The Eurovision Song Contest 1980 was the 25th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, held on 19 April 1980 at the in The Hague, Netherlands, and presented by Marlous Fluitsma. It was organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster (NOS), who staged the event after the Israel Broadcasting Authority (IBA), which had won the for , declined hosting responsibilities due to financial constraints. Although Fluitsma was the main presenter, each song was introduced by a presenter appointed by each participating broadcaster.

Broadcasters from nineteen countries took part this year, with and the previous year's winner deciding not to participate, and returning. made its only appearance in the contest. It was the last Eurovision Song Contest not to be hosted in the previous edition's winning country for 43 years (the next time this would occur would be in ).

The winner was with the song "What's Another Year", sung by Johnny Logan and written by Shay Healy.

Location

One month after its win in the , the Israel Broadcasting Authority (IBA) announced at an EBU conference held in Willemstad, Netherlands Antilles that it was considering staging the 1980 edition at an open-air venue, either in Caesarea or at a site on the Sea of Galilee. The broadcaster provisionally scheduled the event for 29 March or 10 May. However, on 13 August 1979, IBA formally renounced its right to host the upcoming edition, as the organisation of the 1979 contest in Jerusalem and investments in the roll-out of colour television had exhausted its financial resources.

The EBU determined that the contest would need to take place on 26 April 1980 and invited member broadcasters interested in staging the event to come forward before 3 September 1979. When the deadline passed, none of them had declared interest in hosting, despite several having examined the possibility of submitting a bid. Runner-up Spain's (TVE) showed no interest, despite the fact that the tourism board of the had offered the in Torremolinos as a possible venue. In the Netherlands, TROS was eager to stage the event under the auspices of the (NOS), but NOS declined to back the bid, preferring to see another broadcaster volunteer.

With no other broadcaster willing to host, the EBU turned to the Netherlands, which remained the only viable option. NOS agreed to host, but on two conditions: the contest had to be moved a week earlier to 19 April due to availability of the , and the EBU had to increase its financial contribution. Once the participating EBU members agreed to these terms, the final decision was made on 23 October 1979 for NOS to host the event in The Hague.

Participants

Because the contest was rescheduled for 19 April, it fell on Yom HaZikaron, Israel's memorial day for fallen soldiers. After a prolonged but unsuccessful effort to persuade the EBU to change the date, IBA announced on 10 December 1979 that it would withdraw from the 1980 edition. After announced its absence, entered the contest for its first, and to date only, participation. also withdrew from the contest, and would not return until 2004.

Several of the performing artists had previously competed as lead artists representing the same country in past editions: Paola del Medico had represented , Katja Ebstein had represented and , and Maggie MacNeal had represented the as part of Mouth and MacNeal.

+ Eurovision Song Contest 1980 participants Country Broadcaster Artist Song Language Songwriter(s) Conductor ORF Blue Danube "" German Richard Oesterreicher RTBF Telex "Euro-Vision" French DR Bamses Venner "" Danish Allan Botschinsky YLE Vesa-Matti Loiri "" Finnish Ossi Runne TF1 "" French Sylvano Santorio BR Katja Ebstein "" German ERT Anna Vissi and the Epikouri "Autostop" () Greek Jick Nacassian RTÉ Johnny Logan "What's Another Year" English Shay Healy Noel Kelehan RAI Alan Sorrenti "" Italian Alan Sorrenti Del Newman CLT Sophie and Magaly "" French Norbert Daum RTM Samira Bensaïd "" () Arabic NOS Maggie MacNeal "Amsterdam" Dutch Rogier van Otterloo NRK Sverre Kjelsberg and Mattis Hætta "" Norwegian Sigurd Jansen RTP José Cid "" Portuguese José Cid TVE "" Spanish José Antonio Martín Javier Iturralde SVT Tomas Ledin "" Swedish Tomas Ledin Anders Berglund SRG SSR Paola "" French Peter Reber TRT Ajda Pekkan "" Turkish Attila Özdemiroğlu BBC Prima Donna "Love Enough for Two" English John Coleman

Production and format Due to the tight timeline leading up to 19 April 1980, NOS decided to organise the event using an experienced production team consisting of AVRO and KRO employees, who had previously worked on the 1976 edition. This infuriated TROS, which subsequently withdrew from organising the upcoming edition of the . and , both from AVRO, were appointed as the show's director and executive producer. Musical accompaniment was provided by the Metropole Orkest, led by Rogier van Otterloo. The overall budget was (€ million), of which the host broadcaster contributed and the EBU contributed .

Visual and stage design As a cost-saving measure in light of the limited budget, NOS decided to recycle several elements of the 1976 production, such as the opening sequence and parts of the set. The stage was designed by , who had also been responsible for the stage design in and 1976. The main platform featured a five-step staircase and three curved horizontal panels as a backdrop for the performers. Overhead, a series of cable-suspended geometric elements shifted into different shapes, illuminated by coloured lighting, that changed with each song.

Presenter and song announcements The contest was presented by Dutch actress Marlous Fluitsma, who spoke almost entirely in Dutch, switching to English and French only for the official protocols and the voting segment. As with the and contests, there were no pre-filmed videos between the songs. Instead, the entries were introduced by a guest presenter appointed by each participating broadcaster, in some cases the same person providing the commentary. Most songs were introduced in the language in which they were performed; however, Ireland's entry was introduced in Irish, despite the song being sung in English. The announcements were accompanied by two or three photographs of the artist at a location in the Netherlands.

CountryPostcard locationAnnouncerA petting zooKurhaus of ScheveningenAalsmeer Flower AuctionJørgen de MyliusPanorama MesdagHeikki HarmaA greenhouseÉvelyne DhéliatMadurodam and HofvijverCarolin ReiberKelly SakakouA pubThelma MansfieldWindmills near LeidschendamBeatrice CoriCheese market in GoudaScheveningen harbourMohammed BouzidiBloemenmarktMarlous FluitsmaZaanse SchansÅse KlevelandA hotelEládio ClímacoKeukenhofMari Cruz SorianoPort of RotterdamUlf ElfvingA flower stall at Schiphol AirportLyliam StambacOosterscheldekering construction siteŞebnem SavaşçıA cheese farmNoel Edmonds

Contest overview

The contest was held on 19 April 1980 at 21:00 CEST and lasted two hours and sixteen minutes. The table below outlines the participating countries, the order in which they performed, and the results of the voting. The and the Lee Jackson Dancers performed "San Fernando" as an interval act. The performance was intercut by brief interviews with some of the participants in the backstage green room, conducted by .

Australian-born Johnny Logan, representing his parents' country , was crowned the winner with the song "What's Another Year", written by Shay Healy. This was Ireland's second victory in the competition, having previously won in with "All Kinds of Everything", coincidentally also held on Dutch soil. It was also the first time that a male solo artist had won the contest since Udo Jürgens won for in .

+ Results of the Eurovision Song Contest 1980 Country Artist Song Points Place 1 Blue Danube "" 64 8 2 "" 23 15 3 and the Epikouri "Autostop" 30 13 4 Sophie and Magaly "" 56 9 5 "" 7 18 6 "" 87 6 7 Bamses Venner "" 25 14 8 "" 47 10 9 Paola "" 104 4 10 "" 6 19 11 and Mattis Hætta "" 15 16 12 "" 128 2 13 Prima Donna "Love Enough for Two" 106 3 14 "" 71 7 15 "Amsterdam" 93 5 16 "" 45 11 17 "What's Another Year" 143 1 18 "" 38 12 19 Telex "Euro-Vision" 14 17

Spokespersons Each participating broadcaster appointed a spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for its respective country via telephone. Known spokespersons at the 1980 contest are listed below.

Bent Evold Kaarina Pönniö David Hefferman Jacques Harvey Arne Weise

Ray Moore

Detailed voting results

The scoring system implemented in 1975 remained the same; each country had a jury who awarded 12, 10, and 8–1 point(s) for their top ten songs. However this year for the first time, spokespersons were required to declare their scores in ascending order (1, 2, 3, et cetera). This change made for the added excitement of waiting for each country to award their highest 12 points at the end of each voting round.

For the voting sequence, Marlous Fluitsma used a different telephone to speak to each of the nineteen jury spokespersons, although the phones were simply props and were not connected.

+ Detailed voting results scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" rowspan="19" Austria 64 1 3 4 5 1 4 5 6 4 6 3 3 4 10 4 1 Turkey 23 3 12 8 Greece 30 5 1 2 2 4 3 1 8 4 Luxembourg 56 1 1 4 6 3 7 8 7 8 3 8 Morocco 7 7 Italy 87 2 6 2 3 10 8 6 2 7 4 12 1 2 2 10 10 Denmark 25 4 2 6 7 1 5 Sweden 47 8 10 10 6 5 5 2 1 Switzerland 104 6 2 5 7 3 8 2 12 10 10 7 6 10 12 2 2 Finland 6 5 1 Norway 15 4 6 2 3 Germany 128 8 10 3 10 12 7 5 7 2 10 8 12 10 5 12 7 United Kingdom 106 7 5 8 8 10 12 10 4 3 7 7 5 6 8 6 Portugal 71 4 5 4 10 6 8 2 1 8 1 5 6 7 4 Netherlands 93 12 12 6 12 3 3 10 8 2 4 12 1 5 3 France 45 3 7 2 1 1 4 1 3 5 4 3 6 5 Ireland 143 10 12 7 1 12 7 12 8 12 12 12 5 6 8 7 12 Spain 38 4 7 8 6 5 6 2 Belgium 14 3 1 10

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

N. Contestant Nation(s) giving 12 points 7 , , , , , , 4 , , , 3 , , 2 , 1

Broadcasts

Each participating broadcaster was required to relay the contest via its networks. Non-participating EBU member broadcasters were also able to relay the contest as "passive participants". Broadcasters were able to send commentators to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language and to relay information about the artists and songs to their television viewers. At least 300 journalists were onsite to cover the event.

The contest was also reportedly broadcast in Cyprus, Israel, Iceland, and Jordan; in Czechoslovakia, Poland, Romania, and the Soviet Union via Intervision; and in Cuba, South Korea, and the United Arab Emirates, with an estimated audience of 450 million viewers. The contest was reportedly broadcast via radio in countries including Belgium, Finland, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Turkey, and the United Kingdom. Known details on the broadcasts in each country, including the specific broadcasting stations and commentators are shown in the tables below.

+ Broadcasters and commentators in participating countries Country Broadcaster Channel(s) Commentator(s) ORF FS2 Ernst Grissemann RTBF RTBF1 Jacques Mercier RTBF Radio 1 BRT TV1 Luc Appermont DR DR TV Jørgen de Mylius YLE TV1, Heikki Harma TF1 Patrick Sabatier ARD Ado Schlier ERT ERT RTÉ RTÉ 1 Larry Gogan RTÉ Radio 1 Pat Kenny RAI Michele Gammino CLT Jacques Navadic NOS Pim Jacobs VARA Hilversum 1 Willem van Beusekom NRK Knut Aunbu NRK RTP RTP1 RDP TVE TVE 1 SVT TV1 Ulf Elfving SR P3 Kent Finell SRG SSR TV DRS TSR TSI TRT Bülend Özveren Şebnem Savaşçı BBC BBC1 Terry Wogan BBC Radio 2 Steve Jones BFBS BFBS Radio Andrew Pastouna