Eurovision Song Contest 1978

The Eurovision Song Contest 1978 was the 23rd edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Paris, France, following the country's victory at the 1977 contest with the song "L'Oiseau et l'Enfant" by Marie Myriam. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster Télévision Française 1 (TF1), the contest was held at the Palais des Congrès on 22 April 1978 and was hosted by French television presenters Denise Fabre and Léon Zitrone. This was the first time that more than one presenter had hosted the contest as well as the first to have a male presenter since 1956. In addition to hosting, the two presenters also served as commentators for France.

Eurovision Song Contest 1978
Dates
Final22 April 1978
Host
VenuePalais des Congrès
Paris, France
Presenter(s)
Musical directorFrançois Rauber
Directed byBernard Lion
Executive supervisorFrank Naef
Host broadcasterTélévision Française 1 (TF1)
Websiteeurovision.tv/event/paris-1978
Participants
Number of entries20
Debuting countriesNone
Returning countries
Non-returning countriesNone
Participation map
  • A coloured map of the countries of Europe
         Participating countries     Countries that participated in the past but not in 1978
Vote
Voting systemEach country awarded 12, 10, 8-1 points to their 10 favourite songs
Nul points Norway
Winning song Israel
"A-Ba-Ni-Bi"

Twenty countries participated, the highest number of competing countries in the history of the competition at the time. Denmark and Turkey both returned to the contest. Denmark had not participated since 1966, 12 years before.

The winner of the contest was Israel with the song "A-Ba-Ni-Bi" by Izhar Cohen & the Alphabeta. Although 'A-Ba-Ni-Bi' is the correct title, French television mistakenly captioned on screen the song title as 'Ah-Bah-Nee-Bee'. The winning entry was a love song sung in the Hebrew equivalent of Ubbi dubbi (the title is an expansion of the Hebrew word ani אני, meaning "I"). This was Israel's first Eurovision win, and it was also the first winning song to be performed in one of the Semitic languages. Furthermore, it was also the only winning song to be conducted by a woman, Nurit Hirsh. Norway finished last for the fifth time, gaining the first nul points after the new voting system was implemented in 1975.

Location
Palais des Congrès, Paris – host venue of the 1978 contest.

The event took place in Paris, the capital and largest city of France, with the host venue being the Palais des Congrès de Paris which is a concert venue, convention centre and shopping mall in the 17th arrondissement of Paris. The venue was built by French architect Guillaume Gillet, and was inaugurated in 1974.

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.

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. Along with the 20 participating countries, the show was also broadcast live in Yugoslavia, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Jordan, East Germany, Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Dubai, Hong Kong, the Soviet Union and Japan.

Participating countries

Denmark returned to the competition after having been absent for twelve years, while Turkey did so after missing out two years.[1] This meant that, for the first time, the contest had twenty participating nations competing.

Conductors

Each performance had a conductor who directed the orchestra.[2][3]

Returning artists
Artist Country Previous year(s)
Jean Vallée  Belgium 1970
Norbert Niedermeyer (as part of Springtime)  Austria 1972 (as part of The Milestones)
Ireen Sheer  Germany 1974 (for  Luxembourg)
Trio La la la (backings for José Vélez)  Spain 1968, 1970, 1971, 1975 (all years as backings)

Participants and results
R/O Country Artist Song Language[4][5] Points Place[6]
1  Ireland Colm C. T. Wilkinson "Born to Sing" English 86 5
2  Norway Jahn Teigen "Mil etter mil" Norwegian 0 20
3  Italy Ricchi e Poveri "Questo amore" Italian 53 12
4  Finland Seija Simola "Anna rakkaudelle tilaisuus" Finnish 2 18
5  Portugal Gemini "Dai li dou" Portuguese 5 17
6  France Joël Prévost "Il y aura toujours des violons" French 119 3
7  Spain José Vélez "Bailemos un vals" Spanish[lower-alpha 1] 65 9
8  United Kingdom Co-Co "The Bad Old Days" English 61 11
9  Switzerland Carole Vinci "Vivre" French 65 9
10  Belgium Jean Vallée "L'Amour ça fait chanter la vie" French 125 2
11  Netherlands Harmony "'t Is OK" Dutch 37 13
12  Turkey Nilüfer and Nazar "Sevince" Turkish 2 18
13  Germany Ireen Sheer "Feuer" German 84 6
14  Monaco Caline and Olivier Toussaint "Les Jardins de Monaco" French 107 4
15  Greece Tania Tsanaklidou "Charlie Chaplin" (Τσάρλυ Τσάπλιν) Greek 66 8
16  Denmark Mabel "Boom Boom" Danish 13 16
17  Luxembourg Baccara "Parlez-vous français ?" French 73 7
18  Israel Izhar Cohen and the Alphabeta "A-Ba-Ni-Bi" (א-ב-ני-בי) Hebrew 157 1
19  Austria Springtime "Mrs. Caroline Robinson" German[lower-alpha 2] 14 15
20  Sweden Björn Skifs "Det blir alltid värre framåt natten" Swedish 26 14

Detailed voting results
Detailed voting results[7][8]
Total score
Ireland
Norway
Italy
Finland
Portugal
France
Spain
United Kingdom
Switzerland
Belgium
Netherlands
Turkey
Germany
Monaco
Greece
Denmark
Luxembourg
Israel
Austria
Sweden
Contestants
 Ireland 861235710105101068
Norway 0
Italy 5310614861112823
Finland 22
Portugal 541
France 11963102258686410588151210
Spain 65782474612267
United Kingdom 61362324268735253
Switzerland 65511742786238110
Belgium 12512766412212105312127744
Netherlands 37534156121
Turkey 211
Germany 8413127103578107137
Monaco 107447851105610574108112
Greece 6672581074441032
Denmark 136142
Luxembourg 73212121273326176
Israel 15788810108651212121212356128
Austria 1433125
Sweden 26510434

12 points

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

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

Spokespersons

Listed below is the order in which votes were cast during the 1978 contest along with the spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for their respective country.

  1.  Ireland – John Skehan
  2.  Norway – Egil Teige
  3.  Italy – Mariolina Cannuli[9]
  4.  Finland – Kaarina Pönniö
  5.  Portugal – Isabel Wolmar
  6.  France – Marc Menant
  7.  Spain – Matías Prats Luque
  8.  United Kingdom – Colin Berry[3]
  9.  Switzerland – Michel Stocker
  10.  Belgium – André Hagon
  11.  Netherlands – Dick van Bommel
  12.  Turkey – Meral Savcı
  13.  Germany – Sigi Harreis
  14.  Monaco – Carole Chabrier
  15.  Greece – Niki Venega
  16.  Denmark – Jens Dreyer
  17.  Luxembourg – Jacques Harvey
  18.  Israel – Yitzhak Shim'oni
  19.  Austria – Jenny Pippal
  20.  Sweden – Sven Lindahl[10]

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.[11]

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, 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.[3]

Broadcasters and commentators in participating countries
Country Broadcaster Channel(s) Commentator(s) Ref(s)
 Austria ORF FS2 Ernst Grissemann [12][13][14]
 Belgium RTBF RTBF1 Unknown [15][16][17][18]
BRT TV1 Unknown [16][18]
 Denmark DR DR TV Unknown [19][20]
 Finland YLE TV1 Unknown [21][22]
Rinnakkaisohjelma Unknown
 France TF1 Léon Zitrone and Denise Fabre [17][23][24]
 Germany ARD Deutsches Fernsehen Werner Veigel [13][18][25][26]
 Greece ERT ERT Mako Georgiadou [27][28]
 Ireland RTÉ RTÉ Unknown [29][30][31]
RTÉ Radio Unknown
 Israel IBA Israeli Television Unknown [32][33]
 Italy RAI Rete Due[lower-alpha 3], Rai Radio 2 Tullio Grazzini [9][34][35]
 Luxembourg CLT RTL Télé-Luxembourg Jacques Navadic and André Torrent [17][36][37]
 Monaco Télé Monte-Carlo Unknown [38]
 Netherlands NOS Nederland 2 Willem Duys [18][39][40]
 Norway NRK NRK Fjernsynet Bjørn Scheele [41][42]
NRK Erik Heyerdahl
 Portugal RTP I Programa Eládio Clímaco [43][44][45][46]
RDP Programa 1 Unknown
 Spain TVE TVE 1 Miguel de los Santos [47][48][49]
 Sweden SR TV1 Ulf Elfving [10][22][42][50]
SR P3 Kent Finell
 Switzerland SRG SSR TV DRS[lower-alpha 4] Theodor Haller [9][13][23][51][52][53]
TSR Georges Hardy
TSI Giovanni Bertini
RSR 1 Robert Burnier
 Turkey TRT TRT Televizyon Unknown [54][55]
 United Kingdom BBC BBC1 Terry Wogan [3][56][57][58][59]
BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 2 Ray Moore
Broadcasters and commentators in non-participating countries
Country Broadcaster Channel(s) Commentator(s) Ref(s)
 Hong Kong TVB TVB Jade[lower-alpha 5] Unknown [60]
TVB Pearl[lower-alpha 5] Unknown
 Hungary MTV MTV2[lower-alpha 6] Unknown [61]
 Iceland RÚV Sjónvarpið[lower-alpha 7] Ragna Ragnars [62]
 Yugoslavia JRT TV Koper-Capodistria[lower-alpha 8] Unknown [34]
TV Ljubljana 1[lower-alpha 9] Unknown [63]
TV Zagreb 1 Unknown [64]

Incidents

Israeli victory reactions

The Israeli win caused problems for several North African and Middle-Eastern nations that were televising the contest, even though they were not participating. According to author and political commentator 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. Jordanian TV finished the show with a photo of a bunch of daffodils on screen,[65] later announcing that the Belgian entry (which finished second) was the winner.

See also

Notes
  1. Contains some words in French
  2. Contains some words in English
  3. Deferred broadcast on Rete Due at 21:55 CET (20:55 UTC)[34]
  4. Broadcast through a second audio programme on TSI[13]
  5. Deferred broadcast on 23 April[60]
  6. Delayed broadcast on 23 May 1978 at 21:40 CET (20:40 UTC)[61]
  7. Delayed broadcast on 30 April 1978 at 21:20 WET (21:20 UTC)[62]
  8. Deferred broadcast at 20:45 CET (19:45 UTC)[34]
  9. Deferred broadcast on 23 April at 15:30 CET (14:30 UTC)[63]

References
  1. "Paris 1978". Eurovision.tv.
  2. "And the conductor is..." Retrieved 10 August 2020.
  3. Roxburgh, Gordon (2014). Songs for Europe: The United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest. Volume Two: The 1970s. Prestatyn: Telos Publishing. pp. 312–327. ISBN 978-1-84583-093-9.
  4. "Eurovision Song Contest 1978". The Diggiloo Thrush. Retrieved 4 March 2012.
  5. "Eurovision Song Contest 1978". 4Lyrics.eu. Retrieved 16 September 2020.
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  7. "Results of the Final of Paris 1978". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 11 April 2021. Retrieved 11 April 2021.
  8. "Eurovision Song Contest 1978 – Scoreboard". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 21 July 2021.
  9. "Eurovision Song Contest 1978". Eurofestival News. 12 September 2016. Archived from the original on 11 April 2021. Retrieved 10 January 2023.
  10. Thorsson, Leif; Verhage, Martin (2006). Melodifestivalen genom tiderna : de svenska uttagningarna och internationella finalerna (in Swedish). Stockholm: Premium Publishing. pp. 132–133. ISBN 91-89136-29-2.
  11. "The Rules of the Contest". European Broadcasting Union. 31 October 2018. Archived from the original on 4 October 2022. Retrieved 19 December 2022.
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  13. "Fernsehen – Samstag". Neue Zürcher Zeitung (in German). Zürich, Switzerland. 22 April 1978. p. 47. Retrieved 10 January 2023 – via e-newspaperarchives.ch.
  14. Halbhuber, Axel (22 May 2015). "Ein virtueller Disput der ESC-Kommentatoren". Kurier (in German). Archived from the original on 23 May 2015. Retrieved 5 January 2023.
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