The Eurovision Song Contest 1982 was the 27th Eurovision Song Contest and was held on April 241982 in Harrogate, United Kingdom. The presenter was Jan Leeming. The opening of the contest showed a map of Europe, with the translation "Where is Harrogate?" popping up on-screen from the languages of the various countries. Then the map zoomed into Harrogate's location in Yorkshire, followed by an introduction video spotlighting the town.
The German entrant, Nicole, was the winner of this contest with the song, "Ein Bißchen Frieden". Germany got 1.61 times as many points as runner-up Israel, this is still a record.
Greece was due to participate in the contest with the song "Sarantapente Kopelies" performed by Themis Adamantidis. Although drawn to perform in second place, ERT withdrew the entry a few weeks before the contest.
France withdrew from the 1982 contest, returning again in 1983.
Each country had a jury who awarded 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 points for their top ten songs.
Germany had the advantage of performing last. After coming second in 1980 and second in Dublin the year previously, Ralph Siegel and Bernd Meinunger took the first (and so far only) Grand Prix for Germany. The winner, Nicole, beat the nearest competition by 61 points and over 13 million West Germans watched her victory on television. Nicole went on to sing the reprise of her song in English, French and Dutch, as well as German, to the delight of the invited audience in Harrogate Conference Centre who stood to applaud her. The English version of her Eurovision winner, A Little Peace, subsequently shot to No1 in the UK Singles Chart.
Encyclopedia
top
