Eurovision Song Contest 1985

Eurovision Song Contest 1985
The Eurovision Song Contest 1985 was the 30th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Gothenburg, Sweden, following the country's victory at the with the song "Diggi-Loo Diggi-Ley" by Herreys.
Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and the host broadcaster (SVT), the contest was held at Scandinavium on 4 May 1985 and was hosted by previous Swedish contestant Lill Lindfors.
Nineteen countries participated in the contest, with the and deciding not to participate.
won the contest with a rendition titled "" by Bobbysocks!. Serving as Norway's first victory in the contest, after a long period of low scores, including 3 "null points".
Location
Gothenburg is the second-largest city in Sweden and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Construction of the arena began in 1969 after decades of setbacks.
The arena was inaugurated on 18 May 1971 and was a feature for the city's failed bid for the 1984 Winter Olympics. At the time, Scandinavium was the largest indoor venue in the world, and until the 2000 contest in Stockholm was the largest arena to host the event. today, the arena homes the Frölunda HC of Swedish Hockey League, and the annual Gothenburg Horse Show.
Participating countries
19 countries participated in the contest. Greece and Israel had returned to the contest after not participating the previous year. Meanwhile, the Netherlands did not participate in this contest, due to the national Remembrance of the Dead, while Yugoslavia did not participate due to the anniversary of the death of Josip Broz Tito. 1985 was the last year to have less than 20 participants competing in the final.
Each performance had a conductor who directed the orchestra. 1985 was the only year to feature multiple conductors for several entries and countries: Greek conductor Haris Andreadis led the orchestra for both the Cypriot and Greek entries.
Returning artists
In 1985, thirteen previous Eurovision artists made a comeback. This applied to the winners, Bobbysocks! who had attended once before as soloists: Hanne Krogh performed for Norway in 1971, while Elisabeth Andreasson for Sweden (where she is originally from) in 1982 in a duet, Chips, with Kikki Danielsson. Kikki returned this year for host country Sweden, and was thus competing against Elisabeth Andreasson and Bobbysocks!.
Bold indicates a previous winner.
Format
The presenter was entertainer Lill Lindfors (herself a former participant in 1966), who had a wardrobe malfunction (though technically this is a misnomer, as the stunt was deliberate) as she proceeded to the stage for the voting procedure. As she walked on stage, the skirt of her dress came away, leaving her in just her underwear and the top half of her dress. After a few seconds of pretending to be shocked, Lindfors unfastened the flaps of her dress across her shoulders, to reveal a full-length white gown, to much raucous audience applause. Lill then took her seat to start calling in the votes, and nonchalantly said, "I just wanted to wake you up a little."
Lys Assia, the winner of the first ever Eurovision Song Contest in 1956, was the guest of honour in 1985. She was introduced by Lill Lindfors. The camera zoomed close to Lys, who rose to greet the audience, while the orchestra played the song "Refrain", her winning song.
The video postcards, broadcast in between each song to introduce the competing nation, were the first in the contest history to feature only the songwriters and composers, and not the performing artist (unless they had composed their own song). All the songwriters were filmed in various locations in and around Gothenburg during the week of rehearsals. Once the video concluded, hostess Lill Lindfors introduced the song, the artist and the conductor from a seat on the stage, reading from cards represented by the flag of each nation.
Host Lill Lindfors congratulated the duo, Hanne Krogh and Elisabeth Andreasson, following their victory by saying, "I must say I am honestly very happy that this happened because Norway has been last so many times that you really deserve it!" Krogh replied, "You're happy? What do you think we are?!" After an energetic reprise, the two women embraced to a standing ovation from the audience. During the reprise the last verse of the winning entry was sung in English.
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 1985 contest are listed below.
Agneta Bolme Börjefors
Colin Berry
Detailed voting results
Each country had a jury who awarded 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 point(s) for their top ten songs.
During the voting, Germany took a commanding lead in the first half, with Norway fifth place behind Germany, Sweden, Italy and the United Kingdom around the end of the first half of voting. Finally, with five juries left, Germany, Sweden and Norway were tightly wrapped around the pole positions with 87, 86, and 85 points respectively. At that point, Sweden briefly took the lead away from Germany (who received no points from Switzerland). Sweden was the fourth-to-last jury, conceding their brief lead by awarding Germany eight points and Norway the maximum twelve. With only three countries left to vote, Norway kept the lead, in one of the shortest winning stretches during voting in the contest's history.
12 points
Below is a summary of all 12 (douze) 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
1985
Music competitions in Sweden
1985 in Sweden
1985 in music
1980s in Gothenburg
May 1985 events in Europe
Events in Gothenburg