Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to A ...

participated in the

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...

for its first and only time at the contest. Its selected song "Bitaqat Hub", sung in

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

and performed by Samira Bensaïd, placed second to last. The country has not returned to the contest since.

Background

The

is an annual international song competition held by the

Eurovision The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pri ...

broadcasting organisation since 1956, with participants representing primarily European countries. Each participating country submits an original song to be performed on

live television Live television is a television production broadcast in real-time, as events happen, in the present. In a secondary meaning, it may refer to streaming television over the Internet when content or programming is played continuously (not on deman ...

and

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a tr ...

, then casts votes for the other countries' songs to determine the winner. Since its inception, entry to the contest has been open to all members of the

European Broadcasting Union The European Broadcasting Union (EBU; french: Union européenne de radio-télévision, links=no, UER) is an alliance of public service media organisations whose countries are within the European Broadcasting Area or who are members of the C ...

(EBU), a group also containing countries in North Africa and the Middle East. Before Morocco's 1980 participation, Tunisia (at the ) was the only African country that had intended to compete, with it even being drawn to perform fourth, however, it eventually withdrew from the contest.

1980 participation

Morocco's first and only participation in the Eurovision Song Contest was in 1980, when the contest was held in

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital o ...

, Netherlands. Its entry was organized by Moroccan broadcaster and EBU member, Société Nationale de Radiodiffusion et de Télévision (SNRT), which had previously broadcast the contest on Moroccan television in , , , , , and . The broadcaster selected the song "Bitaqat Hub" ("Love Card"), performed by Moroccan singer Samira Bensaïd. It is a moderately up-tempo number, with clear influences from Western

disco Disco is a genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the 1970s from the United States' urban nightlife scene. Its sound is typified by four-on-the-floor beats, syncopated basslines, string sections, brass and horns, electric p ...

and

overtones. Bensaïd sings of the need for peace among the world's nations, taking the role of "the children of the world" to describe a vision of a society free of war and hate. It was interpreted as a message of peace addressed to Israel and the Arab countries. Jean Claudric conducted the orchestra for the entry. The song was performed fifth on the night. At the close of voting, it had received 7 points, all of them from Italy, placing 18th in a field of 19, and ahead of perennial last-place recipient

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bot ...

. The country's second-to-last place was a cruel disappointment for Moroccan public television, which decided never to participate in the contest again. Samira Said's career did not suffer, however, as she went on to become one of the leading Arab recording artists of the 20th century. She recorded a French version of the song "Message d'amour", found on the

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record compan ...

of the single and in 1980,

Filippos Nikolaou Filippos is a masculine given name. It may refer to: * Filippos Filippou (athlete), Cypriot distance runner * Filippos Filippou (footballer), Cypriot footballer * Filippos Karvelas Filippos Karvelas ( el, Φίλιππος Καρβελάς; ...

released a Greek cover version "Tosi kardia, tosi agapi" ( el, "Τόση καρδιά, τόση αγάπη"). To this day, Morocco remains the only African country to have participated in the contest, and the song was the first to be sung in Arabic.

Future

A second Moroccan broadcaster,

2M TV 2M is a Moroccan free-to-air television network. It was established by the royal-owned conglomerate, ONA, before being partly sold to the Moroccan state. Of 2M, 45.3% is owned by Atlas Benjelloun's holding company SNI, while approximately 3 ...

, has expressed their intention to join the

(EBU). Should their application be successful, Morocco would be eligible to return to the contest with an alternative broadcaster. In May 2018, Israeli Minister of Communications

Ayoob Kara Ayoob Kara ( ar, أيوب قرا, he, איוב קרא; born 12 March 1955) is an Israeli Druze politician. He has served as a member of the Knesset for Likud in four spells between 1999 and 2021, and as Minister of Communications. Biography ...

announced that he would invite countries of the

Arab world The Arab world ( ar, اَلْعَالَمُ الْعَرَبِيُّ '), formally the Arab homeland ( '), also known as the Arab nation ( '), the Arabsphere, or the Arab states, refers to a vast group of countries, mainly located in Western A ...

to participate in the contest in

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the G ...

, but Morocco was not on the list of participating countries released on 7 November 2018. Following the signing of the normalization agreement between Israel and Morocco on 10 December 2020, Morocco's participation in Eurovision became possible again. Eran Sikurel, a politician and radio host with the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation (IPBC), called on Moroccan broadcaster SNRT to return to the contest on his Twitter account, but no response has been received.

Participation overview

References

External links

Points to and from Morocco
''eurovisioncovers.co.uk'' {{Eurovision Song Contest Countries in the Eurovision Song Contest Television controversies Controversies in Morocco