Eurovision Song Contest 1977

The Eurovision Song Contest 1977 was the 22nd edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, held on 7 May 1977 at the Wembley Conference Centre in London, United Kingdom, and presented by Angela Rippon. It was organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), who staged the event after winning the 1976 contest for the United Kingdom with the song "Save Your Kisses for Me" by Brotherhood of Man. It was the first time the event took place in the month of May since the first contest in 1956.

Broadcasters from 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

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) staged the contest at the Wembley Conference Centre. 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.

At the night of the contest, 2,000 spectators were present in the audience.

Host selection

Glasgow was the first bidder for hosting the contest, with the venues either the Kelvin Hall or the King's Theatre.

Participants

Tunisia was set to participate in the contest and had been drawn to perform in the fourth running order slot, but later withdrew. Yugoslavia decided not to enter and would not return to the contest until 1981 due to bad results in the years prior, while Sweden returned to the competition, having missed out the year before. This made for eighteen participating nations.

Several of the performing artists had previously competed as lead artists representing the same country in past editions: Beatrix Neundlinger and Günter Grosslercher as part of Schmetterlinge had represented Austria in 1972 as part of Milestones; Ilanit had represented Israel in 1973; The Swarbriggs had represented Ireland in 1975; and Fernando Tordo and Paulo de Carvalho as part of Os Amigos had represented Portugal in 1973 and in 1974 respectively. In addition, Patricia Maessen, Bianca Maessen, and Stella Maessen as part of Dream Express[de] representing Belgium, had represented the Netherlands in 1970 as Hearts of Soul; and Michèle Torr representing Monaco, had represented Luxembourg in 1966.

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.

Format

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. The BBC considered moving the contest to the Television Centre, where people who work for the outside broadcast are not involved. However, it would require a guarantee by the Association of Broadcasting and Allied Staffs, which didn't come to fruition. 3 countries offered to stage the contest, including the Netherlands, which hosted last year's contest. This was the first Eurovision Song Contest to be staged in May since the inaugural edition.

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.

Contest overview

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 United Kingdom, 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.

Spokespersons

Each participating broadcaster appointed a spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for its respective country via telephone. Known spokespersons at the 1977 contest are listed below.

• Finland – Kaarina Pönniö
• Ireland – Brendan Balfe
• Netherlands – Ralph Inbar
• Spain – Isabel Tenaille[es]
• Sweden – Sven Lindahl
• United Kingdom – Colin Berry

Detailed voting results

12 points

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

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.

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; in Canada, Japan, Hong Kong, South Africa, and the countries in South America. At least 36 television organizations were reported to broadcast the final. Estimates for the global viewership ranged from 250 to 500 million viewers.

Known details on the broadcasts in each country, including the specific broadcasting stations and commentators are shown in the tables below.

See also

• OTI Festival 1977

Notes

External links