[a] Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster Radiotelevizija Zagreb (RTV Zagreb) on behalf of Jugoslavenska radiotelevizija (JRT), and presented by Oliver Mlakar and Helga Vlahović, the contest was held in Yugoslavia following the country's victory at the 1989 contest with the song "Rock Me" by the group Riva.

[8] Additionally, Kari Kuivalainen, who had also competed in 1986 as Finland's entrant, returned as a backing vocalist for the Finnish group Beat, and the Slovene group Pepel in kri [sl] supported Italy's Toto Cutugno as backing vocalists, having previously represented Yugoslavia in the 1975 contest.

[8] On behalf of the contest organisers, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the event was overseen by Frank Naef as scrutineer.

[22] The ages of Mlakar and Vlahović, respectively 54 and 45 years old at the time, had also resulted in criticism from press outlets ahead of the contest.

[7][22] Meetings held behind closed doors over the following 24 hours however led to Mlakar and Vlahović returning to the contest as the show's presenters.

[7][23] For the first time in its history the contest featured an official mascot, "Eurocat", an animated anthropomorphic cat created by the Croatian illustrator Joško Marušić.

[1] With the advent of music videos during the 1980s, the television production of the contest also adapted to new aesthetics as it entered the 1990s; in contrast to previous editions, the 1990 contest saw an increased use of dynamic camera direction, with footage captured from cameras moving to and around the stage during the performances and showing angles that could not be seen by spectators in the auditorium.

[27] This change in the visual aesthetics was part of a transition which made elaborately staged performances possible, bearing similarities to music videos and which went on to develop throughout the 1990s and into editions of the contest held during the twenty-first century.

[34] The points awarded by each country were determined by an assembled jury of sixteen individuals, who were all required to be members of the public with no connection to the music industry, split evenly between men and women and by age.

The votes of each member were collected following the country's performance and then tallied by the non-voting jury chairperson to determine the points to be awarded.

In any cases where two or more songs in the top ten received the same number of votes, a show of hands by all jury members was used to determine the final placing.

Another pre-recorded film featured during the interval between the competing entries and the voting sequence; entitled Yugoslav Changes, which highlighted the various cultures, landscapes, cuisines and industries within Yugoslavia.

[1][37][38] The trophy awarded to the winners was presented at the end of the broadcast by the contest's executive producer Goran Radman.

The conductor of the Spanish entry was unable to hear the backing track, as the sound engineers had failed to raise the volume of the tape, and could not cue the orchestra to commence on time.

[31] Broadcasters were able to send commentators to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language and to relay information about the artists and songs to their television viewers.

[48][54] Reports at the time indicated that the estimated global audience could be as high as 600 million viewers, with Vlahović also mentioning that the contest could be seen by as many as one billion people.