Eurovision 1993: 1,450 pts to award, this comes down to the last|Super-cut with animated scoreboard

An edited down version of the 1993 Eurovision Song Contest in Millstreet with a scoreboard using today’s technology. Nothing but a fun lockdown project.

This edit will give a flavour of the evening (15th May) with Terry Wogan’s commentary. In my description of 1982, I noted how Harrogate was the smallest place since Cannes to host Eurovision. According to Chris West’s history book, Noel Duggan (who’s pictured in the crowd enthusiastically clapping quite a lot) wrote a letter to RTÉ offering to host the Contest for free in the tiny town of Millstreet. Little did RTÉ know, Noel had a proper lobbying operation going on and the bid won. There’s lots to be said for small host cities, and Millstreet is as small as you can get.

What transpired in the Green Glens Arena was nothing short of a classic, although bits could have been left in a qualifying round…which of course did take place, but only between new entrants. The EBU was growing quickly – 21 services joined in 1993. Not all were from new states, but some, like Bosnia were ready to enter (via Ljubljana) from joining in January. Other debuts would wait. It’s worth mentioning the story of the Bosnian entrants here, having to run across darkened runways to reach a ditch to get to a peninsula of friendly territory. 6 non-Eurovision entrants died making the same journey. The ‘post-war peace’ Song Contest was now running through a hot war, right on European territory. It was this year that Croatia, who had supported Bosnia at first, turned on their neighbour and invaded. Some of the atrocities, both human and cultural, occurred during this time - including the destruction of the bridge at Mostar and harrowing ‘ethnic cleansing’. All on European soil, once again.

Of course, Bosnia-Herzegovina’s inclusion added some special moments to the show. With new entrants (often small) came relegation in 1993, and after being officially relegated, Luxembourg would leave the Contest here. RTL were one of the titans of Eurovision up until now, but financial pressure and the bother of having to find a performer probably contributed to them pulling out: of 37 appearances, 9 were native to the Grand Duchy. 5 wins! Who could top that?! I’ve included the last seconds of the ‘bourg’s time in the Contest in the super-cut.

Some business notes to attend to: The great foroesc.com (Spanish) whose members watch a lot of my videos, have a handy post of historical odds…so I’ve included the only (London based) bookies who, I think, add an international perspective. Ireland didn’t feature in their top 5, but they did in the UK and Ireland. Info is sporadic, so I’ll include what I can. Wogan hints at the folly of local knowledge, odds-wise!

Lastly, let’s hope RTÉ improve the camera work – one particularly dodgy episode is Israel, where I can only imagine there were issues in the gallery…a group performance focused on one singer for a long time…ditto for all the cameras in shot! I also felt the large gap between the stage and the (seated) audience really dampened the look somewhat.

DESIGN AND THE BOARD
The logo design of 1993 was on par with 88...i.e. the best! The stage was great too. This edit and build was technically challenging, and I had to use some new software (for me, Blender) to try and replicate a basic twist of ribbon. It’s not entirely what I had in mind, but I think it works. I would have liked a cleaner relationship between the ‘flat’ board and the 3D elements, but hopefully I get away with it. I wanted to do more of a ‘recreation’ for a handful of the 90s board, including this one. The RTÉ board lacked some info that we had in 92 though: notification of what points had been awarded, and how far through the voting we were. Although, with the Malta issue, maybe that was a blessing! I’m not a fan of gridding up flags right next to each other, but I went with it, and then created a hint of the actual background but with moving flags In the shape of an ‘E’, like the logo. The ‘squeeze back’ over Fionnuala was nightmare if you’re wondering! Typefaces were simple, based on the 1927 Futura...this is ‘Jost’ (fontsarena.com/jost-by-owen-earl), a free alternative.

I’m aware that relegation, and the number up for the chop, was being ‘heavily suggested’ at the time of broadcast – this board will help you determine those at risk!

TRANSFER NEWS (source: Wiki)
IN: Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Slovenia
OUT: Yugoslavia (see ‘IN’ above)

INTERVAL ACT
Eurovision legends, Linda and Johnny (+250 scared kids)
CREDITS
A massive ‘Go raibh maith agat’ to Brendan M for helping with the Irish! Thank you!
setheurovision94 for HQ ORF transmission
Nicolas Baus for Wogan
Flags: Hopnguyen Mr on IconFinder (Cyprus altered), Bosnia: Wikipedia.
Phone (last time) www.flaticon.com
All Copyright goes to BBC for Wogan, and to RTÉ.

00:00 Intro
07:06 Song super-cut
28:40 Interval act
31:51 Voting intro
33:09 The reorder board 93
1:21:50 Recap & reprise of winning song