International song competition
The Eurovision Song Contest 1991 was the 36th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, held on 4 May 1991 at Stage 15 of the Studios in Rome, Italy. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster (RAI), and presented by Gigliola Cinquetti and Toto Cutugno, the contest was held in Italy following the country's victory at the 1990 contest with the song " by Toto Cutugno.
Twenty-two countries participated in the event: Malta made its first Eurovision Song Contest appearance in sixteen years, having last participated in 1975, while the Netherlands decided not to participate due to the date of this year's event coinciding with the country's annual Remembrance of the Dead commemorations. It was also the first time that Germany was represented as a single state following the reunification of East and West Germany.
For the first time since 1969, the contest resulted in a draw for first place, with both France and Sweden being awarded the same number of points. The contest's tie-break procedure was implemented for the first time in its history, which resulted in Sweden being declared the winner due to their entry, ", written by Stephan Berg and performed by Carola, having received a greater number of top scores from the other competing countries than the French entry; it was Sweden's third contest victory overall. Alongside France, Israel, Spain and Switzerland rounded out the top five countries.
Location.
The 1991 contest took place in Rome, Italy, following the country's victory at the 1990 contest with the song "", performed by Toto Cutugno. It was the second time that Italy had hosted the contest, following the 1965 event held in Naples. The chosen venue was Stage 15 of the Studios, the largest film studios in Europe which had previously been the filming location for a number of blockbuster American and Italian movies, particularly during the 1950s and 1960s.
The Italian organisers had originally intended that the contest be held in the in Sanremo, where the annual Sanremo Music Festival is held. The Sanremo festival had been a major influence and inspiration for the formation of the Eurovision Song Contest, and RAI had wanted to pay tribute to the contest's origins by hosting the event in the town. The choice of Sanremo and Ariston as host of the event was initially rejected by the EBU, citing concerns regarding the size of the venue as well as organisational and security shortcomings. In an effort to address some of the concerns, the of Sanremo proposed hosting the event in three locations across the Ariston area, with the Teatro Ariston, and the old flower market on being combined using temporary structures to form a single venue. Although plans to hold the contest in Sanremo continued to be developed as late as January 1991, by February doubts over the feasibility of holding the event in Sanremo became insurmountable, due to instability in the Middle East and the outbreak of the Gulf War, and ultimately the organisers opted to relocate the contest to a more secure location, eventually confirming on 18 February that the event would be held in Rome. Despite the relocation Sanremo remained a partner of the 1991 contest and pre-recorded footage of the city was featured during the live broadcast.
Participating countries.
A total of twenty-two countries participated in the 1991 contest. Of the countries that participated in 1990, the Netherlands were the only country that failed to make a return, as the date of the contest clashed with the country's Remembrance of the Dead commemorations. Malta – which had last participated in the contest sixteen years before, in 1975 – ultimately filled the vacant slot. The nation had for a number of years attempted to make a return to the contest, however was prevented from doing so due to the cap on participation numbers set by the EBU. This marked the first time that Germany competed as a unified country, following the reunification of East and West Germany into a single state; until this point all German entrants in previous contests had represented the former West Germany.
Several artists that had previously competed in the contest returned to participate in this year's event: Stefán Hilmarsson, who competed alongside Eyjólfur Kristjánsson for Iceland, was a member of Beathoven that had participated for the nation in 1988; Thomas Forstner made a second appearance for Austria following the 1989 contest; Carola also returned to the contest for the second time for Sweden after her participation in 1983; and the members of Norway's Just 4 Fun featured two previous participating artists, namely Eiríkur Hauksson, who had competed in the 1986 for Iceland as part of the group ICY, and Hanne Krogh, who had represented Norway twice before, in 1971 as a solo artist and in 1985 as a member of the group Bobbysocks!, the latter appearance ultimately winning the contest outright. Additionally, Kit Rolfe performed as backing vocalist for the United Kingdom's Samantha Janus, having previously been lead vocalist of the group Belle and the Devotions that had represented the UK at the 1984 contest.
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Production.
The Eurovision Song Contest 1991 was produced by the Italian public broadcaster (RAI). Silvia Salvetti served as executive producer, Riccardo Donna served as director, Luciano Ricceri served as designer, and Bruno Canfora served as musical director leading an assembled orchestra of 57 musicians. A separate musical director could be nominated by each country to lead the orchestra during their performance, with the host musical director also available to conduct for those countries which did not nominate their own conductor. On behalf of the contest organisers, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the event was overseen by Frank Naef as scrutineer.
The running order draw, to determine in which position each country would perform, was held on 18 February 1991, the same date that Rome was confirmed as the host city of the contest and the announcement of the twenty-two competing countries.
Rehearsals for the participating artists began on 29 April 1991. Two technical rehearsals were conducted for each participating delegation in the week approaching the contest, with countries rehearsing in the order in which they would perform. The first rehearsals of 40 minutes' duration were held on 29 and 30 April, with the second rehearsals, each lasting 35 minutes, held on 1 and 2 May. Three dress rehearsals were held with all artists, two held in the afternoon and evening of 3 May and one final rehearsal in the afternoon of 4 May. An audience was present for the second dress rehearsal on the evening of 3 May. About 300 journalists covered the event.
The production value of the 1991 contest came in for much criticism during the build-up and following the event, which may be partly explained by the relatively late change in contest venue from Sanremo to Rome. Rehearsals in the contest venue regularly started late as the orchestra failed on many occasions to arrive at the venue on time, and during the live broadcast, a number of technical mishaps occurred, including lighting failure during several of the entries and the failure of the venue's sound system during the Swedish entry. The voting sequence was also notably haphazard and several mistakes required rectification during the show, with the EBU's executive supervisor Frank Naef regularly called upon by the hosts for clarification.
Format.
Each participating broadcaster submitted one song, which was required to be no longer than three minutes in duration and performed in the language, or one of the languages, of the country which it represented. A maximum of six performers were allowed on stage during each country's performance, and all participants were required to have reached the age of 16 in the year of the contest. Each entry could utilise all or part of the live orchestra and could use instrumental-only backing tracks, however any backing tracks used could only include the sound of instruments featured on stage being mimed by the performers.
The results of the 1991 contest were determined through the same scoring system as had first been introduced in 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 each country were determined by an assembled jury of sixteen individuals, which was required to be split evenly between men and women and by 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. In a change to the rules compared to previous editions, half of the jury members in each country were now represented by music experts, comprising among other professions singers, composers, lyricists, musicians, conductors, music journalists, record company employees and radio or television producers. Only two members in each country were allowed to come from record companies, and no employees of the participating broadcasters themselves were allowed to sit on the juries.
Postcards.
Each entry was preceded by a video postcard which served as an introduction to each country, as well as providing an opportunity for transition between entries and allow stage crew to make changes on stage. The postcards for the 1991 contest featured pre-recorded clips of the competing artists performing short sections from Italian songs, superimposed onto images of Italian landmarks and locations which were intended to represent the artists' personalities. The song each artist performed during their postcard is listed below by order of performance, alongside the originator of the song in brackets:
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Contest overview.
The contest took place on 4 May 1991 at 21:00 (CEST) with a duration of 3 hours and 13 minutes. The show was presented by the Italian singers Gigliola Cinquetti and Toto Cutugno, the two artists which up until this point had won the contest for Italy, in 1964 and 1990 respectively. Unlike the majority of previous contest presenters, who had conducted the events in English and French, for the majority of the 1991 contest the two presenters spoke solely in Italian, with only the voting sequence being conducted in Italian, English and French.
The opening of the contest featured a pre-recorded music video of the American singer Sara Carlson performing "Celebration", which was followed by live performances from the contest hosts of their Eurovision winning songs, Cutugno's " and Cinquetti's ". The interval act comprised a performance by the Italian quick-change artist and illusionist Arturo Brachetti. The trophy awarded to the winners was presented at the end of the broadcast by Albert Scharf as the President of the European Broadcasting Union.
The winner was Sweden represented by the song "", written by Stephan Berg and performed by Carola. It was Sweden's third contest victory, following wins in 1974 and 1984. For the first time since 1969, and for only the second time ever in the contest's history, the voting sequence resulted in a draw for first place, with both France and Sweden finishing with 146 points each. The tie-break rules introduced for the 1989 contest were thus enacted: for any ties for first place the country which received the most 12 points would be declared the winner; if a tie still remained after examining the 12 points, each country's 10 points would then be compared to determine a winner. Both France and Sweden had scored four 12 point scores, however as Sweden had scored five 10 points compared to France's two they were declared the winners. During the traditional winner's reprise performance, Carola performed part of the winning song in English, with lyrics written by Richard Hampton.
Spokespersons.
Each country nominated a spokesperson, connected to the contest venue via telephone lines and responsible for announcing, in English or French, the votes for their respective country. Known spokespersons at the 1991 contest are listed below.
Detailed voting results.
Jury voting was used to determine the points awarded by all countries. The announcement of the