Eurovision Song Contest 1978
23rd edition of the Eurovision Song Contest
The Eurovision Song Contest 1978 was the 23rd edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, held on 22 April 1978 at the Grand Amphitheatre of the Palais des Congrès in Paris, France, and presented by Denise Fabre and Léon Zitrone. It was organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster Télévision Française 1 (TF1), who staged the event after winning the 1977 contest for France with the song "L'Oiseau et l'Enfant" by Marie Myriam. This was the first time that more than one presenter had hosted the contest, and the first to have a male presenter since the inaugural 1956 contest.
Broadcasters from twenty countries participated, the highest number of competing countries in the history of the competition at the time. Denmark and Turkey both returned to the contest. Denmark had not participated since 1966, 12 years before.
The winner was Israel with the song "A-Ba-Ni-Bi" by Izhar Cohen and the Alphabeta. This was Israel's first victory in the contest, and it was also the first winning song to be performed in a Semitic language. It was also the only winning song to be conducted by a woman, Nurit Hirsh. Belgium, France, Monaco and Ireland rounded out the top five, with Belgium's runner-up finish being their best result in the competition at that point.
“Eurovision Song Contest 1978” enters the record as 23rd edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Eurovision, Song and Contest can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q211754. Authority coordinates are 48.879, 2.283. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1978, 1977, 1956 and 1966.
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This entry incorporates text from “Eurovision Song Contest 1978” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.