The Eurovision Song Contest 1987 was the 32nd edition of the event and held at the Palais de Centenaire in Brussels, Belgium following Sandra Kim's victory in Bergen the following year.
It was held on 9 May 1987, coinciding with the 30th anniversary of the formation of the European Economic Community. Brussels is the seat of the European government. French-born Belgian singer Viktor Lazlo was the presenter.
22 countries participated in the contest. No countries withdrew, while Greece and Italy returned after 1-edition breaks.
Ireland got its third victory and second of the 1980s with the song Hold Me Now by Johnny Logan. Having won in 1980 with What's Another Year, Logan wrote himself into the history books as the first artist to win the contest twice.
Contents
Format
Soviet Union
In 2009 Eduard Fomin, a former employee of the Ministry of Education of the RSFSR, revealed that in 1987 George Veselov, the Minister of Education for the Soviet Union, brought forward the idea of a participation of the Soviet Union at the Eurovision Song Contest due to the number of political reforms made by the President of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev during the late 1980s. The idea was mainly a political one, with the thought that a win in the contest for the Soviet Union would impact on the relationships between the Soviet Union and the capitalist countries of the west.
Valery Leontyev was suggested as a name for the Soviet Union's first participation, however Veselov's ideas were not shared by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, or by Gorbachev himself, believing it to be too radical a step to take, and so no Soviet participation was ever made.
Ten former republics of the Soviet Union would later compete in the contest on their own in the 1990s and 2000s: Russia, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan, with five of those countries going on to win the contest.
Postcards
The pre-song postcards presented short films of Belgian life, culture and society. Each ended with the artist superimposed into a cartoon drawn by a well-known Belgian cartoonist sending greetings back to their home countries in their native languages.
Returning Artists
| Artist(s) | Previous Year(s) |
|---|---|
| Gary Lux | 1983 (with Westend), 1985 |
| Wind | 1985 |
| Alexia | 1981 (with Island) |
| Johnny Logan | 1980 (winner) |
Participants
| Draw | Country | Artist | Song | Language | Translation | Place | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 |  Norway
|
Kate Gulbrandsen | Mitt liv | Norwegian | My life | 9 | 65 |
| 02 |  Israel
|
Datner and Kushnir | Shir Habatlanim | Hebrew | The lazy bums' song | 8 | 73 |
| 03 |  Austria
|
Gary Lux | Nur noch Gefühl | German | Only feelings | 20 | 8 |
| 04 |  Iceland
|
Halla Margrét | Hægt og hljótt | Icelandic | Slowly and quietly | 16 | 28 |
| 05 |  Belgium
|
Liliane Saint-Pierre | Soldiers of Love | Dutch | -- | 11 | 56 |
| 06 |  Sweden
|
Lotta Engberg | Boogaloo | Swedish | -- | 12 | 50 |
| 07 |  Italy
|
Umberto Tozzi & Raf | Gente di Mare | Italian | People of the sea | 3 | 103 |
| 08 |  Portugal
|
Nevada | Neste barco à vela | Portuguese | In this sailing boat | 18 | 15 |
| 09 |  Spain
|
Patricia Kraus | No estás solo | Spanish | You're not alone | 19 | 10 |
| 10 |  Turkey
|
Seyyal Taner & Locomotif | Şarkım Sevgi Üstüne | Turkish | My song is about love | 22 | 0 |
| 11 |  Greece
|
Bang | Stop | Greek | -- | 10 | 64 |
| 12 |  The Netherlands
|
Marcha | Rechtop in de wind | Dutch | Upright in the wind | 5 | 83 |
| 13 |  Luxembourg
|
Plastic Bertrand | Amour, Amour | French | Love, Love | 21 | 4 |
| 14 |  United Kingdom
|
Rikki | Only the Light | English | -- | 13 | 47 |
| 15 |  France
|
Christine Minier | Les mots d'amour n'ont pas de dimanche | French | The words of love don't have a Sunday | 14 | 44 |
| 16 |  Germany
|
Wind | Laß die Sonne in dein Herz | German | Let the sun into your heart | 2 | 141 |
| 17 |  Cyprus
|
Alexia | Aspro Mavro | Greek | White black | 7 | 80 |
| 18 |  Finland
|
Vicky Rosti & Boulevard | Sata salamaa | Finnish | A hundred lightnings | 15 | 32 |
| 19 |  Denmark
|
Anne-Cathrine Herdorf & Bandjo | En lille melodi | Danish | A little melody | 5 | 83 |
| 20 |  Ireland
|
Johnny Logan | Hold Me Now | English | -- | 1 | 172 |
| 21 |  Yugoslavia
|
Novi Fosili | Ja sam za ples | Croatian | I wanna dance | 4 | 92 |
| 22 |  Switzerland
|
Carol Rich | Moitié-Moitié | French | Half and half | 17 | 26 |
.png "01 Norway - Kate Gulbrandsen - Mitt liv (2).png (531 KB)")
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Trivia
- The Israeli culture minister threatened to resign if "Shir Habatlanim" went to Eurovision. His promise was left unfulfilled.
- 1986 winner Sandra Kim was featured in many of the postcard videos.
- Some of the cartoonists providing images for the artist postcards included Hergé (Tintin) and Peyo (The Smurfs).
- Young ballet students from the Brussels Dance Conservatory presented the flowers to Johnny Logan and his three backing singers during the victory ceremony.
- Flemish broadcaster BRT (now VRT) offered to co-produce the event, but the Wallonian broadcaster RTBF decided to go it alone. BRT supplied the entry for the host nation.
- This contest was the last to use a manually-operated scoreboard.
- Wind became the first act to place second on two different occasions without winning.
- Both of Johnny Logan's wins had a German entry finish second behind him (Katja Ebstein in 1980, and Wind in 1987).
