Eurovision Song Contest 1981

Eurovision Song Contest 1981
Dates
Final	4 April 1981
Host
Venue	RDS Simmonscourt Pavilion Dublin, Ireland
Presenter(s)	Doireann Ní Bhriain
Conductor	Noel Kelehan
Director	Ian McGarry
Executive supervisor	Frank Naef
Host broadcaster	Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ)
Interval act	Planxty with "Timedance" danced by Dublin City Ballet
Participants
Number of entries	20
Debuting countries	Cyprus
Returning countries	Israel  Yugoslavia
Withdrawing countries	Italy  Morocco
Participation map      Participating countries     Countries that participated in the past but not in 1981
Vote
Voting system	Each country awarded 12, 10, 8-1 point(s) to their 10 favourite songs
Nul points	Norway
Winning song	United Kingdom "Making Your Mind Up"
Eurovision Song Contest
◄1980 • 1981 • 1982►

The Eurovision Song Contest 1981 was the 26th event of its kind, and was held on 4 April 1981 at the Simmonscourt Pavilion of the Royal Dublin Society in Dublin. The presenter was Doireann Ní Bhriain. The United Kingdom's Bucks Fizz were the winners of this contest with the song "Making Your Mind Up", beating second place Germany by four points. This year is remembered for the performance of this British band, which launched the group's hugely successful international career, and included a dance-routine where the two male members ripped the skirts off the two female members only to reveal mini-skirts, and today stands as one of the defining moments in the contest's history.^[1]

Location

Dublin is the capital and largest city of Ireland. Dublin is in the province of Leinster on Ireland's east coast, at the mouth of the River Liffey. Founded as a Viking settlement, the Kingdom of Dublin became Ireland's principal city following the Norman invasion. The city expanded rapidly from the 17th century and was briefly the second largest city in the British Empire before the Acts of Union in 1800. Following the partition of Ireland in 1922, Dublin became the capital of the Irish Free State, later renamed Ireland.

The contest took place under heavy guard at the 15,000 seat Simmonscourt Pavilion of the RDS, which was normally used for agricultural and horse shows.^[2] Over 250 armed soldiers and police were on hand to protect against any likely political demonstrations.

Format

Having won the year before, Ireland hosted the 1981 contest - the second time they had done so. As in 1971, the 1981 Eurovision Song Contest was produced by the country's broadcaster RTÉ. The presenter on this occasion was Doireann Ni Bhriain, who was well known in Ireland at the time as a TV presenter and for the current affairs radio show Women Today. She was chosen for her fluency in Irish and English as well as having studied French, which she spoke with some ease.^[3] The director was Ian McGarry, while Noel Kelehan was the chief conductor for the show.

It cost RTÉ over £300,000 to stage, although this included £110,000 from the EBU. From this, the Irish Government expected to make around £2,000,000 from tourism as a result of staging the show.^[4] The RDS would go on to host the next Irish Eurovision production in 1988.

Entrants

This year marked the début of Cyprus in the contest, who finished sixth. Returning to the contest was Israel, who did not compete the previous year, despite winning the two years previous to that. They finished seventh. Yugoslavia also returned to the competition after a five-year absence. Italy withdrew for the first time from the contest, due to lack of interest, while Morocco declined to take part after their sole entry the year before.^[5]

Of the performers, many previous contestants returned to the contest this year. Notably, Jean-Claude Pascal for Luxembourg, who had won the contest 20 years earlier, although could only manage 11th place this time. Repeated entrants Peter, Sue and Marc returned for the fourth time, after 1971, 1976 and 1979. Performing again for Switzerland, they remain the only act to sing in four different languages (French, English, German and this time, Italian). Other returnees were Marty Brem who had taken part the year before for Austria, Tommy Seebach for Denmark, and Björn Skifs for Sweden. Bucks Fizz member, Cheryl Baker had performed in 1978 with the band Co-Co for the UK, while Sheeba member Maxi had performed as a solo artist in 1973 for Ireland.

The 46-piece Irish TV orchestra didn't have a saxophone as they didn't consider it an orchestral instrument, which caused great concern with the United Kingdom entry as a saxophone appeared heavily on their song. Andy Hill – the producer of the single - said that had they known, they would have dropped one of the two backing singers to be replaced by a saxophonist, there being two on the actual recording.

Interval

The interval act was traditional Irish band Planxty, who performed the lengthy piece "Timedance", which depicted Irish music through the ages. The dancers were from Dublin City Ballet with choreography by Iain Montague. This is seen as a precursor to Riverdance, which became famous after its performance in 1994. The song, which was written by Bill Whelan, went on to be released as a Planxty single and became a No.3 hit in the Irish charts.^[6][7]

This mix of past and present was also the theme to the contest's opening montage, which featured shots of Celtic ruins, cliffs and castles, edited together with close-ups of art, aeroplanes, architecture and horse races.

Voting

Bucks Fizz performing "Making Your Mind Up"

The voting proved to be memorable for its closeness. The UK won by four points, but leading up to this, five countries took pole position at various stages: UK, Germany, France, Switzerland and Ireland. Just before the penultimate vote, three countries (UK, Germany and Switzerland) were all on equal top marks. After this, Switzerland (who had performed second last) were unable to collect points as it was their jury's results that were being announced, while Germany failed to receive votes either. The UK gained eight, which meant that when the final jury (Sweden) were about to cast their votes, the UK needed five points or more to win over either country. Switzerland were quickly eliminated by receiving just one vote. The UK passed the five-point mark and received eight votes, while Germany did indeed receive the maximum 12 points, but it was too late. France finished third, with Switzerland fourth and the hosts Ireland coming in fifth. Of these, Switzerland received the most top votes despite only finishing fourth, while the UK only received two. The UK did however receive points from every competing country. Meanwhile, at the other end of the board was Norway, who finished last with no points for the third time in Eurovision history, gaining no points in 1963 and 1978 as well.

Other memorable moments included a glitch in the scorekeeping, giving host country Ireland 310 extra points instead of the 10 designated by the Luxembourg jury. Also of note, when host Doireann Ní Bhriain attempted to collect Yugoslavia's votes, after repeated attempts to contact them, Yugoslavia's spokeswoman, Helga Vlahović, who went on to present the 1990 contest, finally answered the phone and abruptly answered "I don't have it", causing laughter to erupt from the audience. Also during the final vote, Turkey's nine points suddenly disappeared from the scoreboard.

Aftermath

Runner-up Lena Valaitis was in good spirits while talking to the press following the contest and largely unconcerned about losing. Swedish singer Björn Skifs however was more outspoken saying; "This was not a song contest, it was a show – all these dancing girls, they take away from the songs. I also think there should be a change in the rules to allow us to sing in English. Then we would really be able to compete."^[8] Harald Tusberg, head of light entertainment for Norwegian television was upbeat about Norway's 'nul points' result as he claimed that their entry would be remembered above many others; "Who remembers who came second or third – people will remember us!". Finn Kalvik himself conceded graciously saying that he had enjoyed the week's holiday.^[9]

Following this year's contest, France withdrew from competing the following year, with the broadcaster announcing that the songs were "a monument to drivel".^[10] Indeed, many comments had been made regarding the quality of the winning group's performance indicating that the song had most likely won by style over substance.^[11] Either way, Bucks Fizz went on to have a very successful career over the next few years, and became one of the top-selling groups of the 1980s. The winning song itself reached No.1 in nine countries and became a top ten hit in nations such as Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, selling four million copies worldwide.^[12][13][14]

Germany, who had never won the contest up to this point, were becoming increasingly frustrated with their second placings in this and the previous year's contest and made a concerted effort for the following year. This was to pay off, as in 1982 they finally clinched their first victory which was achieved in an overwhelming manner.^[15]

The UK's victory this year meant that the contest would take place in the UK the following year - the seventh time the country had hosted the event (a record unbeaten and later extended by an eighth UK hosting in 1998). The BBC opted to take it to the North Yorkshire town of Harrogate at a later than usual date, 24 April. The 1981 contest was held on 4 April and up to (and including) 2016 has never been as early again.

Decades later, Debbie Cameron, who represented Denmark with Tommy Seebach, revealed in a book about Seebach that she was contacted by a BBC employee, who told her that Bucks Fizz's victory was planned. According to the employee, he had witnessed how BBC technicians had sabotaged the sound checks during the rehearsal of the Danish, the Israeli and the Western German performances.^[16] This claim however ignores the fact that the BBC did not host the 1981 Contest.

Conductors

Each performance had a conductor who maestro the orchestra. Host conductor in bold.

Returning artists

Artist	Country	Previous year(s)
Marty Brem	Austria	1980 (part of Blue Danube)
Tommy Seebach	Denmark	1979
Maxi (part of Sheeba)	Ireland	1973
Jean-Claude Pascal	Luxembourg	1961 (winner)
Björn Skifs	Sweden	1978
Peter, Sue and Marc	Switzerland	1971, 1976, 1979
Cheryl Baker (part of Bucks Fizz)	United Kingdom	1978 (part of Co-Co)

Results

Draw	Country	Artist	Song	Language[17]	Place	Points
01	Austria	Marty Brem	"Wenn du da bist"	German	17	20
02	Turkey	Modern Folk Üçlüsü & Ayşegül	"Dönme Dolap"	Turkish	18	9
03	Germany	Lena Valaitis	"Johnny Blue"	German	2	132
04	Luxembourg	Jean-Claude Pascal	"C'est peut-être pas l'Amérique"	French	11	41
05	Israel	Hakol Over Habibi	"Halayla" (הלילה)	Hebrew	7	56
06	Denmark	Tommy Seebach & Debbie Cameron	"Krøller eller ej"	Danish	11	41
07	Yugoslavia	Seid Memić "Vajta"	"Lejla"	Bosnian	15	35
08	Finland	Riki Sorsa	"Reggae OK"	Finnish	16	27
09	France	Jean Gabilou	"Humanahum"	French	3	125
10	Spain	Bacchelli	"Y sólo tú"	Spanish	14	38
11	Netherlands	Linda Williams	"Het is een wonder"	Dutch	9	51
12	Ireland	Sheeba	"Horoscopes"	English	5	105
13	Norway	Finn Kalvik	"Aldri i livet"	Norwegian	20	0
14	United Kingdom	Bucks Fizz	"Making Your Mind Up"	English	1	136
15	Portugal	Carlos Paião	"Playback"	Portuguese	18	9
16	Belgium	Emly Starr	"Samson"	Dutch	13	40
17	Greece	Yiannis Dimitras	"Feggari kalokerino" (Φεγγάρι καλοκαιρινό)	Greek	8	55
18	Cyprus	Island	"Monika" (Μόνικα)	Greek	6	69
19	Switzerland	Peter, Sue and Marc	"Io senza te"	Italian	4	121
20	Sweden	Björn Skifs	"Fångad i en dröm"	Swedish	10	50

Voting structure

Each country had a jury who awarded 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 point(s) for their top ten songs.

		Results
	Austria	20		6				1			5	6										2
	Turkey	9				1			3	5
	Germany	132	5	12		3	8	8	2	7	8	12	3	6	4	7	12	10	5	8		12
	Luxembourg	41	10		5		3			4	3	1					4				6	5
	Israel	56	8			4				6			7	7	8	4	5				4	3
	Denmark	41		1	1	7					4	3	2			5	2	12				4
	Yugoslavia	35		4						8				2	1			5	2	3	10
	Finland	27					2				1	2	5	5			1				5	6
	France	125	12		12	12	7	2	4	10			6	4	5	1	10	3	8	7	12	10
	Spain	38		10			6						4	3	10		3				2
	Netherlands	51	3	5	3		4	7			2	7				6	7	2	3	2
	Ireland	105	7	3	6	10	10	12	5		6	5	10					1	10	12	1	7
	Norway	0
	United Kingdom	136	4	8	4	5	12	10	10	3	7	8	12	10	3		6	8	6	4	8	8
	Portugal	9			8														1
	Belgium	40	1	7			1	6	8	2						3			7	5
	Greece	55	6		2	6			1			10		1	2	8		6		6	7
	Cyprus	69					5	3	6				8	8	7	10		7	12		3
	Switzerland	121	2	2	7	8		4	12	12	10	4	1	12	12	12	8		4	10		1
Sweden	50			10	2		5	7	1	12				6	2		4		1
The table is ordered by appearance

12 points

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

Commentators

Spokespersons

•  Austria - Jenny Pippal
•  Turkey - Başak Doğru
•  Germany - Gabi Schnelle
•  Luxembourg - Jacques Harvey
•  Israel - Dan Kaner^[34]
•  Denmark - Bent Henius^[35]
•  Yugoslavia - Helga Vlahović^[36]
•  Finland – Annemi Genetz^[37]
•  France - Fabienne Égal
•  Spain - Isabel Tenaille^[38]
•  Netherlands - Flip van der Schalie^[39]
•  Ireland - John Skehan
•  Norway - Sverre Christophersen^[40]
•  United Kingdom - Colin Berry
•  Portugal - Margarida Andrade
•  Belgium - Walter De Meyere
•  Greece - Tatiana Darra
•  Cyprus - Anna Partelidou^[32]
•   Switzerland - Michel Stocker^[41]
•  Sweden - Bengteric Nordell^[42]

National jury members

•  Turkey – Süheyla Aldoğan, Hidayet Yarken, Hatice Akbaş, Lüftiye Duman, Nebiye Yazıcı, Nesrin Demirel, Sami Ersoy, Mehmet Kuteş, Mustafa Ekinci, Cengiz Doğan, Ali Arslan^[43]
•  Spain – Belén Lage (shop assistant), José Manuel Lozano (chief sales officer), Carmen Ruiz (housewife), Pablo Hardy (hairdresser), María Acacia López-Bachiller (public relations), Andrés Pajares (actor), Lola Forner (Miss Spain and actress), Juan Carlos Andrade (tennis player), María del Mar Serrano (student), Juan Vinader (sound engineer), Amada Quintana (student)^[44]
•  United Kingdom – Norman Harper, Neil Hardie

References