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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 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 and only contest held in a communist or socialist state.

Eurovision Song Contest 1990
Dates
Final	5 May 1990
Host
Venue	Vatroslav Lisinski Concert Hall Zagreb, SR Croatia, SFR Yugoslavia
Presenter(s)	Helga Vlahović Oliver Mlakar
Musical director	Igor Kuljerić Stanko Selak (assistant)
Directed by	Nenad Puhovski
Executive supervisor	Frank Naef
Executive producer	Goran Radman
Host broadcaster	Yugoslav Radio Television (JRT) Radiotelevision Zagreb (RTZ)
Opening act	A short film "Zagreb: City of Music"
Interval act	Yugoslav Changes – a film about tourism in the country.
Website	eurovision.tv/event/zagreb-1990
Participants
Number of entries	22
Debuting countries	None
Returning countries	None
Non-returning countries	None
Participation map      Participating countries     Countries that participated in the past but not in 1990
Vote
Voting system	Each country awarded 12, 10, 8-1 point(s) to their 10 favourite songs
Nul points in final	None
Winning song	Italy "Insieme: 1992"
1989 ← Eurovision Song Contest → 1991

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

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 calypso respectively.

The 1990 contest was the first 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)

Participants and results

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

Detailed voting results

Detailed 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	96		8	1	10	2		1	4	5			6	12	5	3	5			8	8	8	10
	Greece	11					5																6
	Belgium	46					7	4			1			4	8	8		2	1	7		4
	Turkey	21					3			2	4				5		7
	Netherlands	25		1		3		1	4			2		3		6		1			2		2
	Luxembourg	38		4					3						3	12	2	3			1	5	5
	United Kingdom	87	7	5	12			3				10	3	10	1	10	10		6		6	1	3
	Iceland	124	4	3	10	1		8	12		10	8	10	7			4	12	7	8	3	10		7
	Norway	8										4	1						3
	Israel	16					4							2	4		1							5
	Denmark	64	6		3	2				7	7	7		1				7	4	3	7	6	4
	Switzerland	51	1	12		6		2					12			1	5	8					1	3
	Germany	60	8		6			12	7	1			4						10	4	5	3
	France	132	5		4	4	12			12	12	6	5	12	10		12	4	8	5		2	7	12
	Yugoslavia	81	3			12			5	10	3	12	7			2			5	1	10		10	1
	Portugal	9						7	2
	Ireland	132	10	7	7	5	10	6	10	8	8		8	5	7	7		6		12		12		4
	Sweden	24	2	2			6		6		6				2
	Italy	149	12	10	8	8	8	10		3		1	6	8	6	4	6	10	12	10		7	12	8
	Austria	58			2	7	1	5	8	6						3	8		2	2	12			2
	Cyprus	36		6	5						2	5	2							6	4			6
	Finland	8								5		3

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

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. 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
	Hitradio Ö3	Walter Richard Langer [de]
Belgium	RTBF1	French: Claude Delacroix	[14]
	BRT TV2	Dutch: Luc Appermont	[15]
	RTBF La Première	French: Stéphane Dupont and Patrick Duhamel [fr]
	BRT Radio 2	Dutch: Julien Put [nl]
Cyprus	RIK	Neophytos Taliotis
	RIK Deftero	Pavlos Pavlou
Denmark	DR TV	Jørgen de Mylius
	DR P3	Karlo Staunskær [dk] and Kurt Helge Andersen
Finland	YLE TV1	Erkki Pohjanheimo and Ossi Runne	[16][17]
	Yleisradio 2	Jake Nyman [fi] and Kati Bergman
France	Antenne 2	Richard Adaridi
	France Inter	Patrick Sabatier
Germany	Erstes Deutsches Fernsehen	Fritz Egner
	Deutschlandfunk/NDR Radio 2	Peter Urban
Greece	ET1	Dafni Bokota
	ERA 1	Dimitris Konstantaras [el]
Iceland	Sjónvarpið	Arthúr Björgvin Bollason	[18]
Ireland	RTÉ 1	Jimmy Greeley and Clíona Ní Bhuachalla
	RTÉ Radio 1	Larry Gogan
Israel	Israeli Television	No commentator
	Reshet Gimel	Yigal Ravid
Italy	Rai Due[lower-alpha 4]	Nicoletta Orsomando
	Rai Radio 2	Antonio De Robertis
Luxembourg	RTL Télévision	Valérie Sarn [fr]
	RTL	André Torrent [fr]
Netherlands	Nederland 3	Willem van Beusekom	[19]
	Radio 2	Daniël Dekker	[19]
Norway	NRK	Leif Erik Forberg
	NRK P2	Erik Heyerdahl [no]
Portugal	RTP Canal 1	Ana do Carmo
Spain	TVE 2	Luis Cobos
Sweden	TV2	Janne Jingryd [sv]	[16]
	SR P3	Kersti Adams-Ray [sv]
Switzerland	SRG Sportkette [de]	German: Bernard Thurnheer [de]	[20]
	SSR Chaîne sportive	French: Thierry Masselot	[20]
	TSI Canale sportivo	Italian: Emanuela Gaggini	[20]
Turkey	TV1	Başak Doğru
	TRT Radyo 3	Fatih Orbay
United Kingdom	BBC1	Terry Wogan, Emma (during the interval)	[21][8]
	BBC Radio 2	Ken Bruce	[8]
Yugoslavia	TVB 1, TVZ 1	Serbo-Croatian: Branko Uvodić [hr]
	TVL 1	Slovene: Saša Gerdej [sl]

Broadcasters and commentators in non-participating countries

Country	Broadcaster(s)	Commentator(s)	Ref(s)
Australia	SBS TV	Unknown
Soviet Union	ETV	Unknown	[16]
	Programme One	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

References

External links

• Official website

На других языках

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- [en] Eurovision Song Contest 1990

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[ru] Евровидение-1990

Конкурс песни Евровидение 1990 — 35-й конкурс песни «Евровидение». Он прошел 5 мая 1990 года в городе Загреб (Югославия, ныне Хорватия) на сцене Концертного зала им. Ватрослава Лисинского.

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