The Eurovision Song Contest 1993 was the 38th edition of the

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...

. It took place in Millstreet,

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...

, following the country's victory at the with the song " Why Me?" by

Linda Martin Linda Martin (born 27 March 1952) is an Irish singer and television presenter. She is best known as the winner of the 1992 Eurovision Song Contest during which she represented Ireland with the song " Why Me?". She is also known within Irelan ...

. Organised by the

European Broadcasting Union The European Broadcasting Union (EBU; french: Union européenne de radio-télévision, links=no, UER) is an alliance of public service media organisations whose countries are within the European Broadcasting Area or who are members of the C ...

(EBU) and host broadcaster (RTÉ), the contest was held at the

Green Glens Arena The Green Glens Arena (sometimes referred to as Millstreet Arena) is a public entertainment location in Millstreet, in County Cork, Ireland. There is a outdoor estate for equestrian sporting events and an indoor arena measuring 80 metres by 40 ...

on 15 May 1993 and was hosted by Irish TV-reporter

Fionnuala Sweeney Fionnuala Sweeney ( , ; born 1965) is an Irish anchorwoman and reporter. She had been based at CNN's headquarters in Atlanta, Sweeney was anchoring ''CNN Newsroom'' as well as serving as the primary substitute at the International Desk. She is k ...

, marking the first time since the contest that just one presenter had hosted the contest. Twenty-five countries took part in the contestthe biggest number up until then. The breakup of

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label= Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavij ...

meant that many new countries wanted to participate in the competition. Therefore, , and all competed for the first time in the contest this year. scored a second victory in a row this year with the song "

In Your Eyes IN, In or in may refer to: Places * India (country code IN) * Indiana, United States (postal code IN) * Ingolstadt, Germany (license plate code IN) * In, Russia, a town in the Jewish Autonomous Oblast Businesses and organizations * Independ ...

" by

Niamh Kavanagh Niamh Kavanagh ( ; born 13 February 1968) is an Irish singer who sang the winning entry at the Eurovision Song Contest 1993. The 1993 Eurovision Song Contest was held in Millstreet, County Cork, Republic of Ireland. She sang "In Your Eyes" ...

. This was Ireland's fifth victory, and equalled the tally of five Eurovision victories achieved by in and in . Ireland became the fourth country to win two years in a row, after in and , Luxembourg in and , and in and . Additionally, the top two countries of this contest were the same as the top two countries in the previous year's contest, being and the .

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

, 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 and well- equipped equestrian centre that could accommodate a 3500 seated audience was deemed more than suitable as the location by host broadcaster

RTÉ (RTÉ) (; Irish for "Radio & Television of Ireland") is the national broadcaster of Ireland headquartered in Dublin. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on television, radio and online. The radio service began on 1 January 1926, whil ...

. 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.

Killarney Killarney ( ; ga, Cill Airne , meaning 'church of sloes') is a town in County Kerry, southwestern Ireland. The town is on the northeastern shore of Lough Leane, part of Killarney National Park, and is home to St Mary's Cathedral, Ross Cast ...

, a larger town located 30 kilometres from Millstreet was chosen as a second host town, accommodating the majority of the contestants and delegates. It was also the largest

outside broadcast Outside broadcasting (OB) is the electronic field production (EFP) of television or radio programmes (typically to cover television news and sports television events) from a mobile remote broadcast television studio. Professional video ca ...

ever attempted by state broadcaster RTÉ and was deemed a technical and logistical success for all involved. The stage was created by

Alan Farquharson Alan may refer to: People *Alan (surname), an English and Turkish surname *Alan (given name), an English given name ** List of people with given name Alan ''Following are people commonly referred to solely by "Alan" or by a homonymous name.'' *A ...

, who was also chief production designer two years later in Dublin. The design resembled a scalene triangular shaped performance area, under lit by multicoloured cable lighting and featured a hydraulically controlled walkway, with a mirrored ceiling structure suspended above the stage that mirrored the floor shape and reflected lighting. BBC newsreader Nicholas Witchell caused controversy by asking Noel Duggan, live on air and shortly before the contest, how he felt about holding a major international cultural event "in a cowshed in Ireland". Duggan replied that, unlike the chaotic 1993 Grand National (which had taken place the previous month, but which was declared void following two false starts and the unsuccessful recall of the second), the 1993 Eurovision would start on time, it would finish on time and there would be a winner. Duggan also noted that the

was "a horseshed". Witchell subsequently apologized for his question.

Qualification

In the run-up to this contest, the

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 ( en, Preselection for Millstreet, i=yes; french: Présélection pour Millstreet) was a televised song contest held as a qualifying round for the Eurovision Song Contest 1993. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadca ...

'' in

Ljubljana Ljubljana (also known by other historical names) is the capital and largest city of Slovenia. It is the country's cultural, educational, economic, political and administrative center. During antiquity, a Roman city called Emona stood in the ar ...

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.

Participating countries

Conductors

Each performance had a conductor who directed the orchestra. *

Vittorio Cosma Vittorio Cosma (born 11 March 1965) is an Italian pianist, record producer, conductor, and arranger. Life and career Born in Varese, Cosma studied piano at the Milan Conservatory and later jazz piano under Patrizio Fariselli and Franco D'Andr ...

* ''no conductor'' *

Norbert Daum Norbert Daum (born 6 September 1948) is an Austrian musician and conductor. He often works with Ralph Siegel. Daum conducted entries in 7 years of the Eurovision Song Contest, during 1979–1994. Career Work as an arranger Daum was born in Bra ...

* Marc Sorrentino * * Haris Andreadis * Bert Candries * Joseph Sammut * Jon Kjell Seljeseth * * Armindo Neves * Christian Cravero *

Curt-Eric Holmquist Curt-Eric Gunnar Holmquist (20 June 1948 – 20 July 2021) was a Swedish conductor. Holmquist first helped the Swedish dance band Curt Haagers in 1966. He played the organ in the band until he left in 1969. He conducted the Swedish entry, "Digg ...

* Noel Kelehan *

Francis Goya Francis Goya (born François Edouard Weyer; 16 May 1946) is a Belgian classical guitar player and producer. He has recorded fifty albums, many of which have reached gold or platinum status. Francis went solo in 1975, changing his name to Goya. H ...

Jože Privšek Jože Privšek (19 March 1937 – 11 June 1998), who also presented himself with the pseudonyms Jeff Conway and Simon Gale, was one of the most acclaimed Slovene jazz and pop musicians. He was a pianist, vibraphonist, composer, and conductor ...

Olli Ahvenlahti Olli Ahvenlahti (born 6 August 1949, in Helsinki) is a Finnish pianist, composer and conductor. He is of Russian descent. Ahvenlahti succeeded Ossi Runne as the Finnish conductor at the Eurovision Song Contest for the 1990 Contest. In all, h ...

* Noel Kelehan * Nigel Wright *

Harry van Hoof Harry van Hoof (born 16 March 1943) is a Dutch conductor, composer and music arranger. Van Hoof has written many successful productions to his name already, he has his own production company and he had his first success as an arranger with "Sof ...

* * Eduardo Leiva *

George Theofanous Giorgos (George) Theofanous (, ) (born in Larnaca, Cyprus on 9 January 1968) is a Greek Cypriot composer and producer. He has sold more than two million records and written more than 500 songs in the 1990s and 2000s. Recording artists for whom ...

* Amir Frohlich *

Rolf Løvland Rolf Undsæt Løvland (born 19 April 1955) is a Norwegian composer, lyricist, arranger, and pianist. Together with Fionnuala Sherry, he formed the Celtic-Nordic group Secret Garden, in which he was the composer, producer, and keyboardist. He be ...

Returning artists

Participants and results

Detailed voting results

Each country had a jury who awarded 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 point(s) 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.

12 points

Below is a summary of all 12 points in the final:

Spokespersons

# # Ömer Önder #

Carmen Nebel Carmen Nebel (born 24 July 1956 in Grimma, then East Germany) is a German television presenter. Nebel majored in German studies, English studies and pedagogy at Humboldt University of Berlin. After completing her degree she began appearing on GDR ...

# Michel Stocker # # Fotini Giannoulatou # An Ploegaerts # Guðrún Skúladóttir # Andy Lee # #

Olivier Minne Olivier Minne (born 18 March 1967 in Ixelles, Belgium) is a Belgian-born French television presenter, actor and producer. Biography Minne was born in Belgium, the son of a Belgian father and a French mother. Minne studied in Brussels, at a Je ...

# Gösta Hanson #

Eileen Dunne Eileen Dunne (born 28 April 1958) is a retired Irish journalist, newsreader and presenter with Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ), Ireland's national radio and television station, where she presented the main television news programmes '' Six On ...

# TBC # Miša Molk # Solveig Herlin # Dejan Zagorac #

Colin Berry Colin Derrick Berry (born 29 January 1946) is a British radio disc jockey, presenter and newsreader, best known for his many years at BBC Radio 2. Career Early years Berry began his radio career reading news on Radio Caroline in 1965. Befo ...

# Joop van Os # Velimir Đuretić # María Ángeles Balañac # Anna Partelidou # Danny Rup # # Kevin Drake

Broadcasts

Each participating broadcaster was required to relay the contest via its networks. Non-participating EBU member broadcasters were also able to relay the contest as "passive participants". 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 television viewers. Known details on the broadcasts in each country, including the specific broadcasting stations and commentators are shown in the tables below.

Notes and references

Footnotes

References

External links

* {{Eurovision Song Contest

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peacefu ...

Music festivals in Ireland 1993 in Ireland 1993 in Irish television 1993 in music 1993 in Irish music Millstreet May 1993 events in Europe