Eurovision Song Contest 1978

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 and the first to have a male presenter since 1956. In addition, the two presenters served as commentators for France. Twenty countries participated, a record at the time.

Eurovision Song Contest 1978
Dates
Grand final22 April 1978
Host
VenuePalais des Congrès
Paris, France
Presenter(s)
Musical directorFrançois Rauber
Directed byBernard Lion
Executive supervisorFrank Naef
Host broadcasterTélévision Française 1 (TF1)
Interval act
Websiteeurovision.tv/event/paris-1978
Participants
Number of entries20
Debuting countriesNone
Returning countries
Non-returning countriesNone
Participation map
  •      Participating countries     Countries that participated in the past but not in 1978
Vote
Voting systemEach country awarded 12, 10, 8-1 points to their 10 favourite songs
Nul points Norway
Winning song Israel
"A-Ba-Ni-Bi"

The winning entry was 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, which was also the first winning song to be performed in one of the Semitic languages. 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,[1] later announcing that the Belgian entry (which finished second) was the winner. Television of the USSR for the first time showed a competition, and until 1988 only performances of several participants, each time with the exception of representatives of Israel.[2] Norway finished last for the fifth time, gaining the first nul points during the current voting system was implemented in 1975.

Location

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

The postcards were filmed live, featuring the artists making their way to the stage. They took a corridor, then an elevator. Leaving the lift, they were greeted by the previous participants and then made their entrances to the stage. The camera also made several shots of the audience, notably Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg.

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 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

Denmark returned to the competition after twelve years of absence, while Turkey did so after missing out two years.[3]

Conductors

Each performance had a conductor who conducted the orchestra.[4][5]

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 Artist Song Language[6][7] Place Points
01  Ireland Colm C. T. Wilkinson "Born to Sing" English 5 86
02  Norway Jahn Teigen "Mil etter mil" Norwegian 20 0
03  Italy Ricchi e Poveri "Questo amore" Italian 12 53
04  Finland Seija Simola "Anna rakkaudelle tilaisuus" Finnish 18 2
05  Portugal Gemini "Dai li dou" Portuguese 17 5
06  France Joël Prévost "Il y aura toujours des violons" French 3 119
07  Spain José Vélez "Bailemos un vals" Spanisha 9 65
08  United Kingdom Co-Co "The Bad Old Days" English 11 61
09   Switzerland Carole Vinci "Vivre" French 9 65
10  Belgium Jean Vallée "L'amour ça fait chanter la vie" French 2 125
11  Netherlands Harmony "'t Is OK" Dutch 13 37
12  Turkey Nilüfer & Nazar "Sevince" Turkish 18 2
13  Germany Ireen Sheer "Feuer" German 6 84
14  Monaco Caline & Olivier Toussaint "Les jardins de Monaco" French 4 107
15  Greece Tania Tsanaklidou "Charlie Chaplin" (Τσάρλυ Τσάπλιν) Greek 8 66
16  Denmark Mabel "Boom Boom" Danish 16 13
17  Luxembourg Baccara "Parlez-vous français?" French 7 73
18  Israel Izhar Cohen and the Alphabeta "A-Ba-Ni-Bi" (א-ב-ני-בי) Hebrew 1 157
19  Austria Springtime "Mrs. Caroline Robinson" Germanb 15 14
20  Sweden Björn Skifs "Det blir alltid värre framåt natten" Swedish 14 26

Notes:

a. ^ Contains some words in French.
b. ^ Contains some words in English.

Scoreboard
Results
Total score
Ireland
Norway
Italy
Finland
Portugal
France
Spain
United Kingdom
Switzerland
Belgium
Netherlands
Turkey
Germany
Monaco
Greece
Denmark
Luxembourg
Israel
Austria
Sweden
Contestants
 Ireland 861235710105101068
Norway 0
Italy 5310614861112823
Finland 22
Portugal 541
France 11963102258686410588151210
Spain 65782474612267
United Kingdom 61362324268735253
Switzerland 65511742786238110
Belgium 12512766412212105312127744
Netherlands 37534156121
Turkey 211
Germany 8413127103578107137
Monaco 107447851105610574108112
Greece 6672581074441032
Denmark 136142
Luxembourg 73212121273326176
Israel 15788810108651212121212356128
Austria 1433125
Sweden 26510434
The table is ordered by appearance

12 points

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

N.ContestantVoting nation
6IsraelBelgium, Germany, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Switzerland, Turkey
5BelgiumFrance, Greece, Ireland, Monaco, United Kingdom
3LuxembourgItaly, Portugal, Spain
1 FranceAustria
GermanyFinland
IrelandNorway
MonacoSweden
NetherlandsIsrael
SpainDenmark

Broadcasters, commentators and spokespersons

Spokespersons

Listed below is 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.

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

Broadcasters and commentators

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

Country Broadcaster(s) Commentator(s) Ref(s)
Participating countries
 Austria FS2 Ernst Grissemann [13][14]
Hitradio Ö3 Walter Richard Langer
 Belgium RTBF1 French: Claude Delacroix [13]
BRT1 Dutch: Luc Appermont [13][15]
RTB La Première French: Jacques Bauduin
BRT Radio 1 Dutch: Nand Baert and Herwig Haes
 Denmark DR TV Jørgen de Mylius [13][16]
DR P3 Kjeld Koplev
 Finland YLE TV1 Erkki Toivanen [13][17]
YLE Rinnakkaisohjelma TBC
 France TF1 Léon Zitrone and Denise Fabre [18]
France Inter René Boyer and Michel Polac
 Germany Deutsches Fernsehen Werner Veigel [13][19]
Deutschlandfunk/Bayern 2 Wolf Mittler
 Greece ERT Mako Georgiadou [20]
Proto Programma Dimitris Konstantaras
 Ireland RTÉ Larry Gogan [13]
RTÉ Radio Mike Murphy
 Israel Israeli Television No commentator
 Italy Rete 2 and Rai Radio 2 Tullio Grazzini
 Luxembourg RTL Télé Luxembourg Jacques Navadic [13][18]
RTL André Torrent
 Monaco Télé Monte Carlo José Sacré
 Netherlands Nederland 2 Willem Duys [21]
Hilversum 3 Jan van Veen
 Norway NRK Bjørn Scheele [22]
NRK P1 Erik Heyerdahl
 Portugal RTP1 Eládio Clímaco [13][23]
RDP Programa 1 Amadeu Meireles
 Spain TVE1 Miguel de los Santos [13][24]
 Sweden SR TV1 Ulf Elfving [13][12]
SR P3 Kent Finell [12]
  Switzerland TV DRS German: Theodor Haller [13]
TSR French: Georges Hardy [13][25]
TSI Italian: Enzo Guidi [13]
RSR 1 French: Robert Burnier [26]
 Turkey Ankara Television Bülend Özveren [13]
Radyo 3 Şebnem Savaşçı
 United Kingdom BBC1 Terry Wogan [13][5][27]
BBC Radio 2 Ray Moore [5]
Non-participating countries
 Algeria ENTV Unknown [5]
 Czechoslovakia ČST Unknown [5]
 East Germany Deutscher Fernsehfunk Unknown [5]
 Hong Kong RTHK Unknown [5]
 Hungary RTV Unknown [5]
 Iceland Sjónvarpið Ragna Ragnars [5][28]
 Japan TBC Unknown [5]
 Jordan JRTV Unknown [5]
 Morocco TVM Unknown [5]
 Poland TVP Unknown [5]
 Soviet Union Soviet Central Television Unknown [5]
 Tunisia RTT Unknown [5]
 United Arab Emirates Dubai Radio and Colour Television Unknown [5]
 Yugoslavia TVB 2 Serbo-Croatian: Milovan Ilić [5]
TVZ 1 Serbo-Croatian: Oliver Mlakar
TVL 1 Slovene: Tomaž Terček

References
  1. O'Connor, John Kennedy. The Eurovision Song Contest – The Official History. Carlton Books, UK. 2007 ISBN 978-1-84442-994-3
  2. Телевизионная передача "Мелодии и ритмы зарубежной эстрады"
  3. "Paris 1978". Eurovision.tv.
  4. "And the conductor is..." Retrieved 10 August 2020.
  5. Roxburgh, Gordon (2014). Songs for Europe: The United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest. Volume Two: The 1970s. Prestatyn: Telos Publishing. pp. 312–327. ISBN 978-1-84583-093-9.
  6. "Eurovision Song Contest 1978". The Diggiloo Thrush. Retrieved 4 March 2012.
  7. "Eurovision Song Contest 1978". 4Lyrics.eu. Retrieved 16 September 2020.
  8. Dyrseth, Seppo (OGAE Norway)
  9. "Selostajat ja taustalaulajat läpi vuosien? • Viisukuppila". Viisukuppila.fi. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
  10. Baumann, Peter Ramón (OGAE Switzerland)
  11. "פורום אירוויזיון". Sf.tapuz.co.il. 1999-09-13. Archived from the original on October 8, 2011. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
  12. "Infosajten.com". Infosajten.com. Archived from the original on July 18, 2012. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
  13. "Eurovision 1978 - Cast and Crew". IMDb. Retrieved 6 August 2020.
  14. Archived October 24, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  15. Adriaens, Manu & Loeckx-Van Cauwenberge, Joken. Blijven kiken!. Lannoo, Belgium. 2003 ISBN 90-209-5274-9
  16. "Forside". esconnet.dk. Archived from the original on 2012-03-24. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
  17. "Selostajat ja taustalaulajat läpi vuosien? • Viisukuppila". Viisukuppila.fi. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
  18. Christian Masson. "1978 – Paris". Songcontest.free.fr. 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. Archived from the original on 2012-05-30. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
  21. "Welkom op de site van Eurovision Artists". Eurovisionartists.nl. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
  22. "Hvem kommenterte før Jostein Pedersen? - Debattforum". Nrk.no. Archived from the original on November 2, 2012. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
  23. "Comentadores Do ESC – escportugalforum.pt.vu | o forum eurovisivo português". 21595.activeboard.com. Archived from the original on April 21, 2012. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
  24. "FORO FESTIVAL DE EUROVISIÓN • Ver Tema – Uribarri comentarista Eurovision 2010". Eurosongcontest.phpbb3.es. Archived from the original on 2012-03-17. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
  25. "Programme radio du 22 au 28 avril". Radio TV - Je vois tout. Lausanne, Switzerland: Le Radio SA. 20 April 1978.
  26. "Programme radio du 22 au 28 avril". Radio TV - Je vois tout. Lausanne, Switzerland: Le Radio SA. 20 April 1978.
  27. "Grand Final: 1978, 1978, Eurovision Song Contest". BBC.
  28. Háskólabókasafn, Landsbókasafn Íslands -. "Timarit.is". timarit.is.
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