United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest 1979

The United Kingdom held a national preselection to choose the song that would go to the Eurovision Song Contest 1979. A Song for Europe 1979 was planned to take place at the Royal Albert Hall in London on 8 March.

Eurovision Song Contest 1979
Country United Kingdom
National selection
Selection processA Song For Europe 1979
Selection date(s)9 March 1979
Selected entrantBlack Lace
Selected song"Mary Ann"
Selected songwriter(s)
  • Peter Morris
Finals performance
Final result7th, 73 points
United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄1978 • 1979 • 1980►

After a day's rehearsals at the Royal Albert Hall a strike by BBC technicians stopped the show. Audio recordings of the songs were voted on by 14 regional juries: Bristol, Bangor, Leeds, Norwich, Newcastle, Aberdeen, Birmingham, Belfast, Cardiff, Plymouth, Glasgow, Southampton and London. The jury in Manchester could not be contacted and since the winner had a more than 12 point winning margin, their scores were not included. This led to an immaterial tie for second place. The following day, the 12 songs were broadcast on Terry Wogan's Radio 2 show and a recap of the top places, plus an interview with the winners took place on the BBC TV Show Nationwide the same evening. The Manchester scores were eventually verified, with song 12 'Fantasy' being awarded 2nd place ahead of song 6 'Call My Name'.

Black Lace were the winners of A Song for Europe with "Mary Ann" and went on to place 7th at the 1979 Eurovision Song Contest in Jerusalem.

This was also the only Eurovision between 1972 and 2008 in which Terry Wogan did not provide either the television or radio commentary. Wogan had originally been scheduled to provide the television commentary but opted out of going to Israel following comments he made of the 1978 winner "A-Ba-Ni-Bi" sounding like "I Wanna Be a Polar Bear". Instead his Radio 2 colleague John Dunn provided the television commentary. Ray Moore provided the radio commentary on both BBC Radio 1 and Radio 2.[1]

Results
Draw Artist Song Place Points
1 Black Lace "Mary Ann" 1 132
2 Lynda Virtu "You Are My Life" 8 82
3 Ipswich "Who Put the Shine on our Shoes" 5 90
4 Herbie Flowers & The Daisies "Mister Moonlight" 5 90
5 M.Squad "Miss Caroline Newley" 11 44
6 Eleanor Keenan "Call my Name" 3 109
7 Guys 'n' Dolls "How Do You Mend a Broken Heart?" 10 56
8 Linda Kendrick "All I Needed Was Your Love" 12 33
9 Monte Carlo "Home Again (Living With You)" 7 83
10 Sal Davis "Let It All Go" 9 77
11 The Nolan Sisters "Harry, My Honolulu Lover" 4 101
12 Kim Clark "Fantasy" 2 117

Points awarded by the United Kingdom
Points awarded to the United Kingdom (final)
12 points 10 points 8 points 7 points 6 points
5 points 4 points 3 points 2 points 1 point

References
  1. Roxburgh, Gordon (2014). Songs For Europe - The United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest Volume Two: The 1970's. UK: Telos Publishing. p. 354. ISBN 978-1-84583-065-6.
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