Amph History of the Eurovision Song Contest - recap of the ESC 2010-2019

So over at the temp boards I started a countdown of all Eurovision Song Contest, and I came up to 1973 before we moved to these boards. Now inspired by the Eurovision week that has been I feel it's time to continue. It's also a good year to start anew with, since 1974 is a watershed in this history of the ESC.

First a recap though, for those of you who aren't familiar with the ESC.

The ESC is an annual song contest. It's been held since 1956 and is the most viewed non-sporting event, with up to 600 million viewers world wide. Members of the EBU, the European Broadcast Union, can take part. Each nation sends a song to the contest, the song is performed live, and afterwards each participation nation awards points to their favorite songs. The song with the most points wins the contest. The winner gets to host the contest the following year.

1974
Location: Brighton, UK
Winner: Waterloo - ABBA, Sweden.
Participating countries: Finland, UK, Spain, Norway, Greece, Israel, Yugoslavia, Sweden, Luxembourg, Monaco, Belgium, the Netherlands, Ireland, Germany, Switzerland, Portugal, Italy

The contest was held in Brighton. Luxembourg had won in 1973, but declined to host the contest due to the cost of hosting it two years in a row. Greece made their debut in the contest, while France withdrew just the week before due to the death of the French president Pompadour. The funeral was held on the same day as the contest, and it was seen as inappropriate to take part in the ESC.

ESC and politics. This is the year when the ESC actually had an influence on world politics. The performance of the Portugese entry "E depois do adeus" was used as the signal to start the "Carnation revolution" in Portugal. This was a military coup that ended the right-wing dicatorship in the country. On a smaller scale Italian broadcaster RAI refused to show the ESC, due to the Italian entry. The title was "Si" (yes) and it was seen as propaganda, since there was going to be a referendum regarding making divorce legal in Italy. The options were yes and no.

Even more revolutionary though was the winner. ABBA's "Waterloo" was something quite different from anything heard before at the ESC. All of a sudden pop had found its way in to the, quite old-fashioned, contest. It launched the career of ABBA, and "Waterloo" is still regularly voted in as the best ESC song of all time. Whenever defenders of the ESC want to show that it's not just silly fluff that is being performed and the forgotten, it's usually ABBA that is seen as the example of something that turned into superstardom thanks to the ESC.

(Personally I love ABBA, but I've always thought Waterloo is quite a weak song, but I am glad that it launched their career so that they could develop into the ABBA of the end of 1970s)

Waterloo, ABBA


Runner up: Si, Gigliola Cinquetti (definietly another kind of music compared to ABBA)


The one song except Waterloo that comes up from this year when there are look backs on the ESC is the song from the Netherlands.
I see a star, Mouth and Macneal

 

Year: 1975
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Winner: Ding-a-dong, Teach-In, The Netherlands
Participating countries: Finland, UK, Spain, Norway, Israel, Yugoslavia, Sweden, Luxembourg, Monaco, Belgium, the Netherlands, Ireland, Germany, Switzerland, Portugal, Italy, Turkey, France, Malta

The year after ABBA's victory saw Sweden host the contest for the first time*. That wasn't the only thing that followed from the previous year. Portugal's entry in 1975 was a celebration of the revolution, that had used the 1974 ESC as a starting signal, with the singer apparently wanting to perform the song wearing his military uniform, including automatic rifle. That wasn't allowed though. Another political issue that reared its head was that Greece withdrew in protest when Turkey was allowed to debut in the contest. Turkey had invaded Cyprus in 1974.

ABBA and Waterloo had set its mark on the contest though and the songs were definitely more in tune with the pop music of the time. The winner was "DIng-A-Dong" a light poptune. The third placed Italy had a clearly blues-inspired ballad that I actually think is pretty good..

The most lasting thing from the 1975 contest was the voting system. This is the year that the current format was introduced. Each country gives 1-8, 10 and 12 points to the songs of their choice. Now with the ESC being a pan-European affair it's hosted in both English and French. That means the host/hostess has to repated the votes in the other language. Since most countries prefer to give their votes in English the vote is usually translated into French. This has made many non-French speaking people able to count up to 8 in French, and you also have the added idioms of "nil" and "douze points". Nil of course meaning not only bad, but so bad that the song didn't even get a single point, while "douze points" is the coveted maximum score that a song can get.

*With this being 1975 and Sweden in the middle of a very left-leaning public opinion the contest is more known in Sweden for the protests held against such a commercial, shallow event. At the same time as the ESC there was "the alternative ESC" (also broadcast on TV) that attracted thousands of people, and everyone who felt like it could stand up and sing. The hit song coming out of this was "Doing the omoralisk schlagerfestival" (doing the immoral ESC) which also raged against ABBA.

Here are top three of the ESC

 

1976 Eurovision Song Contest
Location: The Hague, Netherlands
Winner: Save your kisses for me, Brotherhood of Man, UK
Participating countries: UK, Switzerland, Germany, Israel, Luxembourg, Belgium, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Greece, Finland, Spain, Italy, Austria, Portugal, Monaco, France, Yugoslavia

If the last few years had taken the ESC a bit closer to the contemporary music scene, I think 1976 was a step back. Still the winning entry, Save your kisses for me, is still the best selling winner of the ESC, so it turned out very popular. The performance really have many of the hallmarks of the ESC, from the catchy repeating chorus to the quite silly choreography.

Also it's about time to say something about how a country gets eligible to take part in the ESC. In 1976 Liechtenstein tried to enter but was denied, despite definitely being a European country, while a non-European country like Israel took part, and Turkey had taken part in previous contests. The thing is the one qualification you need to enter the ESC is that there is a public service broadcasting company that's part of the EBU, the European Broadcasting Union. This is where Liechtenstein fell through, since it's not an EBU member. The EBU is not strictly geographical, in fact most countries in the Middle-East and North Africa are members and could technically take part in the ESC. At the moment the gulf state of Qatar has expressed interest in joining the EBU, mainly due to a wish to take part in the ESC.

Well here is the winning entry of 1976

 

1977 Eurovision Song Contest
Location: London, UK
Winner: L'oiseau et l'enfant, Marie Myrian, France
Participating countries: UK, Switzerland, Germany, Israel, Luxembourg, Belgium, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Greece, Finland, Spain, Italy, Austria, Portugal, Monaco, France, Sweden, (Tunisia)

I guess it was a good thing that I mentioned the rules for participation in the previous post. In 1977 Tunisia decided to enter, and was drawn to start as number four in the contest. Due to unknown reason Tunisia withdrew though, so Israel was remained the only country outside of geograpic Europe.

This year the language rule was brought back, meaning the each country had to sing in an official language of that country. I guess it was seen that English had become too dominant in the years since the language rule had been taken away, and there was a wish to get back to something more diverse.

The 1977 ESC gave France its fifth victory, the first country to do so, the song didn't turn out to be very memorable though.I think the best thing with the performance is the really nice dress the singer is wearing.

The most commercial entry, or at least the one that went on to top charts in several countries was the UK entry, with the conductor leading the orchestra in a bowler hat and with an umbrella.

Personally I think the most memorable entry was the Finnish one. It's a classic camp ESC entry, and stay on to the end to listen to some of the notes that she's hitting.

 

1978 Eurovision Song Contest
Location: Paris, France
Winner: A-Ba-Ni-Bi, Izhar Cohen & Alphabeta, Israel
Participating countries: UK, Switzerland, Germany, Israel, Luxembourg, Belgium, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Greece, Finland, Spain, Italy, Austria, Portugal, Monaco, France, Sweden, Denmark, Turkey

1978 saw Israel win the ESC for the first time, meaning that the winner was actually a country outside of the geographical boundaries of Europe. The Arabic countries that broadcasted the show weren't happy about the win, and the broadcast was actually cut off before Israel's victory was announced. Jordanian TV even claimed that Belgium, the runner-up was the winner. On a happier political note this was the first time that both Greece and Turkey took part in the same contest.

From a Scandinavian ESC perspective the 1978 ESC is known for two things. It was the fifth time Norway finished in last place, and the first time ever that a country got nul points since the start of the current voting system. It's probably the most famous of Norway's last places. The Swedish performer on the other hand felt that the language rule was silly and wanted to protest by singing in English, which would mean automatic disqualification. At the last minute someone reminded him that it would really hurt the song's creator if he did it, so decided to sing in Swedish after all. Only when he sat there on stage he got so confused that he forgot the lyrics and simply sang gibberish for the first few lines. The best part is that he done exactly the same thing in the Swedish national final.

Also since I have become quite a fan of the musical Les Miserables I was quite surprised to see that the Irish performer in 1978 was Colm Wilkinson. Some years later he would be the original Valjean and to whose voice the song "Bring him home" was written. His Les Mis interpretations are definitely more memorable than his ESC performance.

Anyway here are the songs I've been talking about.






(Colm Wilkinsson as the Bishop of Digne in the 2012 Les Miserables film)

 

That is one of my favorite performances ever, and one I've been looking forward to writing about...

 

1979 Eurovision Song Contest
Location: Jerusalem, Israel
Winner: Hallelujah, Gali Atari and Milk & Honey, Israel
Participating countries: UK, Switzerland, Germany, Israel, Luxembourg, Belgium, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Greece, Finland, Spain, Italy, Austria, Portugal, Monaco, France, Sweden, Denmark,

Israel hosted its first contest, and of course there were some political implications. Turkey withdrew again, but not because of Cyprus this time, rather the Arab countries didn't think it was right for a Muslim country to take part in a contest in Israel. Yugoslavia even refused to broadcast the show. Still Israel managed to win for the second year in a row with Hallelujah. This is one of those songs that I think most people interested in the Eurovision know about, or can at least hum the start of the chorus. Still I think it's a pretty boring, and you can definitely hear some flat tones from the background singers.



As hinted at in the posts above the winning entry doesn't stand a chance against fourth placed Germany when it comes to legendary status. In a way of being totally politically incorrect the German entry was a song about Genghis Khan, and how he pillaged, raped, plundered and drank vodka. This in a contest that was taking place in Israel. The performance by the group Dschinghis Khan is so over the top, being a mixture of Boney M-style disco with the one of the most flamboyant shows ever. I love it! This is one of the most hilarious entries in ESC history, and is one of few non-winners that are regularly performed in medleys of past entries. The group, also called Dschinghis Khan, released full albums with the same kind of music, with other classics like "Rocking Son of Dschinghis Khan" and especially "Moskau" (Moscow).

 

The cheese factor is so high that it's probably lethal for lactose intolerant people.

 

Before we dive into the 1980's it's time to recap the 70's in the ESC.

Well really, it's a short decade since you can basically say that it started with ABBA, up until that the ESC was still stuck in the 60's. After ABBA it's clear there entries turned a lot more showier, and a quartet with men and women turned to be a winning formula. The ESC also got influences by contemporary pop, and not the least disco set its mark on the contest. Trying to make songs that were both catchy and showy also meant that we started to get more and more of the silly and flamboyant songs that have become a trademark of the ESC. The best example of this is of course Dschinghis Khan from 1979.

Politically the decade managed to inspire a revolution in Portugal, had the first knocks on the door from countries outside of traditional Europe, and Greece and Turkey divided the years between them when it came to boycotting the ESC due to their relations. The fact that Israel won twice in a row also led to some problems to countries that didn't support that nation.

The third main thing with the 70's was of course that it was settled on the voting procedure that is still in use today, meaning that for the first time douze points could be awarded, and some countries could go away with no points at all.

 

1980 Eurovision Song Contest
Location: The Hague, Netherlands
Winner: What's another year, Johnny Logan, Ireland
Participating countries: UK, Switzerland, Germany, Turkey, Luxembourg, Belgium, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Greece, Finland, Spain, Italy, Austria, Portugal, France, Sweden, Denmark, Morocco

This year's contest should have been hosted by Israel, but the date was set for the Day of Remembrance, so it was seen as improper. In fact Israel withdrew from this year's contest all together, and instead of Israel Morocco was let into the ESC. Netherlands was finally coaxed into hosting the contest, and did it in a low budget version. They basically reused the set and much of the opening sequence from the 1976 contest. I don't know if it's because of the reused set, but the contest definitely seems to be stuck in the 1970's rather than bringing into something different with the new decade.

This year also meant the debut for the King of Eurovision, Johnny Logan. Remember the name. He won the contest with the ballad "What's another year". Looking like a real hearth throb he melted the hearts of the juries all over Europe. Personally I think it's an OK ESC ballad, but there are definitely better ones. Runners up this year was Germany.



Morocco's entry is the only entry so far in the history of the ESC that has been performed in Arabic. I can understand why it didn't get so many points. The ESC is about easy listening, for the most part, and the Arabic harmonies definitely comes from a different musical culture than most Western European listeners would have been used to.


Finland and Norway were in the bottom again. Finland ending up last with a song that definitely deserves. Norway's song is actually the most political song of the year, since it references a controversy regarding the building of a hydroelectric powerplant a traditional Sámi environment, it also ask (very politely) for more autonomy for the Sámi people. It's still a bad song though, and I guess the only reason it didn't end last was simply that Finland was worse.


The song has survived though, and here's a clip from when it was used in the film the Thing (2011)

 

What's another year, of not finishing this list, but at least I've made my mind up to go through with some more years. It's Eurovision Song Contest season again, so let's see how far I can the list this time.

ESC 1981
Location: Dublin, Ireland
Winner: Making your mind up, UK
Participating countries: Austria, Turkey, Germany, Luxembourg, Israel, Denmark, Yugoslavia, Finland, France, Spain, Netherlands, Ireland, Norway, UK, Portugal, Belgium, Greece, Cyprus, Switzerland, Sweden

This year's winner has actually stood the test of time. It might not be the best song, but the moment when the guys rip the skirts off the girls is a classic Eurovision clip that is usually shown whenever there are compilations of Eurovision moments.


The performance also led to the usual complaints that the ESC had turned more into a show than song contest. France actually withdrew the folloing year, as a protest against the silliness. The only memorable entry except for the winner might be that Norway once again managed to get 0 points, and it was well deserved. There really isn't anything good about this song.

No the more memorable things actually happened outside of the competing songs. First of all the voting was crazy, a technical glitch gave Ireland 310 points instead of 10, and then this happened when they called for the Yugoslavian vote (don't you miss the days of unreliable telecommunications?)


If you like Irish traditional music it can also be noted that the music to the interval act was played by the (great) group Planxty, and if you like ESC it can be noted that it was written by Bill Whelan and called Timedance...just saying that it was the seed for something that would more or less explode onto the ESC stage, but that's another year.

 

ESC 1982
Location: Harrogate, UK
Winner: Ein bisschen Frieden, Germany
Participating countries: Austria, Turkey, Germany, Luxembourg, Israel, Denmark, Yugoslavia, Finland, Spain, Netherlands, Ireland, Norway, UK, Portugal, Belgium, Cyprus, Switzerland, Sweden

The ESC 1982 seems to have been a rather low key affair. It was held in Harrogate, and the presentation of each entry even started with the question "where is Harrogate?". France and Greece both withdrew, meaning that there were just 18 entries this year. Maybe it's not so strange that the winner this year was a simple song about peace, love and understanding sung by a girl with a guitar. To me Ein bisschen Frieden seems more like a throwback to the 1970's than the glitzy 80's. Germany had aimed for the win, they had been in the ESC almost from the start but without winning, but in 1981 they had ended second. Now it was felt it was their time to win. The song became a hit, and is recognized still today. Personally I'm not a fan, but it might also have something to do with having to sing it in school, and I really disliked all the times when you had to sing variations on "let's be nice to each other songs" and wave flags from all over the world. I guess it's the cynic in me that wasn't impressed already at that age.


The song is written by Ralph Siegel, who has written 18 songs so far for the ESC, the last few years for San Marino. Ein bisschen Frieden is his only win though.

Otherwise the Nordic countries continues to occupy the last position, but this year it was Finland who scored nul points and ended last.


This is the decade that I started to discover ESC, even if it would wait until the end of the decade. Still when I started to watch it, it was already a thing that Finland always end up in the bottom, not Norway.

 

I will start off with saying that since hal mentioned "Kisses for me" I've had it stuck in my head for the last two days, and it's definitely not one of my top ESC songs. Well hopefully I will get something else stuck when we go into 1983

ESC 1983
Location: Munich, Germany
Winner:Si la vie est cadeau, Luxembourg
Participating countries: Austria, Turkey, Germany, Luxembourg, Israel, Denmark, Yugoslavia, Finland, Spain, Netherlands, Norway, UK, Portugal, Belgium, Cyprus, Switzerland, Sweden, France, Greece, Italy

If the 1982 winner felt a bit like a throwback to the 1970's, then the 1983 winner is firmly set in the 1980's. Everything from the white pumps and the pink satin suit to the ballad itself points to that decade. The song isn't too bad, but I think that it could have been even better with a stronger voice.


Overall this was a strong year when it came to the entries. Wikipedia claims that the runner up, Chai from Israel, was a hit in several European countries.


The Yugoslavian entry "Dzuli" got big enough that it was a pretty funny moment when my older sister and her husband discovered that they had both bought the single of it, my sister in the original and my brother-in-law in the English version back in 1983.


As a Swede this was also a big year. This was the year that the Swedish Eurovision queen Carola debuted, 16 years old, with what is quite possibly the most classic Swedish Eurovision entry ever, ABBA transcends Eurovision and Waterloo isn't one of their best songs.In fact seeing her performance at the ESC feels a bit strange since the yellow outfit that she wore at the Swedish national final is such a classic piece, and ended up with a really high price when it was auctioned off for charity.


If those were the good songs, well, even the bad songs were quite memorable this year. Spain and Turkey shared the last positions, and nul points.

Spain sent a pure flamenco song. Now there would be a trend many years later to send things that sounded "ethnic", but I think that in order to be both ethnic and a hit, it can't be that specific.

Turkey. What can one say. I love opera, and I like a good opera-pop mashup. This number though is a good example of a bad opera mashup. Seriously, I can't really understand what's going on, but at least the lyrics are easy, mostly consisting of just the words "opera", namedropping of composers and "lalala"

 

Now we come to the first ESC where I have some actual memories, not of the event itself, but the winner was one of my favorite songs when I was 3, and I will explain why later.

ESC 1984
Location: Luxembourg, Luxembourg
Winner:Diggi-Loo, Diggi-Ley, Sweden
Participating countries: Austria, Turkey, Germany, Luxembourg, Italy, Denmark, Yugoslavia, Finland, Spain, Netherlands, Norway, UK, Portugal, Belgium, Cyprus, Switzerland, Sweden, France, Ireland

So, seriously, I'm trying to look up this year in the normal places about Eurovision history, and I can't find much. This year it was expected that Ireland or or Italy would win, Sweden was definitely not a favorite. At the same time the Swedish entry had actually gotten a bit of criticism in Sweden. The group Herreys consisted of three brothers, and at this time they didn't live in Sweden. They were in the US in order to pursue their musical careers. A fun fact is that Richard Herrey, the one in the middle, can actually be seen in the background of the TV series Fame where he was cast as a background dancer. They were seen as a bit of gimmickey, both dancing and singing , it probably didn't help that they were mormons either. Their, by today's standards, fairly simple routine was probably a reason to why they ended up winning so many votes. Here is the winning entry.


and if you want to hear it in English, here they are performing it 31 years later at the Eurovision Song Contest 60th anniversary gala earlier this year.


So yes the whole song is about walking around in golden shoes, well when I was three years old I was sure that they were singing about "jogging" shoes, not golden shoes, and since I had a pair of pink jogging shoes I was sure that they were actually singing about my shoes, hence why I really liked this song.

Ireland with Linda Martin was the runner up this year, and it's actually not too bad. The music is better than the lyrics though. In fact I think I prefer this one to the entry that Linda Martin would return to the ESC with in 1992.

 

That's interesting. I actually have a bit of a problem judging it. As a ESC enthusiast in Sweden I of course know the song very well, but it's not even close to being a personal favorite, not even just counting the Swedish entries.

 

I don't see how Dancing Lasha Tumbai or Hard Rock Halleluja can be considered weird. I like both of them.

 

So before we go on to the 1985 final I think I need to give you a small lesson in Swedish music culture, that has also spread to our neighbouring countries. You might think that old fashioned pair dancing died out when the popularity of pop and rock music outgrew dance orchestras in the 1960's. Not so in Sweden. Here a certain music style developed for that kind of dancing, and pair dancing is still very popular in Sweden, especially in rural Sweden. The music is made to get people to move and dance, usually in the style of jitterbugg or foxtrot, the lyrics are simple and forgettable, but usually about love, dance and music. Early ABBA was definitely part of this genre, but the genre and ABBA went separate ways after 1974. Here is a video showing what a Friday or Saturday summer evening can look like in big parts of Sweden. This dance culture, simply called "dansband" is also strong in Norway, Finland and Denmark. So why this little detour? Well 1985 proved that simple, catchy songs from this music scene worked well at the ESC as well. Just listen to the winner and you will get a quintessential "dansband" song, and this style of music will show up quite a few times in the coming ESC:s as well.

1985
Location: Gothenburg, Sweden
Winner: La det swinge, Norway
Participating countries: Austria, Turkey, Germany, Luxembourg, Italy, Denmark, Finland, Spain, Norway, UK, Portugal, Belgium, Cyprus, Switzerland, Sweden, France, Ireland Greece, Israel

This was the year when the perpetual loser and receiver of so many nul points finally won! Norway managed to snatch away the victory from Germany in the last few rounds. It should be said though that Norway had in fact imported half of the winning duo from Sweden, Elisabeth Andreasson had actually competed for Sweden in 1982 together with Kicki Danielsson, who represented Sweden in 1985. The fact that Norway won after so many times in the bottom was not lost on the audience, and when they were congratulated there was this exchange between the host and the winners:

The winning song is as I said typical "dansband", but it is catchy, especially the saxophone riff in it. For a long time I really couldn't understand how it could win, but then I listened to the runner up, and Norway is way better.


I also wanted to give an explanation of the dansband style, since the third placed Sweden was also such a typical song from this genre.


The Swedish song is also fascinating to watch because it really shows how TV productions have developed since then. The camera angles are static, and you mostly just see the upper half of the singer. There are two background dancer, and they are probably doing a good job, but you hardly see them, except from an extreme distance. It's a big contrast to today's big shows with special effects of all kinds.

The 1985 final had one moment that has gone into ESC history, and is quit often shown on compilations of memorable moments.


This moment actually lead to a rule saying that you can't have any unrehearsed moments in the ESC. There were so few people who knew about this that a person was placed in the editing room to make sure that the TV crew kept their cameras on the host at all times. The surprise is quite lame with today's standards, but the EBU of those days was not amused.

 

So before we go on to the 1985 final I think I need to give you a small lesson in Swedish music culture, that has also spread to our neighbouring countries. You might think that old fashioned pair dancing died out when the popularity of pop and rock music outgrew dance orchestras in the 1960's. Not so in Sweden. Here a certain music style developed for that kind of dancing, and pair dancing is still very popular in Sweden, especially in rural Sweden. The music is made to get people to move and dance, usually in the style of jitterbugg or foxtrot, the lyrics are simple and forgettable, but usually about love, dance and music. Early ABBA was definitely part of this genre, but the genre and ABBA went separate ways after 1974. Here is a video showing what a Friday or Saturday summer evening can look like in big parts of Sweden. This dance culture, simply called "dansband" is also strong in Norway, Finland and Denmark. So why this little detour? Well 1985 proved that simple, catchy songs from this music scene worked well at the ESC as well. Just listen to the winner and you will get a quintessential "dansband" song, and this style of music will show up quite a few times in the coming ESC:s as well.

1985
Location: Gothenburg, Sweden
Winner: La det swinge, Norway
Participating countries: Austria, Turkey, Germany, Luxembourg, Italy, Denmark, Finland, Spain, Norway, UK, Portugal, Belgium, Cyprus, Switzerland, Sweden, France, Ireland Greece, Israel

This was the year when the perpetual loser and receiver of so many nul points finally won! Norway managed to snatch away the victory from Germany in the last few rounds. It should be said though that Norway had in fact imported half of the winning duo from Sweden, Elisabeth Andreasson had actually competed for Sweden in 1982 together with Kicki Danielsson, who represented Sweden in 1985. The fact that Norway won after so many times in the bottom was not lost on the audience, and when they were congratulated there was this exchange between the host and the winners:

The winning song is as I said typical "dansband", but it is catchy, especially the saxophone riff in it. For a long time I really couldn't understand how it could win, but then I listened to the runner up, and Norway is way better.


I also wanted to give an explanation of the dansband style, since the third placed Sweden was also such a typical song from this genre.


The Swedish song is also fascinating to watch because it really shows how TV productions have developed since then. The camera angles are static, and you mostly just see the upper half of the singer. There are two background dancer, and they are probably doing a good job, but you hardly see them, except from an extreme distance. It's a big contrast to today's big shows with special effects of all kinds.

The 1985 final had one moment that has gone into ESC history, and is quit often shown on compilations of memorable moments.


This moment actually lead to a rule saying that you can't have any unrehearsed moments in the ESC. There were so few people who knew about this that a person was placed in the editing room to make sure that the TV crew kept their cameras on the host at all times. The surprise is quite lame with today's standards, but the EBU of those days was not amused.