Intro Post

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Introduction

The final Eurovision of the 1980’s was the only year the contest returned to the country where it began: Switzerland. This time, it was hosted in the city of Lausanne. It had the same lineup of countries as 1987: every country that had ever participated except the three that start with M.

This contest featured the only victory of Yugoslavia, three years before the country’s collapse, and thus the only victory of a country that no longer exists. This puts Croatia in a strange position where they haven’t officially won the contest, but a band of theirs won for the country they used to be part of, and the contest took place in their capital the next year. This also happens to be the last contest with singers under 16 years old—two of them, in fact. The presence of preteen singers was highly controversial, so the next contest introduced the age rule. If that wasn’t enough, it’s the last contest where the final song performed won.

Fortunately, this should be the last contest for quite a while where finding commentary is a pain in the ass. I could only find it with Spanish commentary, so that’s what I’m watching. I also have an uncommentated version in higher quality so that I can better judge the songs. I know I don’t have to watch it with commentary, but postcards without anyone talking over them just feel so wrong. Plus, no matter which language the commentators speak, I can always tell when they (for example) mention ABBA or list the five singers who won for Luxembourg.

I have to say, I’m not a big fan of the previous winner singing their winning song at the start (which was also done in 1988). I liked it better when the contest opened with a reimagined orchestration of the previous winner. Plus, I didn’t come here to watch Celine Dion promote her new song, I came here to watch Eurovision! Anyway, the duo of Swiss presenters mostly hosted this contest in French, but they switched to English, German, and Italian a few times. Even a bit of Romansh, if I’m not mistaken! That is Swiss multilingualism at its finest.