| Eurovision Song Contest | |
| Year: | 1997 |
| Musdirector: | Frank McNamara |
| Director: | Ian McGarry |
| Scrutineer: | Marie-Claire Vionnet |
| Exproducer: | Noel Curran |
| Host: | Irish: [[RTÉ|Radio Telefís Éireann]]|i=unset (RTÉ) |
| Venue: | Point Theatre, Dublin, Ireland |
| Vote: | Each country awarded 12, 10, 8–1 points to their ten favourite songs |
| Entries: | 25 |
| Debut: | None |
| Map Relegation: | Y |
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 Irish: [[RTÉ|Radio Telefís Éireann]]|i=unset (RTÉ) and presented by Carrie Crowley and Ronan Keating, the contest was held in Ireland following the country's victory at the 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 and 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. made its first appearance since, and,, and returned after last competing in, having been prevented from competing the previous year after failing to progress from that event's qualifying round., and, participants in the previous year's contest, were unable to return after being excluded by the new relegation rules.
The winner was the with the song "Love Shine a Light", written by Kimberley Rew and performed by Katrina and the Waves.,, Italy and 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 . 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.
The 1997 contest took place in Dublin, Ireland, following the country's victory at the 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,,,, and, with all previous events held in Dublin except the 1993 contest which was held in Millstreet.[1] 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 .[2] [3]
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.[4] 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.[5] [6] 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.
Per the rules of the contest twenty-five countries were allowed to participate in the event.,, and made a return to the contest after failing to progress from the qualifying round in the previous year's contest, and returned after last competing in . Conversely, and, 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 and Maarja-Liis Ilus, after previously participating with Ivo Linna in Oslo, competing as a solo artist for . Alma Čardžić also made a second appearance in the contest, having previously represented Bosnia and Herzegovina in . 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, and Soriat had supported Austrian entrant in the previous year's event.[7] [8]
| + Eurovision Song Contest 1997 participants[9] | |||||||
| Country | Broadcaster | Artist | Song | Language | Songwriter(s) | Conductor | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORF | Bettina Soriat | "One Step" | German | ||||
| RTVBiH | Alma Čardžić | "Goodbye" | Bosnian | Sinan Alimanović | |||
| HRT | E.N.I. | "Croatian: Probudi me|i=unset" | Croatian | ||||
| CyBC | Hara and Andreas Konstantinou | "Greek, Modern (1453-);: Mana mou|i=unset" (Greek, Modern (1453-);: Μάνα μου) | Greek | Constantina Konstantinou | Stavros Lantsias | ||
| DR | Kølig Kaj | "Danish: Stemmen i mit liv|i=unset" | Danish | Jan Glæsel | |||
| ETV | Maarja | "Estonian: Keelatud maa|i=unset" | Estonian | Tarmo Leinatamm | |||
| French: [[France Télévisions|France Télévision]]|i=unset | Fanny | "French: Sentiments songes|i=unset" | French | Jean-Paul Dréau | Régis Dupré | ||
| NDR | Bianca Shomburg | "German: Zeit|i=unset" | German | ||||
| ERT | Marianna Zorba | "Greek, Modern (1453-);: Horepse|i=unset" (Greek, Modern (1453-);: Χόρεψε) | Greek | Manolis Manouselis | Anacreon Papageorgiou | ||
| MTV | V.I.P. | "Hungarian: [[Miért kell, hogy elmenj?]]|i=unset" | Hungarian | Péter Wolf | |||
| RÚV | Paul Oscar | "Icelandic: Minn hinsti dans|i=unset" | Icelandic | Szymon Kuran | |||
| RTÉ | Marc Roberts | "Mysterious Woman" | English | John Farry | |||
| RAI | Jalisse | "Italian: [[Fiumi di parole]]|i=unset" | Italian | Lucio Fabbri | |||
| PBS | Debbie Scerri | "Let Me Fly" | English | Ray Agius | Ray Agius | ||
| NOS | Mrs. Einstein | "Dutch; Flemish: Niemand heeft nog tijd|i=unset" | Dutch | Ed Hooijmans | Dick Bakker | ||
| NRK | Tor Endresen | "San Francisco" | Norwegian | Geir Langslet | |||
| TVP | Anna Maria Jopek | "Polish: Ale jestem|i=unset" | Polish | Krzesimir Dębski | |||
| RTP | Célia Lawson | "Portuguese: Antes do adeus|i=unset" | Portuguese | Thilo Krasmann | |||
| ORT | Alla Pugacheva | "Italian: Primadonna|i=unset" (Russian: Примадонна) | Russian | Alla Pugacheva | Rutger Gunnarsson | ||
| RTVSLO | Tanja Ribič | "Slovenian: Zbudi se|i=unset" | Slovene | Mojmir Sepe | |||
| TVE | Marcos Llunas | "Spanish; Castilian: Sin rencor|i=unset" | Spanish | Marcos Llunas | Toni Xuclà | ||
| SVT | Blond | "Swedish: Bara hon älskar mig|i=unset" | Swedish | Stephan Berg | Curt-Eric Holmquist | ||
| SRG SSR | Barbara Berta | "Italian: Dentro di me|i=unset" | Italian | Barbara Berta | Pietro Damiani | ||
| TRT | Şebnem Paker and Grup Ethnic | "Turkish: Dinle|i=unset" | Turkish | Levent Çoker | |||
| BBC | Katrina and the Waves | "Love Shine a Light" | English | Kimberley Rew | Don Airey |
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.[10] 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.[11] 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.[11]
Belgium,, Finland,,, and Slovakia were therefore excluded from participating in the 1997 contest;[11] however following '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. was also excluded due to their failure to progress through the qualifying round in 1996.[12] The calculations used to determine the countries relegated for the 1997 contest are outlined in the table below.
Table key
| + Calculation of average points to determine qualification for the 1997 contest | ||||||
| Rank | Country | Average | Yearly Point Totals[13] [14] [15] [16] | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ‡ | 154.75 | 187 | 226 | 44 | 162 |
| 2 | 114.50 | 120 | 76 | 148 | 114 | |
| 3 | 95.00 | 164 | 63 | 76 | 77 | |
| 4 | 84.25 | 89 | 48 | 100 | 100 | |
| 5 | 77.50 | 69 | 97 | 76 | 68 | |
| 6 | 76.75 | 121 | 74 | 94 | 18 | |
| 7 | 70.67 | 166 | 15 | 31 | ||
| 8 | 62.50 | 122 | 3 | |||
| 9 | 61.75 | 31 | 27 | 91 | 98 | |
| 10 | 61.67 | 148 | 15 | 22 | ||
| 11 | 58.00 | 92 | 4 | 78 | ||
| 12 | 57.50 | 60 | 73 | 5 | 92 | |
| 13 | 54.75 | 17 | 51 | 79 | 72 | |
| 14 | 53.00 | 64 | 44 | 68 | 36 | |
| 15 | 52.75 | 58 | 17 | 119 | 17 | |
| 16 | 50.50 | 9 | 92 | |||
| 17 | 49.00 | 18 | 128 | 1 | ||
| 18 | 48.00 | 2 | 94 | |||
| 19 | 46.50 | 32 | 19 | 67 | 68 | |
| 20 | 45.00 | 45 | ||||
| 21 | 43.50 | 70 | 17 | |||
| 22 | 43.25 | 42 | 49 | 31 | 51 | |
| 23 | 42.50 | 4 | 81 | |||
| 24 | 36.33 | 9 | 84 | 16 | ||
| 25 | 29.33 | 10 | 21 | 57 | ||
| 26 | 23.25 | 27 | 39 | 14 | 13 | |
| 27 | 17.00 | 15 | 19 | |||
| 28 | 14.00 | 14 | ||||
| 29 | 13.33 | 20 | 11 | 9 | ||
| 30 | 11.00 | 3 | 8 | 22 | ||
| 31 | 11.00 | 11 | ||||
| 32 | 0.00 | 0 | ||||
| – | ||||||