A-BA-NI-BI by IZHAR COHEN AND THE ALPHABETA

The 1978 contest was held in Paris after France won the previous year and Israel became the first winners from outside of Europe.

Broadcasters in many of the non-participating Arab countries in North Africa and Asia, who had been transmitting the contest, had to cut the broadcast when it was clear Israel was going to win. Indeed Jordanian television cut the broadcast and showed pictures of flowers instead. They then tried to convince the nation that Belgium were the winners.

The song is regarded by many fans as one of the better entries in the history of the contest (not sure how they come to that conclusion) and it received points from every other competing nation bar Sweden, gaining six sets of “douze points.”.

It actually is about the way children relate to love though you could be forgiven for thinking it is about wanting to be a polar bear!

ESC factoid: The Portuguese song from 1974 "E Depois Do Adeus" started a revolution in Portugal. The song was played on an independent radio station in Lisbon on 24 April, and was one of two secret signals which alerted the rebel captains and soldiers to begin the Carnation Revolution against the Estado Novo regime

DING-A-DONG by TEACH-IN

 In 1975 the contest moved to Stockholm (after Abba won the previous year) and the winners were the Netherlands. 

The Dutch version

Teach-in had enjoyed an earlier successful career in their own country, but “Ding-a-dong” catapulted them to Euro stardom (well, for a year anyway!). 

"Ding-a-dong" was notable for being one of the Eurovision winners that had a quirky or entirely nonsensical title or lyrics, similar to Lulu’s “Boom Bang a Bang” in 1969 and Massiel’s “La La La” a year before.

It was the first song to be performed on the night, being the first time the first song was successful. This feat was followed up twice more with Brotherhood of Man (UK) the following year and Diggi-Loo Diggi-Ley for the Herreys (Sweden) in 1984.

The song was performed entirely in English although in the Dutch version, lyrically it varies significantly. It reached no,13 in the UK, but was no.1 in both Norway and Switzerland (not in the Netherlands however - only reached no.3).

ESC factoid: The youngest ever main artist was 11-year-old Nathalie Pâque from Belgium. She represented France in Eurovision 1989 with the song "J'ai Volé La Vie". The oldest was 95-year-old Emil Ramsauer from the Swiss 2013-band "Takasa"

TU TE RECONNAITRAS by ANNE MARIE DAVID

Today we start a series of songs that won the Eurovision Song Contest.

We start back in 1973 when the contest was held in Luxembourg after Vicky Leandros won the previous year with “Apres Toi.” 

The home nation was represented by French singer Anne-Marie David with "Tu te reconnaîtras" who was in a three way battle with the Spanish and UK entries (Cliff Richard - Power to all our Friends).

I would go so far as to say this is my favourite ever winner of the contest. A strong song, excellently sung, by a very attractive lady. Poor old Cliff didn’t stand a snowballs!!

Anne-Marie returned to the contest 6 years later when this time she sang for her home nation in Jerusalem with “Je suis l’enfant soleil.” Again it was a 3 nation bun-fight, but sadly she was edged into 3rd.