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The Eurovision Song Contest 1978 was the 23rd edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Paris, France, following the country's victory at the 1977 contest with the song "L'oiseau et l'enfant" by Marie Myriam. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster Télévision Française 1 (TF1), the contest was held at the Palais des Congrès on 22 April 1978 and was hosted by French television presenters Denise Fabre and Léon Zitrone. This was the first time that more than one presenter had hosted the contest as well as the first to have a male presenter since 1956. In addition to hosting, the two presenters also served as commentators for France.

Eurovision Song Contest 1978
Dates
Final	22 April 1978
Host
Venue	Palais des Congrès Paris, France
Presenter(s)	Denise Fabre Léon Zitrone
Musical director	François Rauber
Directed by	Bernard Lion
Executive supervisor	Frank Naef
Host broadcaster	Télévision Française 1 (TF1)
Interval act	Stéphane Grappelli and Oscar Peterson Yehudi Menuhin Kenny Clarke Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen
Website	eurovision.tv/event/paris-1978
Participants
Number of entries	20
Debuting countries	None
Returning countries	Denmark  Turkey
Non-returning countries	None
Participation map      Participating countries     Countries that participated in the past but not in 1978
Vote
Voting system	Each country awarded 12, 10, 8-1 points to their 10 favourite songs
Nul points in final	Norway
Winning song	Israel "A-Ba-Ni-Bi"
1977 ← Eurovision Song Contest → 1979

Twenty countries participated, the highest number of competing countries in the history of the competition at the time. Denmark and Turkey both returned to the contest. Denmark had not participated since 1966, 12 years before.

The winner of the contest was Israel with the song "A-Ba-Ni-Bi" by Izhar Cohen & the Alphabeta. Although 'A-Ba-Ni-Bi' is the correct title, French television mistakenly captioned on screen the song title as 'Ah-Bah-Nee-Bee'. The winning entry was a love song sung in the Hebrew equivalent of Ubbi dubbi (the title is an expansion of the Hebrew word ani אני, meaning "I"). This was Israel's first Eurovision win, and it was also the first winning song to be performed in one of the Semitic languages. Furthermore, it was also the only winning song to be conducted by a woman, Nurit Hirsh. Norway finished last for the fifth time, gaining the first nul points after the new 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, featuring the artists making their way to the stage. They took a corridor, then an elevator. Leaving the lift, they were greeted by the previous participants and then made their entrances to the stage. The camera also made several shots of the audience, notably Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg.

The Swedish participant 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 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

Denmark returned to the competition after having been absent for twelve years, while Turkey did so after missing out two years.[1] This meant that, for the first time, the contest had twenty participating nations competing.

Conductors

Each performance had a conductor who directed the orchestra.[2][3]

Returning artists

This section does not cite any sources. (March 2020)

Artist	Country	Previous year(s)
Jean Vallée	Belgium	1970
Norbert Niedermeyer (as part of Springtime)	Austria	1972 (as part of The Milestones)
Ireen Sheer	Germany	1974 (for  Luxembourg)
Trio La la la (backings for José Vélez)	Spain	1968, 1970, 1971, 1975 (all years as backings)

Participants and results

R/O	Country	Artist	Song	Language[4][5]	Points	Place[6]
1	Ireland	Colm C. T. Wilkinson	"Born to Sing"	English	86	5
2	Norway	Jahn Teigen	"Mil etter mil"	Norwegian	0	20
3	Italy	Ricchi e Poveri	"Questo amore"	Italian	53	12
4	Finland	Seija Simola	"Anna rakkaudelle tilaisuus"	Finnish	2	18=
5	Portugal	Gemini	"Dai li dou"	Portuguese	5	17
6	France	Joël Prévost	"Il y aura toujours des violons"	French	119	3
7	Spain	José Vélez	"Bailemos un vals"	Spanish[lower-alpha 1]	65	9=
8	United Kingdom	Co-Co	"The Bad Old Days"	English	61	11
9	Switzerland	Carole Vinci	"Vivre"	French	65	9=
10	Belgium	Jean Vallée	"L'amour ça fait chanter la vie"	French	125	2
11	Netherlands	Harmony	"'t Is OK"	Dutch	37	13
12	Turkey	Nilüfer and Nazar	"Sevince"	Turkish	2	18=
13	Germany	Ireen Sheer	"Feuer"	German	84	6
14	Monaco	Caline and Olivier Toussaint	"Les jardins de Monaco"	French	107	4
15	Greece	Tania Tsanaklidou	"Charlie Chaplin" (Τσάρλυ Τσάπλιν)	Greek	66	8
16	Denmark	Mabel	"Boom Boom"	Danish	13	16
17	Luxembourg	Baccara	"Parlez-vous français ?"	French	73	7
18	Israel	Izhar Cohen and the Alphabeta	"A-Ba-Ni-Bi" (א-ב-ני-בי)	Hebrew	157	1
19	Austria	Springtime	"Mrs. Caroline Robinson"	German[lower-alpha 2]	14	15
20	Sweden	Björn Skifs	"Det blir alltid värre framåt natten"	Swedish	26	14

Detailed voting results

Detailed voting results[7][8]

		Total score	Ireland	Norway	Italy	Finland	Portugal	France	Spain	United Kingdom	Switzerland	Belgium	Netherlands	Turkey	Germany	Monaco	Greece	Denmark	Luxembourg	Israel	Austria	Sweden
Contestants	Ireland	86		12		3		5			7	10		10	5		10		10		6	8
	Norway	0
	Italy	53	10	6			1	4	8	6	1	1		1	2	8	2		3
	Finland	2		2
	Portugal	5			4				1
	France	119	6	3	10	2	2		5	8	6	8	6	4	10	5	8	8	1	5	12	10
	Spain	65				7					8	2	4	7		4	6	12	2	6	7
	United Kingdom	61	3				6	2	3		2	4	2	6	8	7	3		5	2	5	3
	Switzerland	65		5	1	1		7	4	2		7	8		6	2		3	8	1	10
	Belgium	125	12	7	6	6	4	12	2	12	10		5		3	12	12		7	7	4	4
	Netherlands	37			5					3					4	1		5	6	12		1
	Turkey	2		1						1
	Germany	84	1		3	12	7		10		3	5	7	8		10	7	1		3		7
	Monaco	107	4	4	7	8	5	1		10	5	6	10	5	7		4	10		8	1	12
	Greece	66	7		2	5	8	10	7		4							4	4	10	3	2
	Denmark	13						6					1							4	2
	Luxembourg	73	2		12		12		12	7		3	3	2		6	1	7				6
	Israel	157	8	8	8	10	10	8	6	5	12	12	12	12	12	3	5	6	12		8
	Austria	14					3							3	1			2				5
	Sweden	26	5	10		4		3		4

12 points

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

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

Spokespersons

This section needs additional citations for verification. (July 2021)

Listed below is 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.

Broadcasts

This section needs additional citations for verification. (July 2021)

Each national broadcaster also sent a commentator to the contest, in order to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language. In addition to the participating countries, the contest was also reportedly broadcast in Algeria, Iceland, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia and Yugoslavia, in Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland and the Soviet Union via Intervision, and in Hong Kong, Japan and the United Arab Emirates.[3]

Broadcasters and commentators in participating countries

Country	Broadcaster(s)	Commentator(s)	Ref(s)
Austria	FS2	Ernst Grissemann [de]
	Hitradio Ö3	Walter Richard Langer [de]
Belgium	RTBF1	French: Claude Delacroix
	BRT TV1	Dutch: Luc Appermont	[9]
	RTB La Première	French: Jacques Bauduin [fr]
	BRT Radio 1	Dutch: Nand Baert [nl] and Herwig Haes
Denmark	DR TV	Jørgen de Mylius
	DR P3	Kjeld Koplev [dk]
Finland	YLE TV1	Erkki Toivanen	[10]
	Rinnakkaisohjelma [fi]	TBC
France	TF1	Léon Zitrone and Denise Fabre
	France Inter	René Boyer [fr] and Michel Polac [fr]
Germany	Deutsches Fernsehen	Werner Veigel
	Deutschlandfunk/Bayern 2	Wolf Mittler
Greece	ERT	Mako Georgiadou [el]
	Proto Programma	Dimitris Konstantaras [el]
Ireland	RTÉ	Larry Gogan
	RTÉ Radio	Mike Murphy
Israel	Israeli Television	No commentator
Italy	Rete 2 and Rai Radio 2	Tullio Grazzini
Luxembourg	RTL Télé Luxembourg	Jacques Navadic
	RTL	André Torrent [fr]
Monaco	Télé Monte Carlo	José Sacré
Netherlands	Nederland 2	Willem Duys	[11]
	Hilversum 3	Jan van Veen [nl]
Norway	NRK	Bjørn Scheele
	NRK P1	Erik Heyerdahl [no]
Portugal	RTP1	Eládio Clímaco
	RDP Programa 1	Amadeu Meireles [pt]
Spain	TVE1	Miguel de los Santos [es]
Sweden	SR TV1	Ulf Elfving	[10]
	SR P3	Kent Finell
Switzerland	TV DRS[lower-alpha 3]	German: Theodor Haller [de]
	TSR	French: Georges Hardy [fr]	[12]
	TSI	Italian: Giovanni Bertini
	RSR 1	French: Robert Burnier	[13]
Turkey	Ankara Television	Bülend Özveren
	Radyo 3	Şebnem Savaşçı
United Kingdom	BBC1	Terry Wogan	[3][14]
	BBC Radio 2	Ray Moore	[3]

Broadcasters and commentators in non-participating countries

Country	Broadcaster(s)	Commentator(s)	Ref(s)
Hong Kong	TVB Jade (delayed broadcast on 23 April 1978)	Un­known	[15]
	TVB Pearl (delayed broadcast on 23 April 1978)	Un­known
Iceland	Sjónvarpið	Ragna Ragnars	[16]
Yugoslavia	TVB 2	Serbo-Croatian: Milovan Ilić
	TVZ 1	Serbo-Croatian: Oliver Mlakar
	TVL 1	Slovene: Tomaž Terček [sl]

Incidents

Israeli victory reactions

The Israeli 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,[17] later announcing that the Belgian entry (which finished second) was the winner.

See also

• OTI Festival 1978

Notes

References

External links

• Official website

На других языках

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- [en] Eurovision Song Contest 1978

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[ru] Евровидение-1978

Конкурс песни Евровидение 1978 — 23-й конкурс песни «Евровидение». Он прошёл 22 апреля 1978 года в Париже на сцене Дворца конгрессов («Palais des congrès de Paris»).

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