Eighteen countries participated in the contest; Sweden returned after its absence from the previous edition, while Yugoslavia decided not to enter.
The winner was France with the song "L'Oiseau et l'Enfant", performed by Marie Myriam, written by Joe Gracy, and composed by Jean-Paul Cara. The United Kingdom, Ireland, Monaco and Greece rounded out the top five. Greece's fifth place finish was their best result up to that point. France' fifth win was also a record at the time, and one that France held onto for six years, until being equalled by Luxembourg in 1983.
Location
Wembley Conference Centre was chosen to host the contest. The venue was the first purpose-built conference centre in the United Kingdom, and opened on 31 January 1977—making it a newly built venue at the time. It was demolished in 2006.
At the night of the contest, 2,000 spectators were present in the audience.[3]
Tunisia was set to participate in the contest and had been drawn to participate in fourth place, but later withdrew.[1]Yugoslavia decided not to enter and would not return to the contest until 1981 due to bad results in the years prior,[4] while Sweden returned to the competition, having missed out the year before.[5] This made for eighteen participating nations.
The language rule was brought back in this contest, four years after it had been dropped in 1973. However Germany and Belgium were allowed to sing in English, because they had already chosen the songs they were going to perform before the rule was reintroduced.
The contest was originally planned to be held on 2 April 1977, but because of a strike of the BBC cameramen and its technicians, it got postponed for a month. As a result, this was the first Eurovision Song Contest to be staged in May since the inaugural edition.[1]
Due to strikes by the BBC camera staff, and lack of time to organise the contest, there were no postcards for the viewers in between the songs. However, various shots of the contest's audience were shown, with the various countries' commentators informing the viewers of the upcoming songs. The intended postcards had been devised using footage of the artists in London during a party hosted by the BBC at a London nightclub. When the postcards were seen for the first time by the participant heads of delegation at the Friday dress rehearsal the day before the final, the Norwegian delegation objected to the way their artist was portrayed. However, as it was not possible for the BBC to edit or revise footage, all the postcards had to be dropped from the broadcast. Footage from the party still formed the interval act broadcast prior to the voting sequence.[9]
Contest overview
The following tables reflect the final official scores, verified after the contest transmission. During the voting sequence of the live show, several errors were made in the announcement of the scores, which were then adjusted after the broadcast. Both Greece and France duplicated scores, awarding the same points to multiple countries. From the Greek scores, The UK, Netherlands, Austria and Finland all had 1 point deducted after the contest and from the French scores, Austria, Germany, Israel, Italy and Belgium all had 1 point deducted. None of the adjustments affected the placing of any of the songs.
Each country nominated a spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for their respective country via telephone. Known spokespersons at the 1977 contest are listed below.
Each participating broadcaster was required to relay the contest via its networks. Non-participating EBU member broadcasters were also able to relay the contest as "passive participants". Broadcasters were able to send commentators to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language and to relay information about the artists and songs to their television viewers.[15]
In addition to the participating countries, the contest was also reportedly broadcast in Algeria, Denmark, Iceland, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia, Turkey and Yugoslavia, in Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania and the Soviet Union via Intervision, and in Hong Kong.[7] At least 36 television organizations were reported to broadcast the final.[16] Estimates for the global viewership ranged from 250 to 500 million viewers.[16][17]
Known details on the broadcasts in each country, including the specific broadcasting stations and commentators are shown in the tables below.
Broadcasters and commentators in participating countries
^Lemaire, Norbert (10 May 1977). "Marie Myriam : le Grand Prix de l'Eurovision pour ses 20 ans". L'Aurore (in French). Paris, France. p. 14. ISSN0294-8486. OCLC1367943474.
^"Mi na Evroviziji" [Us at Eurovision]. ESC Serbia. Retrieved 22 February 2024.
^ abcRoxburgh, Gordon (2014). Songs for Europe: The United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest. Volume Two: The 1970s. Prestatyn: Telos Publishing. pp. 267–287. ISBN978-1-84583-093-9.
^Thorsson, Leif; Verhage, Martin (2006). Melodifestivalen genom tiderna : de svenska uttagningarna och internationella finalerna (in Swedish). Stockholm: Premium Publishing. pp. 126–127. ISBN91-89136-29-2.
^ ab"T.V. Programma's" [TV Programme's]. De Voorpost (in Dutch). Aalst, Belgium. 6 May 1977. p. 25. Retrieved 10 January 2023 – via Stadsarchief Aalst.
^ ab"TV – szombat november 19" [TV - Saturday November 19]. Rádió- és Televízió-újság (in Hungarian). 14 November 1977. p. 20. Archived from the original on 9 January 2023. Retrieved 9 January 2023 – via MTVA Archívum.
