After a year's break in Norway the contest returned to The Point Theatre in Dublin for the 3rd time in 4 years. Italy returned to the contest for the last time, preferring to concentrate on the San Remo festival. However they went out with a bang finishing 4th. Turkey finished in the top 10 for only the second time in 22 years with the returning Sebnem Paker finishing 3rd. Maarja-Liis Ilus returned for Estonia this time on her own. Alma Cardzic returned for Bosnia & Herzegovina also on her own this time. The winning entry was sung by Katrina & The Waves who had had a huge Worldwide hit in the mid 1980s with "Walking On Sunshine". The margin of victory was enormous. They scored a new highest score, beating the previous best by 1 point, and they finished 70 points ahead of their nearest challenger. A record 10 countries gave it top marks with a further 5 giving it 10 points. In fact only 6 of the voting countries didn't have the song in their top 3 and only 2 of those (Spain and Malta) giving it less than 6 points. It remains one of the most comprehensive victories in ESC history. At the other end of the table Norway scored their 4th 0 points. They were joined on 0 points by Portugal who hadn't scored 0 since their debut 33 years earlier. There was a major change to the voting in 1997 with the introduction of televoting in Austria, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Rather than a jury deciding on the votes the watching millions could have their say. Over the next couple of years more and more countries used televoting until it became standard.

Results
1.(24) 227 points - United Kingdom - Love Shine A Light - Katrina & The Waves
2.(5) 157 points - Ireland - Mysterious Woman - Marc Roberts
3.(2) 121 points - Turkey - Dinle - Sebnem Paker & Grup Etnic
4.(9) 114 points - Italy - Fiumi di parole - Jalisse
5.(1) 97 points - Cyprus - Mana mou - Hara & Andreas Konstantinou
6.(10) 96 points - Spain - Sin rencor - Marcos Llunas
7.(22) 95 points - France - Sentiment songes - Fanny
8.(13) 82 points - Estonia - Kelatuud maa - Maarja
9.(18 ) 66 points - Malta - Let Me Fly - Debbie Scerri
10.(6) 60 points - Slovenia - Zbudi se - Tanja Ribic
11.(12) 54 points - Poland - Ale Jestem - Anna-Maria Jopek
12.(17) 39 points - Greece - Horepse - Marianna Zorba
(19) 39 points - Hungary - Miért kell, hogy elmenj? - VIP
14.(16) 36 points - Sweden - Bara hon älskar mig - Blond
15.(20) 33 points - Russia - Primadonna - Alla Pugacheva
16.(21) 25 points - Denmark - Stemmen i mit liv - Kølig Kaj
17.(23) 24 points - Croatia - Probudi me - ENI
18.(11) 22 points - Germany - Zeit - Bianca Shomburg
(14) 22 points - Bosnia & Herzegovina - Goodbye - Alma Cardzic
20.(25) 18 points - Iceland - Minn hinsti dans - Paul Oscar
21.(4) 12 points - Austria - One Step - Bettina Soriat
22.(7) 5 points - Switzerland - Dentro di me - Barbara Berta
(8 ) 5 points - Netherlands - Niemand heeft nog tijd - Mrs Einstein
24.(3) 0 points - Norway - San Francisco - Tor Endresen
(15) 0 points - Portugal - Antes do adeus - Célia Lawson