7 months ago

Date: 7 May 1977 - Host Venue: Wembley Conference Centre, London, United Kingdom
Presenter: Angela Rippon - Musical director: Ronnie Hazlehurst
Directed by Stewart Morris - Executive supervisor: Clifford Brown
Executive producer: Bill Cotton - Host broadcaster: British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
Opening act: An aerial tour of the four constituent countries of the United Kingdom
Interval act: Acker Bilk and his Paramount Jazz Men

The Eurovision Song Contest 1977 was the 22nd edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in London, United Kingdom, following Brotherhood of Man's win at the 1976 contest in The Hague, Netherlands with the song "Save Your Kisses for Me". It was the sixth time the contest took place in the UK, after 1960, 1963, 1968, 1972, and 1974. The contest was held at the Wembley Conference Centre on Saturday 7 May 1977, marking the first time the event took place in the month of May since 1956. The show was hosted by Angela Rippon.

Eighteen countries participated in the contest; Sweden returned after its absence from the previous edition, while Yugoslavia, which did participate in 1976, did not enter.

The winner was France with the song "L'oiseau et l'enfant", performed by Marie Myriam, written by Joe Gracy, and composed by Jean-Paul Cara. This was France's fifth victory in the contest, following their wins in 1958, 1960, 1962, and 1969 (the latter being in the infamous four-way tie). The five wins were also a record at the time, and one that France held onto for seven years, until being equalled by Luxembourg in 1983. This was later equalled by Ireland in 1993, United Kingdom in 1997, Sweden in 2012, and by the Netherlands in 2019.

The language rule was brought back in this contest, four years after it had been dropped in 1973. However Germany and Belgium were allowed to sing in English, because they had already chosen the songs they were going to perform before the rule was reintroduced.

This was most possibly the Eurovision with the most scoring mistakes, as the scrutineer Clifford Brown had to stop the host Angela Rippon several times to correct the scores.

Due to the strike by the BBC camera staff, and lack of time to organise the contest, this is seen as the only Eurovision where there were no postcards between songs. Various shots of the contests audience were shown, with the various countries' commentators informing the viewers of the upcoming songs.

Tunisia was set to participate and had been drawn to participate in fourth place, but later withdrew. Yugoslavia did not enter this contest after having participated in 1976, while Sweden returned to the competition.

The Belgian act Dream Express had created some controversy in the press with reports that the three female members would wear transparent tops; this did not materialise for the actual event.

The British conductor Ronnie Hazlehurst used an umbrella and wore a bowler hat during the UK entry.

Results:

Draw Country Artist Song Language Place Points
01 Ireland The Swarbriggs Plus Two "It's Nice to Be in Love Again" English 3 119
02 Monaco Michèle Torr "Une petite française" French 4 96
03 Netherlands Heddy Lester "De mallemolen" Dutch 12 35
04 Austria Schmetterlinge "Boom Boom Boomerang" Germana 17 11
05 Norway Anita Skorgan "Casanova" Norwegian 14 18
06 Germany Silver Convention "Telegram" English 8 55
07 Luxembourg Anne-Marie B "Frère Jacques" French 16 17
08 Portugal Os Amigos "Portugal no coração" Portuguese 14 18
09 United Kingdom Lynsey de Paul and Mike Moran "Rock Bottom" English 2 121
10 Greece Paschalis, Marianna, Robert & Bessy "Mathima solfege" (Μάθημα σολφέζ) Greek 5 92
11 Israel Ilanit "Ahava Hi Shir Lishnayim" (אהבה היא שיר לשניים) Hebrew 11 49
12 Switzerland Pepe Lienhard Band "Swiss Lady" German 6 71
13 Sweden Forbes "Beatles" Swedish 18 2
14 Spain Micky "Enséñame a cantar" Spanish 9 52
15 Italy Mia Martini "Libera" Italian 13 33
16 Finland Monica Aspelund "Lapponia" Finnish 10 50
17 Belgium Dream Express "A Million in One, Two, Three" English 7 69
18 France Marie Myriam "L'oiseau et l'enfant" French 1 136

Timecodes of the show:

0:07:46 3) 🇮🇪 Ireland /🥉119 points
0:11:34 4) 🇲🇨 Monaco / 96 points
0:15:36 12) 🇳🇱 Netherlands / 35 points
0:20:06 17) 🇦🇹 Austria / 11 points
0:24:18 14) 🇳🇴 Norway / 18 points (tie)
0:27:58 8) 🇩🇪 Germany / 55 points
0:32:27 16) 🇱🇺 Luxembourg / 17 points
0:36:36 14) 🇵🇹 Portugal / 18 points (tie)
0:41:04 2) 🇬🇧 UK /🥈121 points
0:45:28 5) 🇬🇷 Greece / 92 points
0:49:33 11) 🇮🇱 Israel / 49 points
0:53:51 6) 🇨🇭 Switzerland / 71 points
0:58:26 18) 🇸🇪 Sweden / 2 points
1:02:50 9) 🇪🇸 Spain / 52 points
1:07:19 13) 🇮🇹 Italy / 33 points
1:11:23 10) 🇫🇮 Finland / 50 points
1:15:39 7) 🇧🇪 Belgium / 69 points
1:19:53 1) 🇫🇷 France /🥇🏆136 points
2:04:58 Winner's reprise 🇫🇷 France