United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest 1981
A Song for Europe 1981
The BBC reduced the number of finalists from twelve to eight in 1981. Terry Wogan hosted the contest on March 11th. It was held at the Television Theatre. 581 songs were submitted to the Music Publisher's Association to pick eight songs. There was an orchestra off screen, under the baton of John Coleman
The Songs
A group called Headache opened the contest with Not Without Your Ticket (Don't Go) written by Luis Jardim and Jean Gilbert.
Gary Benson, as a songwriter, had qualified for the UK finals of 1974 and 1975 and 1977 (writing Someday, Don't throw it all away (which he would later release himself and earn a top 20 hit) and After All This Time for Olivia Newton John, The Shadows and "Wesley Park and Smith" respectively. In 1981 he performed his own entry, a ballad called All Cried Out.
Unity were described as a female chorale, led by Sue Glover. Glover had previously been a member of Brotherhood of Man and had also provided Eurovision backing vocals for the UK's Lulu in 1969 and Germany's Joy Fleming in 1975. Unity (whose number included The Bill actress Lisa Maxwell) performed For Only a Day, an anthem. The chorus was of five children called Lisa, Tracey, Linda, Annabel and Astra. It went on to be the Miss World 'song' in the 1980s. The song was written by Chris Gunning and John Dawson Read.
Another strong anthemic ballad was Wish performed by Beyond. The song was written by Don Gould and Steve Elson.
Bucks Fizz was a two boy-two girl outfit singing Making Your Mind Up. The song was a speeded up hokey-cokey which depended as much on the dance routine as the vocal performance. Writers Andy Hill and John Danter were also repsonsible for the nest song, Have You Ever Been in Love performed by Jem. This was another heart-rending ballad which later became a big hit for Leo Sayer.
Lezlee Carling performed another mid-tempo ballad, Where Are You Now, written by Lindsey Moore. Lezlee Carling would later make an appearance on Three of a Kind in 1982.
She was followed by the best-known act of the night, Liquid Gold. Don't Panic was similar in style to their 1980 hit Dance Yourself Dizzy and both were written by Adrian Baker. The band was so sure of victory that they pre-recorded an appearance for that week's edition of Top of the Pops
The Voting
Seven regional juries voted on the songs. They were based in Birmingham (spokesperson: David Stevens), Cardiff (Ewan Thomas), Manchester (John Monday), Belfast (Peter Dixon), Edinburgh (Jim O' Hara), London (Ray Moore) and Bristol (Andy Battern Foster). The final scoreboard was:
1st - Making Your Mind Up - 97 points 2nd - Don't Panic - 70 points 3rd - Wish - 67 points 4th - Have You Ever Been in Love - 63 points 4th - All Cried Out - 63 points 6th - Where are You Now - 56 points 7th - Not Without Your Ticket (Don't Go) - 50 points 8th - For Only a Day - 38 points
The prizes were presented by Terry Wogan to Andy Hill, one of the songwriters, and to Mike Nolan, one of the performers. Terry then incorrectly announced the winning song as "Where are you now?"
Eurovision Song Contest in Dublin
1981 was the year that Bucks Fizz won the Eurovision Song Contest for the United Kingdom with their song "Making Your Mind Up". It won 136 points from the 19 juries, beating West Germany's Lena Valaitis whose Johnny Blue won 132 points.
The points given to the United Kingdom by each of the 19 other national juries were as follows (points shown in order that they were awarded):
| Country | Points |
|---|---|
| Austria | 4 |
| Turkey | 8 |
| West Germany | 4 |
| Luxembourg | 5 |
| Israel | 12 |
| Denmark | 10 |
| Yugoslavia | 10 |
| Finland | 3 |
| France | 7 |
| Spain | 8 |
| Netherlands | 12 |
| Ireland | 10 |
| Norway | 3 |
| Portugal | 6 |
| Belgium | 8 |
| Greece | 6 |
| Cyprus | 4 |
| Switzerland | 8 |
| Sweden | 8 |
Overall the United Kingdom was not in the lead until France awarded them 7 points; the lead before that point had changed a couple of times between France and Ireland. The UK only lost the lead one more time before the end of the competition, to Switzerland when the UK jury placed its own vote. Interestingly, only two countries gave the United Kingdom the full 12 points: Israel and the Netherlands.
How the UK jury voted
| Points | Country | Song | Performer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | France | Humanahum | Jean Gabilou |
| 2 | Sweden | Faangad I En Droem | Bjorn Skifs |
| 3 | Belgium | Samson | Emly Starr |
| 4 | Israel | Halayla | Habibi |
| 5 | Denmark | Kroeller Eller Ej | Debbie Cameron and Tommy Seebach |
| 6 | Netherlands | Het Is Een Wonder | Linda Williams |
| 7 | West Germany | Johnny Blue | Lena Valaitis |
| 8 | Greece | Feggari Kalokerino | Yiannis Dimitras |
| 10 | Cyprus | Monika | Island |
| 12 | Switzerland | Io Senza Te | Peter, Sue and Marc |
When the UK jury placed their vote they gave the full 12 points to Switzerland, placing them in the lead over the UK. The UK didn't regain the lead until two sets of results later, when Belgium gave the UK 8 points and didn't award Switzerland any at all.