The Eurovision Song Contest 1980 was the 25th Eurovision Song Contest and was held on 19 April 1980 in The Hague. The presenter was Marlous Fluitsma, although each song was introduced by a presenter from the participating nation. In some cases, this was the same person providing the commentary. The contest was won by Johnny Logan, representing Ireland with a song called "What's Another Year"The venue that had hosted the Eurovision Song Contest 1976, Congresgebouw, was chosen. Various parts of the opening sequence and stage of the 1976 festival were reused. Again, Roland de Groot took charge of the design. As with the 1977 and 1978 contests, there were no pre-filmed postcards between the songs, with a guest presenter from each nation introducing the entries. Apart from this, the presenter, Marlous Fluitsma, except for the voting, did not make the presentation in English or French, which means that the presentation was made almost entirely in Dutch. NOS spent just US$725,000 on the project.
After Israel announced its non-participation, Morocco entered into the contest instead. Monaco also did not participate after it did so in 1979.
Australian-born Johnny Logan representing Ireland was the winner of this Eurovision with the song "What's Another Year". This was Ireland's second time winning the competition, having won in 1970 with "All Kinds of Everything", which was also held on Dutch soil.
Germany were runners-up this year. They would finish in second place again the following year, finally winning in 1982. Germany would go on to finish second again in 1985 and 1987, making the 1980s their most successful Eurovision Song Contest decade. After two relatively poor placings, United Kingdom returned to form by coming third.
Each song was introduced by a presenter from the national country. A few countries used their commentators as presenters (Turkey's radio commentator and the TV commentators of Denmark, Sweden and Finland). The Danish, Norwegian, German, Portuguese and French presenters hosted their countries' respective national finals. Fluitsma wore a different dress when introducing the Dutch entry, rather than having another person introduce that entry.
Results
Draw Country Artist Song Language Place Points
01 Austria Blue Danube "Du bist Musik" German 8 64
02 Turkey Ajda Pekkan "Pet'r Oil" Turkish 15 23
03 Greece Anna Vissi and the Epikouri "Autostop" (Ωτοστόπ) Greek 13 30
04 Luxembourg Sophie & Magaly "Papa pingouin" French 9 56
05 Morocco Samira Bensaïd "Bitaqat Hub" (بطاقة حب) Arabic 18 7
06 Italy Alan Sorrenti "Non so che darei" Italian 6 87
07 Denmark Bamses Venner "Tænker altid på dig" Danish 14 25
08 Sweden Tomas Ledin "Just nu!" Swedish 10 47
09 Switzerland Paola "Cinéma" French 4 104
10 Finland Vesa-Matti Loiri "Huilumies" Finnish 19 6
11 Norway Sverre Kjelsberg & Mattis Hætta "Sámiid ædnan" Norwegiana 16 15
12 Germany Katja Ebstein "Theater" German 2 128
13 United Kingdom Prima Donna "Love Enough for Two" English 3 106
14 Portugal José Cid "Um grande, grande amor" Portugueseb 7 71
15 Netherlands Maggie MacNeal "Amsterdam" Dutch 5 93
16 France Profil "Hé, hé, m'sieurs dames" French 11 45
17 Ireland Johnny Logan "What's Another Year" English 1 143
18 Spain Trigo Limpio "Quédate esta noche" Spanish 12 38
19 Belgium Telex "Euro-Vision" French 17 14
