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The Eurovision Song Contest 1978 was the 23rd edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Paris, France, following the country's victory at the with the song " L'Oiseau et l'Enfant" by Marie Myriam. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster Télévision Française 1 (TF1), the contest was held at the Palais des Congrès on 22 April 1978 and was hosted by French television presenters Denise Fabre and Léon Zitrone. This was the first time that more than one presenter had hosted the contest as well as the first to have a male presenter since . In addition to hosting, the two presenters also served as commentators for France.

Twenty countries participated, the highest number of competing countries in the history of the competition at the time. and both returned to the contest. Denmark had not participated since , 12 years before.

The winner of the contest was with the song "A-Ba-Ni-Bi" by Izhar Cohen & the Alphabeta. Although 'A-Ba-Ni-Bi' is the correct title, French television mistakenly captioned on screen the song title as 'Ah-Bah-Nee-Bee'. The winning entry was a love song sung in the Hebrew equivalent of Ubbi dubbi (the title is an expansion of the Hebrew word ''ani'' אני, meaning "I"). This was 's first Eurovision win, and it was also the first winning song to be performed in one of the Semitic languages. Furthermore, it was also the only winning song to be conducted by a woman, Nurit Hirsh. finished last for the fifth time, gaining the first ''nul points'' after the new voting system was implemented in .

Location

The event took place in Paris, the capital and largest city of France, with the host venue being the Palais des Congrès de Paris which is a concert venue, convention centre and shopping mall in the 17th arrondissement of Paris. The venue was built by French architect Guillaume Gillet, and was inaugurated in 1974.

Format

The postcards were filmed live, featuring the artists making their way to the stage. They took a corridor, then an elevator. Leaving the lift, they were greeted by the previous participants and then made their entrances to the stage. The camera also made several shots of the audience, notably Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg.

The Swedish participant Björn Skifs was unhappy with the rule that every country would have to perform in their native language. He planned to sing in English anyway, but changed his mind at the last moment, causing him to completely forget the lyrics. He therefore sang the first few lines in gibberish before finding the words again. Along with the 20 participating countries, the show was also broadcast live in Yugoslavia, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Jordan, East Germany, Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Dubai, Hong Kong, the Soviet Union and Japan.

Participating countries

Denmark returned to the competition after having been absent for twelve years, while Turkey did so after missing out two years. This meant that, for the first time, the contest had twenty participating nations competing.

Conductors

Each performance had a conductor who directed the orchestra.

* Noel Kelehan
* Carsten Klouman
* Nicola Samale
* Ossi Runne
*
* Alyn Ainsworth
*
*
* Harry van Hoof
* Onno Tunç
*
* Yvon Rioland
* Haris Andreadis
* Helmer Olesen
* Rolf Soja
* Nurit Hirsh
*
*

Returning artists

Participants and results

Detailed voting results

12 points

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

Spokespersons

Listed below is the order in which votes were cast during the 1978 contest along with the spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for their respective country.

# John Skehan
#
#
# Kaarina Pönniö
#
# Marc Menant
# Matías Prats Luque
# Colin Berry
# Michel Stocker
# André Hagon
# Dick van Bommel
# Meral Savcı
#
# Carole Chabrier
# Niki Venega
# Jens Dreyer
# Jacques Harvey
#
#
# Sven Lindahl

Broadcasts

Each national broadcaster also sent a commentator to the contest, in order to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language. In addition to the participating countries, the contest was also reportedly broadcast in Algeria, Iceland, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia and Yugoslavia, in Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland and the Soviet Union via Intervision, and in Hong Kong, Japan and the United Arab Emirates.

Incidents

Israeli victory reactions

The Israeli win caused problems for several North African and Middle-Eastern nations that were televising the contest, even though they were not participating. According to author and political commentator John Kennedy O'Connor in his book ''The Eurovision Song Contest: The Official History'', when Israel became the clear winners during the voting, most of the Arabic stations ended their transmission of the contest. Jordanian TV finished the show with a photo of a bunch of daffodils on screen,O'Connor, John Kennedy. The Eurovision Song Contest – The Official History. Carlton Books, UK. 2007 later announcing that the Belgian entry (which finished second) was the winner.

See also

* OTI Festival 1978

Notes

References

External links

*

{{Portal bar, Music

1978
Music festivals in France
1978 in French television
1978 in Israel
1978 in Paris
1978 music festivals
April 1978 events in Europe
Events in Paris