The Eurovision Song Contest (1988) Online

Cast overview, first billed only:
	Pat Kenny	-	Himself - Host
	Michelle Rocca	-	Herself - Host
	Sverrir Stormsker	-	Himself - Icelandic Entry: 16th Place
	Stefán Hilmarsson	-	Himself - Icelandic Entry: 16th Place
	Tommy Körberg	-	Himself - Swedish Entry: 12th Place
	Boulevard	-	Themselves - Finnish Entry: 20th Place
	Erkki Korhonen	-	Himself - Finnish Entry: 20th Place
	Kyösti Laihi	-	Himself - Finnish Entry: 20th Place
	Juha Lanu	-	Himself - Finnish Entry: 20th Place
	Jari Nieminen	-	Himself - Finnish Entry: 20th Place
	Tuomo Tepsa	-	Himself - Finnish Entry: 20th Place
	Scott Fitzgerald	-	Himself - United Kingdom Entry: 2nd Place
	Mazhar Alanson	-	Himself - Turkish Entry: 15th Place
	Fuat Güner	-	Himself - Turkish Entry: 15th Place
	M.F.O.	-	Themselves - Turkish Entry: 15th Place

Canadian singer Celine Dion represented Switzerland and won the contest by a margin of just one point (over the UK's Scott Fitzgerald)

The vast modern stage was the largest used in any Eurovision Song Contest up to that time. As the RDS arena was small, elaborate camera shots were used make the arena look bigger

For the first time in the history of the contest, a country was disqualified for breaching the rules. The Cypriot entry was previously recorded and released 4 years earlier, which is forbidden.

The Interval act 'Don't Go', performed by the Hot House Flowers, was filmed in 11 countries and cost 250,000 pounds to make. It was sponsored by the European Commission as part of its promotion of the European Year of Film and Television.

For the first time, instead of a physical scoreboard on the auditorium as it had been done since 1957, a computer generated scoreboard was used.