Eurovision Song Contest 1977

The Eurovision Song Contest 1977 was the 22nd edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in London, United Kingdom, following Brotherhood of Man's win at the 1976 contest in The Hague, Netherlands with the song "Save Your Kisses for Me". It was the sixth time the contest took place in the UK, after 1960, 1963, 1968, 1972, and 1974. The contest was held at the Wembley Conference Centre on Saturday 7 May 1977, marking the first time the event took place in the month of May since 1956.[1] The show was hosted by Angela Rippon.

Eurovision Song Contest 1977
Dates
Final	7 May 1977
Host
Venue	Wembley Conference Centre London, United Kingdom
Presenter(s)	Angela Rippon
Conductor	Ronnie Hazlehurst
Directed by	Stewart Morris
Executive supervisor	Clifford Brown
Host broadcaster	British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
Opening act	An aerial tour of the four constituent countries of the United Kingdom
Interval act	Mr. Acker Bilk and his Paramount Jazz Men
Website	eurovision.tv/event/london-1977
Participants
Number of entries	18
Debuting countries	None
Returning countries	Sweden
Non-returning countries	Yugoslavia
Participation map      Participating countries     Countries that participated in the past but not in 1977
Vote
Voting system	Each country awarded 12, 10, 8-1 points to their 10 favourite songs
Nul points	None
Winning song	France "L'oiseau et l'enfant"

Eighteen countries participated in the contest; Sweden returned after its absence from the previous edition, while Yugoslavia, which did participate in 1976, did not enter.

The winner was France with the song "L'oiseau et l'enfant", performed by Marie Myriam, written by Joe Gracy, and composed by Jean-Paul Cara. This was France's fifth victory in the contest, following their wins in 1958, 1960, 1962, and 1969 (the latter being in the infamous four-way tie). The five wins were also a record at the time, and one that France held onto for seven years, until being equalled by Luxembourg in 1983. This was later equalled by Ireland in 1993, United Kingdom in 1997, Sweden in 2012, and by the Netherlands in 2019.

Location

London is the capital city of England and the United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in Europe by most measures. London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history goes back to its founding by the Romans, who named it Londinium.[2] Wembley Conference Centre, which opened in 1977, was the first purpose-built conference centre in the United Kingdom. The centre was chosen as host venue for the song contest, which was presented by newsreader Angela Rippon.

Format

The language rule was brought back in this contest, four years after it had been dropped in 1973. However Germany and Belgium were allowed to sing in English, because they had already chosen the songs they were going to perform before the rule was reintroduced.

As noted in The Eurovision Song Contest – The Official History by author and historian John Kennedy O'Connor, the contest was originally planned to be held on 2 April 1977, but because of a strike of BBC cameramen and technicians, it had to be postponed for a month. As a result, this was the first Eurovision Song Contest to be staged in May since the inaugural edition.[1]

This was most possibly the Eurovision with the most scoring mistakes, as the scrutineer Clifford Brown had to stop the host Angela Rippon several times to correct the scores.

Due to the strike by the BBC camera staff, and lack of time to organise the contest, this is seen as the only Eurovision where there were no postcards between songs. Various shots of the contests audience where shown, with the various counties commentators informing the viewers of the upcoming songs.

Participating countries

Further information: List of countries in the Eurovision Song Contest

Tunisia was set to participate and had been drawn to participate in fourth place, but later withdrew.[1] Yugoslavia did not enter this contest after having participated in 1976, while Sweden returned to the competition.[3]

The Belgian act Dream Express had created some controversy in the press with reports that the three female members would wear transparent tops; this did not materialise for the actual event.[4]

The British conductor Ronnie Hazlehurst used an umbrella and wore a bowler hat during the UK entry.[5][6]

Conductors

Each performance had a conductor who conducted the orchestra.[7][8]

•  Ireland – Noel Kelehan
•  Monaco – Yvon Rioland
•  Netherlands – Harry van Hoof
•  Austria – Christian Kolonovits
•  Norway – Carsten Klouman
•  Germany – Ronnie Hazlehurst
•  Luxembourg – Johnny Arthey
•  Portugal – José Calvário
•  United Kingdom – Ronnie Hazlehurst
•  Greece – Giorgos Hatzinasios
•  Israel – Eldad Shrem
•   Switzerland – Peter Jacques
•  Sweden – Anders Berglund
•  Spain – Rafael Ibarbia
•  Italy – Maurizio Fabrizio
•  Finland – Ossi Runne
•  Belgium – Alyn Ainsworth
•  France – Raymond Donnez

Returning artists

Several artists returned to the 1977 Contest. Beatrix Neundlinger and Günter Grosslercher from the group Schmetterlinge both represented Austria in 1972 as part of the band The Milestones. Patricia Maessen, Bianca Maessen, and Stella Maessen had previously represented the Netherlands in 1970 as part of the group Hearts of Soul, in 1977 they represented Belgium under the band name Dream Express.

Ireland's participant The Swarbriggs returned after their previous appearance back in 1975. Ilanit from Israel returned after previously representing the nation in 1973. Michèle Torr, Luxembourg's 1966 entrant participated for Monaco. And finally Fernando Tordo and Paulo de Carvalho (part of Os Amigos) returned once more after they previously represented the nation as solo acts back in 1973 and 1974 respectively.

Results

The following tables reflect the final official scores, verified after the contest transmission. During the voting sequence of the live show, several errors were made in the announcement of the scores, which were then adjusted after the broadcast. Both Greece and France duplicated scores, awarding the same points to multiple countries. From the Greek scores, The UK, Netherlands, Austria and Finland all had 1 point deducted after the contest and from the French scores, Austria, Germany, Israel, Italy and Belgium all had 1 point deducted. None of the adjustments affected the placing of any of the songs.

Draw	Country	Artist	Song	Language[9]	Place	Points
01	Ireland	The Swarbriggs Plus Two	"It's Nice to Be in Love Again"	English	3	119
02	Monaco	Michèle Torr	"Une petite française"	French	4	96
03	Netherlands	Heddy Lester	"De mallemolen"	Dutch	12	35
04	Austria	Schmetterlinge	"Boom Boom Boomerang"	German^a	17	11
05	Norway	Anita Skorgan	"Casanova"	Norwegian	14	18
06	Germany	Silver Convention	"Telegram"	English	8	55
07	Luxembourg	Anne-Marie B	"Frère Jacques"	French	16	17
08	Portugal	Os Amigos	"Portugal no coração"	Portuguese	14	18
09	United Kingdom	Lynsey de Paul and Mike Moran	"Rock Bottom"	English	2	121
10	Greece	Paschalis, Marianna, Robert & Bessy	"Mathima solfege" (Μάθημα σολφέζ)	Greek	5	92
11	Israel	Ilanit	"Ahava Hi Shir Lishnayim" (אהבה היא שיר לשניים)	Hebrew	11	49
12	Switzerland	Pepe Lienhard Band	"Swiss Lady"	German	6	71
13	Sweden	Forbes	"Beatles"	Swedish	18	2
14	Spain	Micky	"Enséñame a cantar"	Spanish	9	52
15	Italy	Mia Martini	"Libera"	Italian	13	33
16	Finland	Monica Aspelund	"Lapponia"	Finnish	10	50
17	Belgium	Dream Express	"A Million in One, Two, Three"	English	7	69
18	France	Marie Myriam	"L'oiseau et l'enfant"	French	1	136

Notes:

a. ^ Contains some words in English.

Scoreboard

		Results
		Total score	Ireland	Monaco	Netherlands	Austria	Norway	Germany	Luxembourg	Portugal	United Kingdom	Greece	Israel	Switzerland	Sweden	Spain	Italy	Finland	Belgium	France
Contestants	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
The table is ordered by appearance

12 points

Below is a summary of all 12 points in the final:

N.	Contestant	Voting nation
6	United Kingdom	Austria, Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Monaco, Portugal
4	Ireland	Israel, Norway, Sweden, United Kingdom
3	France	Finland, Germany, Switzerland
2	Monaco	Greece, Italy
1	Belgium	Netherlands
	Finland	Ireland
	Greece	Spain

Broadcasters, commentators and spokespersons

Spokespersons

Listed below is the order in which votes were cast during the 1977 contest along with the spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for their respective country.[10]

1.  Ireland – Brendan Balfe
2.  Monaco – Carole Chabrier
3.  Netherlands – Ralph Inbar
4.  Austria – Jenny Pippal
5.  Norway – Sverre Christophersen[11]
6.  Germany – Armin Maiwald
7.  Luxembourg – Jacques Harvey
8.  Portugal – Ana Zanatti[12]
9.  United Kingdom – Colin Berry[8]
10.  Greece – Naki Agathou[13]
11.  Israel – Yitzhak Shim'oni[14]
12.   Switzerland – Michel Stocker[15]
13.  Sweden – Sven Lindahl[16]
14.  Spain – Isabel Tenaille[17]
15.  Italy – Mariolina Cannuli
16.  Finland – Kaarina Pönniö[18]
17.  Belgium – An Ploegaerts
18.  France – Marc Menant[19]

Broadcasters and commentators

Each national broadcaster also sent a commentator to the contest, in order to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language.

Country	Broadcaster(s)	Commentator(s)	Ref(s)
Participating countries
Austria	FS1	Ernst Grissemann	[10][20]
	Hitradio Ö3	Hubert Gaisbauer
Belgium	RTBF1	French: Jacques Mercier	[10]
	BRT1	Dutch: Luc Appermont	[10][21]
	RTB La Première	André Zaleski
	BRT Radio 1	Nand Baert and Herwig Haes
Finland	YLE TV1	Erkki Toivanen	[10][22]
	Yleisohjelma	Matti Paalosmaa
France	TF1	Georges de Caunes	[10][23]
	France Inter	Gérard Klein
Germany	Deutsches Fernsehen	Werner Veigel	[10][24]
	Deutschlandfunk/Bayern 2	Wolf Mittler
Greece	EIRT	Mako Georgiadou	[25]
	Proto Programma	Dimitris Konstantaras
Ireland	RTÉ	Mike Murphy	[10]
	RTÉ Radio	Liam Devally
Israel	Israeli Television	No commentator
Italy	Rete 1 and Rai Radio 1	Silvio Noto	[10]
Luxembourg	RTL Télé Luxembourg	Jacques Navadic
	RTL	André Torrent
Monaco	Télé Monte Carlo	Georges de Caunes
Netherlands	Nederland 2	Ati Dijckmeester	[10][26]
Norway	NRK	John Andreassen	[10][27]
	NRK P1	Erik Heyerdahl
Portugal	I Programa	Júlio Isidro	[10]
	RDP Programa 1	Amadeu Meireles
Spain	Primera Cadena	Miguel de los Santos	[10][28]
Sweden	SR TV1	Ulf Elfving	[10][16]
	SR P3	Ursula Richter and Åke Strömmer	[16]
Switzerland	TV DRS	German: Theodor Haller	[10][29]
	TSR	French: Georges Hardy	[10][23]
	TSI	Italian: Enzo Guidi	[10]
	RSR 1	French: Robert Burnier	[30]
United Kingdom	BBC1	Pete Murray	[10][8][31]
	BBC Radio 2	Terry Wogan	[8]
Non-participating countries
Algeria	ENTV	Unknown	[8]
Bulgaria	BT	Unknown	[8]
Czechoslovakia	ČST	Unknown	[8]
Denmark	DR TV	Claus Toksvig	[8]
Greenland	KNR	Unknown	[32]
Hong Kong	TBC	Unknown	[8]
Hungary	RTV	Unknown	[8]
Iceland	Sjónvarpið	No commentator	[8][33]
Jordan	JRTV	Unknown	[8]
Morocco	TVM	Unknown	[8]
Poland	TVP	Unknown	[8]
Romania	TVR	Unknown	[8]
Soviet Union	Soviet Central Television	Unknown	[8]
Tunisia	RTT	Unknown	[8]
Turkey	Ankara Television	Bülend Özveren	[10][8]
Yugoslavia	JRT	Oliver Mlakar	[8]

References

1. O'Connor, John Kennedy (2007). The Eurovision Song Contest: The Official History. UK: Carlton Books. p. 68. ISBN 978-1-84442-994-3.
2. "Roman". The Museum of London. Archived from the original on March 22, 2008. Retrieved 7 June 2008.
3. "London 1977". Eurovision.tv.
4. O'Connor, John Kennedy (2007). The Eurovision Song Contest: The Official History. UK: Carlton Books. p. 71. ISBN 978-1-84442-994-3.
5. Leigh, Spencer (4 October 2007). "Obituary – Ronnie Hazlehurst". The Daily Telegraph.
6. "Obituary – Ronnie Hazlehurst". The Times. 3 October 2007.
7. "And the conductor is..." Retrieved 6 August 2020.
8. Roxburgh, Gordon (2014). Songs for Europe: The United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest. Volume Two: The 1970s. Prestatyn: Telos Publishing. pp. 267–287. ISBN 978-1-84583-093-9.
9. "Eurovision Song Contest 1977". The Diggiloo Thrush. Retrieved 4 March 2012.
10. "Eurovision 1977 - Cast and Crew". IMDb. Retrieved 6 August 2020.
11. Dyrseth, Seppo (OGAE Norway)
12. "Comentadores Do ESC – escportugalforum.pt.vu | o forum eurovisivo português". 21595.activeboard.com. Archived from the original on April 21, 2012. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
13. "Εκφωνητές της ΕΡΤ για τις ψήφους της Ελλάδας στην EUROVISION – Page 3". Retromaniax.gr. Archived from the original on 2012-09-11. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
14. "פורום אירוויזיון". Sf.tapuz.co.il. 1999-09-13. Archived from the original on October 8, 2011. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
15. Baumann, Peter Ramón (OGAE Switzerland)
16. "Infosajten.com". Infosajten.com. Archived from the original on July 18, 2012. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
17. "Eurovisión 1977 – Jurado TVE". YouTube. 1977-05-07. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
18. "Selostajat ja taustalaulajat läpi vuosien? • Viisukuppila". Viisukuppila.fi. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
19. de Caunes, Georges et al. (May 7, 1977). 22ème Concours Eurovision de la Chanson 1977 [22nd Eurovision Song Contest 1977] (Television production). United Kingdom: BBC, TF1 (commentary).
20. Archived October 24, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
21. Adriaens, Manu & Loeckx-Van Cauwenberge, Joken. Blijven kiken!. Lannoo, Belgium. 2003 ISBN 90-209-5274-9
22. "Selostajat ja taustalaulajat läpi vuosien? • Viisukuppila". Viisukuppila.fi. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
23. "Au Grand Prix Eurovision de la Chanson". Radio TV - Je vois tout. Lausanne, Switzerland: Le Radio SA. 5 May 1977.
24. "Eurovision Song Contest 1977". Ecgermany.de. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
25. "Η Μακώ Γεωργιάδου και η EUROVISION (1970–1986)". Retromaniax.gr. Archived from the original on 2012-05-30. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
26. "Welkom op de site van Eurovision Artists". Eurovisionartists.nl. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
27. "Hvem kommenterte før Jostein Pedersen? - Debattforum". Nrk.no. Archived from the original on November 2, 2012. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
28. "FORO FESTIVAL DE EUROVISIÓN • Ver Tema – Uribarri comentarista Eurovision 2010". Eurosongcontest.phpbb3.es. Archived from the original on 2012-03-17. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
29. "Au Grand Prix Eurovision de la Chanson". Radio TV - Je vois tout. Lausanne, Switzerland: Le Radio SA. 5 May 1977.
30. "Au Grand Prix Eurovision de la Chanson". Radio TV - Je vois tout. Lausanne, Switzerland: Le Radio SA. 5 May 1977.
31. "Grand Final: 1977, 1977, Eurovision Song Contest". BBC.
32. Háskólabókasafn, Landsbókasafn Íslands -. "Timarit.is". timarit.is.
33. Háskólabókasafn, Landsbókasafn Íslands -. "Timarit.is". timarit.is.

External links

• Official website