Following Céline Dion’s victory the preceding year in Dublin, beautiful Lausanne welcomed participants from 22 countries for the 1989 Eurovision Song Contest.
Lausanne had never hosted the Eurovision Song Contest before, in fact it was only the second time since 1956 that Swiss TV had the chance to host Europe’s biggest musical event. With Cyprus back in competition, there were 22 countries again, just like in 1987. The French participant Nathalie Pâque was just 11 years old and one of the Israeli representatives just one year older which led the European Broadcasting Union to a change of rules for the next years to come, so a minimum age rule was introduced: a participant had to become at least 16 in the year the contest was held. Another new rule was created as well: in the event of a tie, the country with the most „12 points“ wins. If this also resulted in a tie, then the winner would be the country which had received the most „10 points“. This rule became necessary in 1991 when Sweden and France were tied at first place with 146 points.
True to form, Italy sent its biggest stars to Eurovision. This year it was the turn of Fausto Leali and Anna Oxa who had won the festival of San Remo some weeks prior to the Eurovision Song Contest. Germany and Austria’s entries were both written by German pop titan, Dieter Bohlen. Bohlen became famous in Germany in the 1980’s as one half of the duo Modern Talking. Since then, he has gone on to have a successful career as one of the country’s most successful pop producers and also became a judge in the German version of Pop Idol.
The tipped winner was Sweden’s Tommy Nilsson, who was heavily supported by big names in the Swedish music industry as his backing vocalists, and he ended up in a respectable fourth position. The Swiss entry Viver Senza Tei by the group Furbaz was the first entry ever to be sung in Romansch, one of the four official languages of Switzerland. However, Furbaz only managed to come 13th on home ground. During the interval act, last year’s winner Céline Dion performed the song Where Does My Heart Beat Now which would turn out to be a top 10 hit for the Canadian singer two years later.
It was a big surprise for many that Yugoslavia won with the simple but efficient uptempo song Rock Me. However, record buyers didn’t think much of the song which only became a minor hit in some countries.