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 1983 contest 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 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. Israel did not enter due to it conflicting with the country's Yom HaZikaron holiday again. Greece was also absent. On the other hand, Ireland, who had not participated the previous year, returned this year.

The winner was Sweden 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 1974. Richard and Louis Herrey became the first teenage males to win Eurovision and as of 2022 remain the youngest ever adult Eurovision male winners, being 19 years and 260 days and 18 years and 184 days of age respectively.[1]

Location

Grand Théâtre, Luxembourg City - host venue of the 1984 contest.

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.[2][3] It also hosted the 1973 edition of the Eurovision Song Contest.

Format

Roland de Groot, who had also designed the set for the 1970, 1976 and 1980 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.

The postcards in between each song were of a similar concept to those first devised for the 1979 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.

Participating countries

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

Conductors

Each performance had a conductor who directed the orchestra.[4][5]

Returning artists

Artist Country Previous year(s)
Mary Roos  Germany 1972
Kit Rolfe (part of Belle and the Devotions)  United Kingdom 1983 (backing singer)
Izolda Barudžija (part of Vlado & Isolda)  Yugoslavia 1982 (part of Aska), 1983 (part of Danijel's back vocals)
Gary Lux (backing singer for Anita)  Austria 1983 (as member of Westend)

Participants and results

R/O Country Artist Song Language[6][7] Points Place[8]
1  Sweden Herreys "Diggi-Loo Diggi-Ley" Swedish 145 1
2  Luxembourg Sophie Carle "100% d'amour" French 39 10
3  France Annick Thoumazeau "Autant d'amoureux que d'étoiles" French 61 8
4  Spain Bravo "Lady, Lady" Spanish[a] 106 3
5  Norway Dollie de Luxe "Lenge leve livet" Norwegian 29 17
6  United Kingdom Belle and the Devotions "Love Games" English 63 7
7  Cyprus Andy Paul "Anna Maria Lena" (Άννα Μαρία Λένα) Greek 31 15
8  Belgium Jacques Zegers "Avanti la vie" French[b] 70 5
9  Ireland Linda Martin "Terminal 3" English 137 2
10  Denmark Hot Eyes "Det' lige det" Danish 101 4
11  Netherlands Maribelle "Ik hou van jou" Dutch 34 13
12  Yugoslavia Vlado and Isolda "Ciao, amore" Serbo-Croatian[b] 26 18
13  Austria Anita "Einfach weg" German 5 19
14  Germany Mary Roos "Aufrecht geh'n" German 34 13
15  Turkey Beş Yıl Önce, On Yıl Sonra "Halay" Turkish 37 12
16  Finland Kirka "Hengaillaan" Finnish 46 9
17  Switzerland Rainy Day "Welche Farbe hat der Sonnenschein?" German 30 16
18  Italy Alice and Franco Battiato "I treni di Tozeur" Italian[c] 70 5
19  Portugal Maria Guinot "Silêncio e tanta gente" Portuguese 38 11

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.

Detailed voting results[9][10]
Total score
Sweden
Luxembourg
France
Spain
Norway
United Kingdom
Cyprus
Belgium
Ireland
Denmark
Netherlands
Yugoslavia
Austria
Germany
Turkey
Finland
Switzerland
Italy
Portugal
Contestants
 Sweden 145 6 6 4 10 7 12 7 12 12 10 4 12 12 3 8 10 6 4
Luxembourg 39 7 7 5 5 8 4 3
France 61 2 2 6 3 10 12 8 4 7 7
Spain 106 10 8 10 6 4 6 3 7 7 2 2 6 12 3 8 12
Norway 29 8 7 1 3 2 6 2
United Kingdom 63 3 1 3 8 2 2 8 1 4 1 2 7 1 4 10 6
Cyprus 31 4 1 4 10 12
Belgium 70 12 12 2 3 8 3 4 5 10 1 10
Ireland 137 12 5 3 10 4 8 10 12 3 7 10 10 10 7 12 12 2
Denmark 101 5 3 8 6 12 12 5 8 10 3 6 4 5 2 5 1 5 1
Netherlands 34 2 7 8 1 6 5 5
Yugoslavia 26 2 3 8 3 8 2
Austria 5 1 4
Germany 34 4 7 2 6 2 5 1 2 5
Turkey 37 6 5 4 2 1 10 3 6
Finland 46 7 5 1 5 4 6 3 5 1 6 3
Switzerland 30 1 10 1 5 8 1 4
Italy 70 10 12 1 7 6 7 12 7 8
Portugal 38 4 5 6 7 8 8

12 points

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

N. Contestant Nation(s) giving 12 points
5  Sweden  Austria,  Cyprus,  Denmark,  Germany,  Ireland
4  Ireland  Belgium,  Italy,  Sweden,  Switzerland
2  Belgium  France,  Luxembourg
 Denmark  Norway,  United Kingdom
 Italy  Spain,  Finland
 Spain  Portugal,  Turkey
1  Cyprus  Yugoslavia
 France  Netherlands

Spokespersons

Each country announced their votes in the order of performance. The following is a list of spokespersons who announced the votes for their respective country.

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.[14] Known details on the broadcasts in each country, including the specific broadcasting stations and commentators are shown in the tables below.

Broadcasters and commentators in participating countries
Country Broadcaster Channel(s) Commentator(s) Ref(s)
 Austria ORF FS2 Ernst Grissemann [15][16][17]
 Belgium RTBF RTBF1 Unknown [18][19][20]
BRT TV1 Luc Appermont [12][19][20]
 Cyprus RIK RIK Pavlos Pavlou [21][22]
 Denmark DR DR TV Jørgen de Mylius [23][24]
 Finland YLE TV1 Heikki Seppälä [fi] [25][26][27]
Rinnakkaisohjelma [fi] Jaakko Salonoja [fi]
 France Antenne 2 Léon Zitrone [28][29][30]
 Germany ARD Deutsches Fernsehen Ado Schlier [de] [16][20][31][32]
 Ireland RTÉ RTÉ 1 Gay Byrne [33][34][35][36]
RTÉ Radio 1 Unknown
 Italy RAI Rai Due[d] Antonio De Robertis [37][38][39]
 Luxembourg CLT RTL Télévision Unknown [19][20][40]
RTL plus Unknown
 Netherlands NOS Nederland 1 Ivo Niehe [20][41][42]
 Norway NRK NRK Fjernsynet Roald Øyen [43][44]
NRK[e] Erik Heyerdahl [no]
 Portugal RTP RTP1 Unknown [45][46][47]
Antena 1 Unknown
 Spain TVE TVE 2 José-Miguel Ullán [48][49][50]
 Sweden SVT TV1 Fredrik Belfrage [11][26][44][51]
 Switzerland SRG SSR TV DRS Bernard Thurnheer [de] [16][29][52]
TSR[f] Serge Moisson [fr]
TSI[f] Unknown
 Turkey TRT TRT Televizyon Unknown [53][54]
 United Kingdom BBC BBC1 Terry Wogan [5][55][56]
BFBS BFBS Radio Richard Nankivell [5]
 Yugoslavia JRT TV Beograd 1 Unknown [37][57][58][59][60]
TV Koper-Capodistria Unknown
TV Ljubljana 1 [sl] Unknown
TV Zagreb 1 Unknown
Broadcasters and commentators in non-participating countries
Country Broadcaster Channel(s) Commentator(s) Ref(s)
 Australia SBS Network 0–28[g] Unknown [61]
 Czechoslovakia ČST ČST2[h] Unknown [62]
 Iceland RÚV Sjónvarpið Unknown [63]
 Poland TP TP1[i] Unknown [64]

Notes

  1. ^ Contains some words in English
  2. ^ a b Contains some words in Italian
  3. ^ Contains some words in German
  4. ^ Deferred broadcast at 22:10 CEST (20:10 UTC)[37]
  5. ^ Deferred broadcast at 22:50 CEST (20:50 UTC)[44]
  6. ^ a b Broadcast through a second audio programme on TV DRS[29]
  7. ^ Deferred broadcast on 6 May at 20:30 AEST (10:30 UTC)[61]
  8. ^ Delayed broadcast on 3 June 1984 at 14:55 CEST (12:55 UTC)[62]
  9. ^ Delayed broadcast on 26 May 1984 at 20:00 CEST (18:00 UTC)[64]

References

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  3. ^ "Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg" Archived 2011-07-22 at the Wayback Machine, Théâtre Info Luxembourg. (in French) Retrieved 27 December 2010.
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External links