After hosting Eurovision in Millstreet, RTE probably realised what a headache it was and moved back to Dublin for this year. Also, relegation (ugh) was introduced, so Belgium, Denmark (noooo), Israel, Luxembourg, Slovenia (noooooooooooooo) and Turkey were relegated. Initially, Cyprus was also going to be relegated, but Italy withdrew voluntarily and they were admitted to the contest after all. All of this was done to let the KzM NQs (Estonia, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia) in, as well as three new countries: Lithuania, Poland and Russia. Also, Riverdance! But more about it at the end of the article.
We’re staying in Ireland for the foreseeable future, but in Millstreet this time. Since the EBU received applications from 14 new countries, they’ve implemented a one-off elimination round (held in Ljubljana, not Millstreet). So let’s see if the qualifiers were right and then review the rest of the year.
It’s Malmö time for the first of three times. Sweden won it with Carola and they’re ready to host a very calm and professional show with none of the chaos of 1991. Since Malta has proven to be a competitive country, the EBU decided to let 23 countries participate this year since the Netherlands returned. It’s also the final year of Yugoslavia entering (although they’ve already fallen apart quite a lot).
I wanted to do this review before Eurovision 2024, but alas. Netherlands decided to skip because the contest clashed with Remembrance Day, so Malta was allowed to enter (they’ve been trying to do so for a couple of years by this point, but the EBU capped the participants to 22 all the way back in 1986).
So sorry for not making any reviews lately, I was busy with my master’s thesis. But now I’m finished with it and ready for writing more. We’re entering the 90s, a new decade, widely considered to be the best Eurovision decade. We’ll see if this really is so (I already have my opinions on this, but no spoilers).
No changes in the lineup this time around, the same 22 countries that took part in 1989 are taking part, which is the last time this has ever happened. Let’s see if everyone brought their A game or if some countries participated simply because they felt obligated to.
For the first (but maybe not last) time, Switzerland is hosting after winning (since they hosted the first contest back in 1956, they couldn’t have won before that). Cyprus is back, 22 countries, you all know the drill. Let’s dive right in.
Well well well, we’re off to Dublin yet again (we should get used to this city, we’ll be visiting it many times in the coming years). This time around, we’re joined by just 21 countries as the Cypriot entry was disqualified for being released prior to the deadline (and there’s a funny anecdote to go with it, which I’ll talk about when we get to the Israeli entry).
Belgium’s long-overdue win finally came and we’re off to Brussels, joined by the record-high 22 countries, since both Italy and Greece came back. Famously, this is the first time a previous winner won again, so let’s see if it was deserved (I already have an opinion about that, but maybe it’ll change)
Norway! They won it, they’re hosting it, in Bergen though, not in Oslo, we’ll have to wait for exactly a decade to visit Oslo. We’re getting our last debuting country until communism decides to finally stop existing - Iceland. Yugoslavia and Netherlands return as well, though Greece and Italy depart, which leaves us with 20 countries this year (and we’ll never have fewer than 20 countries from here on out).
Welcome to one of the most 80s contests. We’re joined by 19 countries for the final time, as every year after this one will have at least 20 participants. Israel and Greece came back, though Yugoslavia and the Netherlands withdrew.