| Eurovision Song Contest | |
| Year: | 1987 |
| Final: | 9 May 1987 |
| Presenters: | Viktor Lazlo |
| Musdirector: | Jo Carlier |
| Director: | Jacques Bourton |
| Exsupervisor: | Frank Naef |
| Exproducer: | Michel Gehu |
| Host: | French: [[RTBF|Radio-télévision belge de la Communauté française]]|i=unset (RTBF) |
| Venue: | Centenary Palace Brussels, Belgium |
| Winner: | "Hold Me Now" |
| Vote: | Each country awarded 1-12 point(s) to their 10 favourite songs |
| Entries: | 22 |
| Debut: | None |
| Map Nosemis: | Y |
The Eurovision Song Contest 1987 was the 32nd edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Brussels, Belgium, following the country's victory at the with the song "J'aime la vie" by Sandra Kim. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster French: [[RTBF|Radio-télévision belge de la Communauté française]]|i=unset (RTBF), the contest was held at the Centenary Palace on 9 May 1987 (also Europe Day) and hosted by French-Belgian singer Viktor Lazlo.
Twenty-two countries took part in the contest with and returning to the competition after their absences the previous year. This set the record for the highest number of competing countries up until that point.
The winner was with the song "Hold Me Now" by Johnny Logan, who had also won the contest. He became the first performer to have won the Eurovision Song Contest twice.
The contest took place at the Brussels Exhibition Centre (Brussels Expo) in Brussels, Belgium. These are a set of exhibition halls built from 1930 on the Heysel/Heizel Plateau (Heysel Park) in Laeken (northern part of the City of Brussels) to celebrate the centenary of Belgian Independence. The Centenary Palace (French: Palais du Centenaire|link=no, Dutch; Flemish: Eeuwfeestpaleis|link=no), where the main stage was located, is one of the remaining buildings of the Brussels International Exposition of 1935. Currently, it is still being used for trade fairs, as well as concerts, usually for bigger acts and artists.
During the selection process of the host city and venue, a joint committee from the two Belgian broadcasters was created by the EBU. The committee also decided that a potential place for the contest was the Royal Theatre of Antwerp, as both locations proposed by RTBF (the Palais du Centenaire in Brussels and the in Liege), but they would have required heavy renovation works to meet the proposed technical specifications for the contest. Nevertheless, RTBF demanded the event to be held in Brussels with the argument that the city symbolized more than the Belgium capital itself, in addition to its federal functions as the capital of the country (but almost all governing bodies of the European Union also located there). On 6 October 1986, seven months ahead of the contest, RTBF surprisingly and one-sidedly announced that the Palais du Centenaire was chosen as the host venue for the Eurovision Song Contest 1987. The Flemish newspaper Dutch; Flemish: [[Het Laatste Nieuws]], published that BRT proposed instead to host the contest at the Cirque Royal, near the Royal Palace of Brussels, adding that RTBF would be solely in charge of organizing the contest if BRT's counteroffer was not chosen. However, RTBF moved forward alone with its plans and confirmed that the Palais du Centenaire was the official contest's host venue. BRT was offended by the choice of Brussels as the host city, and withdrew from the organization, but kept the duties to choose the host's country contestant.
The 1987 Eurovision was the biggest contest to date, and it was also the first in which 22 countries competed. Only, and failed to compete out of all the countries which had entered the contest in the past. To date, this was the largest number of countries participating in the contest, with the maximum number up until then being 20. As this had never happened, the EBU was forced to review the rules and production calendar after this edition, and fearing that the number would increase again, it was decided that from this edition onwards, the maximum number of participants would also be 22. This was a problematic question over the next six years as new and returning nations indicated an interest in participating, but they could not be accommodated.[1]
| + Participants of the Eurovision Song Contest 1987[2] [3] [4] | |||||||
| Country | Broadcaster | Artist | Song | Language | Songwriter(s) | Conductor | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORF | Gary Lux | "German: Nur noch Gefühl|i=unset" | German | Richard Oesterreicher | |||
| BRT | Liliane Saint-Pierre | "Soldiers of Love" | Dutch | Freddy Sunder | |||
| CyBC | Alexia | "Greek, Modern (1453-);: Aspro mavro|i=unset" (Greek, Modern (1453-);: Άσπρο μαύρο) | Greek | Jo Carlier | |||
| DR | Bandjo with Anne-Cathrine Herdorf | "Danish: En lille melodi|i=unset" | Danish | Henrik Krogsgaard | |||
| YLE | Vicky Rosti | "Finnish: Sata salamaa|i=unset" | Finnish | Ossi Runne | |||
| French: [[France 2|Antenne 2]]|i=unset | Christine Minier | "French: Les mots d'amour n'ont pas de dimanche|i=unset" | French | Jean-Claude Petit | |||
| BR | Wind | "German: Laß die Sonne in dein Herz|i=unset" | German | Laszlo Bencker | |||
| ERT | Bang | "Stop" (Greek, Modern (1453-);: Στοπ) | Greek | Giorgos Niarchos | |||
| RÚV | Halla Margrét | "Icelandic: Hægt og hljótt|i=unset" | Icelandic | Valgeir Guðjónsson | Hjálmar H. Ragnarsson | ||
| RTÉ | Johnny Logan | "Hold Me Now" | English | Séan Sherrard | Noel Kelehan | ||
| IBA | Datner and Kushnir | "Hebrew: [[Shir Habatlanim]]|i=unset" (Hebrew: שיר הבטלנים) | Hebrew | Zohar Laskov | Kobi Oshrat | ||
| RAI | Umberto Tozzi and Raf | "Italian: [[Gente di mare]]|i=unset" | Italian | Gianfranco Lombardi | |||
| CLT | Plastic Bertrand | "French: Amour amour|i=unset" | French | Alec Mansion | |||
| NOS | Marcha | "Dutch; Flemish: Rechtop in de wind|i=unset" | Dutch | Peter Koelewijn | Rogier van Otterloo | ||
| NRK | Kate Gulbrandsen | "Norwegian: Mitt liv|i=unset" | Norwegian | Terje Fjærn | |||
| RTP | Nevada | "Portuguese: Neste barco à vela|i=unset" | Portuguese | Jaime Oliveira | |||
| TVE | Patricia Kraus | "Spanish; Castilian: No estás solo|i=unset" | Spanish | Eduardo Leiva | |||
| SVT | Lotta Engberg | "Boogaloo" | Swedish | Curt-Eric Holmquist | |||
| SRG SSR | Carol Rich | "French: Moitié moitié|i=unset" | French | Jean-Jacques Egli | |||
| TRT | Seyyal Taner and Grup Lokomotif | "Turkish: Şarkım Sevgi Üstüne|i=unset" | Turkish | Olcayto Ahmet Tuğsuz | Garo Mafyan | ||
| BBC | Rikki | "Only the Light" | English | Richard Peebles | Ronnie Hazlehurst | ||
| JRT | [[Novi fosili]]|i=unset | "Ja sam za ples|i=unset" (Ја сам за плес) | Serbo-Croatian | Nikica Kalogjera |
Bold indicates a previous winner.
| Artist | Country | Previous year(s) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gary Lux | 1983 (member of Westend), 1984 (as backing singer for Anita), 1985 | ||
| Alexia | 1981 (member of Island) | ||
| Wind | 1985 | ||
| Johnny Logan | 1980 |
By 1986, Belgium has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 30 times since making its debut at the first contest in along 6 other countries. Before Sandra Kim's win, Belgium was the only one of the 7 founding countries to have never won the contest and had only finished in the top five four times (with Tonia's fourth place in, Jean Vallée's second place in, Stella's fourth place in and Jacques Zegers's fifth place in).
Sandra Kim's Eurovision victory in 1986 occurred amidst a complex political situation in Belgium. The country was undergoing massive constitutional reforms in which the Belgian state was transitioning from a centralized to a federal system. This was due to rising tensions between the two major linguistic regions of Belgium, Dutch-speaking Flanders and French-speaking Wallonia. Both regions had had independent broadcasters since 1960 (BRT in Flanders and RTBF in Wallonia) but had still agreed to jointly host the contest in the event of a Belgian victory. While the triumph of "French: J'aime la vie|i=unset" in 1986an entry sent by French-speaking RTBFreignited a sense of national union across all Belgian regions, the two regional broadcasters weren't able to overcome their disagreements and joint host the competition.[5] During the production of the event, BRT eventually withdrew from the project and RTBF organised the contest alone as host broadcaster.[6] As a consequence, the host country images in Eurovision 1987 mostly showed footage of Wallonia. BRT still remained in charge of the selection of the Belgian entry for the contest. [7]
Holding the contest in Belgium caused several legal changes in the country's system and forced the implementation of most of the modern rules and regulations on the monetization of public television. This led to the authorization of advertising, sponsorships and marketing actions in the two public channels in the country. As a consequence, the RTBF was also allowed to sell sponsorship quotas for the event, setting a new precedent for the Eurovision Song Contest.
For RTBF, this decision was a relief as the event was almost entirely funded with private funds. This opened the doors to the commercial potential of the event itself, starting a period of modernization and increased interest for the event.[8] Apart from the latent tensions, after the end of the contest the then-president of the BRT Cas Goossens praised RTBF for their "perfect organization" while at the same time regretting that the two broadcasters weren't able to collaborate. He added that the cost of hosting Eurovision would have been difficult to justify to the Flemish taxpayers.
| + Results of the Eurovision Song Contest 1987[9] | ||||||
| Country | Artist | Song | Points | Place | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Norwegian: Mitt liv|i=unset" | 65 | 9 | |||
| 2 | Datner and Kushnir | "Hebrew: [[Shir Habatlanim]]|i=unset" | 73 | 8 | ||
| 3 | "German: Nur noch Gefühl|i=unset" | 8 | 20 | |||
| 4 | Halla Margrét | "Icelandic: Hægt og hljótt|i=unset" | 28 | 16 | ||
| 5 | "Soldiers of Love" | 56 | 11 | |||
| 6 | "Boogaloo" | 50 | 12 | |||
| 7 | and Raf | "Italian: [[Gente di mare]]|i=unset" | 103 | 3 | ||
| 8 | Nevada | "Portuguese: Neste barco à vela|i=unset" | 15 | 18 | ||
| 9 | "Spanish; Castilian: No estás solo|i=unset" | 10 | 19 | |||
| 10 | and Grup Lokomotif | "Turkish: Şarkım Sevgi Üstüne|i=unset" | 0 | 22 | ||
| 11 | Bang | "Stop" | 64 | 10 | ||
| 12 | Marcha | "Dutch; Flemish: Rechtop in de wind|i=unset" | 83 | 5 | ||
| 13 | Plastic Bertrand | "French: Amour amour|i=unset" | 4 | 21 | ||
| 14 | Rikki | "Only the Light" | 47 | 13 | ||
| 15 | "French: Les mots d'amour n'ont pas de dimanche|i=unset" | 44 | 14 | |||
| 16 | Wind | "German: Laß die Sonne in dein Herz|i=unset" | 141 | 2 | ||
| 17 | Alexia | "Greek, Modern (1453-);: Aspro mavro|i=unset" | 80 | 7 | ||
| 18 | "Finnish: Sata salamaa|i=unset" | 32 | 15 | |||
| 19 | Bandjo with Anne-Cathrine Herdorf | "Danish: En lille melodi|i=unset" | 83 | 5 | ||
| 20 | "Hold Me Now" | 172 | 1 | |||
| 21 | [[Novi fosili]]|i=unset | "Ja sam za ples|i=unset" | 92 | 4 | ||
| 22 | "French: Moitié moitié|i=unset" | 26 | 17 |
Each country nominated a spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for their respective country via telephone. Known spokespersons at the 1987 contest are listed below.
| + Detailed voting results[14] [15] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| scope="col" | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Norway | 65 | 4 | 7 | 10 | 7 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 7 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 6 | ||||||||||
| Israel | 73 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 4 | 10 | 3 | 4 | 10 | 8 | 7 | 5 | 8 | ||||||||||
| Austria | 8 | 1 | 7 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Iceland | 28 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 10 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Belgium | 56 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 7 | 4 | 5 | 8 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 4 | |||||||||||
| Sweden | 50 | 12 | 8 | 1 | 3 | 7 | 2 | 3 | 7 | 7 | ||||||||||||||
| Italy | 103 | 3 | 6 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 12 | 12 | 8 | 4 | 1 | 12 | 1 | 4 | 12 | 12 | 7 | |||||||
| Portugal | 15 | 8 | 5 | 2 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Spain | 10 | 10 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Turkey | 0 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Greece | 64 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 8 | 5 | 7 | 5 | 7 | 12 | 6 | 5 | ||||||||||||
| Netherlands | 83 | 5 | 2 | 10 | 5 | 7 | 3 | 8 | 3 | 12 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 8 | 10 | |||||||||
| Luxembourg | 4 | 2 | 2 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| United Kingdom | 47 | 10 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 5 | ||||||||||
| France | 44 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 12 | 5 | 10 | 2 | ||||||||||||||
| Germany | 141 | 3 | 8 | 10 | 12 | 10 | 7 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 6 | 10 | 6 | 10 | 6 | 6 | 10 | 12 | 7 | 7 | 1 | |||
| Cyprus | 80 | 6 | 6 | 2 | 12 | 2 | 6 | 5 | 3 | 6 | 10 | 8 | 10 | 4 | ||||||||||
| Finland | 32 | 10 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 8 | 2 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||||||
| Denmark | 83 | 7 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 8 | 4 | 3 | ||||||||
| Ireland | 172 | 8 | 4 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 8 | 10 | 10 | 12 | 10 | 12 | 1 | 6 | 8 | 12 | 5 | 6 | 12 | ||||
| Yugoslavia | 92 | 12 | 7 | 8 | 10 | 8 | 6 | 6 | 12 | 2 | 2 | 10 | 8 | 1 | ||||||||||
| Switzerland | 26 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 7 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 3 | |||||||||||||||
Below is a summary of all 12 points in the final:
| N. | Contestant | Nation(s) giving 12 points |
|---|---|---|
| 8 | ,,,,,,, | |
| 5 | ,,,, | |
| 2 | , | |
| , | ||
| 1 | ||
| + Broadcasters and commentators in participating countries | ||||
| Country | Broadcaster | Channel(s) | Commentator(s) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORF | FS1 | Ernst Grissemann | [17] [18] | |
| BRT | TV1 | Luc Appermont | [19] | |
| BRT 2 | [20] | |||
| RTBF | RTBF1 | |||
| CyBC | RIK, Greek, Modern (1453-);: A Programma|i=unset | [21] [22] | ||
| DR | DR TV | Jørgen de Mylius | [23] | |
| KNR | KNR | [24] | ||
| SVF | [25] | |||
| YLE | TV1, Finnish: {{ill|Rinnakkaisohjelma|fi|lt=2-verkko | Erkki Toivanen | [26] | |
| French: [[France 2|Antenne 2]]|i=unset | Patrick Simpson-Jones | [27] [28] | ||
| ARD | German: [[Das Erste|Erstes Deutsches Fernsehen]]|i=unset | and | [29] | |
| ERT | ERT1 | [30] | ||
| RÚV | Icelandic: [[RÚV (TV channel)|Sjónvarpið]]|i=unset, Icelandic: [[Rás 1]]|i=unset | Kolbrún Halldórsdóttir | [31] | |
| RTÉ | RTÉ 1 | Marty Whelan | [32] | |
| RTÉ FM3 | Larry Gogan | [33] | ||
| IBA | Israeli Television | [34] | ||
| RAI | Italian: [[Rai 2|Rai Due]]|i=unset | Rosanna Vaudetti | [35] | |
| CLT | French: [[RTL9|RTL Télévision]]|i=unset | [36] | ||
| RTL plus | ||||
| NOS | Dutch; Flemish: [[NPO 1|Nederland 1]]|i=unset | Willem van Beusekom | [37] | |
| NRK | Norwegian: [[NRK1|NRK Fjernsynet]]|i=unset, NRK P2 | John Andreassen | [38] [39] | |
| RTP | RTP1 | [40] | ||
| TVE | TVE 2 | [41] | ||
| SVT | TV1 | Fredrik Belfrage | ||
| SR P3 | Jacob Dahlin | |||
| SRG SSR | [42] [43] [44] | |||
| French: [[Radio Télévision Suisse|SSR Chaîne sportive]]|i=unset | ||||
| Italian: [[Radiotelevisione svizzera|TSI Canale sportivo]]|i=unset | ||||
| TRT | TV1 | [45] | ||
| BBC | BBC1 | Terry Wogan | [46] [47] | |
| BBC Radio 2 | Ray Moore | [48] | ||
| JRT | [[RTS1 (Serbian TV channel)|TV Beograd 1]]|i=unset, TV Zagreb 1, TV Novi Sad, TV Sarajevo 1, TV Titograd 1 | Ksenija Urličić | [49] [50] [51] | |
| TV Koper-Capodistria | [52] | |||
| Vesna Pfeifer | ||||
| TV Skopje 1 | ||||
| + Broadcasters and commentators in non-participating countries | |||||
| Country | Broadcaster | Channel(s) | Commentator(s) | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SBS | SBS TV | [53] | |||
| ČST | ČST2 | [54] | |||
| ETV | [55] | ||||
| MTV | MTV2 | István Vágó | [56] | ||
| JRTV | JTV2 | [57] | |||
| TP | TP1 | [58] | |||
| CT USSR | Programme One | [59] | |||
