Eurovision Song Contest 1984

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), the contest was held at the on 5 May 1984 and was hosted by Luxembourgish multimedia personality 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 , inaugurated in 1964 as the , became the venue for the 1984 contest. It is the city's major venue for drama, opera and ballet. It also hosted the 1973 edition of the Eurovision Song Contest.
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.
Returning artists
Format
Roland de Groot, who had also designed the set for the , and contests, returned with a stage concept similar to that of the aforementioned 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.
Désirée Nosbusch, a Luxembourg native working and living in the USA at the time, was, 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.
This year again, before the postcard of a specific country, the camera would zoom into the commentary box of that country's broadcaster, where the commentator/s would give a hand gesture, e.g. wave. 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 onto 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.
Contest overview
Spokespersons
Each country nominated a spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for their respective country via telephone. Known spokespersons at the 1984 contest are listed below.
Agneta Bolme Börjefors
Colin Berry
Detailed voting results
Each country had a jury that awarded one to eight, 10 and 12 points for their top ten songs.
At the close of the penultimate jury's votes, there was only a difference of six points between Sweden and Ireland, at 141 and 135 respectively. However, Yugoslavia was the only country who had not given any points to Ireland, and Portugal, the last jury, gave them only two points, crushing their chances. Portugal's voting also cost Denmark, who had been holding at a strong third position, even leading the scoreboard for a short time, a potential victory, when Portugal's 12 lifted Spain from 94 to 106 points. Portugal at the same time had only given Denmark one point making Denmark's total 101 points. Despite this, this was the latter country's best position in over 20 years.
12 points
Below is a summary of all 12 points in the final:
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. Known details on the broadcasts in each country, including the specific broadcasting stations and commentators are shown in the tables below.
Notes
References
External links
1984
Music festivals in Luxembourg
1984 in music
Music in Luxembourg City
Events in Luxembourg City
1984 in Luxembourg
20th century in Luxembourg City
May 1984 events in Europe