Eurovision Song Contest 1978
The Eurovision Song Contest 1978 was the 23rd edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It was held on 22 April 1978 in Paris. The contest was won by Izhar Cohen & the Alphabeta who represented Israel with the song "A-Ba-Ni-Bi". Although 'A-Ba-Ni-Bi' is the correct title, French television mistakenly captioned on screen the song title as 'Ah-Bah-Nee-Bee'. The presenters were Denise Fabre and Léon Zitrone, and this was the first time more than one presenter hosted an edition of the Contest and the first to have a male presenter since 1956. In addition, the two presenters served as commentators for France. Twenty countries participated, a record at the time.
The winning entry was a love song sung in the Hebrew equivalent of Ubbi dubbi. This was Israel's first Eurovision win, which was also the first winning song to be performed in one of the Semitic languages. The 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, later announcing that the Belgian entry was the winner. Television of the USSR for the first time showed a competition, and until 1988 only performances of several participants, each time with the exception of representatives of Israel. Norway finished last for the fifth time, gaining the first nul points during the current voting system was implemented in 1975.
Location
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, once they showed the entry of the artist. They took a corridor, then an elevator which led them behind the scenes of the scene. Then they greeted the previous participants and made their entrance. The camera also made several shots of the audience, notably Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg.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 very 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
returned to the competition after eleven years of absence, while Turkey did so after missing out one year.Conductors
Each performance had a conductor who conducted the orchestra.- - Noel Kelehan
- - Carsten Klouman
- - Nicola Samale
- - Ossi Runne
- - Thilo Krasmann
- - Alain Goraguer
- - Ramón Arcusa
- - Alyn Ainsworth
- - Daniel Janin
- - Jean Musy
- - Harry van Hoof
- - Onno Tunç
- - Jean Frankfurter
- - Yvon Rioland
- - Haris Andreadis
- - Helmer Olesen
- - Rolf Soja
- - Nurit Hirsh
- - Richard Österreicher
- - Bengt Palmers
Returning artists
Results
Notes:Scoreboard
12 points
Below is a summary of all 12 points in the final:N. | Contestant | Voting nation |
6 | Israel | Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Switzerland, Turkey |
5 | Belgium | France, Greece, Ireland, Monaco, United Kingdom |
3 | Luxembourg | Italy, Portugal, Spain |
1 | France | Austria |
1 | Germany | Finland |
1 | Ireland | Norway |
1 | Monaco | Sweden |
1 | Netherlands | Israel |
1 | Spain | Denmark |
International broadcasts and voting
Spokespersons
The table below shows 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. Each country had a jury who awarded 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 points for their top ten songs.- – John Skehan
- – Egil Teige
- – Mariolina Cannuli
- – Kaarina Pönniö
- – Isabel Wolmar
- - Marc Menant
- – Matías Prats
- – Colin Berry
- – Michel Stocker
- – André Hagon
- – Dick van Bommel
- – Meral Savcı
- – Ute Verhoolen
- – Carole Chabrier
- – Niki Venega
- – Jens Dreyer
- – Jacques Harvey
- – Yitzhak Shim'oni
- – Jenny Pippal
- – Sven Lindahl
Television
Participating countries
- – Larry Gogan
- – Bjørn Scheele
- – Tullio Grazzini
- – Erkki Toivanen
- – Eládio Clímaco
- – Léon Zitrone and Denise Fabre
- – Miguel de los Santos
- – Terry Wogan
- – German: Theodor Haller, French: Georges Hardy, Italian: Giovanni Bertini
- – Claude Delacroix, Luc Appermont
- – Willem Duys
- – Bülend Özveren
- – Werner Veigel
- - José Sacré
- – Mako Georgiadou
- – Jørgen de Mylius
- – Jacques Navadic
- – No commentator
- – Ernst Grissemann
- – Ulf Elfving
Non-participating countries
- – TBC
- – TBC
- – TBC
- – TBC
- – TBC
- – TBC
- – Ragna Ragnars
- – TBC
- – TBC
- – TBC
- – TBC
- – TBC
- – TBC
- – Milovan Ilić, Oliver Mlakar, Tomaž Terček
Radio
- – Mike Murphy
- – Erik Heyerdahl
- – Tullio Grazzini
- – TBC
- – Amadeu Meireles
- – René Boyer and Michel Polac
- – Ray Moore
- - Robert Burnier
- – French: Jacques Bauduin, Dutch: Nand Baert and Herwig Haes
- – Jan van Veen
- – Şebnem Savaşçı
- – Wolf Mittler
- – Dimitris Konstantaras
- – Kjeld Koplev
- – André Torrent
- – Walter Richard Langer
- – Kent Finell