Following the victory of Buck Fizz and "Making Your Mind Up" in Dublin 1981, the BBC once again got to host the Eurovision Song Contest. Unusually it was decided that the show would be staged in the Yorkshire town of Harrogate, reportedly for security reasons. By this stage the contest was suffering from serious credibility problems. The two big music trends of the late 1970's, disco and punk/new wave had left Eurovision untouched, leaving it to inhabit a niche market, far away from the musical mainstream. Many felt that it was time for Eurovision to come to and end and the French minister of culture went as far as describing the contest as a "monument to drivel", and French television decided to boycott the 1982 competition. Italy decided to stay away for the second year in a row and many speculated that the Harrogate show might be Eurovision's swansong.  

As if to prove to that point, the 1982 show is one of the poorest contests in Eurovision history. The staging was quite banal, the songs almost universally awful and the voting very predictable and quite boring. Portugal opened the show and set the theme for the evening, bright costumes, an over-abundance of choreography, but poor vocals. Luxembourg decided to go down the old fashioned chanson route with Russian born Svetlana and the pre-contest favourite "Cours Apres Les Temps". Another highly rated song came from the host nation with the Bardo duo were already riding high in the British charts with "One Step Out Of Time", but the over choreographed performance again resulted in a poor vocal. Most of the rest of the songs passed by without leaving any lasting memory, and one that did make an impact did so for the wrong reason. Finland's song, a warning of the potential danger of a nuclear holocaust somehow seemed now quite so frightening as having to ever listen to most of these songs ever again.  Switzerland's "Amour On T'aime", Cyprus "Móno Í Agápí" and Belgium "Si Tu Aimes Ma Musique" might have been overlooked in most other contests, but in these surroundings looked a lot stronger.

The duo Chips gave us a typical Swedish entry with "Dag Efter Dag", while controversy surrounded the Spanish entry. "El" was a well performed tango tune, and some thought it a message of solidarity with Argentina who were at war with the U.K. over the Falkland Islands at the time. Israel's "Hora" was very reminiscent of the back to back winners, and with only two songs to go, it looked like it could bring another Israeli win. 

Second last on stage were the Irish family group The Duskeys, with the bright pop song "Here Today, Gone Tomorrow". Like so many other entries, it was more choreography than song, but again in this field, it couldn't completely ruled out as a contender. However all that went before was eclipsed by the final song. The German entry "Ein Bisschen Frieden" (A Little Peace) was a very simple song but in a performance which had echoes of Dana's victory twelve year earlier, 18 year old Nicole sat on a stool, delivering a sweet but very powerful performance. The German ensemble included the songwriters and a lady on a harp, and the whole performance had "winner" written all over it.  

When the voting started the German song went into an immediate lead, but it was pegged back when the Luxembourg jury amazingly ignored it. However once Germany took the lead after the fourth jury, the voting quickly became predictable and quite monotonous as "Ein Bisschen Frieden" scored points from every jury, most of them 10s or 12s. The only question was who was going to be second, as the U.K., Switzerland, Belgium and Israel swapped places. When Israel awarded its top points, it was mathematically impossible for Germany to be beaten, and three juries had yet to vote. When Germany became the last country to vote, they had already gained 161 points and returning the favour to Israel, gave them their top points and consequently second place, a massive 61 points behind. Pre-contest favourite Luxembourg finished back in 6th, while Ireland finished were 11th. Finland finished pointless.  

When it came to the reprise, it was obvious that Nicole had clearly prepared for victory. She performed a multi-lingual version of the song in German, English, French and Dutch and it was quite obvious that this was going to help this Eurovision winner in becoming an international hit. Sure enough, within a few weeks it was topping the charts all over Europe. In all the song was recorded in nine different languages including Russian and went on to sell over three million copies. The simple song with its theme of peace and love became a favourite for children's shows and is still one of the most memorable Eurovision winners. Remarkably it is the last Eurovision winner to top the UK charts.     

Nicole Hohloch was born in Saarbrucken in Western Germany on 25th October 1964. She first came to public attention in 1981 when she entered the German selection for the Eurovision Song Contest with "Flieg Nicht So Hoch, Mein Kleiner Freund" (Don't Fly So High, My Little Friend). The sweet song failed to make it out of the semi-final of the German qualifier, but went on to be a huge hit in the German charts, becoming one of the top thirty best sellers of the year. When she returned to the German final a year later, she started as favourite. Just as in the Eurovision Song Contest, she was last to perform and won the right to represent Germany in Harrogate by a large margin.  

Eurovision victory catapulted the 18 year old singer to international success, but apart from the German speaking countries she quickly disappeared from the limelight. The UK follow up single to the Eurovision winner, "Give Me More Time" become only a minor hit, but "Papillon" recorded for the Francophone market faired slightly better.  In the following years Nicole recorded a number of songs for the Dutch and Belgian markets having some minor hits but she was never to regain the success of her Eurovision winner.

While international success faded, Nicole remained successful in her native land. Working with Ralph Siegel, the composer of he Eurovision winner, she recorded a string of successful albums of middle of the road music. Songs like "Allein In Griechenland" and "Wenn Die Blumen Weinen Konnten" established her as one of the biggest stars on Germany's hugely popular schlager circuit.  Nicole continued to star on television, especially the "Hit Parade" show on Germany's second channel. She has won several honours including 11 prestigious "Golden Tuning Fork" awards. She was German "Artist Of The Year" on nine occasions and won the German "Record Of The Year" eight times. In recent years she left the Siegel stable and signed with the international Sony label. In September 2005 Nicole released a "Best Of" album which covered her entire career and featured songs in German, French and English, and included a re-recording of her Eurovision winner. 

In 1984 Nicole married her childhood sweetheart Winfried Seibert and since then she has given birth to two daughters and has become an unofficial ambassador for her native Saarland.  

Ralph Siegel (born in Munich in September 1945) and Bernd Meinunger (born in Meinungen/Thuringia in 1944) are Eurovision's most prolific songwriters. Composer Siegel's first Eurovision entry came in 1974 with the Luxembourg entry "Bye Bye I Love You" (4th), with lyrics written by Michael Kunze. Two years later he returned with the German entry "Sing Sang Song" (15th), this time with lyricist Kurt Hertha. The first time that a Siegel and Meinunger song made it to Eurovision was in 1979 when "Dschingis Khan" brought a 4th place for Germany in Jerusalem. They combined again in the following year with "Theater" when Siegel also appeared as a backing performer. That song finished 2nd. Amazingly the duo were also involved in another entry that year; "Papa Penguin" for Luxembourg, on which they collaborated with French songwriters Pierre Delanoe and Jean-Paul Cara. Despite this high profile songwriting team, that song only finished 9th. In 1981 they were once again pipped at the post when their song " Johnny Blue" finished 2nd in Dublin. Despite not winning the contest, all of their entries became big hits in the German charts.   

In 1982, their luck finally changed when "Ein Bisschen Frieden" won in Harrogate and they took a break from the contest for a few years. However they returned in 1985 with the Luxembourg entry "Children, Kinder, Enfants", however they appeared to have lost their touch as the song finished in a lowly 13th. In 1987 they composed the German entry "Lass Die Sonne In Dein Herz" performed by the group with the unfortunate name of Wind.  Just like seven years earlier, the Meinunger and Siegel team were beaten into 2nd place by Johnny Logan.

At this stage it was unusual not to see a German entry that wasn't written and composed by Meinunger and Siegel and sure enough they returned in 1988 with "Lied Für Einen Freund", which finished 14th in Dublin. In 1990 Sigel returned with original lyricist Michael Kunze and "Frei Zu Leben" finished 9th in Zagreb. In 1992 Meinunger and Siegel returned to the contest and again Wind performed the German entry, however "Traeume Sind Fuer Alle Da" only finished 16th. 

You might have thought that the duo might have had enough of Eurovision by this time (or indeed that Eurovision had had enough of them) but in 1994 they returned with one of their best songs, "'Wir Geben'Ne Party" finished 3rd in Dublin. However three years later "Zeit" only finished 18th. In 1999 they returned once again when the original German song was disqualified "Reise Nach Jerusalem" competed in the city that gave it its title and finished 3rd. Another three year hiatus followed before "I Can't Live Without Music" achieved their worst result, finishing 21st, this despite starting as one of the pre-contest favourites. The most recent Meinunger and Sigel Eurovision entry came in 2003 when "Let's Get Happy" finished 11th.

Bernd Meinunger (under the name "John O'Flynn") returned  with a new songwriting partner David Brandes in 2005, composing two songs which competed against one another ion Kyiv. The Swiss entry "Cool Vibes" finished a creditable 8th, but their other composition "Run And Hide" ended up in last place for Germany. This means that between them Meinunger and Siegel have been involved in 19 Eurovision entries, and countless other songs from the German finals.

Away from the Eurovision Song Contest, Ralph Siegel is a successful composer and record producer and runs his own record label, Jupiter Records, which has released many Eurovision and German Final compilation albums down through the years. During the 1980's it was one of the most successful labels for the popular schlager music. Bernd Meinunger has earned a doctorate in economics, but is also a successful record producer and has had over 400 hits on  the German charts, working with many of that country's biggest music stars. Despite only one victory and so many disappointments, it would be not surprise to see the duo back in Eurovision again in the future, either working together or with different songwriting partners.  . 

In its own way "A Little Peace" marks the end of the Eurovision Song Contest's glory years. It was the last Eurovision winner to top all the major European charts and it is still a very familiar song. Personally I must admit to finding the song a little twee, but it certainly has its charms. For a song that did so well at the time, its surprising to see how little attention it gets in fan polls, but I think the television audience might be a bit more generous. As its the only German song in competition, it certainly should get a lot of home support, and I wouldn't be surprised to see it in the Top 5, but I just don't think that its a winner.