Final 4 May 1985 Conductor Curt-Eric Holmquist Executive supervisor Frank Naef | Presenter(s) Lill Lindfors Director Steen Priwin | |
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Venue Scandinavium
Gothenburg, Sweden | ||
The Eurovision Song Contest 1985 was the 30th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It was held on 4 May 1985 in Gothenburg, Sweden. The presenter was entertainer Lill Lindfors, whose jokey dress rip after the interval act (seemingly revealing her knickers before unfolding another dress) was said to have not amused the wife of EBU scrutineer Frank Naef. Norwegian duo Bobbysocks! were the winners with the song "La det swinge".
Contents
Bobbysocks!' win for Norway was the country's first. Host Lill Lindfors congratulated the duo, Hanne Krogh and Elisabeth Andreassen, following their victory by saying, "I must say I am honestly very happy that this happened because Norway has been last on so many times that you really deserve it!" Krogh replied, "You're happy? What do you think we are?!" After an energetic reprise, the two women embraced to a standing ovation from the audience.
During the voting, it was not immediately evident that Norway would win the Contest. Germany took a commanding lead in the first half, with Norway fifth place behind Germany, Sweden, Italy and the United Kingdom around the end of the first half of voting. Finally, with five juries left, Germany, Sweden and Norway were tightly wrapped around the pole positions with 87, 86, and 85 points respectively.
At that point, Sweden briefly took the lead away from Germany (who received no points from Switzerland). Sweden was the fourth-to-last jury, conceding their brief lead by awarding Germany eight points and Norway the maximum twelve. With only three countries left to vote, Norway kept the lead, in one of the shortest winning stretches during voting in the contest's history.
The Netherlands and Yugoslavia did not participate in this Contest, due to the national Remembrance of the Dead in the Netherlands, and the anniversary of the death of Josip Broz Tito in Yugoslavia. Despite this Yugoslavia did choose its song: "Pokora" ("Penance") (music by Ivo Pupačić and lyrics by Zvonimir Pupačić), a duet sung by Zorica Kondža and Josip Genda.
1985 was also the year when no less than thirteen previous Eurovision artists made a comeback. This also applied to the winners, Bobbysocks! who had attended once before as soloists: Hanne Krogh performed for Norway in 1971, while Elisabeth Andreassen for Sweden (where she is originally from) in 1982 in a duet, Chips, with Kikki Danielsson. Kikki herself also returned this year for host country Sweden, and was thus competing against Elisabeth Andreassen and Bobbysocks!.
Lys Assia, the winner of the first ever Eurovision Song Contest in 1956, was the guest of honour of this thirtieth edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. She was introduced by the presenter Lill Lindfors. The camera zoomed close to Lys, who rose to greet the audience, while the orchestra played the song Refrain, her winning song.
Conductors
Host conductor in bold
Voting
Each country had a jury who awarded 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 point(s) for their top ten songs.
The voting itself was exciting, the German favourites looked to be cruising to an early victory. However both Sweden and Norway did their best to keep up and by the time the UK jury delivered their votes (only 1 point for Germany and 12 for Norway), Germany had seen its lead smashed.
Lill Lindfors had a wardrobe malfunction (though technically this is a misnomer, as the stunt was deliberate) as she proceeded to the stage for the voting procedure. As she walked on stage, the skirt of her dress came away, leaving her in just her underwear and the top half of her dress. After a few seconds of pretending to be shocked, Lindfors unfastened the flaps of her dress across her shoulders, to reveal a full-length white gown, much to raucous audience applause. Lill then took her seat to start calling in the votes, and nonchalantly said, "I just wanted to wake you up a little."
12 points
Below is a summary of all 12 points in the final: