The Eurovision Song Contest 1997 was the 42nd edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, held on 3 May 1997 at the Point Theatre in Dublin, Ireland, and presented by Carrie Crowley and Ronan Keating. It was organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster (RTÉ), who staged the event after winning the for with the song "The Voice" by Eimear Quinn. The 1997 contest was the seventh – and to date last – edition to be staged in Ireland, as well as the fourth to be produced by RTÉ in five years. The Point Theatre served as the host venue for the third time, following the and contests, becoming the only venue to have been the site of three Eurovision Song Contests.
Broadcasters from twenty-five countries participated in the contest, with a new relegation system introduced to determine which could participate, based on each country's average points total in previous contests. made its first appearance since , and , , , and returned after last competing in , having been prevented from competing the previous year after failing to progress from that event's qualifying round. , , and , participants in the previous year's contest, were unable to return after being excluded by the new relegation rules.
The winner was the with the song "Love Shine a Light", written by Kimberley Rew and performed by Katrina and the Waves. , , , and rounded out the top five, with Ireland earning its fifth placing in the top two within six years, Turkey achieving their best result to date, and Cyprus equalling its best result from . Five of the competing countries used televoting to determine their points, allowing the general viewing public a say in the results for the first time; following this successful trial all countries were encouraged to use this system starting from the . Entries were also permitted for the first time to feature no live music accompaniment, with each performance being able to use only a backing track rather than utilising any part of the orchestra or any live instrumentation from the performers themselves.
The 1997 event would prove to be a watershed for the contest, with many aspects of this event leaving a lasting impact on future editions of Eurovision. These included: the first openly LGBT artist, Iceland's Paul Oscar, selected to compete in the event; changes to contest rules led to the abandonment of live musical accompaniment in future events; a successful trial of televoting in five countries led to widespread adoption for all countries in 1998.
Location
thumb|[[Point Theatre, Dublin – host venue of the 1997 contest (pictured following redevelopment)]]
The 1997 contest took place in Dublin, Ireland, following the country's victory at the with the song "The Voice", performed by Eimear Quinn. It was the seventh time that Ireland had hosted the contest, having previously staged the event in , , , , , and , with all previous events held in Dublin except the 1993 contest which was held in Millstreet. This was the fourth edition of the contest that Ireland had hosted within five years, and with this edition Ireland equalled the record for the nation which had staged the most contests, originally set by the United Kingdom in .
Given the financial impact to staging the contest for a fourth time in five years, there was early speculation following its win in the 1996 contest that (RTÉ) might stage the event as a co-production with BBC Northern Ireland. Ultimately, the Irish broadcaster decided to organise the event on its own once again. The selected venue was the Point Theatre, a concert and events venue located amongst the Dublin Docklands which had originally been built as a train depot to serve the nearby port. Opened as a music venue in 1988, it was closed for redevelopment and expansion in 2008 and is now known as the 3Arena. The venue had previously hosted the 1994 and 1995 contests, and with this staging it became the only venue to have hosted three Eurovision Song Contests.
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders sticky-header"
|-
|+ Eurovision Song Contest 1997 participants
|-
! scope="col" | Country
! scope="col" | Broadcaster
! scope="col" | Artist
! scope="col" | Song
! scope="col" | Language
! scope="col" | Songwriter(s)
! scope="col" | Conductor
|-
! scope="row" |
| ORF
| Bettina Soriat
| "One Step"
| German
|
|
|-
! scope="row" |
| RTVBiH
| Alma Čardžić
| "Goodbye"
| Bosnian
|
| Sinan Alimanović
|-
! scope="row" |
| HRT
| E.N.I.
| ""
| Croatian
|
|
|-
! scope="row" |
| CyBC
| and
| "" <small>()</small>
| Greek
|
| Stavros Lantsias
|-
! scope="row" |
| DR
|
| ""
| Danish
|
|
|-
! scope="row" |
| ETV
| Maarja
| ""
| Estonian
|
| Tarmo Leinatamm
|-
! scope="row" |
|
| Fanny
| ""
| French
|
| Régis Dupré
|-
! scope="row" |
| NDR
| Bianca Shomburg
| ""
| German
|
|
|-
! scope="row" |
| ERT
| Marianna Zorba
| "" <small>()</small>
| Greek
| Manolis Manouselis
| Anacreon Papageorgiou
|-
! scope="row" |
| MTV
| V.I.P.
| ""
| Hungarian
|
|
|-
! scope="row" |
| RÚV
| Paul Oscar
| ""
| Icelandic
|
|
|-
! scope="row" |
| RTÉ
| Marc Roberts
| "Mysterious Woman"
| English
| John Farry
|
|-
! scope="row" |
| RAI
| Jalisse
| ""
| Italian
|
| Lucio Fabbri
|-
! scope="row" |
| PBS
|
| "Let Me Fly"
| English
| Ray Agius
| Ray Agius
|-
! scope="row" |
| NOS
| Mrs. Einstein
| ""
| Dutch
| Ed Hooijmans
| Dick Bakker
|-
! scope="row" |
| NRK
| Tor Endresen
| "San Francisco"
| Norwegian
|
| Geir Langslet
|-
! scope="row" |
| TVP
| Anna Maria Jopek
| ""
| Polish
|
| Krzesimir Dębski
|-
! scope="row" |
| RTP
|
| ""
| Portuguese
|
| Thilo Krasmann
|-
! scope="row" |
| ORT
| Alla Pugacheva
| "" <small>()</small>
| Russian
| Alla Pugacheva
| Rutger Gunnarsson
|-
! scope="row" |
| RTVSLO
| Tanja Ribič
| ""
| Slovene
|
| Mojmir Sepe
|-
! scope="row" |
| TVE
| Marcos Llunas
| ""
| Spanish
| Marcos Llunas
| Toni Xuclà
|-
! scope="row" |
| SVT
|
| ""
| Swedish
| Stephan Berg
| Curt-Eric Holmquist
|-
! scope="row" |
| SRG SSR
|
| ""
| Italian
| Barbara Berta
| Pietro Damiani
|-
! scope="row" |
| TRT
| Şebnem Paker and
| ""
| Turkish
|
| Levent Çoker
|-
! scope="row" |
| BBC
| Katrina and the Waves
| "Love Shine a Light"
| English
| Kimberley Rew
| Don Airey
|}
Qualification
Due to the high number of countries wishing to enter the contest a relegation system was introduced in 1993 in order to reduce the number of countries which could compete in each year's contest. Any relegated countries would be able to return the following year, thus allowing all countries the opportunity to compete in at least one in every two editions. The audio-only qualifying round used in 1996 had been poorly received among the competing countries, and so a new relegation system was introduced by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) for 1997 and future contests. In cases where the average was identical between two or more countries the total number of points scored in the most recent contest determined the final order. Any countries which were not able to compete in the 1997 contest would then be eligible to compete in the 1998 event. The calculations used to determine the countries relegated for the 1997 contest are outlined in the table below.
Table key
{| class="sortable wikitable plainrowheaders sticky-header-multi" style="text-align:center;"
|-
|+ Calculation of average points to determine qualification for the 1997 contest