As BBC commentator Terry Wogan says: "there's no accounting for the tastes of various national juries". 22 juries from each of the participating nations had the daunting task of deciding who was worthy of being the Eurovision champion for 1987. Here is a condensed recap of how the juries voted
Norway was the first to vote, and they gave their 12 points to Yugoslavia (as seen in the first image). By the time the Israeli, Austrian and Icelandic juries had rendered their decisions, Yugoslavia had a pretty good lead with Germany, Denmark and Ireland fighting for the next three spots.
Belgium was next on deck...
Yugoslavia's lead was short-lived. The Belgian jury, like the Austrians before them, gave their 12 points to the Irish. Sweden gave Ireland 12 points as well, and Germany found itself 2 points ahead of Ireland with Yugoslavia now in third place and 5 countries yet to put some points up on the scoreboard
Even Germany's one-round stay at the top didn't last long...and it was the Italian jury who made that happen. Giving only 4 points to Germany, a third consecutive awarding of 12 points put the Irish entry up by 6. Would Eurovision history be made by night's end? There was still a long way to go
Halfway through the voting results, it seemed like nobody could possibly catch the Irish. They were the first to hit the century mark in points after the Dutch jury announced its results - an error accidentally giving Cyprus both 2 and 10 points (the situation was rectified with the help of EBU scrutineer Frank Naef). By this point, everyone except Turkey had at least one point on the board
As the voting continued, Italy was starting to make a move, and Ireland's lead over Germany continued to widen. When the United Kingdom and Finland each gave Ireland their 12 points, Johnny Logan reacted with both gratitude and excitement knowing that victory was within reach
It was pretty much a done deal by this point. By the time the Swiss jury started to announce their voting results, there was no way Germany could make up a 20-point deficit. The Swiss gave them 1 point and gave Ireland their eighth full 12 of the night, securing the victory and Johnny's place in Eurovision history as the first (and at present, only) person to ever win the contest twice as a performer
Spokespeople
Norway - Sverre Kristoffersen
Israel - Yitzhak Shim'oni
Austria - Tilia Herold
Iceland - Guorun Skuladottir
Belgium - An Ploegaerts
Sweden - Jan Elleras
Italy - Mariolina Cannuli
Portugal - Ana Zanatti
Spain - Matilde Jarrin
Turkey - Canan Kumbasar
Greece - Kelly Sakakou
The Netherlands - Ralph Inbar
Luxembourg - Frederique Ries
United Kingdom - Colin Berry
France - Lionel Cassan
Germany - Kerstin Schweighofer
Cyprus - Anna Partelidou
Finland - Solveig Herlin
Denmark - Bent Henius
Ireland - Brendan Balfe
Yugoslavia - Miloje Orlovic
Switzerland - Michel Stocker
Full ESC'87 voting table