Eurovision Song Contest 1988 was the second victory for Switzerland at the Eurovision Song Contest after winning its first edition in 1956, and the last time a song in French won the contest, the language having dominated the event in earlier years. The contest helped launch an international career for two artists, the winner for Switzerland Céline Dion and Luxembourg’s representative Lara Fabian. French-Canadian Céline Dion was only famous in the French-speaking world at the time of the contest, shortly afterwards started recording songs in English. Belgian-Canadian Lara Fabian started a successful career after the contest with becoming established in various countries worldwide, with
Eurovision Song Contest but won the contest with the highest combined vote. The televote was won by Russia and the jury vote by Australia. In 2018, eventual winner Israel won the televote but only came in third with the jury vote (won by Austria). There have been a number of Eurovision artists and groups whose careers were directly launched into the spotlight following their win. Notable examples were ABBA, who won the contest for Sweden in 1974 with their song "Waterloo", and went on to become one of the most successful pop bands in history; the French Canadian singer Céline Dion, who won