It’s the year that produced timeless evergreens like “Dinle”, “Fiumi di parole” and, of course, “Love Shine A Light”. And, for one week only, fans will be able to watch Eurovision 1997 in its entirety for the very first time on the official YouTube channel.
Watch Eurovision 1997 online
The Dublin-hosted contest is coming online in conjunction with the EBU, RTÉ and the Eurovision Again team.
For the past several weeks, since the COVID-19 pandemic first took hold, Eurovision Again — an initiative started by UK journalist Rob Holley — has been organising mass rewatchings of classic contests on Saturday evenings. The EBU soon came on board and began publishing previously unavailable entire show uploads on its YouTube channel.
However, unlike previous watch-along episodes like 2009 and 2015, fans need to be quick. Because the 1997 contest will only be available until 25 April. At 21:00 CEST on Saturday evening, it will once again return to the vaults, for the time being at least.
But why? Before 2004, the copyright for each show belonged to the respective broadcasters. In the case of 1997, that’s Ireland’s RTÉ. For now, the Irish network has opted to make the show available only temporarily.
From 2004, the rules changed with the EBU taking over ownership of the rights. Hence, the uploads of contests from 2004 onwards have remained online.
When does Eurovision Again happen?
Eurovision Again takes place every Saturday at 21:00 CEST — the traditional Eurovision time slot. A contest is extracted from the vaults and everyone watches in-sync while tweeting along using the #EurovisionAgain hashtag.
Fans also have the chance to vote again. In the most recent viewing, Katrina and the Waves still came out on top for the UK. But fans crowned Belgium’s Loïc Nottet as their new Eurovision 2015 winner one week earlier.
Did you join in with #EurovisionAgain on Saturday? Will you watch the 1997 contest before it disappears again? Let us know in the comments.
This is still my favourite Eurovision ever! I watched it on a loop in the late 90s/early 00s. To be honest I still watch it 2 or 3 times a year. The whole production was so evocative of the 90s. The set looked like a Joel Schumacher Batcave, Carrie and Ronan in John Rocha, Boyzone and dancers in silver PVC and the songs and the running order made it a really perfect 3 hours of TV. I think that RTE, who had hosted 5 time between 1988 and 1997, really came up with thoroughly unique designs and brands every time… Read more »
running order was decide by draw, not by EBU Eurovision reference group and host broadcaster.
Same woman design stage for Eurovision 1988,1994,1997. All 3 stage was so good.
For me
1.1988
2.1994
3.1997
I thought a man designed this year’s stage, and also did in 2009. I could be wrong.
RTE was so good making a show then, that’s why I wonder how they would now (assuming most of the team here have moved on)
Many good songs.
My TOP 10
1.Iceland
2.Cyprus
3.Russia
4.Italy
5.Turkey
6.Denmark
7.Portugal
8.United Kingdom
9.Slovenia
10.Poland
11.GER
12.NET
13.MAL
14.IRE
15.AUT
16.GRE
17.HUN
18.CRO
19.BOS
20.FRA
21.SWE
22.SWI
23.SPA
24.EST
25.NOR
She’s an absolute legend in Lithuania and in all of Eastern Europe, she deserves top 5 at least
A legend in Armenia too. If you ask random people in the streets to name a single singer, most likely you will be answered Charles Aznavour, Alla Pugacheva and Michael Jackson. She is a synonym for singing here.
Be great to see more pre-twitter contests.
Hi. You made my night, thank you so very much! 1997 was the first year I watched ESC by accident and have been hooked ever since. This night got me back 20+ yeaes ago when I used to memorise words in foreign languages without knowing their meaning by watching endlessly on repeat. I did it again tonight while watching it, so silly lol.
And after all these years, I still consider it one of the best. My top 5 remain:
Italy
Poland
UK
Russia
Slovenia
Thank you again, greetings from Belgrade.
Omg! Same here I even watched my VHS tape so much it snapped and I taped it together lol
Excellent! 🙂 I’ve been trying to get a hold of every ESC broadcast since 1997 (the first year of televoting and I presume the first year where any kind of remote technology was used), semifinals included, minus the commentary.
A fairly decently-sized stage, with a bit of modern technology added; obviously not like today, but very adequate for the Windows 95 era.
I really liked Carrie Crowley as presenter. No stupid jokes, but still a sense of humour, and more than competent.
Yes, but I do wonder why RTE didn’t just let her present alone. I get the whole “Ronan Keating as a teen heartthrob” angle, and I’m sure RTE hoped he’d draw a bit teen audience, but he didn’t add very much at all. They should just have let him do the interval with Boyzone.
I thought Iceland would win too (in 1997), but I guess this was the first year we noticed that going last isn’t such a good draw.
In Italy we have a strange story about this Eurovision; at the very begininng of the show – and this was confirmed by our ex italian tv delegation – Jalisse were the leading favourite to snatch the trophy, so one of our member made a call inside Rai telling that at least – according to all the betting company – they would have reach the second place and that even him bet on our victory. The man at the phone hung up, and the story tells that inside our Tv company something went wrong ’cause Rai didin’t want to host… Read more »
So Italy rigged it against themselves because they didn’t want to host?
If Italy didn’t want to win, maybe they should have sent a sucky act.
Actually was a pretty strange year of Sanremo, because was the first year with only one competition where our established singers competed with the winner of the young section – Jalisse. Nobody would have know that they were going to win that music festival, and as a matter of fact the year after all the things changed – coming back to two different competitions.
Didn’t a newcomer win the whole thing in 1998 too?
I just watched 1980 again as it was 40 years ago today and thoroughly enjoyed it. I feel there are too many additional bells and whistles in the contest these days. For instance in 1980, no time was wasted with the spokespersons, they just gave their votes and that was that. I like this idea of Eurovision Again, but nothing will make up for the ERG’s lack of imagination this year. We could still have had a contest of sorts in 2020, One World Together just proved that. What hurts most of all is that a contest of remote performances,… Read more »
One World Together was not a competition.
While it’s getting worse for sure, the spokespersons milking their moment in the international spotlight is not a new thing. If you look at the 1997 voting, the spokesman from Cyprus goes on for ages…
‘hon Ireland. Honestly love fiumi di parole!!!!!!!
The 90s where the top 2 was almost every year between Ireland/UK were ridiculous. Atrocious juries. Because of that language rule was abolished in 1999 and since then Eurovision became Englishvision.
This was so delightful to watch again a full Eurovision with native languages but stupid juries only went for UK/Ireland. Uk victory was totally undeserved this year like almost every Ireland win in the 90s with their boring ballads. Turkey should have won this year.
Singing in English was a big advantage, sure, but it’s not why Ireland kept winning. How come Malta never got there with the same advantage?
True, back then Malta was nearly always a Top 10 finisher.
What a nasty thing to say about my country.
But would it have been that much more diverse? In’92 and’93, the UK was runner-up so they would have had three wins in the 1990s, and in 1996, Norway was the runner up, so they would have done the double (with a song that didn’t deserve to win). So the 90’s winner list would have been: Italy, Sweden, UK, UK, Poland, Norway, Norway, UK, Israel, Sweden. Slightly more diverse, but not hugely. Though the Polish win in ’94 would have been quite the breakthrough.
I think that Hungary would have won instead of Poland in 1994 when I see the result of the jury if Ireland didnt participate this year.
Fun fact. One of Hungary’s VIP was Gergo Rácz who won A Dal this year and also co-wrote Hungary’s song in 2011
Dinle, Turkey’s entry by ?ebnem Paker is one of my all time favourite entries! I had it on vhs(yes, I’m old), listened to it on repeat and till now I can sing it all by heart. And do the choreography.
I liked the “good luck’ messages from former winners (plus Julio) that were used in 1997, though considering there would have been 40 past winners by that point (most of whom would have been alive at the time), it was a shame more didn’t come back to do a short clip- I seem to recall these clips only appeared for every second or third song (I’ve not watched the YouTube upload yet but I remember the night fairly well). Though it was impressive they got Celine to do one. I also recall they combined ’92, ’93 and ’94 into one.
1996 was pretty fun too, with politicians greeting their country’s representatives and wishing good evening in their native language.
Lots of things they tried in ’96 never caught on, i.e., VR voting, the politicians messages, calling it ‘Eurosong.’
Including the current UN Secretary General!
RTS didn t broadcast live because that (Eurovision was on tv shedule). They re broadcast on Sunday but they cut political message.
What do you think would have happened if all countries used televoting? Only 5 countries used it that year and all West.
I usually wonder this in the pre-televoting era.
Or…what if it was 100% jury voting? I assume the difference it made would have been minor, but I think Turkey would have slipped down a bit. Maybe to 5th or 6th? Which still would have been a great result for them (at the time).
Sorry, ignore the above, it was only when checking on Wiki the exact scores from each jury…I think Turkey would realistically only have dropped one place.
I’d like to see UK vs Turkey and see what happens. I guess Ireland and Italy would have done well and probably Top 5 regardless.
And yes Iceland was televote magnet and so memorable. They got points from Sweden and UK which is expected but I’m curious for other countries.
I think Estonia had a good chance of Top 5 as well. And curious for Russia since Alla’s name.
I think the top 5 would’ve been United Kingdom (still winning), Turkey, Iceland, Russia and either Estonia, Italy or Cyprus. Ireland only finished in the top 5 because it was jury bait.
They should keep it on Youtube at least until Corona is over.
REALplayer downloader
What an incredible edition! Best year of the ’90s for me. My favorites are Italy (unforgettable and still moving), the Netherlands (those women were super vocalists and the entry was really catchy), Iceland (ahead of its time) and Russia (a touching song about the pain and sadness that many artists hide behind their smiles).
The singer from Turkey reminds me of Fran Drescher in The Nanny.
Iceland and Austria are my guilty pleasures that year. All the other songs are too conservative even for that year.
Oh my favorite contest in the history of the ESC ! With the language rules and the orchestra everything was perfect during this period (but the juries sucks in the 90s) and the beginning of the televoting ! When the contest was so sober and elegant.
My TOP 5 :
1) Poland
2) Iceland
3) Italy
4) Turkey
5) Netherlands
and the worst :
25) Croatia
24) Ireland
23) Austria
22) Germany
21) Switzerland
Watching it for the first and i really enjoyed it. I was rooting for Turkey, UK and Estonia (a really beautiful song i didn’t know before)
Looking forward for more past contests.
I agree – there were a lot of cool artists in Poland in the ’90s, and it showed at Eurovision – back then, we were sending many rising stars. If you’re interested, I can recommend you a few: Justyna Steczkowska and Anna Maria Jopek, obviously, HEY, O.N.A., Kayah (especially the album she made together with Goran Bregovic), Myslovitz, T.Love, Republika, Grzegorz Turnau, Maanam (iconic band, they had their big return in the ’90s).
I’m on the fence about his solo music (though I quite liked his score for “Underground”), but I love “Kayah i Bregovic”, it was very popular here and won a Fryderyk (Polish music award) for the best album of the year.
P.S. I didn’t know you were from Germany, your English is so good that I took you for an Englishman. Are there any German artists from the past you’d recommend?
Yeah, it was a huge hit. Later on, Agnieszka Chylinska, the vocalist, started a very successful solo career, and she’s very famous till this day.
(The first reply got filtered, so it might reappear above).
I’m on the fence about Bregovic (though I quite like his score for “Underground”), but I love “Kayah i Bregovic”, it was very popular here and it received a Fryderyk (Polish music award) for the album of the year.
P.S. I didn’t know you’re from Germany, your English is so good that I took you for an English guy. Are there any German artists from the past you’d recommend?
Thank you so much, I’ll make sure to check them out. Up until now, the only non-Eurovision German artists I knew were Modern Talking, Sandra, Boney M, Scorpions, Rammstein, the infamous Milli Vanilli and Kraftwerk, so that will definitely broaden my horizons a little. I always wandered how many hidden gems outside of the English-speaking world are there to explore, like what are the famous singers or well known songs from, say, Turkey or Laos. I also figured that maybe you’d prefer something more contemporary from Poland, like the stuff you can hear on the radio, so here’s a bunch… Read more »
Do you know Veronika Fischer, Skiwalko?
I don’t know if you regard her as non-Eurovision – she never represented Germany, but she did try to. I like her a lot!
I think I’ve heard “Unendlich weit” while randomly checking out the NFs from the ’80s, but that’s about it, I’m afraid. I’ve just listened to some of her songs and they’re indeed pretty nice, thanks for the recommendation!
Sure, why not? And I’m sorry for you too, I’d be equally upset if Thomas Anders was the first person people would associate with my country’s music (we’ve at least got Chopin).
Turkey had such a great song that year, Sebnem definitely would of been a great winner had Turkey won that year..
Why doesn’t the EBU have all past contests permanently on its site? Seriously now.
If they don’t keep it there permanently I don’t care about watching it either.
Licensing perhaps.
Padraig explained in the article. “Before 2004, the copyright for each show belonged to the respective broadcasters.”
I do not want to be/sound rude but did you even read the article before commenting?
True but Eurovision Youtube JUST put up the 2015 contest recently as well. Anyone know what the issue was with that one?
Yeah, I was really pissed they took out the 2015 livestreams. 2017 was right around a corner and I was in the mood of checking it out first but somehow that one disappeared.
Always Turkey and Dinle
Rip them out for personal keeping while you can guys.
Personally I liked Turkey and Italy (also Cyprus, Greece, Malta and Denmark as guilty pleausure). Oh well and Iceland, what a iconic performance. 😀
Maybe it’s unpopular opinion but winner UK is highly overrated. Maybe it’s top 5 for me but I don’t like it that much.
This is one of my favourite years (not just saying that as a Brit!), Excellent production, hosting and standard of songs. As a child of the 90s I am always find of seeing productions from this era, whilst I don’t remember the contest at the time it gives me nostalgia. Proud the see the UK with such a deserving winner, though I’m concerned about the involvement of Jonathan King (who I’m only passingly familiar with). Suppose you separate the work from the man. I’d be really interested in seeing what a modern Irish production would look like. The Point Theatre… Read more »
Whoops! Ignore the word ‘not’ from my last paragraph!
so many great songs, love that year
1.Turkey
2.Italy
3.UK
Ridiculous. Shame on RTE. I never understood what would be the financial prejudice about something that is not commercially available. Are there DVDs of ESC 1997 o, the market ? NO. Welcome to downloaders ……
I mean, not just RTE, don’t you think? Following your reason, every broadcaster that was responsible for at least one of the editions prior to 2004 should release the contest recording
Not that I disagree with you, just pointing out that RTE is not the only one in that situation (except Danish broadcaster for 1964 edition, let’s not forget)
Turkey is my favourite from that year. Such a beautiful voice and song.
I want you send me Eurovision again 1997 and Eurovision again 2015 at my mail, please.
And I also hope to see Eurovision 1981 for my idol JEAN-CLAUDE PASCAL;
Let’s go and thank you for your answer