Eurovision Song Contest 1993


The Eurovision Song Contest 1993 was the 38th Eurovision Song Contest and was held on 15 May 1993 at Green Glens Arena in Millstreet, County Cork, Ireland. The presenter was Fionnuala Sweeney. Niamh Kavanagh was the winner of this Eurovision for Ireland with the song, "In Your Eyes". This was Ireland's fifth victory, and equalled the tally of five Eurovision victories achieved by France in 1977 and Luxembourg in 1983. Ireland became the fourth country to win two years in a row, the three previous countries to do so were Spain in 1968 and 1969, Luxembourg in 1972 and 1973, and Israel in 1978 and 1979.
The top two countries of this contest were the same as the top two countries in the previous year's contest, being Ireland and the United Kingdom.

Location

The location for this year's edition of the contest was unique, in that Millstreet, with a population at the time of just 1,500 people, was the smallest host town ever chosen for the Eurovision Song Contest.
The owner of the Green Glens Arena, Noel C. Duggan, wrote to the RTÉ on the same night of the Irish victory in the 1992 edition, proposing the free use of the venue to host the contest. The venue, a large indoor well- equipped equestrian centre was deemed more than suitable as the location by host broadcaster RTÉ. With huge support from local and national authorities, plus several businesses in the region, the town's infrastructure was greatly enhanced in order to accommodate an event of this scale. It was also the largest outside broadcast ever attempted by state broadcaster RTÉ and was deemed a technical triumph for all involved.
The stage was created by Alan Farquharson, who was also chief production designer two years later in Dublin.
BBC newsreader Nicholas Witchell caused controversy by remarking on the air, shortly before the contest, that it would be held "in a cowshed in Ireland." He subsequently apologized.

Pre-qualifying round

In the run-up to this contest, the European Broadcasting Union finally started to grapple with the explosion in the number of potential participating countries, caused by the dissolution of the Eastern bloc, and also by the disintegration of Yugoslavia, which had traditionally been the only communist country to take part in the contest. For the first time, a pre-qualifying round was introduced, but only for countries that had either never participated in the contest at all, or in the case of former republics of Yugoslavia, had not previously competed as nations in their own right. This was, however, merely a 'sticking-plaster' measure that was plainly not a sustainable solution for future years, as it would not be seen as remotely equitable. But in the meantime, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Hungary, Slovenia, Slovakia, Romania and Estonia were left to battle it out in a special competition called Kvalifikacija za Millstreet in Ljubljana on 3 April for the mere three places available at the grand final in Millstreet. After some extremely tight voting, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovenia edged through.

Voting structure

Each country had a jury who awarded 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 point for their top ten songs.
The 1993 contest was the last time juries would deliver their votes via telephone lines, with satellite video links introduced the following year.

Conductors

Each performance had a conductor who conducted the orchestra.

Results

Countries in bold were allowed to compete in the Eurovision Song Contest 1994.
DrawCountryArtistSongLanguagePlacePoints
01'Enrico Ruggeri"Sole d'Europa"Italian1245
02Burak Aydos"Esmer Yarim"Turkish2110
03'Münchener Freiheit"Viel zu weit"German1818
04'Annie Cotton"Moi, tout simplement"French3148
05Tommy Seebach Band"Under stjernerne på himlen"Danish229
06'Katerina Garbi"Ellada, hora tou fotos" Greek964
07Barbara Dex"Iemand als jij"Dutch253
08'William Mangion"This Time"English869
09'Inga"Þá veistu svarið"Icelandic1342
10'Tony Wegas"Maria Magdalena"German1432
11'Anabela"A cidade "Portuguese1060
12'Patrick Fiori"Mama Corsica"French, Corsican4121
13'Arvingarna"Eloise"Swedish789
14'Niamh Kavanagh"In Your Eyes"English1187
15Modern Times"Donne-moi une chance"French, Luxembourgish2011
161X Band"Tih deževen dan"Slovene229
17'Katri Helena"Tule luo"Finnish1720
18'Fazla"Sva bol svijeta"Serbo-Croatian1627
19'Sonia"Better the Devil You Know"English2164
20'Ruth Jacott"Vrede"Dutch692
21'Put"Don't Ever Cry"Croatian, English1531
22'Eva Santamaría"Hombres"Spanish1158
23Zimboulakis & Van Beke"Mi stamatas" Greek1917
24Lahakat Shiru"Shiru" Hebrew, English244
25'Silje Vige"Alle mine tankar"Norwegian5120

Score sheet

12 points

Below is a summary of all 12 points in the final:
N.ContestantVoting nation
7IrelandItaly, Malta, Norway, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom
4United KingdomAustria, Belgium, Iceland, Israel
3NorwayCroatia, Finland, Greece
3SwitzerlandFrance, Germany, Luxembourg
2FranceDenmark, Portugal
2PortugalNetherlands, Spain
1AustriaBosnia and Herzegovina
1Bosnia and HerzegovinaTurkey
1GreeceCyprus
1NetherlandsIreland

International broadcasts and voting

Voting and spokespersons

  1. – Peppi Franzelin
  2. – Ömer Önder
  3. – Carmen Nebel
  4. – Michel Stocker
  5. –
  6. – Fotini Giannoulatou
  7. – An Ploegaerts
  8. – Guðrún Skúladóttir
  9. – Andy Lee
  10. – Margarida Mercês de Mello
  11. – Olivier Minne
  12. – Gösta Hanson
  13. – Eileen Dunne
  14. – TBC
  15. – Miša Molk
  16. – Solveig Herlin
  17. – Dejan Zagorac
  18. – Colin Berry
  19. – Joop van Os
  20. – Veljko Đuretić
  21. – María Ángeles Balañac
  22. – Anna Partelidou
  23. – Danny Rup
  24. – Sverre Christophersen
  25. – Kevin Drake

    Commentators

Television

Participating countries
The participating countries that provided radio broadcasts for the event are listed below.