Cyprus made their début this year, while Israel and Yugoslavia both returned to the competition, after their one-year and five-year absences, respectively.

The winner was the United Kingdom with the song "Making Your Mind Up", performed by Bucks Fizz, written by Andy Hill and John Danter.

By October 1980, it looked as though 21 countries were planning to take part, the largest number so far, but Monaco declared that they were no longer interested.

Returning to the contest was Israel, absent from the previous year's event due a clash of dates with the Yom HaZikaron holiday which prevented them from defending their victories in 1978 and 1979.

Italy decided not to enter due to lack of interest, while Morocco declined to take part after their debut entry the year before.

Performing again for Switzerland, they remain the only act to sing in four different languages (French, English, German and this time, Italian).

Other returnees were Marty Brem who had taken part the year before for Austria, Tommy Seebach for Denmark, and Björn Skifs for Sweden.

[2] Over 250 armed soldiers and police were on hand to protect against any likely political demonstrations, with the UK entrants being under constant guard during their time in Dublin due to threats from the IRA.

The director was Ian McGarry, while Noel Kelehan was the chief conductor of the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, which comprised 46 musicians.

Broadcasters were able to send commentators to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language and to relay information about the artists and songs to their television viewers.

[20] In addition to the participating countries, the contest was also reportedly broadcast in Iceland, in Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania and the Soviet Union via Intervision, and in Egypt, Hong Kong, South Korea and the United Arab Emirates, with an estimated global audience of 600 million viewers.