International song competition
The Eurovision Song Contest 1985 was the 30th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, held on 4 May 1985 in the in Gothenburg, Sweden. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster (SVT), it was presented by Lill Lindfors. The contest was held in Sweden following the country's victory at the 1984 contest with the song "Diggi-Loo Diggi-Ley" by Herreys. Nineteen countries participated in the contest; Greece and Israel returned after a one-year absence, while the Netherlands and Yugoslavia, which had participated in the previous year's event, declined to enter due to separate memorial events in those countries coinciding with the date of the contest.
The winner was Norway with the song "", composed and written by Rolf Løvland and performed by the group Bobbysocks!. This was Norway's first contest victory, and only the third top five placing for a country which had placed last on six previous occasions, including three times receiving "nul points". With a total of 123 points, "" remains the lowest scoring winner under the voting system used between 1975 and 2015. Germany, Sweden, the United Kingdom and Israel rounded out the top five positions.
Location.
The 1985 contest took place in Gothenburg, Sweden, following the country's victory at the 1984 contest with the song "Diggi-Loo Diggi-Ley" performed by Herreys. It was the second time that Sweden had hosted the event, ten years after the 1975 contest was held in Stockholm. The chosen venue was the , an indoor arena inaugurated in 1971, home to the Frölunda HC ice hockey team and the Gothenburg Horse Show. The Scandinavium was chosen by host broadcaster (SVT) from a number of bids submitted by various Swedish cities and venues; among those known to have been considered to stage the contest were the Berwald Hall in Stockholm and the Tipshallen in Jönköping. The stadium's maximum capacity of 14,000 people was reduced to 8,000 attendees for the contest, in order to provide space for the stage and technical equipment; this still made it the largest venue and the largest assembled audience in the history of the contest up to that point. During the week leading up to the rehearsals and the televised event, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and SVT held an official reception for the participating delegations, which was hosted on the evening of 1 May 1985 at .
Participating countries.
Nineteen countries in total participated in the 1985 contest. Greece and Israel both returned following a one-year absence, however the Netherlands and Yugoslavia, which had competed in the previous year's contest, declined to enter in 1985 as the date of the contest coincided with memorial days in the countries, specifically the Remembrance of the Dead, and the anniversary of the death of Yugoslav president Josip Broz Tito, respectively. It was the first time in the contest's history that there was no entry from the Netherlands, with the nation having previously competed in every event since its creation in 1956.
Several of the participating artists in this year's event had previously competed in past editions of the contest. Izhar Cohen, who had previously won the 1978 contest with the song "A-Ba-Ni-Bi" alongside the group Alphabeta, made a second contest appearance for Israel at this event. The Danish group Hot Eyes represented their nation for a second consecutive year, while the Italian duo Al Bano and Romina Power also made a second contest appearance, having previously competed for their country in 1976. The two members of Norway's group Bobbysocks! had previously competed in the event separately, with Hanne Krogh having represented Norway in 1971, and Elisabeth Andreasson previously competing for Sweden in 1982 as a member of the group Chips alongside Kikki Danielsson; Danielsson also competed in this event as a solo artist for Sweden. The Swiss duo Mariella Farré and Pino Gasparini had also previously competed in the contest for their country with separate entries, with Farré having competed in 1983 as a soloist, while Gasparini had been a member of the Pepe Lienhard Band in 1977. Gary Lux competed for Austria in this event as a solo artist, having previously represented the country in 1983 as a member of the group Westend; and Ireen Sheer, who had already twice competed in Eurovision, for Luxembourg in 1974 and for Germany in 1978, represented Luxembourg again at this contest alongside five other artists. Additionally, Cyprus's Lia Vissi had previously participated as backing vocalist for Greece at the contest on two separate occasions, in 1979 and 1980, the latter as a member of the group the Epikouri; and Rhonda Heath, who was a member of the group Silver Convention that had represented Germany in 1977, returned as a backing vocalist for Austria at this event.
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Production and format.
The Eurovision Song Contest 1985 was produced by SVT. Steen Priwin served as executive producer and director, Ingemar Wiberg served as designer, and Curt-Eric Holmquist served as musical director, leading the orchestra. A separate musical director could be nominated by each country to lead the orchestra during their performance, with the host musical director also available to conduct for those countries which did not nominate their own conductor. On behalf of the contest organisers, the EBU, the event was overseen by Frank Naef as scrutineer.
Each participating broadcaster submitted one song, which was required to be no longer than three minutes in duration and performed in the language, or one of the languages, of the country which it represented. A maximum of six performers were allowed on stage during each country's performance. Each entry could utilise all or part of the live orchestra and could use instrumental-only backing tracks, however any backing tracks used could only include the sound of instruments featured on stage being mimed by the performers.
The results of the 1985 contest were determined through the same scoring system as had first been introduced in 1975: each country awarded twelve points to its favourite entry, followed by ten points to its second favourite, and then awarded points in decreasing value from eight to one for the remaining songs which featured in the country's top ten, with countries unable to vote for their own entry. The points awarded by each country were determined by an assembled jury of eleven individuals, who were all required to be members of the public with no connection to the music industry, with a recommendation that there should be a balance between the sexes and that half should be under 25 years old. Each jury member voted in secret and awarded between one and five votes to each participating song, excluding that from their own country and with no abstentions permitted. The votes of each member were collected following the country's performance and then tallied by the non-voting jury chairperson to determine the points to be awarded. In any cases where two or more songs in the top ten received the same number of votes, a show of hands by all jury members was used to determine the final placing.
Rehearsals for the participating artists began on 28 April 1985. Two technical rehearsals were conducted for each participating delegation in the week approaching the contest, with countries rehearsing in the order in which they would perform. The first rehearsals of 40 minutes were held on 29 and 30 April, followed by a press conference for each delegation and the accredited press. Each country's second rehearsals were held on 1 and 2 May and lasted 25 minutes total. Three dress rehearsals were held with all artists, two held in the afternoon and evening of 3 May and one final rehearsal in the afternoon of 4 May, with an invited audience present for the second dress rehearsal.
Contest overview.
The contest was held on 4 May 1985, beginning at 21:00 (CEST) and lasting 2 hours and 46 minutes. The event was presented by the Swedish singer Lill Lindfors; Lindfors had previously represented Sweden in the 1966 contest, placing second alongside Svante Thuresson with the song "". Following the confirmation of the nineteen participating countries, a draw was held in Gothenburg on 7 December 1984 to determine the running order (R/O) of the contest.
Lindfors opened the contest with a performance of "My Joy Is Building Bricks of Music", an English version of her song "", becoming the first contest presenter to perform during the contest. To mark the thirtieth staging of the contest, among the invited audience present was Lys Assia, the contest's first winning artist and representative for Switzerland in three consecutive contests, in 1956, 1957 and 1958. The interval act featured jazz guitarists Peter Almqvist and Ulf Wakenius, performing as Guitars Unlimited. Lindfors was also part of a memorable moment from the contest: when she returned to the stage following the interval act, the skirt of her outfit, designed by Christer Lindarw, got caught on the set and ripped off in an apparent wardrobe malfunction, before Lindfors unclipped the top portion of her outfit to reveal a dress; returning to the microphone, she remarked to the audience, "I just wanted you to wake up a little." The trophy awarded to the winning songwriter was presented by the previous year's winning artists Herreys.
The winner was Norway represented by the song "", composed and written by Rolf Løvland, and performed by Hanne Krogh and Elisabeth Andreasson as Bobbysocks!. It was Norway's first contest win and marked a notable turnaround in fortune for the country, which had only placed in the top five on two previous occasions while having placed last six times, including three "nul points", at the time of the event, a fact on which Lindfors commented as she interviewed Bobbysocks! on stage following their victory. During the traditional winner's reprise performance, the group sung part of the winning song as its English version "Let It Swing", with the English lyrics also written by Løvland.
Spokespersons.
Each country nominated a spokesperson, connected to the contest venue via telephone lines and responsible for announcing, in English or French, the votes for their respective country. Known spokespersons at the 1985 contest are listed below.
Detailed voting results.
Jury voting was used to determine the points awarded by all countries. The announcement of the results from each country was conducted in the order in which they performed, with the spokespersons announcing their country's points in English or French in ascending order. The detailed breakdown of the points awarded by each country is listed in the tables below.
Norway's victory at this contest was achieved with the lowest winning score awarded under the voting system used between 1975 and 2015. Although the Norwegian entry received the maximum score from eight of the voting countries, almost half of those eligible, the Norwegian entry also received only 27 points from the remaining ten countries which could vote for Norway.
12 points.
The below table summarises how the maximum 12 points were awarded from one country to another. The winning country is shown in bold. Norway received the maximum score of 12 points from eight of the voting countries, with Italy receiving three sets of 12 points, Sweden receiving two sets, and France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Spain and Turkey each receiving one maximum score.
Broadcasts.
Each participating broadcaster was required to relay the contest via its networks. Non-participating 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. These commentators were typically sent to the venue to report on the event, and were able to provide commentary from small booths constructed at the back of the venue. The contest was reportedly broadcast in 30 countries, including the participating nations, Australia, and in the countries of South America, with an estimated global audience of 400 to 600 million. Known details on the broadcasts in each country, including the specific broadcasting stations and commentators are shown in the tables below.
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Notes and references.
References.
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