Eurovision 1979: A double, jeopardy | Song super cut and animated scoreboard

[@thereorderboard]

A few other things I couldn’t fit in the description: It’s well over a year ago now that I asked via a community poll whether I should cover all of the boards between 1957 and 1979…I'm sorry to the 9% who only wanted me to do 1975-79…it has been a long wait. I’m largely glad for the process to be over - I’ve found fitting these lengthy productions in to a busy work schedule difficult, so thank you for all your collective patience - essentially we were lucky with the amount of time I had in Part One - posting every week or every fortnight is just not sustainable with this level of detail. This production was helped once again by @mrsjdsworld’s newspaper research, and his write up of this board can be found here: euroscoreboards.wordpress.com/2021/08/21/jerusalem-1979/ @SvenskTV had another high quality version of this Contest, and that’s the basis for that - thanks to that him for his continued help. You’ll notice I’ve done a lengthy recap of some of the memorable bits from the Contest between 1957-79 - it’s a fascinating snapshot at how the Contest had evolved. I know some of you will question and want to debate the music choices - they represent some of my favourites, some relevant picks that add some contrast to the sequence and they try to avoid winners…particularly ones that have copyright issues. I could have perhaps added some more of the boards (every design is featured) but it’s tough going through all 22 sequences to find the gems - hopefully I’ve got the obvious ones. It ends with some credits that hopefully go some way to say ‘thank you’ for all those who’ve helped me in this journey. Certainly 1969’s ‘Due grosse lacrime bianche’ is probably my favourite, if I had to pushed to name one. Remember, the channel isn’t going anywhere, and I’d like to also create some infographics etc over on Twitter too, @thereorderboard. Ko-fi will be a lot quieter as a I focus on more short form bits. I do intend to re-do some of the boards from part one, where I didn’t really apply so much detail. The crucial factor is also the quality of the footage I have - I’ve also had some revisions I’d like to do on the designs. I probably wouldn’t touch anything after 1991. I already started thinking that 1980 could be re-done using this 1979 design as a base. First of all, possible errata for 1979. The name of the venue. Throughout the production it’s always been a fear that something on top of the board is wrong all the way through. This time I let it happen. I’m unsure exactly when ‘Binyenei HaUma’, as it is commonly known, changed to the International Convention Center. I know no-one raised in my 1999 video. It’s one of those things, with Wikipedia listing it as the modern name there’s a balance between people saying ‘you got the name wrong’ because Wiki goes with the venue’s current name or going with the flow. I’m constantly surprised by flag comments…I never know what’s the best course to take! All of the newspapers certainly call it Binyenei HaUma - so I perhaps should have gone with that…at least it’s not on the screen all the time in this design. A bit of chatter on Twitter a few months ago about whether the song lower thirds in 1979 were computerised. A tough phrase to use. The typeface suggests that a computer was involved, to print the cards I think (which are then luma keyed on, usually some sort of mechanics are used to perform the wipe on that we see…essentially the vision mixer then removes the white of the card and replaces it with the live pictures, leaving just the text). I don’t think they were electronically rendered live in the way that graphics generators in the 80s (mainly Paintbox) did. In fact, during the Israeli reprise, you might notice the screen go yellow just after one of these lower thirds…confirmation they were making the text yellow through chroma keying. Character generation via computer were around at the BBC from the early 1970s - in the BBC’s case they were used for elections and some sports I think - essentially an expensive bit of kit. I mention the BBC because it wasn’t an off-the-shelf product, it was engineered in-house. I’d be very surprised if the IBA had the same technology and then decided to use it in this production, however I’m open for any information if you find it!

[@thereorderboard]

A further factor was the IBA’s youth as a broadcaster, and as our commentator mentioned, the infancy of colour television in Israel. Television had a rough start in the new state with the government preferring radio. Sheer geography really pushed the Israeli government into doing something, as Arab broadcasts were making it into the country and Israelis were watching foreign broadcasts in cafés etc. By 1965 the IBA was created to wrestle the running of the single radio station away from direct government control. In 1966 education broadcasts were on air and regular public transmissions started in May 1968- relatively late compared to other EBU members. You may note the date - roughly when colour television was around and so the IBA’s regular television services only existed in the colour television era. The Israeli government were very conservative about the move and made a number of false steps - there was calls that Israeli/Jewish culture might be undermined, and that the economy couldn’t support its citizens buying expensive colour sets. Instead of investing in Israeli programming though, often the IBA were broadcasting programming filmed in colour elsewhere. This led to the government ordering the colour signal to be removed from the pictures on transmission via the eraser, or ‘mechikon’. Despite the footage being sent out in colour, the signal would be confused so the TV wouldn’t know to how to apply the colour signal…thus rendering black and white images only. Despite aiming to save Israeli’s money so they didn’t have to buy expensive sets, a few decided to buy a piece of kit that then reinstated the colour signal…the only problem was the viewer had to turn the knob to adjust the colours every fifteen minutes. There were also strong arguments about how much energy a colour set used compared to a black and white one. The main problem with the mechikon was that it was saving no-one any money in reality, the IBA were buying programmes in colour, the consumers were investing in colour sets and then sometimes an extra piece of kit to reinstate the colour signal. The visit of Egyptian Present Anwar El Sadat in 1977 and then the Eurovision Song Contest were sanctioned by the government and a full colour service started, belatedly, between 1981-83. Obviously it goes without saying that safety around the Contest in Jerusalem was paramount - and I’m drawn to the quote I mentioned in the Irish newspapers that said ‘don’t worry about security - we [the Israelis] invented it’. It certainly makes up the bulk of the conductors and contestant stories, as told on andtheconductoris.eu: Guy Matteoni (andtheconductoris.eu) for France: Guy Matteoni has one particular memory of the week in Israel. “One day, I went on an excursion to Masada and the Dead Sea with some members of the French delegation. We left early in the morning, knowing we had to be back late in the afternoon for a rehearsal with Anne-Marie and the orchestra. We were accompanied by a guide and had a magnificent day out. We travelled back through the occupied West Bank territories, but had forgotten about all road blocks where Israeli soldiers were checking on everyone passing by! It took us far longer to get back to Jerusalem than we had anticipated… and to cut a long story short, I was late for the rehearsal. We were not that much late - ten or fifteen minutes - and therefore the organisation turned a blind eye and let us go ahead. Because there was no time to change, I conducted the orchestra dressed in shorts… and with the skin of my face red and burning! Afterwards, I was told we were lucky - the EBU could have disqualified our song because of our making a mess of the rehearsing schedule. Anne-Marie, who was totally determined to win the competition, was beside herself with anger… how could I have let her wait? Her anger became even more impressive during the voting when it transpired France would not win. While the votes were coming in, she was tense to the point of emotional breakdown.”

[@thereorderboard]

The BBC were the only delegation to visit the Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem, having been the only ones to ask. Flowers from the US President, the Egyptian President and the retailers Marks & Spencer were joined with those officially from the BBC after Tony James, a manager in the Light Entertainment department asked whether anyone could lay flowers. Kobi Oshrat has a fascinating recollection of how Hallelujah got to be the winning song (via andtheconductoris.eu). You might know that a group called Habibi were offered the song and were on the brink of performing it in Tel Aviv in 1978. When the concert came, the director of the show had to remove one song from the set list in order to keep to show timings, and so removed Hallelujah. Had the group performed it, it would have been ineligible for the Israeli selection show in 1979. Oshrat now had a song in the 1979 selection show, but no group. Kobi reluctantly withdrew the entry but at the same time Shalom Zach and Gali Atari came to the same TV producer that had accepted Hallelujah’s withdrawal…Atari’s problem was she had no song. Inevitably the song and Atari were married together and three unknown guys (Samuel Bilu, Reuven Gvritz, and Yehuda Tamir) were picked to try and match the vocal qualities of Habibi (who consequently went to Dublin 1981). Milk & Honey’s follow up single ‘Goodbye New York’ failed and Atari then left the group. In 1981 and 1989 Milk & Honey attempted to get to Dublin and Lausanne respectively. Two members of the group went on to support Yardena Arazi (the presenter) in her spookily unsuccessful attempt at winning in 1988. Elsewhere in the Contest I think this was a fine collection of songs - the main weakness in the running order was having Sweden and Norway next to each other I think. Denmark proved an early ear-worm with a noteworthy Debbie Cameron in the vocal group (a pre-lude to Krøller eller ej in 1981) and I found it interesting that some thought it was a favourite for the title in the rehearsals. Some other strong entries were Greece, Germany, France and Spain to my mind. Full on novelty with Peter, Sue and Marc. Dschinghis Khan is obviously a cult hit by Ralph Siegel and Bernd Meinunger and perhaps heralds Germany’s dominant 80s period - a fourth place for the German represented their best result since their run of Third places in 1970-72 although the really successful period would come from 1980-7, with one result outside the top 10 in 1984. Ireland seemed to punch above this song’s weight in my opinion, considering it’s early running order position it may well done even better had it been in the second half. Anne-Marie David provided the goods I thought, although I’m not sure about the song by itself - I think she could have taken the trophy had it been another song. And Xandra from The Netherlands seems to be looking to the crystal ball of the 1980s with her dress and American influences - we of course see more of those in the next decade. Anita Skorgan sang a lovely song too, one which could have done very well at the beginning of the decade I think. I can’t quite understand how Spain did so well to be honest, Betty Missiego’s understated style seemed like a unlikely contender (obviously there were some great optics with the banners and children at the end, and it was a strong vocal performance) but this isn’t a Spanish entry that gets the heart racing, as Spanish songs can. I’m lucky I didn’t just tune into the first rounds of voting in 1979 and decide to go to bed! Their climb up the board from round 7 is a remarkable watch. I actually really liked Italy, and have perhaps selected a part of the song that I think sounds ok? As you can see, Italy were at the top of the UK’s betting odds, possibly based on some comments from Terry Wogan and that the song was well known in Italy itself. It earns a place in the record book for being the first entry to not use any of the orchestra and to just have a backing track. John Kennedy O’Connor writes that the group gave the worst performance of the night, if not ever in the Contest - the two lead signers hitting a bad note in the beginning and they never recovered. The juries certainly agreed.

[@thereorderboard]

There was plenty going on in the UK selection this year, with 603 songs submitted the final of ‘A Song For Europe’ was announced for 8th March. Unfortunately a rigger-driver had allegedly involved in an ‘incident’ outside the BBC Club (a staff social organisation) where his boss was hospitalised. The driver was sacked, his workmates unofficially went on strike. Unlike in 1977 though, where the show was hastily broadcast on radio, this edition of ASfE was cancelled completely, at around 5:55pm that night (it was due on air, from the Royal Albert Hall at 7:20pm). Most notably, the Irish girl group The Nolans were performing Song 11, with a number called ‘Harry My Honolulu Lover’. The Nolans had been on the circuit for while and performed on high profile shows like ‘The Two Ronnies’ and ‘It’s Cliff Richard’. In 1975 they had supported Frank Sinatra on tour. Interestingly (and all this is from Gordon Roxburgh’s book, vol 2), the Nolan’s had been pre-booked for the 25th anniversary of the Eurovision Network show (you’ll hear John Dunn promoting it during the video) - this maybe suggested they were expected to win. As the show was blacked out, the various juries dotted around the UK continued their process, obviously without the live show to go on, but from tapes. The composer of the Nolan’s song, who had performed as a singer on ‘The Bad Old Days’ with CoCo the year before admitted the the Honolulu song was beaten by the much stronger ‘Mary Ann’, although the Nolans did have a dance routine that needed to be seen. Black Lace and the third group to sing, Ipswich, had never performed on television before (but remember getting on television in 3-channel Britain was quite a feat). ‘Mary Ann’ had been received positively by EMI but it seems their victory in ASfE was a bit of a surprise. In the weeks following the non-show, this song made it to number 42 in the charts, one of the lowest of any UK entries to date. Of course, the Nolans would have their big hit in 1979 with ‘I’m In the Mood for Dancing’ and as I mentioned above Black Lace, with a few changes in line up went on to have novelty hits with ‘Agadoo’ in 1984, ‘Superman’ in 1983 and 1984’s ‘Do The Conga’, of course a school disco favourite of mine ‘I Am the Music Man’ (1989). … It’s no surprise that a song which missed out on its television debut failed to chart so highly - Wogan was pretty blunt in saying he though it was unlikely they could win. Although the scoring in Jerusalem initially looked positive, I noticed John Dunn mentioned ‘it was their best performance so far’, words which don’t conjure much optimism. The UK received 60% of its final points total in the first 9 rounds, and a devastating run of 4 juries completely ignoring ‘Mary Ann’ meant the UK returned to the top 10, but too convincingly. Alan Barton, the lead singer we see in ‘Mary Ann’ went on to replace a member of a band called Smokie in 1986, recording 6 albums including a revival of their hit ‘Living Next Door to Alice’. Barton died tragically in 1995, aged 41, when Smokie’s tour bus crashed in a hailstorm in Cologne. Although the UK’s selection was fraught Brussels were also having problems. This was the final year that long time Belgian composer Francis Bay went to Eurovision (remember the Flanders broadcaster, BRT (called VRT since 1998) organised every other year). For the first time in 10 years a singer was found to go to Jerusalem but the selection show had to pick the song. Micha Marah was looking forward to performing ‘Comment ça va’ - an upbeat disco number - however the expert committee (which acted as the final jury, the others being public juries) picked ‘Hey nana’. Micha was not happy, nor was Francis Bay. Francis attempted to claim some plagiarism with the song as it reminded him of something he’d heard at the BBC’s 50th anniversary (which is a good time to mention since the day I am posting this is the BBC’s 100th birthday). Unfortunately the song wasn’t deemed to have been plagiarised and a very unhappy delegation went to Jerusalem - endless squabbling meant that many felt they would come last and they weren’t wrong - the UK, Germany and Denmark awarded low marks to Belgium who finished joint-last officially and fully last on ‘the reorder board’ count back on account of Austria having received a 4 from Italy. Here’s some other notes from andtheconductoris.eu : Norbert Daum for GERMANY on: “Jerusalem was my first Grand Prix and possibly also the best experience for me personally”, Daum revels. “It was obvious the Israelis loved music. The orchestra there was superb. The music which was played at the beginning of the programme and during the interval between the songs and the voting was fantastic. The orchestra musicians did not have any inhibitions about playing pop music. They even specifically asked me if they could keep my arrangement for their own use. There was no issue with us Germans coming to Israel, quite the opposite - our song was a big hit in Israel. When we went on an excursion to the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem’s city centre, you could hear the people in the street whispering to one another behind our backs: “Look, Dschinghis Khan, Dschinghis Khan!”.

[@thereorderboard]

Daum (GERMANY) continues (andtheconductoris.eu): “The Israeli stage crew gave me a peculiar instruction before I went on stage. They asked me to take as long as I could, as a lot of time was needed to clear up the stage for Dschinghis Khan (the Swiss act which had performed before Dschinghis Khan had an enormous amount of props on stage which needed to be cleared away, BT). Therefore, I slowly walked to the conductor’s platform, shaking hands with the concertmaster and making a typical Austrian bow, which involves moving the entire upper part of the body forward to receive the applause of the audience. Perhaps it looked as if I wanted to draw attention to myself as long as possible, but, as you see, there was another reason! Like all other delegates to the 1979 Eurovision Song Contest, Daum mentions the amount of security in place in Israel to prevent terrorists from endangering the participants’ lives: “Everywhere in the streets of Jerusalem, safety officers conducted checks on people. In our hotel, we were told never to leave our luggage unattended and to report each piece of baggage which had been left alone. In another hotel, where Yehudi Menuhin stayed, a bomb exploded - luckily without hurting anyone. On the roof of the concert hall where the contest took place, anti-missile defence was put in place. On the bus back to the airport the day after the contest, something happened… an explosion! After a week full of security checks, we had all become slightly over-sensitive and it is fair to say that this bus full of Eurovision delegates panicked. It turned out, though, that the only thing which had happened was that one of the tyres had burst! The truth was that the Israelis had taken extremely good care of us all week - we could not have been in safer hands.” Proinnsías Ó Duinn for IRELAND (andthecondutoris.eu) The thing was: Noel Kelehan hated flying. The mere thought of having to travel from Dublin all the way to Israel was a nightmare for him. Moreover, he was very nervous about going to Israel - and frankly, he did not want to go there. He was afraid something would happen. At that time, the Troubles in Northern Ireland were going on and Noel never went to Ulster either. I did - I used to work regularly with the BBC orchestra up in Northern Ireland. In my innocence, I used to go everywhere. Of course, I was never silly and always minded where I went, but… I was not nervous. Noel must have told Kevin about his reservations and that is why they thought of me as his replacement to accompany Cathal to Jerusalem - and that is how I did Eurovision.” “Cathal turned out to be a very nice guy. He was brilliant, a pianist who wrote his own music. It was not until later, when he left for the United States, that he made a career for himself. He never really made it in Ireland. For Proinnsías Ó Duinn, it was his first visit to the Holy Land. What does he remember of his stay in Jerusalem? “First of all, the concert hall was very close to the Hilton Hotel where we were staying. Like on other occasions when I was an official representative of RTÉ, such as the Nordring Festival, I made a point of staying in close proximity to the venue. I was focusing on doing my job for Ireland in the best way possible. It was not until returning to Israel on another occasion for a symphony concert that I took the opportunity to stay for some more days to tour around a little. In 1979, however, the Irish delegation did not go on any tours outside Jerusalem. The farthest away from the hotel we strayed was on the Friday evening after sunset, when we had to get to the Arab quarters of Jerusalem to get hot food due to the Jews observing their Sabbath. I did not go to rehearsals of any of the other participants either. I never do that; doing that can put you off in what you are doing yourself. I do not know if the frosty diplomatic relations between Ireland and Israel had anything to do with our delegation not doing any sightseeing during the rehearsal week. I have never been a political animal and would not have been aware of the temperature of official relations between the two countries at that time.” After that, on a show like Eurovision, one is at the mercy of sound engineers… and, in Jerusalem, the technicians were both discreet and good at their job. When listening to the television recording of Cathal’s Eurovision performance, you can clearly hear the quieter woodwind phrases, for example. In a show like the Eurovision Song Contest, it is an enormous challenge for the engineers to get the sound right with so many different combinations of instruments, and so many demands with each act. The recording of the 1979 Contest proves the Israeli sound technicians did a wonderful job.” - Richard Oesterreicher for AUSTRIA (andtheconductoris.eu) Did Richard Oesterreicher believe going to Eurovision which such a complicated song could be successful? “It was a really beautiful song and the members of the orchestra in Jerusalem voted it their personal winner; however, I felt it was slightly pushy to come to Israel and sing a song about Jerusalem. Of course, with his Jewish background, André Heller felt strongly about the subject, but I wondered if the lyrics would not work against us rather than in our favour. For me personally, it was a special experience to do a gig in Israel. I had never been there before. Security measures were strict; outside my seventh-floor hotel room, a soldier with a machine gun was walking up and down the corridor all day. Having said that, the local organisation was perfect, the orchestra was really good, and the country itself was absolutely wonderful.” I like John Dunn’s commentary after feeling initially it was lacklustre…this was mainly because he didn’t talk over the postcards which made it sound that he didn’t have much to say…on closer inspection there was plenty of rich detail from his commentary and he certainly did his research. I like the touches about reminding viewers about Match of the Day, the UK’s football highlights programme on a Saturday night - remember that in the early 1960s (I think), the reprise of the winning song was not shown in the UK because the Contest was overrunning and Match of the Day took precedence - not so in 1979, some 19.2 million were watching by 10pm (an hour in). You’ll notice I’ve put television commentary in brackets in the main description - this is one of those where John Dunn is listed on Wikipedia as a radio commentator in 1966 but I can’t find anything on the Radio Times archive that suggests BBC Radio even covered it. Once I have some time I may well tidy up that Wiki table!

[@thereorderboard]

A couple of other notes: This is the last year of non-ascending voting - perhaps precipitated by Frank Naef’s team being unable to correctly account for the votes and I know broadcasters had suggested the move too. Monaco wouldn’t appear in the Eurovision Song Contest again until 2004-6, where it failed to qualify for the Grand Final. Monaco had an interesting journey in the Contest really, acting mainly as an overflow for French artists - it finished in last place on its debut in 1959 but achieved a second and two third place finishes between 1960 and 1964. It’s win in 1971 and failure to organise the 1972 Contest meant that perhaps the EBU were planning for Monaco to host when someone else couldn’t - an eventuality that would come up quite quickly. I count only 5 occasions out of 21 Contests where the principality didn’t finish in the top 10. ‘Notre vie c’est la musique’ was their lowest finish since 1972 (also 16th), but their lowest placing was in 1966 when ‘Bien plus fort’ finished 17th with nil points. I thought it was worth noting that the postcards weren’t all plain sailing, with there being some confusion in Israel about what Guinness was…one of the Irish newspapers mentions that the Irish delegation pointed out that ‘Guinness’ was a product, not the name of a pub. Guinness…Ireland…St Patrick’s Day…March…yes, mainly due to the fiasco that was organising Eurovision #25, this is the last time the Contest will be held in March. The Contest then seemed to move to early April in the early 1980s until the first May edition in 1984 where it stayed and eventually started to creep to the middle weekends in May, as we know. Here’s a look at other events going on in 1979: ABBA kick off the ‘International Year of the Child’ - they wrote Chiquitita to commemorate the event. This is of course the year of the Iranian Revolution, most of which starting appearing in the news in the first few months of 79, culminating on 10-11 February. On 1 March there’s a Scottish Devolution referendum, but whilst Scotland votes for a Scottish Assembly it doesn’t meet the threshold of 40% the electorate supporting the proposal - the idea of a Welsh Assembly fails. Devolution in the UK is put on the back-burner as it’s a Labour policy which isn’t then implemented for another 20 years. On the same say Philips, the Dutch electronics firm public demonstrate what we’d all call a ‘CD’ for the first time. As covered above, a peace treaty between Egypt and Israel is signed on March 26th in a ceremony at the White House. A few days before Eurovision, James Callaghan’s Labour govt lost a confidence vote by 1, forcing a general election which is scheduled for 3 May. On the same date, the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant accident occurs. On the same day as Eurovision, the last British soldier leaves Malta, ending 179 years of presence. 1 April, Nickelodeon launches in New York. 1 May, Greenland is granted autonomy within Denmark. 3 May, Margaret Thatcher becomes Prime Minister - she would see out the entirety of the 1980s in office. On 7 June, the first direct elections to the European Parliament begin, it is the first international election in history. 15 June, McDonald’s launch the Happy Meal in the US. On 22 June ‘The Muppet Movie’ is released, and the leader of the third party in the UK, Jeremy Thorpe is acquitted of a conspiracy to murder Norman Scott, who had accused Thorpe of having a relationship with him - this largely damaged the Liberal’s 79 campaign of course and there’s a great drama with Hugh Grant about it on the BBC. 1 July, Sony launch the Walkman. On 16 July, Saddam Hussein (or Saddam al-Tikriti) becomes president of Iraq. 10 August, Michael Jackson releases his Off the Wall album, selling 7 million copies in the US alone. 27 August, Lord Mountbatten of Burma is killed by the IRA. 7 September, ‘Entertainment Sports Programming Network’ or ESPN launches in the US. 16 October, there’s a tsunami in Nice…it kills 23 people. 4 November, the Iran hostage crisis begins, where 52 US diplomats and citizens were held hostage in the US embassy in Tehran - the standoff between President Carter in the US and Tehran would play a major role in the 1980 Presidential election. On 24 December, the USSR covertly launches an invasion of Afghanistan, destabilising the world initially and having wide-spread effects in East-West relations during the 1980s.

[@bastianl9163]

The Spanish people must've been very upset when they saw that their jurors self sabotaged their country without wanting to.

[@luukjoling1]

The Netherlands had such a fresh and 80´s performance, I was shocked!

[@inezfeytons1764]

Ik ook mijn favoriet nummer uit dat jaar

[@ariccua6101]

My surprise, they also voted in French for probably the only time.

[@sebastiancasale-gn8gp]

Let’s not forget ESC 1977 Switzerland 🇨🇭 their outfits may have not have came from the 80’s but their song did 😊❤

[@pointlessnostalgic78]

Thereorderboard will always remain as a pure act of love towards the contest and their fans in a very difficult time for all of us. Thank you so much David.

[@Starfilter1]

IBA give us a great show this year with a simple but well designed set, great camerawork (and good use of the shoulder mounted camera). The tracking shot through the audience used for Portugal and Finland is a highlight, although it's strange that it isn't used more often. The director deserves special credit for using his star filters so well during the Greek song!

[@harold-thedutchguy]

One of my favorite contests ever, very well hosted and so many good vibes in the venue that night. Awesome how the audience shows their love for their favorite performances by clapping and cheering extra long. So many great songs and one of the most exciting voting sequences ever. Thank you so much for all the work you put in. It's much appreciated 😄

[@carroesg6]

The last part of the voting is still funny to me, I don't think I've seen a jury take away their own country's win at the very last second like that before lmao Wondering what the channel will bring after this!

[@kulera]

Wow the late 70s were really good years and I love John Dunns commentary! He actually gave really interesting facts about the contest and took the show as it is unlike Wogan that always pointed out every flaw of the show.

[@Starfilter1]

Ah! The end of an era. Thanks David for a labour of love - I've certainly loved watching them!

[@jamesmt142]

This is a really good production by 1979 standards, but massively over-ran - I think this was the longest-running show by this point, a record the IBA/KAN reclaimed in both 1999 and 2019. Italy however have since broken the record - by mere seconds! There'll be none of this from Auntie next year, if the BBC know how to do one thing it's run a show to time. I have to say that having been to Lisbon, Tel Aviv and Turin in recent years, Tel Aviv was by far and away the best Eurovision I've done "on the ground" - they made everyone feel exceptionally welcome and the fringe events were fantastic, with the city even laying on special buses between the Eurovillage and the venue for the Jury Final on the night of Shabbat. A fantastic little touch. Liverpool could learn a lot from how the Israelis did it.

[@ariccua6101]

01:42:55 "We hope to meet you again next year in Jerusalem." But as Assi Azar in 2019 would say... "But in the end, they didn't."

[@יובלקונסקר]

big fan of the songs from the 1979 eurovision song contest

[@salvadormorenosancho5154]

Your job was amazing! Thank you for everything , and specially for entertaining us during covid-war times. I enjoyed it a lot!

[@salvadormorenosancho5154]

PD: Spain should have won this Contest! :(((((

[@jezt42]

The end of an era, but what an era! Thank you for ALL of your hard work, it’s been very much appreciated - not only for helping us keep our sanity during lockdown with the supercuts and ReorderBoard designs, but for collating all that lovely Eurovision info as well. The retrospective at the end was lovely and it was quite emotional to watch! 😊 I look forward to what else you do in the future: maybe highlighting themes running through various contests? 👍🙂

[@thereorderboard]

Sorry this reply is so late - but thank for you for all the kind comments through this part!

[@dragancooler4115]

No wonder I turned out to be such ESC super fan when I was born the year such anthemic ESC song won in 1979 :) Dear owner of this channel :), It is good time now, at the end of your re-order series, to point out that these re-order videos and this whole project of yours was groundbraking, marvellous and truly admiring work you've done. I believe I may speak in the name of all fans, we are grateful for such encyclopedic and factful yet very interesting videos. I've enjoyed every one of them. You've made a history! Thank you 👍 :)

[@sebastiancasale-gn8gp]

“Well Vienna, what are you doing here?!”

[@MiroHeinonen]

Te Deum arrangement used in this contest was later regularly used in almost all Eurovision broadcasts from 1994 to 2008 (in the case of ESC, the only exceptions were 2003 and 2005). This arrangement was also used in ESC 1992 during the old 50s Eurovision title card era.

[@AlmostDon]

Im so grateful that you decided to do this. It's so sad you finished (although you might well be relieved). Thanks again!

[@nadirhajjour]

Thank you so much for everything. GONNA MISS LOOKING FORWARD TO YOUR VIDEOS. Hope you will make more Eurovision related videos

[@toxr280]

Thank you so much for the wonderful work you've done all these two years! Even if I call myself a eurofan, I explored the contest more deeply with you. Songs and artists I didn't know existed. I enjoyed every second of your videos! As for the Greek song, Sokratis, it is extremely popular here in Greece. Everybody knows it, plus I do believe that it's one of the most recognizable songs of Eurovision. Cheers!

[@thereorderboard]

Thank you Tox R - I'm so glad you've been able to branch into proper Euro-nerdiness with the channel...I'm on the same journey!

[@stevenmurphy2551]

Thank you for everything ❤️👍🏻

[@seanl2403]

As always, thank you for all the hard work you do!

[@Pedro_GS]

I really loved the final recap! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 And the choice of Italy 1969 was simply 😍😍😍 Good job on 79 and thanks for having embarked on this beautiful project. Let's hope to hear from you soon 😊 Greetings from Spain! 👋🏻

[@EldaMengisto]

Congratulations on finishing part deux of this project! You managed to do a good job in making these boards and telling the stories of these vintage contests. Plus, I like how you adjusted to the different voting systems and various circumstances (for this board, it's a bit minimalistic, but I like the switch to Hebrew when the points are rewarded!). What was the biggest takeaway you got from this project? 1979 was a pretty solid way to end the decade! Not only are the songs quite strong (along with a few classics), but also the production had its own charms. Seeing the voting, I'm surprised the UK started off quite well, and Spain almost had it a few times! My top ten: 1 pt: Bel 2 pt: Sui 3 pt: Gre 4 pt: Ned 5 pt: Swe 6 pt: Isr 7 pt: Ger 8 pt: Denmark -- Disco Tango is an interesting melange of genres, but they are mixed together well and is quite playful! I like the orchestration for this one in particular; it ups the tension of the song. 10 pt: Finland -- Katson sineen taivann was my winner until recently; it builds up great and has a great arc throughout the three minutes. I like how Katri-Helena sings it and the orchestration helps out a lot. I thought it should've done better--it's too good to be neglected! 12 pt: France -- Je suis l'enfant soleil tells a compelling story, and Anne-Marie David sings it fantastically. She adds a bit more drama than needed, sure, but I'm hanging onto her every word as she glides us through this tragic romance. Instrumentally, it's summery, but still painful, which the orchestra helps with. Such a great song!

[@thereorderboard]

Thank you so much for your thoughful comments throughout the part and apologies it's taken me a while to reply. I think I just wanted to put this in a box and move on! I think KZbin crunching has practically removed my background, which is a shame - my gut feeling was to make it stronger but it looked fine pre-KZbin! I think I've really enjoyed the editing mainly, and hearing a lot of the songs for the first time. I made the choice to subtitle the lyrics because I felt the chanson era would be too dense for people to engage with, and I hope doing that has uncovered some nice, and some odd lyrics. The viewing figures suggest around half the audience of the 1980s/1990s boards have decided to travel back - which is expected. The biggest challenge for me was 1971-73 I think, but I loved overcoming it and visualising it in an entirely new way. By the time I got to the epic 76-79 contests, I feel I've achieved most of what I wanted technically from the boards themselves. Ready for new challenges!

[@luukjoling1]

David!! Thank you so much for your hours and hours of entertainment, the effort of editing but especially the notes and information you dropped during the last few years have been enormous. Besides bringing me so much joy it also solidified my love for Eurovision, it was already there but it´s history is amazing and you´ve made me feel part of that in a way reading Wikipedia would never show. The backgrounds, changes and innovations have been amazing and I will cannot wait what you will do in the future with this channel and your talents!!

[@thereorderboard]

Thank you Luuk - we've both solidified our love for Eurovision during this project! Thank you for your support and your comments, it's much appreciated!

[@David.Lee-CM-THAI]

Glad to see it back after it was taken down... Thanks

[@JeSuisRene]

In the words of Wogan, good man yourself. You’ve done a fine job over the last two years.

[@SATRAP89]

Thank you for your extraordinary work

[@idankingon]

Just see that after 6 votes Spain was in 13th place, far behind, everybody thought it will be between Israel/UK/Germany, nobody would know what is gonna be at the end...

[@Starfilter1]

Watching this has reminded me just what a consistently high standard of songs there were in 1979. Only Switzerland and Austria really don't work for me, although the UK and Ireland are well below par. I'm very happy with the Israel/Spain/France/Germany top four, and I think Italy, Monaco and Belgium all deserve a bit more love than they usually get.

[@ΙΩΑΝΝΗΣΖΑΒΛΑΓΚΑΣ]

Amazing epic work!! Thank you so much🎉👏🏻🍾🥂

[@JeSuisRene]

Also, I think this is the last year where more spokespeople gave their votes in French. Probably helped by Austria and Netherlands(!) giving their votes in French. Of note is that Flanders would only once more announce their votes in French, for RTBF’s hosting in Belgium in 1987.

[@berniedu7185]

I have to say that the Dutch spokesperson speak French very well. No accent !

[@JeSuisRene]

@@berniedu7185 Apparently the Dutch spokesperson studied French at university.

[@berniedu7185]

@@JeSuisRene 👍here’s the answer. Thank you.

[@mayamills5174]

Thank you so much David for the exquisite work. It was informative and entertaining, and so beautifully made with such attention to detail, wit and talent. Thanks again and all the best ❤

[@danieljano88]

Thank you very much for such a wonderful job!!

[@DirkthePanda]

Thank you for all your hard work. It's sad to see that this chapter of your content is over, but it was a great journey. I wonder what's next in the future...

[@andreaskrapp12]

Thanks for your work! I rewatch your videos many times❤

[@Maxfotbz-editzz]

Thank you so much for what you do I hope you do more scoreboards in the future 😊😊

[@ponyclub3198]

This is one of those "greatest hits" eurovisions. Such strong songs, and really so much better than 1978 and 1980. Too bad Israel couldn't participate the next year. Also comes to show that heavy costs are nothing new to Eurovision participation. Germany giving zero points to Israel is a stand out. This is the best Eurovision of the 1970s.

[@muppet7680]

There could be a third part...... Perhaps doing the scoreboards for the contests from 2003 onwards remaining in order of performance instead of points awarded. Could that be done?

[@luukjoling1]

Am I at the verge of crying and does Olivia Newton-John show up all of the sudden? SURE AM...

[@jacekpokrywka6857]

Beuatiful scoreboard

[@inezfeytons8896]

Thank you. You are a great

[@InezFeytons]

Thank you for this and you amazing work on this i love it ❤❤

[@royfrie]

This was one of the first programs that the IBA had in color TV (The first one was 18 moths previously). There was a boom of acquiring color TVs at the time for the contest. It 45 years ago so I don't remember how much it costs.

[@valismeisme]

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@sebastiancasale-gn8gp]

I rlly don’t think Dunn should have talked about the Nazis killing the Jews

[@FlavioGirl]

yay thank you for sharing this. ok what year will be next? 😊

[@szlanty]

Well, we’ve made it to the end. it’s been great, eh?

[@martinbertilsson1654]

Oh look... a rotated sphere in the background ;) (No pun at all meaning ;) )

[@idankingon]

Amazing year!!!

[@הפיותבקרבתמידמנצחות]

Finally yes❤❤❤❤❤

[@tomsakmens5571]

Watching the video, and I think I spotted something weird - at 20:10, 4 rows below the guy who cheers for Greece, isn't that Freddi from Finland in his 1976 look?

[@minasthess]

Yes. He was one of the songwriters of the Finnish entry that year.

[@riva1958]

A strange year. IBA all but went bankrupt holding the contest. I never really took to the Israeli song. Some members of Habibi [Israel 1981] sang the promo version of Hallelujah and it was planned the group would sing it at the contest, but in the end they withdrew. There are various different versions given as to why this happened. It was entered in the primary rounds of the 1978 NF but didn't make it to the short list. It was IBA who brought in Gali Atari and formed Milk and Honey around her. The song just won the Israeli NF by 2 points over Tzika Pick who would go on to write Diva for Dana International. Kobi Oshrat hated Gali, as did the M&H members, and the feeling was very mutual. Gali has a dreadful reputation in professional circles as being more than a diva. Literally moments before going on stage she cornered, literally, Kobi and said if they won the groups name overall had to be changed to Gali Atari & Milk and Honey or she would refuse to sing the song after the contest or tour. That's why he looks so miserable walking on to conduct. Gali caused so much stress over the next few months that Kobi Oshrat had a heart attack with anxiety. After she left the group she sued for unpaid earnings and won some money 14 years later. However the moral judgement went against her and she ended up paying out more than she actually received as her claim although legal was deemed to be malicious. In 2019 at Eurovision the plan was that the whole group would sing the song together again but Gali refused to even stand on stage with the others so in the end she appeared alone and the boys got dumped. Notice in the celebrations as the votes come in that the boys tend to congratulate one another and only occasionally celebrate with her. I really liked the Greek entry although I rarely play it now. Nowadays I like Sweden, Spain, Monaco, Belgium and Austria. The UK NF was hit by a strike and the juries voted on cassette tapes of the songs. France NF was also hit by strikes and although 2 semi finals were recorded they were never shown on TV and the winner was chosen by an expert jury who only announced what had won. Luxembourg song had already been released in 1968 by Petula Clark with different lyrics so should have been disqualified. Turkey's entry Seviyorum - Maria Rita Epik was probably their best to date and may have done very well and taken some votes away from either of the leaders. From 1979 we have sadly lost Tommy Seebach - Denmark Steve Bender & Louis Hendrik Potieter - Dschinghis Khan - Germany Ted Gardestad - Sweden Aldo Stellita & Giancarlo Golzi - Matia Bazar -Italy Alan Barton - Black Lace UK Gorps [Anthony Fischer] - Switzerland Xandra - Netherlands Laurent Vaguener [Jean Baudlot] - Monaco Daniel Pe'er - Presenter

[@mayamills5174]

According to tabloids, shortly before the final Gali Atari had a fit and demanded they'll be called "Gali Atari and Milk and Honey". Alas, the group was submitted as "Milk and Honey" and the rules did not allow changing the title at the beginning of the song to anything else. To appease her, the Israeli delegation promised Gali that if they win then the hosts would present them as "Gali Atari and Milk and Honey", and indeed after they won Daniel Pe'er announced them as "Gali Atari and Milk and Honey" in both Hebrew and English. However Yardena Arazi who was in charge of the French moderation simply announce them as "Milk and Honey". According to the tabloids Arazi said "I won't take any part in enabling Gali Atari's whims". In the 2019 ESC the plan was to reunite the group for the ending of the "Song Switch" segment, but Gali Atari vetoed it and the three men watched from the audience as she sang by herself.

[@olechristian2009]

According to Diocogs: The entry from Luxembourg at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1979, reaching 13th place. Originally written in 1967 as "Absent pour raisons d'amour" and recorded by Petula Clark. Jeanne also recorded the song in English as "I've Already Seen It In Your Eyes".

[@riva1958]

@@olechristian2009 Indeed. Just one of a number of Eurovision songs that should have been disqualified. Nowadays with the internet it is much easier to identify songs that have been released before. Although Jeane Mason recorded an English version of the song, and it was given a release number and date on CBS Records, it was probably never actually released although some advance copies may exist. A Spanish version 'He Visto Eso En Tus Ojos' was recorded and released by Jeane and can be found on KZbin.

[@royfrie]

We've also lost Shmulik Bilu from Milk and Honey

[@SchinniNobody]

Everything must come to an end 😓😢

[@gussanchez90]

How the points to the countries have seemed endless to me. Doing it without order seems very long to me. And as a Spanin I have realized that Spain did not win because my country gave Israel 12. We lost because several countries, including Portugal with which we form the Iberian Peninsula, did not give us points. If those countries did not give us points, it is normal that we did not win and not because of our Rtve.

[@ponyclub3198]

The expectation that neighbouring countries should give points to their neighbours with no regards to the actual song quality is the worst part of the Eurovision.

[@EdgeRatedR007]

The Genghis Khan song was very popular in Greece and I remember hearing it on TV well into the 2000s.

[@meskbren]

Thank you for yet another wonderful Reorder Board - I hope that this will not be the last of it (perhaps a selection of years doing fan scoreboards?). 1979 was a great production - especially after the rather weak productions in 77 and 78. The interval act this year is one of the all time Eurovision bests. I also like some of the gossip from this year; Gali Atari supposedly being a diva about the act being referred to as 'Milk and Honey' and not 'Gali Atari and Milk and Honey'; Yardena Azari saying she would not entertain Gali's 'caprices' by referring to the act as 'Milk and Honey'; Mica Marah trying to disqualify her song and almost not performing after a bizarre national contest vote in Belgium. This year also features one of the best Eurovision winners of all time in Halleujah. Paradoxically, the remainder of my top 10 is drastically different to the actual result; I though Netherlands and Finland were criminally underrated whilst France, Germany and especially the dirge from Spain were scandalously overrated. My points for 1979: 1pt Italy 2pts Denmark 3pts Belgium (considering how much she hated the song, she gave a great performance!) 4pts Austria 5pts Greece 6pts Sweden 7pts Norway 8pts Netherlands 10pts Finland and finally ISRAEL 12 POINTS

[@JeSuisRene]

I don’t want to sound like an Anglomaniac, but I can’t help but feel that the problems with the Spanish jury would have been averted had the spokesperson spoken in English.

[@ponyclub3198]

For sure. Dix, deux, douze on a bad phone line is hard on the ear. Also, the problem was worsen by giving the score according to appearance rather than in ascending points order

[@mayamills5174]

Footage from behind the scenes and preparations for the 1979 contest, some rehearsals, delegations arriving to Israel and the set designers shows how the set is operated from afar through a computerized system: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qmrPnaafaKhojMk

[@David.Lee-CM-THAI]

Your project is amazing - thank you for all your work!

[@tariqkhader6196]

Excellent edition. What was all the kerfuffle with the Swedish jury? We all heard the points loudly and clearly.

[@JeSuisRene]

1979 is a very strong year, though there are duffers in the lineup (to my mind, Italy, United Kingdom, Spain). This is by far Israel’s best Eurovision production. My points: 1p 🇬🇷 Greece 2p 🇫🇮 Finland 3p 🇱🇺 Luxembourg 4p 🇮🇱 Israel 5p 🇳🇴 Norway 6p 🇳🇱 Netherlands 7p 🇨🇭 Switzerland 8p 🇸🇪 Sweden 10p 🇫🇷 France 12p 🇩🇪 Germany

[@jamesmt142]

1979 is a great production for the era but 2019 was pretty spectacular. That hall was absolutely tiny by today's Eurovision standards (I was there) but KAN made it look huge on television with some very clever multicamera direction.

[@debonidaniel]

​@@jamesmt142 the 2019 venue was the smallest venue since 2005.

[@stevenmurphy2551]

Why not do Junior Eurovision next?

[@user_masia_iasam]

Что-то новое будет?)))))

[@tariqkhader1826]

The connection to Madrid and the announcer's diction were both poor

[@ponyclub3198]

The interesting trivia detail is that Israel and Spain didn't have diplomatic relations back then

[@jordicamps7379]

I adore the italian song❤❤

[@aantouann6]

i don't wanna seem nationalist but i have to say that "Socrates" should've been greece's first victory! everything about that song is perfect to me and it was criminally underrated, reaching only the 8th place... Elpida, you are the winner of our hearts... ❤

[@ponyclub3198]

It's still a Eurovision hit in Israel till today

[@diegofonseca28]

Tbh I can't believe Spain kill their own third victory

[@ponyclub3198]

They didn't kill anything. It was just by chance that they were presenting last.

[@diegofonseca28]

@@ponyclub3198 but it would have hurt that bad if the order was different.

[@riva1958]

Hi, has 1978 disappeared? Hope all is grand .

[@thereorderboard]

Hi there! It's TRT being naughty again, 1978 will reappear shortly, but without turkey :-(

[@riva1958]

@@thereorderboard Thanks. I wondered if that was the case, or if Israel's first win had caused some hacking. Stay well.

[@MinhDao-m8m]

Betty Missiego 😢

[@whatonearth9809]

Black Lace should have gone with Agadoo instead 🤣

[@oiooi6460]

The voting eas tediously slow that year

[@ponyclub3198]

1983 was worse

[@cristinaconterogarrido6363]

You didn't see Eurovision 1991, don't you? 😂

[@TheNathanj2009]

High placing for the terrible entries from Ireland (crappy man) and the UK illustrate the major advantage they had singing in English at this point in the contests history.

[@ponyclub3198]

Throughout its history up to the point where everyone started singing in English

[@Eurobouy]

Frank Naef really needs to learn how to count! He makes lots of errors

[@eurodara]

for me Germany should have won, amazing song and performance and also it would be iconic to have Germany winning in Israel with a song about Dschingis Khan also, top 3 is one of my least favourite from the 70s, both Israel and France get boring quite fast and with Spain... the song would be okay but children singing ruins everything

[@juanvillalbafernanz5676]

Portugal ruining Spain chances of winning pisses me off💔

[@juliovinuesa8954]

La canción española tenia que haber ganado y el jurado portugués algún voto.

[@tonypower7821]

presenter was awful mistake after mistake