Eurovision Song Contest 1980

Eurovision Song Contest 1980
Dates
Final	19 April 1980
Host
Venue	Nederlands Congresgebouw The Hague, Netherlands
Presenter(s)	Marlous Fluitsma Hans van Willigenburg (Green Room)
Conductor	Rogier van Otterloo
Director	Theo Ordeman
Executive supervisor	Frank Naef
Host broadcaster	Nederlandse Omroep Stichting (NOS)
Interval act	The Dutch Rhythm Steel and Show Band
Participants
Number of entries	19
Debuting countries	Morocco
Returning countries	Turkey
Withdrawing countries	Israel  Monaco
Participation map      Participating countries     Countries that participated in the past but not in 1980
Vote
Voting system	Each country awarded 12, 10, 8-1 point(s) to their 10 favourite songs
Nul points	None
Winning song	Ireland "What's Another Year"
Eurovision Song Contest
◄1979 • 1980 • 1981►

The Eurovision Song Contest 1980 was the 25th Eurovision Song Contest and was held on 19 April 1980 in The Hague. The presenter was Marlous Fluitsma, although each song was introduced by a presenter from the participating nation. In some cases, this was the same person providing the commentary. The contest was won by Johnny Logan, representing Ireland with a song called "What's Another Year".

Israel, winners in 1979, declined to host the show for the second time in a row, as the IBA could not fund another international production, and the Israeli government turned down a request to extend the IBA budget. Moreover, the date that was eventually set for the 1980 contest by the European Broadcasting Union coincided with Israel's Day of Remembrance for their casualties of war, so Israel was forced to withdraw. After Spain, the 2nd-place winner of 1979, and reportedly the UK, refused to host, the Netherlands finally agreed to host the show in a small-scale production. According to Yair Lapid, son of Tommy Lapid who was then the IBA director general, Lapid called his counterpart at NOS and convinced him to take the "undesired honour", when he realised that the extra cost could paralyse the regular work of the IBA.^[1]

The same venue in The Hague used in 1976 - the Congresgebouw - was chosen, with parts of the opening film from 1976 being reused in the introduction and the same set designer (Roland de Groot) taking charge of the design. As with the recent 1977 and 1978 contests, there were no pre-filmed postcards between the songs, with a guest presenter from each nation introducing the entries. NOS spent just US$725,000 on the project.

Morocco joined the Eurovision family for the first (and so far only) time. Monaco withdrew, and would not return until the 2004 semi final.

Australian-born Johnny Logan representing Ireland was the winner of this Eurovision with the song, "What's Another Year". This was Ireland's second time winning the competition, having won in 1970 with "All Kinds of Everything", which was also held on Dutch soil.

Germany were runners-up this year. They would finish in second place again the following year, finally winning it in 1982. Germany would go on to finish second again in 1985 and 1987, making the 1980s their most successful decade. United Kingdom returned to form by coming third.

Location

Nederlands Congresgebouw - host venue of the 1980 contest.

The Hague is the seat of government of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the capital city of the province of South Holland. It is also the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam. Located in the west of the Netherlands, The Hague is in the centre of the Haaglanden conurbation and lies at the southwest corner of the larger Randstad conurbation.

Format

The scoring system implemented in 1975 remained the same; each country had a jury who awarded 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 point(s) for their top ten songs. However this year for the first time, countries were required to cast their votes in ascending order, 1,2,3 etc. This change made for the added excitement of waiting for each country to award their highest 12 points at the end of each voting round.

Conductors

For each nation's performance, the orchestra was conducted by the following:

Results

Draw	Country	Artist	Song	Language[2]	Place	Points
01	Austria	Blue Danube	"Du bist Musik"	German	8	64
02	Turkey	Ajda Pekkan	"Pet'r Oil"	Turkish	15	23
03	Greece	Anna Vissi and the Epikouri	"Autostop" (Ωτοστόπ)	Greek	13	30
04	Luxembourg	Sophie & Magaly	"Papa pingouin"	French	9	56
05	Morocco	Samira Bensaïd	"Bitaqat Hub" (بطاقة حب)	Arabic	18	7
06	Italy	Alan Sorrenti	"Non so che darei"	Italian	6	87
07	Denmark	Bamses Venner	"Tænker altid på dig"	Danish	14	25
08	Sweden	Tomas Ledin	"Just nu!"	Swedish	10	47
09	Switzerland	Paola	"Cinéma"	French	4	104
10	Finland	Vesa-Matti Loiri	"Huilumies"	Finnish	19	6
11	Norway	Sverre Kjelsberg & Mattis Hætta	"Sámiid Ædnan"a	Norwegian	16	15
12	Germany	Katja Ebstein	"Theater"	German	2	128
13	United Kingdom	Prima Donna	"Love Enough for Two"	English	3	106
14	Portugal	José Cid	"Um grande, grande amor"	Portuguese	7	71
15	Netherlands	Maggie MacNeal	"Amsterdam"	Dutch	5	93
16	France	Profil	"Hé, hé, m'sieurs dames"	French	11	45
17	Ireland	Johnny Logan	"What's Another Year"	English	1	143
18	Spain	Trigo Limpio	"Quédate esta noche"	Spanish	12	38
19	Belgium	Telex	"Euro-Vision"	French	17	14

Notes

a.^ Although the song was completely in Norwegian, the title is in the North Sami dialect of the Sami languages.

Score sheet

Johnny Logan performing his winning song "What's Another Year"

The Netherlands gained a strong lead early on, getting the maximum 'douze points' from three of the first four voting countries. This was not to last, however, as Germany and eventually Ireland overtook them.

		Results
	Austria	64			1		3	4	5	1	4	5	6	4	6	3	3	4	10	4	1
	Turkey	23	3				12	8
	Greece	30	5			1		2	2				4		3	1	8		4
	Luxembourg	56	1	1					4	6		3	7		8			7	8	3	8
	Morocco	7						7
	Italy	87	2	6	2				3	10	8	6	2	7	4	12	1	2	2	10	10
	Denmark	25			4		2				6	7	1	5
	Sweden	47		8	10	10	6	5			5			2						1
	Switzerland	104	6	2		5	7	3	8	2		12	10	10	7	6	10		12	2	2
	Finland	6											5					1
	Norway	15					4							6			2	3
	Germany	128	8	10		3	10	12	7	5	7	2			10	8	12	10	5	12	7
	United Kingdom	106	7	5		8	8		10	12	10	4		3		7	7	5	6	8	6
	Portugal	71		4	5	4		10	6	8	2	1	8	1			5	6	7		4
	Netherlands	93	12	12	6	12				3	3	10		8	2	4		12	1	5	3
	France	45		3	7	2	1		1	4	1		3		5		4		3	6	5
	Ireland	143	10		12	7		1	12	7	12	8	12	12	12	5	6	8		7	12
	Spain	38	4	7	8	6	5	6								2
Belgium	14			3										1	10
The table is ordered by appearance

12 points

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

Returning artists

Katja Ebstein during rehearsals

Maggie MacNeal during rehearsals

Artist	Country	Previous year(s)
Katja Ebstein	Germany	1970, 1971
Maggie MacNeal	Netherlands	1974 (part of Mouth & MacNeal)
Paola del Medico	Switzerland	1969

Song Presenters

Each song was introduced by a presenter from the national country.

•  Austria - Chris Lohner
•  Turkey - Şebnem Savaşçı
•  Greece - Kelly Sakakou
•  Luxembourg - Michèle Etzel
•  Morocco - Mohammed Bouzidi
•  Italy - Beatrice Cori
•  Denmark - Jørgen de Mylius
•  Sweden – Ulf Elfving
•   Switzerland - Lyliam Stambac
•  Finland - Heikki Harma
•  Norway - Åse Kleveland
•  Germany - Carolin Reiber
•  United Kingdom - Noel Edmonds
•  Portugal - Eládio Clímaco
•  Netherlands - Marlous Fluitsma
•  France - Évelyne Dhéliat
•  Ireland^ - Thelma Mansfield
•  Spain - Mari Cruz Soriano
•  Belgium - Arlette Vincent

^All the introductions were made in the language in which the song was performed, with the exception of Ireland. Thelma Mansfield introduced the song in Irish, whereas the song was performed in English.

Commentators

Spokespersons

•  Austria - Jenny Pippal
•  Turkey - Başak Doğru
•  Greece - Niki Venega
•  Luxembourg - Jacques Harvey
•  Morocco - Kamal Irassi
•  Italy - Mariolina Cannuli
•  Denmark - Bent Henius
•  Sweden – Arne Weise
•   Switzerland - Michel Stocker^[5]
•  Finland - Kaarina Pönniö^[6]
•  Norway - Roald Øyen^[7]
•  Germany - Gabi Schnelle
•  United Kingdom - Ray Moore
•  Portugal - Teresa Cruz
•  Netherlands - Flip van der Schalie
•  France - Fabienne Égal
•  Ireland - David Heffernan
•  Spain - Alfonso Lapeña
•  Belgium - Jacques Olivier

National jury members

•  Spain – José María Reíllo (tailor), Carmen Miranda (student), Emilio Machado (painter), María José Nieto (actress), Rafael Lozano (discothèque chain director), Nieves Aguado (student), Ana Menéndez (secretary), Rafael Gómez (businessman), Isabel Ortiz (figure skater), Pedro Olivares (engineer), Mari Luz Blanco (housewife)

References