We’re back with another edition of Fun Facts about Eurovision – specifically Eurovision 1982! Did you know that in 1982 two eventual Eurovision winners almost competed in the same year and with the same band name? Do you know why Australia didn’t broadcast the contest this year? How many Eurovision entries have Ralf and Bernd written? All these questions and more will be answered below!
When two future Eurovision winners almost crossed paths in 1982
Ironically the 1982 contest almost had two bands with the same name. The Swedish country band Chips won Melodifestivalen in early 1982 with their song “Dag after dag” and was made up of future Eurovision artists Kikki Danielsson (1985) and Elisabeth Andreassen (winner 1985 with Bobbysocks, 1994 and 1996).
At the same time the Irish band Chips was competing in Eurosong 1982. While many Eurovision fans might not know the band now, they know one of the bands members – red haired Eurovision winner Linda Martin. Sadly the group would finish in last place in the national final and would not make it to Harrogate, and Linda would have to wait another two years to perform on the Eurovision stage in Luxembourg City, Luxembourg.
The year Australia did not broadcast Eurovision
Eurovision fans may be shocked to learn that Australia has been watching the contest well before they participated in 2015. In fact, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation first broadcast the show in 1971, but would not pick it up again. SBS would pick the contest back up in 1981 using SBS Radio, but decided against broadcasting the 1982 contest.
In 1983, however, SBS broadcasted the contest on TV and attracted a strong viewing audience within the country’s population. The reason why they waited until 1983 to broadcast? Likely the growth and popularity of satellite TV and sharing of TV content by the BBC at the time, who would share their broadcast with SBS from 1983 to 2000 so that they could broadcast it the next day on daytime TV.
The Dominance of Ralf Siegel and Bernd Meinunger
The 1982 contest was not the first time that Ralf and Bernd had worked together on a Eurovision song, as they started working for the German and Luxembourgish artists back in 1980. Ralf however has an even longer history with the contest, working with both countries all the way back to 1974.
Together they have written over 25 entries for the contest, including some recent songs like Switzerland’s 2005 entry “Cool Vibes” and Ralf has written numerous entries for San Marino in the 2010’s era. In fact, Ralf Seigel is a co-writer on all four of Valentina Monetta’s Eurovision entries.
Both together and separately they have also written nearly 50 entries for national finals across Europe with Ralf writing Lys Assia’s 2012 and 2013 attempts to return for Switzerland, and Bernd continuing to write for past German artists like Dschinghis Khan, Wind, and Katja Ebstein.
To date they have only won the contest only once as songwriters with “Ein bißchen Frieden”, but have also placed second a total of four times, and third twice. They have not written an entry together since 2015, when they wrote the San Marino song “Chain of Lights” under Bernd’s songwriting alias.
The worldwide success of “Ein bißchen Frieden“
Nicole’s winning reprisal was also sung in four different languages – German, English, French, and Dutch. Against popular belief, Nicole had not planned to do this ahead of time, admitting during the Eurovision 60th Anniversary broadcast that it just happened spontaneously. To date, Nicole’s song is the only Eurovision entry to chart at #1 in every single country it was released in.
The song has also been re-recorded by Nicole in Russian, Italian, a German-English-Dutch hybrid version (similar to her winner’s reprisal performance), and a German-English-Italian hybrid as well. Artists around the world would then record covers in Spanish, Swedish, Slovene, Czech, Croatian, Danish, Hungarian, Polish, and Finnish.
The song would also be voted on by Eurovision fans to take place in the Congratulations: 50 Years of the Eurovision Song Contest anniversary broadcast hosted by the EBU and DR in 2005. Nicole’s 1982 song was selected as one of the 14 competing entries, with ten of the other songs being previous Eurovision winners. At the end of the first round she finished in 7th place overall. She would also reprise the German-English-Italian version of the song for the Eurovision’s Greatest Hits 60th anniversary broadcast hosted by the BBC in 2015.
Additional fun facts from Harrogate
- Switzerland’s Arlette Zola would try to return to Eurovision two more times after her third place finish behind Germany and Israel, but finished third in the national final both times.
- Yugoslavia’s Aska would break up after the contest, but member Izolda Barudžija tried to return to the contest in both 1983 and 1984.
- Israel’s representative Toledano would go on to write the country’s entry for the next year which was sung by Ofra Haza. The song would place second in the contest behind Luxembourg.
- The Duskey Sisters of Ireland had tried to go to Eurovision in 1981 alongside their Welsh cousin Nina Duskey. After recruiting their brother Dan, they would successfully make it to the contest and finish in 11th place.
- The 1982 and 1983 contests were one of the last to happen in April until Ireland hosted the 1988 contest on April 30th.
Did #YOU know all of these facts about the 1982 Eurovision Song Contest? Let us know on social media @ESCUnited, on our discord, or on our forum page!
Header photo 1980s vector created by pikisuperstar – www.freepik.com
