VENUE Cinecitta, Rome		ENTRIES 22
HOSTS Gigliola Cinquetti Toto Cotugno		DEBUTS None

Italy had won in 1990 and so this rather reluctant competitor had to stage the contest. The venue was originally to be San Remo, home of the famous song festival that was a big part of the original inspiration for Eurovision, however security concerns forced a move to Rome and the legendary Cinecitta sound studio. It was not, it has to be said, the most professional production ever. Co-hosts were Italy's two winners Gigliola Cinquetti and Toto Cotugno, the latter completely losing it during the voting and having to be practically carried by Gigliola and the inscrutable scrutineer Frank Neff. There were also cameramen darting about, on-camera, during the songs which was really distracting.

This was the last contest until 1998 when frothy europop had a foothold before the classic (mostly Irish) ballad style took over. Yugoslavia's oxymoronic Bebi Doll kicked things off and nineteen songs later, Samantha Janus came on like Bebi's daughter to sing a song about global poverty while dressed like a hooker.  Among others, Switzerland, Portugal, Spain and Cyprus delivered string of classic Eurovision ballads.

We had the first tie since 1969, and what do you know, they'd actually thought of a tie breaker. In indecent time, Sweden were declared the winner as while they and France both had the same number of twelves, the Scandinavians had more tens. It was perhaps unfortunate for the image of the contest that a ground breaking effort like France's mesmeric entry didn't win, but rules are rules, and Carola was due some luck after the fabulous "Framling" missed out eight years earlier.  For the first time since 1966 the top two songs were performed next to each other, although to be fair two of the four-way tie winners in 1969 were adjacent.

WINNER: Sweden

FANGAD AV EN STORMVIND by Carola

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