• Dates – Grand Final: Saturday, 22 April 1978 – 21:00 CEST
• Host – Venue & Location:  Palais des Congrès, Paris, 🇫🇷 France
• Presenter (s): Denise Fabré & Léon Zitrone
• Musical Director: François Rauber
• Director: Bernard Lion
• Executive Producer: —
• Executive Supervisor: Frank Naef
• Multicamera Director: —
• Host broadcaster:  Télévision Française 1 (TF1)
• Interval Act: Stéphane Grappelli and Oscar Peterson, Yehudi Menuhin, Kenny Clarke, Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen
• Participants – Number of entries: 20 [🇧🇪 Belgium (20ª), 🇩🇪 Germany (20ª), 🇮🇹 Italy (20ª), 🇳🇱 The Netherlands (20ª), 🇨🇭 Switzerland (20ª), 🇬🇧 United Kindom (18ª), 🇲🇨 Monaco (17ª), 🇪🇸 Spain (15ª), 🇮🇪 Ireland (11ª), 🇱🇺 Luxembourg (19ª), 🇫🇮 Finland (14ª), 🇳🇴 Norway (15ª), 🇵🇹 Portugal (11ª), 🇮🇱 Israel (3ª), 🇫🇷 France (20ª), 🇦🇹 Austria (16ª), 🇬🇷 Greece (2ª), 🇸🇪 Sweden (16ª), 🇩🇰 Denmark (11ª), 🇹🇷 Turkey (1ª)]
• Debuting countries: —
• Return: 🇩🇰 Denmark (10ª), 🇹🇷 Turkey (1ª)
• Non-returning countries: —
• Vote – Voting system: Each country awarded 12, 10, 8-1 points to their 10 favourite songs.
• Nil Points: 🇳🇴 Norway (2ª)
• Winning song: “A-Ba-Ni-Bi” – Izhar Cohen & The Alpha Beta – Israele (1ª)

About. After having won in London in 1977, French Television organised the 1978 Eurovision Song Contest in Paris on 22nd April.

Live in Dubai!. For the third time in Eurovision Song Contest history, the event was held in France. After having hosted the two previous contests in Cannes, French Television decided to host it in the capital Paris. A record 20 countries participated in 1978. Denmark returned to the contest after an 11 year absence. Turkey also participated, and no country withdrew from the previous year. For the first time, the show was presented by two people; Denise Fabre and Léon Zitrone. It was the first time contest was broadcast live in Dubai.

About the winner. Israel won the song contest for the first time with the song “A-Ba-Ni-Bi” by Izhar Cohen & The Alphabeta. The country received five consecutive sets of 12 points. Israel’s Head of Delegation, Rivka Michaeli, admitted though that they hadn’t been satisfied with Cohen’s song. Michaeli said it was only because all the other entries were “so absolutely awful” that Cohen had won the national heats. When it was obvious that Israel would win, the broadcasting company of Jordan stopped the live broadcast claiming they had technical difficulties. A day later they presented the song from Belgium – which came second – as the winning song.

Facts & figures. Norway did not get a single vote, which was unique for the new voting system, a fate that would be repeated several times in the future; Big European stars participated in the contest this year, despite all achieving only moderate success. Italy’s Ricchi & Poveri, only ending up 12th, went on to have a major success in Europe as part of the later wave of Italo-Pop. The popular singer for Germany, Ireen Sheer, also took part for the second time and came 6th beating Spanish disco queens Baccara who sang for Luxembourg.

o/r	country	participant(s)	song – translate – Language	Points	rank
01	🇮🇪 Ireland RTÉ	Colm C.T. Wilkinson	Born to sing English	086	05
02	🇳🇴 Norway NRK	Jahn Teigen	Mil etter mil (Mile after mile) Norwegian	000	20
03	🇮🇹 Italy RAI	Ricchi e Poveri	Questo amore (This love) Italian	053	12
04	🇫🇮 Finland YLE	Seija Simola	Anna rakkaudelle tilaisuus (Give love a chance) Finnish	002	18
05	🇵🇹 Portugal RTP	Gemini	Dai li dou Portuguese	005	17
06	🇫🇷 France TF1	Joël Prévost	Il y aura toujours des violons (There will always be violins) French	119	03
07	🇪🇸 Spain TVE	José Vélez	Bailemos un vals (Let’s dance a waltz) Spanish[a]	065	09
08	🇬🇧 United Kindom BBC	Co-Co	The bad old days English	061	11
09	🇨🇭 Switzerland SSR SRG	Carole Vinci	Vivre (Living) French	065	09
10	🇧🇪 Belgium RTBF	Jean Vallée	L’amour ça fait chanter la vie (Love that makes life sing) French	125	02
11	🇳🇱 The Netherlands NOS	Harmony	‘T is O.K. (It’s OK) Dutch	037	13
12	🇹🇷 Turkey TRT	Nilüfer & Nazar	Sevince (When someone loves… / When I’m in love) Turkish	002	18
13	🇩🇪 Germany ARD	Ireen Sheer	Feuer (Fire) German	084	06
14	🇲🇨 Monaco TMC	Caline & Oliver Toussaint	Les jardins de Monaco (The gardens of Monaco) French	107	04
15	🇬🇷 Greece ERT	Tania Tsanaklidou (Τάνια Τσανακλίδου)	Charlie Chaplin (Τσάρλυ Τσάπλιν) Greek	066	08
16	🇩🇰 Denmark DR	Mabel	Boom-boom Danish	013	16
17	🇱🇺 Luxembourg CLT	Baccara	Parlez-vous français? (Do you speak French?) French	073	07
18	🇮🇱 Israel IBA	Izhar Cohen & The Alphabeta (יזהר כהן ואלפא-ביתא)	A-Ba-Ni-Bi (א-ב-ני-בי, I love you) Hebrew	157	01
19	🇦🇹 Austria ÖRF	Springtime	Mrs. Caroline Robinson German[b]	014	15
20	🇸🇪 Sweden SR	Björn Skifs	Det blir alltid värre framåt natten (It always gets worse when the night comes) Swedish	026	14

Missed participation:

•  🇬🇷 Greece: “Mr Nobel” (O Kyrios Nobel, Ο Κος Νόμπελ) (Greek) – Anna Vissi (Άννα Βίσση). In 1978 she was proposed by ERT (Greek National Television) to represent Greece at the 23rd Eurovision Song Contest. There were two candidate songs: “Poso S’ Agapo” (Ω Μαρία) and “O Kyrios Nobel” (Ο Κος Νόμπελ). Finally, due to controversies between the composers of the songs, her participation was disqualified and Tania Tsanaklidou (Τάνια Τσανακλίδου) went to the contest. “Na kseris s’agapo” – Robert Williams, withdrawn because neither of the composers were Greek.  However in the original final Anna Vissi was tied with this song.  She didn’t go to Paris either as ERT comissioned a whole new set of songs which included the eventual Greek entry – Charlie Chaplin.

Participation map

Participating countries Countries that participated in the past but not in 1978

ESC 1978 Scoreboard Ι Detailed voting results: 

The Eurovision Song Contest 1978 was the 23rd edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Paris, France, following the country’s victory at the 1977 contest with the song “L’oiseau et l’enfant” by Marie Myriam. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster Télévision Française 1 (TF1), the contest was held at the Palais des Congrès on 22 April 1978 and was hosted by French television presenters Denise Fabre and Léon Zitrone. This was the first time that more than one presenter had hosted the contest as well as the first to have a male presenter since 1956. In addition to hosting, the two presenters also served as commentators for France.

Twenty countries participated, the highest number of competing countries in the history of the competition at the time. Denmark and Turkey both returned to the contest. Denmark had not participated since 1966, 12 years before.

The winner of the contest was Israel with the song “A-Ba-Ni-Bi” by Izhar Cohen & the Alphabeta. Although ‘A-Ba-Ni-Bi’ is the correct title, French television mistakenly captioned on screen the song title as ‘Ah-Bah-Nee-Bee’. The winning entry was a love song sung in the Hebrew equivalent of Ubbi dubbi (the title is an expansion of the Hebrew word ani אני, meaning “I”). This was Israel’s first Eurovision win, and it was also the first winning song to be performed in one of the Semitic languages. Furthermore, it was also the only winning song to be conducted by a woman, Nurit Hirsh. Norway finished last for the fifth time, gaining the first nul points after the new voting system was implemented in 1975.

1.Location. The event took place in Paris, the capital and largest city of France, with the host venue being the Palais des congrès de Paris which is a concert venue, convention centre and shopping mall in the 17th arrondissement of Paris. The venue was built by French architect Guillaume Gillet, and was inaugurated in 1974.

2.Format. The postcards were filmed live, featuring the artists making their way to the stage. They took a corridor, then an elevator. Leaving the lift, they were greeted by the previous participants and then made their entrances to the stage. The camera also made several shots of the audience, notably Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg.

The Swedish participant Björn Skifs was unhappy with the rule that every country would have to perform in their native language. He planned to sing in English anyway, but changed his mind at the last moment, causing him to completely forget the lyrics. He therefore sang the first few lines in gibberish before finding the words again. Along with the 20 participating countries, the show was also broadcast live in Yugoslavia, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Jordan, East Germany, Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Dubai, Hong Kong, the Soviet Union and Japan.

3.Participating countries. Denmark returned to the competition after having been absent for twelve years, while Turkey did so after missing out two years. This meant that, for the first time, the contest had twenty participating nations competing.

3.1.Conductors. Each performance had a conductor who directed the orchestra.

3.2.Returning artists.

Artist	Country	Previous year(s)
Jean Vallée	🇧🇪 Belgium	1970
Norbert Niedermeyer (as part of Springtime)	🇦🇹 Austria	1972 (as part of The Milestones)
Ireen Sheer	🇩🇪 Germany	1974 (for 🇱🇺 Luxembourg)
Trio La la la (backings for José Vélez)	🇪🇸 Spain	1968, 1970, 1971, 1975 (all years as backings)

3.3.Participants and results.

3.4.All the national selections for Eurovision Song Contest 1978: 

• National Selections in 1978:

COUNTRY	EVENT	WINNER
🇧🇪 Belgium	Eurosong 1978	Jean Vallée – L’amour ça fait chanter la vie
🇩🇰 Denmark	Melodi Grand Prix 1978	Mabel – Boom boom
🇫🇮 Finland	(Finnish Selection 1978)	Seija Simola – Anna rakkaudelle tilaisuus
🇫🇷 France	(French Selection 1978)	Joël Prévost – Il y aura toujours des violons
🇩🇪 Germany	(German Selection 1978)	Ireen Sheer – Feuer
🇮🇪 Ireland	(Irish Selection 1978)	Colm T. Wilkinson – Born to Sing
🇮🇱 Israel	Israel Song Festival 1978	Izhar Cohen and the Alphabeta – A-Ba-Ni-Bi
🇱🇺 Luxembourg	(Luxembourgish Selection 1978)	Baccara – Parlez-vous français?
🇳🇱 The Netherlands	Nationaal Songfestival 1978	Harmony – ‘t Is OK
🇳🇴 Norway	Melodi Grand Prix 1978	Jahn Teigen – Mil etter mil
🇵🇹 Portugal	Grande Prémio TV da Canção 1978	Gemini – Da-li-dou
🇸🇪 Sweden	Melodifestival 1978	Björn Skifs – Det blir alltid värre framåt natten
🇨🇭 Switzerland	Concours Eurovision 1978	Carole Vinci – Vivre
🇹🇷 Turkey	Şarkı Yarışması 1978	Nilüfer & Nazar – Sevince
🇬🇧 United Kindom	A Song for Europe 1978	Co-Co – The Bad Old Days

• Internal Selections in 1978: 

4.Voting.

Voting results

		Total score
C o n t e s t a n t s	🇮🇪 Ireland	86		12		3		5			7	10		10	5		10		10		6	8
	🇳🇴 Norway	0
	🇮🇹 Italy	53	10	6			1	4	8	6	1	1		1	2	8	2		3
	🇫🇮 Finland	2		2
	🇵🇹 Portugal	5			4				1
	🇫🇷 France	119	6	3	10	2	2		5	8	6	8	6	4	10	5	8	8	1	5	12	10
	🇪🇸 Spain	65				7					8	2	4	7		4	6	12	2	6	7
	🇬🇧 United Kindom	61	3				6	2	3		2	4	2	6	8	7	3		5	2	5	3
	🇨🇭 Switzerland	65		5	1	1		7	4	2		7	8		6	2		3	8	1	10
	🇧🇪 Belgium	125	12	7	6	6	4	12	2	12	10		5		3	12	12		7	7	4	4
	🇳🇱 The Netherlands	37			5					3					4	1		5	6	12		1
	🇹🇷 Turkey	2		1						1
	🇩🇪 Germany	84	1		3	12	7		10		3	5	7	8		10	7	1		3		7
	🇲🇨 Monaco	107	4	4	7	8	5	1		10	5	6	10	5	7		4	10		8	1	12
	🇬🇷 Greece	66	7		2	5	8	10	7		4							4	4	10	3	2
	🇩🇰 Denmark	13						6					1							4	2
	🇱🇺 Luxembourg	73	2		12		12		12	7		3	3	2		6	1	7				6
	🇮🇱 Israel	157	8	8	8	10	10	8	6	5	12	12	12	12	12	3	5	6	12		8
	🇦🇹 Austria	14					3							3	1			2				5
	🇸🇪 Sweden	26	5	10		4		3		4

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

N.	Contestant	Nation(s) giving 12 points
6	🇮🇱 Israel	🇧🇪 Belgium, 🇩🇪 Germany, 🇱🇺 Luxembourg, 🇳🇱 The Netherlands, 🇨🇭 Switzerland, 🇹🇷 Turkey
5	🇧🇪 Belgium	🇫🇷 France, 🇬🇷 Greece, 🇮🇪 Ireland, 🇲🇨 Monaco, 🇬🇧 United Kindom
3	🇱🇺 Luxembourg	🇮🇹 Italy, 🇵🇹 Portugal, 🇪🇸 Spain
1	🇫🇷 France	🇦🇹 Austria
	🇩🇪 Germany	🇫🇮 Finland
	🇮🇪 Ireland	🇳🇴 Norway
	🇲🇨 Monaco	🇸🇪 Sweden
	🇳🇱 The Netherlands	🇮🇱 Israel
	🇪🇸 Spain	🇩🇰 Denmark

4.2.Spokespersons. Listed below is the order in which votes were cast during the 1978 contest along with the spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for their respective country.

5.Broadcasts. Each national broadcaster also sent a commentator to the contest, in order to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language.

Broadcasters and commentators in participating countries

Country	Broadcaster(s)	Commentator(s)	–
🇦🇹 Austria	FS2	Ernst Grissemann
	Hitradio Ö3	Walter Richard Langer
🇧🇪 Belgium	RTBF1	French: Claude Delacroix
	BRT1	Dutch: Luc Appermont	–
	RTB La Première	French: Jacques Bauduin
	BRT Radio 1	Dutch: Nand Baert  and Herwig Haes
🇩🇰 Denmark	DR TV	Jørgen de Mylius	–
	DR P3	Kjeld Koplev
🇫🇮 Finland	YLE TV1	Erkki Toivanen	–
	YLE Rinnakkaisohjelma	TBC
🇫🇷 France	TF1	Léon Zitrone and Denise Fabre	–
	France Inter	René Boyer  and Michel Polac
🇩🇪 Germany	Deutsches Fernsehen	Werner Veigel	–
	Deutschlandfunk/Bayern 2	Wolf Mittler
🇬🇷 Greece	ERT	Mako Georgiadou	–
	Proto Programma	Dimitris Konstantaras
🇮🇪 Ireland	RTÉ	Larry Gogan
	RTÉ Radio	Mike Murphy
🇮🇱 Israel	Israeli Television	No commentator
🇮🇹 Italy	Rete 2 and Rai Radio 2	Tullio Grazzini
🇱🇺 Luxembourg	RTL Télé Luxembourg	Jacques Navadic	–
	RTL	André Torrent
🇲🇨 Monaco	Télé Monte Carlo	José Sacré
🇳🇱 The Netherlands	Nederland 2	Willem Duys	–
	Hilversum 3	Jan van Veen
🇳🇴 Norway	NRK	Bjørn Scheele	–
	NRK P1	Erik Heyerdahl
🇵🇹 Portugal	RTP1	Eládio Clímaco	–
	RDP Programa 1	Amadeu Meireles [pt]
🇪🇸 Spain	TVE1	Miguel de los Santos	–
🇸🇪 Sweden	SR TV1	Ulf Elfving	–
	SR P3	Kent Finell	–
🇨🇭 Switzerland	TV DRS	German: Theodor Haller
	TSR	French: Georges Hardy	–
	TSI	Italian: Giovanni Bertini
	RSR 1	French: Robert Burnier	–
🇹🇷 Turkey	Ankara Television	Bülend Özveren
	Radyo 3	Şebnem Savaşçı
🇬🇧 United Kindom	BBC1	Terry Wogan	–
	BBC Radio 2	Ray Moore	–

Broadcasters and commentators in non-participating countries

Country	Broadcaster(s)	Commentator(s)	–
Algeria	ENTV	Un­known	–
🇨🇿 Czechoslovakia	ČST	Un­known	–
East Germany	Deutscher Fernsehfunk	Un­known	–
Hong Kong	TVB Jade (delayed broadcast on 23 April 1978)	Un­known	–
	TVB Pearl (delayed broadcast on 23 April 1978)	Un­known
🇭🇺 Hungary	RTV	Un­known	–
🇮🇸 Iceland	Sjónvarpið	Ragna Ragnars	–
Japan	NHK	Un­known	–
Jordan	JRTV	Un­known	–
Morocco	TVM	Un­known	–
🇵🇱 Poland	TVP	Un­known	–
Soviet Union	TST SSSR	Un­known	–
Tunisia	RTT	Un­known	–
United Arab Emirates	Dubai Radio and Colour Television	Terry Wogan (via BBC)	–
Yugoslavia	TVB 2	Serbo-Croatian: Milovan Ilić	–
	TVZ 1	Serbo-Croatian: Oliver Mlakar
	TVL 1	Slovene: Tomaž Terček

6.Incidents. 

6.1.Israeli winning reactions. Israeli win caused problems for several North African and Middle-Eastern nations that were televising the contest, even though they were not participating. According to author and political commentator John Kennedy O’Connor in his book The Eurovision Song Contest: The Official History, when Israel became the clear winners during the voting, most of the Arabic stations ended their transmission of the contest. Jordanian TV finished the show with a photo of a bunch of daffodils on screen, later announcing that the Belgian entry (which finished second) was the winner. This was also the first broadcast of the contest in the USSR, and until 1988 only partial performances was shown, each time with the exception of representatives of Israel.

7.Notes.

1. [a] Contains some words in French
2. [b] Contains some words in English

8.Trivial / Fun facts.

• It was the first time contest was broadcast live in Dubai.
• For the first time, the show was presented by two people, Denise Fabre and Léon Zitrone.
• Norway did not get a single vote, which was unique for the new voting system, but that would happen again several times.

← Eurovision Song Contest 1977 • Eurovision Song Contest 1978 • Eurovision Song Contest 1979 →
Countries (in order of appearance)
Final	Ireland ⦁ Norway ⦁ Italy ⦁ Finland ⦁ Portugal ⦁ France ⦁ Spain ⦁ United Kingdom ⦁ Switzerland ⦁ Belgium • The Netherlands ⦁ Turkey ⦁ Germany ⦁ Monaco • Greece • Denmark • Luxembourg • Israel (winner) • Austria • Swedden
Artists (in order of appearance)
Final	Colm C. T. Wilkinson ⦁ Jahn Teigen ⦁ Ricchi e Poveri ⦁ Seija Simola ⦁ Gemini ⦁ Joël Prévost ⦁ José Vélez ⦁ Co-Co ⦁ Carole Vinci ⦁ Jean Vallée ⦁ Harmony • Nilüfer and Nazar ⦁ Ireen Sheer ⦁ Caline and Olivier Toussaint ⦁ Tania Tsanaklidou • Mabel ⦁ Baccara • Izhar Cohen and the Alphabeta (winner) ⦁ Springtime • Björn Skifs
Songs (in order of appearance)
Final	“Born to Sing” ⦁ “Mil etter mil” ⦁ “Questo amore” ⦁ “Anna rakkaudelle tilaisuus” ⦁ “Dai li dou” ⦁ “Il y aura toujours des violons” ⦁ “Bailemos un vals” ⦁ “The Bad Old Days” ⦁ “Vivre” ⦁ “L’amour ça fait chanter la vie” ⦁ “‘t Is OK” • “Sevince” ⦁ “Feuer” ⦁ “Les jardins de Monaco” ⦁ “Charlie Chaplin” (Τσάρλυ Τσάπλιν) • “Boom Boom” ⦁ “Parlez-vous français ?” • “A-Ba-Ni-Bi” (א-ב-ני-בי) (winner) ⦁ “Mrs. Caroline Robinson” • “Det blir alltid värre framåt natten“
Non-participating entries: Greece: Anna Vissi (Άννα Βίσση) – “Mr Nobel” (O Kyrios Nobel, Ο Κος Νόμπελ)