VENUE Conference Centre, Harrogate		ENTRIES 18
HOST Jan Leeming		DEBUTS None

In the spring of 1982, Britain was at war with Argentina over the Falkland Islands. On Saturday 24th April, British forces were in the process of reclaiming South Georgia, while, thousands of miles away, this country at war was hosting the 27th Eurovision Song Contest.  After returning to London for the 1977, the BBC revived their "take it round the country" policy by taking the contest to a small town in Yorkshire.  They played on this by asking "Where is Harrogate"  in all the competitors tongues during the opening titles.  

Nicole's winner "Einn Bisschen Frieden" probably owed more to the nuclear paranoia around in the early 80s than to the battle in the Southern hemisphere, but it certainly caught the mood. Victory too, for a man not so much a veteran of Eurovision, but practically part of the furniture. Ralph Siegel's prodigious output, and success in securing the German song has been a constant of Eurovision for over two decades, and he's still going strong in the new millennium.  Germany's only victory, in by far their best Eurovision decade, was by far the most emphatic to date under the current scoring system.

Still plenty to amuse (or otherwise) in the dodgy lyric department. Ireland's entry opened with no less than 32 'la's', and the UK entry, yet another boy-girl confection, included the immortal line "I could have tooken one step further".  At the opposite end of the scoreboard to Germany, Finland's stark post-punk take on the nuclear bomb delivered in red pvc sadly garnered their third nul points.

WINNER: Germany

EIN BISCHEN FRIEDEN by Nicole

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Israel completes it's withdrawal from the Sinai peninsula in line with the camp David agreement.

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