Eurovision Song Contest 1979

Final
 Venue
 Presenter(s)
 Conductor
 Executive supervisor
 Host broadcaster
 Interval act
 Number of entries
 Debuting countries
 Returning countries
 Withdrawing countries
 Voting system
 Nul points
 Winning song
 ← 1978 Eurovision Song Contest 1980 →

The **Eurovision Song Contest 1979** was the 24th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It was held on 31 March 1979 in Jerusalem, Israel, following the country's win at the 1978 edition. The event was staged at the International Convention Center. The presenters were Daniel Pe'er and Yardena Arazi.

The winner was the United Kingdom with the song "Twentieth Century Man", performed by James Harrison. Therefore, this was the United Kingdom's fourth victory. Harrison's 41 point winning margin was the largest at the time and remained the largest until 1982 when Germany won by 61 points and is still one of the largest winning margins. 19 countries participated, the 20 countries that took part at the previous 1978 Contest, except for Turkey which was also going to participate but eventually withdrew its entry for political reasons. Yugoslavia, who missed the 1978 Contest, also didn't want to take part nor transmit the 1979 show for political reasons. As well as being broadcast live in the 19 competing countries, the contest was broadcast in Turkey, Romania, Hong Kong and Iceland.

As of 2018, it was the last time the contest was held in March.

## Location

Located on a plateau in the Judean Mountains between the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea, Jerusalem is one of the oldest cities in the world. In the ancient cuneiform, Jerusalem was called "Urusalima", meaning "City of Peace", during the early Canaanite period (approximately 2400 BC). It is considered holy to the three major Abrahamic religions—Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

## Format

Each country had a jury who awarded 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 point(s) for their top ten songs. This was the last year in which the points were announced via order of appearance, as opposed to order of preference.

## Participating countries

At one point before the contest Turkey was going to participate. The country would have appeared 11th on stage (between Israel and France), represented by Maria Rita Epik and 21. Peron with the song "Seviyorum" ("I'm Loving"). However Turkey was forced to retire from the contest under pressure from Arab states who objected to a predominantly Muslim country taking part in a contest held in Israel, but they however took part in Jerusalem 20 years later.

### **Returning artists**

The contest saw the return of four artists who had participated in previous editions of the contest: France's representative Anne-Marie David was the winner for Luxembourg in 1973, Netherlands' Xandra represented the country in 1972 and 1976, Norway's Anita Skorgan represented the country in 1977, and Switzerland's Peter, Sue and Marc represented the country in 1971 and 1976.

## Results

**NOTES:**

1 While Denmark and Italy both finished with 62 points, Denmark are listed as finishing "ahead" of Italy due to the tiebreaker rule that favoured the song that received more sets of 12 points.
2 While Austria and Belgium both finished with five points, Austria are listed as finishing "ahead" of Belgium due to the tiebreaker rule that favoured the song that received the largest score from one nation, which in this case was four points.
## Scoreboard

### **12 points**

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

 Switzerland | Austria