Eurovision Song Contest 1979

The Eurovision Song Contest 1979 was the 24th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It was held on 31 March 1979 in Jerusalem, following Israel's win at the 1978 edition. The event was staged at the International Convention Centre. The presenters were Daniel Pe'er and Yardena Arazi. Nineteen out of the twenty countries that participated in 1978 also participated, with the exception of Turkey, which withdrew after Arab countries pressured it into not participating in Israel.
The winner was Israel with the song "Hallelujah", performed by Milk and Honey. Yugoslavia, who missed the 1978 Contest, also didn't want to take part nor transmit the 1979 show for political reasons. As well as being broadcast live in the 19 competing countries, the contest was broadcast in Romania, Hong Kong and Iceland.
It was the first Eurovision Song Contest to be held outside of Europe, and the first one to be held in non-Indo-European speaking country.
Location.
The contest took place at the International Convention Centre in Jerusalem, following Israel's win at the with the song A-Ba-Ni-Bi performed by Izhar Cohen and Alphabeta.
Jerusalem, declared by Israel as its capital while disputed under international law, is a centre for the three major Abrahamic religions and for Israel's governing institutions and several of the biggest cultural centres in the country. The venue, the largest convention center in the Middle East, hosted the contest in the Ussishkin Auditorium which seats an audience of more than 3000 where it traditionally hosts other musical events including classical and pop stars concerts.
The city's ancient, religious and modern scenery was reflected through a film which opened the broadcast. The city's history as one of the oldest and holiest in the world, was shown through the biblical and medieval monuments and sites sacred to Judaism, Christianity and Islam, as well as visitors and city's residents who frequent them while practicing their faiths. The city's governmental, cultural and educational institutions and monuments, as well as the streets and people outside the ancient wall, were shown at the opening and conclusion of the film.
Format.
The 24th contest's logo featured a combination of a G-clef, the IBA logo, and the names of all participating countries in order of appearance.
The stage concept designed by Dov Ben David, inside the stage there is a moving symbol which based on IBA logo (which was built like a lamp with 3 concentric rings) using a small projected model. 
Since the Israeli Television has yet to broadcast in colour until then (except for a few special occasions), the production had to borrow cameras from the BBC, just like RTÉ did when they hosted the 1971 contest in Dublin.
The opening of the show featured a six-minute-long introduction to the various landmarks in Jerusalem.
The IBA Symphony Orchestra, directed by conductor Izhak Graziani was used to play the music of each songs (except for the Italian entry, who did not use the orchestra). This was the only
contest where the orchestra is composed of 39 musicians. (The musicians they used in their national final is what they used in the contest. They just added 2 saxophonists and 1 horn since the national final had only 2 saxophonists and 1 horn. This was also the contest who had no double bass in their orchestra)
Voting Structure.
Each country had a jury who awarded 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 point(s) for their top ten songs. This was the last year in which the points were announced via order of appearance, as opposed to order of preference.
The voting was extremely close. Israel gained a good lead in the early stages of the voting, but Spain eventually caught up and took a good lead themselves. At the close of the penultimate jury's votes, Israel were one point behind Spain, and only the Spanish jury had yet to give their votes. Spain ended up giving Israel 10 points, causing the crowd to erupt into enormous cheers.
Interval act.
The intermission between the songs and the voting was presented by a performance of the Shalom '79 Dancing Ensemble, who danced to a medley of Israeli Folk Dances. The performance was directed by the ensemble's manager and choreographer Gavri Levy.
Postcards.
For the very first time in the history of the contest, interactive postcards were used between each song. The postcards featured the Yoram Boker Mime Group, and included some of Israel's leading mime artists, among them Ezra Dagan and Hanoch Rozen. The group performed on a background of illustrations created by Dudu Geva and Yochanan Lakitzevitz, that featured landmarks and typical landscapes of the respective countries. 
The various themes were as following, listed in appearance order:
Participating countries.
At one point before the contest Turkey was going to participate. The country would have appeared 11th on stage (between Israel and France), represented by Maria Rita Epik and 21. Peron with the song "" ("I'm Loving"). However, Turkey has decided to withdraw from the contest, following pressure from Arab states, which objected to a predominantly Muslim country taking part in a contest held in Israel. Turkey did, however, take place in the contest held in Jerusalem in 1999.
Returning artists.
Bold indicates a previous winner
Conductors.
Each performance had a conductor who conducted the orchestra, except Italy.
Results.
The following tables reflect the confirmed, verified scores, which were adjusted after the live broadcast. During the voting announcement, due to a misunderstanding by the presenter Yardena Arazi, Spain appeared to award 10 points to both Portugal and Israel and these scores were added to the scoreboard. After the programme, verification confirmed that Portugal should only have received six points, leaving the total Portuguese score reduced by four points to 64.
Scoreboard.
12 points.
Below is a summary of all 12 points in the final:
Broadcasters, commentators and spokespersons.
Spokespersons.
Listed below is the order in which votes were cast during the 1979 contest along with the spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for their respective country.
Broadcasters and commentators.
Each national broadcaster also sent a commentator to the contest, in order to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language.