Eurovision Song Contest 1984

The Eurovision Song Contest 1984, the 29th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Luxembourg City, Luxembourg, following the country's victory at the with the song " Si la vie est cadeau" by Corinne Hermes. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster RTL Télévision (RTL), the contest was held at the Théâtre Municipal on 5 May 1984 and was hosted by Luxembourgish multimedia Désirée Nosbusch, who was only 19 years at the date, making her the youngest presenter in adult Eurovision history.

Nineteen countries took part in the contest. did not enter due to it conflicting with the country's Yom HaZikaron holiday again. was also absent. On the other hand, , who had not participated the previous year, returned this year.

The winner was with the song " Diggi-Loo Diggi-Ley" performed by Herreys. This was the first winning song in Swedish, as ABBA had performed "Waterloo" in English when they won in . Richard and Louis Herrey became the first teenage males to win Eurovision and remain the youngest ever adult Eurovision male winners, being 19 years and 260 days and 18 years and 184 days of age respectively.

Location

Luxembourg City is a commune with city status, and the capital of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. It is located at the confluence of the Alzette and Pétrusse Rivers in southern Luxembourg. The city contains the historic Luxembourg Castle, established by the Franks in the Early Middle Ages, around which a settlement developed.

The Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg, inaugurated in 1964 as the Théâtre Municipal de la Ville de Luxembourg, became the venue for the 1984 contest. It is the city's major venue for drama, opera and ballet."Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg"
, ''Théâtre Info Luxembourg''. Retrieved 27 December 2010. It also hosted the 1973 edition of the Eurovision Song Contest.

Format

Roland de Groot, who had also designed the set for the , and contests, returned with a stage concept similar to that contests, using translucent panels of varying shapes suspended above the stage and operated on a pully system of ropes, with color changes for each panel to create unique backdrops for each entry. Unusually, the live orchestra was not seen on camera, being positioned slightly under the stage itself in a traditional orchestra pit, out of sight of the cameras.

The presentation by Désirée Nosbusch, a Luxembourg native working and living in the USA, made her at 19 years-of-age the youngest ever host of the competition. She hosted the show in a lax manner, which was quite unusual for the show at the time. Her style was also unusual in that rather than making announcements in multiple languages, she instead switched between English, French, German and Luxembourgish mid-sentences, not finishing any of her announcements in a single language.

The postcards in between each song were of a similar concept to those first devised for the competition and featured mime artists virtually visiting each of the participant nations. The actors, known collectively as "The Tourists" were superimposed into animated representations of the tourist attractions of each country, with the combined use of animated and real props, all created using the Chroma-Key process.

1984 is also notable for the audible booing that could be heard from the audience, particularly at the end of the UK's performance. It was said that the booing was due to English football hooligans having rioted in Luxembourg in November 1983 after failing to qualify for the 1984 UEFA European Football Championship.

Participating countries

Nineteen participating countries competed this year. did not enter due to it conflicting with the country's Yom HaZikaron holiday again. was also absent. , who had not participated the previous year, returned this year.

Conductors

Each performance had a conductor who directed the orchestra.

* Curt-Eric Holmquist
* Pascal Stivé
* François Rauber
* Eddy Guerin
* Sigurd Jansen
* John Coleman
* Pierre Cao
*
* Noel Kelehan
*
* Rogier van Otterloo
*
*
* Pierre Cao
* Selçuk Basar
* Ossi Runne

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