Eurovision Song Contest 1977

Eurovision Song Contest 1977
Dates
Final	7 May 1977
Host
Venue	Wembley Conference Centre London, United Kingdom
Presenter(s)	Angela Rippon
Musical director	Ronnie Hazlehurst
Directed by	Stewart Morris
Executive supervisor	Clifford Brown
Executive producer	Bill Cotton
Host broadcaster	British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
Website	eurovision.tv/event/london-1977
Participants
Number of entries	18
Debuting countries	None
Returning countries	Sweden
Non-returning countries	Yugoslavia
Participation map
Vote
Voting system	Each country awarded 12, 10, 8-1 points to their 10 favourite songs
Winning song	France " L'Oiseau et l'Enfant "
1976 ←  Eurovision Song Contest  → 1978

The Eurovision Song Contest 1977 was the 22nd edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in London, United Kingdom, following the country's victory at the 1976 contest with the song "Save Your Kisses for Me" by Brotherhood of Man. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), the contest was held at the Wembley Conference Centre on 7 May 1977, marking the first time the event took place in the month of May since the first contest in 1956. ^[1] The contest was directed by Stewart Morris and hosted by English journalist Angela Rippon. ^[2]

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

Wembley Conference Centre was chosen to host the contest. 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. ^[3]

Participating countries

Further information: List of countries in the Eurovision Song Contest

Tunisia was set to participate in the contest and had been drawn to participate in fourth place, but later withdrew. ^[1] Yugoslavia decided not to enter and would not return to the contest until 1981 due to bad results in the years prior, ^[4] while Sweden returned to the competition, having missed out the year before. ^[5] This made for eighteen participating nations.

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.

Participants of the Eurovision Song Contest 1977 ^{[6] [7] [8] [9]}

Country	Broadcaster	Artist	Song	Language	Songwriter(s)	Conductor
Austria	ORF	Schmetterlinge	"Boom Boom Boomerang"	German	Schurli Hernstadt E. Lukas Resetarits Willi Resetarits Herbert Zöchling-Tampier	Christian Kolonovits
Belgium	BRT	Dream Express	"A Million in One, Two, Three"	English	Luc Smets	Alyn Ainsworth
Finland	YLE	Monica Aspelund	"Lapponia"	Finnish	Monica Aspelund Aarno Raninen	Ossi Runne
France	TF1	Marie Myriam	" L'Oiseau et l'Enfant "	French	Jean-Paul Cara Joe Garcy	Raymond Donnez
Germany	HR [lower-alpha 1]	Silver Convention	"Telegram"	English	Sylvester Levay Michael Kunze	Ronnie Hazlehurst
Greece	ERT	Pascalis, Marianna, Robert and Bessy	"Mathema solfege" (Μάθημα σολφέζ)	Greek	Giorgos Hatzinasios Sevi Tiliakou	Giorgos Hatzinasios
Ireland	RTÉ	The Swarbriggs Plus Two	"It's Nice to Be in Love Again"	English	Jimmy Swarbrigg Tommy Swarbrigg	Noel Kelehan
Israel	IBA	Ilanit	"Ahava Hi Shir Lishnayim" (אהבה היא שיר לשניים)	Hebrew	Edna Peleg Eldad Shrem	Eldad Shrem
Italy	RAI	Mia Martini	"Libera"	Italian	Luigi Albertelli Salvatore Fabrizio	Maurizio Fabrizio
Luxembourg	CLT	Anne-Marie B	"Frère Jacques"	French	Guy Béart Pierre Cour	Johnny Arthey
Monaco	TMC	Michèle Torr	"Une petite française"	French	Jean Albertini Paul de Senneville Olivier Toussaint	Yvon Rioland
Netherlands	NOS	Heddy Lester	"De mallemolen"	Dutch	Frank Affolter Wim Hogenkamp	Harry van Hoof
Norway	NRK	Anita Skorgan	"Casanova"	Norwegian	Dag Nordtømme Svein Strugstad	Carsten Klouman
Portugal	RTP	Os Amigos	"Portugal no coração"	Portuguese	José Carlos Ary dos Santos Fernando Tordo	José Calvário
Spain	TVE	Micky	"Enséñame a cantar"	Spanish	Fernando Arbex	Rafael Ibarbia
Sweden	SR	Forbes	"Beatles"	Swedish	Sven-Olof Bagge Claes Bure	Anders Berglund
Switzerland	SRG SSR	Pepe Lienhard Band	"Swiss Lady"	German	Peter Reber	Peter Jacques
United Kingdom	BBC	Lynsey de Paul and Mike Moran	"Rock Bottom"	English	Mike Moran Lynsey de Paul	Ronnie Hazlehurst

Returning artists

Artist	Country	Previous year(s)
Michèle Torr	Monaco	1966 (for   Luxembourg )
Beatrix Neundlinger and Günter Grosslercher (as part of Schmetterlinge)	Austria	1972 (as part of Milestones)
Patricia Maessen, Bianca Maessen, and Stella Maessen (as part of Dream Express)	Belgium	1970 (for   Netherlands as Hearts of Soul)
Ilanit	Israel	1973
Fernando Tordo (as part of Os Amigos)	Portugal	1973
Paulo de Carvalho (as part of Os Amigos)	Portugal	1974
The Swarbriggs	Ireland	1975

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. As a result, this was the first Eurovision Song Contest to be staged in May since the inaugural edition. ^[1]

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. ^[11]

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 UK, 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.

Results of the Eurovision Song Contest 1977 ^[12]

R/O	Country	Artist	Song	Points	Place
1	Ireland	The Swarbriggs Plus Two	"It's Nice to Be in Love Again"	119	3
2	Monaco	Michèle Torr	"Une petite française"	96	4
3	Netherlands	Heddy Lester	"De mallemolen"	35	12
4	Austria	Schmetterlinge	"Boom Boom Boomerang"	11	17
5	Norway	Anita Skorgan	"Casanova"	18	14
6	Germany	Silver Convention	"Telegram"	55	8
7	Luxembourg	Anne-Marie B	"Frère Jacques"	17	16
8	Portugal	Os Amigos	"Portugal no coração"	18	14
9	United Kingdom	Lynsey de Paul and Mike Moran	"Rock Bottom"	121	2
10	Greece	Pascalis, Marianna, Robert and Bessy	"Mathema solfege"	92	5
11	Israel	Ilanit	"Ahava Hi Shir Lishnayim"	49	11
12	Switzerland	Pepe Lienhard Band	"Swiss Lady"	71	6
13	Sweden	Forbes	"Beatles"	2	18
14	Spain	Micky	"Enséñame a cantar"	52	9
15	Italy	Mia Martini	"Libera"	33	13
16	Finland	Monica Aspelund	"Lapponia"	50	10
17	Belgium	Dream Express	"A Million in One, Two, Three"	69	7
18	France	Marie Myriam	" L'Oiseau et l'Enfant "	136	1

Spokespersons

Each country nominated a spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for their respective country via telephone. Known spokespersons at the 1977 contest are listed below.

•  Sweden – Sven Lindahl ^[13]
•  United Kingdom – Colin Berry ^[7]

Detailed voting results

Detailed voting results ^{[14] [15]}

		Total score	Ireland	Monaco	Netherlands	Austria	Norway	Germany	Luxembourg	Portugal	United Kingdom	Greece	Israel	Switzerland	Sweden	Spain	Italy	Finland	Belgium	France
Contestants	Ireland	119		8	1	5	12	5	8	1	12	10	12	8	12	4	8		3	10
	Monaco	96	5			8	1	6	1	6	7	12	2	6	10	8	12	5	2	5
	Netherlands	35	3	3							1	1	1	7		1			10	8
	Austria	11		5			2					3						1
	Norway	18							3	2	2				1		5		5
	Germany	55	1	1	3	2			2	8	8	8	5		5	5	6			1
	Luxembourg	17	2													7		8
	Portugal	18		2	2			1						4			3			6
	United Kingdom	121		12	7	12	7	10	12	12			8		8	3	2	4	12	12
	Greece	92		10	10	4	4	4	6	10	5		3	1	7	12	1	6	6	3
	Israel	49	7	7	5	3	5							10	3	6			1	2
	Switzerland	71	6			10	10		5	4	4	6	4				4	10	8
	Sweden	2						2
	Spain	52			6	1		7	7		3	4		3			7	7	7
	Italy	33	8	6				3		3				2		2		2		7
	Finland	50	12		4	6	8					2	7	5	2					4
	Belgium	69	4		12		6	8	4	7	10	5	6		4			3
	France	136	10	4	8	7	3	12	10	5	6	7	10	12	6	10	10	12	4

12 points

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

N.	Contestant	Nation(s) giving 12 points
6	United Kingdom	Austria ,   Belgium ,   France ,   Luxembourg ,   Monaco ,   Portugal
4	Ireland	Israel ,   Norway ,   Sweden ,   United Kingdom
3	France	Finland ,   Germany ,    Switzerland
2	Monaco	Greece ,   Italy
1	Belgium	Netherlands
	Finland	Ireland
	Greece	Spain

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. ^[16]

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, and in Hong Kong. ^[7] Estimates for the global viewership ranged from 300 to 500 million viewers. ^{[17] [18] [3]}

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

Broadcasters and commentators in participating countries

Country	Broadcaster	Channel(s)	Commentator(s)	Ref(s)
Austria	ORF	FS1	Ernst Grissemann	[19] [20]
Belgium	BRT	TV1	Luc Appermont	[21] [22] [23]
		Radio 1
	RTB	RTB1		[21] [22] [24]
Finland	YLE	TV1		[25]
		Rinnakkaisohjelma  [ fi ]	Matti Paalosmaa  [ fi ]
France	TF1		Georges de Caunes	[24] [26]
Germany	ARD	Deutsches Fernsehen	Werner Veigel	[19] [22] [27]
Greece	ERT	ERT
Ireland	RTÉ	RTÉ	Mike Murphy	[28] [29]
		RTÉ Radio		[30]
Israel	IBA	Israeli Television		[31]
Italy	RAI	Rete Uno [lower-alpha 2]	Silvio Noto	[32]
Luxembourg	CLT	RTL Télé-Luxembourg		[24]
Monaco	Télé Monte-Carlo			[33]
Netherlands	NOS	Nederland 2	Ati Dijckmeester  [ nl ]	[22]
Norway	NRK	NRK Fjernsynet	John Andreassen	[34]
		NRK	Erik Heyerdahl  [ no ]
Portugal	RTP	I Programa		[35]
Spain	TVE	TVE 1	Miguel de los Santos  [ es ]	[36] [37]
Sweden	SR	TV1	Ulf Elfving	[13] [25] [34]
		SR P3	Ursula Richter  [ sv ] and Åke Strömmer
Switzerland	SRG SSR	TV DRS	Theodor Haller  [ de ]	[19] [26] [38] [39]
		TSR	Georges Hardy  [ fr ]
		TSI
		RSR 2	Robert Burnier
		RSI 2
United Kingdom	BBC	BBC1	Pete Murray	[7] [40]
		BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 2	Terry Wogan	[7] [41] [42]

Broadcasters and commentators in non-participating countries

Country	Broadcaster	Channel(s)	Commentator(s)	Ref(s)
Cyprus	CyBC	RIK		[43]
Denmark	DR	DR TV	Claus Toksvig	[44]
Hungary	MTV	MTV2 [lower-alpha 3]		[45]
Iceland	RÚV	Sjónvarpið [lower-alpha 4]		[46]
Yugoslavia	JRT	TV Ljubljana 1  [ sl ]		[47]
		TV Zagreb 1		[48]

See also

• OTI Festival 1977

Notes

1. On behalf of the German public broadcasting consortium ARD ^[10]
2. Delayed broadcast on 28 May 1977 at 20:40 CET (19:40 UTC) ^[32]
3. Delayed broadcast on 19 November 1977 at 21:30 CET (20:30 UTC) ^[45]
4. Delayed broadcast on 20 May 1977 at 21:30 WET (21:30 UTC) ^[46]

References

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43. "Τηλεοραση – Το πλήρες πρόγραμμα" [Television – The full programme]. Charavgi (in Greek). Nicosia, Cyprus. 7 May 1977. p. 4. Retrieved 4 March 2024– via Press and Information Office  [ el ].
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External links

• Official website