Eurovision Song Contest 1980

Johnny Logan 

Date: April 19, 1980
Venue: Congresgebouw, The Hague, Netherlands
Presenter: Marlous Fluitsma
Orchestra: Metropole Orchestra
Conductor: Rogier van Otterloo
Director: Theo Ordeman
Scruteneer: Frank Naef
Host broadcaster: NOS
Price presenter: Marcel Besançon
Interval act: The Dutch rhythm steel & show band
Duration: 2 hours, 16 minutes
Number of entries: 19
Debuting countries: Morocco
Returning countries: Turkey
Withdrawing countries: Israel, Monaco
Winning Song: What's Another Year - Johnny Logan, Ireland
Voting system: Each country awarded 12, 10, 8-1 points to their 10 favourite songs

Entries

01. Austria: Blue Danube - Du bist Musik (8th place, 64 points)
02. Turkey: Ajda Pekan - Petr'Oil (15th place, 23 points)
03. Greece: Anna Vissi & the Epikouri - Autostop (13th place, 30 points)
04. Luxembourg: Sophie & Magaly - Papa Pingouin (9th place, 56 points)
05. Morocco: Samira Bensaïd - Bitaqat Khub (18th place, 7 points)
06. Italy: Alan Sorrenti - Non so che darei (6th place, 87 points)
07. Denmark: Bamses Venner - Tænker altid på dig (14th place, 25 points)
08. Sweden: Tomas Ledin - Just nu! (10th place, 47 points)
09. Switzerland: Paola - Cinema (4th place, 104 points)
10. Finland: Vesa-Matti Loiri - Huilumies (19th place, 6 points)
11. Norway: Sverre Kjelsberg & Mattis Hætta - Sámiid Ædnan (16th place, 15 points)
12. Germany: Katja Ebstein - Theater (2nd place, 128 points)
13. UK: Prima Donna - Love enough for two (3rd place, 106 points)
14. Portugal: José Cid - Um grande, grande amor (7th place, 71 points)
15. The Netherlands: Maggie MacNeal - Amsterdam (5th place, 93 points)
16. France: Profil - Hé, hé, m'sieurs dames (11th place, 45 points)
17. Ireland: Johnny Logan - What's another year (1st place, 143 points)
18. Spain: Trigo Limpio - Quédate esta noche (12th place, 38 points)
19. Belgium: Telex - Euro-Vison (17th place, 14 points)

Maggie MacNeal

The Eurovision Song Contest 1980 was the 25th Eurovision Song Contest and was held on April 19, 1980 in The Hague. The presenter was Marlous Fluitsma, although each song was introduced by a presenter from the nation represented. In some cases, this was the same person providing the commentary. 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.

Format

Israel, winner 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 decided not to participate at all. 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. The same arena in The Hague used for 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. For the first time since 1977 and 1978, there were no filmed postcards between the songs, with a guest presenter from each nation introducing the entries. NOS spent just US$725,000 on the project.

Anna Vissi & the Epikouri

Participating countries

Morocco joined the Eurovision family for the first (and so far only) time. It is rumoured that they were only brought in to replace Israel.

Monaco withdrew, and would not return until the 2004 semi final.

Voting

Each country had a jury who awarded 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 points 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.

Australian-born Johnny Logan, representing Ireland, was the winner of this Eurovision with the song, What's Another Year which was wrtten by Shay Healy. This was Ireland's second time winning the competition, having won in 1970 with All Kinds of Everything.

Johnny Logan

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.

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.

Returning artists

Three artists returned to the contest this year. Katja Ebstein already represented Germany in 1970 and 1971, Maggie MacNeal represented the Netherlands in 1974 as a member of the duo Mouth and MacNeal and Paola represented Switzerland in 1969.