VENUE The Point, Dublin		ENTRIES 25
HOSTS Carrie Crowley Ronan Keating		DEBUTS None

With the contest back in Dublin one idea Irish TV adopted from Norway was to have a pop idol as co-presenter as Ronan Keating was drafted in for duty. We were back for the third time at the Point in Dublin, and not for the first time, two English language songs dominated proceedings. At one point (no pun intended) the UK's "Love Shine A Light" received five consecutive twelve points, a record under the current scoring system.

This contest was notable for how well the "old" countries performed; the traditional powers of (Western) Europe who had been mainstays of the contest: UK first, Ireland second, Italy fourth, Spain sixth and France seventh.  All was about to change, as Italy pulled out after this year, and a dozen years later Ireland have yet to revisit the top five, while the "big four" nations routinely prop up the scoreboard. The organizers decided to try and modernize the contest by installing public voting rather than the traditional juries as it as felt that poppy numbers were being ignored by the jury voters and that the contest needed some uptempo winners. Telephone voting was piloted in five countries in 1997 and would become compulsory the year after so long as each nation had the technology.

The Eurovision Song Contest has long had a huge number of gay fans revelling in, well the sheer campness of the whole event, but a bit like Coronation Street, there had never been anything explicitly gay (unless of course I've missed something). This year, bringing up the rear (!) was Iceland's openly gay Paul Oscar, sat on his sofa and stroking his thighs. Somewhere in Israel, something was stirring.........

WINNER: United Kingdom

LOVE SHINE A LIGHT by Katrina & The Waves

Voting

IN THE NEWS THIS WEEK:

Tony Blair's Labour Party end 18 years of Conservative rule with a landslide victory in the British general election. 

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