Eurovision Song Contest 1983

Eurovision Song Contest 1983
Dates
Final	23 April 1983
Host
Venue	Rudi-Sedlmayer-Halle, Munich, West Germany
Presenter(s)	Marlene Charell
Conductor	Dieter Reith
Director	Rainer Bertram
Executive supervisor	Frank Naef
Host broadcaster	Arbeitsgemeinschaft Rundfunkanstalten Deutschland (ARD)
Opening act	Marlene Charell introducing each act and calling all of them on stage together.
Interval act	Marlene Charell
Participants
Number of entries	20
Debuting countries	None
Returning countries	France  Greece  Italy
Withdrawing countries	Ireland
Participation map      Participating countries     Countries that participated in the past but not in 1983
Vote
Voting system	Each country awarded 12, 10, 8-1 point(s) to their 10 favourite songs
Nul points	Spain  Turkey
Winning song	Luxembourg "Si la vie est cadeau"
Eurovision Song Contest
◄1982 • 1983 • 1984►

The Eurovision Song Contest 1983 was the 28th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It was held in Munich, then West Germany, on 23 April 1983. The presenter was Marlene Charell. Corinne Hermes was the winner of this Eurovision with the song, "Si la vie est cadeau". This was Luxembourg's fifth victory in the contest which equalled the record set by France in 1977. It was also the second year in a row where the winning entry was performed last on the night and the second year in a row in which Israel won 2nd place.

The set that year was a quite small, arc-shaped stage surrounding the orchestra section, and a large background resembling giant electric heaters, which lit up in different sequences and combinations depending on the nature and rhythm of the songs. The 1983 contest was the first to be televised in Australia, via Channel 0/28 (now SBS Television) in Sydney and Melbourne. The contest went to become a very popular show in Australia, leading to an intended one-off participation in the 60th anniversary contest in 2015, and their invitation to return to the 2016 contest. Ireland was not in the contest because RTÉ was in strike action at that time.^[1]

Voting

Toward the end of the voting, it became evident that Luxembourg was going to win, but early on, Germany, Sweden, and Yugoslavia all threatened to take Luxembourg's lead, which they earned halfway through the jury vote. At one point, murmurs and boos arose from the crowd at the Greek jury's decision to give host country Germany only one point. This was the only occasion in which Greece didn't award any point to Cyprus.

Language troubles

Due to Charell's choice to announce points in three languages instead of two, the voting went on for nearly an hour, stretching the Eurovision contest past three hours for the first time ever.^[2] In addition, Charell made 13 language mistakes throughout the voting,^[2] some as innocuous as mixing up the words for "points" between the three languages, some as major as nearly awarding points to "Schweden" (Sweden) that were meant for "Schweiz" (Switzerland).

The language problems also occurred during the contest introductions, as Charell introduced Norwegian conductor Sigurd Jansen as "...Johannes...Skorgan...",^[3] having been forced to make up a name on the spot after forgetting the conductor's name.

Song success

Ofra Haza from Israel, who took the second place, had an enduring success with her song "Hi" (חי) which became a hit in Europe, launching her career. This year also marked the first performance of Sweden's Carola Häggkvist, who took the third place and went on to win the contest in 1991 and represented her country again in 2006 (coming fifth). Her song, "Främling", became very popular in Sweden and in various other European countries. In the Netherlands, the song reached the top five, coupled with a Dutch-language version ("Je ogen hebben geen geheimen") which was performed by Carola herself. The 4th placed "Džuli", also became a hit in Europe. Singer Daniel released an English-language version as "Julie".

Nul points

This year's nul points were shared by Spain and Turkey. Spain's Remedios Amaya presented a song which was a stark departure from pop tastes and conventional perception of melody and harmony as it was a flamenco one, a style traditionally tied with the international image of Spain. Additionally, she sang her song barefoot. Some olés were heard from the present audience when she ended her performance. Turkey's entry, Opera, performed by Çetin Alp & the Short Waves, could on the other hand be said to fit in well with the spirit of Eurovision of that time. Nevertheless, the overinterpretation of the theme of the song, as well as the fact that the lyrics of the song consisted for the most part of the often-repeated word "opera" and names of well-known operas and composers, and Çetin's breaking into operatic "lay lay la", prompted extensive derision of the song, including the usual sardonic words from BBC commentator Terry Wogan ("a nicely understated performance there").

Interval act

The interval show was a dance number set to a medley of German songs which had become internationally famous, including Strangers in the Night. The host, Marlene Charell, was the lead dancer.

Conductors

Host conductor in bold

Returning artists

Artist	Country	Previous year(s)
Guy Bonnet	France	1970
Jahn Teigen	Norway	1978, 1982
Anita Skorgan (with Jahn Teigen)		1977, 1979, 1982

Results

Draw	Country	Artist	Song	Language[4]	Place	Points
01	France	Guy Bonnet	"Vivre"	French	8	56
02	Norway	Jahn Teigen	"Do Re Mi"	Norwegian	9	53
03	United Kingdom	Sweet Dreams	"I'm Never Giving Up"	English	6	79
04	Sweden	Carola Häggkvist	"Främling"	Swedish	3	126
05	Italy	Riccardo Fogli	"Per Lucia"	Italian	11	41
06	Turkey	Çetin Alp & the Short Waves	"Opera"	Turkish	19	0
07	Spain	Remedios Amaya	"¿Quién maneja mi barca?"	Spanish	19	0
08	Switzerland	Mariella Farré	"Io così non ci sto"	Italian	15	28
09	Finland	Ami Aspelund	"Fantasiaa"	Finnish	11	41
10	Greece	Christie Stasinopoulou	"Mou les" (Μου λες)	Greek	14	32
11	Netherlands	Bernadette	"Sing Me a Song"	Dutch	7	66
12	Yugoslavia	Daniel	"Džuli"	Croatian	4	125
13	Cyprus	Stavros & Constantina	"I agapi akoma zi" (Η αγάπη ακόμα ζει)	Greek	16	26
14	Germany	Hoffmann & Hoffmann	"Rücksicht"	German	5	94
15	Denmark	Gry Johansen	"Kloden drejer"	Danish	17	16
16	Israel	Ofra Haza	"Hi" (חי)	Hebrew	2	136
17	Portugal	Armando Gama	"Esta balada que te dou"	Portuguese	13	33
18	Austria	Westend	"Hurricane"	German	9	53
19	Belgium	Pas de Deux	"Rendez-vous"	Dutch	18	13
20	Luxembourg	Corinne Hermès	"Si la vie est cadeau"	French	1	142

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.

Score sheet

		Results
	France	56		3			10			10	6	7	2	3	4	4		1	3			3
	Norway	53			5	3		6					8			1	8	4	6	3	7	2
	United Kingdom	79	5	5		12	2	5		8		5	5		6	3	5		2	10		6
	Sweden	126	6	12	8		8	7	2	5	10	10	3	1	7	12	10	8	4	8	5
	Italy	41	7			2		4	3		1	2		8	1			6	7
	Turkey	0
	Spain	0
	Switzerland	28		1			7		1					7						6	1	5
	Finland	41	1	2	6			3		4		8				7		7		2		1
	Greece	32	3						12		5				12
	Netherlands	66	2	7	1	6	4	2		12	3			5	5	2	4	3		4	2	4
	Yugoslavia	125		8	12		1	12	10		12	6	7		8	6	12	10		1	12	8
	Cyprus	26		4						1				6		5	1	5			4
	Germany	94	10	10	7	8	6			2	4	1	10				3		8	7	6	12
	Denmark	16			2	7		1	4						2
	Israel	136	8	6	10	5	3		6	7	7	3	12	10		10	7		10	12	10	10
	Portugal	33	4			1			5	6	2		6	2								7
	Austria	53			3	4	5	10				4	4	4	3		6	2	5		3
	Belgium	13			4				8										1
	Luxembourg	142	12			10	12	8	7	3	8	12	1	12	10	8	2	12	12	5	8

12 points

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

Commentators

Spokespersons

Each country announced their votes in the order of performance. The following is a list of spokespersons who announced the votes for their respective country.^[19]

•  France - Nicole André
•  Norway - Erik Diesen^[20]
•  United Kingdom - Colin Berry
•  Sweden - Agneta Bolme-Börjefors^[8]
•  Italy - Paola Perissi
•  Turkey – Fatih Orbay
•  Spain - Rosa Campano^[21]
•   Switzerland - Michel Stocker^[22]
•  Finland - Solveig Herlin^[23]
•  Greece - Irini Gavala
•  Netherlands - Flip van der Schalie
•  Yugoslavia - TBD
•  Cyprus - Anna Partelidou^[14]
•  Germany - Carolin Reiber
•  Denmark - Bent Henius^[15]
•  Israel - Yitzhak Shim'oni^[24]
•  Portugal - João Abel Fonseca^[16]
•  Austria - Tilia Herold
•  Belgium - Anne Ploegaerts
•  Luxembourg - Jacques Harvey

National jury members

•  United Kingdom – Michael Wells
•  Spain – María del Carmen Campos (clerk), Luis Fernando Reyes (economist), Paloma Pérez (stewardess), Bautista Serra (industrialist), María Rosario Cano (student), Marcial Pereira (student), Gloria Moro (housewife), Virginia Mataix (actress), Adelardo Cano (teacher), Antonio Hipólito Romero (taxi driver), Antonio Prieto (athlete)^[25]

References