1pt - 1973, Luxembourg
	The sound this year may have been terrible (with the strings barely audible), and the modern font they chose for the graphics was rather hard work, but the set was ok, with the orchestra arranged in galleries across the back of the stage. The acts pass through the doorway to the left of the main gallery-section, past a model of the grand prix medal. Raised platforms of concentric circular panels dot the stage which is draped in flora. Voting was of the Blankety-Blank style.
	2pts - 1957, Germany
	The rules and format of the competition as we know it were largely laid down in 1957. The set itself was nothing special: just some white drapery and some steps. But the presentation as a whole created the template for all that followed. The voting is a particular highlight, with in-vision telephones and a rather fetching map of Europe (complete with flashing lights).
	3pts - 1982, United Kingdom
	1982's a strange one. We open with a loosened up version of Charpentier, complete with drums, then the Eurovision logo spins and we're faced with the question "Where is Harrogate?" before being thrown into proceedings properly with the fusion stylings of Ronnie Hazlehurst. The scoreboard's a classy backlit thing, while the stage is a lightbox-seamed geometric delight (the basic colours of which can be varied). Then the back wall opens up to reveal our host, Jan Leeming, in her curious alien head-dress. In captions, act names are tripled for added comic effect (eg. MESS MESS MESS).
	4pts - 1978, France
	The palette of the 1978 contest is very brown; the colour very muted. There's a haze akin to the smoke-filled ambiance of a Working Man's Club. All of which serves to obscure the woefully muted light-box dancefloor. Hard to miss though is the giant swiveling salad bowl that holds the orchestra. A better feature of this contest appears between songs, as we follow the next act on a backstage journey that involves, of all things, a lift ride. Once at the right floor there's a tag-team exchange with the previous act before taking to the stage. This novelty is one of the more memorable features of 1978, but also worthy of comment is the Thomas Crown Affair / Grand Prix -style split-screen gimmick in use during the voting, allowing us to simultaneously see the scoreboard, the presenters, and the green room.
	5pts - 1979, Israel
	There's the novelty of trilingual presentation, and the post-cards are hammily acted cartoon caricatures of each nation. It's not all painful though. There's a rather fetching sculpture at the back of the stage, based on the IBA logo, which assumes a different configuration during the opening bars of each song (animated backdrops being a gimmick originated by Roland De Groot for the 1970 contest).
	6pts - 1963, United Kingdom
	Broadcast from two studios at BBC Television Centre, one housing the audience, scoreboard and the delectable Katie Boyle, the other housing a range of different backdrops for our detached performers. Their songs are captured by invisible boom-mics and their performances are exquisitely directed. The result is more a series of studio-performance promo films than the usual concert atmosphere, which makes 1963 a most unusual year but a strangely beautiful one. That Katie Boyle is so compelling as a host only adds to the charm.
	7pts - 1965, Italy
	A very boring stage design, the backdrop being simply the Eurovision logo. But the bar-chart scoreboard is amazing; really amazing; a triumph of design. Our presenter, Renata Mauro, is pretty good too, as is an entertaining opening to the contest, performed on the organ that is seen in the background during the voting process.
	8pts - 1980, Netherlands
	Third place, and we meet our first Roland de Groot set of this list: the frightening face thing. It's made up of several motor-controlled light boxes that can be positioned anywhere across the backdrop but which nine times out of ten end up arranged to look like some sort of frightening face thing. The opening of the contest sees a transient beachcomber whistling Charpentier, while the closing titles roll to a funky brass number before ending on a bookend scene in which the winning act is shown walking along the same beach whistling our beloved Te Deum, graced by a James Bond style "Till we meet again in Ireland" caption (and iris-wiped to black). One assumes that every act made such a film and that somewhere there's a reel with José Cid whistling, and "Till we meet again in Portugal" emblazoned over it.
	10pts - 1976, Netherlands
	There are some cheap elements to the 1976 contest: the scoreboard looks like a café menu with plug-in lettering, and the credits are on chroma-keyed cards being clearly swapped by hand (Subterranean Homesick Blues style). There are points of interest like the Protect-and-Survive -ish graphics, the water-feature, and host Cory Brokken looking a bit like Dustin Hoffman. And then there's Roland de Groot's stage backdrops. Depicted left are the 18 backdrops that appeared behind the 18 songs in the '76 contest.
	12pts - 1984, Luxembourg
	The scoreboard may have a horrid font, and the polyglot presenter may be a little too slick, but everything else about 1984 is just beautiful. Even the postcards, cheesy as they are, with a mime-troupe of jobbing actors and the odd bit of computery graphics, are inventive and novel. But again, unsurprisingly, it is Roland de Groot who makes 1984 a work of tear-jerking beauty. It took 26 people to operate the array of suspended light-boxes (each box apparently equipped with eight shades of lighting) and is supposed to have cost ƒ300,000 (≈ £125,000 in 1984 terms or c.£300,000 allowing for inflation). How that compares to other years is a question for you to research in your own time. After the contest it went on to a new life as part of the set for the Dutch version of 3-2-1 (these tit-bits of info courtesy of [[http://beeldengeluidwiki.nl]]). Depicted left are the 21 backdrops used to illustrate the 19 songs, the introduction and the encore (click on the array to see it in double the resolution). The closing credits of the contest are particularly moving: the set disassembling in line with the title-roll, as a medley of Luxembourg winners plays over before exploding into a particularly bombastic Charpentier.

What if we don't cast aside the songs? Well we feel that the 10 Best Songs lists give a fairly decent indication in that regard, as do the reports that make up the main body of this site. But we've also provided the following graph which attempts to gauge each contest based on its performance in the charts that we've made for the site (an elaborate formula was devised, naturally, incorporating various tables we produced en route to establishing our 10 Best Songs lists). It's by no means perfect (the peaks in the '90s probably ought not to out-tower the troughs in the '60s and '70s) but the gist is there. It gives a reasonably accurate impression of the respective merits of each year, and certainly goes some way to indicating those contests that we believe were particularly strong.