• Dates – Grand Final: Saturday, 30 April 1988 – 21:00 CEST
• Host – Venue & Location: Simmonscourt Pavillion of the Royal Dublin Society (RDS Simmonscourt Pavilion / Royal Dublin Society (RDS); Cumann Ríoga Bhaile Átha Cliath), Ballsbridge, Dublin, 🇮🇪 Ireland
• Presenter (s): Pat Kenny & Michelle Rocca
• Musical Director: Declan Lowney
• Director: Noel Kelehan
• Executive Producer: Liam Miller
• Executive Supervisor: Frank Naef
• Multicamera Director: Declan Lowney
• Host broadcaster: Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ)
• Opening Act: “Hold Me Now” performed by Johnny Logan
• Interval Act: “Don’t Go” performed by Hothouse Flowers
• Participants – Number of entries: 21 [🇧🇪 Belgium (30ª), 🇩🇪 Germany (30ª), 🇨🇭 Switzerland (30ª), 🇬🇧 United Kindom (28ª), 🇪🇸 Spain (25ª), 🇱🇺 Luxembourg (29ª), 🇫🇮 Finland (24ª), 🇳🇴 Norway (25ª), 🇵🇹 Portugal (21ª), 🇦🇹 Austria (26ª), 🇸🇪 Sweden (26ª), 🇩🇰 Denmark (21ª), 🇹🇷 Turkey (11ª), 🇫🇷 France (29ª), 🇮🇪 Ireland (20ª), 🇮🇱 Israel (12ª), 🇮🇸 Iceland (3ª), 🇳🇱 The Netherlands (29ª),  Yugoslavia (22ª), 🇬🇷 Greece (10ª), 🇮🇹 Italy (27ª)]
• Debuting countries: —
• Return: —
• Non-returning countries: 🇨🇾 Cyprus (7ª)
• Vote – Voting system: Each country awarded 12, 10, 8-1 point(s) to their 10 favourite songs.
• Nil Points: 🇦🇹 Austria (2ª)
• Winning song:  “Ne partez pas sans moi” – Céline Dion – 🇨🇭 Switzerland (1ª)

About. The 1988 Eurovision Song Contest is best remembered for one of the most thrilling voting moments in the history of the competition and for launching a legend; Céline Dion.

Modernising Eurovision. The 1988 Eurovision Song Contest was hosted in Dublin for the third time, 21 countries competed for the trophy. Host broadcaster RTE introduced a modern set, at that point the largest in the history of the contest. Two giant video walls and a computerised scoreboard were also unveiled. At the time, it was a ground breaking production and set the standard for future editions of the contest. Denmark was represented the group Hot Eyes who performed in the contest for the third time. Lead singer Kirsten was heavily pregnant at the time and gave birth just three weeks after the contest.

And finally… France!. The 1988 Eurovision Song Contest is best remembered for one most exciting voting sequences in the history of the contest. Switzerland’s entry “Ne Partez Pas Sans Moi” performed by Céline Dion beat the runner-up, the United Kingdom’s Scott Fitzgerald by just a single point. Before the last vote, the UK entry was leading with 136 points to Switzerland’s 131. Yugoslavia, the last country to vote, gave six points to Switzerland whilst failing to award any points to the UK entry. Yugoslavia’s 12 points went to France after one of the tensest moments ever seen in the Eurovision Song Contest. For Céline Dion, winning the 1988 Eurovision Song Contest was a turning point in her international career. Whilst she was known in Canada and France before 1988, the Eurovision Song Contest gave her the elevate her career to new heights. Shortly after she won the Eurovision Song Contest she began work on her debut English language album, ‘Unison’. 

Facts and figures. The 1988 Eurovision Song Contest also saw another star of the future take to the stage; Lara Fabian who represented Luxembourg. The Belgian-born singer went on to forge a hugely successful career and in 2000 she reached number one on the Billboard charts in the United States with “I Will Love Again”; Cyprus decided to withdraw as their entry was not in-line with the rules of the contest – it had previously been published; The venue of the 1988 contest was the same as in 1981, but this time RTÉ managed to create a very special stage that created the illusion of depth, making the stage appear bigger than it actually was; For the first time ever a computerised scoreboard was used instead of the mechanical ones used in previous contests. 

o/r	country	participant(s)	song – translate – Language	Points	rank
01	🇮🇸 Iceland RÚV	Beathoven	Þú og þeir (Sókrates) [You and they (Socrates)] Icelandic	020	16
02	🇸🇪 Sweden SVT	Tommy Körberg	Stad I ljus (City of light) Swedish	052	12
03	🇫🇮 Finland YLE	Boulevard	Nauravat silmät muistetaan (Laughing eyes are remembered) Finnish	003	20
04	🇬🇧 United Kindom BBC	Scott Fitzgerald	Go English	136	02
05	🇹🇷 Turkey TRT	MFÖ	Sufi (Hey ya hey) Turkish	037	15
06	🇪🇸 Spain TVE	La Década (La Década Prodigiosa)	La chica que yo quiero (Made in Spain) [The girl that I want (Made in Spain)] Spanish	058	11
07	🇳🇱 The Netherlands NOS	Gerard Joling	Shangri-la Dutch	070	09
08	🇮🇱 Israel IBA	Yardena Arazi (ירדנה ארזי‎)	Ben Adam (בן אדם, Human) Hebrew	085	07
09	🇨🇭 Switzerland SSR SRG	Céline Dion	Ne partez pas sans moi (Do not leave without me) French	137	01
10	🇮🇪 Ireland RTÉ	Jump The Gun	Take him home English	079	08
11	🇩🇪 Germany ARD	Maxi & Chris Garden	Lied für einen freund (Song for a friend) German	048	14
12	🇦🇹 Austria ÖRF	Wilfried	Lisa, Mona Lisa German	000	21
13	🇩🇰 Denmark DR	Hot Eyes	Ka’ du se hva’ jeg sa’? (Can you see what I said?) Danish	092	03
14	🇬🇷 Greece ERT	Afroditi Fryda (Αφροδίτη Φρυδά, Afroditi Frida)	Clown (Κλόουν) Greek	010	17
15	🇳🇴 Norway NRK	Karoline Krüger	For vår jord (For our earth) Norwegian	088	05
16	🇧🇪 Belgium RTBF	Reynaert	Laissez briller le soleil (Let the sun shine) French	005	18
17	🇱🇺 Luxembourg CLT	Lara Fabian	Croire (Trust) French	090	04
18	🇮🇹 Italy RAI	Luca Barbarossa	Vivo (Ti scrivo) [Alive (I’m writing to you)] Italian	052	12
19	🇫🇷 France A2F	Gérard Lenorman	Chanteur de charme (Crooner) French	064	10
20	🇵🇹 Portugal RTP	Dora	Voltarei (I will come back) Portuguese	005	18
21	Yugoslavia JRT	Silver Wings (Сребрна крила, Srebrna Krila)	Mangup (Мангуп, Rascal) Serbo-Croatian	087	06

Missed participation

• 🇨🇾 Cyprus: “Thimame (San to rock ‘n’ roll)” (Θυμάμαι (Σαν το ροκ-εν-ρολ)) (Greek) – Giannis Demetriou (Γιάννης Δημητρίου). Cyprus withdrew its already registered entry for breaching the contest’s rules by being published few years earlier, in an attempt to represent the country at a prior edition of the contest. Cypriot broadcaster CyBC had selected the song ‘Thimame’ sung by Yiannis Dimitrou, and at a late stage saw that the song was ineligible to represent them as it had been entered into the Cypriot selection for the 1984 Contest, where it had finished in 3rd place. This was classed as a breach of the Cypriot rules of selecting their entry at this time as well as an infringement of the Eurovision Song Contest rules. It was a very late decision as the song was already drawn to perform second in the contest, advertised in the Radio Times information about the preview programme of the contest, and appears as song number two in accordance to its initial performance draw, on the record release “Melodi Grand Prix 1988” – the compilation disc of the contest’s entries.

Participant map

Participating countries Countries that participated in the past but not in 1988

ESC 1988 Scoreboard Ι Detailed voting results:

The Eurovision Song Contest 1988 was the 33rd edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Dublin, Ireland, following Johnny Logan’s win at the 1987 contest with the song “Hold Me Now”. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster Radio Telefís Éireann (RTÉ), the contest was held at the RDS Simmonscourt on 30 April 1988 and was hosted by Irish broadcaster Pat Kenny and the Miss Ireland 1980 Michelle Rocca, marking the first time since the 1979 contest that two presenters had hosted the contest.

Twenty-one countries took part, after an initial plan of twenty-two, as Cyprus’ song was disqualified for breaching the contest’s rules by being published a few years earlier, in an attempt to represent the country at a prior edition of the contest. The Cypriot song had been drawn to be performed 2nd in the running order.

The winner was Switzerland with the song “Ne partez pas sans moi”, performed by Canadian singer Céline Dion and composed by Atilla Şereftuğ with lyrics in French by Nella Martinetti. Switzerland beat the United Kingdom by just one point in the last vote to win the title. The victory helped launch Céline Dion’s international career, subsequently leading her to become one of the best-selling artists of all time.

1.Location. Dublin is the capital and largest city of Ireland. The contest took place at the Simmonscourt Pavilion of the Royal Dublin Society, which was normally used for agricultural and horse shows. The same venue had hosted the 1981 contest. The staging of the contest in Dublin in 1988 formed part of Dublin’s year long celebration of 1000 years since it was established by Scandinavian settlers in 988.

2.Format.

Graphic design. Host broadcaster RTÉ employed Declan Lowney, who was notable for being a director of music videos and youth programming, as director for this edition, in order to revamp the contest to attract and sustain a younger audience. The traditional scoreboard was replaced with two giant Vidiwalls located on either side of the stage, which also projected live images of the performers from the green room where the competitors set during the votes announcements, and a new computer-generated scoreboard was used.

The stage itself, conceived by Paula Farrell under chief production designer Michael Grogan, was also the largest and most elaborate ever constructed for the Eurovision Song Contest. To compensate for the fact that the vast stage took up most of the room in what is really an average size exhibition hall, the director deliberately darkened the hall where the audience was located and refused to use wide angled shots of the audience, in order to create the illusion of the venue being bigger than it actually was.

The Postcards featured the participants doing things in Ireland from culture, to tradition, to sports or sightseeing.

Lowney was also the director of the show’s interval act, introduced after the competing songs and before the votes announcement. The interval act was a video of the popular Irish rock group Hothouse Flowers, which was filmed in eleven countries around Europe and was the most expensive music video ever produced in Ireland at the time.

Voting segment. Each country had a jury who awarded 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 point(s) for its top ten songs. The number of jury members changed this year from 11 which had been the limit since 1975 to 16 which would be used until 1996 when some countries abolished it after the contest in favour of televoting and fully after 1997.

This edition features one of the closest and most fickle-ending votes in the history of the contest. With three countries left to vote, the UK was well in the lead with 133 points against Switzerland’s 118. With the third last country, France, only awarding Switzerland one point, the UK looked certain of victory, as even if Switzerland scooped the two final 12s, the UK would only need to gather eleven points from three juries combined to be unbeatable. However, France didn’t award the UK any points, and the following country, Portugal, gave the UK a meagre three points while giving the maximum 12 to Switzerland, making the contest blown open between the two countries until the end of the voting.

With the conclusion of voting from the penultimate jury, the UK was holding a five-point lead over Switzerland. As the final jury, that of Yugoslavia, began to award its points in the customary ascending order, a lot of excitement-sighs were heard from the audience to see how the two rivals for victory would fare. Switzerland was the first to be named with six points, edging it into a one-point lead over the UK. After earlier strong votes from most countries to the UK, it seemed highly likely that the UK would be given one of the higher remaining set of points. However, as Yugoslavia announced its seven, eight, ten and twelve points, it transpired that it had awarded the UK no points at all (12 points from Yugoslavia went to France),^[a] and Switzerland was left with its one-point lead to savour a dramatic triumph.

3.Participating countries.

3.1.Conductors. Each performance had a conductor who was maestro to the orchestra, except for Iceland and Italy. Unlike in most years, the conductors took their bows after each song, not before.

• 🇮🇸 Iceland – No conductor
• 🇸🇪 Sweden – Anders Berglund
• 🇫🇮 Finland – Ossi Runne
• 🇬🇧 United Kindom – Ronnie Hazlehurst
• 🇹🇷 Turkey – Turhan Yükseler
• 🇪🇸 Spain – Javier de Juan
• 🇳🇱 The Netherlands – Harry van Hoof
• 🇮🇱 Israel – Eldad Shrem 
• 🇨🇭 Switzerland – Atilla Şereftuğ
• 🇮🇪 Ireland – Noel Kelehan
• 🇩🇪 Germany – Michael Thatcher
• 🇦🇹 Austria – Harald Neuwirth
• 🇩🇰 Denmark – Henrik Krogsgaard 
• 🇬🇷 Greece – Haris Andreadis
• 🇳🇴 Norway – Arild Stav 
• 🇧🇪 Belgium – Daniel Willem
• 🇱🇺 Luxembourg – Régis Dupré
• 🇮🇹 Italy – No conductor
• 🇫🇷 France – Guy Mattéoni
• 🇵🇹 Portugal – José Calvário
•  Yugoslavia – Nikica Kalogjera 

Prior to Cyprus’ disqualification, John Themis was set to conduct and additionally play the guitar solo.

3.2.Returning artists.

Artist	Country	Previous year(s)
Hot Eyes	🇩🇰 Denmark	1984, 1985
Boulevard	🇫🇮 Finland	1987 (as backing group for Vicky Rosti)
Yardena Arazi	🇮🇱 Israel	1976 (as part of Chocolate, Menta, Mastik), 1979 (as presenter)[b]
Reuven Gvirtz (backing singer)		1979 (as part of Milk and Honey)
Yehuda Tamir (backing singer)
Dora	🇵🇹 Portugal	1986
Tommy Körberg	🇸🇪 Sweden	1969
MFÖ	🇹🇷 Turkey	1985

3.3.Participants and results. 

3.4.All the national selections for Eurovision Song Contest 1988: 

• National Selections in 1988:

COUNTRY	EVENT	WINNER
🇧🇪 Belgium	Eurosong ’88	Reynaert – “Laissez briller le soleil“
🇩🇰 Denmark	Melodi Grand Prix 1988	Kirsten & Søren / Hot Eyes – “Ka’ du se hva’ jeg sa’?“
🇫🇮 Finland	(Finnish Selection 1988)	Boulevard – “Nauravat silmät muistetaan“
🇩🇪 Germany	Ein Lied für Dublin	Maxi & Chris Garden – “Lied für einen Freund“
🇬🇷 Greece	(Greek Selection 1988)	Afroditi Frida – “Clown” (Κλόουν)
🇮🇸 Iceland	Söngvakeppni Sjónvarpsins 1988	Sverrir Stormsker & Stefán Hilmarsson – Þú og þeir (Sókrates)
🇮🇪 Ireland	Eurosong ’88	Jump The Gun – “Take Him Home”
🇮🇱 Israel	Kdam Eurovision 1988 (song selection) [c]	Yardena Arazi – “Ben Adam” (בן אדם)
🇳🇱 The Netherlands	Nationaal Songfestival 1988 (song selection) [d]	Gerard Joling – “Shangri-La”
🇳🇴 Norway	Melodi Grand Prix 1988	Karoline Krüger – “For vår jord“
🇵🇹 Portugal	(Portuguese Selection 1988)	Dora – “Voltarei“
🇸🇪 Sweden	Melodifestival 1988	Tommy Körberg – “Stad i ljus“
🇨🇭 Switzerland	Concours Eurovision 1988	Céline Dion – “Ne partez pas sans moi“
🇹🇷 Turkey	Şarkı Yarışması 1988	MFÖ – “Sufi”
🇬🇧 United Kindom	A Song for Europe 1988	Scott Fitzgerald – “Go”
Yugoslavia	Jugovizija 1988	Srebrna Krila – “Mangup” (Мангуп)

• Internal Selections in 1988: 

3.5.Connections:

4.Voting.

Voting results

		Total score
C o n t e s t a n t s	🇮🇸 Iceland	20		1					4						4					1	2	8
	🇸🇪 Sweden	52	3			2			8			5			8		12	1	3	10
	🇫🇮 Finland	3								3
	🇬🇧 United Kindom	136	1	5	10		12	10		10	5	7	10	10	10	6	5	12	8	12		3
	🇹🇷 Turkey	37		4		1		5	1	8			8						4		6
	🇪🇸 Spain	58	2				5			2	6			8	1	8	2	6	6	8			4
	🇳🇱 The Netherlands	70				6	6			7	7	2	6			12			12	5			7
	🇮🇱 Israel	85	6		6	4		6	3		10	1	5	2		3		10	5	3	10	10	1
	🇨🇭 Switzerland	137	7	12	5	10	10	8	10	4		10	12			10	8	4	1	7	1	12	6
	🇮🇪 Ireland	79		7	2	3	2	12	6		4		7	6	7		7	5			4	5	2
	🇩🇪 Germany	48	8			5	1	3		5		6			6		4					2	8
	🇦🇹 Austria	0
	🇩🇰 Denmark	92	10	3	4			1	12	6	1	4	4	12			10	7			12	6
	🇬🇷 Greece	10					3														7
	🇳🇴 Norway	88	5	8	7	12			7	1		8	1	3	5	7		3		4		7	10
	🇧🇪 Belgium	5																			5
	🇱🇺 Luxembourg	90	4	10	12	7			5		12	12		1	2	2	6	8		2		4	3
	🇮🇹 Italy	52			8		4	7			8		2	5			3		2		8		5
	🇫🇷 France	64		2	3		8	2	2		3		3	7	3	5	1	2	10			1	12
	🇵🇹 Portugal	5						4								1
	Yugoslavia	87	12	6	1	8	7			12	2	3		4	12	4			7	6	3

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

N.	Contestant	Nation(s) giving 12 points
3	🇩🇰 Denmark	🇦🇹 Austria, 🇫🇷 France, 🇳🇱 The Netherlands
	🇱🇺 Luxembourg	🇫🇮 Finland, 🇮🇪 Ireland, 🇨🇭 Switzerland
	🇨🇭 Switzerland	🇩🇪 Germany, 🇵🇹 Portugal, 🇸🇪 Sweden
	🇬🇧 United Kindom	🇧🇪 Belgium, 🇮🇹 Italy, 🇹🇷 Turkey
	Yugoslavia	🇩🇰 Denmark, 🇮🇸 Iceland, 🇮🇱 Israel
2	🇳🇱 The Netherlands	🇬🇷 Greece, 🇱🇺 Luxembourg
1	🇫🇷 France	Yugoslavia
	🇮🇪 Ireland	🇪🇸 Spain
	🇳🇴 Norway	🇬🇧 United Kindom
	🇸🇪 Sweden	🇳🇴 Norway

4.2.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.

5.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.

Broadcasters and commentators in participating countries

Country	Broadcaster(s)	Commentator(s)	–
🇦🇹 Austria	FS1	Ernst Grissemann	–
	Hitradio Ö3	Hans Leitinger
🇧🇪 Belgium	RTBF1	French: Pierre Collard-Bovy	–
	BRT TV1	Dutch: Luc Appermont	–
	RTBF La Première	French: Patrick Duhamel and Stéphane Dupont
	BRT Radio 2	Dutch: Julien Put and Herwig Haes
🇩🇰 Denmark	DR TV	Jørgen de Mylius	–
	DR P3	Poul Birch Eriksen
🇫🇮 Finland	YLE TV1	Erkki Pohjanheimo	–
	YLE 2-verkko	TBC
🇫🇷 France	Antenne 2	Lionel Cassan	–
	France Inter	Julien Lepers
🇩🇪 Germany	Erstes Deutsches Fernsehen	Nicole and Claus-Erich Boetzkes	–
	Deutschlandfunk/NDR Radio 2	Peter Urban
🇬🇷 Greece	ET1	Dafni Bokota	–
	ERA 1	Dimitris Konstantaras
🇮🇸 Iceland	Sjónvarpið	Hermann Gunnarsson	–
🇮🇪 Ireland	RTÉ 1	Mike Murphy
	RTÉ Radio 1	Larry Gogan
🇮🇱 Israel	Israeli Television	No commentator
	Reshet Gimel	Yigal Ravid
🇮🇹 Italy	Rai Tre	Daniele Piombi	–
	Rai Radio 2	Antonio De Robertis
🇱🇺 Luxembourg	RTL Télévision	French: Valérie Sarn	–
	RTL plus	German: Oliver Spiecker
	RTL	André Torrent
🇳🇱 The Netherlands	Nederland 3	Willem van Beusekom	–
	Radio 3	Ben Cramer
🇳🇴 Norway	NRK	John Andreassen	–
	NRK P2	Leif Erik Forberg
🇵🇹 Portugal	RTP1	Margarida Mercês de Melo	–
🇪🇸 Spain	TVE 2	Beatriz Pécker	–
🇸🇪 Sweden	TV2	Bengt Grafström	–
	SR P3	Kalle Oldby	–
🇨🇭 Switzerland	TV DRS	German: Bernard Thurnheer
	TSR	French: Serge Moisson	–
	TSI	Italian: Ezio Guidi	–
🇹🇷 Turkey	TV1	Bülend Özveren	–
	TRT Radyo 3	Şebnem Savaşçı
🇬🇧 United Kindom	BBC1	Terry Wogan	–
	BBC Radio 2	Ken Bruce	–
Yugoslavia	TVB 1	Serbo-Croatian: Mladen Popović
	TVZ 1	Serbo-Croatian: Oliver Mlakar
	TVL 1	Slovene: Marjeta Keršič Svetel

Broadcasters and commentators in non-participating countries

Country	Broadcaster(s)	Commentator(s)	–
🇦🇺 Australia	SBS TV	Unknown
🇨🇾 Cyprus	RIK	Dafni Bokota

6.Notes.

• [a] Yugoslavia, as being the last jury to announce its votes, had caused the same situation to happen when after their voting UK lost to Spain by 1 point in the 1968 contest
• [b] With this, she became the first person to compete in the contest after hosting an earlier edition; before her, there were few competitors that hosted later editions of the contest.
• [c] Yardena Arazi was internally selected to represent Israel at Eurovision 1988. The song “Ben Adam” that Arazi performed at Eurovision was selected through a national final with four songs.
• [d] Gerard Joling was internally selected to represent Netherlands at Eurovision 1988. The song “Shangri-la” that Joling performed at Eurovision was selected through Nationaal Songfestival 1988 with six songs.