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Host country: Ireland
Venue: The Point, Dublin
Date: 3 May 1997
Presenters: Ronan Keating, Carrie Crowley
Won by: United Kingdom

The UK finally ended its fifteen year Eurovision drought in 1997. The experience of the past two years had convinced the BBC's Eurovision music executive Jonathan King that trying to be hip and trendy (Love City Groove, Gina G) was really not the way to win the thing. So instead the UK chose to send a song that had not even been originally written for the contest - and it was sung by Katrina and the Waves who had been enduring their own chart drought of over ten years.

US-born Katrina Leskanich (below) and her band never really had any competition when it came to voting - they received no fewer than ten 'douze points' and five 'dix points' - meaning it was some time before the end of the voting that the UK's victory was assured, finishing on an unprecendented 227 points; the second place Ireland were some 70 points adrift - the contest was finally being dragged away from their clutches after four wins in five years.

And what of the competition? Denmark had clearly yet to learn that being hip and trendy was not the way to go, and entered the first ever rap song in Eurovision history - Kolig Kag finished sixteenth. Croatia brought us their answer to the Spice Girls, ENI (below), Sweden's boy band Blond brought us the archetypal mid-80s Eurovision pop song some twelve years too late, while Norway's Tor Endresen brought 'nul points' back to the country for the fourth time.

There were a few changes in the rules this year - five countries used televoting for the first time, the UK, Sweden, Austria, Switzerland and Germany. After last year's pre-selection, the relegation system was reintroduced, but this time it was the countries with the lowest average scores over the past five years that did not qualify - although no country was forced to miss a contest for two years in a row. In addition, the 'Big Four' rule was introduced, meaning the UK, Germany, France and Spain could not be relegated. Complicated or what?

Despite not being that many years ago, to watch back the 1997 contest today it feels surprisingly dated compared to today's showbiz extravanganzas. The much smaller stage would have meant that the big dance routines of Sertab Erener and Ruslana simply could not have taken place, while the continued presence of an orchestra served to make many of the songs sound more old-fashioned than they perhaps needed to. Eurovision was still a long way removed from 'real' pop music - however things were about to change. The BBC were going to get their hands on Eurovision, and bring it kicking and screaming into the twentieth century...

Click here to view the 1997 scoreboard (opens in new window)

Countries voting are shown across the top, with each country's cumulative total after the country has voted shown in large type, and the points awarded in small type. Each country gave 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 points to its top ten songs
BBC broadcast: Saturday 3 May 1997, 8.00-11.10pm. Commentary: BBC1 - Terry Wogan, Radio 2 - Ken Bruce. UK vote spokesperson: Colin Berry

Click below to see more images from the night's contest:

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