Eurovision 1983: The 4-way race you’ve probably missed | Super-cut with animated scoreboard

An edited down version of the 1983 Eurovision Song Contest in Munich with a scoreboard using today’s technology. Nothing but a fun lockdown project.

00:00 Intro
03:07 Song supercut
20:15 Voting intro
22:54 The reorder board 83
1:15:09 Top 3 recap and reprise
1:19:42 Closing credits

Considered less than a classic Eurovision, this edit will give a flavour of the evening (23rd April) with Terry Wogan’s UK commentary. Good quality source videos were harder to find so again there’s a mixture of audio and visual sources. The best video comes from a replay on German TV many years later (sources below).

1983 is a long show, the first to be three hours long. 1983 est un long spectacle, le premier à durer trois heures. 1983 ist eine lange Show, die erste, die drei Stunden dauert. No prizes for guessing why. They also added in a ‘parade of nations’, swiftly dropped until it returned in 2013. Together with two nul points, this year is not seen as the Contest’s best, but actually in the super edit there’s some diamonds in the rough.

AND WHAT A SCORING SEQUENCE! Enjoy that. Presenter Marlene Charell deserves a special mention for the sheer effort she put in. Charell announced everything (singers, conductors, writers) before each song, produced AMAZING flower arrangements for each entry which didn't make this edit unfortunately, and then danced in the interval act (also cut). Sorry Marlene! My special edit does go to the UK’s entry though, for an impressive use of props and key change that I think sunk their chances in 1 second flat.

DESIGN AND THE BOARD
So the design uniformity we saw in 1982 was dropped somewhat, and we reverted back to a functional approach. We did have a striking logo font though, and that was used in the song titles and the main title - but not the scoreboard. Perhaps for legibility reasons. The board is nicely worked into the stage with Charell in a magnificent dress that sat well on crisp white stairs. I’ve kept close-up shots of the winning country’s points ‘twinkling’ - you can hear them clattering on the programme audio and it reminded me of noise made by station clocks before they all went digital - magical stuff!

I’ve used the logo font, Motter Tektura (a free version is called Mottek Normal) where I can. Check out this great site for where else in the 80s it was used: https://fontsinuse.com/typefaces/1021.... It was created by Austrian designer Othmar Motter of Vorarlberger Grafik in 1974. I’ve retained Dalton Maag’s (licensed) Aktiv Grotesk font for the numbers and the series branding of course because Motter’s numbers are not suited for data! I’ve taken the Bavarian blue seen in the opening titles, added the logo to push out the points and taken the circle theme (from the logo and building) a bit further! The board arrangement is very 2004, but I think it provides a nice change. The change to three languages on the song straps in a tribute to the inter song titles that were displayed.

The stage, which Wogan called a ‘large set of 3-bar electric fires’ was both notable but unexciting. The directing must be praised for its constant shots of the prominent orchestra (which really lifted some of the entries) and also excellent placement of song name straps during the performances - an artform in itself.

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

TRANSFER NEWS (source: Wiki)
OUT: Ireland - Shockingly, the Eurovision powerhouse had to miss this year because of industrial action at RTÉ. The channel still broadcast the show though, with BBC commentary.

BACK: France came back with the help of their second channel, Antenne 2. ‘Vivre’ did ok, but was way back from the four leading the scoring. France hasn't missed a Contest since. Greece came back too, after their rule break in 1982 and Italy also decided to grace us with their presence.

INTERVAL ACT - not shown
The interval show was a dance number set to a medley of German songs which had become internationally famous, including "Strangers in the Night". The host, Marlene Charell, was the lead dancer.

CREDITS
ESC Stuff for the German video
Lucas ESC Archive for Wogan’s commentary
https://www.countryflags.com/en/ for all the free to use images of flags
Yugoslav flag by Đorđe Andrejević-Kun,https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
All Copyright goes to the ARD & BBC.