International song competition
The Eurovision Song Contest 1993 was the 38th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, held on 15 May 1993 at the Green Glens Arena in Millstreet, Ireland. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster (RTÉ), and presented by Fionnuala Sweeney, the contest was held in Ireland following the country's victory at the 1992 contest with the song "Why Me?" performed by Linda Martin.
Twenty-five countries participated in the contest, the largest yet held. Twenty-two of the twenty-three countries that had participated in the previous year's event returned, with Yugoslavia prevented from competing following the closure of its national broadcaster and the placement of sanctions against the country as a response to the Yugoslav Wars. In response to an increased interest in participation from former Eastern Bloc countries following the collapse of communist regimes, three spaces in the event were allocated to first-time participating countries, which would be determined through a qualifying competition. Held in April 1993 in Ljubljana, Slovenia, featured entries from seven countries and resulted in the entries from the former Yugoslav republics of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovenia progressing to the contest in Millstreet.
For the second year in a row, the winner was Ireland with the song "In Your Eyes", written by Jimmy Walsh and performed by Niamh Kavanagh. The United Kingdom, Switzerland, France, and Norway completed the top five, with the United Kingdom achieving their second consecutive runner-up placing. Ireland achieved their fifth victory in the contest, matching the overall record held by France and Luxembourg, and joined Israel, Luxembourg and Spain as countries with wins in successive contests.
Location.
The 1993 contest took place in Millstreet, Ireland, following the country's victory at the 1992 edition with the song "Why Me?", performed by Linda Martin. It was the fourth time that Ireland had hosted the contest, having previously staged the event in 1971, 1981 and 1988, with all previous events held in the country's capital city Dublin.
The Green Glens Arena, an indoor arena used primarily for equestrian events, was chosen as the contest venue, with its owner Noel C Duggan offering the use of the venue for free, as well as pledging a further from local businesses for the staging of the event. Individuals within RTÉ, including the organisation's Director-General Joe Barry, were interested in staging the event outside of Dublin for the first time, and alongside Dublin RTÉ production teams scouted locations in rural Ireland in the months following Ireland's win. Although the contest had previously been held in smaller towns, such as Harrogate, an English town of 70,000 people which staged the 1982 contest, with a population of 1,500, Millstreet became the smallest settlement to stage the event at that time and continues to hold the record as of 2024[ [update]]. The arena would have an audience of around 3,500 during the contest. The choice of Millstreet and the Green Glens Arena to stage the contest was met with some ridicule, with BBC journalist Nicholas Witchell referring to the venue as a "cowshed", however Millstreet had won out over more conventional locations, including Dublin and Galway, due to the facilities available in the Green Glens Arena and the town's local community which were hugely enthusiastic about the event being staged in their area.
Due to the small size of Millstreet, delegations were primarily based in surrounding settlements, including Killarney and other towns in counties Cork and Kerry. Alongside Millstreet itself, Killarney and Cork City held receptions for the competing delegates during the week of the contest, at the Great Southern Hotel in Killarney and Cork's City Hall, the latter hosted by the Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht.
Participating countries.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Eurovision Song Contest regularly featured over twenty participating countries in each edition, and by 1992 an increasing number of countries had begun expressing an interest in joining the event for the first time. This came as a result of revolutions among many European countries that led to the fall of communist regimes and the formation of liberal democratic government among existing states and newly sovereign countries formed from entities within the former Soviet Union and Yugoslavia. In an effort to incorporate these new countries into the contest, the contest organisers the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) raised the maximum number of participating countries to twenty-five – the highest number yet seen in the contest – creating space for three new countries to participate alongside twenty-two of the twenty-three countries that had participated in the 1992 contest. Yugoslavia – which had participated in the contest since 1961 – was unable to participate as its EBU member broadcaster (JRT) was disbanded in 1992 and its successor organisations (RTS) and (RTCG) were barred from joining the EBU due to sanctions against the country as part of the Yugoslav Wars.
As a temporary solution for the 1993 contest, a qualifying round was organised to determine the three countries which participate in the final for the first time. Subsequently, for the 1994 contest, a relegation system was introduced which would bar the lowest-scoring countries from participating in the following year's event. At the running order draw, held in December 1992 at the National Concert Hall in Dublin and hosted by Pat Kenny and Linda Martin, the three new countries were represented as Countries A, B and C, corresponding with the countries that would place first, second and third in the qualifying competition respectively. Entitled , the qualifying round took place on 3 April 1993 in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Initially broadcasters in as many as fourteen countries registered an interest in competing in the event, however only seven countries eventually submitted entries, representing Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Estonia, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. Ultimately the entries from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovenia were chosen to progress to the contest proper in Millstreet; as constituent republics of SFR Yugoslavia, representatives from all three countries had previously competed in the contest.
A number of artists who had previously participated in the contest were featured among the performers at this event, either as the main performing artist or as backing performers: Tony Wegas represented Austria for a second consecutive year, and among his backing performers was Gary Lux, who had previously represented Austria in the contest on three occasions, as a member of the group Westend in 1983 and as a solo artist in 1985 and 1987; Katri Helena made a second contest appearance for Finland, having previously competed in 1979; Denmark's Tommy Seebach, having previously competed in 1979 as a solo artist and in 1981 alongside Debbie Cameron, competed in the 1993 contest as part of the Seebach Band; and Humphrey Campbell, who had represented the Netherlands in the previous year's event, returned as a backing singer for the Dutch entrant Ruth Jacott.
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Production and format.
The Eurovision Song Contest 1993 was produced by the Irish public broadcaster (RTÉ). Liam Miller served as executive producer, Kevin Linehan served as producer, Anita Notaro served as director, Alan Farquharson served as designer, and Noel Kelehan served as musical director, leading the RTÉ Concert Orchestra. 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 Christian Clausen as scrutineer.
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 1993 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 members of the public and music professionals, 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.
The 1993 contest was at the time the largest outside broadcast production ever undertaken by RTÉ, and the broadcaster was reported to have spent over on producing the event. In order to stage the event Millstreet and the Green Glens Arena underwent major infrastructure improvements, which were led by local groups and individuals. The floor area within the arena had to be dug out in order to create additional height to facilitate the stage and equipment, extra phone lines had to be installed, and the town's railway line and station required an extension at an extra cost of over .
The stage design for the Millstreet contest featured the largest stage yet constructed for the event, covering 2,500ft² (232m²) of translucent material which was illuminated from below by lighting strips. A mirror image of the triangular shaped stage was suspended from above, and a slanted background created a distorted perspective for the viewer. A hidden doorway featured in the centre of the stage, which was used by the presenter at the beginning of the show, and by the winning artist as they re-entered the arena following the broadcast. The contest logo, which was publicly presented in February 1993, was designed by Conor Cassidy and was adapted from aspects of the coat of arms of County Cork.
Rehearsals for the participating artists began on 10 May 1993. 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 were held on 10 and 11 May, consisting of a 15-minute stage-call for the setting up of the stage with instruments and equipment and to brief the orchestra, followed by a 25-minute rehearsal, with the second rehearsals held on 12 and 13 May comprising a 10-minute stage call and 20-minute rehearsal. Following each first rehearsal, there was an opportunity for delegates to review their rehearsals on video monitors, as well as to take part in a 25-minute press conference. Three dress rehearsals were held with all artists, two held in the afternoon and evening of 14 May and one final rehearsal in the afternoon of 15 May. An audience was present for the second dress rehearsal on the evening of 14 May, which was highly attended by the local population of Millstreet.
Contest overview.
The contest took place on 15 May 1993 at 20:00 (IST) and lasted 3 hours and 1 minute. The show was presented by the Irish journalist Fionnuala Sweeney.
The contest was opened by an animated sequence designed by Gary Keenan and inspired by Celtic mythology, set to Irish traditional music by composers Ronan Johnston and Shea Fitzgerald and featuring uilleann pipes player Davy Spillane. The interval act comprised performances by previous Eurovision winners Linda Martin, reprising her winning song from the previous year's contest "Why Me?", and Johnny Logan, performing the song "Voices (Are Calling)" with choirs from the Cork School of Music and local children of Millstreet. The trophy awarded to the winners was crafted by Waterford Crystal and was presented by Linda Martin.
The winner was Ireland represented by the song "In Your Eyes", written by Jimmy Walsh and performed by Niamh Kavanagh.