• Dates – Grand Final: Saturday, 06 May 1989 – 21:00 CEST
• Host – Venue & Location: Palais de Beaulieu, Lausanne, Switzerland
• Presenter (s): Jacques Deschenaux and Lolita Morena
• Musical Director: Benoit Kaufman
• Director: Alain Bloch
• Executive Producer: Raymond Zumsteg
• Executive Supervisor: Frank Naef
• Multicamera Director: Alain Bloch
• Host broadcaster: Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SRG SSR)
• Opening Act: “Ne partez pas sans moi” and “Where Does My Heart Beat Now” performed by Céline Dion
• Interval Act: Guy Tell (Arrow-phantom)
• Participants – Number of entries: 22 [🇧🇪 Belgium (31ª), 🇩🇪 Germany (31ª), 🇨🇭 Switzerland (31ª), 🇬🇧 United Kindom (29ª), 🇪🇸 Spain (26ª), 🇱🇺 Luxembourg (30ª), 🇫🇮 Finland (25ª), 🇳🇴 Norway (26ª), 🇵🇹 Portugal (22ª), 🇦🇹 Austria (27ª), 🇸🇪 Sweden (27ª), 🇩🇰 Denmark (22ª), 🇹🇷 Turkey (12ª), 🇫🇷 France (30ª), 🇮🇪 Ireland (21ª), 🇮🇱 Israel (13ª), 🇮🇸 Iceland (4ª), 🇳🇱 The Netherlands (30ª),  Yugoslavia (23ª), 🇬🇷 Greece (11ª), 🇮🇹 Italy (28ª), 🇨🇾 Cyprus (8ª)]
• Debuting countries: —
• Return: —
• Non-returning countries: 🇨🇾 Cyprus (8ª)
• Vote – Voting system: Each country awarded 12, 10, 8–1 point(s) to their 10 favourite songs.
• Nil Points: 🇮🇸 Iceland (1ª)
• Winning song: “Rock Me” – Riva –  Yugoslavia (1ª) 

About. Following Céline Dion’s victory the preceding year in Dublin, Switzerland staged the Eurovision Song Contest in Lausanne. 22 countries participated in the 1989 Eurovision Song Contest. Switzerland hosted the very first Eurovision Song Contest in 1956 but did not host again until 1989. Céline Dion opened the show with a shortened reprise of her winning song from 1988, “Ne Partez Pas Sans Moi” and also performed her new English language single, “Where Does My Heart Beat Now”. The song would go on to be her first major hit in the United States. True to form, Italy sent its biggest stars to Eurovision. This year it was the turn of Fausto Leali and Anna Oxa who had won the festival of San Remo some weeks prior to the Eurovision Song Contest. Germany and Austria’s entries were both written by German pop titan, Dieter Bohlen. Bohlen became famous in Germany in the 1980’s as one half of the duo Modern Talking. Since then, he has gone on to have a successful career as one of the country’s most successful pop producers and also became a judge in the German version of Pop Idol. The Swiss entry “Viver Senza Tei” by the group Furbaz was the first entry ever to be sung in Romansch, one of the four official languages of Switzerland.

Yugoslavia wins – just in time. Yugoslavia’s win in 1989 came as a surprise to many. “Rock Me” by the group Riva was performed last on the night and in a year of many ballads the uptempo track stood out. Yugoslavia won the Eurovision Song Contest just in time. By 1989 cracks were beginning to appear in the country and Yugoslavia disintegrated into war in the following years. 

Facts and figures. The French participant, Nathalie Pâque, was just 11 years old and Israel’s singer, Gili Netanel, was just one year older which led to a change of rules. Performers had to be 16 years old in the year of the contest; The tie-break rule was also adapted; the country with the most 12 points would be declared the winner. If a tie remained then the country with the most 10 points would be declared the winner.

o/r	Country	PaRticipant(s)	song – translate – Language	Points	rank
01	🇮🇹 Italy RAI	Anna Oxa & Fausto Leali	Avrei voluto (I would’ve wanted) Italian	056	09
02	🇮🇱 Israel IBA	Gili and Galit (גילי וגלית)	Derekh hamelekh (דרך המלך (Derech Ha’melech), The King’s road) Hebrew	050	12
03	🇮🇪 Ireland RTÉ	Kiev Connolly & The Missing Passengers	The Real Me English	021	18
04	🇳🇱 The Netherlands  NOS	Justine Pelmelay	Blijf zoals je bent (Stay the way you are) Dutch	045	15
05	🇹🇷 Turkey TRT	Pan (Grup Pan)	Bana bana (To me, to me) Turkish	005	21
06	🇧🇪 Belgium BRT	Ingeborg	Door de wind (Through the wind) Dutch	013	19
07	🇬🇧 United Kindom BBC	Live Report	Why do I always get it wrong? English	130	02
08	🇳🇴 Norway NRK	Britt Synnøve Johansen	Venners nærhet (The closeness of friends) Norwegian	030	17
09	🇵🇹 Portugal RTP	Da Vinci	Conquistador (Conqueror) Portuguese	039	16
10	🇸🇪 Sweden SVT	Tommy Nilsson	En dag (One Day) Swedish	110	04
11	🇱🇺 Luxembourg CLT	Park Café	Monsieur (Mister) French	008	20
12	🇩🇰 Denmark DR	Birthe Kjær	Vi maler byen rød (We’re painting the town red) Danish	111	03
13	🇦🇹 Austria ÖRF	Thomas Forstner	Nur ein lied (Just a song) German	097	05
14	🇫🇮 Finland  YLE	Anneli Saaristo	La dolce vita (The good life) Finnish	076	07
15	🇫🇷 France  A2F	Nathalie Pâque	J’ai volé la vie (I stole life) French	060	08
16	🇪🇸 Spain TVE	Nina	Nacida para amar (Born to love) Spanish	088	06
17	🇨🇾 Cyprus CyBC	Fani Polymeri & Yiannis Savvidakis (Γιάννης Σαββιδάκης & Φανή Πολυμέρη)	Apopse as vrethoume (Απόψε ας βρεθούμε, Let’s meet tonight) Greek	051	11
18	🇨🇭 Switzerland SSR SRG	Furbaz	Viver senza tei (To live without you, Vivre sans toi, Ohne dich leben, Vivere senza te) Romansh	047	13
19	🇬🇷 Greece ERT	Marianna (Μαριάννα, Marianna Efstratiou, Μαριάννα Ευστρατίου)	To diko sou asteri (Το δικό σου αστέρι) Greek	056	09
20	🇮🇸 Iceland RÚV	Daníel Ágúst Haraldsson	Það sem enginn sér (What no one sees) Icelandic	000	22
21	🇩🇪 Germany ARD	Nino de Angelo	Flieger (Flyers) German	046	14
22	Yugoslavia JRT	Riva (Рива)	Rock me Serbo-Croatian	137	01

Participant map

Participating countries  Countries that participated in the past but not in 1989

ESC 1989 Scoreboard Ι Detailed voting results:

The Eurovision Song Contest 1989 was the 34th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Lausanne, Switzerland, following Céline Dion’s victory at the 1988 contest with the song “Ne partez pas sans moi”. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SRG SSR), the contest was held at Palais de Beaulieu on 6 May 1989 and was hosted by Swiss model Lolita Morena and journalist Jacques Deschenaux.

Twenty-two countries took part in the contest with Cyprus returning after having been disqualified the year before.

The winner was Yugoslavia with the song “Rock Me” by Croatian band Riva. This was the only victory for Yugoslavia as a unified state.

1.Location. Lausanne is a city in the French-speaking part of Switzerland, and the capital and biggest city of the canton of Vaud. The city is situated on the shores of Lake Geneva (French: Lac Léman, or simply Le Léman). It faces the French town of Évian-les-Bains, with the Jura Mountains to its north-west. Lausanne is located 62 kilometres (38.5 miles) northeast of Geneva.

Palais de Beaulieu, a convention and exhibition centre, was chosen to host the 1989 contest. The centre includes the 1,844 seat Théâtre de Beaulieu concert, dance and theatre hall. Inaugurated in 1954, the Théâtre de Beaulieu is the biggest theatre in Switzerland. The Eurovision Song Contest took place in the Hall 6 + 7 of the Palais, to the right from the main hall and the theatre.

2.Contest overview. The United Kingdom’s Ray Caruana, lead singer of Live Report was outspoken about coming second to what he considered a much less worthy song. They had been defeated by 7 points.

Two of the performers, Nathalie Pâque and Gili Natanael were respectively 11 and 12 years old at their time of competing. Due to bad publicity surrounding their participation, the European Broadcasting Union introduced a rule stating that no performer would be allowed to take part before the year of their 16th birthday. This rule remains in place to the present day.

The previous year’s winner, Céline Dion, opened the show with a mimed performance of her winning song and a mimed performance of her first English-language single, “Where Does My Heart Beat Now”. The song became a top ten hit in the US a year later – effectively launching her into international success.

3.Participating countries.

3.1.Conductors. Each performance (except Austria, Iceland and Germany) had a conductor who led the orchestra. Unlike in most years and like in 1988, the conductors took their bows after each song, not before.

3.2.Returning artists.

Artist	Country	Previous year(s)
Marianna Efstratiou	🇬🇷 Greece	1987 (as a backing vocalist for Bang)
Søren Bundgaard (Backing vocal)	🇩🇰 Denmark	1984, 1985, 1988 (as a part of Hot Eyes)

3.3.Participants and results. 

3.4.All the national selections for Eurovision Song Contest 1989: 

• National Selections in 1989:

COUNTRY	EVENT	WINNER
🇧🇪 Belgium	Eurosong 1989	Ingeborg – “Door de wind“
🇩🇰 Denmark	Melodi Grand Prix 1989	Birthe Kjær – “Vi maler byen rød“
🇫🇮 Finland	(Finnish Selection 1989)	Anneli Saaristo – “La dolce vita“
🇩🇪 Germany	Ein Lied für Lausanne	Nino de Angelo – “Flieger“
🇬🇷 Greece	(Greek Selection 1989)	Mariana / Marianna Efstratiou – “To diko sou asteri” (Το δικό σου αστέρι)
🇮🇸 Iceland	Söngvakeppni Sjónvarpsins 1989	Daníel Ágúst Haraldsson – “Það sem enginn sér“
🇮🇪 Ireland	(Irish Selection 1989)	Kiev Connolly & The Missing Passengers – “The Real Me”
🇮🇱 Israel	Kdam Eurovision 1989	Gili & Galit – “Derekh Hamelekh” (דרך המלך)
🇱🇺 Luxembourg	(Luxembourgish Selection 1989) (song selection) [a]	Park Café – “Monsieur“
🇳🇱 The Netherlands	Nationaal Songfestival 1989	Justine Pelmelay – “Blijf zoals je bent“
🇳🇴 Norway	Melodi Grand Prix 1989	Britt-Synnøve Johansen – “Venners nærhet“
🇵🇹 Portugal	Festival da Canção 1989	Da Vinci – “Conquistador“
🇸🇪 Sweden	Melodifestival 1989	Tommy Nilsson – “En dag“
🇨🇭 Switzerland	Concours Eurovision 1989	Furbaz – “Viver senza tei“
🇹🇷 Turkey	Şarkı Yarışması 1989	Pan – “Bana Bana“
🇬🇧 United Kindom	A Song for Europe 1989	Live Report – “Why Do I Always Get It Wrong?”
Yugoslavia	Jugovizija 1989	Riva – “Rock Me”

• Internal Selections in 1989: 

3.5.Connections:

4.Voting. Each country had a jury who awarded 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 point(s) for their top ten songs. There was also a change of rule in case of a tie; prior to 1989, both countries would perform their songs again until a final decision was made. However from 1989 onwards, if there was a tie at the end of the voting, the country that scored the most twelves would be declared the winner. If there was still a tie, the winner was the country that scored the most tens. And if there still was a tie after that, both countries would be declared joint winners.

Voting results

		Total score
C o n t e s t a n t s	🇮🇹 Italy	56									7					10		12	6	2	4		7	8
	🇮🇱 Israel	50	1		7	3			2			5		5		5				7		5	3	7
	🇮🇪 Ireland	21					7	3		3			2										4	2
	🇳🇱 The Netherlands	45	10		3				3				1		4	4	7	6			1		6
	🇹🇷 Turkey	5																1						4
	🇧🇪 Belgium	13			5	5				2												1
	🇬🇧 United Kindom	130	6	7	4	7	1			12	12	10	12	1	8	6	12	10	2		2		12	6
	🇳🇴 Norway	30		2		2	5	8				2		6			4			1
	🇵🇹 Portugal	39					4	2		1		3	7		6	2		8			6
	🇸🇪 Sweden	110		6				6	4	8	8		6	12	12		2	5	8	3	8	2	8	12
	🇱🇺 Luxembourg	8															5	3
	🇩🇰 Denmark	111	5	1	10	12	6	4	10	10	2	12	3		7	12	6					10		1
	🇦🇹 Austria	97	12	8			3	12				7		4		1		2	10	8	12	8	5	5
	🇫🇮 Finland	76		10	8	6	10				1	4	4		3		10	7	3					10
	🇫🇷 France	60	3	5	6	4				5		1	8	3	5	3			7		5		2	3
	🇪🇸 Spain	88	8				2	7	7	4			10			8	8		4	10	10		10
	🇨🇾 Cyprus	51	2	3	1				6		6			8	2					4	7	12
	🇨🇭 Switzerland	47	4	4		10	8		8		3			2	1							7
	🇬🇷 Greece	56				1		1	5	6	10						1	4	12	12		4
	🇮🇸 Iceland	0
	🇩🇪 Germany	46	7		2			5	1		5	6		7					1	6	3	3
	Yugoslavia	137		12	12	8	12	10	12	7	4	8	5	10	10	7	3		5	5		6	1

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

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

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	BRT TV1	Dutch: Luc Appermont	–
	RTBF1	French: Jacques Mercier	–
	BRT Radio 2	Dutch: Ann Lepère
	RTBF La Première	French: Claude Delacroix
🇨🇾 Cyprus	RIK	Neophytos Taliotis	–
	RIK Deftero	Pavlos Pavlou
🇩🇰 Denmark	DR TV	Jørgen de Mylius	–
	DR P3	Kurt Helge Andersen
🇫🇮 Finland	YLE TV1	Heikki Harma	–
	YLE 2-verkko	Jake Nyman and Kati Bergman
🇫🇷 France	Antenne 2	Lionel Cassan	–
	France Inter	Patrick Sabatier
🇩🇪 Germany	Erstes Deutsches Fernsehen	Thomas Gottschalk	–
	NDR Radio 2	Peter Urban
🇬🇷 Greece	ET1	Dafni Bokota	–
	ERA 1	Dimitris Konstantaras
🇮🇸 Iceland	Sjónvarpið	Arthúr Björgvin Bollason	–
🇮🇪 Ireland	RTÉ 1	Ronan Collins and Michelle Rocca
	RTÉ Radio 1	Larry Gogan
🇮🇱 Israel	Israeli Television	No commentator
	Reshet Gimel	Yigal Ravid
🇮🇹 Italy	Rai Uno	Gabriella Carlucci	–
	Rai Radio 2	Antonio De Robertis
🇱🇺 Luxembourg	RTL Télévision	Valérie Sarn	–
	RTL	André Torrent
🇳🇱 The Netherlands	Nederland 3	Willem van Beusekom	–
	Radio 3	Lex Harding
🇳🇴 Norway	NRK	John Andreassen	–
	NRK P2	Erik Heyerdahl
🇵🇹 Portugal	RTP1	Ana Zanatti	–
	RDP Antena 2	TBC
🇪🇸 Spain	TVE 2	Tomás Fernando Flores	–
🇸🇪 Sweden	Kanal 1	Jacob Dahlin	–
	SR P3	Kent Finell and Janeric Sundquist	–
🇨🇭 Switzerland	TV DRS	German: Bernard Thurnheer
	TSR	French: Thierry Masselot
	TSI	Italian: Giovanni Bertini
🇹🇷 Turkey	TV1	Bülend Özveren
	TRT Radyo 3	Fatih Orbay
🇬🇧 United Kindom	BBC1	Terry Wogan	–
	BBC Radio 2	Ken Bruce	–
Yugoslavia	TVB 1, 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

6.Notes.

• [a] The band Park Café was internally selected to represent Luxembourg at Eurovision 1989. The song “Monsieur” that Park Café performed at Eurovision was selected through a national final with three songs.