1980 Eurovision Song Contest
| Eurovision Song Contest 1980 | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Dates | |
| Final | 19 April 1980 |
| Host | |
| Venue |
Nederlands Congresgebouw The Hague, Netherlands |
| Presenter(s) |
Marlous Fluitsma Hans van Willigenburg (Green Room) |
| Conductor | Rogier van Otterloo |
| Director | Theo Ordeman |
| Executive supervisor | Frank Naef |
| Host broadcaster | Nederlandse Omroep Stichting (NOS) |
| Interval act | The Dutch Rhythm Steel and Show Band |
| Participants | |
| Number of entries | 19 |
| Debuting countries |
 Morocco
|
| Returning countries |
 Turkey
|
| Withdrawing countries |
 Israel Monaco
|
|
|
| Vote | |
| Voting system | Each country awarded 12, 10, 8-1 point(s) to their 10 favourite songs |
| Nul points | None |
| Winning song |
 Ireland"What's Another Year" |
The Eurovision Song Contest 1980 was the 25th Eurovision Song Contest and was held on 19 April 1980 in The Hague. The presenter was 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. The contest was won by Johnny Logan, representing Ireland with a song called "What's Another Year".
Israel, winners in 1979, declined to host the show for the second time in a row, as the IBA 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 Israel's Day of Remembrance for their casualties of war, so Israel was forced to withdraw. After Spain, the 2nd-place winner of 1979, and reportedly the UK, refused to host, the Netherlands finally 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 same venue in The Hague used in 1976 - the Congresgebouw - was chosen, with parts of the opening film from 1976 being reused in the introduction and the same set designer (Roland de Groot) taking charge of the design. As with the recent 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 were made entirely in Dutch. NOS spent just US$725,000 on the project.
Morocco joined the Eurovision family for the first (and so far only) time. Monaco withdrew, and would not return again until 2004.
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