Blast from the past: Ireland 2003

The Eurovision Song Contest is celebrating its 70th anniversary. That is a wonderful milestone. We at Eurovision Universe love diving into the history of the contest. That is why we are taking a closer look at the contests of the past 70 years. 1982 ‘Harrogate, where?’ was the question raised at the beginning of the broadcast. For the small British seaside town was the venue for the 1982 Eurovision Song Contest. Jan Leeming hosted the event. France did not participate because the Minister of Culture considered the standard too low. Greece did have an entry, but ultimately withdrew it. Here, too, there was interference from a Minister of Culture. The song was deemed not good enough. Jahn Teigen and Anita Skorgan participated for Norway for the second and third time, respectively. By now married, they sang a quiet ballad. Sally Ann Tripplet, a member of the group Prima Donna in 1980, was also back for the United Kingdom; now as half of the duo Bardo. Anna Vissi, who competed for Greece in 1980, now represented Cyprus. Her “Mono I agapi” finished fifth, for a long time the best score for Cyprus. And then there was Stella: with Hearts of Soul she competed for the Netherlands in 1970, with Dream Express for Belgium in 1977, and now solo, also for Belgium. She also did well with a fourth place. We must not fail to mention the Finnish candidate: Kojo. He didn’t score a single point with a song against the neutron bomb. Unsurprisingly: the song was not very suitable for the general public. Israel sent Avi Toledano with a cheerful song called “Hora”. He came second with it. Nicole And that was actually what the competition was about. Because Germany won with a landslide. Nicole, 17 years old, wearing a black polka-dot dress, sitting on a stool with a guitar in her hand. This is how she sang her peace song “Ein bißchen Frieden”. There was a great deal of consensus regarding this entry. Nicole achieved the highest score up to that point. She managed to generate applause by singing her song not only in German but also in English, French, and Dutch. Later, she also released a Danish version of the song. 1983 The Olympic Stadium in Munich was the venue. More precisely, the Rudi Sedlmayer Halle, a basketball hall. The host was Marlène Charell. That poor presenter faced the impossible task of pronouncing just about every comma in three languages. Greece, France, and Italy were back, but Ireland skipped a year. This brought the total number of participants to twenty. Guy Bonnet had the honor of opening the festival for France. He had participated before, in 1970. Jahn Teigen was also returning for Norway, with his wife Anita Skorgan in the choir. The Norwegian conductor was Sigurd Jansen. Marlène Charell didn’t have that on her cue card. She only found out when she had to announce the man. So she just made up a name on the spot, “Johannes Skorgan”. 16-year-old Carola Häggkvist competed for Sweden. Her song “Främling” came third and Carola managed to score a big hit. She released the song not only in English, but also in German and Dutch. Another international hit was that of Yugoslavia. Back home, the big stars were quite angry that they had lost the national final to Daniel, but he achieved the best score for the country up to that point with his song “Džuli”. Ofra Haza participated for Israel. She came second with the song “Chai”. Later, she had a hit throughout Europe with “Im nin’alu”. In 2000, Haza died of AIDS. A notable act participated for Belgium: the group Pas De Deux with the song “Rendez-vous”, with the full lyrics “Rendez-vous, but enough is enough and I’m done”. When that song won the Belgian national final, half the audience left the hall. The rest stayed to boo and otherwise yell through the song and make their anger known. Corinne Hermes The winner was once again a French singer participating for Luxembourg: Corinne Hermes. The ballad “Si la vie est cadeau” may have made the biggest impression on the jury members, but certainly not on the record-buying public. Carola from Sweden and Daniel from Yugoslavia had the big international hits. Corinne Hermes had more trouble selling her song. But, all in all, several major hits emerged from the 1983 Eurovision Song Contest.