Eurovision Song Contest 1978

Eurovision Song Contest 1978
Dates
Final date 22 April 1978
Host
Venue Palais des Congrès
Paris, France
Presenter(s) Denise Fabre
Léon Zitrone
Conductor François Rauber[1]
Executive supervisor Frank Naef
Host broadcaster Télévision Française 1 (TF1)
Interval act Stéphane Grappelli and Oscar Peterson,
Yehudi Menuhin,
Kenny Clarke,
Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen
Participants
Number of entries 20
Debuting countries None
Returning countries  Denmark
 Turkey
Withdrawing countries None
Participation map
  • Belgium in the Eurovision Song Contest 1978 Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest 1978 Netherlands in the Eurovision Song Contest 1978 Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest 1978 United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest 1978 Luxembourg in the Eurovision Song Contest 1978 Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest 1978 Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest 1978 Denmark in the Eurovision Song Contest 1978 Norway in the Eurovision Song Contest 1978 Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest 1978 Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest 1978 Malta in the Eurovision Song Contest France in the Eurovision Song Contest 1978 Turkey in the Eurovision Song Contest 1978 Yugoslavia in the Eurovision Song ContestA coloured map of the countries of Europe
         Participating countries     Countries that participated in the past but not in 1978
Vote
Voting system Each country awarded 12, 10, 8-1 points to their 10 favourite songs
Nul points  Norway
Winning song  Israel
"A-Ba-Ni-Bi"
Eurovision Song Contest
◄1977 • 1978 • 1979►

The Eurovision Song Contest 1978 was the 23rd edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It was held on 22 April 1978 in Paris. The contest was won by Izhar Cohen & the Alphabeta who represented Israel with the song "A-Ba-Ni-Bi". Although 'A-Ba-Ni-Bi' is the correct title, French television mistakenly captioned on screen the song title as 'Ah-Bah-Nee-Bee'. The presenters were Denise Fabre and Léon Zitrone, and this was the first time more than one presenter hosted an edition of the Contest. Twenty countries participated, a record at the time.

The winning entry is a love song sung in the Hebrew equivalent of Ubbi dubbi (the title is an expansion of the Hebrew word ani אני, meaning "I"). This was Israel's first Eurovision win. The win caused problems for several North African and Middle-Eastern nations that were televising the contest, even though they were not participating. According to author and political commentator John Kennedy O'Connor in his book The Eurovision Song Contest: The Official History, when Israel became the clear winners during the voting, most of the Arabic stations ended their transmission of the contest. Jordanian TV finished the show with a photo of a bunch of daffodils on screen,[2] later announcing that the Belgian entry (which finished second) was the winner. Norway finished last for the fifth time, gaining the first nul points during the current voting system was implemented in 1975.

Location

For more details on the host city, see Paris.

The event took place in Paris, the capital and largest city of France, with the host venue being the Palais des congrès de Paris which is a concert venue, convention centre and shopping mall in the 17th arrondissement of Paris. The venue was built by French architect Guillaume Gillet, and was inaugurated in 1974.

Format

Björn Skifs was unhappy with the rule that every country would have to perform in their native language. He planned to sing in English anyway, but changed his mind at the very last moment, causing him to completely forget the lyrics. He therefore sang the first few lines in gibberish before finding the words again. Along with the 20 participating countries, the show was also broadcast live in Yugoslavia, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Jordan, East Germany, Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Dubai, Hong Kong, the Soviet Union and Japan.

Participating countries

This was the first Contest in which both Greece and Turkey participated; Greece made its debut in the Contest in 1974 in Brighton, but the following year they withdrew in response to the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus, in protest of Turkey's participation in Stockholm. Greece subsequently returned in 1976 in The Hague with a song about the Cyprus crisis, "Panayia Mou, Panayia Mou", the English version of which was entitled "The death of Cyprus", and they also participated in 1977 in London with "Mathima Solfege", Turkey then in turn pulled out from the Contest in protest of the Greek participations. This pattern would repeat over the following years; in 1979 Greece took part in the Contest with "Sokrati" in Jerusalem - but Turkey withdrew. In 1980 both countries returned, with "Autostop" and "Pet'r Oil" respectively. Despite Turkey's failure to recognize the Greek government in Cyprus, all three countries performed together when Cyprus debuted in 1981 and it continued until 2012.

Denmark returned to the contest this year, for the first time since 1966. The Greek entry this year was a song called "Charlie Chaplin", in reference to the comedian who died the previous year. In a curious twist, however, regular entrants Peter, Sue and Marc had entered the German national final with a song also called "Charlie Chaplin". They lost out at third place however.[3]

Conductors

Each performance had a conductor who maestro the orchestra.

Returning artists

Several artists returned to the 1978 Contest. Ireen Sheer had previously represented Luxembourg in 1974, and finished in equal fourth place. Jean Vallée also returned, eight years after representing Belgium in 1970, while Norbert Niedermeyer, who had represented Austria in 1972 as part of the band The Milestones, was back as a member of the Austrian band Springtime.

Results

Draw Country Language[4] Artist Song English translation Place Points
01  Ireland English Colm C. T. Wilkinson "Born to Sing" – 5 86
02  Norway Norwegian Jahn Teigen "Mil etter mil" Mile after mile 20 0
03  Italy Italian Ricchi e Poveri "Questo amore" This love 12 53
04  Finland Finnish Seija Simola "Anna rakkaudelle tilaisuus" Give love a chance 18 2
05  Portugal Portuguese Gemini "Dai li dou" – 17 5
06  France French Joël Prévost "Il y aura toujours des violons" There will always be violins 3 119
07  Spain Spanish, French José Vélez "Bailemos un vals" Let's dance a waltz 9 65
08  United Kingdom English Co-Co "The Bad Old Days" – 11 61
09   Switzerland French Carole Vinci "Vivre" Living 9 65
10  Belgium French Jean Vallée "L'amour ça fait chanter la vie" Love that makes life sing 2 125
11  Netherlands Dutch Harmony "'t Is OK" It's OK 13 37
12  Turkey Turkish Nilüfer & Nazar "Sevince" When I'm in love 18 2
13  Germany German Ireen Sheer "Feuer" Fire 6 84
14  Monaco French Caline & Olivier Toussaint "Les jardins de Monaco" The gardens of Monaco 4 107
15  Greece Greek Tania Tsanaklidou "Charlie Chaplin"
(Τσάρλυ Τσάπλιν) 		– 8 66
16  Denmark Danish Mabel "Boom Boom" – 16 13
17  Luxembourg French Baccara "Parlez-vous français?" Do you speak French? 7 73
18  Israel Hebrew Izhar Cohen & the Alphabeta "A-Ba-Ni-Bi" (א-ב-ני-בי) I love you 1 157
19  Austria German, English1 Springtime "Mrs. Caroline Robinson" – 15 14
20  Sweden Swedish Björn Skifs "Det blir alltid värre framåt natten" It always gets worse when the night comes 14 26
1.^ The Austrian entry also contains some lyrics in English.

Scoreboard

Results
Ireland 86 12 3 5 7 10 10 5 10 10 6 8
Norway 0
Italy 53 10 6 1 4 8 6 1 1 1 2 8 2 3
Finland 2 2
Portugal 5 4 1
France 119 6 3 10 2 2 5 8 6 8 6 4 10 5 8 8 1 5 12 10
Spain 65 7 8 2 4 7 4 6 12 2 6 7
United Kingdom 61 3 6 2 3 2 4 2 6 8 7 3 5 2 5 3
Switzerland 65 5 1 1 7 4 2 7 8 6 2 3 8 1 10
Belgium 125 12 7 6 6 4 12 2 12 10 5 3 12 12 7 7 4 4
Netherlands 37 5 3 4 1 5 6 12 1
Turkey 2 1 1
Germany 84 1 3 12 7 10 3 5 7 8 10 7 1 3 7
Monaco 107 4 4 7 8 5 1 10 5 6 10 5 7 4 10 8 1 12
Greece 66 7 2 5 8 10 7 4 4 4 10 3 2
Denmark 13 6 1 4 2
Luxembourg 73 2 12 12 12 7 3 3 2 6 1 7 6
Israel 157 8 8 8 10 10 8 6 5 12 12 12 12 12 3 5 6 12 8
Austria 14 3 3 1 2 5
Sweden 26 5 10 4 3 4
The table is ordered by appearance

12 points

Below is a summary of all 12 points in the final:

N. Contestant Voting nation
6 Israel Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Switzerland, Turkey
5 Belgium France, Greece, Ireland, Monaco, United Kingdom
3 Luxembourg Italy, Portugal, Spain
1 France Austria
Germany Finland
Ireland Norway
Monaco Sweden
Netherlands Israel
Spain Denmark

International broadcasts and voting

The table below shows the order in which votes were cast during the 1978 contest along with the spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for their respective country. Each country had a jury who awarded 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 points for their top ten songs.

  1.  Ireland - John Skehan
  2.  Norway - Egil Teige[5]
  3.  Italy - Mariolina Cannuli
  4.  Finland - Kaarina Pönniö[6]
  5.  Portugal - Ana Zanatti
  6.  France - TBC
  7.  Spain - Matías Prats
  8.  United Kingdom – Colin Berry
  9.   Switzerland - Michel Stocker[7]
  10.  Belgium - André Hagon
  11.  Netherlands - Dick van Bommel
  12.  Turkey - Meral Savcı
  13.  Germany - Ute Verhoolen
  14.  Monaco - Carole Chabrier
  15.  Greece - TBC
  16.  Denmark - Bent Henius[8]
  17.  Luxembourg - Jacques Harvey
  18.  Israel - Yitzhak Shim'oni[9]
  19.  Austria - Jenny Pippal
  20.  Sweden - Sven Lindahl[10]

Each national broadcaster also sent a commentator to the contest, in order to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language.

Television commentators

Radio commentators

References

  1. ↑ O'Connor, John Kennedy (2007). The Eurovision Song Contest: The Official History. UK: Carlton Books. p. 217. ISBN 978-1-84442-994-3.
  2. ↑ O'Connor, John Kennedy. The Eurovision Song Contest - The Official History. Carlton Books, UK. 2007 ISBN 978-1-84442-994-3
  3. ↑ Natfinals - German 1978 final
  4. ↑ "Eurovision Song Contest 1978". The Diggiloo Thrush. Retrieved 4 March 2012.
  5. ↑ Dyrseth, Seppo (OGAE Norway)
  6. ↑ "Selostajat ja taustalaulajat läpi vuosien? • Viisukuppila". Viisukuppila.fi. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
  7. ↑ Baumann, Peter Ramón (OGAE Switzerland)
  8. 1 2 "Forside". esconnet.dk. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
  9. ↑ "פורום אירוויזיון". Sf.tapuz.co.il. 1999-09-13. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
  10. 1 2 3 "Infosajten.com". Infosajten.com. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
  11. ↑ "Hvem kommenterte før Jostein Pedersen? - Debattforum". Nrk.no. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
  12. ↑ "Selostajat ja taustalaulajat läpi vuosien? • Viisukuppila". Viisukuppila.fi. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
  13. ↑ "Comentadores Do ESC - escportugalforum.pt.vu | o forum eurovisivo português". 21595.activeboard.com. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
  14. 1 2 Christian Masson. "1978 - Paris". Songcontest.free.fr. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
  15. ↑ "FORO FESTIVAL DE EUROVISIÓN • Ver Tema - Uribarri comentarista Eurovision 2010". Eurosongcontest.phpbb3.es. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
  16. ↑ Eurovision Song Contest 1978 BBC Archives
  17. ↑ Adriaens, Manu & Loeckx-Van Cauwenberge, Joken. Blijven kiken!. Lannoo, Belgium. 2003 ISBN 90-209-5274-9
  18. ↑ "Welkom op de site van Eurovision Artists". Eurovisionartists.nl. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
  19. ↑ "Eurovision Song Contest 1978". Ecgermany.de. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
  20. ↑ "Η Μακώ Γεωργιάδου και η EUROVISION (1970-1986)". Retromaniax.gr. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
  21. ↑ Archived October 24, 2007, at the Wayback Machine.
  22. ↑ http://timarit.is/view_page_init.jsp?issId=227607&pageId=3076300&lang=is&q=Eurovision
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