The Eurovision Song Contest 1978 was the 23rd edition held on 22 April 1978 at the Palais de Congrès in Paris, France in part to Marie Myriam's win in London the previous year. It was hosted by Denise Fabre and Léon Zitrone, who were the first pair to present the contest. Zitrone was the first male to act as presenter since Lohengrin Filipello hosted the inaugural contest in 1956. Additionally, Zitrone is the oldest presenter in contest history, he was 63 years old at the time of the 1978 edition.
With the retirement of Clifford Brown, Frank Naef became the new Executive Supervisor in 1978. He would go on to oversee 15 more contests, making him the longest-serving executive supervisor, and is still a much-loved figure today among longtime fans of the contest.
Israel got their first win with the song A-Ba-Ni-Bi by Izhar Cohen & Alpha Beta, but Arabic television channels in the Middle East that were airing the contest were not too pleased with this. Some stations went to a commercial break during the performance, and when it was apparent Israel was going to win, many stations cut their transmission entirely during the voting - Jordanian TV ended their transmission with a still image of a bunch of daffodils, declaring Belgium as the winner.
A few other interesting things came out of this contest. Despite scoring "Nul Points" for the first time under the current scoring system, Jahn Teigen's song Mil Etter Mil was a hit on the Norwegian charts. Colm Wilkinson, who sang for Ireland and finished 5th, would go on to become a celebrated musical theatre star for his work in the shows Les Misérables and Phantom of the Opera among others. More big European stars participated this year, despite all achieving moderate success. Italy's Ricchi e Poveri, ending up 12th, went on to have a major success in Europe as part of the later wave of Italo-Pop. The popular singer for Germany, Ireen Sheer, took part for the second time and came 6th beating Spain's disco queens Baccara who sang Luxembourg into 7th position.[1]
Participants[]
| Draw | Country | Artist | Song | Language | Translation | Place | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 |  Ireland
|
Colm Wilkinson | Born to Sing | English | -- | 5 | 86 |
| 02 |  Norway
|
Jahn Teigen | Mil Etter Mil | Norwegian | Mile after mile | 20 | 0 |
| 03 |  Italy
|
Ricchi e Poveri | Questo amore | Italian | This love | 12 | 53 |
| 04 |  Finland
|
Seija Simola | Anna rakkaudelle tilaisuus | Finnish | Give love a chance | 18 | 2 |
| 05 |  Portugal
|
Gemini | Dai li dou | Portuguese | -- | 17 | 5 |
| 06 |  France
|
Joël Prévost | Il y aura toujours des violons | French | There will always be violins | 3 | 119 |
| 07 |  Spain
|
José Vélez | Bailamos un vals | Spanish, French | Let's dance a waltz | 9 | 65 |
| 08 |  United Kingdom
|
Co-Co | Bad Old Days | English | -- | 11 | 61 |
| 09 |  Switzerland
|
Carol Vinci | Vivre | French | Living | 9 | 65 |
| 10 |  Belgium
|
Jean Vallée | L'amour ça fait chanter la vie | Love that makes life sing | 2 | 125 | |
| 11 |  The Netherlands
|
Harmony | 't Is OK | Dutch | It's OK | 13 | 37 |
| 12 |  Türkiye
|
Nilüfer & Nazar | Sevince | Turkish | When someone loves | 18 | 2 |
| 13 |  Germany
|
Ireen Sheer | Feuer | German | Fire | 6 | 84 |
| 14 |  Monaco
|
Caline & Olivier Toussaint | Les jardins de Monaco | French | The gardens of Monaco | 4 | 107 |
| 15 |  Greece
|
Tania Tsanaklidou | Charlie Chaplin | Greek | -- | 8 | 66 |
| 16 |  Denmark
|
Mabel | Boom Boom | Danish | 16 | 13 | |
| 17 |  Luxembourg
|
Baccara | Parlez-vous français? | French | Do you speak French? | 7 | 73 |
| 18 |  Israel
|
Izhar Cohen & Alpha Beta | A-Ba-Ni-Bi | Hebrew | I love you | 1 | 157 |
| 19 |  Austria
|
Springtime | Mrs. Caroline Robinson | German | -- | 15 | 14 |
| 20 |  Sweden
|
Björn Skifs | Det blir alltid värre framåt natten | Swedish | It always gets worse when the night comes | 14 | 26 |