Eurovision 1981: Heavens, HEAVENS, they’ve done it again! | Super-cut with animated scoreboard

An edited down version of the (rather amazing) 1981 Eurovision Song Contest in Dublin with a scoreboard using today’s technology. Nothing but a fun lock-down project.

This edit will give a flavour of the evening (4th April) with Terry Wogan’s UK commentary but this version has pictures from ORF, the Austrian broadcaster (thanks to ‘ESC Stuff’ for the upload to YouTube).

In the edit there’ll be some of the intro, a flavour of each entry, and then the scoring sequence edited with a scoreboard built and designed using technology used since 2003 (when the scoreboard became reactive and reordered when points were awarded). Special mentions (edits) this year go to Denmark (dancing), Ireland (lyrics, outfits) and Portugal (lyrics, sounds and outfits).

*DESIGN AND THE BOARD*
RTÉ’s stage this year was impressively large, or at least it feels that way on television. Although the backing didn’t move like in 1980, the stage uses the pattern of the sort of Celtic stuff you see in the opening montage but it varies with different colour schemes. Having said that, the overall colour of this contest is YELLOW...and so I followed with an updated colour scheme. I’ve also added flying numbers, not seen until 1998 in the real scoreboards and a handy hint at the bottom as to what song is being voted for. I felt this was helpful when lost deep in the voting sequence.

Compared to last year, there was lots of trouble with the real scoreboard and the scrutineers. Perhaps the week of ‘Irish coffee’ that Wogan mentions crept up on them. The look seems entirely led by function rather than design. Notice the different logos...a different one at the back of the hall (and on the wiki page) to the one at the end of the title sequence. Lots of different typefaces and colour schemes - ‘branding’ wasn’t really evident in the Contest yet.

My board uses the same logic as 1980, not used in the actual contest yet...songs are ranked by points, 12s, 10s, 8s and then their position in the running order.

*TRANSFER NEWS* (source: Wiki)
OUT: Italy - RAI stated that interest had diminished in the country and decided not to enter. Morocco as their then King decided not to return because of the poor finish in 1980.
BACK: Yugoslavia (last in 1976) and Israel (1979)
IN: Cyprus! (with an group called Island)

*INTERVAL ACT*
"Timedance" performed by Planxty featuring dance performance by the Dublin City Ballet - seemed to go nicely with song 20, so you get a flavour of just the pictures this time.

*SOURCES*
ESC Stuff channel for providing the original footage on YouTube
The guys at Intermedium-Bremen for uploading so many of the old contests
https://www.desandmick.co.uk/television/eurovision/ for a quick look at scoreboard history for some helpful hints.
https://www.countryflags.com/en/ for all the free to use images of flags
The Spanish transition flag: Spanish Flag: By Miguillen - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0
The flashing phone came from www.flaticon.com
All Copyright goes to RTÉ and the EBU where applied and I used this footage for the intended purpose of reviewing this Song Contest, as covered by the ‘fair dealing’ defence of the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 .

00:00 Intro
03:30 Song supercut
17:08 Song 20 with scenes from the interval act
18:06 Voting Intro and issue
19:50 The reorder board 81
26:39 The scoreboard goes wrong
27:21 The rest of The reorder board 81
1:01:26 Recap and winning song
1:05:45 Closing credits

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