Eurovision Song Contest 1977
The Eurovision Song Contest 1977 was the 22nd edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in London, United Kingdom, following the country's victory at the with the song "Save Your Kisses for Me" by Brotherhood of Man. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), the contest was held at the Wembley Conference Centre on 7 May 1977, marking the first time the event took place in the month of May since the first contest in . The contest was directed by Stewart Morris and hosted by English journalist Angela Rippon. Eighteen countries participated in the contest; returned after its absence from the previous edition, while decided not to enter. The winner was with the song "", performed by Marie Myriam, written by Joe Gracy, and composed by Jean-Paul Cara. The , , and 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 . 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. Participating countries was set to participate in the contest and had been drawn to participate in fourth place, but later withdrew. decided not to enter this contest and would not return to the contest until 1981 (they did however still broadcast the show), while Sweden returned to the competition, having missed out the year before. This made for eighteen participating nations. The language rule was brought back in this contest, four years after it had been dropped in . However and were allowed to sing in English, because they had already chosen the songs they were going to perform before the rule was reintroduced. Returning artists Format 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. 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