Good Luck Wishes
In 1996 all contestants were wished good luck by a politician from their own country. Those wishes were shown right before their performance. This was the only year in Eurovision they did anything like this.
These are the people who wished their country's participant good luck:
- Turkey - Süleyman Demirel, President of Turkey
- United Kingdom - Virginia Bottomley, UK Secretary of State for National Heritage
- Spain - Don Alberto Escudero Claramunt, Spanish ambassador
- Portugal - António Guterres, Prime Minister of Portugal
- Cyprus - Glafkos Klerides, President of Cyprus
- Malta - Edward Fenech Adami, Prime Minister of Malta
- Croatia - Zlatko Mateša, Prime Minister of Croatia
- Austria - Elisabeth Gehrer, Federal Minister of Education, Science and Culture of Austria
- Switzerland - Michel Coquoz, Swiss Chargé d'affaires
- Greece - Caterína Dimaki, Greek Chargé d'affaires
- Estonia - Tiit Vähi, Prime Minister of Estonia
- Norway - Gro Harlem Brundtland, Prime Minister of Norway
- France - Philippe Douste-Blazy, Minister of Culture of France
- Slovenia - Milan Kučan, President of Slovenia
- Netherlands - Aad Nuis, State Secretary of Education, Culture and Science of the Netherlands
- Belgium - Luc Van den Brande, Prime Minister of Flanders
- Ireland - John Bruton, Taoiseach (Prime Minister of Ireland)
- Finland - Riitta Uosukainen, Speaker of Parliament of Finland
- Iceland - Davíð Oddsson, Prime Minister of Iceland
- Poland - Aleksander Kwaśniewski, President of Poland
- Bosnia and Herzegovina - Alija Izetbegović, Chairmen of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Slovakia - Vladimír Mečiar, Prime Minister of Slovakia
- Sweden - Göran Persson, Prime Minister of Sweden
Read more about this topic: Eurovision Song Contest 1996
Famous quotes containing the words luck and/or wishes:
“All the critics who could not make their reputations by discovering you are hoping to make them by predicting hopefully your approaching impotence, failure and general drying up of natural juices. Not a one will wish you luck or hope that you will keep on writing unless you have political affiliations in which case these will rally around and speak of you and Homer, Balzac, Zola and Link Steffens.”
—Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961)
“If one wishes for good, Heaven will help.”
—Chinese proverb.