This is the second part of ESC Webs’ series of articles about the history of Eurovision Song Contest 1990-2011. Now you can read all about the remaining 11 entries in the 1990 final, first part is here.

12. SWITZERLAND  Egon Egemann – Musik Klingt In Die Welt Hinaus

Man in white playing a violin was the Swiss representative. Egon Egemann had studied in Graz, Austria and lived in USA for some years before his solo career. Some sort of Alexander Rybak of that time? – Without victory, he finished 11th after getting 51 points, full 12 points from Denmark and Greece. He returned to Eurovision in 1998 when he composed the Swiss entry, “Lass ihn”. Unfortunately it didn’t receive any points at all and came last.

13. GERMANY Chris Kempers and Daniel Kovac – Frei Zu Lieben

Ralph Siegel was behind this love duet as well. “Free To Live” is the English translation and it is performed by Chris Kempers together with Slovenian singer Daniel Kovac. They won the German pre-selection and in Zagreb they finished 9th.

14. FRANCE Joëlle Ursull – White And Black Blues

Miss Guadeloupe had the honour to represent France at Eurovision 1990 with a song composed by Serge Gainsbourg. Joëlle had released one album in 1988 and right after her participation at Eurovision, she released her second album. White And Black Blues became a hit in France and was only 17 points away from winning the entire song contest. France had to share the second place with Ireland.

15. YUGOSLAVIA Tajci – Hajde Da Ludujemo

Tajči won the Yugoslavian pre-selection in 1990 when she was 19 years old. She definitely enjoyed being on stage wearing a pink dress in front of the home crowd. At the end of the night, she got 81 points and finished 7th. Nowadays she lives in United States where she sings in churches and writes a musical.

16. PORTUGAL Nucha – Há Sempre Alguém

Nucha participated the Portuguese pre-selection in 1988 but only two years later she finally reached the Eurovision Song Contest. Unfortunately her  repetitive song received only seven points, two from UK and five from Luxembourg. This didn’t end Nucha’s career in Portugal, she has released already seven albums and participated the Festival da Canção in 2009 and came fourth.

17. IRELAND Liam Reilly – Somewhere In Europe

In an exciting voting, Ireland, Italy and France all were fighting for the victory. Just like Nucha, also Liam Reilly wanted to compete in Eurovision already in 1988. On stage, Liam was confident and gave a solid performance with the song that was a typical Irish entry.

18. SWEDEN Edin-Ådahl – Som En Vind

It wasn’t Sweden’s lucky year when group Edin-Ådahl finished 16th which was their worse result in 11 years. Well, next year everything changed when Sweden once again won the contest. Next year’s Eurovision winner Carola Häggkvist came second in 1990 Melodifestivalen with “Mitt i ett äventyr”.

19. ITALY Toto Cutugno – Insieme:1992

Toto Cutugno, born in 1943, was chosen internally to represent Italy in Eurovision Song Contest 1990. His entry referred to the year in which the European Union was scheduled to begin operation. Italians didn’t show any interest towards Eurovision and RAI didn’t even broadcast the final on its channel. Anyway, Toto Cutugno brought surprisingly second victory to Italy with 149 points.

20. AUSTRIA Simone – Keine Mauern Mehr

Fall of the Berlin Wall inspired Austrian entry “No Walls Anymore”. Simone actually came second in the Austrian pre-selection but because the winner was soon disqualified, Simone was announced as the winner. She also competed in the 1994 pre-selection when she came fourth. In the 1990 Eurovision Song Contest Simone got 58 points and finished 10th, just after Germany.

21. CYPRUS Haris Anastasiou – Milas Poli

Cyprus participated the contest for their ninth time in 1990. This year they were represented by Haris Anastasiou who sang to his lover and complained that she talks too much. They tried to get more points with their horrible choreography and got 36 points which was enough for 14th place.

22. FINLAND Beat - Fri?

Last (and least) was Finland with their first entry in Swedish. YLE organised a televised national final in Helsinki in February where Finnish band Beat was selected to represent the country in Zagreb. Finland got eight points and had to share the last place with Norway.

Before the national juries in 22 participating countries announced their points, the film “Yugoslav Changes” was shown as an interval act. Film was almost 10 minutes long and it showed normal life in the country before it broke up into war.

Votes were announced in the order of performance and everything went smoothly except when it was Italy’s turn. The Italian spokesperson told he was going to give points from Spain which caused confusion and later it was speculated if Italian jury was real as they didn’t give any points to Ireland or France.

All in all, I think 1990 was a good year with some great entries. What do you think? Vote for your favorite of these 11 below, first part you can read here. Next week ESC Webs’ will look back to 1991 when the contest was held in Italy…