# Eurovision Song Contest 1987

The Eurovision Song Contest 1987 was the 32nd edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Brussels, Belgium, following the country's victory at the 1986 contest with the song "J'aime la vie" by Sandra Kim. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster Radio-télévision belge de la Communauté française (RTBF), the contest was held at the Centenary Palace on 9 May 1987 (also Europe Day) and hosted by French-Belgian singer Viktor Lazlo.
Twenty-two countries took part in the contest with Greece and Italy returning to the competition after their absences the previous year. This set the record for the highest number of competing countries up until that point.
The winner was Ireland with the song "Hold Me Now" by Johnny Logan, who had also won the 1980 contest. He became the first performer to have won the Eurovision Song Contest twice. Germany, Italy, Yugoslavia, and the Netherlands rounded out the top five.

## Location

The contest took place at the Brussels Exhibition Centre (Brussels Expo) in Brussels, Belgium. These are a set of exhibition halls built from 1930 on the Heysel/Heizel Plateau (Heysel Park) in Laeken (northern part of the City of Brussels) to celebrate the centenary of Belgian Independence. The Centenary Palace (French: Palais du Centenaire, Dutch: Eeuwfeestpaleis), where the main stage was located, is one of the remaining buildings of the Brussels International Exposition of 1935. Currently, it is still being used for trade fairs, as well as concerts, usually for bigger acts and artists.

### Host city selection process

During the selection process of the host city and venue, a joint committee from the two Belgian broadcasters, Walloon Radio-télévision belge de la Communauté française (RTBF) and Flemish Belgische Radio- en Televisieomroep (BRT), was created by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). The committee also decided that a potential place for the contest was the Royal Theatre of Antwerp, as both locations proposed by RTBF (the Palais du Centenaire in Brussels and the Patinoire de Coronmeuse [fr] in Liege) would have required heavy renovation works to meet the proposed technical specifications for the contest. Nevertheless, RTBF demanded the event to be held in Brussels with the argument that the city symbolized more than the Belgium capital itself, in addition to its federal functions as the capital of the country (but almost all governing bodies of the European Union also located there). On 6 October 1986, seven months ahead of the contest, RTBF surprisingly and one-sidedly announced that the Palais du Centenaire was chosen as the host venue for the Eurovision Song Contest 1987. The Flemish newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws, published that BRT proposed instead to host the contest at the Cirque Royal, near the Royal Palace of Brussels, adding that RTBF would be solely in charge of organizing the contest if BRT's counteroffer was not chosen. However, RTBF moved forward alone with its plans and confirmed that the Palais du Centenaire was the official contest's host venue. BRT was offended by the choice of Brussels as the host city, and withdrew from the organization, but kept the duties of competing in the contest representing Belgium.

## Participating countries

The Eurovision Song Contest 1987 was the biggest contest to date, and it was also the first in which 22 countries competed. Only Malta, Monaco and Morocco failed to compete out of all the countries which had entered the contest in the past. To date, this was the largest number of countries participating in the contest, with the maximum number up until then being 20. As this had never happened, the EBU was forced to review the rules and production calendar after this edition, and fearing that the number would increase again, it was decided that from this edition onwards, the maximum number of participants would also be 22. This was a problematic question over the next six years as new and returning nations indicated an interest in participating, but they could not be accommodated.
Several of the performing artists had previously competed as lead artists in past editions for the same country. Gary Lux had represented Austria in 1983 as part of Westend, and in 1985 as a soloist; and he had additionally provided backing vocals in 1984. Alexia had represented Cyprus in 1981 as part of Island. Wind had represented Germany in 1985. Johnny Logan had won the contest for Ireland in 1980.

## Production and format
### Host broadcaster rule

By 1986, Belgium had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 30 times since making its debut at the first contest in 1956 along six other countries. Belgium was the only one of the seven founding countries to have never won the contest and had only finished in the top five four times (with "Un peu de poivre, un peu de sel" by Tonia in 1966 placing fourth, "L'amour ça fait chanter la vie" by Jean Vallée in 1978 placing second, "Si tu aimes ma musique" by Stella in 1982 placing fourth, and "Avanti la vie" by Jacques Zegers in 1984 placing fifth).
Their Eurovision victory in 1986, with J'aime la vie by Sandra Kim, occurred amidst a complex political situation in Belgium. The country was undergoing massive constitutional reforms in which the Belgian state was transitioning from a centralized to a federal system. This was due to rising tensions between the two major linguistic regions of Belgium, Dutch-speaking Flanders and French-speaking Wallonia. Both regions had had independent broadcasters since 1960 (BRT in Flanders and RTBF in Wallonia) but had still agreed to jointly host the contest in the event of a Belgian victory. While the triumph of "J'aime la vie" in 1986 – an entry sent by French-speaking RTBF – reignited a sense of national union across all Belgian regions, the two regional broadcasters weren't able to overcome their disagreements and joint host the competition. During the production of the event, BRT eventually withdrew from the project and RTBF organised the contest alone as host broadcaster. As a consequence, the host country images in Eurovision 1987 mostly showed footage of Wallonia. BRT still remained in charge of the participation in the contest compeating for Belgium.

### Budget

Holding the contest in Belgium caused several legal changes in the country's system and forced the implementation of most of the modern rules and regulations on the monetization of public television. This led to the authorization of advertising, sponsorships, and marketing actions in the two public channels in the country. As a consequence, the RTBF was also allowed to sell sponsorship quotas for the event, setting a new precedent for the Eurovision Song Contest.
For RTBF, this decision was a relief as the event was almost entirely funded with private funds. This opened the doors to the commercial potential of the event itself, starting a period of modernization and increased interest for the event. Apart from the latent tensions, after the end of the contest the then-president of the BRT Cas Goossens praised RTBF for their "perfect organization" while at the same time regretting that the two broadcasters weren't able to collaborate. He added that the cost of hosting Eurovision would have been difficult to justify to the Flemish taxpayers.

### Rehearsals

Dress rehearsals began on 24–25 April.

## Contest overview
### Spokespersons

Each participating broadcaster appointed a spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for its respective country via telephone. Known spokespersons at the 1987 contest are listed below.
* Belgium – An Ploegaerts
* Iceland – Guðrún Skúladóttir
* Netherlands – Ralph Inbar
* Sweden – Jan Ellerås [sv]
* United Kingdom – Colin Berry
* Yugoslavia – Ljiljana Tipsarević

## Detailed voting results
### 12 points

Below is a summary of all 12 points in the final:
| N. | Contestant | Nation(s) giving 12 points |
| 8 | Ireland | Austria, Belgium, Finland, Italy, Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom |
| 5 | Italy | Germany, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Yugoslavia |
| 2 | Germany | Denmark, Iceland |
| 2 | Yugoslavia | Norway, Turkey |
| 1 | Cyprus | Greece |
| 1 | France | Luxembourg |
| 1 | Greece | Cyprus |
| 1 | Netherlands | France |
| 1 | Sweden | Israel |

## Broadcasts

Each participating broadcaster was required to relay the contest via its networks. Non-participating EBU member broadcasters were also able to relay the contest as "passive participants". Broadcasters were able to send commentators to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language and to relay information about the artists and songs to their television viewers.
It was reported that 500 million viewers in 25 countries would see the contest. Known details on the broadcasts in each country, including the specific broadcasting stations and commentators are shown in the tables below.