourg	RTL Télévision	French: Valérie Sarn [fr]
	RTL plus	German: Oliver Spiecker
	RTL	André Torrent [fr]
Netherlands	Nederland 3	Willem van Beusekom	[13]
	Radio 3	Ben Cramer
Norway	NRK	John Andreassen
	NRK P2	Leif Erik Forberg
Portugal	RTP1	Margarida Mercês de Melo
Spain	TVE 2	Beatriz Pécker [es]
Sweden	TV2	Bengt Grafström	[11]
	SR P3	Kalle Oldby
Switzerland	SRG Sportkette [de]	German: Bernard Thurnheer [de]	[14]
	SSR Chaîne sportive	French: Serge Moisson [fr]	[14]
	TSI Canale sportivo	Italian: Ezio Guidi [it]	[14][15]
Turkey	TV1	Bülend Özveren
	TRT Radyo 3	Şebnem Savaşçı
United Kingdom	BBC1	Terry Wogan	[16][1]
	BBC Radio 2	Ken Bruce	[1]
Yugoslavia	TVB 1	Serbo-Croatian: Mladen Popović
	TVZ 1	Serbo-Croatian: Oliver Mlakar
	TVL 1	Slovene: Marjeta Keršič Svetel

Broadcasters and commentators in non-participating countries

Country	Broadcaster(s)	Commentator(s)	Ref(s)
Australia	SBS TV	Unknown
Cyprus	RIK	Dafni Bokota

Notes

References

External links

• Official website

На других языках

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- [en] Eurovision Song Contest 1988

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[ru] Евровидение-1988

Конкурс песни Евровидение 1988 — 33-й конкурс песни «Евровидение». Он прошёл 30 апреля 1988 года в Дублине (Ирландия), в павильоне комплекса «Симмонскорт» Королевского дублинского общества.

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