Luxembourg in the Eurovision Song Contest 1978
Luxembourg was represented by Spanish duo Baccara, with the song '"Parlez-vous français?", at the 1978 Eurovision Song Contest, which took place on 22 April in Paris. For only the second time, broadcaster RTL organised a public national final rather than their usual method of internal selection.
| Eurovision Song Contest 1978 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Country |  | |||
| National selection | ||||
| Selection process | National Final | |||
| Selected entrant | Baccara | |||
| Selected song | "Parlez-vous français?" | |||
| Finals performance | ||||
| Final result | 7th, 73 points | |||
| Luxembourg in the Eurovision Song Contest | ||||
| ||||
Baccara were one of the most internationally famous acts ever to appear at Eurovision, being already known throughout Europe from two recent hugely successful singles, "Yes Sir, I Can Boogie" (which had spent a week at the top of the UK Singles Chart in late 1977) and "Sorry, I'm a Lady". "Parlez-vous français?" was written by Frank Dostal, who had also penned the duo's previous recordings. There was some degree of facetious comment that so similar was it to the two hits that it should have been called "Yes Sir, I'm a Lady". However Baccara were to find (as had Silver Convention the year before) that being a big-name act did not necessarily translate into Eurovision success.
Before Eurovision
National final
No detail on date, location, host or scoring system is currently known about the national final. Five acts took part, including Gitte Hænning who had represented Germany in 1973 and Liliane Saint-Pierre who would sing for Belgium in 1987.[1]
| Draw | Artist | Song | Points | Place |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jean-Paul Cara | "Un arbre dans la ville" | 62 | 2 |
| 2 | Gitte Hænning | "Rien qu'une femme" | 56 | 3 |
| 3 | Jairo | "Dans les yeux d'un enfant" | 51 | 5 |
| 4 | Baccara | "Parlez-vous français?" | 80 | 1 |
| 5 | Liliane Saint-Pierre | "Mélodie" | 52 | 4 |
At Eurovision
On the night of the final Baccara performed 17th in the running order, following Denmark and preceding eventual contest winners Israel. Clad in their trademark colours – María entirely in white and Mayte entirely in black – they gave what is generally agreed to be the most slick and professional performance of the evening in a contest with an unusually high ratio of sub-par vocal performances and inferior stage presentations. However "Parlez-vous français?" was never in contention for victory and finished the evening with 73 points, placing Luxembourg 7th of the 20 entries. The song had received maximum 12s from Italy, Portugal and (unsurprisingly) Spain, but had been ignored completely by seven other national juries. The Luxembourgian jury awarded its 12 points to Israel.[2]
| 12 points | 10 points | 8 points | 7 points | 6 points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 points | 4 points | 3 points | 2 points | 1 point |
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