1987 Eurovision Song Contest

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 Radio-télévision belge de la Communauté française (RTBF), the contest was held at the Centenary Palace on 9 May 1987 (also Europe Day) and was 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. Johnny Logan had also won the contest, and he remains the only performer to have won the Eurovision Song Contest twice.

Location

The contest took place at the Brussels Exhibition Centre (Brussels Expo) in Brussels, Belgium, 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, nl, 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.

Host city selection

An expert committee designated the Royal Theatre of Antwerp as the ideal hosting venue, as both locations proposed by the Francophones (the Palais du Centenaire in Brussels and the in Liege) would have required too much renovation work. Nevertheless, RTBF demanded that the contest be hosted in Brussels, Belgium's capital city. On 6 October 1986, 7 months before the contest, RTBF unilaterally announced that the Palais du Centenaire in Brussels would host Eurovision 1987. In the Flemish newspaper , BRT proposed instead to host Eurovision at the Cirque Royal, also located in Brussels, adding that RTBF would be solely in charge of organizing the contest if BRT's counter-offer was not taken into consideration. However, RTBF moved forward and confirmed the Palais du Centenaire as the host venue of Eurovision 1987. The Flemish broadcaster was offended by the choice of Brussels as host city, and withdrew from the organization.

Format

Host broadcaster

Sandra Kim's Eurovision victory in 1986 occurred amidst a complex political situation in Belgium: starting in the 80s, the country transitioned from a central to a federal government model 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 "" 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 to allow for a joint hosting of the 1987 contest. BRT eventually withdrew from the project and RTBF organised the contest alone as host broadcaster. BRT remained in charge of the selection of the Belgian entry for the contest, as in all other odd-numbered years until 1993.

In her academic study "Which Belgium Won Eurovision? European Unity and Belgian Disunity" published in 2019, scholar Julie Kalman describes how, as a consequence, the opening of Eurovision 1987 mostly showed footage of Wallonia.

Budget

The necessary budget was so important that a new law had to be adopted, allowing the use of advertising to finance the Belgian public channels. This was the first time that sponsors helped to produce the contest and appeared on screen.HAUTIER Jean-Pierre, ''La folie de l’Eurovision'', Bruxelles, Editions de l’Arbre, 2010, p.65. After the closing of the 1987 contest, BRT President Cas Goossens praised RTBF for a "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.

Contest overview

The 1987 Eurovision was the biggest contest at that time, with 22 countries taking part. Only , and failed to compete out of all the countries which had entered the contest in the past. Due to the number of countries, and the time it took for the contest to be held, the EBU set the limit of competing countries to 22. This became problematic over the next few years as new and returning nations indicated an interest in participating, but could not be accommodated.

Controversy erupted in Israel after their song was selected, "Shir Habatlanim" by the Lazy Bums. The comedic performance was criticised by the country's culture minister, who threatened to resign should the duo proceed to Brussels. They went on to perform for Israel, placing eighth; however the culture minister's threat was left unfulfilled.

The presenter was Viktor Lazlo who agreed to present the contest on the condition she was allowed to open with a song of her own, "Breathless".

Participating countries

Conductors

Each performance had a conductor who directed the orchestra.

* Terje Fjærn
* Kobi Oshrat
*
* Hjálmar H. Ragnarsson
*
* Curt-Eric Holmquist
*
* Jaime Oliveira
* Eduardo Leiva
* Garo Mafyan
* Yiorgos Niarchos
* Rogier van Otterloo
*
* Ronnie Hazlehurst
* Jean-Claude Petit
* Laszlo Bencker
*
* Ossi Runne
*
* Noel Kelehan
*
* ''no conductor''

Returning artists

Bold indicates a previous winner.

Participants and results

Detailed voting results

12 points

Below is a summary of all 12 points in the final:

Spokespersons

Each country announced their votes in the order of performance. The following is a list of spokespersons who announced the votes for their respective country.

*
* Yitzhak Shim'oni
*
* Guðrún Skúladóttir
* An Ploegaerts
*
*
* Ana Zanatti
* Matilde Jarrín
* Canan Kumbasar
* Irini Gavala
*
* Frédérique Ries
* Colin Berry
*
* Anna Partelidou
* Solveig Herlin
*
* Brendan Balfe
* Ljiljana Tipsarević
* Michel Stocker

Broadcasts

National broadcasters were able to send a commentary team to the contest, in order to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language.

See also

*Eurovision Young Dancers 1987

Notes

References

External links

*

{{Portal bar, Music

1987
Music festivals in Belgium
1987 in music
1987 in Belgium
1980s in Brussels
May 1987 events in Europe
Events in Brussels