🔴 1988 Eurovision Song Contest Full Show from Dublin/Ireland (No Commentary)

The Eurovision Song Contest 1988 was the 33rd edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. The contest took place on 30 April 1988 in Dublin, Ireland, following the country's win at the previous 1987 edition. The presenters were Pat Kenny and Michelle Rocca. The host broadcaster was Radio Telefís Éireann (RTÉ) which revamped the show's production style compared to its earlier editions, in order to appeal to a younger audience.

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 a point in the last vote to win the title. Twenty-one countries took part, after an initial plan of twenty-two, as Cyprus 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 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 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. 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 nine 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, eventually the UK only managed to garner a meagre three points between the last three juries, as after 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), and Switzerland was left with its one-point lead to savour a dramatic triumph.

Results
Draw Country Artist Song Language Place Points
01 Iceland Beathoven "Þú og þeir (Sókrates)" Icelandic 16 20
02 Sweden Tommy Körberg "Stad i ljus" Swedish 12 52
03 Finland Boulevard "Nauravat silmät muistetaan" Finnish 20 3
04 United Kingdom Scott Fitzgerald "Go" English 2 136
05 Turkey MFÖ "Sufi" Turkish 15 37 (CUT OUT)
06 Spain La Década "La chica que yo quiero (Made in Spain)" Spanish 11 58
07 Netherlands Gerard Joling "Shangri-La" Dutch 9 70
08 Israel Yardena Arazi "Ben Adam" (בן אדם) Hebrew 7 85
09 Switzerland Céline Dion "Ne partez pas sans moi" French 1 137
10 Ireland Jump the Gun "Take Him Home" English 8 79
11 Germany Maxi & Chris Garden "Lied für einen Freund" German 14 48
12 Austria Wilfried "Lisa Mona Lisa" German 21 0
13 Denmark Hot Eyes "Ka' du se hva' jeg sa'?" Danish 3 92
14 Greece Afroditi Frida "Clown" (Κλόουν) Greek 17 10
15 Norway Karoline Krüger "For vår jord" Norwegian 5 88
16 Belgium Reynaert "Laissez briller le soleil" French 18 5
17 Luxembourg Lara Fabian "Croire" French 4 90
18 Italy Luca Barbarossa "Vivo (Ti scrivo)" Italian 12 52
19 France Gérard Lenorman "Chanteur de charme" French 10 64
20 Portugal Dora "Voltarei" Portuguese 18 5
21 Yugoslavia Srebrna krila "Mangup" Serbo-Croatian 6 87