Eurovision Song Contest 1983

The set that year was rather peculiar, with a quite small, arc-shaped stage surrounding the orchestra section, and a large background resembling giant electric heaters, which lit up in different sequences and combinations depending on the nature and rhythm of the songs.

Voting

Toward the end of the voting, it became evident that Luxembourg was going to win, but early on, Germany, Sweden, and Yugoslavia all threatened to take Luxembourg's lead, which they earned halfway through the jury vote. At one point, murmurs and boos arose from the crowd at the Greek jury's decision to give host country Germany only one point; at another point, most of the other teams applauded the Dutch jury's choice to give Luxembourg only one point, causing host Marlene Charell to chuckle nervously at the crowd reaction.

Language troubles

Due to Charell's choice to announce points in three languages instead of the traditional two, the voting went on for nearly an hour, stretching the Eurovision contest past three hours for the first time ever.^[1] In addition, Charell made 13 language mistakes throughout the voting,^[1] some as innocuous as mixing up the words for "points" between the three languages, some as major as nearly awarding points to "Schweden" (Sweden) that were meant for "Schweiz" (Switzerland).

The language problems also occurred during the contest introductions, as Charell introduced Norwegian conductor Sigurd Jansen as "...Johannes...Skorgan...",^[2] having been forced to make up a name on the spot as she could not pronounce "Sigurd."

Song success

Ofra Haza from Israel, who took the second place, had an enduring success with her song "Khay" which became a hit in Europe, launching her career. This year also marked the first performance of Sweden's Carola Häggkvist, who took the third place and went on to win the contest in 1991 and represented her country again in 2006 (coming fifth). Her song, Främling, became very popular in Sweden and in various other European countries. In The Netherlands, the song reached the top five, coupled with a Dutch language version (Je ogen heben geen geheimen meer) which was performed by Carola herself. The 4th placed D?uli, also became a mega hit in Europe. Singer Daniel released an English language version as Julie.

Nul points

This year's nul points were shared by Spain and Turkey. Spain's Remedios Amaya presented a song which was a stark departure from popular tastes and conventional perception of melody and harmony. Turkey's entry, Opera, performed by Çetin Alp & the Short Waves, could on the other hand be said to fit in well with the spirit of Eurovision of that time. Nevertheless, the overinterpretation of the theme of the song, as well as the fact that the lyrics of the song consisted for the most part of the often-repeated word "opera" and names of well-known operas and composers, and Çetin's breaking into operatic "lay lay la", prompted extensive derision of the song, including the usual sardonic words from BBC commentator Terry Wogan ("a nicely understated performance there").

Interval act

The interval show was a dance number set to a medley of German songs which had become internationally famous, including Strangers in the Night. The host, Marlene Charell, was the lead dancer.

Results

Draw	Language	Artist	Song	English Translation	Place	Points
1	French	Guy Bonnet	Vivre	Living	8	56
2	Norwegian	Jahn Teigen	Do Re Mi	Do Re Mi	9	53
3	English	Sweet Dreams	I'm Never Giving Up	-	6	79
4	Swedish	Carola Häggkvist	Främling	Stranger	3	126
5	Italian	Riccardo Fogli	Per Lucia	For Lucia	11	41
6	Turkish	Çetin Alp & the Short Waves	Opera	Opera	19	0
7	Spanish	Remedios Amaya	¿Quién Maneja Mi Barca?	Who Sails My Boat?	19	0
8	Italian	Mariella Farré	Io Così Non Ci Sto	I Don't Like It This Way	15	28
9	Finnish	Ami Aspelund	Fantasiaa	Fantasy	11	41
10	Greek	Christie Stasinopoulou	Mu Les (??? ???)	You Tell Me	14	32
11	Dutch	Bernadette	Sing Me a Song	Sing Me a Song	7	66
12	Serbo-Croatian	Daniel	D?uli	Julie	4	125
13	Greek	Stavros & Constantina	I Agapi Akoma Zi (? ????? ????? ???)	Love Is Still Alive	16	26
14	German	Hoffmann & Hoffmann	Rücksicht	Consideration	5	94
15	Danish	Gry Johansen	Kloden Drejer	The Planet's Spinning	17	16
16	Hebrew	Ofra Haza	Khay (??)	Alive	2	136
17	Portuguese	Armando Gama	Esta Balada Que Te Dou	This Ballad That I Give You	13	33
18	German	Westend	Hurricane	Hurricane	9	53
19	Dutch	Pas De Deux	Rendez-Vous	Rendez-Vous	18	13
20	French	Corinne Hermes	Si La Vie Est Cadeau	If Life Was A Gift	1	142

Voting structure

Each country had a jury who awarded 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 points for their top ten songs.

Score sheet

		Results
		France	Norway	United Kingdom	Sweden	Italy	Turkey	Spain	Switzerland	Finland	Greece	Netherlands	Yugoslavia	Cyprus	Germany	Denmark	Israel	Portugal	Austria	Belgium	Luxembourg
Contestants	France		3	0	0	10	0	0	10	6	7	2	3	4	4	0	1	3	0	0	3
	Norway	0		5	3	0	6	0	0	0	0	8	0	0	1	8	4	6	3	7	2
	United Kingdom	5	5		12	2	5	0	8	0	5	5	0	6	3	5	0	2	10	0	6
	Sweden	6	12	8		8	7	2	5	10	10	3	1	7	12	10	8	4	8	5	0
	Italy	7	0	0	2		4	3	0	1	2	0	8	1	0	0	6	7	0	0	0
	Turkey	0	0	0	0	0		0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Spain	0	0	0	0	0	0		0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Switzerland	0	1	0	0	7	0	1		0	0	0	7	0	0	0	0	0	6	1	5
	Finland	1	2	6	0	0	3	0	4		8	0	0	0	7	0	7	0	2	0	1
	Greece	3	0	0	0	0	0	12	0	5		0	0	12	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Netherlands	2	7	1	6	4	2	0	12	3	0		5	5	2	4	3	0	4	2	4
	Yugoslavia	0	8	12	0	1	12	10	0	12	6	7		8	6	12	10	0	1	12	8
	Cyprus	0	4	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	6		5	1	5	0	0	4	0
	Germany	10	10	7	8	6	0	0	2	4	1	10	0	0		3	0	8	7	6	12
	Denmark	0	0	2	7	0	1	4	0	0	0	0	0	2	0		0	0	0	0	0
	Israel	8	6	10	5	3	0	6	7	7	3	12	10	0	10	7		10	12	10	10
	Portugal	4	0	0	1	0	0	5	6	2	0	6	2	0	0	0	0		0	0	7
	Austria	0	0	3	4	5	10	0	0	0	4	4	4	3	0	6	2	5		3	0
	Belgium	0	0	4	0	0	0	8	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0		0
	Luxembourg	12	0	0	10	12	8	7	3	8	12	1	12	10	8	2	12	12	5	8
THE TABLE IS ORDERED BY APPEARANCE