Intro Post

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Introduction

We’re back to Dublin, Ireland for Eurovision 1988, in the same building as 1981 (the year after last time Johnny Logan won). However, it doesn’t look like the same building at all! It’s dark inside and the stage is surrounded by walls displaying a computer screen, much like 21st century Eurovision. This contest had almost the same lineup as last time, except Cyprus withdrew because their entry broke the rules. If Cyprus hadn’t skipped, we would’ve had the same 22 countries participate four years in a row.

Another way this contest resembles modern Eurovision is that it has multiple presenters. From 1957 to 1987, most contests had one female presenter; from 1988 to 2008, the norm was instead one man and one woman; and from 2009 onwards, most contests had three or four presenters. From this year on, the only solo presenters were in 1993, 1995, and 2013. As for this contest, the presenters introduced it in Irish, French, and English in order. The female presenter’s French has the weirdest Irish accent I’ve ever heard. She overenunciates the R’s and pronounces “bienvenue” as “pianvenue”, with a heavily aspirated P. After the introductions, the presenters made a lot of jokes throughout the show, with a much heavier saturation than the subtle humor of the last few years.

This contest had Switzerland’s second and latest victory, performed by perhaps the second most famous name to come from Eurovision: Celine Dion. Another famous French-speaking singer represented Luxembourg, the legendary Lara Fabian. No French-language song has ever won Eurovision since then. Switzerland beat the UK by only one point, in one of the tensest voting sequences in Eurovision history.

Just like last year, it was very hard to find commentary on this contest because all the uploads on YouTube were blocked. Through extensive research, the only two languages I could find were Greek and Dutch, so I’m gonna settle for Dutch.