Eurovision 1992: Malmö

Sweden’s third contest went to Malmö, to an ice hockey arena with about 3,700 people in it. The stage was the prow of a Viking ship. Behind it, picked out in neon, was a bridge that did not exist yet: the Öresund crossing to Denmark, on which work had not even started.

Lydia Capolicchio and Harald Treutiger presented.

Twenty-three

The limit on entries had been 22 since 1987. It went up by one, because of Malta.

Malta had been let back in for 1991 on the understanding that it could stay only if somebody else dropped out. Then it finished sixth. With the Netherlands returning and nobody leaving, the organisers raised the ceiling to 23 rather than send Malta home.

The last Yugoslav entry

Yugoslavia took part for the final time. The country that had entered since 1961 had broken up over the previous year, and the song in Malmö represented what remained, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. It was the only time that state was ever represented. It finished thirteenth.

New sounds, new jurors

France’s entry was sung in Creole, the first time a French Creole language had been heard at the contest. Luxembourg, unusually, sang in Luxembourgish.

The juries changed as well. Until now their sixteen members had all been members of the public. From 1992, half of them were music professionals.

There was a mascot again, a computer-animated bird called Eurobird, who appeared between the songs.

The result

Ireland won for the fourth time. Linda Martin, who had been second in 1984, sang “Why Me?” and finished on 155 points, sixteen ahead of the United Kingdom’s Michael Ball.

The song was written by Johnny Logan. He had won as a singer in 1980, and as singer and writer in 1987. This made three, and nobody else has managed that, in any combination.

Martin joined a small club of her own: only Lys Assia and Gigliola Cinquetti had also finished both first and second.

For the United Kingdom it was a thirteenth second place. Malta, the country the rules had been bent for, came third, and Greece fifth, the best results either had had. Italy’s Mia Martini was fourth.

For the first time, the top three songs were all in English.

The hosts

Sweden did not enjoy its own party. Christer Björkman’s song picked up nine points and finished twenty-second out of twenty-three. Only Finland was below it.