1992 CONTEST RETROSPECTIVE:
1992 was an interesting year for the Contest. It was the biggest-ever contest with a full 23 participants, and Ireland easily beat the competition with their ballad “Why Me?”. The top 3 got rounded out by the UK’s Michael Ball (who was the tipped favourite to win), and Malta’s Mary Spiteri. This result foreshadowed what would happen to the Contest once the national language rule was abolished in 1999 – the domination of songs in English.
Linda’s victory made history on a couple of fronts. This started Ireland’s 1990s winning streak, as they would go on to win the next two years and then again in 1996. Talking of winning: the composer of the song was no other than Mr. Eurovision himself, Johnny Logan. This cemented him as the person with the most victories in Eurovision history, by winning for the third time. From Linda’s perspective, it was one of the rare times that an artist returned to Eurovision after not winning – she was 2nd in 1984 with the bop “Terminal 3” – and won the contest. She also got the honour of being the oldest woman to win Eurovision, at the age of 42. Surprisingly, she still keeps that dubious honour.
Linda Martin and Johnny Logan celebrating their victory in Malmö
This was also the last year that Yugoslavia participated in the Contest. As a matter of fact, this was not the same Yugoslavia as the year before. The country that was represented by Extra Nena was the union of only Serbia and Montenegro (under a new flag and name “Federal Republic of Yugoslavia” rather than “Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia”). This was because in 1991, the Yugoslav state started falling apart, with independence declarations by Slovenia and Croatia. Those were followed by Macedonia and Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1992.
Extra Nena performing “Ljubim te pesmama” (“I am Kissing you with Songs”) for Yugoslavia
Despite Bosnia-Herzegovina declaring independence on March 1st, RTV Sarajevo still decided to participate in the Yugoslav selection contest, Jugovizija, on March 28th. Arnela Konaković, one of the Bosnian singers, even placed 3rd in Jugovizija. The other participating television stations were only from Serbia and Montenegro. Three weeks after the contest itself, the United Nations passed a resolution imposing sanctions on the new Yugoslav state due its involvement in the conflicts that were erupting in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. This led to the EBU banning the Yugoslav national broadcaster in June 1992. Once the sanctions were lifted, Yugoslavia was readmitted to the EBU in 2001, and eventually re-joined Eurovision under as “Serbia & Montenegro” in 2004. Fortunately, Yugoslavia in 1992 was the last farewell of this sort that we have seen in Eurovision – fingers crossed that it stays the last!