Rome 1991 Is the Longest and Most Chaotic Eurovision

MAY 15 1991 · 12:10

RAI / Toto Cutugno / Gigliola Cinquetti · "N/A" · Italy · 1991 Language: N/A · Venue: Cinecittà Studios · Host: Rome, Italy · Type: scandal · Broadcast: color analog Italy is hosting Eurovision for the second time, at Cinecittà Studios in Rome. Toto Cutugno (1990 winner) and Gigliola Cinquetti (1964 winner) co-host. Neither speaks fluent English; scripts go off-rail within minutes. Voting drags on for hours. The show runs significantly over time. Sweden's Carola and France's Amina tie on points, triggering the first use of the post-1989 tiebreak rule. Carola wins on a count-back of 12-point votes. Rome 1991 is remembered as Eurovision's single most chaotic production. Context RAI's decision to host at Cinecittà was symbolic — the Fellini-associated studio made Eurovision temporarily adjacent to Italian cinema. Cutugno's English was reportedly worked on intensively in the weeks before. The Gulf War was ongoing; security was heavier than normal. The tiebreak had never been used before. Legacy Rome 1991 remains a standard reference for Eurovision production lore — how Italian public broadcasting once hosted a genuinely cracked live event. Carola's win on a tiebreak prefigured the subsequent Eurovision rule that an outright winner must always emerge. RAI wouldn't host Eurovision again until 2022, Turin. The chaos is now affectionately recollected in Italian Eurovision retrospectives.