The Eurovision Song Contest 1985 was the 30th edition of the annual

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...

. It took place in

Gothenburg Gothenburg (; abbreviated Gbg; sv, Göteborg ) is the second-largest city in Sweden, fifth-largest in the Nordic countries, and capital of the Västra Götaland County. It is situated by the Kattegat, on the west coast of Sweden, and has ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

, following the country's victory at the with the song "

Diggi-Loo Diggi-Ley "Diggi-Loo Diggi-Ley" was the winning song in the Eurovision Song Contest 1984 performed in Swedish by the trio of brothers Herrey's, representing . Lyrics were written by Britt Lindeborg, and the tune by Torgny Söderberg. It was produced by ...

" by

Herreys Herreys (), sometimes Herrey's or Herrey, is a Swedish pop group, consisting of the three brothers Per Herrey (born 9 August 1958), Richard Herrey (born 19 August 1964), and Louis Herrey (born 3 November 1966). They won the Eurovision Song Con ...

. Organised by the

European Broadcasting Union The European Broadcasting Union (EBU; french: Union européenne de radio-télévision, links=no, UER) is an alliance of Public broadcasting, public service media organisations whose countries are within the European Broadcasting Area or who ar ...

(EBU) and host broadcaster

Sveriges Television Sveriges Television AB ("Sweden's Television Stock Company"), shortened to SVT (), is the Sweden, Swedish national public broadcasting, public television broadcaster, funded by a public service tax on personal income set by the Riksdag (national ...

(SVT), the contest was held at the

Scandinavium Scandinavium () is an indoor arena located in Gothenburg, Sweden. Construction on Scandinavium began in 1969 after decades of setbacks, and was inaugurated on 18 May 1971. Scandinavium has been selected as a championship arena at least fifty t ...

on the 4th of May 1985 and was hosted by previous Swedish contestant

Lill Lindfors Maj Lillemor "Lill" Lindfors (born 12 May 1940) is a Swedish singer who has performed in Scandinavia since the 1960s. Career She was born in Helsinki, Finland, and made her debut as a revue actress in Uddevalla in 1960. The following year she ...

. Nineteen countries took part in the contest, with the and deciding not to participate. The winner was with the song "

La det swinge "La det swinge" (; "Let it swing") is a Norwegian-language song by the pop duo Bobbysocks!. It was the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 1985 and 's first victory in the contest. The song is a tribute to dancing to old rock 'n' roll heard on ...

" by

Bobbysocks! Bobbysocks is a Norwegian pop duo consisting of Norwegian Hanne Krogh and Swedish-Norwegian Elisabeth Andreassen. They won the Eurovision Song Contest 1985 with the song " La det swinge" ("Let it swing"). Elisabeth went by the surname Andreass ...

. This was Norway's first victory in the contest, after a long period of low scores, including 3 "nul points".

Location

is the second-largest city in

and the fifth-largest in the

Nordic countries The Nordic countries (also known as the Nordics or ''Norden''; literal translation, lit. 'the North') are a geographical and cultural region in Northern Europe and the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic. It includes the sovereign states of Denmar ...

. Construction of the arena began in 1969 after decades of setbacks, and was inaugurated on 18 May 1971 and was the biggest feature for the city's failed bid for the

1984 Winter Olympics The 1984 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XIV Olympic Winter Games (Serbo-Croatian and Slovene: ''XIV. Zimske olimpijske igre''; Cyrillic: XIV Зимске олимпијске игре; mk, XIV Зимски олимписки игр ...

. At the time, Scandinavium was the largest indoor venue in the world and is since then the home arena for

Frölunda HC Frölunda Hockey Club, previously known as the Frölunda Indians, is a Swedish professional ice hockey club based in Gothenburg. They currently play in the highest Swedish league, the Swedish Hockey League (SHL), formerly the Elitserien, where th ...

Swedish Hockey League The Swedish Hockey League (officially SHL; sv, Svenska Hockeyligan) is a professional ice hockey league, and the highest division in the Swedish ice hockey system. The league currently consists of 14 teams. The league was founded in 1975, an ...

, and venue for the annual

Gothenburg Horse Show Gothenburg Horse Show is an international horse show held annually in the Scandinavium Scandinavium () is an indoor arena located in Gothenburg, Sweden. Construction on Scandinavium began in 1969 after decades of setbacks, and was inaugurated ...

Format

1985 was the year when no less than thirteen previous Eurovision artists made a comeback. This also applied to the winners, Bobbysocks! who had attended once before as soloists: Hanne Krogh performed for Norway in 1971, while Elisabeth Andreasson for Sweden (where she is originally from) in 1982 in a duet, Chips, with Kikki Danielsson. Kikki herself also returned this year for host country Sweden, and was thus competing against Elisabeth Andreasson and Bobbysocks!. The presenter was entertainer

(herself a former participant in 1966), who had a

wardrobe malfunction A wardrobe malfunction is a clothing failure that accidentally or intentionally exposes a person's intimate parts. It is different from deliberate incidents of indecent exposure or public flashing. Justin Timberlake first used the term when apolo ...

(though technically this is a misnomer, as the stunt was deliberate) as she proceeded to the stage for the voting procedure. As she walked on stage, the skirt of her dress came away, leaving her in just her underwear and the top half of her dress. After a few seconds of pretending to be shocked, Lindfors unfastened the flaps of her dress across her shoulders, to reveal a full-length white gown, to much raucous audience applause. Lill then took her seat to start calling in the votes, and nonchalantly said, "I just wanted to wake you up a little."

Lys Assia Lys Assia (born Rosa Mina Schärer; 3 March 1924 – 24 March 2018) was a Swiss singer who won the first Eurovision Song Contest in 1956. Assia was born in Rupperswil, Aargau, and began her stage career as a dancer, but changed to singing in 1940 ...

, the winner of the first ever Eurovision Song Contest in 1956, was the guest of honour of this edition. She was introduced by Lill Lindfors. The camera zoomed close to Lys, who rose to greet the audience, while the orchestra played the song "

Refrain A refrain (from Vulgar Latin ''refringere'', "to repeat", and later from Old French ''refraindre'') is the line or lines that are repeated in music or in poetry — the "chorus" of a song. Poetic fixed forms that feature refrains include the vi ...

", her winning song. The video postcards broadcast in between each song to introduce the competing nations were the first in the contest history to feature only the song writers and composers, none of the performing artists (unless they had composed their own song). All the song writers were filmed in various locations in and around Gothenburg during the week of rehearsals. Once the video concluded, hostess Lill Lindfors introduced the song, the artist and the conductor from a seat on the stage, reading from cards represented by the flag of each nation. Host Lill Lindfors congratulated the duo,

Hanne Krogh Hanne Krogh (born 24 January 1956) is a Norwegian singer and actress from Haugesund and Oslo. Krogh is among the most selling record artists in Norway ever and is internationally well known for winning the Eurovision Song Contest 1985 with Elisab ...

and Elisabeth Andreasson, following their victory by saying, "I must say I am honestly very happy that this happened because Norway has been last so many times that you really deserve it!" Krogh replied, "''You're'' happy? What do you think ''we'' are?!" After an energetic reprise, the two women embraced to a

standing ovation A standing ovation is a form of applause where members of a seated audience stand up while applauding after extraordinary performances of particularly high acclaim. In Ancient Rome returning military commanders (such as Marcus Licinius Crassus a ...

from the audience. During the reprise the last verse of the winning entry was sung in English.

Participating countries

19 countries participated in the contest.

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

and

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

returned to the contest after not participating the previous year. Meanwhile, the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

did not participate in this contest, due to the national

Remembrance of the Dead Remembrance of the Dead ( nl, Dodenherdenking) is held annually on May 4 in the Netherlands. It commemorates all civilians and members of the armed forces of the Kingdom of the Netherlands who have died in wars or peacekeeping missions since ...

, while

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...

did not participate due to the anniversary of the death of

Josip Broz Tito Josip Broz ( sh-Cyrl, Јосип Броз, ; 7 May 1892 – 4 May 1980), commonly known as Tito (; sh-Cyrl, Тито, links=no, ), was a Yugoslav communist revolutionary and statesman, serving in various positions from 1943 until his deat ...

. Despite this,

still held their annual preselection contest, which was won by " Pokora" ("Penance") (music by Ivo Pupačić and lyrics by Zvonimir Pupačić), a duet sung by Zorica Kondža and Josip Genda. However, as Yugoslavia had already withdrawn before the song won, this song therefore was never set to compete in Eurovision. Yugoslavia did, however, take part in the 1991 contest which was also held on the anniversary of Tito's death. 1985 was the last year to have less than 20 participants competing in the final of the competition.

Conductors

Each performance had a conductor who directed the orchestra. 1985 was the only year to feature a conductor for multiple entries that wasn't the host conductor: Greek conductor Haris Andreadis led the orchestra for both the Cypriot and Greek entries. *

Noel Kelehan John William "Noel" Kelehan (26 December 1935 – 6 February 2012) was an Irish musician, former conductor of the RTÉ Concert Orchestra and former musical director of Radio Telefís Éireann. He retired as conductor in 1998. Life and car ...

Ossi Runne Ossi Runne (23 April 1927 – 5 November 2020) was a Finnish trumpeter, bandleader, orchestra leader, composer, and record producer.

* Haris Andreadis * Wolfgang Käfer *

Juan Carlos Calderón Juan Carlos Calderón López de Arróyabe (7 July 1938 – 25 November 2012) was a Spanish singer-songwriter and musician. Born in Santander, he was the author of "Eres tú", which, performed by Mocedades, came second in the Eurovision Song Con ...

Michel Bernholc Michel Bernholc (1941–2002) was a French composer, arranger and producer. Using the pseudonym Mike Steïphenson, he wrote and produced the 1971 hit "Burundi Black", which made #31 on the UK Singles Chart and #74 in Australia. He also wrote the ...

Garo Mafyan Garo Mafyan (born 24 February 1951) is a Turkish musician, composer and music producer of Armenian descent. Personal life He grew up in Erenköy, Istanbul. He is married to Gülyüz (née Bayraktaroğlu) Mafyan, and has a daughter named Damla. He ...

* Curt-Eric Holmquist *

José Calvário José Carlos Barbosa Calvário (1951, Porto – 17 June 2009, Oeiras) was a Portuguese songwriter and conductor. He was also a composer, and conducted at many Portuguese festivals.

* *

Kobi Oshrat Kobi Oshrat ( he, קובי אשרת; born July 15, 1944) is an Israeli composer and conductor. He composed and conducted the winning entry at the 1979 Eurovision Song Contest ''Hallelujah'' sung by the vocal ensemble Milk and Honey. Biography ...

* Fiorenzo Zanotti * Terje Fjærn * John Coleman * Anita Kerr * Curt-Eric Holmquist * *

Norbert Daum Norbert Daum (born 6 September 1948) is an Austrian musician and conductor. He often works with Ralph Siegel. Daum conducted entries in 7 years of the Eurovision Song Contest, during 1979–1994. Career Work as an arranger Daum was born in Brau ...

* Haris Andreadis

Returning artists

Bold indicates a previous winner.

Participants and results

Detailed voting results

Each country had a jury who awarded 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 point(s) for their top ten songs. During the voting, Germany took a commanding lead in the first half, with Norway fifth place behind Germany, Sweden, Italy and the United Kingdom around the end of the first half of voting. Finally, with five juries left, Germany, Sweden and Norway were tightly wrapped around the pole positions with 87, 86, and 85 points respectively. At that point, Sweden briefly took the lead away from Germany (who received no points from Switzerland). Sweden was the fourth-to-last jury, conceding their brief lead by awarding Germany eight points and Norway the maximum twelve. With only three countries left to vote, Norway kept the lead, in one of the shortest winning stretches during voting in the contest's history.

12 points

Below is a summary of all 12 (douze) points in the final:

Spokespersons

Each country announced their votes in the order of performance. The following is a list of spokespersons who announced the votes for their respective country. *

John Skehan John Skehan (18 July 1922 – 18 November 1992) was a prolific broadcaster on RTÉ, radio and television, for four decades. Prior to joining RTÉ, Skehan served in the Irish Army, reaching the rank of captain during The Emergency. Skehan be ...

* Annemi Genetz * Anna Partelidou * * Matilde Jarrín *

Clémentine Célarié Clémentine Célarié (born 12 October 1957) is a French actress, writer, director and singer.

* Fatih Orbay * An Ploegaerts * Maria Margarida Gaspar * * Yitzhak Shim'oni *

Beatrice Cori Beatrice Cori (real name Beatrice Cagnoni) (March 20, 1943 - February 8, 2000) was a television presenter and model. She introduced the Italian entry sung by Alan Sorrenti in Eurovision Song Contest 1980 The Eurovision Song Contest 1980 was th ...

Erik Diesen Erik Tangevald Diesen (8 October 1922 – 13 September 1999) was a Norwegian revue writer and radio and television personality. Personal life He was a son of Thorstein Diesen, Jr. (1894–1962) and Ragna Marie Tangevald (1891–1945), grandnep ...

Colin Berry Colin Derrick Berry (born 29 January 1946) is a British radio disc jockey, presenter and newsreader, best known for his many years at BBC Radio 2. Career Early years Berry began his radio career reading news on Radio Caroline in 1965. Before ...

* Michel Stocker *

Agneta Bolme Börjefors Agneta Bolme Börjefors (26 April 1941 – 11 August 2008) was a Swedish television presenter, television producer and royal reporter for Sveriges Television. Agneta Bolme was born in Stockholm, Sweden. Her brother, Tomas Bolme, is a Swedish act ...

* *

Frédérique Ries Frédérique Ries (born 14 May 1959) is a Belgian politician and Member of the European Parliament for the French Community of Belgium with the MR/ MCC/ PRL, part of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe. She is a member of the de ...

* Irini Gavala

Broadcasts

National broadcasters were able to send a commentary team to the contest, in order to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language.

Notes

References

External links

* {{Portal bar, Music

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...

Music festivals in Sweden 1985 in Sweden 1985 in music 1980s in Gothenburg May 1985 events in Europe Events in Gothenburg