The United Kingdom and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) held a national final titled "A Song for Europe 1981" to choose who would represent them in the

Eurovision Song Contest 1981 The Eurovision Song Contest 1981 was the 26th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Dublin, Ireland, following the country's victory at the with the song "What's Another Year" by Johnny Logan. Organised by the Europea ...

. "A Song for Europe 1981" was held on 11 March 1981 where

Bucks Fizz Bucks Fizz were a British pop group that achieved success in the 1980s, most notably for winning the 1981 Eurovision Song Contest with the song "Making Your Mind Up". The group was formed in January 1981 specifically for the contest and comp ...

was chosen with " Making Your Mind Up" as the entrant. At

Eurovision 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 ...

, they placed first winning the competition with 136 points.

Before Eurovision

A Song for Europe 1981

The BBC reduced the number of finalists from twelve to eight in 1981. Terry Wogan hosted the contest on 11 March. It was held at the Television Theatre. 581 songs were submitted to the Music Publisher's Association to pick eight songs. The BBC Concert Orchestra under the direction of John Coleman as conductor accompanied all the songs, but all the music was pre-recorded. The show was the 16th most watched programme of the week with a rating of 12.4 million viewers, the highest for three years. Johnny Logan was scheduled to appear as a guest on the programme, but had to cancel shortly before the air date. Seven regional juries voted on the songs. The regional juries voted internally and awarded 15 points to their favourite song, 12 points to the second, 10 points to the third and then 9, 8, 7, 6 and 5 points in order of preference for the songs from 4th to 8th. Before the reprise, Terry Wogan incorrectly read the title of the winning song as "Where Are You Now." The prizes were presented by Wogan to John Danter, one of the songwriters, and to Mike Nolan, one of the performers.

UK Discography

Unusually for the UK competition, three of the finalists reached the UK Singles Chart. ''Making Your Mind Up'' spent three weeks at number one, whilst the runner-up, ''Don't Panic!'' reached number 42 at more-or-less the same time. ''Have You Ever Been in Love?'' was a UK no.10 hit for Leo Sayer in 1982, also reaching no.4 in Australia. The track was covered by many other artists, including Peter Cetera and Westlife. ''For Only A Day'' was later used as the theme song for the 1983 ''

Miss World Miss World is the oldest existing international beauty pageant. It was created in the United Kingdom by Eric Morley in 1951. Since his death in 2000, Morley's widow, Julia Morley, has co-chaired the pageant. Along with Miss Universe, Miss Int ...

'' contest, performed live by all the contestants during the broadcast. *Gary Benson – ''All Cried Out'': Warner Bros./WEA K17773. *Unity – ''For Only A Day'': Epic A1066. *Beyond – ''Wish'': Radioactive RAD102. *Bucks Fizz – ''Making Your Mind Up'': RCA PB5339. *Paris – ''Have You Ever Been in Love?'': RCA PB5475. *Leo Sayer – ''Have You Ever Been in Love?: Chrysalis CHS2596 (1982). *Liquid Gold – ''Don't Panic'': Polo POLO12-8.

At Eurovision

1981 was the year that

won the

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 ...

for the United Kingdom with their song " Making Your Mind Up". It received 136 points from the 19 juries, beating Germany's Lena Valaitis with the song "

Johnny Blue Johnny is an English language personal name. It is usually an affectionate diminutive of the masculine given name John, but from the 16th century it has sometimes been a given name in its own right for males and, less commonly, females. Varian ...

". Members of the British jury included

Norman Harper Norman Harper (born 7 September 1957) is an author, book editor, journalist and broadcaster, and for 27 years was a writer, features editor, and latterly leader-writer and columnist with the Scottish newspaper, the '' Press and Journal''. He is th ...

, S. Andrew, David Bratt, P. Green, A. Harmann, J.P. Robinson, D. Ruteledge, S. Tapper, I. Tyler, G. Wallbank, and Conor E. Young.

Voting

References

External links

Bucks Fizz Official Website
{{Eurovision Song Contest 1981

1981 Events January * January 1 ** Greece enters the European Economic Community, predecessor of the European Union. ** Palau becomes a self-governing territory. * January 10 – Salvadoran Civil War: The FMLN launches its first major offensiv ...

Countries in the Eurovision Song Contest 1981