| Eurovision Song Contest | |
| Year: | 1977 |
| Final: | 7 May 1977 |
| Presenters: | Angela Rippon |
| Musdirector: | Ronnie Hazlehurst |
| Director: | Stewart Morris |
| Exsupervisor: | Clifford Brown |
| Exproducer: | Bill Cotton |
| Winner: | "French: [[L'Oiseau et l'Enfant]]|i=unset" |
| Vote: | Each country awarded 12, 10, 8-1 points to their 10 favourite songs |
| Host: | British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) |
| Venue: | Wembley Conference Centre London, United Kingdom |
| Entries: | 18 |
| Debut: | None |
| Map Nosemis Withdrawal: | Y |
The Eurovision Song Contest 1977 was the 22nd edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in London, United Kingdom, following the country's victory at the with the song "Save Your Kisses for Me" by Brotherhood of Man. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), the contest was held at the Wembley Conference Centre on 7 May 1977, marking the first time the event took place in the month of May since the first contest in .[1] The contest was directed by Stewart Morris and hosted by English journalist Angela Rippon.[2]
Eighteen countries participated in the contest; returned after its absence from the previous edition, while decided not to enter.
The winner was with the song "French: [[L'Oiseau et l'Enfant]]|i=unset", performed by Marie Myriam, written by Joe Gracy, and composed by Jean-Paul Cara. The,, and rounded out the top five. Greece's fifth place finish was their best result up to that point. France' fifth win was also a record at the time, and one that France held onto for six years, until being equalled by Luxembourg in .
Wembley Conference Centre was chosen to host the contest. The venue was the first purpose-built conference centre in the United Kingdom, and opened on 31 January 1977—making it a newly built venue at the time. It was demolished in 2006.
At the night of the contest, 2,000 spectators were present in the audience.
was set to participate in the contest and had been drawn to participate in fourth place, but later withdrew. decided not to enter and would not return to the contest until 1981 due to bad results in the years prior,[3] while Sweden returned to the competition, having missed out the year before.[4] This made for eighteen participating nations.
The language rule was brought back in this contest, four years after it had been dropped in . However and were allowed to sing in English, because they had already chosen the songs they were going to perform before the rule was reintroduced.
| + Participants of the Eurovision Song Contest 1977[5] [6] [7] | |||||||
| Country | Broadcaster | Artist | Song | Language | Songwriter(s) | Conductor | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORF | Schmetterlinge | "Boom Boom Boomerang" | German | Christian Kolonovits | |||
| BRT | Dream Express | "A Million in One, Two, Three" | English | Luc Smets | Alyn Ainsworth | ||
| YLE | Monica Aspelund | "Lapponia" | Finnish | Ossi Runne | |||
| TF1 | Marie Myriam | "French: [[L'Oiseau et l'Enfant]]|i=unset" | French | Raymond Donnez | |||
| HR | Silver Convention | "Telegram" | English | Ronnie Hazlehurst | |||
| ERT | Pascalis, Marianna, Robert and Bessy | "Greek, Modern (1453-);: Mathema solfege|i=unset" (Greek, Modern (1453-);: Μάθημα σολφέζ) | Greek | Giorgos Hatzinasios | |||
| RTÉ | The Swarbriggs Plus Two | "It's Nice to Be in Love Again" | English | Noel Kelehan | |||
| IBA | Ilanit | "Hebrew: Ahava Hi Shir Lishnayim|i=unset" (Hebrew: אהבה היא שיר לשניים) | Hebrew | Eldad Shrem | |||
| RAI | Mia Martini | "Italian: Libera|i=unset" | Italian | Maurizio Fabrizio | |||
| CLT | Anne-Marie B | "French: Frère Jacques|i=unset" | French | Johnny Arthey | |||
| TMC | Michèle Torr | "French: Une petite française|i=unset" | French | Yvon Rioland | |||
| NOS | Heddy Lester | "Dutch; Flemish: De mallemolen|i=unset" | Dutch | Harry van Hoof | |||
| NRK | Anita Skorgan | "Casanova" | Norwegian | Carsten Klouman | |||
| RTP | Os Amigos | "Portuguese: Portugal no coração|i=unset" | Portuguese | José Calvário | |||
| TVE | Micky | "Spanish; Castilian: Enséñame a cantar|i=unset" | Spanish | Fernando Arbex | Rafael Ibarbia | ||
| SR | Forbes | "Beatles" | Swedish | Anders Berglund | |||
| SRG SSR | Pepe Lienhard Band | "Swiss Lady" | German | Peter Reber | Peter Jacques | ||
| BBC | Lynsey de Paul and Mike Moran | "Rock Bottom" | English | Ronnie Hazlehurst |
| Artist | Country | Previous year(s) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Michèle Torr | (for) | ||
| Beatrix Neundlinger and Günter Grosslercher (as part of Schmetterlinge) | (as part of Milestones) | ||
| Patricia Maessen, Bianca Maessen, and Stella Maessen (as part of Dream Express) | (for as Hearts of Soul) | ||
| Ilanit | |||
| Fernando Tordo (as part of Os Amigos) | |||
| Paulo de Carvalho (as part of Os Amigos) | |||
| The Swarbriggs |
The contest was originally planned to be held on 2 April 1977, but because of a strike of the BBC cameramen and its technicians, it got postponed for a month. As a result, this was the first Eurovision Song Contest to be staged in May since the inaugural edition.[1]
Due to strikes by the BBC camera staff, and lack of time to organise the contest, there were no postcards for the viewers in between the songs. However, various shots of the contest's audience were shown, with the various countries' commentators informing the viewers of the upcoming songs. The intended postcards had been devised using footage of the artists in London during a party hosted by the BBC at a London nightclub. When the postcards were seen for the first time by the participant heads of delegation at the Friday dress rehearsal the day before the final, the Norwegian delegation objected to the way their artist was portrayed. However, as it was not possible for the BBC to edit or revise footage, all the postcards had to be dropped from the broadcast. Footage from the party still formed the interval act broadcast prior to the voting sequence.[8]
| + Results of the Eurovision Song Contest 1977[9] | ||||||
| Country | Artist | Song | Points | Place | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "It's Nice to Be in Love Again" | 119 | 3 | |||
| 2 | "French: Une petite française|i=unset" | 96 | 4 | |||
| 3 | "Dutch; Flemish: De mallemolen|i=unset" | 35 | 12 | |||
| 4 | Schmetterlinge | "Boom Boom Boomerang" | 11 | 17 | ||
| 5 | "Casanova" | 18 | 14 | |||
| 6 | Silver Convention | "Telegram" | 55 | 8 | ||
| 7 | "French: Frère Jacques|i=unset" | 17 | 16 | |||
| 8 | "Portuguese: Portugal no coração|i=unset" | 18 | 14 | |||
| 9 | and Mike Moran | "Rock Bottom" | 121 | 2 | ||
| 10 | Pascalis, Marianna, Robert and Bessy | "Greek, Modern (1453-);: Mathema solfege|i=unset" | 92 | 5 | ||
| 11 | Ilanit | "Hebrew: Ahava Hi Shir Lishnayim|i=unset" | 49 | 11 | ||
| 12 | "Swiss Lady" | 71 | 6 | |||
| 13 | Forbes | "Beatles" | 2 | 18 | ||
| 14 | Micky | "Spanish; Castilian: Enséñame a cantar|i=unset" | 52 | 9 | ||
| 15 | "Italian: Libera|i=unset" | 33 | 13 | |||
| 16 | "Lapponia" | 50 | 10 | |||
| 17 | Dream Express | "A Million in One, Two, Three" | 69 | 7 | ||
| 18 | "French: [[L'Oiseau et l'Enfant]]|i=unset" | 136 | 1 |
Each country nominated a spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for their respective country via telephone. Known spokespersons at the 1977 contest are listed below.
| + Detailed voting results[12] [13] | ||||||||||||||||||||
| scope="col" | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ireland | 119 | 8 | 1 | 5 | 12 | 5 | 8 | 1 | 12 | 10 | 12 | 8 | 12 | 4 | 8 | 3 | 10 | |||
| Monaco | 96 | 5 | 8 | 1 | 6 | 1 | 6 | 7 | 12 | 2 | 6 | 10 | 8 | 12 | 5 | 2 | 5 | |||
| Netherlands | 35 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 1 | 10 | 8 | ||||||||||
| Austria | 11 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 1 | |||||||||||||||
| Norway | 18 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 5 | |||||||||||||
| Germany | 55 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 1 | ||||||
| Luxembourg | 17 | 2 | 7 | 8 | ||||||||||||||||
| Portugal | 18 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 6 | |||||||||||||
| United Kingdom | 121 | 12 | 7 | 12 | 7 | 10 | 12 | 12 | 8 | 8 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 12 | 12 | |||||
| Greece | 92 | 10 | 10 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 10 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 7 | 12 | 1 | 6 | 6 | 3 | |||
| Israel | 49 | 7 | 7 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 10 | 3 | 6 | 1 | 2 | |||||||||
| Switzerland | 71 | 6 | 10 | 10 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 10 | 8 | ||||||||
| Sweden | 2 | 2 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Spain | 52 | 6 | 1 | 7 | 7 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 7 | 7 | 7 | |||||||||
| Italy | 33 | 8 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 7 | |||||||||||
| Finland | 50 | 12 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 2 | 7 | 5 | 2 | 4 | ||||||||||
| Belgium | 69 | 4 | 12 | 6 | 8 | 4 | 7 | 10 | 5 | 6 | 4 | 3 | ||||||||
| France | 136 | 10 | 4 | 8 | 7 | 3 | 12 | 10 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 10 | 12 | 6 | 10 | 10 | 12 | 4 | ||
Below is a summary of all 12 points in the final:
| N. | Contestant | Nation(s) giving 12 points |
|---|---|---|
| 6 | ,,,,, | |
| 4 | ,,, | |
| 3 | ,, | |
| 2 | , | |
| 1 | ||
In addition to the participating countries, the contest was also reportedly broadcast in Algeria, Denmark, Iceland, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia, Turkey and Yugoslavia, in Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania and the Soviet Union via Intervision, and in Hong Kong. Estimates for the global viewership ranged from 300 to 500 million viewers.[15] [16] [17]
Known details on the broadcasts in each country, including the specific broadcasting stations and commentators are shown in the tables below.
| + Broadcasters and commentators in participating countries | ||||
| Country | Broadcaster | Channel(s) | Commentator(s) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORF | FS1 | Ernst Grissemann | [18] | |
| BRT | TV1 | Luc Appermont | [19] [20] | |
| Radio 1 | [21] | |||
| RTB | RTB1 | |||
| YLE | TV1 | [22] | ||
| TF1 | Georges de Caunes | [23] | ||
| ARD | German: [[Das Erste|Deutsches Fernsehen]]|i=unset | Werner Veigel | [24] | |
| RTÉ | RTÉ | Mike Murphy | [25] [26] | |
| RTÉ Radio | [27] | |||
| IBA | Israeli Television | [28] | ||
| RAI | Rete Uno | Silvio Noto | [29] | |
| CLT | French: [[RTL9|RTL Télé-Luxembourg]]|i=unset | [30] | ||
| NOS | Dutch; Flemish: [[NPO 2|Nederland 2]]|i=unset | [31] | ||
| NRK | Norwegian: [[NRK1|NRK Fjernsynet]]|i=unset | John Andreassen | [32] | |
| NRK | ||||
| RTP | Portuguese: [[RTP1|I Programa]]|i=unset | [33] | ||
| TVE | TVE 1 | [34] [35] | ||
| SR | TV1 | Ulf Elfving | ||
| SR P3 | and Åke Strömmer | |||
| SRG SSR | TV DRS | [36] | ||
| TSR | [37] | |||
| TSI | [38] | |||
| RSR 2 | Robert Burnier | [39] | ||
| RSI 2 | ||||
| BBC | BBC1 | Pete Murray | [40] | |
| BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 2 | Terry Wogan | [41] [42] | ||
| + Broadcasters and commentators in non-participating countries | ||||
| Country | Broadcaster | Channel(s) | Commentator(s) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CyBC | RIK | [43] | ||
| DR | DR TV | Claus Toksvig | [44] | |
| TVB | TVB Pearl | [45] | ||
| RTV | RTV-2 | |||
| MTV | MTV2 | [46] | ||
| RÚV | Icelandic: [[RÚV (TV channel)|Sjónvarpið]]|i=unset | [47] | ||
| TeleAruba | [48] | |||
| TeleCuraçao | [49] | |||
| TP | TP1 | [50] | ||
| TVR | Romanian; Moldavian; Moldovan: [[TVR 1|Programul 1]]|i=unset | [51] | ||
| TRT | Turkish: [[TRT 1|TRT Televizyon]]|i=unset | Bülend Özveren | [52] | |
| Ümit Tunçağ | ||||
| JRT | TV Beograd 1 | [53] | ||
| [54] | ||||
| TV Zagreb 1 | [55] | |||
