Eurovision 1982: Harrogate

The 1982 contest opened with a question. A map of Europe came up on screen, and across it, in the language of each competing country, appeared the words “Where is Harrogate?”

Then the map zoomed in on a spa town in North Yorkshire.

A new hall, and fifty locals

The Harrogate International Centre had only just opened, and the contest was the first big event in its 2,000-seat auditorium. Jan Leeming presented.

Very few of the people in those seats were from Harrogate. Delegations and civic dignitaries took nearly all of them. About fifty tickets went to local people.

France walks out

France was missing, for only the second time. Its broadcaster TF1 had declined to enter the previous November, and its head of entertainment, Pierre Bouteiller, explained why in terms nobody could misread. He complained of mediocre songs and an absence of talent, and called the contest “a monument to drivel”.

The French public did not agree. After an outcry, a different channel, Antenne 2, took over, and France was back the following year.

Greece pulls its song

Greece had a song, a singer and a place in the running order, second. A few weeks before the contest its broadcaster withdrew.

According to press reports the objection came from the top: the culture minister, Melina Mercouri, thought the chosen entry was not good enough.

That left eighteen countries. The contest has never been that small since.

Postcards with anthems

Before each song the camera found that country’s commentator in the commentary boxes, and got a wave. Then came a flag, a few bars of a national anthem, and film of the act around Harrogate.

Two countries did not get their anthem. For the United Kingdom the tune was “Land of Hope and Glory”. For Israel it was “Hava Nagila”.

Returning acts

Norway sent two people with history. Jahn Teigen had scored nothing in 1978; Anita Skorgan had sung twice in her own right. Together they finished twelfth.

Anna Vissi, who had sung for Greece in 1980, now sang for Cyprus and came fifth. Belgium’s Stella was in her third contest, and had started out representing the Netherlands.

The result

It was not close at any stage. Germany’s Nicole sang last, with “Ein bißchen Frieden”, and led the voting from the first jury to the eighteenth. She finished on 161 points. Israel, in second place, had 100.

No winner under the twelve-point system had finished so far ahead of the runner-up, and none did again until 2009.

Germany had entered every contest since the first one, in 1956, and had never won. Some thirteen million West Germans were watching when it finally did.

For the song’s writers, Ralph Siegel and Bernd Meinunger, it was third time lucky. Their songs had come second for Germany in both 1980 and 1981.

Nicole sang the reprise in four languages: German, English, French and Dutch. The English version, “A Little Peace”, went to number one in Britain.

Finland finished last, without a point.