music.wikisort.org - Event

The Eurovision Song Contest 1997 was the 42nd edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest, held on 3 May 1997 at the Point Theatre in Dublin, Ireland, and presented by Irish television and radio presenter Carrie Crowley and Irish singer Ronan Keating. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster Radió Telefís Éireann (RTÉ), the contest was held in Ireland following the country's victory at the 1996 contest with the song "The Voice" by Eimear Quinn. The 1997 contest was the seventh edition to be staged in Ireland, as well as the fourth to be produced by RTÉ in five years. The Point Theatre served as the host venue for the third time, following the 1994 and 1995 contests, becoming the only venue to have been the site of three Eurovision Song Contests.

Eurovision Song Contest 1997
Dates
Final	3 May 1997
Host
Venue	Point Theatre, Dublin, Ireland
Presenter(s)	Carrie Crowley Ronan Keating
Musical director	Frank McNamara
Directed by	Ian McGarry
Executive supervisor	Marie-Claire Vionnet
Executive producer	Noel Curran
Host broadcaster	Radió Telefís Éireann (RTÉ)
Opening act	Good luck messages from former Eurovision stars
Interval act	"Let the Message Run Free" performed by Boyzone
Website	eurovision.tv/event/dublin-1997
Participants
Number of entries	25
Returning countries	Denmark  Germany  Hungary  Italy  Russia
Non-returning countries	Belgium  Finland  Slovakia
Participation map      Participating countries     Countries that participated in the past but not in 1997
Vote
Voting system	Each country awarded 12, 10, 8–1 points to their ten favourite songs
Nul points in final	Norway  Portugal
Winning song	United Kingdom "Love Shine a Light"
1996 ← Eurovision Song Contest → 1998

Twenty-five countries participated in the contest, with a new relegation system introduced to determine which nations could participate, based on each country's average points total in previous contests. Italy made its first appearance since 1993, and Denmark, Germany, Hungary and Russia returned after last competing in 1995, having been prevented from competing the previous year after failing to progress from that event's qualification round. Belgium, Finland and Slovakia, participants in the previous year's contest, were unable to return after being excluded by the new relegation rules.

The winner was the United Kingdom with the song "Love Shine a Light", written by Kimberley Rew and performed by Katrina and the Waves. Ireland, Turkey, Italy and Cyprus rounded out the top five, with Ireland earning their fifth placing in the top two within six years and Turkey and Cyprus achieving their best results to date. Five of the competing countries used televoting to determine their points, allowing the general viewing public a say in the results for the first time; following this successful trial all countries were encouraged to use this system starting from the following year's event. Entries were also permitted for the first time to feature no live music accompaniment, with each performance being able to use only a backing track rather than utilising any part of the orchestra or any live instrumentation from the performers themselves.

Location

The 1997 contest took place in Dublin, Ireland, following the country's victory at the 1996 edition with the song "The Voice", performed by Eimear Quinn. It was the seventh time that Ireland had hosted the contest, having previously staged the event in 1971, 1981, 1988, 1993, 1994 and 1995, with all previous events held in Dublin except the 1993 contest which was held in Millstreet.[1] This was the fourth edition of the contest that Ireland had hosted within five years, and with this edition Ireland equalled the record for the nation which had staged the most contests, originally set by the United Kingdom in 1982.[2][3][4] The selected venue was the Point Theatre, a concert and events venue located amongst the Dublin Docklands which had originally been built as a train depot to serve the nearby port. Opened as a music venue in 1988, it was closed for redevelopment and expansion in 2008 and is now known as the 3Arena.[5][6] The venue had previously hosted the 1994 and 1995 contests, and with this staging it became the only venue to have hosted three Eurovision Song Contests.[3][4][7]

Production

The Eurovision Song Contest 1997 was produced by the Irish public broadcaster Radió Telefís Éireann (RTÉ). Noel Curran served as executive producer, Ian McGarry served as director, Paula Farrell and John Casey served as designers, and Frank McNamara served as musical director, leading the RTÉ Concert Orchestra.[8][9][10] Given the financial impact to staging the contest for a fourth time in five years, there was early speculation following Ireland's win in the 1996 contest that RTÉ might stage the event as a co-production with BBC Northern Ireland, however ultimately the Irish broadcaster decided to organise the event on its own once again.[3][11]

Rehearsals in the contest venue for the competing acts began on 28 April 1997. Each country had two technical rehearsals in the week approaching the contest, with countries rehearsing in the order in which they would perform. The first rehearsals took place on 28 and 29 April, with each country allowed 40 minutes total on stage followed by a 20 minute press conference, followed by the second rehearsals on 30 April and 1 May lasting 30 minutes.[4][12][13][14][15] Times were also arranged during the week for the artists to be recorded in the RTÉ studios, with footage used during the postcards between each song.[4] Three dress rehearsals were held on 2 and 3 May, with an audience in attendance during the evening dress rehearsal on 2 May. The final dress rehearsal on 3 May was also recorded for use as a production stand-by in case of problems during the live contest.[4] A tight security presence was felt during the rehearsal week; emergency drills were held by Gardaí, including evacuations of the Point Theatre, as a precaution against potential disruption from loyalist paramilitaries as part of the wider sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland.[11][16]

Television and radio presenter Carrie Crowley and singer Ronan Keating were the presenters of the 1997 contest.[11][17] The show was opened by good luck messages from past Eurovision winners and hosts to the contestants in the contest, and short interviews with previous contestants also featured preceding some of the postcards between the entries.[7][18] As lead singer of the Irish boy band Boyzone, Keating also featured as part of the show's interval act, with the group performing the song "Let the Message Run Free".[11] The trophy awarded to the winners was designed by Maura Whelan and Luc Racine, and was presented by the previous year's winning artist Eimear Quinn.[19][20]

Format

Entries

Each participating broadcaster submitted one song, which was required to be no longer than three minutes in duration and performed in the language, or one of the languages, of the country which it represented. Short quotations from another language, no more than a single phrase repeated a maximum of three times, were permitted. A maximum of six performers were allowed on stage during each country's performance, and all participants were required to have reached the age of 16 in the year of the contest.[21] Each entry could utilise all or part of the live orchestra and could use instrumental-only backing tracks. This was the first time that a competing song could be accompanied entirely with a backing track following a change to the contest rules, with the previous rules stating that any backing tracks used could only include the sound of instruments featured on stage being mimed by the performers.[4][11]

Selected entries were not permitted to be released commercially until after 3 February 1997 and after having been selected for the contest.[22] Each country's participating broadcaster was required to have selected their entry by 10 March, and all entries had to be submitted to the contest organisers by 19 March, including the score of the song for use by the orchestra, a sound recording of the entry and backing track for use during the contest, and the text of the song lyrics in its original language and translations in French and English for distribution to the participating broadcasters, their commentators and juries.[21]

Following the confirmation of the twenty-five competing countries, the draw to determine the running order was held on 28 November 1996.[22]

Voting procedure

The results of the 1997 contest were determined through the same scoring system as had first been introduced in 1975: each country awarded twelve points to its favourite entry, followed by ten points to its second favourite, and then awarded points in decreasing value from eight to one for the remaining songs which featured in the country's top ten, with countries unable to vote for their own entry.[23][24] The points awarded by the majority of countries were determined by an assembled jury of sixteen individuals, which was required to be split evenly between members of the public and music professionals, comprised additionally of an equal number of men and women, and below and above 30 years of age. Each jury member voted in secret and awarded between one and ten votes to each participating song, excluding that from their own country and with no abstentions permitted. The votes of each member were collected following the country's performance and then tallied by the non-voting jury chairperson to determine the points to be awarded. In any cases where two or more songs in the top ten received the same number of votes, a show of hands by all jury members was used to determine the final placing; if a tie still remained, the youngest jury member would have the deciding vote.[24]

For the first time however, as part of a trial held by the contest organisers, televoting was used to determine the points from five of the participating countries.[11][23] In these countries viewers had a total of five minutes to register their vote by calling one of twenty-four different telephone numbers to represent the twenty-five competing entries except that which represented their own country. Once the voting phone lines were opened following the performance of the last competing entry, a video recap containing short clips of each competing entry with the accompanying phone number for voting was shown in order to aid viewers during the voting window.[18] Countries using televoting were required to appoint a back-up jury with the same composition as other countries which would be called into action upon technical failure preventing the televote results from being used.[25]

Participating countries

Per the rules of the contest twenty-five countries were allowed to participate in the event.[22] Denmark, Germany, Hungary and Russia made a return to the contest after failing to progress from the qualification round in the previous year's contest, and Italy returned after last competing in 1993. Conversely Belgium, Finland and Slovakia, participants in the 1996 contest, were relegated and prevented from participating in this year's event.[3]

Qualification

Due to the high number of countries wishing to enter the contest a relegation system was introduced in 1993 in order to reduce the number of countries which could compete in each year's contest. Any relegated countries would be able to return the following year, thus allowing all countries the opportunity to compete in at least one in every two editions.[26] The audio-only qualification round used in 1996 had been poorly received among the competing countries, and so a new relegation system was introduced by the European Broadcasting Union for 1997 and future contests.[3][4] The twenty-five participants in the 1997 contest were made up of the previous year's winning country and host nation Ireland, and the twenty-four countries which had the highest average points total over the preceding four contests. In cases where the average was identical between two or more countries the total number of points scored in the most recent contest determined the final order. Any countries which were not able to compete in the 1997 contest would then be eligible to compete in the 1998 event.[22]

Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Finland, Macedonia, Romania and Slovakia were therefore excluded from participating in the 1997 contest; however following Israel's withdrawal due to the date of the final clashing with its Holocaust Remembrance Day Bosnia and Herzegovina was subsequently provided a reprieve and allowed to participate.[3][4] The calculations used to determine the countries relegated for the 1998 contest are outlined in the table below.

Table key

Calculation of average points to determine qualification for the 1997 contest[lower-alpha 1]

Rank	Country	Average	Yearly Point Totals[27][28][29][30]
			1993	1994	1995	1996
1	Ireland	154.75	187	226	44	162
2	Norway	114.50	120	76	148	114
3	United Kingdom	95.00	164	63	76	77
4	Sweden	84.25	89	48	100	100
5	Malta	77.50	69	97	76	68
6	France	76.75	121	74	94	18
7	Poland	70.67		166	15	31
8	Hungary	62.50		122	3	DNQ
9	Croatia	61.75	31	27	91	98
10	Switzerland	61.67	148	15		22
11	Netherlands	58.00	92	4		78
12	Portugal	57.50	60	73	5	92
13	Cyprus	54.75	17	51	79	72
14	Greece	53.00	64	44	68	36
15	Spain	52.75	58	17	119	17
16	Denmark	50.50	9		92	DNQ
17	Germany	49.00	18	128	1	DNQ
18	Estonia	48.00		2		94
19	Austria	46.50	32	19	67	68
20	Italy	45.00	45
21	Russia	43.50		70	17	DNQ
22	Iceland	43.25	42	49	31	51
23	Israel[lower-alpha 2]	42.50	4		81	DNQ
24	Slovenia	36.33	9		84	16
25	Turkey	29.33	10		21	57
26	Bosnia and Herzegovina[lower-alpha 2]	23.25	27	39	14	13
27	Slovakia	17.00		15		19
28	Romania	14.00		14		DNQ
29	Finland	13.33	20	11		9
30	Belgium	11.00	3		8	22
31	Macedonia	0.00				DNQ

Conductors

For those countries which opted to utilise the orchestra a separate musical director could be nominated to lead the orchestra during their performance, with the host musical director, Frank McNamara, also available to conduct for those countries which did not nominate their own conductor.[21][31] The conductors listed below led the orchestra during the performance for the indicated countries; the entries from Austria, Ireland, Germany and Croatia were performed entirely without live orchestration.[32][33]

Participants and results

The contest took place on 3 May 1997 at 20:00 (IST) and lasted 3 hours and 10 minutes.[32][34] The table below outlines the participating countries, the order in which they performed, the competing artists and songs, and the results of the voting.

The contest featured three representatives who had previously performed as lead artists for the same country. Two artists represented their country for a second consecutive year, with Şebnem Paker returning for Turkey and Maarja-Liis Ilus, after previously participating with Ivo Linna in Oslo, competing as a solo artist for Estonia. Alma Čardžić also made a second appearance in the contest, having previously represented Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1994.[32]

The winner was the United Kingdom represented by the song "Love Shine a Light", composed by Kimberley Rew and performed by Katrina and the Waves.[35] This was the United Kingdom's fifth contest win – their first in sixteen years – following victories in 1967, 1969, 1976 and 1981.[36] Ireland's second place finish earned them their fifth placing in the top two within six years, while Turkey and Cyprus achieved their highest placings yet by finishing third and fifth respectively.[11][37][38] Norway meanwhile finished in last place for the eighth time and received their fourth nul points.[11][39]

Participants and results of the Eurovision Song Contest 1997[40][41][42]

R/O	Country	Artist	Song	Language	Points	Place
1	Cyprus	Hara and Andreas Konstantinou	"Mana mou" (Μάνα μου)	Greek	98	5
2	Turkey	Şebnem Paker and Grup Ethnic	"Dinle"	Turkish	121	3
3	Norway	Tor Endresen	"San Francisco"	Norwegian[lower-alpha 3]	0	24
4	Austria	Bettina Soriat	"One Step"	German[lower-alpha 3]	12	21
5	Ireland	Marc Roberts	"Mysterious Woman"	English	157	2
6	Slovenia	Tanja Ribič	"Zbudi se"	Slovene	60	10
7	Switzerland	Barbara Berta	"Dentro di me"	Italian	5	22
8	Netherlands	Mrs. Einstein	"Niemand heeft nog tijd"	Dutch	5	22
9	Italy	Jalisse	"Fiumi di parole"	Italian	114	4
10	Spain	Marcos Llunas	"Sin rencor"	Spanish	96	6
11	Germany	Bianca Shomburg	"Zeit"	German	22	18
12	Poland	Anna Maria Jopek	"Ale jestem"	Polish	54	11
13	Estonia	Maarja-Liis Ilus	"Keelatud maa"	Estonian	82	8
14	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Alma Čardžić	"Goodbye"	Bosnian	22	18
15	Portugal	Célia Lawson	"Antes do adeus"	Portuguese	0	24
16	Sweden	Blond	"Bara hon älskar mig"	Swedish	36	14
17	Greece	Marianna Zorba	"Horepse" (Χόρεψε)	Greek	39	12
18	Malta	Debbie Scerri	"Let Me Fly"	English	66	9
19	Hungary	V.I.P.	"Miért kell, hogy elmenj?"	Hungarian	39	12
20	Russia	Alla Pugacheva	"Primadonna" (Примадонна)	Russian	33	15
21	Denmark	Kølig Kaj	"Stemmen i mit liv"	Danish	25	16
22	France	Fanny	"Sentiments songes"	French	95	7
23	Croatia	E.N.I.	"Probudi me"	Croatian	24	17
24	United Kingdom	Katrina and the Waves	"Love Shine a Light"	English	227	1
25	Iceland	Paul Oscar	"Minn hinsti dans"	Icelandic	18	20

Detailed voting results

Jury voting was used to determine the points awarded by most countries, with televoting used in Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden and the United Kingdom.[3][25] The announcement of the results from each country was conducted in the order in which they performed, with the spokespersons announcing their country's points in English or French in ascending order.[18][24] The detailed breakdown of the points awarded by each country is listed in the tables below.

Detailed voting results of the Eurovision Song Contest 1997[25][43][44]

Voting procedure used:   100% jury vote   100% televoting		Total score	Cyprus	Turkey	Norway	Austria	Ireland	Slovenia	Switzerland	Netherlands	Italy	Spain	Germany	Poland	Estonia	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Portugal	Sweden	Greece	Malta	Hungary	Russia	Denmark	France	Croatia	United Kingdom	Iceland
Contestants	Cyprus	98			2		3	4	4	10	4	10	5		1		3		12	7		1	7	4	4	5	12
	Turkey	121				7	2		6	2	7	12	12		6	12	5	6	7	10	6	4		6		4	7
	Norway	0
	Austria	12								3				1							5	3
	Ireland	157	8	6	3	10		1	7	4	10	6	8	7	8	8	10	10			8	5	10	10	6	12
	Slovenia	60	2	10										2	4	7	4		3	5		10		7	3		3
	Switzerland	5									2	3
	Netherlands	5		1																4
	Italy	114	6	5		1	1	10	10	7		8	4	8		6	12	3	5		3	7	4		10	3	1
	Spain	96	10	4			6	5	8	6	3		2	4			8		6	12	10	8	2	2
	Germany	22				3			5		5									3	1				5
	Poland	54			4	8		7		1	1	2	6		3	4	2		1		7		5	3
	Estonia	82	1			6	8	3			12	4	7	6		1	1	1			4		8	8		10	2
	Bosnia and Herzegovina	22		8		4			2				3					4							1
	Portugal	0
	Sweden	36			8		5	6															6			7	4
	Greece	39	12		5							7								6		2			7
	Malta	66	5	12	10		7				6	1				5			8				3	1	8
	Hungary	39		3			4							5	5					2				5	2	8	5
	Russia	33			1	5		12		8					7
	Denmark	25			7				1									7	2							2	6
	France	95	3	2	12		10	2	3	5				12	12	3	6	2	4		2	6	1				10
	Croatia	24	4										1	3		2		5		8						1
	United Kingdom	227	7	7	6	12	12	8	12	12	8	5	10	10	10	10	7	12	10	1	12	12	12	12	12		8
	Iceland	18				2									2			8								6

12 points

The below table summarises how the maximum 12 points were awarded from one country to another. The winning country is shown in bold.

N.	Contestant	Nation(s) giving 12 points
10	United Kingdom	Austria,  Croatia,  Denmark,  France,  Hungary,  Ireland,  Netherlands,  Russia,  Sweden,   Switzerland
3	France	Estonia,  Norway,  Poland
	Turkey	Bosnia and Herzegovina,  Germany,  Spain
2	Cyprus	Greece,  Iceland
1	Estonia	Italy
	Greece	Cyprus
	Ireland	United Kingdom
	Italy	Portugal
	Malta	Turkey
	Russia	Slovenia
	Spain	Malta

Spokespersons

Each country nominated a spokesperson who was responsible for announcing, in English or French, the votes for their respective country.[24][45] As had been the case since the 1994 contest, the spokespersons were connected via satellite and appeared in vision during the broadcast.[46] Spokespersons at the 1997 contest are listed below.[18]

Broadcasts

Each participating broadcaster was required to relay the contest live and in full via television.[54] Non-participating EBU member broadcasters were also able to relay the contest as "passive participants"; any passive countries wishing to participate in the following year's event were also required to provide a live broadcast of the contest or a deferred broadcast within 24 hours.[34] Broadcasters were able to send commentators to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language and to relay information about the artists and songs to their viewers. Known details on the broadcasts in each country, including the specific broadcasting stations and commentators, are shown in the tables below.

Broadcasters and commentators in participating countries

Country	Broadcaster	Channel	Commentator(s)	Ref(s)
Austria	ORF	ORF 1	Ernst Grissemann [de]	[55][56][57]
		FM4	Stermann & Grissemann	[58]
Bosnia and Herzegovina	RTVBiH	Unknown	Unknown	[59]
Croatia	HRT	HRT1	Unknown	[60][61]
Cyprus	CyBC	Unknown	Unknown	[62]
Denmark	DR	DR1	Jørgen de Mylius	[53][63][64]
Estonia	ETV		Unknown	[65][66]
	ER	Vikerraadio	Unknown	[66]
France	France Télévision	France 2	Olivier Minne	[56][57][67]
Germany	ARD	Das Erste	Peter Urban	[56][57][68][69]
Greece	ERT	Unknown	Dafni Bokota	[70][71]
Hungary	MTV	MTV 1	István Vágó	[52][72]
Iceland	RÚV	Sjónvarpið	Jakob Frímann Magnússon	[73][74]
Ireland	RTÉ	RTÉ One	Pat Kenny	[54][75][76]
		Unknown	Larry Gogan	[77]
Italy	RAI	RAI Uno	Ettore Andenna [it]	[56][78][79]
Malta	PBS	TVM	Unknown	[80]
Netherlands	NOS	TV2	Willem van Beusekom	[81][82][83]
		Radio 2	Unknown	[82]
Norway	NRK	NRK1	Jostein Pedersen	[64][84]
		NRK P1	Kristian Lindeman [no]	[64][85]
Poland	TVP	TVP1	Jan Wilkans	[86][87]
		Polskie Radio Bis	Artur Orzech
Portugal	RTP	RTP1	Unknown	[57][88]
Russia	ORT		Unknown	[89]
Slovenia	RTV SLO	SLO 1 [sl]	Unknown	[61][90]
Spain	TVE	La Primera	José Luis Uribarri	[57][91][92]
Sweden	SVT	SVT2	Janne Jingryd [sv]	[51][64][93]
		SR P3	Claes-Johan Larsson and Susan Seidemar	[51]
Switzerland	SRG SSR	Schweiz 4 [de]	Sandra Studer	[56][57][94]
		TSR	Pierre Grandjean
		TSI	Unknown
Turkey	TRT	Unknown	Unknown	[95]
United Kingdom	BBC	BBC1	Terry Wogan	[32][35][96]
		BBC Radio 2	Ken Bruce	[32][97]

Broadcasters and commentators in non-participating countries

Country	Broadcaster	Channel	Commentator(s)	Ref(s)
Australia	SBS	SBS TV	Unknown	[98]
Belgium	BRTN	BRTN TV1	André Vermeulen	[82][99]
	RTBF	Unknown	Jean-Pierre Hautier	[100][101]
Finland	YLE	YLE TV1	Aki Sirkesalo and Olli Ahvenlahti	[66][102][103]
Israel	IBA	Unknown	Unknown	[104]
Macedonia	MRT	Unknown	Unknown	[105]
Romania	TVR	Unknown	Unknown	[106]
Slovakia	STV	Unknown	Unknown	[107]

Other awards

Barbara Dex Award

The Barbara Dex Award was first organised for artists in this year's contest. The award, created by fansite House of Eurovision, was awarded to the performer deemed to have been the "worst dressed" among the participants.[108][109] The winner in 1997 was Malta's representative Debbie Scerri, as determined by the founders of the House of Eurovision site Edwin van Thillo and Rob Paardekam.[110][111][112]

Notes and references

Notes

References

Bibliography

• O'Connor, John Kennedy (2010). The Eurovision Song Contest: The Official History (2nd ed.). London: Carlton Books. ISBN 978-1-84732-521-1.
• Roxburgh, Gordon (2020). Songs for Europe: The United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest. Vol. Four: The 1990s. Prestatyn: Telos Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84583-163-9.
• Thorsson, Leif; Verhage, Martin (2006). Melodifestivalen genom tiderna : de svenska uttagningarna och internationella finalerna (in Swedish). Stockholm: Premium Publishing. ISBN 91-89136-29-2.

External links

• Official website

На других языках

---

- [en] Eurovision Song Contest 1997

---

[ru] Евровидение-1997

Конкурс песни Евровидение 1997 (англ. Eurovision Song Contest 1997, фр. Concours Eurovision de la chanson 1997, ирл. Comórtas Amhránaíochta na hEoraifíse 1997) — 42-й конкурс песни Евровидение, состоявшийся 3 мая 1997 в городе Дублине, столице Республики Ирландия. Ведущими конкурса стали Кэри Кроули и Ронан Китинг (певец группы Boyzone)[1].

---

---