The Eurovision Song Contest 1978 was the 23rd edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, held on 22 April 1978 at the Grand Amphitheatre of the in Paris, France, and presented by Denise Fabre and Léon Zitrone. It was organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster (TF1), who staged the event after winning the for with the song "L'Oiseau et l'Enfant" by Marie Myriam. This was the first time that more than one presenter had hosted the contest, and the first to have a male presenter since the inaugural contest.

Broadcasters from twenty countries participated, the highest number of competing countries in the history of the competition at the time. and both returned to the contest. Denmark had not participated since , 12 years before.

The winner was with the song "A-Ba-Ni-Bi" by Izhar Cohen and the Alphabeta. This was 's first victory in the contest, and it was also the first winning song to be performed in a Semitic language. It was also the only winning song to be conducted by a woman, Nurit Hirsh. , , and rounded out the top five, with Belgium's runner-up finish being their best result in the competition at that point. finished last for the fifth time, gaining the first nul points after the new voting system was implemented in .

Location

(TF1) staged the contest at the , a multi propose venue in the 17th arrondissement of Paris. Designed by French architect Guillaume Gillet, the venue was inaugurated in 1974.

Participants

Denmark returned to the competition after having been absent for twelve years, while Turkey did so after missing out two years. This meant that, for the first time, the contest had twenty entries competing.

Several of the performing artists had previously competed as lead artists representing the same country in past editions: Jean Vallée had represented ; and Norbert Niedermeyer as part of had represented as part of Milestones. In addition, Ireen Sheer representing Germany, had represented .

+ Eurovision Song Contest 1978 participants Country Broadcaster Artist Song Language Songwriter(s) Conductor ORF "Mrs. Caroline Robinson" German Richard Oesterreicher RTBF Jean Vallée "" French Jean Vallée DR Mabel "Boom Boom" Danish YLE Seija Simola "" Finnish Ossi Runne TF1 Joël Prévost "" French Alain Goraguer SWF Ireen Sheer "" German Jean Frankfurter ERT Tania Tsanaklidou "Charlie Chaplin" () Greek Haris Andreadis RTÉ Colm C. T. Wilkinson "Born to Sing" English Colm C. T. Wilkinson Noel Kelehan IBA Izhar Cohen and the Alphabeta "A-Ba-Ni-Bi" () Hebrew Nurit Hirsh RAI "" Italian Nicola Samale CLT Baccara "" French Rolf Soja TMC and Olivier Toussaint "" French Yvon Rioland NOS Harmony "" Dutch Harry van Hoof NRK Jahn Teigen "" Norwegian Carsten Klouman RTP Gemini "Dai li dou" Portuguese TVE José Vélez "" Spanish Ramón Arcusa SR Björn Skifs "" Swedish SRG SSR "" French TRT Nilüfer and Nazar "" Turkish Onno Tunç BBC Co-Co "The Bad Old Days" English Alyn Ainsworth

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.

Each song was accompanied by a 45-piece orchestra.

The Swedish participant 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.

The Israeli winning song was a love song sung in the Hebrew equivalent of Ubbi dubbi (the title is an expansion of the Hebrew word , meaning "I"). The fact that the song won caused problems for several North African and Middle-Eastern broadcasters that were televising the contest, even though they were not participating. According to 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. Jordan Television finished the show with a photo of a bunch of daffodils on screen, later announcing that the Belgian entry (which finished second) was the winner.O'Connor, John Kennedy. The Eurovision Song Contest – The Official History. Carlton Books, UK. 2007

Contest overview

The contest was held on 22 April 1978, beginning at 21:30 (CEST).

Fears of terrorist attacks like at the Summer Olympics 1972 in Munich and of stage invasions like in meant that security measures in and around the Palais des Congrès were particularly tight: 200 police officers, some of them as undercover agents, tried to prevent any potential incidents. Spectators had to go through metal detectors upon arrival at the Palais des Congrès.

In addition to his duties as a host together with Denise Fabre, Léon Zitrone also served as commentator for France, in an own commentary box backstage. + Results of the Eurovision Song Contest 1978 Country Artist Song Points Place 1 "Born to Sing" 86 5 2 "" 0 20 3 "" 53 12 4 "" 2 18 5 Gemini "Dai li dou" 5 17 6 "" 119 3 7 "" 65 9 8 Co-Co "The Bad Old Days" 61 11 9 "" 65 9 10 "" 125 2 11 Harmony "" 37 13 12 Nilüfer and Nazar "" 2 18 13 "" 84 6 14 Caline and Olivier Toussaint "" 107 4 15 "Charlie Chaplin" 66 8 16 Mabel "Boom Boom" 13 16 17 Baccara "" 73 7 18 and the Alphabeta "A-Ba-Ni-Bi" 157 1 19 Springtime "Mrs. Caroline Robinson" 14 15 20 "" 26 14

Spokespersons Each participating broadcaster appointed a spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for its respective country via telephone. Known spokespersons at the 1978 contest are listed below.

Kaarina Pönniö

Matías Prats Luque Sven Lindahl Meral Savcı Colin Berry

Detailed voting results

+ Detailed voting results scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" rowspan="20" 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

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

N. Contestant Nation(s) giving 12 points 6 , , , , , 5 , , , , 3 , , 1

Broadcasts

Each participating broadcaster was required to relay the contest via its networks. Non-participating EBU member broadcasters were also able to relay the contest as "passive participants". Broadcasters were able to send commentators to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language and to relay information about the artists and songs to their television viewers. TF1 provided 29 commentary boxes in the auditorium for foreign broadcasters.

In addition to the participating countries, the contest was also reportedly broadcast in 17 other countries, including Algeria, Iceland, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia, and Yugoslavia; in Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, and the Soviet Union via Intervision; and in Hong Kong, Japan, and the United Arab Emirates. No official accounts of the viewing figures are known to exist; an estimate given in French press outlets ahead of the contest put the expected audience at around 350 million viewers worldwide, while media reports put viewing figures between 500 and 600 million.

Known details on the broadcasts in each country, including the specific broadcasting stations and commentators are shown in the tables below.

+ Broadcasters and commentators in participating countries Country Broadcaster Channel(s) Commentator(s) ORF FS2 Ernst Grissemann RTBF RTBF1 Paule Herreman BRT TV1 Luc Appermont BRT 1 DR DR TV Jørgen de Mylius YLE TV1 TF1 Léon Zitrone ARD Werner Veigel ERT ERT, A Programma RTÉ RTÉ Larry Gogan RTÉ Radio Liam Devally IBA Israeli Television, RAI , Rai Radio 2 Tullio Grazzini CLT Jacques Navadic and Télé Monte-Carlo NOS Willem Duys NRK Bjørn Scheele NRK RTP Eládio Clímaco RDP TVE TVE 1 RNE SR TV1 Ulf Elfving SR P3 Kent Finell SRG SSR TV DRS TSR TSI RSR 1 Robert Burnier TRT BBC BBC1 Terry Wogan BBC Radio 2 Ray Moore

+ Broadcasters and commentators in non-participating countries Country Broadcaster Channel(s) Commentator(s) BT BT 1 CyBC RIK TVB TVB Pearl RTV RTV-2 MTV MTV2 RÚV Ragna Ragnars JTV JTV2 ATM TeleCuraçao TP TP1 JRT TV Beograd 1 TV Koper-Capodistria TV Ljubljana 1 TV Zagreb 1

See also OTI Festival 1978

Notes

References

External links