• Dates – Grand Final: Saturday, 19 April 1980 – 21:00 CEST
• Host – Venue & Location: Nederlands Congresgebouw (World Forum), The Hague, 🇳🇱 The Netherlands
• Presenter (s): Marlous Fluitsma. Hans van Willigenburg (Green Room)
• Musical Director: Rogier van Otterloo
• Director: Theo Ordeman
• Executive Producer: Fred Oster
• Executive Supervisor: Frank Naef
• Multicamera Director: —
• Host broadcaster: Nederlandse Omroep Stichting (NOS)
• Interval Act: The Dutch Rhythm Steel and Show Band with The Lee Jackson Dancers
• Participants – Number of entries: 19 [🇧🇪 Belgium (22ª), 🇩🇪 Germany (22ª), 🇮🇹 Italy (22ª), 🇳🇱 The Netherlands (22ª), 🇨🇭 Switzerland (22ª), 🇬🇧 United Kindom (20ª), 🇪🇸 Spain (17ª), 🇮🇪 Ireland (13ª), 🇱🇺 Luxembourg (21ª), 🇫🇮 Finland (16ª), 🇳🇴 Norway (17ª), 🇵🇹 Portugal (13ª), 🇫🇷 France (22ª), 🇦🇹 Austria (18ª), 🇬🇷 Greece (4ª), 🇸🇪 Sweden (18ª), 🇩🇰 Denmark (13ª),  Morocco (1ª), 🇹🇷 Turkey (3ª)]
• Debuting countries:  Morocco (1ª)
• Return: 🇹🇷 Turkey (3ª)
• Non-returning countries: 🇮🇱 Israel (4ª), 🇲🇨 Monaco (18ª)
• Vote – Voting system: Each country awarded 12, 10, 8-1 point(s) to their 10 favourite songs.
• Nil Points: —
• Winning song:  “What’s Another Year” – Johnny Logan – 🇮🇪 Ireland (2ª)

About. Israeli TV declined the opportunity to host the 1980 Song Contest again after Israel won in Jerusalem in 1979. After much discussion, it was decided that the contest would be arranged by Dutch TV NOS in The Hague.

Do we have any volunteers?. The Hague was once again the host city for the song contest after both Israel and the United Kingdom declined to stage the contest after Israel declined the opportunity to host the show twice in succession. As a result of these delays, the 1980 contest was hastily arranged and Dutch TV NOS had to re-use most of the stage from 1976, the last time they hosted the contest. NOS picked 19th April as the date for the song contest, but as this was the Holocaust Memorial Day in Israel, the defending champion decided not to participate which marked the only time when the winner of one Eurovision Song Contest did not participate in the next.

Merhaba Morocco. For the first time in the history of the song contest, an African country – Morocco –  participated with Samira, a star in the Arabic world. When her entry “Bitakat Hob” ended up at 18th position with just 7 points altogether, Moroccan TV decided that the country should not participate in the contest again. Turkey returned to the contest after one year’s absence and Monaco stayed home which meant that the total amount of participating countries amounted to 19 – just as in 1979.  Each country brought along a presenter of its own choice to introduce the song in their native language.

What’s another year. Johnny Logan, who would later be called “Mr. Eurovision”, secured Ireland’s second victory. The Australian-born singer who only became an Irish citizen after he sang for Ireland in the 1980 contest, would later return and win the contest again in 1987. His 1980 victory brought him a number one hit in the UK and numerous television appearances across Europe. “What’s another year” was awarded the maximum 12 points by seven countries, ending up with 143 points in total.

o/r	country	participant(s)	song – translate – Language	Points	rank
01	🇦🇹 Austria ÖRF	Blue Danube	Du bist Musik (You are music) German	064	08
02	🇹🇷 Turkey TRT	Ajda Pekkan	Petr’Oil (Pet’r Oil, Petrol, Loving on Pet’r Oil) Turkish	023	15
03	🇬🇷 Greece ERT	Anna Vissi and The Epikouri (Άννα Βίσση και Epikouri)	Autostop (Ωτοστόπ, Hitch-hiking) Greek	030	13
04	🇱🇺 Luxembourg CLT	Sophie & Magaly	Papa pingouin (Papa penguin) French	056	09
05	Morocco RTM	Samira Bensaïd (Samira Said, سميرة سعيد‎)	Bitakat hob (بطاقة حب, Bitaqat Khub, Love message) Arabic	007	18
06	🇮🇹 Italy RAI	Alan Sorrenti	Non so che darei (I don’t know what I would give) Italian	087	06
07	🇩🇰 Denmark DR	Bamses Venner	Tænker altid på dig (Thinking always on you) Danish	025	14
08	🇸🇪 Sweden SVT	Tomas Ledin	Just nu! (Right now!) Swedish	047	10
09	🇨🇭 Switzerland SSR SRG	Paola	Cinéma (Cinema) French	104	04
10	🇫🇮 Finland YLE	Vesa-Matti Loiri	Huilumies (Flute man) Finnish	006	19
11	🇳🇴 Norway NRK	Sverre Kjelsberg & Mattis Hætta	Sámiid Ædnan (Lapland) Norwegian[a]	015	16
12	🇩🇪 Germany ARD	Katja Ebstein	Theater (Theatre) German	128	02
13	🇬🇧 United Kindom BBC	Prima Donna	Love enough for two English	106	03
14	🇵🇹 Portugal RTP	José Cid	Um grande, grande amor (A great, great love) Portuguese[b]	071	07
15	🇳🇱 The Netherlands NOS	Maggie MacNeal	Amsterdam Dutch	093	05
16	🇫🇷 France TF1	Profil	Hé, hé, M’sieurs dames (Hey, hey, ladies and gentlemen) French	045	11
17	🇮🇪 Ireland RTÉ	Johnny Logan	What’s another year English	143	01
18	🇪🇸 Spain TVE	Trigo Limpio	Quédate esta noche (Stay tonight) Spanish	038	12
19	🇧🇪 Belgium RTBF	Telex	Euro-Vision French	014	17

Missed participation:

• 🇮🇱 Israel: “Pizmon Chozer” (פזמון חוזר) (Refrain) (Hebrew) – Ha’ahum ve Ha’ahayot (האחים והאחיות). Israel, winners in 1979, declined to host the show for the second time in a row, as the IBA (Israel Broadcasting Authority) could not fund another international production, and the Israeli government turned down a request to extend the IBA budget. Moreover, the date that was eventually set for the 1980 contest by the European Broadcasting Union coincided with a national religious day of Israel, Israel’s Day of Remembrance for their casualties of war, so Israel was forced to withdraw. The song was called “Pizmon Chozer” (Refrain) and was performed by the group “Ha’achim ve ha’achayot” (Brothers and Sisters).

Participation map

Participating countries  Countries that participated in the past but not in 1980

ESC 1980 coreboard Ι Detailed voting results: 

The Eurovision Song Contest 1980 was the 25th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in The Hague, Netherlands, and was organised by host broadcaster Nederlandse Omroep Stichting (NOS) – which agreed to stage the event after Israel, having won in both 1978 and 1979, declined to host it for a second successive year – and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). The contest was held at the Nederlands Congresgebouw on 19 April 1980 and was hosted by Dutch actress Marlous Fluitsma, although each song was introduced by a presenter from the participating nation (in some cases, this was the same person providing the commentary).

Nineteen countries took part this year, with Monaco and the previous year’s winner Israel deciding not to participate, and Turkey returning. Morocco, notably, made its only appearance in the contest.

The winner was Ireland with the song “What’s Another Year”, sung by Johnny Logan and written by Shay Healy.

The Nederlands Congresgebouw, host venue of the 1980 contest

1.Location. Israel, the winner of the 1979 contest, declined to host it for the second time in a row, as the Israel Broadcasting Authority (IBA) could not fund another international production without extra resources, and the Israeli government turned down a request to extend the IBA budget. The EBU also scheduled the broadcast for the same day as the Yom HaZikaron holiday, which meant that Israel could not even participate at all, marking the only time that the previous year’s winning country did not compete the following year. After Spain – the second-placed country of 1979 – and (reportedly) the United Kingdom both declined to host, the Netherlands ultimately agreed to host the show in a small-scale production. According to Yair Lapid, son of Tommy Lapid who was then the IBA director general, Lapid called his counterpart at NOS and convinced him to take the “undesired honour”, when he realised that the extra cost could paralyse the regular work of the IBA.

The contest took place in The Hague at the Congresgebouw (presently known as the World Forum). The venue was constructed in 1969 and had previously hosted the contest in 1976.

Katja Ebstein during rehearsals

Maggie MacNeal during rehearsals

Johnny Logan performing his winning song “What’s Another Year”

2.Format. The venue that had hosted the 1976 contest, the Congresgebouw, was again chosen to stage the contest. Various parts of the opening sequence and stage of the 1976 festival were reused. Again, Roland de Groot took charge of the design. As with the 1977 and 1978 contests, there were no pre-filmed postcards between the songs, with a guest presenter from each nation introducing the entries. Apart from this, the presenter, Marlous Fluitsma, except for the voting, did not make the presentation in English or French, which means that the presentation was made almost entirely in Dutch. NOS spent just US$725,000 on staging the show.

During the live interval act performance of San Fernando by The Dutch Rhythm Steel and Show Band with the Lee Jackson dancers, Hans van Willigenburg intercut brief interviews with some of the participants backstage in the green room, speaking to the singers from Germany, Luxembourg, the UK, Ireland, Norway and the Netherlands, each in their own language.

Australian-born Johnny Logan, representing Ireland, was ultimately crowned the winner with the song “What’s Another Year”. This was Ireland’s second victory in the competition, having previously won in 1970 with “All Kinds of Everything”, coincidentally also held on Dutch soil. It was also the first time that a male solo artist (albeit with backing vocals) had won the contest since Udo Jürgens won for Austria in 1966.

Germany were the runner-up for this year. They would finish in second place again the following year, before finally winning in 1982. Germany would go on to finish second again in 1985 and 1987, making the 1980s their most successful decade in the contest. After relatively poor placings in the two previous years, the United Kingdom returned to form by coming third.

2.1.Song presenters. Each song was introduced by a presenter from the national country. A few countries used their commentators as presenters, with Turkey’s radio commentator and the TV commentators of Denmark, Sweden and Finland being employed in this role. With the exception of the Ireland entry, which was introduced in Irish, all the introductions were made in the language in which the song was performed. The UK presenter was incorrectly identified in the onscreen caption as ‘Noel Edmunds’ and the Finnish presenter as ‘Heikki Haarma’.

3.Participating countries. After Israel announced its non-participation, Morocco entered into the contest instead. Monaco also withdrew from the contest, and would not return until 2004.

3.1.Conductors. With the exception of Belgium, each performance had a conductor who directed the orchestra.^[5][4] This was the only contest to feature a Black conductor conducting an entry, that being Italy’s conductor Del Newman.

3.2.Returning artists. 

3.3.Participants and results.

3.4.All the national selections for Eurovision Song Contest 1980: 

• National Selections in 1980:

• Internal Selections in 1980: 

🇦🇹 Austria	Blue Danube – “Du bist Musik“
🇮🇹 Italy	Alan Sorrenti – “Non so che darei“
🇱🇺 Luxembourg	Sophie and Magaly – “Papa Pingouin“
Morocco	Samira Bensaïd – “Bitaqat Hub” (بطاقة حب)
🇳🇱 The Netherlands	Maggie MacNeal – “Amsterdam”
🇪🇸 Spain	Trigo Limpio – “Quédate esta noche“
🇨🇭 Switzerland	Paola – “Cinéma“

3.5.Connections:

4.Voting. The scoring system implemented in 1975 remained the same; each country had a jury who awarded 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 point(s) for their top ten songs. However this year for the first time, countries were required to declare their scores in ascending order, 1,2,3 etc. This change made for the added excitement of waiting for each country to award their highest 12 points at the end of each voting round.

For the voting sequence, Marlous Fluitsma used a unique telephone to speak to the nineteen jury spokespersons, although the phones were simply props and were not connected.

Voting results

		Total score
C o n t e s t a n t s	🇦🇹 Austria	64			1		3	4	5	1	4	5	6	4	6	3	3	4	10	4	1
	🇹🇷 Turkey	23	3				12	8
	🇬🇷 Greece	30	5			1		2	2				4		3	1	8		4
	🇱🇺 Luxembourg	56	1	1					4	6		3	7		8			7	8	3	8
	Morocco	7						7
	🇮🇹 Italy	87	2	6	2				3	10	8	6	2	7	4	12	1	2	2	10	10
	🇩🇰 Denmark	25			4		2				6	7	1	5
	🇸🇪 Sweden	47		8	10	10	6	5			5			2						1
	🇨🇭 Switzerland	104	6	2		5	7	3	8	2		12	10	10	7	6	10		12	2	2
	🇫🇮 Finland	6											5					1
	🇳🇴 Norway	15					4							6			2	3
	🇩🇪 Germany	128	8	10		3	10	12	7	5	7	2			10	8	12	10	5	12	7
	🇬🇧 United Kindom	106	7	5		8	8		10	12	10	4		3		7	7	5	6	8	6
	🇵🇹 Portugal	71		4	5	4		10	6	8	2	1	8	1			5	6	7		4
	🇳🇱 The Netherlands	93	12	12	6	12				3	3	10		8	2	4		12	1	5	3
	🇫🇷 France	45		3	7	2	1		1	4	1		3		5		4		3	6	5
	🇮🇪 Ireland	143	10		12	7		1	12	7	12	8	12	12	12	5	6	8		7	12
	🇪🇸 Spain	38	4	7	8	6	5	6								2
	🇧🇪 Belgium	14			3										1	10

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

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

4.2.Spokespersons. Listed below is the order in which votes were cast during the 1980 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	Günther Ziesel	–
	Hitradio Ö3	Walter Richard Langer
🇧🇪 Belgium	RTBF1	French: Jacques Mercier
	BRT TV1	Dutch: Luc Appermont
	RTBF La Première	French: Marc Danval
	BRT Radio 1	Dutch: Herwig Haes
🇩🇰 Denmark	DR TV	Jørgen de Mylius
	DR P3	Erik Wiedemann
🇫🇮 Finland	YLE TV1	Heikki Harma and Aarre Elo
🇫🇷 France	TF1	Patrick Sabatier
	France Inter	Julien Lepers
🇩🇪 Germany	Deutsches Fernsehen	Ado Schlier
	Deutschlandfunk/hr3	Roger Horné
🇬🇷 Greece	ERT	Mako Georgiadou
	Proto Programma	Dimitris Konstantaras
🇮🇪 Ireland	RTÉ 1	Larry Gogan
	RTÉ Radio 1	Pat Kenny
🇮🇹 Italy	Rete 2	Michele Gammino
🇱🇺 Luxembourg	RTL Télé Luxembourg	Jacques Navadic
	RTL	André Torrent
Morocco	TVM	TBC
🇳🇱 The Netherlands	Nederland 2	Pim Jacobs
	Hilversum 1	Willem van Beusekom
🇳🇴 Norway	NRK	Knut Aunbu
	NRK P1	Erik Heyerdahl
🇵🇹 Portugal	RTP1	Isabel Wolmar
🇪🇸 Spain	TVE1	Miguel de los Santos
🇸🇪 Sweden	SVT TV1	Ulf Elfving
	SR P3	Kent Finell
🇨🇭 Switzerland	TV DRS	German: Theodor Haller	–
	TSR	French: Georges Hardy	–
	TSI	Italian: Giovanni Bertini
🇹🇷 Turkey	Ankara Television	Bülend Özveren
	Radyo 3	Şebnem Savaşçı
🇬🇧 United Kindom	BBC1	Terry Wogan	–
	BBC Radio 2	Steve Jones	–
	BFBS Radio	Andrew Pastouna	–

Broadcasters and commentators in non-participating countries

Country	Broadcaster(s)	Commentator(s)	–
Hong Kong	TVB Jade (delayed broadcast on 20 April 1980)	Cantonese: Mary Hon (韓馬利), English Tang Ying-mun (鄧英敏)	–
	TVB Pearl (delayed broadcast on 20 April 1980)	English: Melvin Wong Kam-sang (黃錦燊)	–
Yugoslavia	TVB 2	Serbo-Croatian: Milovan Ilić
	TVZ 1	Serbo-Croatian: Oliver Mlakar
	TVL 1	Slovene: Tomaž Terček

6.Notes.

• [a] Although the song was performed in Norwegian, the title and sentence in the lyrics “Sámiid ædnan” is in Northern Sami.
• [b] Also contains words in Italian, French, German and English
• [c] Ajda Pekkan was internally selected to represent Turkey at Eurovision 1980. The song “Petr’oil” that Ajda performed at Eurovision was selected through 4. Eurovision Şarkı Yarışması Türkiye Finali with three songs.

7.Trivial / Fun facts.

• Turkey returned to the contest after one year’s absence.
• Monaco stayed home which meant that the total amount of participating countries amounted to 19 – just as in 1979.
• Each country brought along a presenter of its own choice in order to introduce the song in their native language.