Eurovision Song Contest 1978/79

Paris holds the competition this year, but it was Israel that took the crown this year with a really uptempo song called A-Ba-Ni-Bi, sung by Izhar Cohen and Alphabeta.

Politics being politics meant that many countries not sympathetic to Israel cut away from their performance, and some countries dropped the broadcast when it was clear Israel were going to win.




Translation here

The UK had nothing to be proud of with the 11th placed finish for CoCo and The Bad Old Days.

Stephanie De Sykes and her husband Stuart Slater wrote the song, and Stephanie herself was a very successful singer and song writer in the 1970s. One of the members of CoCo was Cheryl Baker who in the 1980s would win the Eurovision Song Contest for the UK with the group Bucks Fizz.

The last Eurovision of the 1970s was held in Jerusalem in 1979, and it was a second win for the country in a row with the Hallelujah by Milk and Honey. The group was second choice, as the group that made the song declined to perform for Eurovision. Israel also declined to enter the contest the following year.

The UK that year had Black Lace with Mary Ann.