International song competition
The Eurovision Song Contest 1997 was the 42nd edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest, held on 3 May 1997 at the Point Theatre in Dublin, Ireland. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster (RTÉ) and presented by Carrie Crowley and Ronan Keating, the contest was held in Ireland following the country's victory at the 1996 contest with the song "The Voice" by Eimear Quinn. The 1997 contest was the seventh – and to date last – edition to be staged in Ireland, as well as the fourth to be produced by RTÉ in five years. The Point Theatre served as the host venue for the third time, following the 1994 and 1995 contests, becoming the only venue to have been the site of three Eurovision Song Contests.
Twenty-five countries participated in the contest, with a new relegation system introduced to determine which nations could participate, based on each country's average points total in previous contests. Italy made its first appearance since 1993, and Denmark, Germany, Hungary and Russia returned after last competing in 1995, having been prevented from competing the previous year after failing to progress from that event's qualifying round. Belgium, Finland and Slovakia, participants in the previous year's contest, were unable to return after being excluded by the new relegation rules.
The winner was the United Kingdom with the song "Love Shine a Light", written by Kimberley Rew and performed by Katrina and the Waves. Ireland, Turkey, Italy and Cyprus rounded out the top five, with Ireland earning their fifth placing in the top two within six years and Turkey and Cyprus achieving their best results to date. Five of the competing countries used televoting to determine their points, allowing the general viewing public a say in the results for the first time; following this successful trial all countries were encouraged to use this system starting from the following year's event. Entries were also permitted for the first time to feature no live music accompaniment, with each performance being able to use only a backing track rather than utilising any part of the orchestra or any live instrumentation from the performers themselves.
The 1997 event would prove to be a watershed for the contest, with many aspects of this event leaving a lasting impact on future editions of Eurovision. These included: the first openly LGBT artist, Iceland's Paul Oscar, selected to compete in the event; changes to contest rules led to the abandonment of live musical accompaniment in future events; a successful trial of televoting in five countries led to widespread adoption for all countries in 1998.
Location.
The 1997 contest took place in Dublin, Ireland, following the country's victory at the 1996 edition with the song "The Voice", performed by Eimear Quinn. It was the seventh time that Ireland had hosted the contest, having previously staged the event in 1971, 1981, 1988, 1993, 1994 and 1995, with all previous events held in Dublin except the 1993 contest which was held in Millstreet. This was the fourth edition of the contest that Ireland had hosted within five years, and with this edition Ireland equalled the record for the nation which had staged the most contests, originally set by the United Kingdom in 1982.
Given the financial impact to staging the contest for a fourth time in five years, there was early speculation following Ireland's win in the 1996 contest that RTÉ might stage the event as a co-production with BBC Northern Ireland, however ultimately the Irish broadcaster decided to organise the event on its own once again. The selected venue was the Point Theatre, a concert and events venue located amongst the Dublin Docklands which had originally been built as a train depot to serve the nearby port. Opened as a music venue in 1988, it was closed for redevelopment and expansion in 2008 and is now known as the 3Arena. The venue had previously hosted the 1994 and 1995 contests, and with this staging it became the only venue to have hosted three Eurovision Song Contests.
Participating countries.
Per the rules of the contest twenty-five countries were allowed to participate in the event. Denmark, Germany, Hungary and Russia made a return to the contest after failing to progress from the qualifying round in the previous year's contest, and Italy returned after last competing in 1993. Conversely Belgium, Finland and Slovakia, participants in the 1996 contest, were relegated and prevented from participating in this year's event.
Three representatives who had previously performed as lead artists in the contest competed again at this year's event. Two artists represented their country for a second consecutive year, with Şebnem Paker returning for Turkey and Maarja-Liis Ilus, after previously participating with Ivo Linna in Oslo, competing as a solo artist for Estonia. Alma Čardžić also made a second appearance in the contest, having previously represented Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1994. Additionally, Tor Endresen and Bettina Soriat, who represented Norway and Austria, respectively, in this year's event, had performed in previous contests as backing vocalist. Endresen had supported the Norwegian performer Karoline Krüger in the 1988 contest, and Soriat had supported Austrian entrant George Nussbaumer in the previous year's event.
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Qualification.
Due to the high number of countries wishing to enter the contest a relegation system was introduced in 1993 in order to reduce the number of countries which could compete in each year's contest. Any relegated countries would be able to return the following year, thus allowing all countries the opportunity to compete in at least one in every two editions. The audio-only qualifying round used in 1996 had been poorly received among the competing countries, and so a new relegation system was introduced by the European Broadcasting Union for 1997 and future contests. The twenty-five participants in the 1997 contest were made up of the previous year's winning country and host nation Ireland, and the twenty-four countries which had the highest average points total over the preceding four contests. In cases where the average was identical between two or more countries the total number of points scored in the most recent contest determined the final order. Any countries which were not able to compete in the 1997 contest would then be eligible to compete in the 1998 event.
Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Finland, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Romania and Slovakia were therefore excluded from participating in the 1997 contest; however following Israel's withdrawal due to the date of the final clashing with its Holocaust Remembrance Day, Bosnia and Herzegovina was subsequently provided a reprieve and allowed to participate. Macedonia was also excluded due to their failure to progress through the qualifying round in 1996. The calculations used to determine the countries relegated for the 1997 contest are outlined in the table below.
Table key
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Production.
Rehearsals in the contest venue for the competing acts began on 28 April 1997. Each country had two technical rehearsals in the week approaching the contest, with countries rehearsing in the order in which they would perform. The first rehearsals took place on 28 and 29 April, with each country allowed 40 minutes total on stage followed by a 20-minute press conference, followed by the second rehearsals on 30 April and 1 May lasting 30 minutes.{{sfn|Roxburgh|2020|pp=296–297}} Times were also arranged during the week for the artists to be recorded in the RTÉ studios, with footage used during the postcards between each song.{{sfn|Roxburgh|2020|pp=296–297}} Three dress rehearsals were held on 2 and 3 May, with an audience in attendance during the evening dress rehearsal on 2 May. The final dress rehearsal on 3 May was also recorded for use as a production stand-by in case of problems during the live contest.{{sfn|Roxburgh|2020|pp=296–297}} A tight security presence was felt during the rehearsal week; emergency drills were held by {{lang|ga|Gardaí|i=unset}}, including evacuations of the Point Theatre, as a precaution against potential disruption from loyalist paramilitaries as part of the wider sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland.
Format.
Entries.
Selected entries were not permitted to be released commercially until after 3 February 1997 and after having been selected for the contest. Each country's participating broadcaster was required to have selected their entry by 10 March, and all entries had to be submitted to the contest organisers by 19 March, including the score of the song for use by the orchestra, a sound recording of the entry and backing track for use during the contest, and the text of the song lyrics in its original language and translations in French and English for distribution to the participating broadcasters, their commentators and juries.
Following the confirmation of the twenty-five competing countries, the draw to determine the running order was held on 28 November 1996.
Voting procedure.
The results of the 1997 contest were determined through the same scoring system as had first been introduced in {{escyr|1975}}: each country awarded twelve points to its favourite entry, followed by ten points to its second favourite, and then awarded points in decreasing value from eight to one for the remaining songs which featured in the country's top ten, with countries unable to vote for their own entry. The points awarded by the majority of countries were determined by an assembled jury of sixteen individuals, which was required to be split evenly between members of the public and music professionals, comprised additionally of an equal number of men and women, and below and above 30 years of age. Each jury member voted in secret and awarded between one and ten votes to each participating song, excluding that from their own country and with no abstentions permitted. The votes of each member were collected following the country's performance and then tallied by the non-voting jury chairperson to determine the points to be awarded. In any cases where two or more songs in the top ten received the same number of votes, a show of hands by all jury members was used to determine the final placing; if a tie still remained, the youngest jury member would have the deciding vote.
Contest overview.
The show was opened by good luck messages from past Eurovision winners and hosts to the contestants in the contest, and short interviews with previous contestants also featured preceding some of the postcards between the entries.{{sfn|O'Connor|2010|pp=148–151}} Irish boy band Boyzone, with co-presenter Keating as a member, featured as part of the show's interval act, performing the song "Let the Message Run Free".
The winner was the {{esccnty|United Kingdom|y=1997}} represented by the song "Love Shine a Light", composed by Kimberley Rew and performed by Katrina and the Waves. This was the United Kingdom's fifth contest win{{snd}}their first in sixteen years{{snd}}following victories in {{escyr|1967}}, {{escyr|1969}}, {{escyr|1976}} and {{escyr|1981}}. As of {{escyr|2024}}, this is the last winning UK Eurovision entry. Ireland's second-place finish earned them their fifth placing in the top two within six years, while Turkey and Cyprus achieved their highest placings yet by finishing third and fifth respectively. Norway meanwhile finished in last place for the eighth time and received their fourth "nul points". Following this contest {{esccnty|Italy}}'s RAI declined to participate in future events and an Italian entry would not participate in the Eurovision Song Contest for 14 years, until the country's return at the {{escyr|2011||2011 event}}.
Spokespersons.
Each country nominated a spokesperson who was responsible for announcing, in English or French, the votes for their respective country. As had been the case since the {{escyr|1994||1994 contest}}, the spokespersons were connected via satellite and appeared in vision during the broadcast. Spokespersons at the 1997 contest are listed below.
Detailed voting results.
Jury voting was used to determine the points awarded by most countries, with televoting used in Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden and the United Kingdom.{{sfn|Roxburgh|2020|pp=306–308}} The announcement of the results from each country was conducted in the order in which they performed, with the spokespersons announcing their country's points in English or French in ascending order. The detailed breakdown of the points awarded by each country is listed in the tables below.
12 points.
The below table summarises how the maximum 12 points were awarded from one country to another. The winning country is shown in bold. The United Kingdom received the maximum score of 12 points from ten countries, with France and Turkey receiving three sets of 12 points each, Cyprus receiving two sets of 12 points, and Estonia, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Malta, Russia and Spain each receiving one maximum score.
Broadcasts.
Each participating broadcaster was