Eurovision Song Contest 1981 (YLE-BBC Version, 2025 Restored Edition)

The Eurovision Song Contest 1981 was the 26th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Dublin, Ireland, following the country's victory at the 1980 contest with the song "What's Another Year" by Johnny Logan. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster Radio Telefís Éireann (RTÉ), the contest was held at the RDS Simmonscourt on 4 April 1981, and was hosted by Irish television journalist Doireann Ní Bhriain.

Twenty countries participated in the contest, equalling the record of the 1978 edition. Cyprus made their début this year, while Israel and Yugoslavia both returned to the competition, after their one-year and five-year absences, respectively. Morocco and Italy decided not to participate.

This contest, my third attempt at a 1981 restoration, has been done using four sources: video from SSRG and ORF (the latter to replace missing frames and one section at the end) and audio from SSRG, BBC and YLE Radio. While my original plan was to take advantage of both the very clean stereo YLE radio copy and very clean mono SSRG copy (even if it has less fidelity) to make a combined stereo remix (since the YLE and SSRG mixes both had flaws), it turned out to be very difficult because of sync issues, varying fidelity and the limitations of demixing as it stands today. So I decided to make two versions instead: one using the YLE radio track - demixed and remixed - and then synced to the BBC commentary track; and one using a demixed and remixed track from SSRG RSI - but keeping the Italian commentary instead of using BBC since I was unhappy with the mix when using BBC. The audio has then - for both of them - been remixed as best as possible to make the audio pop and sound as good as possible, but with the two mixes giving two very different vibes and experiences. For yet another experience I recommend checking out EurovisionOLDs version too.

Enjoy!