Eurovision Song Contest 1980

Nederlands Congresgebouw - host venue of the 1980 contest.

Israel, winners in 1979, declined to host the 1980 show for the second time in a row, as the IBA could not fund another international production, and the Israeli government turned down a request to extend the IBA budget. The European Broadcasting Union also set the broadcast on the same day as the Yom HaZikaron holiday, wherefore Israel decided not to participate. After Spain, the 2nd-place winner of 1979, and reportedly the UK, refused to host, the Netherlands finally agreed to host the show in a small-scale production. According to Yair Lapid, son of Tommy Lapid who was then the IBA director general, Lapid called his counterpart at NOS and convinced him to take the "undesired honour", when he realised that the extra cost could paralyse the regular work of the IBA.[3] As of 2020, this is the last contest that was not hosted by previous year's winning country. The Hague is the seat of government of the Netherlands and the capital of South Holland. It is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam. Located in the west of the Netherlands, The Hague is in the centre of the Haaglanden conurbation at the southwest corner of the larger Randstad conurbation. The contest took place at the Congresgebouw (presently known as the World Forum). The venue was constructed in 1969 and previously hosted the contest in 1976.

The venue that had hosted the Eurovision Song Contest 1976, Congresgebouw, was chosen. Various parts of the opening sequence and stage of the 1976 festival were reused. Again, Roland de Groot took charge of the design. As with the 1977 and 1978 contests, there were no pre-filmed postcards between the songs, with a guest presenter from each nation introducing the entries. Apart from this, the presenter, Marlous Fluitsma, except for the voting, did not make the presentation in English or French, which means that the presentation was made almost entirely in Dutch. NOS spent just US$725,000 on the project.

After Israel announced its non-participation, Morocco entered into the contest instead. Monaco also did not participate after it did so in 1979.

Australian-born Johnny Logan representing Ireland was the winner of this Eurovision with the song "What's Another Year". This was Ireland's second time winning the competition, having won in 1970 with "All Kinds of Everything", which was also held on Dutch soil.

Germany were runners-up this year. They would finish in second place again the following year, finally winning in 1982. Germany would go on to finish second again in 1985 and 1987, making the 1980s their most successful Eurovision Song Contest decade. After two relatively poor placings, United Kingdom returned to form by coming third.

The scoring system implemented in 1975 remained the same; each country had a jury who awarded 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 point(s) for their top ten songs. However this year for the first time, countries were required to cast their votes in ascending order, 1,2,3 etc. This change made for the added excitement of waiting for each country to award their highest 12 points at the end of each voting round.

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

Draw	Country	Artist	Song	Language[6][7]	Place	Points
01	Austria	Blue Danube	"Du bist Musik"	German	8	64
02	Turkey	Ajda Pekkan	"Pet'r Oil"	Turkish	15	23
03	Greece	Anna Vissi and the Epikouri	"Autostop" (Ωτοστόπ)	Greek	13	30
04	Luxembourg	Sophie & Magaly	"Papa pingouin"	French	9	56
05	Morocco	Samira Bensaïd	"Bitaqat Hub" (بطاقة حب)	Arabic	18	7
06	Italy	Alan Sorrenti	"Non so che darei"	Italian	6	87
07	Denmark	Bamses Venner	"Tænker altid på dig"	Danish	14	25
08	Sweden	Tomas Ledin	"Just nu!"	Swedish	10	47
09	Switzerland	Paola	"Cinéma"	French	4	104
10	Finland	Vesa-Matti Loiri	"Huilumies"	Finnish	19	6
11	Norway	Sverre Kjelsberg & Mattis Hætta	"Sámiid ædnan"	Norwegiana	16	15
12	Germany	Katja Ebstein	"Theater"	German	2	128
13	United Kingdom	Prima Donna	"Love Enough for Two"	English	3	106
14	Portugal	José Cid	"Um grande, grande amor"	Portugueseb	7	71
15	Netherlands	Maggie MacNeal	"Amsterdam"	Dutch	5	93
16	France	Profil	"Hé, hé, m'sieurs dames"	French	11	45
17	Ireland	Johnny Logan	"What's Another Year"	English	1	143
18	Spain	Trigo Limpio	"Quédate esta noche"	Spanish	12	38
19	Belgium	Telex	"Euro-Vision"	French	17	14

Notes

a.^ Although the song was performed in Norwegian, the title and sentence in the lyrics "Sámiid ædnan" is in Northern Sami.

b.^ Also contains words in Italian, French, German and English.

Johnny Logan performing his winning song "What's Another Year"

The Netherlands gained a strong lead early on, getting the maximum 'douze points' from three of the first four voting countries. This was not to last, however, as Germany and eventually Ireland overtook them.

Each song was introduced by a presenter from the national country.[5] A few countries used their commentators as presenters, with Turkey's radio commentator and the TV commentators of Denmark, Sweden and Finland being utilised for this role. All the introductions were made in the language in which the song was performed, with the exception of Ireland which was introduced in Irish.

•  Austria – Chris Lohner
•  Turkey – Şebnem Savaşçı
•  Greece – Kelly Sakakou
•  Luxembourg – Michèle Etzel
•  Morocco – Mohammed Bouzidi
•  Italy – Beatrice Cori
•  Denmark – Jørgen de Mylius
•  Sweden – Ulf Elfving
•   Switzerland – Lyliam Stambac
•  Finland – Heikki Harma
•  Norway – Åse Kleveland (Norwegian representative in the 1966 Contest and host of the 1986 Contest)
•  Germany – Carolin Reiber
•  United Kingdom – Noel Edmonds
•  Portugal – Eládio Clímaco
•  Netherlands – Marlous Fluitsma
•  France – Évelyne Dhéliat
•  Ireland – Thelma Mansfield
•  Spain – Mari Cruz Soriano
•  Belgium – Arlette Vincent

•  Finland – Toivo Kärki[16]
•  Ireland – Mary Hannon
•  Spain – José María Reíllo, Carmen Miranda, Emilio Machado, María José Nieto, Rafael Lozano, Nieves Aguado, Ana Menéndez, Rafael Gómez, Isabel Ortiz, Pedro Olivares, Mari Luz Blanco

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