Final 31 March 1979 Executive supervisor Frank Naef | Conductor Izhak Graziani | |
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Venue International Convention Center
Jerusalem, Israel Presenter(s) Daniel Pe'er
Yardena Arazi Host broadcaster Israeli Broadcasting Authority (IBA) | ||
The Eurovision Song Contest 1979 was the 24th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It was held on 31 March 1979 in Jerusalem, Israel, following the country's win at the 1978 edition. The event was staged at the International Convention Center. The presenters were Daniel Pe'er and Yardena Arazi.
Contents
The winner was Israel with the song "Hallelujah", performed by Gali Atari and Milk and Honey. Therefore, this was Israel's consecutive second win, and overall second win, in the contest. 19 countries participated, the 20 countries that took part at the previous 1978 Contest, except for Turkey which was also going to participate but eventually withdrew its entry for political reasons. Yugoslavia, that missed the 1978 Contest, also didn't want to take part nor transmit the 1979 show for political reasons. As well as being broadcast live in the 19 competing countries, the contest was broadcast in Turkey, Romania, Hong Kong and Iceland.
As of 2017, it was the last time the contest was held in March.
Location
Located on a plateau in the Judean Mountains between the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea, Jerusalem is one of the oldest cities in the world. In the ancient cuneiform, Jerusalem was called "Urusalima", meaning "City of Peace", during the early Canaanite period (approximately 2400 BC). It is considered holy to the three major Abrahamic religions—Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
Format
Each country had a jury who awarded 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 point(s) for their top ten songs. This was the last year in which the points were announced via order of appearance, as opposed to order of preference.
The voting was extremely close. Israel gained a good lead in the early stages of the voting, but Spain eventually caught up and took a good lead themselves. At the close of the penultimate jury's votes, Israel were one point behind Spain, and only the Spanish jury had yet to give their votes. Spain ended up giving Israel 10 points, causing the crowd to erupt into enormous cheers.
Participating countries
At one point before the contest Turkey was going to participate. The country would have appeared 11th on stage (between Israel and France), represented by Maria Rita Epik and 21. Peron with the song "Seviyorum" ("I'm Loving"). However Turkey was forced to retire from the contest under pressure from Arab states who objected to a predominantly Muslim country taking part in a contest held in Israel, but they however took part in Jerusalem 20 years later.
Returning artists
The contest saw the return of four artists who had participated in previous editions of the contest: France's representative Anne-Marie David was the winner for Luxembourg in 1973, Netherlands' Xandra represented the country in 1972 and 1976, Norway's Anita Skorgan represented the country in 1977, and Switzerland's Peter, Sue and Marc represented the country in 1971 and 1976.
Conductors
For each nation's performance, the orchestra was conducted by the following:
12 points
Below is a summary of all 12 points in the final: