Eurovision 1993: Liverpool take on Ireland in County Cork and come off second best

To get the tiny village up to the standard of hosting a major international music event, its railway station was renovated and the ground in the arena was dug down to give the organisers a bit more height to play around with for the set. Some admirable forced perspective trickery was used to make the stage look bigger than it was, but it still comes across as looking rather sparse, with the extremely long pointy bit detracting from the action taking place at the other end.

But that doesn't explain why there is a gap of about half a mile between the audience and the stage. Can anyone enlighten?

For the first time since 1987, just one presenter handled things. Fionnuala Sweeney went on to work with CNN not long after the dramatic climax to this Contest where she was based in Atlanta before moving to London. She's OK, but you do get the impression she's only interested in how Ireland fares as the evening progresses. Good thing they won, then.

For your eyes. Your 1993 facts and figures.

Winner 1993: Niamh Kavanagh performs In Your Eyes for Ireland

(a) For the second successive year, Ireland won the Eurovision Song Contest, but although it was their fifth win, this was the first time since 1970 that a triumphant ditty from Eire had no link with Johnny Logan.

Niamh Kavanagh (fashion-friendly types, should you wear a jacket that colour if you have red hair?), had stormed the Irish final with In Your Eyes, not that long after she'd made a significant contribution to the soundtrack of Alan Parker's 1991 film The Commitments. Sixteen years on, Niamh's song is still revered as a classic by Contest fans and it was heavily rumoured in recent weeks that she would be returning as Ireland's representative in Oslo in 2010 despite effectively retiring from the music industry some years ago. It's a far classier song than most previous Eurovision winners and Niamh gave it some fair welly in front of one of the Contest's most partisan crowds ever.

On the night, as I watched Ireland sneak into the lead in the closing stages of the vote before finally running away with it, I couldn't think of a song I loathed more in the known universe than In Your Eyes. These days I appreciate that it was a worthy winner. But as one chum said to me a few years back: "It's very bad manners to win your own Contest." And I think he has a point.

Liverpool went a bit further in Europe in 1993

(b) I can always remember Liverpool's most famous redhead announcing she would be representing the UK at Eurovision just before launching into her latest single on Top of the Pops in the summer of 1992.

By this stage, I could not deny any longer that I was a full-on fan of the Contest and Sonia's Song For Europe was the very first one I watched. I thought this song had a far better chance of victory than Better the Devil You Know as I avidly viewed on that Good Friday, but I still thought the titanium lungs of the Scouse popstrel would do the UK justice in Ireland. For some reason, I also thought that 'Millstreet' had a sort of ring to it, a name you could imagine Sonia recalling fondly in interviews in later years: "Of course, Michael, when I won in Millstreet..."

Sonia herself was so confident of victory that she put £500 on herself to win. That's never a clever idea. Although her performance was faultless - some have said it was the best of the night - it wasn't the most sophisticated of songs her talents were saddled with. But Sonia did have her sister on backing vocals to keep her company. Also, as this blog is partly based in the offices of the Liverpool Echo, I've even found the picture (left) from the archives where our girl was wished all the best when she departed home for Ireland. There's also a pic of her at Speke Airport when she arrived home. But I'm not cruel enough to post that one.

In the middle of the voting Sonia surged into the lead, maintaining a healthy 10-13 point gap over Niamh for a big wodge of the scoring section. The UK was the 19th of the 25 songs to perform, thus the 19th jury to award its score. When London gave Ireland the full 12 (the Dublin jury gave Sonia a healthy eight, so there wasn't the usual snub from across the Irish Sea), Niamh regained the lead, never to lose it.

In the closing moments, the gap was reduced to 11 points in Ireland's favour and in scenes reminiscent of London in 1963, Fionnuala called back the jury in St Julian's, Malta, who couldn't be raised the first time round. Basically, if Malta gave the UK douze and ignored Ireland completely, Sonia had won by one point, while a score of two or more would seal it for Niamh.

The points were checked off one-by-one with no mention of the UK or Ireland. Malta then gave 10 to Luxembourg. There was just the douze left.

It went to Ireland. There was jubilation in the Green Glens Arena and, somewhere in Wirral, I vented my spleen at the telly, disgusted that Ireland had won for two years running. As far as I was concerned, it was 'our turn' to win, we had been waiting 12 years, while Ireland had only lifted the trophy just over 12 months previously.

I'm not proud of it, but for a few years to come, I would spend the entire duration of each subsequent Irish entry booing loudly at the screen. If we're talking football terms, they became the Manchester United to my Liverpool and I hated them (Eurovision-wise, I hasten to add).

And if you thought I was apoplectic with rage at the 1993 result, I was positively thermonuclear in 1994.

Switzerland. The new Luxembourg.

(c) Switzerland's last win, also in Ireland, five years previously, was by the Canadian singer Celine Dion, now just two years away from her unfortunate world domination. Therefore, the Swiss tried the same trick again when the Contest returned to Ireland by asking the Canadian singer Annie Cotton to belt out the rather classy Moi, Tout Simplement.

The trick almost repeated itself, despite Annie being stuck out at third spot in the draw, and she went on to take bronze with 148 points, just 16 marks behind Sonia. Personally, I prefer Annie's performance and song to Niamh Kavanagh's, but I get the feeling anything I say about the Irish entry at this stage is going to come across as sour grapes...

Hallelujah. Mama Corsica.

(d) France had its fourth consecutive Top 10 finish in Millstreet, finishing fourth with a song possessing an intro suspiciously similar to that of Hallelujah, the winner 14 years previously.

Still, Patrick Fiori was one of the big favourites with the bookies going into the competition and his smooth Gallic charms wouldn't have done him any harm with jurors who are susceptible to that sort of thing.

I was never that impressed with it, to be honest. Ooh, I sound a right curmudegon today.

That tanker is all hers. Hands off.

(e) Time for another Eurovision mystery now. The 25th and final song of the 1993 Eurovision Song Contest came from Norway and for a very brief period at the start of the voting, Alle Mine Tankar was in the lead. How this came to pass is rather baffling as, despite listening to it a few times, I never get to that point where it suddenly clicks and a song that's a grower has grown on me. It always sounds boring.

How the juries generated such enthusiasm for it after just one listen that this finished in fifth place remains a baffler. Maybe I'm just a philistine when it comes to pop music.

The conductor for this is Rolf Lovland who wrote the far-more-fun 1985 winner La Det Swinge. He'd be back at the Contest in a year or two, just wait and see.

I want to be able to dance like those backing singers

(f) Eurovision fans like polls. Catch us on the internet and when we're not responding 'lol' to a very mundane comment on a message forum, we're likely to be assigning our own scores (one to eight, then 10, then 12) to the line-ups of previous Contests - or even an all-time Eurovision Chart. And one song which, for absolutely years and years, finished very close to the top of the latter, was the Dutch entry of 1993. Vrede translates as 'Peace' and it was a number which managed to sound both retro and contemporary at the same time (the record scratching is a bit cringey, though). Ruth Jacott performed the flared pants off it, but perhaps suffered as being the act which followed the more traditionally Eurovision-sounding Sonia onto the stage.

It got perhaps the second-biggest cheer of the night from the we're-determined-to-only-give-Ireland-a-big-hand crowd but as with anything which tries to be different at Eurovision, only some of the juries were enthused by it. A crying shame.

"Hej! I bet nobody has ever made a record which sounded like this before!"

(g) Yes, it sounds just like the Beach Boys. Well, it does in the studio version. I remember this being my absolute favourite on the night and gave it the 12 points on the scoresheet which came with our TV listings magazine. I obviously hadn't cottoned on to what made a Eurovision winner as this struggled to seventh place.

However, considering Sweden had finished second-last on home turf the previous year, this was a vast improvement. It's just a pity that Arvingarna is the act which looks most lost on that very odd stage as the presentation did rob Eloise of her potential impact.

(h) And, as mentioned, 1993 was the year Eurovision bid five-time champs Luxembourg a fond farewell. It was not an auspicious au revoir.

Modern Times. Yes, a very apt name for a group.

It's sad that the country which did so well in the '60s and '70s should be best remembered in its swansong for getting the leftfield 10 points which made the announcement of the final douze of the night so dramatic.

(i) A mini version of Eurovision was held in Eastern Europe six weeks before the event in Millstreet to determine which of the seven eager debutante nations would fill the three available slots in the Eurovision 1993 draw. Slovakia was doing very well in the voting until its jury, voting last, messed things up completely by allocating scores which put three other songs in front of it and it had to wait another 12 months before it could make its Contest debut. But the three that did come to Ireland were ones whose names you'll be seeing a lot more in future Bluffer's Guides.

The winner of the Eastern heat was Slovenia but the song wasn't considered a threat to the other 24 nations taking part. And rightly so.


Slovenia and the Amazing Technicolor Stage Set

Reports of the war-torn Bosnia & Herzegovina had been filling the world's TV screens in the years leading up to its debut at Eurovision. Before the group had even performed a note they got a rapturous welcome from the crowd and many thought a wave of sympathy votes would bring the thorny prospect of hosting Eurovision 1994 in the middle of a war zone. But, as ever, the juries were looking for catchy hooks and melodies, not political statements. The Bosnian delegation had, allegedly, made their way to the flight to Dublin under a hail of bullets and their conductor had to be left behind on the runway. Ireland's conductor, Noel Kelehan, took his place.

A dignified debut from Bosnia & Herzegovina

But the one song from the Eastern European debutantes which was expected to do incredibly well was Croatia. Put, with the very simple, Christmassy-sounding Don't Ever Cry was very well performed and by far the best of the offerings from the newcomers, although it had only just squeaked through the preliminary.

And a very effective debut from Croatia

In fact, the only thing I don't like about it is that it mentions its country of origin in the lyrics, always a pet hate of mine at Eurovision. It began Eurovision Week as a big favourite but although it was well performed, it somehow only managed 31 points and 15th place. Eastern Europe would do a lot better as the years progressed. A lot, lot better.

(j) Not only was 1993 the first year that Slovenia, Bosnia & Herzegovina and Croatia entered in their own right, it was also the first time that sex was explicitly referred to in a Eurovision song.

Lessons learned at Eurovision, number 756: 'Sex' in Spanish is 'Sexo'

Spain's Eva Santamaria was responsible for this sauciest of firsts, in one of the most effortlessly powerful vocals ever given at the Contest, in Boom Bang a Blog's opinion. It just goes to show how an orchestra doesn't always provide the best backing to a Eurovision song. Performed to playback, this could have stormed the top five. Still, Eva was a creditable 11th, with 58 points.

(k) We're still not done with 1993 yet. One of the real highlights of the night, although not as far as the juries were concerned, came from Turkey.

Haven't we heard that riff somewhere before?

Any song which somehow manages to sound like a combination of both George Michael's Faith and Primal Scream's Movin' On Up while still sounding entirely uncredible is an achievement which should have dixs and douzes showered upon it.

(l) Someone had to finish last out of the 25 songs in Millstreet and that non-honour went to Belgium.

"I'm so pleased my costume designer forgot all about that massive fall-out we had..."

Unfortunately for Barbara Dex, the humiliation is two-fold. Fans considered her outfit so hideous, an award is now given to the act deemed the worst dressed at each Contest in her name.

(m) And we'll leave 1993 with Shiru, the song from Israel.

Just in case you forgot who was in charge...

Only because we like the bit where the woman at the piano decides it's high time she was centre stage.

And so Ireland faced the prospect of succeeding where Spain, Luxembourg and Israel had failed and become the very first country to host the Eurovision Song Contest two years in succession.

It was an achievement they were rather proud of and one that surely couldn't worry the RTE accountants for too long. I mean, no country could possibly win Eurovision for three years running, could they?

Could they?