Intro Post

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Introduction

It might surprise you that Eurovision 1978 was the only contest ever hosted in Paris, France. However, French people who are sick of Paris getting all the attention are probably happy about that. This contest brought the number of countries to 20 for the first time—Turkey returned after two absences, and Denmark returned after eleven absences. This means it’s the first contest where Denmark’s entry was broadcast in color. This was also the first contest with two presenters and the first with a male presenter since 1956. The other presenter was female. The purpose of two presenters was so that Denise spoke French while Léon spoke English.

Most importantly, this contest was the first time Israel won. Since we’re talking about Israel, obviously there was controversy. When I read months ago about how Arab broadcasters handled this victory, I got a feel for how different life was, and how much bigger the world seemed, before the Internet. Most Arab countries played commercials during Israel’s entry and cut the contest short when it was clear Israel would win, but Jordan went the extra mile. Their broadcaster pretended there were technical difficulties, then claimed Belgium (the runner-up) won instead. Censoring the real winner would NOT have been possible today!

On the opposite side, this was the first contest with the twelve-point voting system where a song got zero points. This happened to the unluckiest country of 1970’s Eurovision: Norway.

I watched this contest with British commentary, done once again by our good friend Terry Wogan. The postcards were filmed live and feature contestants going up an elevator (or lift, as the Brits call it) to the stage, so they barely counted as postcards.

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Ireland: Born to Sing

Artist: Colm C. T. Wilkinson

Language: English

Key: C major

What better way to start a Eurovision contest with something flamboyant and cheesy? This guy has a stereotypical country music voice and sings with tons of enthusiasm about an inane topic: that his destiny was always to be a singer. It’s pretty much a bunch of fluff before the notorious bombshell that follows.

Norway: Mil etter mil

Artist: Jahn Teigen

Language: Norwegian

Key: F major, then briefly A♭ major and B major

I’ve realized Norway is the Germany of 1970’s Eurovision, a comparison that breaks my heart to admit. They get tragically poor results but loyally participate anyway, because they’re one of the big guys of Europe. Since joining Eurovision, the only year Norway willfully skipped was 1970. They also were relegated in 2002, but that’s it. However, this song didn’t get zero points just out of bad luck. It came as a result of the singer’s legendary trolling.

Throughout Eurovision history, Norway is like that friend of yours who’s normally level-headed but occasionally does the absolute craziest shit. This song matches that analogy very well. When performed in Melodi Grand Prix, it was an uplifting but calm pop song about the singer’s love interest, who keeps running mile after mile searching for love. However, for Eurovision, the arrangement was changed to sound bombastic, and Jahn was not happy about that.

Instead of putting up with it through gritted teeth, Jahn gave the broadcaster a taste of their own medicine. He responded to the song’s overhaul by overhauling his performance, and the result is utter hilarity. He wears bizarre sunglasses (perhaps inspired by Anne-Karine Strøm two years prior), leans the microphone close to his face, makes dramatic hand gestures, briefly sings in falsetto, tugs on his suspenders, and most famously jumps in the air near the end. Reading about Jahn Teigen, he had quite a long history of satirical music, so this seems on brand for him.

The best part is, this song became a huge success in Scandinavia regardless of the performance. Jahn Teigen got to return to Eurovision after this contest and scored much better: in 1982 (as a duet with Anita Skorgan, another three-time Eurovision contestant who he later married for four years), and 1983 where he scored ninth place. This performance probably taught Eurovision broadcasters a lesson about changing a song against the singer’s will.

Italy: Questo amore

Artist: Ricchi e Poveri

Language: Italian

Key: E♭ major, F major, F♯ major, G major

The title translates to “This Love”, which has taken its toll on me… wait, wrong band. It’s a slow, relaxed love song by a team of two men and two women, but they don’t seem intended to imitate ABBA, nor do they do so. Unfortunately, this song comes off to me as flat and flavorless. It sounds like they purposely aren’t singing very loud because their neighbors are sleeping. Plus, it has too many key changes. It got 12th place out of 20, which isn’t great for Italy, but far better than the next two.

Finland: Anna rakkaudelle tilaisuus

Artist: Seija Simola

Language: Finnish

Key: G major, A♭ major

The British commentator remarked the title is a mouthful in any language. That makes me feel better about copy-pasting the title from Wikipedia, instead of typing it by hand like I usually do.

Now we have two entries in a row that scored near the bottom—2 and 5 points respectively. I’m not sure if it’s more because they’re early on or because they’re from underdog countries. This is a piano-heavy romantic ballad whose title means “give love a chance” directed from the singer to her love interest, with dreamy heartfelt lyrics. I was really starting to get into it when the vocals started to harmonize. Unfortunately, an unnecessary key change made me like it less. If you want an example of a key change (two key changes, rather) done well, look no further than “L’oiseau et l’enfant” from last year.

Portugal: Dai li dou

Artist: Gemini, not to be confused with the infamous Jemini from 2003

Language: Portuguese

Key: F major, F♯ major, and after a fake ending, G major

Because of his pronunciation of Gemini, the British commentator sounded almost like he was saying “this is Germany representing Portugal”, which confused me for a moment. As far as I know, they’re not German at all.

Way too much of this song repeats its title, which is a nonsense phrase. Additionally, the lyrics that aren’t nonsense are sung awkwardly fast, in a way that doesn’t suit Portuguese that well. Otherwise, the song is actually pretty good. It’s the kind of jazzy pop song you might hear in the credits of a movie. After this song, the presenters did something not done in prior contests: they recapped the last five countries and listed which five were next. They did that at every quarter point.

France: Il y aura toujours des violons

Artist: Joël Prévost

Language: French

Key: C major, D♭ major

“There will always be violins” seems like an awfully strange song title, until you realize the second part: the violins are to play love songs. This is a decent enough love ballad, but I’m getting sick of all those key changes. And yet, the juries felt differently and gave it third place.

Also, this song made me learn that the word “smoking” got loaned into French to mean “suit jacket”. How does that make any sense??? (Obviously I mean that as a figure of speech—I can and have looked up why that is.)

Spain: Bailemos un vals

Artist: José Vélez

Language: Spanish, plus a phrase in French

Key: C major, D♭ major

Spain shakes up the pace with a Spanish-sounding waltz, but the song feels too simplistic for me to say much about it. It’s yet another song with a key change, and it almost sounded like it would change keys again, but thankfully the song ended. I’ll just remark that it must have been weird to be part of an orchestra whose stage rotated to accommodate every performer. I hope they didn’t get motion sickness.

United Kingdom: The Bad Old Days

Artist: Co-Co (not to be confused with Coco Pommel who is best pony)

Language: English

Key: B♭ major, B major

This song broke the UK’s streak of scoring in the top five, which had run since 1967. It scored 11th place, so it barely wasn’t in the top half. I can see why: the song is decent but nowhere near as sticky as other British entries. The theme is basically just “life was worse in the bad old days before I met you”. Plus, their outfits are so tacky, even for Eurovision! They vary enormously in revealingness for some reason. Oh fuck off, spell check. You can’t tell me whether “revealingness” is a real word. You’re wrong anyway, it’s a completely real word.

I know it’s a running gag in my blog that I make up a word and insist it’s a real word, but there’s also some sincerity to it. If someone at some point in time has used a word that they either invented or thought was real, then it is a real word. That’s how words are created. Even if I personally think a word sounds stupid like “irregardless”, it’s still a real word.

Sorry about the tangent. The British commentator was excited about this entry because of course he was, and he thought the long applause meant it would score high because of course he… actually, that’s a completely reasonable assumption. Still, this bias is exactly why juries can’t vote for their own country. One more fact: Cheryl Baker from Co-Co would later become a member of Bucks Fizz, the legendary winners of 1981. Wow, I can’t believe that’s only three years away.

Switzerland: Vivre

Artist: Carole Vinci

Language: French

Key: E major, F major

The British commentator remarked that after trying a few folk-style entries, Switzerland returned to the traditional chanson style—after all, they won with it the first time. Indeed, this song is a more modern, upbeat take on this genre. It feels like a crossover between a flashy 70’s pop song and a classic romantic chanson, and it works pretty damn well.

Also, this has to be the longest streak of songs with key changes we’ve ever encountered, at eight songs in a row. I wonder if the next song will break the pattern?

Belgium: L’amour ça fait chanter la vie

Artist: Jean Vallée, returning from 1970

Language: French

Key: E major, F major, F♯ major

After 20 years of medium to low rankings—their highest was 5th place out of 10—we’ve arrived at Belgium’s first of two second place scores! The second was the iconic “Sanomi” in 2003, long after their only victory.

Contrasting against Switzerland, this is a full-out classical chanson heavy in piano. He’s got a strong voice and knows well what he’s doing. This song has the kind of key change I actually enjoy: the kind that comes with musical buildup and increases the tension. My listing of the keys is simplified; each section has its first bars in the key a fourth below (or fifth above) what I’ve listed—B major, C major, and D♭ major respectively—but those aren’t the standard type of key change. This is because of the circle of fifths, which basically means keys separated by a fifth have almost the same notes. If you have no idea what that means, just know that this song is a solid composition that uses key changes well.

It’s hilarious hearing Terry Wogan say this could be the danger to Co-Co, considering their song didn’t do that well. He wasn’t technically wrong; this song was one of ten dangers to Co-Co. British Eurovision fans and reporters love being overconfident about their entries after all.

Netherlands: ‘t Is OK

Artist: Harmony. Not the most creative name for a band.

Language: Dutch

Key: B minor in the verses, B major in the chorus, then a key change to C major

This song reminds me of “Ding-a-Dong”, especially in the verses. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was inspired by that song. It’s got a pumping energy, is dominantly in minor key, and has a lot of vocal harmonies in the chorus. Both songs even end with a chime note! The lyrics have a similar theme to Ding-a-Dong (the English version): if you feel like your life sucks, sing this song and it’ll all be better. The main difference is that this song switches to major key in the chorus, which gives it quite a different vibe.

Another thing this song doesn’t have is the delightful bridge section of Ding-a-Dong. It just has two verses and two choruses, then a key change. It’s overall a fun song, but not quite as good as the one that probably inspired it.

Turkey: Sevince

Artist: Nilüfer Yumlu (a singer) and Nazar (a band)

Language: Turkish

Key: A minor

Finally, the streak of songs with a key change has been broken! It lasted for ten songs in a row, and it was really getting on my nerves. This entry has the common sense to not include a key change and let the musical beauty speak for itself.

1978 was not a good year for language oddball countries (except Israel). This song tied second last place with Finland. The low score of two points hurts me so hard, because this song is absolutely beautiful. It’s got a similar otherworldly energy to “Kun kello käy” ten years prior, and similarly dramatic lyrics about the grandeur of romance. Not to mention the variety of complex piano chords and string melodies that make the song an absolute journey to listen to. It feels like it’d fit a climactic moment in a movie, or a near-final level in a video game. The title means “When I Love You”, which I’m surprised Turkish can express in one word.

This song has a lot of love put into it and was probably designed to win. It takes the two men, two women formula and splits the lyrics across all four singers, much like several winners. It probably scored poorly due to bad luck, but there is a silver lining. The points were one from Norway and one from the UK, meaning both juries gave it tenth place. In turn, this means that among the 22 members of the juries combined, there’s a good chance at least one ranked this song first place.

Germany: Feuer

Artist: Ireen Sheer, who represented Luxembourg in 1974

Language: German

Key: C minor. Two songs in a row without key changes!

I found Ireen Sheer’s “Bye Bye I Love You” a chore to listen to, so I’m thankful this song has nothing in common with it except the singer. It’s an energetic minor key pop song that even has what sounds like a synth solo after each chorus. The lyrics compare romance to fire, which is powerful but dangerous to play with and burns not just in the fireplace, but inside her heart. The instrumental suits this theme perfectly. Unlike many other minor key Eurovision songs, which like to slip into major key, this one fully commits to being in minor.

Ireen does have an English accent when singing in German, but it’s subtle enough that I’ll let it slide. Unlike her halfhearted singing in French, she truly tries her best in German. I think the contrast between these songs is not because Ireen Sheer improved her skills, but because this song suits her existing skills. Though I think her expressiveness on stage really has improved.

Also, this song has as far as I know the first mid-song costume change in Eurovision: Ireen rips off the scarf atop her dress at the start of the first chorus. This paved the way for more dramatic costume changes in later entries, including two winners: “Making Your Mind Up” and “I Wanna”.

Monaco: Les jardins de Monaco

Artist: Caline (Corrine Sauvage) and Olivier Toussaint

Language: French

Key: C minor

This song is about a romance between childhood friends who got up to mischievous antics as kids in, as the title suggests, the gardens of Monaco. The singers alternate between reflecting on memories in the verses, as if having a conversation. I’m still irked by singers staring at each other in a romantic duet, but this is a fun and energetic composition so it’s not as bad. The minor key matches the song’s message well and makes it sound slightly mischievous, as if the singers are saying, “screw what all the others say, our hijinks as kids were the best and we belong together”.

We’ve now reached three songs in a row without key changes! See, this is the problem with randomized song order. If the order is truly random, then people will notice peculiar patterns anyway, like I did with all the key changes. The purpose of deliberately ordering songs is to ensure there isn’t too much of the same thing in a row.

Greece: Charlie Chaplin

Artist: Tania Tsanaklidou

Language: Greek

Key: G major

Last year Sweden sent a song about how great the Beatles were; this year Greece sent a song about how great Charlie Chaplin was. An odd topic for Greece, but I’ll take it! It was probably a tribute to Chaplin, who died in 1977.

This isn’t far off from how I imagine a song about Charlie Chaplin would sound. It’s upbeat and jazzy, like what you’d hear in an old movie, and it’s heavy in piano and flute. Tania would have definitely sung this in English if allowed to, and she did record an English version (with a thick Greek accent), but that would have been so much more boring. Hearing a song with a combination of language and genre you wouldn’t expect is part of the fun of Eurovision, especially in the 70’s and 80’s. This song is as goofy as it is charming. I love how excited she looks to sing about Charlie Chaplin.

Denmark: Boom Boom

Artist: Mabel (a band)

Language: Danish

Key: G major

Denmark is back after 12 years! It was a country’s longest Eurovision hiatus up to this point. The record was beaten first by Malta in 1991, then Monaco in 2004, then Luxembourg will beat it in 2024. Assuming Belgium participates, it will be the first Eurovision since 1993 with all seven participants of the first Eurovision. Apparently the ability to sing in English wasn’t enough to lure Denmark back into Eurovision. Instead, they rejoined when their broadcaster got a new head of entertainment, who viewed Eurovision more favorably than the old one.

Oh man, I missed the Danish language more than I thought. Make all the potato jokes you want, but I think it sounds melodious when you get used to it. The language is used for a country style song with two guys on guitar, one on ukelele, and one on timpani matching the “boom boom” lyrics. In Nordic storytelling fashion, the lyrics are about a man who went to the doctor because his heart felt funny, and was told that’s what happens when you’re in love with a girl.

One tiny problem with the performance was that these guys polished their guitars a bit too much, shown when the camera hits them at the right angle. Otherwise, it’s a cute and charming song.

Luxembourg: Parlez-vous français ?

Artist: Baccara, a duo from Spain

Language: Take a wild guess

Key: F major

Continuing the strange pattern of people who don’t natively speak French, Luxembourg sent a whole song about how great the French language is. If this were about any other language, like English or German or Russian, it could only ever be satirical, but this song is so sincere! It starts with the singers conversing in French with a stereotypical romantic tone, then they elaborately dance while singing about this language. It’s cheesy in a way befitting Eurovision, but it implicitly feels haughty towards languages that aren’t French.

Israel: A-Ba-Ni-Bi (א-ב-ני-בי) (the winner)

Artist: Izhar Cohen and the Alphabeta

Language: He-Be-Re-Brew, wait, I mean Hebrew

Key: C minor, and C♯ minor but only at the very end

The broadcast of this show romanizes this song as Ah-Bah-Nee-Bee, which is annoyingly Anglocentric. All those H’s and double E’s aren’t even necessary for English speakers—“A-Ba-Ni-Bi” can be read just fine. Whenever people use the digraph “ah” to indicate how to pronounce something, I’m never sure whether they mean a schwa or the vowel in “father”. Maybe that’s the overanalytical linguist inside me and it’s intuitive to everyone else, but I think using all those “ah” and “eh” and “uh” syllables to indicate pronunciation is completely unhelpful.

The meaning of the song’s title is quite interesting. It’s the word for “I” (ani), but with a B inserted in each syllable to make “a-ba-ni-bi”—a classic Hebrew language game akin to Ubbi Dubbi or Pig Latin. This language game is applied to the phrase “I love you” (ani ohev otach) to make “a-ba-ni-bi o-bo-he-bev o-bo-ta-bach”. The rest of the song is about the perils of love and the need to express it in a secret language.

Now, the other thing I find interesting about this song is that the composition absolutely screams Israel. It’s in a minor key throughout, it’s lively and upbeat and brassy, and it’s got a lot of characteristic Hebrew sounds, so it’s very close to my perception of Israeli music. The song has a few extra sections to spice it up: a slow section after the second chorus, and before the last chorus, a funky instrumental break that would fit with Jet Set Radio style vocal samples. It’s not as polished as other 70’s winners, but it’s still a super fun song.

This song’s victory is significant to Eurovision history, because it cemented that Eurovision is about more than just European music. Israel didn’t win with a traditionally European song, but one true to their own musical culture. The contest has gradually become a celebration of the entire world’s music, and the inclusion of “rest of the world” voting is the latest proof of that. The rest of the world’s musical tastes can be surprising!

Austria: Mrs. Caroline Robinson

Artist: Springtime

Language: German

Key: C major

I can easily tell this song was originally in English. When the band sings the song’s title, they do it in a very English way. Still, this is a nice glam rock song with mild Lou Reed vibes, although it’s a little short. Terry Wogan claimed this song didn’t stand much of a chance to win, but he would have probably thought it would win if this was the British entry. He was right, though: it only got 15th place. I checked out the English version, and indeed it feels like the original version.

Sweden: Det blir alltid värre framåt natten

Artist: Björn Skifs

Language: Swedish, except the nonsense improvisation

Key: F major

Much like Norway’s representative, Björn Skifs caused some mischief in his performance, but you’d only notice it if you either can speak Swedish, or if you read about it like I did. He was almost going to perform this song in English to protest the language rule, but he ultimately didn’t have the guts to. Let’s be real, this was probably for the best. After all, Sweden singing in English is why the language rule happened in the first place.

Because of his original plan, when Björn performed the song on stage, he forgot the second line of the lyrics and did something clever. He improvised gibberish that sounds close enough to Swedish, so that most of the audience wouldn’t notice. The crazy thing is that the one jury most likely to understand the lyrics, namely the Norwegian jury, gave this song ten points! Either they appreciated Björn’s ability to improvise, or they felt the rest of the song compensated for the mishap.

Musically, this is a decent moody semi-ballad song, but not as good as Austria’s song. The title means “it always gets worse when the night comes”. The lyrics are about the experience of losing his love interest, as well as the difficulty of taking his mind off of it.

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Who’s my favorite?

There’s not as much competition in this year as prior years. Germany and Israel both sent excellent songs, but nothing took me to another world quite like Turkey, Sevince. That song is so full of soaring energy. In a decade where I’ve largely agreed with the winners, it’s nice to pick a hidden gem instead.

• Austria, 1
• Belgium, 1
• Denmark, 1
• Finland, 1
• France, 1
• Germany, 2
• Ireland, 1
• Luxembourg, 2
• Netherlands, 6
• Norway, 2
• Portugal, 1
• Sweden, 3
• Turkey, 1
• (10 winners)

Turkey got on my list after only their second entry! Impressive, I must say.

General thoughts:

While the French-speaking host announced the voting, the British commentator reflected on the entries. Although he had rooted for the British entry at first, he predicted Belgium would win. Then he reflected on the more surprising winners of recent years, which I found endearing. He was just some guy who liked to speculate on Eurovision like the rest of us.

The interval acts have become less weird lately. A lot of them have been jazzy, like both this year; the first was a jazz band, and the second was a violin duet. They’re well suited for waiting for votes, at least. The voting actually went smoothly this time; the closest thing to mishaps were the furthest away juries (like Turkey) talking louder than necessary.

As for the songs, this was one of the weaker years of the 70’s. The first half had a lot of pop songs that blended together, while the second half had most of the gems. It must have been surprising when Israel won the competition, but as I said earlier, it proves the contest celebrates more than just European music. Weirdly enough, most Israeli fans were oblivious they won until the next day. The Israeli broadcaster was in grayscale and didn’t buy enough time to show the whole contest, so Israeli viewers largely watched from neighboring broadcasters instead. Unfortunately, those broadcasters cut short before Israel won.

If there’s one takeaway from Eurovision 1978, it’s that the non-European countries aren’t just extras thrown in for fun, but are vital members of the Eurovision family.

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See you next time for the second Israeli victory in a row.

>> 1979: Dschinghis Khan and Some Other Stuff