Eurovision Song Contest 1979
Also known as ESC 1979, Eurovision 1979
24th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest
Key facts
- Final
- 31 March 1979
- Venue
- International Convention Center , Jerusalem, Israel
- Organiser
- European Broadcasting Union (EBU)
- Scrutineer
- Frank Naef
- Host broadcaster
- Israel Broadcasting Authority (IBA)
- Director
- Yossi Zemach
- Executive producer
- Alex Gilady
- Musical director
- Izhak Graziani
- Presenters
- Daniel Pe'er Yardena Arazi
- Countries that did not participate after
- Turkey
- Voting system
- Each country awarded 12, 10, 8–1 point(s) to their 10 favourite songs
- Winning song
- Israel , " Hallelujah "
~8 min read
Article
The Eurovision Song Contest 1979 was the 24th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, held on 31 March 1979 at the Menachem Ussishkin auditorium of the International Convention Centre in Jerusalem, Israel, and presented by Daniel Pe'er and Yardena Arazi. It was organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster the Israel Broadcasting Authority (IBA), who staged the event after winning the 1978 contest for Israel with the song "A-Ba-Ni-Bi" by Izhar Cohen and the Alphabeta. This was the first time that the Eurovision Song Contest was held outside Europe.
Broadcasters from nineteen countries participated in the contest, with Turkey deciding not to participate after Arab countries had pressured it into not participating in a contest held in Israel. Yugoslavia, which had missed the 1977 and 1978 contests, also did not take part in or broadcast the contest this year for political reasons, despite an earlier public poll in which almost 100,000 people supported a Yugoslav return to the contest.