Eurovision Song Contest 1981

26th Eurovision Song Contest
date	April 4th 1981
Host country	Ireland
venue	Simmonscourt Pavilion in the Royal Dublin Society , Dublin
Broadcasting television station	RTÉ
Moderation	Doireann Ni Bhriain
Pause filler	“Timedance” by Planxty and the Dublin City Ballet
participating countries	20th
winner	United Kingdom
First time participation	Cyprus
Returning participants	Israel , Yugoslavia
Withdrawn participants	Italy , Morocco
Voting rule	In each country a jury awards 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 points and 1 point to the ten best songs.
◄ ESC 1980 • ESC 1982 ►

The 26th Eurovision Song Contest took place on April 4, 1981 in the Simmonscourt Pavilion in the Royal Dublin Society in the Irish capital, Dublin , because last year Johnny Logan, who started for Ireland, competed with What's Another Year? could enforce. Doireann Ní Bhriain moderated the competition organized by RTÉ . After an exciting evaluation procedure , the British entry Making Your Mind Up by the group Bucks Fizz prevailed. It was the fourth win for the United Kingdom.

particularities

For the first time the Eurovision Song Contest was broadcast in Egypt .

Some performers at the competition already had Euro Vision Experience: Cheryl Baker, a member of the winning group Bucks Fizz took as a group member of CoCo the Euro Vision Song Contest 1978 also for the UK part. Jean-Claude Pascal , the 1961 winner, was again represented for Luxembourg . Marty Brem took part as in the previous year (at that time as part of the Blue Danube group ) for Austria . The Swede Björn Skifs and the Dane Tommy Seebach and sang for their home countries in 1978 and 1979 respectively . Peter, Sue & Marc took part for Switzerland for the fourth time , so they are record holders in this category together with the Belgian Fud Leclerc . Lena Valaitis also reached seventh place in the German preliminary decision in 1976 .

Attendees

participating countries

Countries that had participated in a previous ESC, but not in 1981

Compared to the previous year, the number of participants increased to 20 because Cyprus made its debut and Israel and Yugoslavia returned to the competition. With Italy and Morocco , however, two countries also withdrew. The following performers returned to the competition:

country	Interpreter	Previous year of participation
Denmark	Tommy Seebach	1979
Ireland	Maxi (member of Sheeba )	1973
Luxembourg	Jean-Claude Pascal	1961 (winner)
Austria	Marty Brem	1980 (as a member of Blue Danube )
Sweden	Bjorn Skifs	1978
Switzerland	Peter, Sue & Marc	1971 , 1976 , 1979
United Kingdom	Cheryl Baker (member of Bucks Fizz )	1978 (as a member of Co-Co )

Voting procedure

In each country there was an eleven-member jury, which initially determined the ten best songs internally. Then the individual juries awarded 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 points and 1 point to these ten best songs.

Placements

space	Start number	country	Interpreter	Song Music (M) and Text (T)	language	translation	Points
01.	14th	United Kingdom	Bucks Fizz	Making Your Mind Up M: John Danter; T: Andy Hill	English	To make up your mind	136
02.	03	BR Germany	Lena Valaitis	Johnny Blue M: Ralph Siegel ; T: Bernd Opinion	German	-	132
03.	09	France	Jean Gabilou	Humanahum M: Jean-Paul Cara; T: Joe Gracy	French	Land of the people	125
04th	19th	Switzerland	Peter, Sue & Marc	Io senza te M: Peter Reber; T: Peter Reber, Nella Martinetti	Italian	Me without You	121
05.	12	Ireland	Sheeba	Horoscopes M: Jim Kelly; T: Joe Burkett	English	Horoscopes	105
06th	18th	Cyprus	Iceland	Monika Μόνικα M: Doros Georgiadis; T: Stavros Sideras	Greek	-	069
07th	05	Israel	Hakol Over Habibi הכל עובר חביבי	Halajla (הלילה) M: Shuki Levi; T: Shlomit Aharon, Yuval Dor	Hebrew	This evening	056
08th.	17th	Greece	Yiannis Dimitras Γιάννης Δημητράς	Feggari kalokerino (Φεγγάρι καλοκαιρινό) M: Giorgos Niarchos; T: Yiannis Dimitras	Greek	Summer moon	055
09.	11	Netherlands	Linda Williams	Het is a wonder M: Cees de Wit; T: Bart van de Laar	Dutch	It's a miracle	051
10.	20th	Sweden	Bjorn Skifs	Fångad i en dröm M / T: Björn Skifs, Bengt Palmers	Swedish	Trapped in a dream	050
11.	06th	Denmark	Debbie Cameron and Tommy Seebach	Krøller eller ej M: Tommy Seebach ; T: Keld Heick	Danish	Curl or not	041
12.	04th	Luxembourg	Jean-Claude Pascal	C'est peut-être pas l'Amérique M / T: Sophie Makhno, Jean-Claude Pascal , Jean-Claude Petit	French	Maybe this is not America	041
13.	16	Belgium	Emly Starr	Samson M: Kick Dandy, Giuseppe Marchese; T: Kick Dandy, Penny Els	Dutch	-	040
14th	10	Spain	Bacchelli	Y sólo tú M / T: Amado Jaen	Spanish	And only you	038
15th	07th	Yugoslavia	Be Memic	Lejla M / T: Ranko Boban	Bosnian	-	035
16.	08th	Finland	Riki Sorsa	Reggae ok M: Jim Pembroke; T: Olli Ojala	Finnish	-	027
17th	01	Austria	Marty Brem	When you are there M / T: Werner Böhmler	German	-	020th
18th	02	Turkey	Modern Folk Trio & Ayşegül Aldinç	Dönme dolap M / T: Ali Kocatepe	Turkish	Ferris wheel	009
19th	15th	Portugal	Carlos Paião	Playback M / T: Carlos Paião	Portuguese	-	009
20th	13	Norway	Finn Kalvik	Aldri i livet M / T: Finn Kalvik	Norwegian	Never in life	000

Scoring

Sustaining land		Forgiving country
country	Total	AUT	DOOR	GER	LUX	ISR	THE	YUG	FIN	FRA	ESP	NED	IRL	NOR	GBR	POR	BEL	GRE	CYP	CHE	SWE
Austria	020th	-	6th				1			5	6th										2
Turkey	009		-		1			3	5
BR Germany	132	5	12	-	3	8th	8th	2	7th	8th	12	3	6th	4th	7th	12	10	5	8th		12
Luxembourg	041	10		5	-	3			4th	3	1					4th				6th	5
Israel	056	8th			4th	-			6th			7th	7th	8th	4th	5				4th	3
Denmark	041		1	1	7th		-			4th	3	2			5	2	12				4th
Yugoslavia	035		4th					-	8th				2	1			5	2	3	10
Finland	027					2			-	1	2	5	5			1				5	6th
France	125	12		12	12	7th	2	4th	10	-		6th	4th	5	1	10	3	8th	7th	12	10
Spain	038		10			6th					-	4th	3	10		3				2
Netherlands	051	3	5	3		4th	7th			2	7th	-			6th	7th	2	3	2
Ireland	105	7th	3	6th	10	10	12	5		6th	5	10	-				1	10	12	1	7th
Norway	000													-
United Kingdom	136	4th	8th	4th	5	12	10	10	3	7th	8th	12	10	3	-	6th	8th	6th	4th	8th	8th
Portugal	009			8th												-		1
Belgium	040	1	7th			1	6th	8th	2						3		-	7th	5
Greece	055	6th		2	6th			1			10		1	2	8th		6th	-	6th	7th
Cyprus	069					5	3	6th				8th	8th	7th	10		7th	12	-	3
Switzerland	121	2	2	7th	8th		4th	12	12	10	4th	1	12	12	12	8th		4th	10	-	1
Sweden	050			10	2		5	7th	1	12				6th	2		4th		1		-

* The table is arranged vertically according to the order of appearance, horizontally according to the chronological scoring.
The scoring this time was comparatively exciting. This is because Germany, France, Switzerland and the United Kingdom alternated at the top throughout the ranking, with the latter leading most of the time. Before the Swiss (the penultimate ranking), Germany, the United Kingdom and Switzerland each led with 120 points. Switzerland gave eight points to Bucks Fizz, but none to Germany and, of course, none to themselves. In doing so, the Swiss jury paved the way for the UK to win. Marc Dietrich (from the Swiss group Peter, Sue & Marc ) then apologized for the voting behavior of the German representative Lena Valaitis.

Statistics of the twelve-point allocation

number	country	received from
5	Switzerland	Finland, Ireland, Yugoslavia, Norway, United Kingdom
4th	Germany	Portugal, Sweden, Spain, Turkey
	France	Germany, Luxembourg, Austria, Switzerland
2	Ireland	Denmark, Cyprus
	United Kingdom	Israel, Netherlands
1	Denmark	Belgium
	Sweden	France
	Cyprus	Greece

See also

• List of winners and events of the Eurovision Song Contest

Web links

• Eurovision.tv
• Eurovision.de
• diggiloo.net

Individual evidence

1. ^ Scoreboard from the ESC 1981 ( English ) In: Diggiloo.net . Retrieved December 27, 2010.
2. ↑ Scoreboard from ESC 1981 with cumulated scores ( English ) In: Diggiloo.net . Retrieved December 27, 2010.