Eurovision Song Contest 1990


The Eurovision Song Contest 1990 was the 35th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It was held in Zagreb, Croatia, Yugoslavia on 5 May 1990. The presenters were Helga Vlahović Brnobić and Oliver Mlakar.
It was the first Eurovision Song Contest held in the Balkans, in a socialist state, in a Slavic language-speaking country and in Non-Aligned Movement member.
Toto Cutugno was the winner of this contest with his own composition "". This was the second victory for Italy, the first one having been "Non ho l'età", performed by Gigliola Cinquetti in 1964. 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 2001.
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.
As of 2019, the 1990 contest was the last time that the five countries that would later be known as the Big Five, Italy, France, Spain, the United Kingdom and Germany, all placed in the top 10.
Malta had wished to return to the contest for the first time in 15 years, but Eurovision rules prevented them from returning due to a maximum of 22 entries allowed to compete, a rule which has since been removed. A national final was held in Malta, which was won by Maryrose Mallia with "Our Little World of Yesterday".
There was a slightly uncomfortable beginning to the rehearsal week when, offended by press comments concerning their ages, 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 Brnobić and Mlakar returned to the contest.

Location

, 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. The building has a big hall with 1,841 seats and a small hall with 305 seats.
In order to host the 1990 contest, the venue underwent its first major renovation in 1989. In 1992, the hall's copper roof cover was completely replaced. Further reconstruction and redecoration work was done in 1999 and 2009.

Format

The Eurovision Song Contest 1990 was the first to implement an age rule. The European Broadcasting Union 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.
A notorious mishap occurred at the start of the first song, when a noticeably long delay caused by problems with 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.
To add more confusion, the backing track for tv audio did start correctly on the first attempt. So the tv spectators heard the orchestra playing but saw the conductor just standing by. In addition, this incident revealed to the spectators that the large orchestra was just for playback.
From a musicological 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 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.

Conductors

Score sheet

12 points

Below is a summary of all 12 point in the final:
N.ContestantVoting nation
6FranceFinland, Iceland, Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, Yugoslavia
3ItalyCyprus, Ireland, Spain
2IcelandPortugal, United Kingdom
2IrelandAustria, Sweden
2SwitzerlandDenmark, Greece
2YugoslaviaIsrael, Turkey
1AustriaItaly
1GermanyLuxembourg
1LuxembourgFrance
1SpainGermany
1United KingdomBelgium

Returning artists

Commentators and spokespersons

In addition to the participating countries, host Helga Brnobić mentioned several countries as among the non-participants broadcasting the contest ; however, no information is known about which broadcasters showed the contest and who, if anyone, provided commentary for each.

Spokespersons

Television

Participating countries
Some participating countries did not provide radio broadcasts for the event; the ones who did are listed below.