The Eurovision Song Contest 1980 was the Silver Anniversary edition and was held on 19 April 1980 in The Hague, Netherlands. The presenter was Marlous Fluitsma, although each song was introduced by a presenter from the participating country in their native language. In some cases, this was the same person providing the commentary.
Israel, winners in 1979, declined to host the show for the second time in a row, as the IBA could not fund another international production, and the Israeli government turned down a request to extend the IBA budget. Moreover, the date that was eventually set for the 1980 contest by the European Broadcasting Union coincided with Israel's Day of Remembrance for their casualties of war, so Israel decided not to participate at all. Spain (who finished runner-up in 1979) and the United Kingdom also declined to host, but the Dutch broadcaster NOS volunteered to put on the show provided that they had the ability to scale down the production. Some of the footage from the opening sequence was actually recycled from the opening of the 1976 contest, which was also held in The Hague.
Morocco joined the Eurovision family for the first (and so far only) time. It is rumored that they were only brought in to replace Israel. Monaco also withdrew, and would not return until the 2004 semi final. Turkey returned after a year away.
The contest was won by Ireland for the second time with the song What's Another Year performed by Johnny Logan.
Participants[]
Draw | Country | Artist | Song | Language | Translation | Place | Points |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
01 | Austria | Blue Danube | Du bist Musik | German | You are music | 8 | 64 |
02 | Türkiye | Ajda Pekkan | Petr'Oil | Turkish | -- | 15 | 23 |
03 | Greece | Anna Vissi & The Epikouri | Autostop | Greek | Hitch-hiking | 13 | 30 |
04 | Luxembourg | Sophie & Magaly | Papa Pingouin | French | Papa Penguin | 9 | 56 |
05 | Morocco | Samira Bensaïd | Bitaqat Hob | Arabic | Love card | 18 | 7 |
06 | Italy | Alan Sorrenti | Non so che darei | Italian | I don't know what to give | 6 | 87 |
07 | Denmark | Bamses Venner | Tænker altid på dig | Danish | Always thinking of you | 14 | 25 |
08 | Sweden | Tomas Ledin | Just nu! | Swedish | Right now! | 10 | 47 |
09 | Switzerland | Paola del Medico | Cinéma | French | Cinema | 4 | 104 |
10 | Finland | Vesa-Matti Loiri | Huilumies | Finnish | A flute man | 19 | 6 |
11 | Norway | Sverre & Mattis | Sámiid Ædnan | Norwegian | Lapland | 16 | 15 |
12 | Germany | Katja Ebstein | Theater | German | -- | 2 | 128 |
13 | United Kingdom | Prima Donna | Love Enough For Two | English | 3 | 106 | |
14 | Portugal | José Cid | Um grande, grande amor | Portuguese | A big, big love | 7 | 71 |
15 | The Netherlands | Maggie MacNeal | Amsterdam | Dutch | -- | 5 | 93 |
16 | France | Profil | Hé, hé M'sieurs, dames | French | Hey, hey, ladies and gentlemen | 11 | 45 |
17 | Ireland | Johnny Logan | What's Another Year | English | -- | 1 | 143 |
18 | Spain | Trigo Limpio | Quédate esta noche | Spanish | Stay tonight | 12 | 38 |
19 | Belgium | Télex | Eurovision | French | -- | 17 | 14 |
Trivia[]
- This was the first year the points were read in ascending numerical order. This was to increase the excitement factor for the audience as to which country would get the 12 points.
- Presenter Marlous Fluitsma used a different phone to call each country for their results during the voting sequence, most notably a Mickey Mouse phone was used to call the United Kingdom.
- Katja Ebstein became the only artist to finish in the top three on three different occasions without having won the contest.
- Israel became the first country to not defend its title after winning in 1979.
- The Belgian entry was the first (and at present, only) song to mention the contest directly by name and include "Te Deum" in its melody.
- Hé, hé M'sieurs, dames marks the 400th song performed in the contest.
- Eurovision Again used the scoreboard images from The Reorder Board YouTube channel during the voting for its airing of the 1980 contest in July 2021. This made the scoring easier to follow.
- It would be the last time that another country stepped in to host by deferral from the winning nation until 2023, when the United Kingdom hosted on behalf of Ukraine (winner of 2022) when it was impossible for the latter to do so.