| Eurovision Song Contest | |
| Year: | 1979 |
| Final: | 31 March 1979 |
| Musdirector: | Izhak Graziani |
| Director: | Yossi Zemach |
| Exsupervisor: | Frank Naef |
| Exproducer: | Alex Gilady |
| Host: | Israel Broadcasting Authority (IBA) |
| Venue: | International Convention Center Jerusalem, Israel |
| Winner: | "Hallelujah" |
| Vote: | Each country awarded 12, 10, 8–1 point(s) to their 10 favourite songs |
| Entries: | 19 |
| Debut: | None |
| Return: | None |
| Map Nosemis: | Y |
The Eurovision Song Contest 1979 was the 24th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Jerusalem, Israel, following the country's victory at the with the song "A-Ba-Ni-Bi" by Izhar Cohen and the Alphabeta. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster the Israel Broadcasting Authority (IBA), the contest was held at the International Convention Centre on 31 March 1979, and was hosted by Israeli television presenter Daniel Pe'er and singer Yardena Arazi. This was the first time that the Eurovision Song Contest was held outside Europe.
Nineteen countries participated in the contest, with deciding not to participate after Arab countries had pressured it into not participating in a contest held in Israel.[1], which had missed the 1977 and 1978 contests, also did not take part in or broadcast the contest this year for political reasons,[2] despite an earlier public poll in which almost 100,000 people supported a Yugoslav return to the contest.[3]
For the second year in a row, won with the song "Hallelujah", performed by the Israeli group Milk and Honey featuring Gali Atari.
The contest took place at the International Convention Centre, also called Hebrew: Binyenei HaUma|i=unset in Jerusalem, following Israel's win at the with the song "A-Ba-Ni-Bi" performed by Izhar Cohen and Alphabeta. The venue, the largest convention center in the Middle East, hosted the contest in the Ussishkin Auditorium which seats an audience of more than 3,000 and where it traditionally hosts other musical events including classical and pop stars concerts.[4]
The city's ancient, religious and modern scenery was reflected through a film which opened the broadcast. The city's history as one of the oldest and holiest in the world, was shown through the biblical and medieval monuments and sites sacred to Judaism, Christianity and Islam, as well as visitors and city's residents who frequent them while practicing their faiths. The city's governmental, cultural and educational institutions and monuments, as well as the streets and people outside the ancient wall, were shown at the opening and conclusion of the film.
At one point before the contest Turkey had planned to participate. The country would have appeared 11th on stage (between Israel and France), represented by Maria Rita Epik and 21. Peron with the song "Turkish: Seviyorum|i=unset". However, Turkey later ended up withdrawing from the contest following pressure from Arab states, who objected to a predominantly Muslim country taking part in a contest held in Israel.[5] [6]
| + Participants of the Eurovision Song Contest 1979[7] [8] | |||||||
| Country | Broadcaster | Artist | Song | Language | Songwriter(s) | Conductor | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORF | Christina Simon | "German: Heute in Jerusalem|i=unset" | German | Richard Oesterreicher | |||
| BRT | Micha Marah | "Hey Nana" | Dutch | Francis Bay | |||
| DR | Tommy Seebach | "Disco Tango" | Danish | Allan Botschinsky | |||
| YLE | Katri Helena | "Finnish: [[Katson sineen taivaan]]|i=unset" | Finnish | Ossi Runne | |||
| TF1 | Anne-Marie David | "French: [[Je suis l'enfant soleil]]|i=unset" | French | Guy Mattéoni | |||
| BR | Dschinghis Khan | "German: [[Dschinghis Khan (song)|Dschinghis Khan]]|i=unset" | German | Norbert Daum | |||
| ERT | Elpida | "Greek, Modern (1453-);: Socrates|i=unset" (Greek, Modern (1453-);: Σωκράτη) | Greek | Lefteris Halkiadakis | |||
| RTÉ | Cathal Dunne | "Happy Man" | English | Cathal Dunne | Proinnsías Ó Duinn | ||
| IBA | Milk and Honey | "Hallelujah" (Hebrew: הללויה) | Hebrew | Kobi Oshrat | |||
| RAI | Matia Bazar | "Italian: Raggio di luna|i=unset" | Italian | ||||
| CLT | Jeane Manson | "French: J'ai déjà vu ça dans tes yeux|i=unset" | French | Jean Renard | Hervé Roy | ||
| TMC | Laurent Vaguener | "French: Notre vie c'est la musique|i=unset" | French | Gérard Salesses | |||
| NOS | Xandra | "Colorado" | Dutch | Harry van Hoof | |||
| NRK | Anita Skorgan | "Oliver" | Norwegian | Sigurd Jansen | |||
| RTP | Manuela Bravo | "Portuguese: Sobe, sobe, balão sobe|i=unset" | Portuguese | Carlos Nóbrega e Sousa | Thilo Krasmann | ||
| TVE | Betty Missiego | "Spanish; Castilian: [[Su canción]]|i=unset" | Spanish | Fernando Moreno | José Luis Navarro | ||
| SR | Ted Gärdestad | "Swedish: [[Satellit]]|i=unset" | Swedish | Lars Samuelson | |||
| SRG SSR | Peter, Sue and Marc, Pfuri, Gorps and Kniri | "German: Trödler und Co.|i=unset" | German | Peter Reber | Rolf Zuckowski | ||
| BBC | Black Lace | "Mary Ann" | English | Peter Morris | Ken Jones |
Bold indicates a previous winner
| Artist | Country | Previous year(s) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Peter, Sue and Marc | , | ||
| Xandra | (Along with Andres Holten), (as Sandra Reemer) | ||
| Anne-Marie David | (for) | ||
| Anita Skorgan |
The 24th contest's logo featured a combination of a G-clef, the IBA logo, and the names of all participating countries in order of appearance.
The stage concept was designed by Dov Ben David. On stage there was a moving symbol which was based on the IBA logo (which was built like a lamp with 3 concentric rings) using a small projected model.[9]
Since Israeli Television had yet to broadcast in colour at that point (except for a few special occasions), the production had to borrow cameras from the BBC - the same had happened when RTÉ had hosted the 1971 contest in Dublin.
The IBA Symphony Orchestra, directed by conductor Izhak Graziani played the music of each song (except for the Italian entry, which did not use the orchestra). This was the only contest where the orchestra was composed of 39 musicians.
This year, the postcards between each song featured mime artists rather than the participating singers. The mime artists featured were the Yoram Boker Mime Group, and included some of Israel's leading mime artists, among them Ezra Dagan and Hanoch Rozen. The group performed on a background of illustrations created by Dudu Geva and Yochanan Lakitzevitz, that featured landmarks and typical landscapes of the respective countries.
The intermission between the songs and the voting was presented by a performance of the Shalom '79 Dancing Ensemble, who performed a variety of Israeli folk dances. The performance was directed by the ensemble's manager and choreographer Gavri Levy.
| + Results of the Eurovision Song Contest 1979[10] | ||||||
| Country | Artist | Song | Points | Place | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Portuguese: Sobe, sobe, balão sobe|i=unset" | 64 | 9 | |||
| 2 | Matia Bazar | "Italian: Raggio di luna|i=unset" | 27 | 15 | ||
| 3 | "Disco Tango" | 76 | 6 | |||
| 4 | "Happy Man" | 80 | 5 | |||
| 5 | Katri Helena | "Finnish: [[Katson sineen taivaan]]|i=unset" | 38 | 14 | ||
| 6 | "French: Notre vie c'est la musique|i=unset" | 12 | 16 | |||
| 7 | Elpida | "Greek, Modern (1453-);: Socrates|i=unset" | 69 | 8 | ||
| 8 | Peter, Sue and Marc, Pfuri, Gorps and Kniri | "German: Trödler und Co.|i=unset" | 60 | 10 | ||
| 9 | Dschinghis Khan | "German: [[Dschinghis Khan (song)|Dschinghis Khan]]|i=unset" | 86 | 4 | ||
| 10 | Milk and Honey | "Hallelujah" | 125 | 1 | ||
| 11 | "French: [[Je suis l'enfant soleil]]|i=unset" | 106 | 3 | |||
| 12 | "Hey Nana" | 5 | 18 | |||
| 13 | "French: J'ai déjà vu ça dans tes yeux|i=unset" | 44 | 13 | |||
| 14 | Xandra | "Colorado" | 51 | 12 | ||
| 15 | Ted Gärdestad | "Swedish: [[Satellit]]|i=unset" | 8 | 17 | ||
| 16 | "Oliver" | 57 | 11 | |||
| 17 | Black Lace | "Mary Ann" | 73 | 7 | ||
| 18 | "German: Heute in Jerusalem|i=unset" | 5 | 18 | |||
| 19 | "Spanish; Castilian: [[Su canción]]|i=unset" | 116 | 2 |
Each country nominated a spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for their respective country via telephone. Known spokespersons at the 1979 contest are listed below.
The voting was extremely close. Israel gained a good lead in the early stages of the voting, but Spain eventually caught up and took a good lead themselves. At the close of the penultimate jury's votes, Israel were one point behind Spain, and only the Spanish jury had yet to give their votes. Spain ended up giving Israel 10 points, causing the crowd to erupt into enormous cheers.
| + Detailed voting results[15] [16] | |||||||||||||||||||||
| scope="col" | |||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Portugal | 64 | 6 | 2 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 10 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 7 | 6 | |||||||
| Italy | 27 | 8 | 8 | 3 | 8 | ||||||||||||||||
| Denmark | 76 | 2 | 3 | 12 | 1 | 10 | 12 | 6 | 7 | 4 | 8 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 4 | ||||||
| Ireland | 80 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 10 | 6 | 6 | 3 | 10 | 7 | 8 | 5 | 4 | |||||||
| Finland | 38 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 5 | 5 | 6 | ||||||||||||||
| Monaco | 12 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 2 | |||||||||||||||
| Greece | 69 | 10 | 1 | 4 | 7 | 7 | 2 | 10 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 7 | ||||||
| Switzerland | 60 | 7 | 1 | 10 | 2 | 2 | 7 | 4 | 7 | 8 | 12 | ||||||||||
| Germany | 86 | 2 | 1 | 12 | 5 | 3 | 12 | 6 | 12 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 8 | 12 | ||||||
| Israel | 125 | 12 | 6 | 12 | 12 | 8 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 8 | 1 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 8 | 10 | ||||
| France | 106 | 6 | 10 | 1 | 10 | 8 | 10 | 5 | 6 | 12 | 12 | 5 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 3 | |||||
| Belgium | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | |||||||||||||||||
| Luxembourg | 44 | 7 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 10 | ||||||||||
| Netherlands | 51 | 8 | 10 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 7 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | ||||||||||
| Sweden | 8 | 6 | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||||||||
| Norway | 57 | 3 | 3 | 8 | 6 | 2 | 8 | 2 | 6 | 10 | 7 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||
| United Kingdom | 73 | 4 | 8 | 10 | 7 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 8 | 5 | 10 | 6 | 5 | ||||||||
| Austria | 5 | 4 | 1 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Spain | 116 | 12 | 3 | 6 | 12 | 12 | 8 | 8 | 12 | 10 | 10 | 7 | 1 | 5 | 10 | ||||||
Below is a summary of all 12 points in the final:
| N. | Contestant | Nation(s) giving 12 points | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | ,,,,, | ||
| 4 | ,,, | ||
| ,,, | |||
| 2 | , | ||
| , | |||
| 1 |
Known details on the broadcasts in each country, including the specific broadcasting stations and commentators are shown in the tables below. In addition to the participating countries, the contest was also reportedly broadcast in Hong Kong, Iceland and Romania. The contest was not broadcast in Yugoslavia for the first time since 1961, as the nation had no diplomatic ties with Israel.
| + Broadcasters and commentators in participating countries | ||||
| Country | Broadcaster | Channel(s) | Commentator(s) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORF | FS1 | Ernst Grissemann | [18] | |
| BRT | TV1 | [19] | ||
| RTBF | RTBF1 | Paule Herreman | ||
| DR | DR TV | Jørgen de Mylius | [20] | |
| YLE | TV1, | [21] [22] | ||
| TF1 | Marc Menant | [23] | ||
| ARD | German: [[Das Erste|Deutsches Fernsehen]]|i=unset | Gaby Schnelle and | [24] | |
| RTÉ | RTÉ 1 | Mike Murphy | [25] [26] | |
| RTÉ Radio | [27] | |||
| IBA | Israeli Television | [28] | ||
| Army Radio | [29] | |||
| RAI | Italian: [[Rai 1|Rete Uno]]|i=unset | Rosanna Vaudetti | [30] | |
| CLT | French: [[RTL9|RTL Télé-Luxembourg]]|i=unset | [31] | ||
| RTL Radio | ||||
| NOS | Dutch; Flemish: [[NPO 2|Nederland 2]]|i=unset | Willem Duys | [32] [33] | |
| NRK | Norwegian: [[NRK1|NRK Fjernsynet]]|i=unset | [34] | ||
| NRK | ||||
| RTP | RTP1 | Fialho Gouveia | [35] [36] | |
| Portuguese: [[Antena 1 (Portugal)|RDP Programa 1]]|i=unset | [37] | |||
| TVE | TVE 1 | [38] [39] | ||
| SR | TV1 | Ulf Elfving | ||
| SR P3 | Kent Finell | |||
| SRG SSR | TV DRS | [40] | ||
| TSR | [41] | |||
| TSI | [42] [43] | |||
| RSI 1 | ||||
| BBC | BBC1 | John Dunn | [44] | |
| BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 1 VHF | Ray Moore | [45] | ||
| + Broadcasters and commentators in non-participating countries | ||||
| Country | Broadcaster | Channel(s) | Commentator(s) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| TVB | TVB Jade | Regina Hing Yue Tsang and Lee Chi-chung | [46] | |
| TVB Pearl | George Lam | |||
| RÚV | Icelandic: [[RÚV (TV channel)|Sjónvarpið]]|i=unset | Björn Baldursson | [47] | |
| TeleAruba | [48] | |||
| TeleCuraçao | [49] | |||
