| This year, to appease the
seceding nations on the desperate matter of the Voting Question, the
contest organizers introduced what can only really be described as the
"Blankety-Blank" system of voting. Each nation has a jury of two
people, one under and one over 25 year of age. These sat in the studio
on Blankety-Blank-style stages comprising groups of three nations.
These six individuals would, on request, give their votes for each
nation (out of five points) by means of a hinged numeric card. Malta debuted with the Humperdinkesque Joe Grech singing a fun little number that might legitimately be translated "Mary, the Malteser", while Yugoslavia offered a mildly funky piece of Croatsploitation by a fellow in a pimpish coat made from flock wallpaper. Portugal returned from their year out with a woman in a camera-melting dress bearing arms of increasing elevation and singing another rousing Mediterranean-inflected number made truly special by a funked-up arrangement in the chorus. Monaco's victorious lighter-waving power-ballad anthem has a lot to answer for, being as it is the blueprint of a hundred songs, most of them awful, that would go on to dominate the content of the contest through the '80s and '90s. But treated in isolation one cannot count against it the weight of the sins of its descendants. It is performed with real gusto and is not at all underplayed, such that by the end it's actually pretty mad and all the better for it. One can almost over-look the slight similarity to Keith Harris and Orville, especially when one is joining in with the la-la-la-ing. Austria's entry was... a full on assault. Loud, brash, brassy, with the flutes of hell in the instrumental; a clatter of rhythms and violence sung by the impish and deep-voiced power-station that was Marianne Mendt. Lordi was probably summoned up during this performance. It was the first song of the night, and in our view the best. For each year's songs we apply our points in the 12-10-8 style of the modern contest, irrespective of how the voting functioned at the time. In brackets is the position the song came on the night:
Europe had Spain second, Italy fifth, France tenth, Ireland eleventh, Switzerland twelfth, Luxembourg 13th, Belgium joint-14th and Norway 17th.
|
 Europe's winner, Séverine.  Portugal's Tonicha.  There's a pub in Dubrovnik with a coat-shaped hole in its wallpaper.  The first Maltese entry: Joe Grech.  Our winner, Marianne Mendt.  In the event of a tie the winner is the song with the largest BLANK or BLANKS. |
