Eurovision Song Contest 1985
The Eurovision Song Contest 1985 was the 30th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Gothenburg, Sweden, following the country's victory at the 1984 contest with the song "Diggi-Loo Diggi-Ley" by Herreys. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster Sveriges Television (SVT), the contest was held at the Scandinavium on 4 May 1985 and was hosted by previous Swedish contestant Lill Lindfors.
Eurovision Song Contest 1985 | |
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![]() | |
Dates | |
Final | 4 May 1985 |
Host | |
Venue | Scandinavium Gothenburg, Sweden |
Presenter(s) | Lill Lindfors |
Musical director | Curt-Eric Holmquist |
Directed by | Steen Priwin |
Executive supervisor | Frank Naef |
Executive producer | Steen Priwin |
Host broadcaster | Sveriges Television (SVT) |
Website | eurovision |
Participants | |
Number of entries | 19 |
Debuting countries | None |
Returning countries | |
Non-returning countries | |
Participation map
| |
Vote | |
Voting system | Each country awarded 12, 10, 8-1 point(s) to their 10 favourite songs |
Nul points | None |
Winning song | ![]() "La det swinge" |
Nineteen countries took part in the contest, with the Netherlands and Yugoslavia deciding not to participate.
Norway won the contest with a rendition titled "La det swinge" by Bobbysocks!. Serving as Norway's first victory in the contest, after a long period of low scores, including 3 "null points".
Location

Gothenburg is the second-largest city in Sweden and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Construction of the arena began in 1969 after decades of setbacks. The arena was inaugurated on 18 May 1971 and was the biggest feature for the city's failed bid for the 1984 Winter Olympics. At the time, Scandinavium was the largest indoor venue in the world and until the 2000 contest in Stockholm was the largest arena to host the event. After the inauguration, this is the home arena for Frölunda HC of Swedish Hockey League, and venue for the annual Gothenburg Horse Show.
Format
In 1985, thirteen previous Eurovision artists made a comeback. This applied to the winners, Bobbysocks! who had attended once before as soloists: Hanne Krogh performed for Norway in 1971, while Elisabeth Andreasson for Sweden (where she is originally from) in 1982 in a duet, Chips, with Kikki Danielsson. Kikki returned this year for host country Sweden, and was thus competing against Elisabeth Andreasson and Bobbysocks!.
The presenter was entertainer Lill Lindfors (herself a former participant in 1966), who had a wardrobe malfunction (though technically this is a misnomer, as the stunt was deliberate) as she proceeded to the stage for the voting procedure. As she walked on stage, the skirt of her dress came away, leaving her in just her underwear and the top half of her dress. After a few seconds of pretending to be shocked, Lindfors unfastened the flaps of her dress across her shoulders, to reveal a full-length white gown, to much raucous audience applause. Lill then took her seat to start calling in the votes, and nonchalantly said, "I just wanted to wake you up a little."
Lys Assia, the winner of the first ever Eurovision Song Contest in 1956, was the guest of honour in 1985. She was introduced by Lill Lindfors. The camera zoomed close to Lys, who rose to greet the audience, while the orchestra played the song "Refrain", her winning song.
The video postcards, broadcast in between each song to introduce the competing nation, were the first in the contest history to feature only the songwriters and composers, and not the performing artist (unless they had composed their own song). All the songwriters were filmed in various locations in and around Gothenburg during the week of rehearsals. Once the video concluded, hostess Lill Lindfors introduced the song, the artist and the conductor from a seat on the stage, reading from cards represented by the flag of each nation.
Host Lill Lindfors congratulated the duo, Hanne Krogh and Elisabeth Andreasson, following their victory by saying, "I must say I am honestly very happy that this happened because Norway has been last so many times that you really deserve it!" Krogh replied, "You're happy? What do you think we are?!" After an energetic reprise, the two women embraced to a standing ovation from the audience. During the reprise the last verse of the winning entry was sung in English.
Participating countries
19 countries participated in the contest. Greece and Israel returned to the contest after not participating the previous year. Meanwhile, the Netherlands did not participate in this contest, due to the national Remembrance of the Dead, while Yugoslavia did not participate due to the anniversary of the death of Josip Broz Tito. Despite this, Yugoslavia still held their annual preselection contest, which was won by "Pokora" ("Penance") (music by Ivo Pupačić and lyrics by Zvonimir Pupačić), a duet sung by Zorica Kondža and Josip Genda. However, as Yugoslavia had already withdrawn before the song won, this song was never set to compete in Eurovision. Yugoslavia did, however, take part in the 1991 contest which was also held on the anniversary of Tito's death. 1985 was also the last year to have less than 20 participants competing in the final.
Conductors
Each performance had a conductor who directed the orchestra.[1][2] 1985 was the only year to feature a conductor for multiple entries that wasn't the host conductor: Greek conductor Haris Andreadis led the orchestra for both the Cypriot and Greek entries.
Ireland – Noel Kelehan
Finland – Ossi Runne
Cyprus – Haris Andreadis
Denmark – Wolfgang Käfer
Spain – Juan Carlos Calderón
France – Michel Bernholc
Turkey – Garo Mafyan
Belgium – Curt-Eric Holmquist
Portugal – José Calvário
Germany – Rainer Pietsch
Israel – Kobi Oshrat
Italy – Fiorenzo Zanotti
Norway – Terje Fjærn
United Kingdom – John Coleman
Switzerland – Anita Kerr
Sweden – Curt-Eric Holmquist[3]
Austria – Richard Oesterreicher
Luxembourg – Norbert Daum
Greece – Haris Andreadis
Returning artists
Bold indicates a previous winner.
Artist | Country | Previous year(s) |
---|---|---|
Gary Lux | ![]() |
1983 (member of Westend), 1984 (backing vocal of Anita) |
Rhonda Heath (backing singer) | 1977 (member of Silver Convention for ![]() | |
Lia Vissi | ![]() |
1979 (backing vocal of Elpida), 1980 (backing vocal of Anna Vissi and The Epikouri), both times for ![]() |
Hot Eyes | ![]() |
1984 |
Izhar Cohen | ![]() |
1978 (along with the Alphabeta) |
Al Bano & Romina Power | ![]() |
1976 |
Ireen Sheer | ![]() |
1974, 1978 (for ![]() |
Hanne Krogh (part of Bobbysocks!) | ![]() |
1971 |
Elisabeth Andreasson (part of Bobbysocks!) | 1982 (for ![]() | |
Kikki Danielsson | ![]() |
1982 (as part of Chips) |
Pino Gasparini | ![]() |
1977 (part of Pepe Lienhard Band) |
Mariella Farré | 1983 |
Participants and results
R/O | Country | Artist | Song | Language[4][5] | Points | Place[6] |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | ![]() |
Maria Christian | "Wait Until the Weekend Comes" | English | 91 | 6 |
2 | ![]() |
Sonja Lumme | "Eläköön elämä" | Finnish | 58 | 9 |
3 | ![]() |
Lia Vissi | "To katalava arga" (Το κατάλαβα αργά) | Greek | 15 | 16 |
4 | ![]() |
Hot Eyes | "Sku' du spørg' fra no'en?" | Danish | 41 | 11 |
5 | ![]() |
Paloma San Basilio | "La fiesta terminó" | Spanish | 36 | 14 |
6 | ![]() |
Roger Bens | "Femme dans ses rêves aussi" | French | 56 | 10 |
7 | ![]() |
MFÖ | "Didai didai dai" | Turkish | 36 | 14 |
8 | ![]() |
Linda Lepomme | "Laat me nu gaan" | Dutch | 7 | 19 |
9 | ![]() |
Adelaide | "Penso em ti, eu sei" | Portuguese | 9 | 18 |
10 | ![]() |
Wind | "Für alle" | German | 105 | 2 |
11 | ![]() |
Izhar Cohen | "Olé, Olé" (עולה, עולה) | Hebrew | 93 | 5 |
12 | ![]() |
Al Bano and Romina Power | "Magic Oh Magic" | Italian | 78 | 7 |
13 | ![]() |
Bobbysocks! | "La det swinge" | Norwegian | 123 | 1 |
14 | ![]() |
Vikki | "Love Is..." | English | 100 | 4 |
15 | ![]() |
Mariella Farré and Pino Gasparini | "Piano, piano" | German | 39 | 12 |
16 | ![]() |
Kikki Danielsson | "Bra vibrationer" | Swedish | 103 | 3 |
17 | ![]() |
Gary Lux | "Kinder dieser Welt" | German | 60 | 8 |
18 | ![]() |
Margo, Franck Olivier, Diane Solomon, Ireen Sheer, Malcolm Roberts and Chris Roberts |
"Children, Kinder, Enfants" | French, German, English | 37 | 13 |
19 | ![]() |
Takis Biniaris | "Miazoume" (Μοιάζουμε) | Greek | 15 | 16 |
Detailed voting results
Each country had a jury who awarded 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 point(s) for their top ten songs.
During the voting, Germany took a commanding lead in the first half, with Norway fifth place behind Germany, Sweden, Italy and the United Kingdom around the end of the first half of voting. Finally, with five juries left, Germany, Sweden and Norway were tightly wrapped around the pole positions with 87, 86, and 85 points respectively. At that point, Sweden briefly took the lead away from Germany (who received no points from Switzerland). Sweden was the fourth-to-last jury, conceding their brief lead by awarding Germany eight points and Norway the maximum twelve. With only three countries left to vote, Norway kept the lead, in one of the shortest winning stretches during voting in the contest's history.
Ireland | 91 | 1 | 7 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 8 | 8 | 4 | 8 | 12 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 10 | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Finland | 58 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 7 | 7 | 2 | 10 | 10 | |||||||||
Cyprus | 15 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 8 | |||||||||||||||
Denmark | 41 | 3 | 10 | 3 | 1 | 6 | 2 | 6 | 5 | 5 | ||||||||||
Spain | 36 | 2 | 8 | 1 | 12 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 6 | |||||||||||
France | 56 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 10 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 12 | |||||||
Turkey | 36 | 7 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 8 | 12 | |||||||||||
Belgium | 7 | 7 | ||||||||||||||||||
Portugal | 9 | 2 | 7 | |||||||||||||||||
Germany | 105 | 4 | 10 | 12 | 10 | 10 | 8 | 10 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 1 | 8 | 10 | ||||||
Israel | 93 | 8 | 5 | 4 | 8 | 12 | 5 | 7 | 5 | 10 | 5 | 7 | 2 | 7 | 6 | 2 | ||||
Italy | 78 | 6 | 10 | 1 | 12 | 5 | 8 | 2 | 12 | 4 | 6 | 12 | ||||||||
Norway | 123 | 12 | 4 | 12 | 1 | 2 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 6 | 12 | 6 | 12 | 12 | 7 | 1 | ||||
United Kingdom | 100 | 5 | 7 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 10 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 2 | 8 | 7 | 10 | 4 | 2 | 8 | 4 | ||
Switzerland | 39 | 3 | 2 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | |||||||
Sweden | 103 | 10 | 12 | 8 | 2 | 7 | 4 | 7 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 12 | 6 | 8 | 4 | 5 | ||||
Austria | 60 | 3 | 7 | 1 | 4 | 10 | 10 | 2 | 10 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |||||||
Luxembourg | 37 | 2 | 4 | 10 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 8 | |||||||||||
Greece | 15 | 8 | 7 |
12 points
Below is a summary of all 12 (douze) points in the final:
N. | Contestant | Nation(s) giving 12 points |
---|---|---|
8 | ![]() | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
3 | ![]() | ![]() ![]() ![]() |
2 | ![]() | ![]() ![]() |
1 | ![]() | ![]() |
![]() | ![]() | |
![]() | ![]() | |
![]() | ![]() | |
![]() | ![]() | |
![]() | ![]() |
Spokespersons
Each country announced their votes in the order of performance. The following is a list of spokespersons who announced the votes for their respective country.
Ireland – John Skehan
Finland – Annemi Genetz
Cyprus – Anna Partelidou
Denmark – Bent Henius
Spain – Matilde Jarrín
France – Clémentine Célarié
Turkey – Fatih Orbay
Belgium – An Ploegaerts
Portugal – Maria Margarida Gaspar
Germany – Christoph Deumling
Israel – Yitzhak Shim'oni
Italy – Beatrice Cori
Norway – Erik Diesen
United Kingdom – Colin Berry[2]
Switzerland – Michel Stocker
Sweden – Agneta Bolme Börjefors
Austria – Chris Lohner
Luxembourg – Frédérique Ries
Greece – Irini Gavala
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.[9] Known details on the broadcasts in each country, including the specific broadcasting stations and commentators are shown in the tables below.
Country | Broadcaster | Channel(s) | Commentator(s) | Ref(s) |
---|---|---|---|---|
![]() |
SBS | SBS TV[lower-alpha 3] | Unknown | [55] |
![]() |
ČST | ČST2[lower-alpha 4] | Unknown | [56] |
![]() |
RÚV | Sjónvarpið | Hinrik Bjarnason | [57] |
![]() |
Olympus[lower-alpha 5] | Gerrit den Braber | [58][59] | |
![]() |
TP | TP1[lower-alpha 6] | Unknown | [60] |
Notes
- Deferred broadcast at 22:30 CEST (20:30 UTC)[36]
- Deferred broadcast at 22:55 CEST (20:55 UTC)[41]
- Deferred broadcast on 5 May at 19:30 AEST (09:30 UTC)[55]
- Delayed broadcast on 1 June 1985 at 11:05 CEST (09:05 UTC)[56]
- Deferred broadcast on 6 May at 10:00 CEST (08:00 UTC)[58]
- Delayed broadcast on 25 May 1985 at 20:00 CEST (18:00 UTC)[60]
References
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External links
