GREECE – This was the first Contest in which both Greece and Turkey participated; Greece made its debut in the Contest in 1974 in Brighton, but the following year they withdrew in response to the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus, in protest of Turkey’s participation in Stockholm.
Greece subsequently returned in 1976 in The Hague with a song about the Cyprus crisis, “Panayia Mou, Panayia Mou”, the English version of which was entitled “The death of Cyprus”, and they also participated in 1977 in London with “Mathima Solfege”, Turkey then, in turn, pulled out from the Contest in protest of the Greek participation.
This pattern would repeat over the following years; in 1979 Greece took part in the Contest with “Sokrati” in Jerusalem โ but Turkey withdrew.
In 1980 both countries returned, with “Autostop” and “Pet’r Oil” respectively. Despite Turkey’s failure to recognise the Greek government in Cyprus, all three countries performed together when Cyprus debuted in 1981 and it continued until 2012.
Denmark returned to the contest this year, for the first time since 1966.
The Greek entry this year was a song called “Charlie Chaplin“, in reference to the comedian who died the previous year. In a curious twist, however, regular entrants Peter, Sue and Marc had entered the German national final with a song also called “Charlie Chaplin”.
They lost out at third place, however. The song from Monaco also made reference to Charlie Chaplin, but not as the main theme.
