An edited down version of the 1980 Eurovision Song Contest in The Hague with a scoreboard using today’s technology. Ever imagined what the voting sequences of the past would look like now? No? Ok, but this was a fun lockdown project anyway.
This edit will give a flavour of the evening (19th April) with Terry Wogan’s UK commentary. This wasn’t his first time at the TV commentator post for Eurovision, but the first year in an uninterrupted run that ended in 2008. I know he divides opinion amongst fans, but this is what the UK saw and heard so I’ve tried to be faithful to that.
In the edit there’ll be some of the intro, a flavour of each entry, and then the scoring sequence edited with a scoreboard built and designed using technology used since 2003 (when the scoreboard became reactive and reordered when points were awarded).
Luckily enough 1980 also marks the first time juries spokespeople were asked to give their points in ascending order. Prior to 1980, the results were given in order of performance, partly to help EBU scrutineers, and partly to help under-pressure scoreboard operators I expect!
INTERVAL ACT
The Dutch Rhythm Steel and Show Band. It sounded so good, I’ve included some with interviews of the entrants. In true Eurovision style, rudimentary German and French required.
BACKGROUND
This was the last time before 2020/1 that Dutch television organised the contest. 1979 had seen an oil price crash and belts were tightening (Turkey’s entry seems to reflect our love of the black stuff). 1979’s winner, the IBA in Israel, couldn’t get their funding extended to host another expensive show for a second consecutive year. NOS stepped in to host Eurovision 25. Israel’s no show meant that Morocco joined the fun as the first (and only) North African entrant.
From a design perspective, the Congresgebouw stage is large, with a geometric design behind that moved into different shapes for each performance. For this first attempt at the reorder board, I’ve kept it quite simple. My original idea was to imagine if Eurovision had a corporate brand back then - and apply some design rules. We’ll see how that goes. I’ve picked a clear font (Aktiv Grotesk), and used the same colours as the real scoreboard - which were probably picked for viewers who had black and white television still.
For me, the beauty of Eurovision was hearing other languages on UK television. Although the EBU official languages are French and English, I’ve put the board in Dutch even though the real scoreboard was in English. Why not learn something while you can? Graphics appeared in French in the show until 1989, and in other languages before 1980 (notably Spanish). I’ll see how this rule goes too!
IT’S THE LOGIC OF THE THING
Forcing a reordering scoreboard on the 1980 contest means that I’ve had to apply some rules that weren’t in effect at Eurovision until the late 80s. I believe a sing-off was required if there was a joint winner! Countries will be ranked by points, then how many 12s, 10s and 8s they were awarded. Knowing that any further logic isn’t required for these contests, the order is then determined by the song’s running order position.
SOURCES
TheEurovision1992 channel for providing the original footage on KZfaq
The guys at Intermedium-Bremen for uploading so many of the old contests
All Copyright goes to NOS and the EBU where applied and I used this footage for the intended purpose of reviewing this Song Contest, as coverd by the ‘fair dealing’ defence of the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 .
www.desandmick.co.uk/televisi... for a quick look at scoreboard history for some helpful hints.
www.countryflags.com/en/ for all the free to use images of flags
The flashing phone came from www.flaticon.com
The Spanish transition flag: Spanish Flag: By Miguillen - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
00:00 Intro
04:14 Song supercut
15:26 Song 19 with parts of the interval act
18:26 The reorder board 80
51:41 Recap and reprise of winning song
56:30 Closing credits