Luxembourg participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 1989 with the song "Monsieur" written by Maggie Parke, Gast Waltzing, Yves Lacomblez and Bernard Loncheval. The song was performed by the band Park Café, which was internally selected by the Luxembourgish broadcaster Radio Télévision Luxembourg (RTL) in February 1989 to represent Luxembourg in Lausanne, Switzerland. RTL organised a three-song national final in order to select Park Café's song and "Monsieur" emerged as the winning song following a public televote held via television and radio on 5 and 6 March 1989.
Luxembourg competed in the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 6 May 1989. Performing during the show in position 11, Luxembourg placed twentieth out of the 22 participating countries, scoring 8 points.
The Luxembourgish national broadcaster, Radio Télévision Luxembourg (RTL), broadcasts the event within Luxembourg and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. The Luxembourgish entries since 1979 have been selected internally by RTL. For the 1989 contest, the broadcaster opted to internally select the artist and organise a national final to select the song.[2]
Before Eurovision
Artist selection
On 10 February 1989, RTL announced that the band Park Café had been internally selected to represent Luxembourg in Lausanne.[3] It was later announced that a national final would be held to select the song Park Café would perform.[4]
National final
12 songs were submitted by Park Café to RTL which selected three of them for the national final.[4] Video recordings of Park Café performing the three competing songs were presented during the 5 March 1989 edition of the television programme Hei elei, kuck elei [simple; lb], broadcast on RTL Canal 21 at 13:00 (CET) and hosted by Jean Octave and Manette Dupong, with the public was able to vote for their favourite song through televoting during the show.[5][6] The three songs were also presented via radio on RTL 92.5 [lb] on 6 March 1989 where an additional round of televoting was held. The combination of votes received during both voting rounds resulted in the selection of "Monsieur" as the winning song.[5][7]
Final – 5–6 March 1989
Draw
Song
Songwriter(s)
Televote
Place
TV
Radio
Total
1
"Chaque fois"
Maggie Parke, Gast Waltzing, Yves Lacomblez, Bernard Loncheval
405
320
725
3
2
"Je l'aime"
Maggie Parke, Gast Waltzing, Scholtes
295
573
868
2
3
"Monsieur"
Maggie Parke, Gast Waltzing, Yves Lacomblez, Bernard Loncheval
1,381
1,042
2,423
1
At Eurovision
The Eurovision Song Contest 1989 took place on 6 May 1989 at Hall 7 of the Palais de Beaulieu in Lausanne, Switzerland. On 23 November 1988, an allocation draw was held which determined the running order and Luxembourg was set to perform in position 11, following the entry from Sweden and before the entry from Denmark.[8] The Luxembourgian conductor at the contest was Benoît Kaufman and Luxembourg finished in 20th place, scoring 8 points.[9]
^Roxburgh, Gordon (2016). Songs for Europe: The United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest. Vol. Three: The 1980s. Prestatyn, United Kingdom: Telos Publishing. pp. 371–373. ISBN978-1-84583-163-9.