Eurovision Song Contest 1982

Harrogate International Centre, Harrogate - host venue of the 1982 contest.

Harrogate is a spa town in North Yorkshire, England. Historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire, the town is a tourist destination and its visitor attractions include its spa waters and RHS Harlow Carr gardens. Nearby is the Yorkshire Dales national park and the Nidderdale AONB. Harrogate grew out of two smaller settlements, High Harrogate and Low Harrogate, in the 17th century. The town became known as 'The English Spa' in the Georgian Era, after its waters were discovered in the 16th century. In the 17th and 18th centuries its 'chalybeate' waters (containing iron) were a popular health treatment, and the influx of wealthy but sickly visitors contributed significantly to the wealth of the town.

The Harrogate International Centre was chosen as the host venue for the contest. The grand convention and exhibition centre opened short time prior to the contest, and was the first big event held in the main 2000-seat auditorium.

The opening of the contest showed a map of Europe, with the translation "Where is Harrogate?" popping up on-screen from the languages of the various countries. The question was always in the language in which the respective country's song was performed, with the exception of Ireland. The Irish entry was sung in English, but the translation of the question in the map was in Irish. Then the map zoomed into Harrogate's location in Yorkshire, followed by an introduction video spotlighting the town.

Greece was due to participate in the contest with the song "Sarantapente kopelies" performed by Themis Adamadidis. Although drawn to perform in second place, ERT withdrew the entry a few weeks before the contest.

In November 1981, France's national broadcaster, TF1, declined to enter the Eurovision Song Contest for 1982, with the head of entertainment, Pierre Bouteiller, saying, "The absence of talent and the mediocrity of the songs were annoyance set in. [Eurovision is] a monument to inanity [sometimes translated as "drivel"]."[1] Antenne 2 became the new broadcaster for Eurovision after public outcry, returning the country to the Contest in 1983.

The tradition of previous year's winners handing over the prize to current winners was not followed by Bucks Fizz, winners in 1981.

Irish band Chips lost out in their national finals, which, had they been successful, would have led to the unique situation of two bands in the same Eurovision with the same name (the other being Sweden).

This year, before the postcard of a specific country (with the exceptions of Israel, who had no commentator, and Yugoslavia, whose commentators were in their own country), the camera would zoom into the commentary box of that country's broadcaster, where the commentator/s would give a hand gesture, e.g. wave. The postcard would start with the country's flag on the screen and an excerpt of the country's national anthem (though in the case of the UK, the song played was Land of Hope and Glory instead of God Save the Queen, while the Israeli postcard began with an excerpt of Hava Nagila[2] instead of Hatikvah).

Each performance had a conductor who conducted the orchestra.[3][4]

There were 18 competitors in this year's final. No year since has had this few competitors in the final of the competition.

Draw	Country	Artist	Song	Language[5][6]	Place	Points
01	Portugal	Doce	"Bem bom"	Portuguese	13	32
02	Luxembourg	Svetlana	"Cours après le temps"	French	6	78
03	Norway	Jahn Teigen & Anita Skorgan	"Adieu"	Norwegian	12	40
04	United Kingdom	Bardo	"One Step Further"	English	7	76
05	Turkey	Neco	"Hani?"	Turkish	15	20
06	Finland	Kojo	"Nuku pommiin"	Finnish	18	0
07	Switzerland	Arlette Zola	"Amour on t'aime"	French	3	97
08	Cyprus	Anna Vissi	"Mono i agapi" (Μόνο η αγάπη)	Greek	5	85
09	Sweden	Chips	"Dag efter dag"	Swedish	8	67
10	Austria	Mess	"Sonntag"	German	9	57
11	Belgium	Stella	"Si tu aimes ma musique"	French	4	96
12	Spain	Lucía	"Él"	Spanish	10	52
13	Denmark	Brixx	"Video, Video"	Danish	17	5
14	Yugoslavia	Aska	"Halo, halo" (Хало, хало)	Serbo-Croatian	14	21
15	Israel	Avi Toledano	"Hora" (הורה)	Hebrew	2	100
16	Netherlands	Bill van Dijk	"Jij en ik"	Dutch	16	8
17	Ireland	The Duskeys	"Here Today Gone Tomorrow"	English	11	49
18	Germany	Nicole	"Ein bißchen Frieden"	German	1	161

Each country had a jury who awarded 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 point(s) for their top ten songs.

Germany had the advantage of performing last. After coming second in 1980 and second in Dublin the year previously, Ralph Siegel and Bernd Meinunger took the first Grand Prix for Germany. The winner, Nicole, beat the nearest competition by 61 points and over 13 million West Germans watched her victory on television. Germany was the commanding leader for nearly the entire voting process.

Nicole went on to sing the reprise of her song in English, French and Dutch, as well as German, to the delight of the invited audience in Harrogate Conference Centre who stood to applaud her. The English version (also produced by Siegel and Robert Jung) of her Eurovision winner, A Little Peace, subsequently shot to No. 1 in the UK Singles Chart.[7][8]

•  Portugal – José Vacondeus, Filipa Corte Real, Ilda Cocco Leote, José Eduardo Meira da Cunha, Maria Isabel Soares da Rocha, José Carlos Magalhães Ferreira, Maria José Soveral Gomes, Mário Nuno dos Santos Queirós, Carlos Ribeiro Luís, Frederico Hogan Teves, Ana Manuela Preto Pacheco[29]
•  Turkey – Mine Ant, Jale Özkasım, Fariz Acar, Hakan Şerafettinoğlu, Haluk Günuğur, Taner Acar, Muammer Tosun, Sezer Öktem, Gülsen Nas, Dilek Abışgil, Belma Eşiyok[30]
•  Spain – Marisa Cofiño, Luis González, Estela Alcaraz, Colomán Trabado, María Ángeles Toledano, Eusebio Poncela, María Teresa Portal, Leandro Martín, Miriam Ruiz, Miguel Martínez, Asunción López[31]
•  Germany – Horst Senker

• Media related to Eurovision Song Contest 1982 at Wikimedia Commons
• Official website