Eurovision 1978: Paris hosts, Spanish group Baccara sing a song in French for Luxembourg and Eurovision has its first non-European winner

The 23rd Eurovision Song Contest was staged in Paris' Palais de Congres. I have to confess, on a recent visit to the French capital, I did pass this building - which appears to be built on a traffic roundabout so heaven knows how anyone actually manages to dodge the notoriously whizzy Parisian traffic to get into the place - and felt a rush of excitement as I pictured the Eurovisiony mayhem going on within its walls decades earlier.

This sighting occurred on the same date I went to the top of the Eiffel Tower, and was also the very day that Tom Cruise proposed to Katie Holmes atop the same monument. I didn't spot the fun-sized Hollywood star popping the question but, to be honest, I was far more chuffed at spying a former Contest venue.

These sightseeing rambles will now cease and I shall return to the matter of the Eurovision in hand.

Your 1978 Paris facts:

(a) Izhar Cohen only got to go to Paris as the Israeli representative by sheer luck. After A Ba Ni Bi tied for first place with another song at Israel's national final, a coin was tossed to decide who would get the ticket to France. By this stage in the event's history it was being broadcast all over the world, including non-competing Middle East countries such as Jordan and Egypt.

However, such is the relationship between Israel and Jordan that, as the voting progressed and it became clear Israel would walk away with the trophy, Jordanian telly cut to a shot of a vase of daffodils and didn't return to the broadcast. The next day it was announced across Jordan's media that the song which in actuality came second was the winner of Eurovision 1978.

(b) And that song in second place came from Belgium. France's win the year before had whet the juries' appetite for French ballads and Jean Vallee's rather anonymous-sounding chanson hoovered up votes all over the place, even getting 12 from the usually pop-friendly UK jury.

Jean had to keep telling the cameraman off for sitting on his piano strings.

Although Israel's uptempo number won the whole thing, the three songs behind it were all French. France itself finished third, while Monaco (with a song about its lovely gardens?) were fourth.

(c) The absolute favourite to win in 1978 - and still seen by many as the best song on the night - was Luxembourg. Represented by Spanish duo Baccara, hot on the heels of their saucy 1977 number one hit, Yes Sir I Can Boogie, the same composers behind that hit came up with Parlez Vous Francais, a very daft little number which opened with the girls talking to each other about a lovely holiday one of them has just been on and the eligible young bachelors she may or may not have met whilst enjoying said break. As one half of Baccara pointed out in a Channel 4 documentary in 2000, they were a Spanish group, signed to an American lrecord abel, based in Germany, representing Luxembourg and singing in French.

'Ere, Maria? How was Blackpool? Did you bag a bloke?

Still, when you consider the other permutations of acts there were representing the Luxembourgeoise over the years, that's one of the more straight-forward combinations. Although it got some early doors douzes, it faltered towards the end of the voting and finished a disappointing seventh. It's also a good job Parlez Vous Francais has the same composers as Yes Sir I Can Boogie as it must be rather difficult to sue yourself for plagiarism.

(d) Seventh must have sounded like heaven to the UK in 1978. After finishing a mere two points behind Brotherhood of Man in A Song For Europe 1976, Co-Co finally got their chance to warble for Queen and Country in Paris. The Bad Old Days isn't a bad old song, but whoever thought of dressing the group up as clowns needed to go and lie down in a cool, dark room until they felt better. And yes, eagle-eyed Boom Bang a Bloggers can give themselves a gold star - that is Cheryl Baker in the line-up, managing the rare feat of looking like both Superman and She-Ra with just one outfit.

"Remember who. Walked into my life and put their foot inside my shoe." Co-Co's touching tribute to people with really big shoes, there.

The group ended up 11th, bringing an end to an 11-Contest run where Britain had never finished lower than fourth. But that Cheryl girl loks like she's got potential. We'll be keeping an eye on her.

(e) As mentioned earlier, Denmark returned to the Contest in 1978. The group was called Mabel and the song was called Boom-Boom.

Don't they have smashing hair?

Is it me, or do you think they were listening to Blowin' in the Wind before they wrote it?

(f) And then was Bjorn Skifs for Sweden, the man who fronted Blue Swede and took Hooked on a Feeling to number one in America and mid-90s student bedsits everywhere as part of the Reservoir Dogs sountrack. The reason he's pausing before singing is that he's debating whether to sing in English or Swedish. If he'd gone for the former, he'd have been disqualified on the spot.

If only he'd thought a bit harder about how tight his trousers were before getting up from his piano stool to finish the song centre stage. Please, don't have nightmares.

(g) But the one song you've got the most chance of seeing on Eurovision clip shows from 1978 is not the winner, not Baccara, not CoCo nor the Monacan homage to horticulture. No, it's the first song to score nul points at Eurovision under the 'douze points' system and the first entrant in eight years to get no points at all.

It's Jahn Teigen and Mil Etter Mil.

Norway's version of Cannon and Ball seemed to be lacking something.

Don't feel sorry for him. Jahn's failure made him a huge star in his homeland, which he still is to this day and Mil Etter Mil topped the Norwegian charts for weeks. He returned to the Contest too - but more on that another time.

So that was Eurovision 1978. With Israel winning, the Contest would end the 1970s in Jerusalem and composers from across Europe began preparing themselves for a trip to the land of milk and honey.

Milk and Honey? Now, there's a phrase that's got a winning ring to it...