Eurovision Song Contest 1977

The Eurovision Song Contest 1977 was the 22nd edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in London, United Kingdom, following the country's victory at the 1976 contest with the song "Save Your Kisses for Me" by Brotherhood of Man. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), the contest was held at the Wembley Conference Centre on 7 May 1977, marking the first time the event took place in the month of May since the first contest in 1956.[1] The contest was hosted by English journalist Angela Rippon.

Eurovision Song Contest 1977
Dates
Final7 May 1977
Host
VenueWembley Conference Centre
London, United Kingdom
Presenter(s)Angela Rippon
Musical directorRonnie Hazlehurst
Directed byStewart Morris
Executive supervisorClifford Brown
Executive producerBill Cotton
Host broadcasterBritish Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
Websiteeurovision.tv/event/london-1977
Participants
Number of entries18
Debuting countriesNone
Returning countries Sweden
Non-returning countries Yugoslavia
Participation map
  • A coloured map of the countries of Europe
         Participating countries     Countries that participated in the past but not in 1977
Vote
Voting systemEach country awarded 12, 10, 8-1 points to their 10 favourite songs
Nul pointsNone
Winning song France
"L'Oiseau et l'Enfant"

Eighteen countries participated in the contest; Sweden returned after its absence from the previous edition, while Yugoslavia decided not to enter.

The winner was France with the song "L'Oiseau et l'Enfant", performed by Marie Myriam, written by Joe Gracy, and composed by Jean-Paul Cara. The United Kingdom, Ireland, Monaco and Greece rounded out the top five. Greece's fifth place finish was their best result up to that point. France' fifth win was also a record at the time, and one that France held onto for six years, until being equalled by Luxembourg in 1983.

Location

Wembley Conference Centre was chosen to host the contest. The venue was the first purpose-built conference centre in the United Kingdom, and opened on 31 January 1977 - making it a newly built venue at the time. It was demolished in 2006.

Format

The language rule was brought back in this contest, four years after it had been dropped in 1973. However Germany and Belgium were allowed to sing in English, because they had already chosen the songs they were going to perform before the rule was reintroduced.

This was most possibly the Eurovision with the most scoring mistakes, as the scrutineer Clifford Brown had to stop the host Angela Rippon several times to correct the scores. For the first time in the contest's history, the flags of the competing nations were displayed on the scoreboard next to the country's name.

Participating countries
Further information: List of countries in the Eurovision Song Contest

Tunisia was set to participate in the contest and had been drawn to participate in fourth place, but later withdrew.[1] Yugoslavia decided not to enter this contest and would not return to the contest until 1981 (they did however still broadcast the show), while Sweden returned to the competition, having missed out the year before.[2] This made for eighteen participating nations.

The Belgian act Dream Express had created some controversy in the press with reports that the three female members would wear transparent tops; this did not materialise for the actual event.[3]

The British conductor Ronnie Hazlehurst used an umbrella and wore a bowler hat during the UK entry.[4][5]

Conductors

Each performance had a conductor who led the orchestral accompaniment.[6][7]

Returning artists
Artist Country Previous year(s)
Michèle Torr  Monaco 1966 (for  Luxembourg)
Beatrix Neundlinger and Günter Grosslercher (as part of Schmetterlinge)  Austria 1972 (as part of The Milestones)
Patricia Maessen, Bianca Maessen, and Stella Maessen (as part of Dream Express)  Belgium 1970 (for  Netherlands as Hearts of Soul)
Ilanit  Israel 1973
Fernando Tordo (as part of Os Amigos)  Portugal 1973
Paulo de Carvalho (as part of Os Amigos)  Portugal 1974
The Swarbriggs  Ireland 1975

Participants and results

The following tables reflect the final official scores, verified after the contest transmission. During the voting sequence of the live show, several errors were made in the announcement of the scores, which were then adjusted after the broadcast. Both Greece and France duplicated scores, awarding the same points to multiple countries. From the Greek scores, The UK, Netherlands, Austria and Finland all had 1 point deducted after the contest and from the French scores, Austria, Germany, Israel, Italy and Belgium all had 1 point deducted. None of the adjustments affected the placing of any of the songs.

R/O Country Artist Song Language[8][9] Points Place[10]
1  Ireland The Swarbriggs Plus Two "It's Nice to Be in Love Again" English 119 3
2  Monaco Michèle Torr "Une petite française" French 96 4
3  Netherlands Heddy Lester "De mallemolen" Dutch 35 12
4  Austria Schmetterlinge "Boom Boom Boomerang" German[lower-alpha 1] 11 17
5  Norway Anita Skorgan "Casanova" Norwegian 18 14
6  Germany Silver Convention "Telegram" English 55 8
7  Luxembourg Anne-Marie B "Frère Jacques" French 17 16
8  Portugal Os Amigos "Portugal no coração" Portuguese 18 14
9  United Kingdom Lynsey de Paul and Mike Moran "Rock Bottom" English 121 2
10  Greece Pascalis, Marianna, Robert and Bessy "Mathima solfege" (Μάθημα σολφέζ) Greek 92 5
11  Israel Ilanit "Ahava Hi Shir Lishnayim" (אהבה היא שיר לשניים) Hebrew 49 11
12  Switzerland Pepe Lienhard Band "Swiss Lady" German 71 6
13  Sweden Forbes "Beatles" Swedish 2 18
14  Spain Micky "Enséñame a cantar" Spanish 52 9
15  Italy Mia Martini "Libera" Italian 33 13
16  Finland Monica Aspelund "Lapponia" Finnish 50 10
17  Belgium Dream Express "A Million in One, Two, Three" English 69 7
18  France Marie Myriam "L'Oiseau et l'Enfant" French 136 1

Detailed voting results
Detailed voting results[11][12]
Total score
Ireland
Monaco
Netherlands
Austria
Norway
Germany
Luxembourg
Portugal
United Kingdom
Greece
Israel
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Italy
Finland
Belgium
France
Contestants
 Ireland 1198151258112101281248310
Monaco 965816167122610812525
Netherlands 353311171108
Austria 115231
Norway 18322155
Germany 551132288855561
Luxembourg 17278
Portugal 18221436
United Kingdom 121127127101212883241212
Greece 9210104446105317121663
Israel 4977535103612
Switzerland 7161010544644108
Sweden 22
Spain 526177343777
Italy 3386332227
Finland 501246827524
Belgium 694126847105643
France 1361048731210567101261010124

12 points

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

N. Contestant Nation(s) giving 12 points
6  United Kingdom  Austria,  Belgium,  France,  Luxembourg,  Monaco,  Portugal
4  Ireland  Israel,  Norway,  Sweden,  United Kingdom
3  France  Finland,  Germany,  Switzerland
2  Monaco  Greece,  Italy
1  Belgium  Netherlands
 Finland  Ireland
 Greece  Spain

Spokespersons

Listed below is the order in which votes were cast during the 1977 contest along with the spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for their respective country.

  1.  Ireland – Brendan Balfe
  2.  Monaco – Carole Chabrier
  3.  Netherlands – Ralph Inbar
  4.  Austria – Jenny Pippal
  5.  Norway – Sverre Christophersen
  6.  Germany – Armin Maiwald
  7.  Luxembourg – Jacques Harvey
  8.  Portugal – Ana Zanatti
  9.  United Kingdom – Colin Berry[7]
  10.  Greece – Naki Agathou
  11.  Israel – Yitzhak Shim'oni
  12.  Switzerland – Michel Stocker
  13.  Sweden – Sven Lindahl[13]
  14.  Spain – Isabel Tenaille
  15.  Italy – Mariolina Cannuli[14]
  16.  Finland – Kaarina Pönniö
  17.  Belgium – An Ploegaerts
  18.  France – Marc Menant

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.[15]

Known details on the broadcasts in each country, including the specific broadcasting stations and commentators are shown in the tables below. In addition to the participating countries, the contest was also reportedly broadcast in Algeria, Denmark, Iceland, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia, Turkey and Yugoslavia, in Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania and the Soviet Union via Intervision, and in Hong Kong.[7]

Broadcasters and commentators in participating countries
Country Broadcaster Channel(s) Commentator(s) Ref(s)
 Austria ORF FS1 Ernst Grissemann [16][17][18]
 Belgium BRT TV1 Luc Appermont [19][20][21][22]
Radio 1 Unknown
RTB RTB1 Unknown [20][21][23]
 Finland YLE TV1 Unknown [24][25]
Rinnakkaisohjelma Matti Paalosmaa
 France TF1 Georges de Caunes [23][26][27]
 Germany ARD Deutsches Fernsehen Werner Veigel [17][21][28][29]
 Greece ERT ERT Mako Georgiadou [30][31]
 Ireland RTÉ RTÉ Mike Murphy [32][33][34][35]
RTÉ Radio Unknown
 Israel IBA Israeli Television Unknown [36][37]
 Italy RAI Rete Uno, Rai Radio 1 Silvio Noto [14][38]
 Luxembourg CLT RTL Télé-Luxembourg Unknown [23][39]
 Monaco Télé Monte-Carlo Unknown [40]
 Netherlands NOS Nederland 2 Ati Dijckmeester [21][41]
 Norway NRK NRK Fjernsynet John Andreassen [42][43]
NRK Erik Heyerdahl
 Portugal RTP I Programa Unknown [44][45]
 Spain TVE TVE 1 Miguel de los Santos [46][47][48]
 Sweden SR TV1 Ulf Elfving [13][25][43][49]
SR P3 Ursula Richter and Åke Strömmer
 Switzerland SRG SSR TV DRS Theodor Haller [14][17][26][50][51][52]
TSR Georges Hardy
TSI Giovanni Bertini
RSR 2 Robert Burnier
RSI 2 Unknown
 United Kingdom BBC BBC1 Pete Murray [7][53][54][55][56]
BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 2 Terry Wogan
Broadcasters and commentators in non-participating countries
Country Broadcaster Channel(s) Commentator(s) Ref(s)
 Denmark DR DR TV Claus Toksvig [57]
 Hungary MTV MTV2[lower-alpha 2] Unknown [58]
 Iceland RÚV Sjónvarpið[lower-alpha 3] Unknown [59]
 Yugoslavia JRT TV Ljubljana 1 Unknown [60]
TV Zagreb 1 Unknown [61]

Incidents

Strike at BBC

The contest was originally planned to be held on 2 April 1977, but because of a strike of the BBC cameramen and its technicians, it got postponed for a month. As a result, this was the first Eurovision Song Contest to be staged in May since the inaugural edition.[1]

Postcards

Due to strikes by the BBC camera staff, and lack of time to organise the contest, there were no postcards for the viewers in between the songs. However, various shots of the contest's audience were shown, with the various countries' commentators informing the viewers of the upcoming songs. The intended postcards had been devised using footage of the artists in London during a party hosted by the BBC at a London nightclub. When the postcards were seen for the first time by the participant heads of delegation at the Friday dress rehearsal the day before the final, the Norwegian delegation objected to the way their artist was portrayed. However, as it was not possible for the BBC to edit or revise footage, all the postcards had to be dropped from the broadcast. Footage from the party still formed the interval act broadcast prior to the voting sequence.[62]

See also

Notes
  1. Contains some words in English
  2. Delayed broadcast on 19 November 1977 at 21:30 CET (20:30 UTC)[58]
  3. Delayed broadcast on 20 May 1977 at 21:30 WET (21:30 UTC)[59]

References
  1. O'Connor, John Kennedy (2007). The Eurovision Song Contest: The Official History. UK: Carlton Books. p. 68. ISBN 978-1-84442-994-3.
  2. "London 1977". Eurovision.tv.
  3. O'Connor, John Kennedy (2007). The Eurovision Song Contest: The Official History. UK: Carlton Books. p. 71. ISBN 978-1-84442-994-3.
  4. Leigh, Spencer (4 October 2007). "Obituary – Ronnie Hazlehurst". The Daily Telegraph.
  5. "Obituary – Ronnie Hazlehurst". The Times. 3 October 2007.
  6. "And the conductor is..." Retrieved 10 July 2018.
  7. Roxburgh, Gordon (2014). Songs for Europe: The United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest. Volume Two: The 1970s. Prestatyn: Telos Publishing. pp. 267–287. ISBN 978-1-84583-093-9.
  8. "Eurovision Song Contest 1977". The Diggiloo Thrush. Retrieved 4 March 2012.
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  12. "Eurovision Song Contest 1977 – Scoreboard". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 21 July 2021.
  13. Thorsson, Leif; Verhage, Martin (2006). Melodifestivalen genom tiderna : de svenska uttagningarna och internationella finalerna (in Swedish). Stockholm: Premium Publishing. pp. 126–127. ISBN 91-89136-29-2.
  14. "Eurovision Song Contest 1977". Eurofestival News. 12 September 2016. Archived from the original on 10 August 2022. Retrieved 10 January 2023.
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