Luxembourg in the Eurovision Song Contest 1978


Luxembourg was represented by Spanish duo Baccara, with the song '"Parlez-vous français?", at the 1978 Eurovision Song Contest, which took place on 22 April in Paris. For only the second time, broadcaster RTL organised a public national final rather than their usual method of internal selection.
Baccara were one of the most internationally famous acts ever to appear at Eurovision, being already known throughout Europe from two recent hugely successful singles, "Yes Sir, I Can Boogie" and "Sorry, I'm a Lady". "Parlez-vous français?" was written by Frank Dostal, who had also penned the duo's previous recordings. There was some degree of facetious comment that so similar was it to the two hits that it should have been called "Yes Sir, I'm a Lady". However Baccara were to find that being a big-name act did not necessarily translate into Eurovision success.

Before Eurovision

National final

No detail on date, location, host or scoring system is currently known about the national final. Five acts took part, including Gitte Hænning who had represented Germany in 1973 and Liliane Saint-Pierre who would sing for Belgium in 1987.
DrawArtistSongPointsPlace
1Jean-Paul Cara"Un arbre dans la ville"622
2Gitte Hænning"Rien qu'une femme"563
3Jairo"Dans les yeux d'un enfant"515
4Baccara"Parlez-vous français?"801
5Liliane Saint-Pierre"Mélodie"524

At Eurovision

On the night of the final Baccara performed 17th in the running order, following Denmark and preceding eventual contest winners Israel. Clad in their trademark colours - María entirely in white and Mayte entirely in black - they gave what is generally agreed to be the most slick and professional performance of the evening in a contest with an unusually high ratio of sub-par vocal performances and inferior stage presentations. However "Parlez-vous français?" was never in contention for victory and finished the evening with 73 points, placing Luxembourg 7th of the 20 entries. The song had received maximum 12s from Italy, Portugal and Spain, but had been ignored completely by seven other national juries. The Luxembourgian jury awarded its 12 points to Israel.
12 points10 points8 points7 points6 points

  • 5 points4 points3 points2 points1 point