Euovision Song Contest 1972

 Vicky Leandros

Date: March 25, 1972
Venue: Usher Hall, Edinburgh, UK
Presenter: Moira Shearer
Orchestra: BBC Radio orchestra
Conductor: Malcolm Lockyer
Director: Terry Hughes
Scruteneer: Clifford Brown
Host broadcaster: BBC
Price presenter: Séverine
Interval act: Tapto at Edinburgh Castle
Duration: 1 hour, 45 minutes
Number of entries: 18
Debuting countries: -
Returning countries: -
Withdrawing countries: -
Winning Song: Après toi - Vicky Leandros, Luxembourg

Voting system: Each country had two jury members, one aged between 16 and 25 and another aged between 26 and 55. They each awarded 1 to 5 points for each song (except for the song from their own country) immediately after it was performed, the votes were collected and counted as soon as they were cast. The juries watched the show on TV from a backstage area of the theatre and then appeared on stage to confirm their scores.

Entries

01. Germany: Mary Roos - Nur die Liebe läßt uns leben (3rd place, 107 points)
02. France: Betty Mars - Comé-comédie (11th place, 81 points)
03. Ireland: Sandie Jones - Ceol an Ghrá (15tj place, 72 points)
04. Spain: Jaime Morey - Amanece (10th place, 83 points)
05. UK: The New Seekers - Beg, steal or borrow (2nd place, 114 points)
06. Norway: Grethe Kausland & Benny Borg - Småting (14th place, 73 points)
07. Portugal: Carlos Mendes - A festa di vida (7th place, 90 points)
08. Switzerland: Véronique Müller - C'est la chanson de mon amour (8th place, 88 points)
09. Malta: Helen & Joseph - L-imhabba (18th place, 48 points)
10. Finland: Päivi Paunu & Kim Floor - Muistathan (12th place, 78 points)
11. Austria: Milestones: Falter im Wind (5th place, 100 points)
12. Italy: Nicola di Bari - I giorni dell'arcobaleno (6th place, 92 points)
13. Yugoslavia: Tereza Kesovija - Muzika i ti (9th place, 87 points)
14. Sweden: Family Four - Härliga sommardag (13th place, 75 points)
15. Monaco: Anne-Marie Godart and Peter MacLane - Comme on s'aime (16th place, 65 points)
16. Belgium: Serge & Christine Ghisoland - À la folie ou pas du tout (17th place, 55 points)
17. Luxembourg: Vicky Leandros - Après toi (1st place, 128 points)
18. The Netherlands: Sandra & Andres - Als het om de liefde gaat (4th place, 106 points)

Sandra & Andres

The Eurovision Song Contest 1972 was the 17th edition series. Séverine made the trip to the Scottish capital Edinburgh to pass on the Grand Prix to Vicky Leandros. However, she looked thoroughly uninterested in the Monegasque entry when seen by viewers checking her watch after the song was performed.

Luxembourg's win was their third. They won with  the song Après toi which was sung by Vicky Leandros and written by Mario Panas, Klaus Munro and Yves Dessca. Yves Dessca also wrote the text for Un Banc, Un Arbre, Une Rue that won in 1971, and other than conductors of the winning song, became the second person to win the Contest twice, the first person to win for two different countries and the first person to win two years in a row.

Location

The Usher Hall, venue for the 1972 contest, is a concert hall, situated on Lothian Road, in the west end of Edinburgh, Scotland. It has hosted concerts and events since its construction in 1914 and can hold approximately 2,900 people in its recently restored auditorium, which is well loved by performers due to its acoustics. The Hall is flanked by The Royal Lyceum Theatre on the right and The Traverse Theatre on the left. Historic Scotland has registered the Hall with Category A listed building status.

Format

Monaco was unable to host this year's Eurovision as they were unable to provide the resources. They approached French TV, who agreed to produce the contest, but only if the contest was staged in France and not the planned Monte Carlo Opera House. Rejecting the offer, RMC Monaco invited the President of the EBU, Charles Curran of the BBC to host, so the United Kingdom stepped in to host it again. For the first time, however, the BBC chose a venue outside London.

The Irish entry was in the Irish language, so far the country's only entry in that language. The contest was broadcast for a first time in live to Asia.The contest was broadcast to Japan, Tawian, Thailand, the Philippines & Hong Kong. The contest was broadcast to in Iceland and Israel few days later. Brazil and Greece also broadcast the contest live.

Participating countries

All countries who participated in the 1971 contest were present this year; with no withdrawals, returns, or débutantes.

Returning artists

Four artists returned to the competition this year. Luxembourg's Vicky Leandros who last performed for the nation in 1967; Carlos Mendes for Portugal who last participated in 1968; Swedish entry Family Four who returned for a second consecutive year; and finally Yugoslavia's Tereza Kesovija who previous represented Monaco in 1966.

Voting

Each country had two jury members, one aged between 16 and 25 and one aged between 26 and 55. They each awarded 1 to 5 points for each song, other than the song from their own country. The jury was stationed in the safety of the Great Hall of Edinburgh Castle. The jurors cast their votes immediately after each song was performed and they were then collected and counted. During the voting sequence on screen, they displayed their scores for each song, which were visual verifications of the scores they had awarded earlier. Meanwhile the interval act also came from the Castle, this time the vast Esplanade outside.

The voting procedure turned out to be a rather dull affair, there was no real challenge to Vicky Leandros. Interestingly the winning score of 128 was exactly the same as Monaco's the year before.

Euovision Song Contest 1971

 Séverine

Date: April 3, 1971
Venue: Gaiety Theatre, Dublin, Ireland
Presenter: Bernadette Ní Ghallchóir
Conductor: Colman Pearce
Director: Tom McGrath
Scruteneer: Clifford Brown
Host broadcaster: RTÉ
Price presenter: Dana
Interval act: Shannon Castle entertainers
Duration: 1 hour, 46 minutes
Number of entries: 18
Debuting countries: Malta
Returning countries: Austria, Finland, Norway, Portugal, Sweden
Withdrawing countries: -
Winning Song: Un banc, un arbre, une rue - Séverine, Monaco

Voting system: Each country had two jury members, one aged between 16 and 25 and another aged between 26 and 55. They each awarded 1 to 5 points for each song (except for the song from their own country) immediately after it was performed, the votes were collected and counted as soon as they were cast. The juries watched the show on TV from a backstage area of the theatre and then appeared on stage to confirm their scores.

Saskia & Serge

Entries

01. Austria: Marianne Mendt - Musik (16th place, 66 points)
02. Malta: Joe Grech - Marija I-Maltija (18th place, 52 points)
03. Monaco: Séverine - Un banc, un arbre, une rue (1st place, 128 points)
04. Switzerland: Peter, Sue and Marc - Les illusions de nos vingt ans (12th place, 78 points)
05. Germany: Katja Ebstein - Diese welt (3rd place, 100 points)
06. Spain: Karina - En un mundo nuevo (2nd place, 116 points)
07. France: Serge Lama - Un jardin sur la terre (10th place, 82 points)
08. Luxembourg: Monique Melsen - Pomme, pomme, pomme (13th place, 70 points)
09. UK: Clodagh Rodgers - Jack in de box (4th place, 98 points)
10. Belgium: Lily Castel & Jacques Raymond - Goeiemorgen morgen (14th place, 68 points)
11. Italy: Massimo Ranieri - L'amore è un attimo (5th place, 91 points)
12. Sweden: Family Four - Vita vide (6th place, 85 points)
13. Ireland: Angela Farrell - Oneday love (11th place, 79 points)
14. The Netherlands: Saskia & Serge - Tijd (6th place, 85 points)
15. Portugal: Tonicha - Menina do alto da serra (9th place, 83 points)
16. Yugoslavia: Krunoslav Slabinac - Tvoj dječak je tužan (14th place, 68 points)
17. Finland: Markku Aro & Koivistolaiset - Tie uuteen päivään (8th place, 84 points)
18. Norway: Hanne Krogh - Lykken er (17th place, 65 points)

The Eurovision Song Contest 1971 was the sixteenth Eurovision Song Contest and the first held in Dublin, Ireland. The new voting system that was introduced in this Eurovision did have one big problem: some juries gave fewer points out than others. Whether this was done in some cases to increase their respective countries' chances of winning is impossible to say, but the shortcomings of the system were nevertheless plain.

 Karina

Monaco's win was their first and only victory. The song was performed by a French singer, living in France, sung in French, conducted by a French native and written by a French team (Jean-Pierre Bourtayre and Yves Dessca). Séverine later claimed she never visited Monaco before or after her victory - a claim easily disproved by the preview video submitted by Tele-Monaco featuring the singer on location in the Principality.

Location

The Gaiety Theatre, a theatre on South King Street in Dublin, Ireland, was the venue for the 1971 contest. Designed by architect C.J. Phipps and built in under 7 months, the Gaiety was opened on 27 November 1871 with the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland as guest of honour and a double bill of the comedy She Stoops to Conquer and the burlesque La Belle Sauvage.

Séverine

Format

For the first time, each participating broadcaster was required to televise all the songs in previews prior to the live final. Belgium's preview video featured Nicole & Hugo performing the song Goeiemorgen, morgen, but Nicole was struck with a sudden illness days before the contest final, with Jacques Raymond & Lily Castel stepping in at very short notice to perform the entry in their place. Reports suggested that Castel hadn't even had enough time to buy a suitable dress for the show.

The BBC were worried about the possible audience reaction to the British song due to the hostilities raging in Northern Ireland. They specifically selected a singer from Northern Ireland, Clodagh Rodgers who was popular in both the UK and Ireland to ease any ill-feeling from the Dublin audience. She reported receiving death threats from the IRA for representing the UK.

 Lily Castel & Jacques Raymond

The Austrian singer sung her song Musik in Viennese, a dialect spoken in Vienna.

Groups of up to six people were allowed to perform for the first time, with the rule in previous contests of performing either solo or as a duet abolished. This was RTÉ's first outside broadcast in colour. The contest was broadcast in Iceland, USA & Hong Kong few days later.

Participating countries

Malta made their début in this year's contest, along Austria, Finland, Norway, Portugal, and Sweden, who all returned after a brief absence from the contest. This brought the total number of countries to eighteen.

Returning artists

Two artists returned to the competition this year. Belgium's Jacques Raymond who last performed for the nation in 1963; and Katja Ebstein for Germany who last participated in 1970.

Eurovision Song Contest 1970

 Dana

Date: March 21, 1970
Venue: RAI Congrescentrum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Presenter: Willy Dobbe
Orchestra: Metropole Orchestra
Conductor: Dolf van der Linden
Director: Theo Ordeman
Scruteneer: Clifford Brown
Host broadcaster: NOS
Price presenter: Lenny Kuhr
Interval act: Don de Lurio Dancers
Duration: 1 hour, 14 minutes
Number of entries: 12
Debuting countries: -
Returning countries: -
Withdrawing countries: Finland, Norway, Portugal, Sweden
Winning Song: All Kinds Of Everything - Dana, Ireland
Voting system: Each country had 10 jury members who each cast one vote for their favourite song.

Mary Hopkin

Entries

01. The Netherlands: Hearts of Soul - Waterman (7th place, 7 points)
02. Switzerland: Henri Dès - Retour (4th place, 8 points)
03. Italy: Gianni Morandi - Occhi di ragazza (8th place, 5 points)
04. Yugoslavia: Eva Sršen - Pridi, dala ti bom cvet (11th place, 4 points)
05. Belgium: Jean Vallée - Viens l'oublier (8th place, 5 points)
06. France: Guy Bonnet - Marie-Blanche (4th place, 8 points)
07. UK: Mary Hopkin - Knock, knock who's there (2nd place, 26 points)
08. Luxembourg: David Alexandre Winter - Je suis tombé du ciel (12th place, 0 points)
09. Spain: Julio Iglesias - Gwendolyne (4th place, 8 points)
10. Monaco: Dominique Dussault - Marlène (8th place, 5 points)
11. Germany: Katja Ebstein - Wunder gibt es immer wieder (3rd place, 12 points)
12. Ireland: Dana - All kinds of everything (1st place, 32 points)

Patricia & Hearts of Soul

The Eurovision Song Contest 1970 was the 15th Eurovision Song Contest, held on March 21 1970 at the RAI Congrescentrum in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The Amsterdam contest is regarded as one of the most significant in Eurovision history for a number of reasons.

Ireland's win was their first. It is notable that nine of the 10 Belgian jury members awarded their votes to Ireland. The UK were second, six votes behind Ireland. Luxembourg received zero votes for the only time.

 Katja Ebstein

Location

The Congrescentrum, venue of the 1970 contest, is a semi-permanent exhibit at the Ferdinand Bolstraat to Amsterdam, and was opened on 31 October 1922. This building was replaced in 1961 by the current RAI building on Europe's Square. The current congress and event center on Europe Square, was designed by Alexander Bodon and opened on 2 February 1961.

Format

Due to the four-way tie in 1969, lots were drawn to choose which country would host this Eurovision. The Dutch producers were forced to pad out the show as only 12 nations decided to make the trip to Amsterdam. The result was a format which has endured almost to the present day. An extended opening sequence (filmed in Amsterdam) set the scene, while every entry was introduced by a short video 'postcard'. Interestingly, the long introduction film (over four minutes long) was followed by what probably is one of the shortest ever introductions by any presenter. Willy Dobbe only welcomed the viewers in English, French and Dutch, finishing her introduction after only 24 seconds.

 Dana

The set design was devised by Roland de Groot; a simple design was composed of a number of curved horizontal bars and silver baubles which could be moved in a variety of different ways.

To avoid an incident like in 1969, a tie rule was created. It stated that, if two or more songs gained the same number of votes, each song would have to be performed again. After that every jury except the juries of the countries concerned would have a show of hands of which they thought was the best. If the countries tied again, then they would share first place.

The Eurovision Song Contest rules didn't allow for groups to perform so The Hearts Of Soul, the Dutch participants, performed as Patricia &  Hearts of Soul.

Of the participating singers, a number were already established performers. Notably, the United Kingdom sent Mary Hopkin while David Alexandre Winter represented Luxembourg. The contest is also notable for the appearance of the then unknown Julio Iglesias, singing for Spain. Ireland won the contest with All Kinds of Everything, penned by Derry Lindsay and Jackie Smith and sung by another unknown, Dana, an 18-year-old Derry schoolgirl. The song became a million-seller and the singer an international star. As the contest was held in Holland this year, and the country was one of the four winners in 1969, Dana received her awards from joint winner Lenny Kuhr.

Participating countries

Austria (who had not taken part in 1969), Finland, Norway, Portugal and Sweden boycotted this contest as they were not pleased with the result of 1969 and the voting structure.

Returning artists

For the first time, no artists from previous contests returned.

Eurovision Song Contest 1969

Lulu,  Salomé, Massiel, Frida Boccara and Lenny Kuhr

Date: March 29, 1969
Venue: Teatro Real, Madrid, Spain
Presenter: Laurita Valenzuela
Orchestra: Augusto Algueró Orchestra
Conductor: Augusto Algueró
Director: Ramon Diez
Scruteneer: Clifford Brown
Host broadcaster: TVE
Price presenter: Massiel
Interval act: La España diferente
Duration: 1 hour, 48 minutes
Number of entries: 16
Debuting countries: -
Returning countries: -
Withdrawing countries: Austria
Winning Songs:

• Un Jour Un Enfant - Frida Boccara, France (Emil Stern / Eddy Marnay)
• Vivo Cantando - Salomé, Spain (Maria José de Cerato / Aniano Alcalde)
• De Troubadour - Lenny Kuhr, The Netherlands (David Hartsema / Lenny Kuhr)
• Boom Bang-A-Bang - Lulu, UK (Alan Moorhouse / Peter Warne)

Voting system: Each country had 10 jury members who each cast one vote for their favourite song.

 Lenny Kuhr

Entries

01. Yugoslavia: Ivan & 4M - Pozdrav svijetu (13th place, 5 points)
02. Luxembourg: Romuald - Catherine (11th place, 7 points)
03. Spain: Salomé - Vivo cantando (1st place, 18 points)
04. Monaco: Jean Jacques - Maman, Maman (6th place, 11 points)
05. Ireland: Muriel Day - The wages of love (7th place, 10 points)
06. Italy: Iva Zanicchi - Due grosse lacrime bianche (13th place, 5 points)
07. UK: Lulu - Boom bang-a-bang (1st place, 18 points)
08. The Netherlands: Lenny Kuhr - De troubadour (1st place, 18 points)
09. Sweden: Tommy Körberg - Judy, min vän (9th place, 8 points)
10. Belgium: Louis Neefs - Jennifer Jennings (7th place, 10 points)
11. Switzerland: Paola del Medico - Bonjour, bonjour (5th place, 13 points)
12. Norway: Kirstie Sparboe - Oj, oj, oj, så glad jeg skal bli (16th place, 1 point)
13. Germany: Siw Malmkvist - Primaballerina (9th place, 8 points)
14. France: Frida Boccara - Un jour, un enfant (1st place, 18 points)
15. Portugal: Simone de Oliveira - Desfolhada portuguesa (15th place, 4 points)
16. Finland: Jarkko & Laura - Kuin silloin ennen (12th place, 6 points)

The Eurovision Song Contest 1969 was the 14th in the series. Four countries won the contest, the first time ever a tie-break situation had occurred. However, there was no rule at the time to cover such an eventuality, so all four countries were declared joint winners.

Paola del Medico

France's win was their fourth. France became the first country to win the contest four times. The Netherlands' win was their third. Spain and the United Kingdom each won for the second time. And it was the first time that any country (Spain, in this case) had a winning ESC entry two years in a row.

Location

The venue selected to host the 1969 contest was the Teatro Real, an opera house located in Madrid. From 1867 it housed the Madrid Royal Conservatory until 1925 when a Royal Order on 6 December called for eviction owing to the damage that the construction of the Metro de Madrid had caused to the building. The theatre reopened in 1966 as a concert theatre and the main concert venue of the Spanish National Orchestra and the RTVE Symphony Orchestra.

Salomé

Format

In 1969, the stage featured an metal sculpture created by surrealist Spanish artist Salvador Dalí, who also was responsible for designing the publicity material for the 1969 contest.

It was the first time that the contest resulted in a tie for first place, with four countries each gaining 18 votes. Since there was at the time no rule to cover such an eventuality, all four countries were declared joint winners. This caused an unfortunate problem concerning the medals due to be distributed to the winners as there were not enough to go round, so that only the singers received their medals on the night: the songwriters, to some disgruntlement, were not awarded theirs until after the date of the contest.

Had the later tie-break rule been in place (the country receiving the highest score from any other country, as used in 1991), the Netherlands would have won, having received 6 points from France. United Kingdom would then have been runner up, having received 5 points from Sweden. On the other hand, with the present tie-break rule been in place (i.e. the song receiving votes from the most countries, then the song receiving the most high votes in case of another tie), France would have been the overall winner, with Spain in 2nd place. Both countries received votes from 9 countries, but France received 4 points from 2 countries whereas Spain received 3 points as their highest vote.

Siw Malmkvist

Participating countries 

Austria was absent from the contest, refusing to participate in a contest staged in Franco-ruled Spain.

Returning artists

Five artists returned in this year's contest. Louis Neefs for Belgium who last represented the nation in 1967; Germany's Siw Malmkvist who was also the participant for Sweden in 1960. Romuald for Luxembourg who represented Monaco last time in 1964; Norway's Kirsti Sparboe who represented the Scandinavian nation twice before in 1965 and 1967; and finally Simone de Oliveira who also represented Portugal in 1965.

Eurovision Song Contest 1968

Massiel

Date: April 6, 1968
Venue: Royal Albert Hall, London, UK
Presenter: Katie Boyle
Conductor: Norrie Paramor
Director: Stewart Morris
Scruteneer: Clifford Brown
Host broadcaster: BBC
Price presenter: Sandie Shaw
Interval act: Impression from London
Duration: 1 hour, 37 minutes
Number of entries: 17
Debuting countries: -
Returning countries: -
Withdrawing countries: -
Winning Song: La, La, La - Massiel, Spain
Voting system: Each country had 10 jury members who each cast one vote for their favourite song

Entries:

01. Portugal: Carlos Mendes - Verão (11th place, 5 points)
02. The Netherlands: Ronnie Tober - Morgen (16th place, 1 point)
03. Belgium: Claude Lombard - Quand tu reviendras (7th place, 8 points)
04. Austria: Karel Gott - Tausend Fenster (13th place, 2 points)
05. Luxembourg: Chris Baldo & Sophie Garel - Nous vivrons d'amour (11th place, 5 points)
06. Switzerland: Gianni Mascolo - Guardando il sole (13th place, 2 points)
07. Monaco: Line & Willy - A chacun sa chanson (7th place, 8 points)
08. Sweden: Claes-Göran Hederström - Det börjar verka kärlek, banne mej (5th place, 15 points)
09. Finland: Kristina Hautala - Kun kello käy" (16th place, 1 point)
10. France: Isabelle Aubret - La source (3rd place, 20 points)
11. Italy: Sergio Endrigo - Marianne (1oth place, 7 points)
12. UK: Cliff Richards - Congratulations (2nd place, 28 points)
13. Norway: Odd Børre - Stress (13th place, 2 points)
14. Ireland: Pat McGeegan - Chance of a lifetime (4th place, 18 points)
15. Spain: Massiel - La, la, la (1st place, 29 points)
16. Germany: Wencke Myhre - Ein hoch der Liebe (6th place, 11 points)
17. Yugoslavia: Dubrovački trubaduri - Jedan dan (7th place, 8 points)

Massiel

The Eurovision Song Contest 1968 was the 13th Eurovision Song Contest. The contest was won by the Spanish song La, la, la, performed by Massiel. Originally Spain entered Joan Manuel Serrat to sing La, la, la, but his demand to sing in Catalan was an affront to Francoist Spain. Serrat was withdrawn and replaced by the very popular Massiel, who sang the same song in Spanish. La, la ,la was written by Manuel de la Calva and Ramón Arcusa.

Location

The 1968 venue was the Royal Albert Hall, a concert hall situated on the northern edge of the South Kensington area, in the City of Westminster, London, England, best known for holding the annual summer Proms concerts since 1941.

Format

1968 was the first time that the Eurovision Song Contest was broadcast in colour. The countries that broadcast it in colour were France, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Sweden; in the United Kingdom it was broadcast as an encore presentation on BBC Two the next day. Also all of Eastern Europe and Tunisia broadcast the contest. Katie Boyle hosted the contest for a third time.

In the week before the contest, the UK was the big favourite to win and the only question was: who would come second to the UK? Congratulations was already high in the charts all over Europe. Cliff Richards came on stagein a blue suit to a welter of screams and great expectations. He did not let anybody down, moving on stage with a hen held mike anf giving the song his all. The screams never stopped and the applause at the end was exceptional but after a bizarre voting he finished in a very disappointing 2nd place. The spanish entry La, la, la beat the favourite and Bill Martin (writer of the UK entry) called the Spanish song a piece of rubbish.

Ronnie Tober

Only 5 of the 17 songs were performed by women

The Norwegian song Stress originally finished second in the 1968 Melodi Grand Prix, but was promoted to the Norwegian entry when the winning song Jag har aldri vært så glad i no'en som deg was withdrawn from the contest by its composer amid persistent allegations that it plagiarised the 1963 hit Summer Holiday by Cliff Richard. This is the only occasion on which the MGP winner did not go forward to Eurovision. 

Returning artists

Only one artist returned in this year's contest. The winner of the 1962 contest, Isabelle Aubret, returned once more for France.

Cliff Richard

Vote rigging allegations

In May 2008, a documentary about the ESC 1968 by Spanish film-maker Montse Fernández Villa was broadcast. Yo viví el mayo español, centred on the effects of May 1968 in Francoist Spain, and alleged that the 1968 Eurovision Song Contest was rigged by the Spanish dictator Francisco Franco, who would have sent state television officials across Europe offering cash and promising to buy television series and contract unknown artists. The allegation was based on a testimony by journalist José María Íñigo, a TVE employee at the time, who claimed the rigging was common knowledge and suggested that Spanish record label representatives offered to release albums by Bulgarian and Czech artists (neither Bulgaria nor Czechoslovakia were members of the European Broadcasting Union at the time).

The documentary claimed that the contest should in fact have been won by the United Kingdom's entry Congratulations performed by Cliff Richard, which finished second by one vote. Massiel, the performer of the winning entry, was outraged by the allegations, and claimed that if there had been fixes, other singers, who were more keen on Franco's regime, would have benefited. José María Iñigo, author of the statement in the documentary, personally apologized to Massiel and said that he had repeated a widespread rumour. Both Massiel and Iñigo accused television channel La Sexta, broadcaster of the documentary, of manufacturing the scandal.

Frida boccara

Frida Boccara (October 29, 1940 – August 1, 1996) was a French singer.

Frida Boccara was born in Casablanca, Morocco. She submitted the song Autrefois to the French Eurovision Song Contest selection panel in 1964 but she was unsuccessful. At the Eurovision Song Contest held in Madrid, Spain in 1969 she represented France and performed Un jour, un enfant which was composed by Emile Stern with lyrics by Eddy Marnay. Her song (along with the entries from Netherlands, United Kingdom, and Spain) shared first place.

In1972 Frida Boccara entered the song Du soleil au coeur to the internal selection in France but the song was not chosen to represent France at the ESC in Edinburgh. Frida Boccara renewed her links with Eurovision by participating in the French national finals of 1980 and 1981. However, neither song won. In 1980 she came 5th with the song Un enfant de France and in 1981 she came 4th with the song Voilà comment je t'aime.

Frida Boccara was popular in many countries but especially in France and Spain.

She died in 1996 in Paris, of a pulmonary infection.

Eurovision Song Contest 1967

Sandie shaw

Date: April 8, 1967
Venue: Großer Festsaal der Wiener Hofburg, Vienna, Austria
Presenter: Erika Vaal
Orchestra: Johannes Fehring Orchestra
Conductor: Johannes Fehring
Director: Herbert Fuchs
Scruteneer: Clifford Brown
Host broadcaster: ORF
Price presenter: Udo Jürgens
Interval act: Wiener Sängerknaben
Duration: 1 hour, 48 minutes
Number of entries: 17
Debuting countries: -
Returning countries: -
Withdrawing countries: Denmark
Winning Song: Puppet on a string - Sandie Shaw, UK
Voting system: Each country had 10 jury members who each cast one vote for their favourite song, like in the years 1957-1961.

Entries

01. The Netherlands: Thérèse Steinmetz - Ring-dinge-ding (14th place, 2 points)
02. Luxembourg: Vicky - L'amour est bleu (4th place, 17 points)
03. Austria: Peter Horton - Warum es 100,000 sterne gibt (14th place, 2 points)
04. France: Noëlle Cordier - Il doit faire beau là-bas (3rd place, 20 points)
05. Portugal: Eduardo Nascimento - O vento mudou (12th place, 3 points)
06. Switzerland: Géraldine - Quel cœur vas-tu briser? (17th place, 0 points)
07. Sweden: Östen Warnerbring - Som en dröm (8th place, 7 points)
08. Finland: Fredi Varjoon - suojaan (12th place, 3 points)
09. Germany: Inge Brück - Anouschka (8th place, 7 points)
10. Belgium: Louis Neefs - Ik heb zorgen (7th place, 8 points)
11. UK: Sandie Shaw - Puppet on a string (1st place, 47 points
12. Spain: Raphael - Hablemos del amor (6th place, 9 points)
13. Norway: Kirstie Sparboe - Dukkemann (14th place, 2 points)
14. Monaco: Minouche Barelli - Boum-Badaboum (5th place, 10 points)
15. Yugoslavia: Lado Leskovar - Vse rože sveta (8th place, 7 points)
16. Italy: Claudio Villa - Non andare più lontano (11th place, 4 points)
17. Ireland: Sean Dunphy - If I could choose (2nd place, 22 points)

Thérèse Steinmetz

The Eurovision Song Contest 1967 was the twelfth Eurovision Song Contest. The winning entry Puppet on a String, sung barefoot by Sandie Shaw and written by Bill Martin and Phil Coulter had one of the widest margins of victory ever witnessed in the competition; it garnered more than twice as many votes as the second place song. The presenter, Erika Vaal, became confused whilst the voting was taking place, and declared the United Kingdom's entry to be the winner before the last country, Ireland, had announced its votes. Sandie Shaw intensely disliked the composition, though her attitude towards the song somewhat mellowed in later years, even releasing a new version in 2007.

Location

The venue for the 1967 contest was the Hofburg Palace, that has housed some of the most powerful people in European and Austrian history, including the Habsburg dynasty and rulers of the Austro-Hungarian empire. It currently serves as the official residence of the President of Austria. It was the Habsburgs' principal winter residence, as the Schönbrunn Palace was their preferred summer residence. The Hofburg area has been the documented seat of government since 1279 for various empires and republics.

Format

The stage setup was a little bit unusual this year. There were two revolving mirrored walls on both ends of the stage and started revolving at the start of each song and stopped revolving at the end of each song. Some female singers made a complain about this beacause some camera shots were not flattering. The stage seemed to distract both the performers and the audience. The mirrors may well have distracted presenter Erika Vaal and the scoreboard operators as well, because the scruteneer Clifford Brown had to interrupt the voting more often than usual.

The entry from Luxembourg, L'amour est bleu, sung by Vicky Leandros, came in fourth; nonetheless, it went on to become the biggest international hit of the 1967 contest, and a year later would be a big instrumental hit for French musician, Paul Mauriat, under the English version, Love is Blue. Denmark chose not to participate and left the contest at this point, to return in 1978. The reason was that the new director for the TV entertainment department at DR thought that the money could be spent in a better way.

 Vicky

The United Kingdom's win was their first. Television presenter, artist and musician, Rolf Harris provided the commentary for BBC Television viewers. Switzerland received zero votes for the second time. Portugal was represented by Eduardo Nascimento who was the first black male singer in the history of Eurovision Song Contest, performing O vento mudou. Rumours claimed that Portuguese prime minister Salazar had chosen this particular singer to show the rest of Europe that he wasn't racist.

Participating countries

Three artists returned in this year's contest. Claudio Villa from Italy who's previous participations were in 1962; and Kirsti Sparboe from Norway, who last participated in 1965; and Raphael for Spain who last represented the Iberian nation in 1966.

Returning artists

Sanremo winner Claudio Villa  was chosen to be the Italian entry for the ESC in Vienna and got to the rehearsing stages but the song Non pensare a me was released too early, so just days before the contest Claudio Villa had to change songs.

Eurovision Song Contest 1966

 

Udo Jürgens

Date: March 5, 1966
Venue: Villa Louvigny,Luxembourg City, Luxembourg
Presenter: Josiane Chen
Orchestra: Jean Roderès Orchestra
Conductor: Jean Roderès
Director: René Steichen
Scruteneer: Clifford Brown
Host broadcaster: CLT
Price presenter: France Gall
Interval act: Jean Roderès
Duration: 1 hour, 28 minutes
Number of entries: 18
Debuting countries: -
Returning countries: -
Withdrawing countries: -
Winning Song: Merci, Chérie - Udo Jürgens, Austria
Voting system: Each country had 10 jury members who distributed three points among their one, two, or three favourite songs. The points were totalled and the first, second, and third placed songs were awarded 5, 3, and 1 votes in order. If only one song got every point within the jury it would get all 9 points. If only two songs were chosen, the songs would get 6 and 3 points in order.

Entries

01. Germany: Margot Eskens - Die Zeiger der Uhr (10th place, 7 points)
02. Denmark: Ulla Pia - Stop mens legen er go (14th place, 4 points)
03. Belgium: Tonia - Un peu de poivre un peu de sel (4th place, 14 points)
04. Luxembourg: Michèle Torr - Ce soir je t'attendais (10th place, 7 points)
05. Yugoslavia: Berta Ambrož - Brez besed (7th place, 9 points)
06. Norway: Åse Kleveland - Intet er nytt under solen (3rd place, 15 points)
07. Finland: Ann Christine - Playboy (10th place, 7 points)
08. Portugal: Madalena Iglésias - Ele e ela (13th place, 6 points)
09. Austria: Udo Jürgens - Merci, Chérie (1st place, 31 points)
10. Sweden: Lill Lindfors & Svante Thuresson - Nygammal vals (2nd place, 16 points)
11. Spain: Raphael - Yo soy aquél (7th place, 9 points)
12. Switzerland: Madeleine Pascal - Ne vois-tu pas? (6th place, 12 points)
13. Monaco: Tereza Kesovija - Bien plus fort (17th place, 0 points)
14. Italy: Domenico Modugno - Dio, come ti amo (17th place, 0 points)
15. France: Dominique Walter - Chez nous (16th place, 1 point)
16. The Netherlands: Milly Scott - Fernando en Fillipo (15th place, 2 points)
17. Ireland: Dickie Rock - Come back to stay (4th place, 14 points)
18. UK: Kenneth McKellar - A man without love (9th place, 8 points)

Milly Scott

The Eurovision Song Contest 1966 was the 11th edition and was held on 5 March 1966 in Luxembourg, Luxembourg. The rule stating that a country could only sing in any of its national languages was originally created in this year. This was possibly created due to the 1965 Swedish entry, Absent Friend which was sung in English. The winner of the 1966 contest was Austria with the song Merci, Chérie which was performed and composed by Udo Jürgens. Thomas Hörbiger wrote the lyrics to the song.

Location

The venue chosen to host the 1966 contest was the Villa Louvigny, which has also hosted the Eurovision Song Contest 1962. The building served as the headquarters of Compagnie Luxembourgeoise de Télédiffusion, the forerunner of RTL Group. It is located in Municipal Park, in the Ville Haute quarter of the centre of the city.

 Lill Lindfors & Svante Thuresson

Format

The backdrop on the stage was a large moving mobile, which distracted the attention from the singers.

Domenico Modugno, who performed for Italy, refused to use the orchestra and used a small combo to accompany him instead. Domenico Modugno thought the orchestra wasn't good enough.

During the voting process, the presenter (Josiane Chen) accidentally greeted United Kingdom by saying "Good night, London.", then, she realized the mistake and said "Good evening, London.", after. Michael Aspel, who was the spokesperson for the United Kingdom, at that time, responded by saying "Good morning, Luxembourg."

1966 marked the year the first ever black singer graced the Eurovision stage, Milly Scott representing the Netherlands. She was also the first singer to use a portable microphone. This was also the last contest that Denmark participated in until 1978, more than a decade later.

Participating countries

All countries which participated in the 1965 contest returned for a second consecutive year. There were no new nations, nor any returning, nor withdrawals.

Returning artists

Two artists returned for a second time in this year's contest. Udo Jürgens from Austria who's previous participations were in 1964 and 1965; and Domenico Modugno from Italy, who last participated in 1958 and 1959.

Eurovision Song Contest 1965

France Gall

Date: March 20, 1965
Venue: Sala di Concerto della RAI, Naples, Italy
Presenter: Renata Mauro
Orchestra: Rai Concert Orchestra
Conductor: Gianni Ferrio
Director: Romolo Siena
Scruteneer: Miroslav Vilcek
Host broadcaster: RAI
Price presenter: Mario Del Monaco
Interval act: Mario Del Monaco
Duration: 1 hour, 41 minutes
Number of entries: 18
Debuting countries: Ireland
Returning countries: Sweden
Withdrawing countries: -
Winning Song: Poupée de cire, poupée de son - France Gall - Luxembourg
Voting system:  Each country had 10 jury members who distributed three points among their one, two, or three favourite songs. The points were totalled and the first, second, and third placed songs were awarded 5, 3, and 1 votes in order. If only one song got every point within the jury it would get all 9 points. If only two songs were chosen, the songs would get 6 and 3 points in order.

Entries

01. The Netherlands: Conny van den Bos - 't is genoeg (11th place, 5 points)
02. UK: Kathy Kirby - I belong (2nd place, 26 points)
03. Spain: Conchita Bautista - ¡Qué bueno, qué bueno! (15th place, 0 points)
04. Ireland: Butch Moore - Walking the streets in the rain (6th place, 11 points)
05. Germany: Ulla wiesner - Paradies, wo bist du (15th place, 0 points)
06. Austria: Udo Jürgens - Sag ihr, ich lass sie grüßen (4th place, 16 points)
07. Noway: Kirsti Sparboe - Karulsell (13th place, 1 point)
08. Belgium: Lize Marke - Als het weer lente is (15th place, 0 points)
09. Monaco: Marjorie Noël - Va dire à l'amour (9th place, 7 points)
10. Sweden: Ingvar Wixell - Absent friend (10th place, 6 points)
11. France: Guy Mardel - N'avoue jamias (3rd place, 22 points)
12. Portugal: Simone de Oliveira - Sol de inverno (13th place, 1 point)
13. Italy: Bobby Solo - Se piangi, se ridi (5th place, 15 points)
14. Denmark: Birgit Brüel - For din skyld (7th place, 10 points)
15. Luxembourg: France Gall - Poupée de cire, poupée de son (1st place, 32 points)
16. Finland: Viktor Klimenko - Aurinko laskee länteen (15th place, 0 points)
17. Yugoslavia: Vice Vukov - Čežnja (12th place, 2 points)
18. Switzerland: Yovanna - Non, à jamais sans toi (8th place, 8 points)

Conny van den Bos

The Eurovision Song Contest 1965 was the 10th in the series. Luxembourg won the contest with the song Poupée de cire, poupée de son, performed by France Gall and written by Serge Gainsbourg. As is common with Gainsbourg's lyrics, the words are filled with double meanings, wordplay, and puns. The title can be translated as Wax doll, Sawdust doll (a floppy doll stuffed with sawdust) or as Doll of wax, Doll of sound (with implications that Gall is a singing doll controlled by Gainsbourg). This was Luxembourg's second win in the contest. The 1965 contest marked the debut of Ireland, a country which later went on to dominate the competition. 

Location

The venue for the 1965 contest was at the Sala di Concerto della RAI (RAI Production Centre of Naples). The building was founded in the late fifties and early sixties, and is located in Viale Marconi 9, in the district of Fuorigrotta, near the Stadio San Paolo. The structure has three TV studios for a total of 1227 m². and capacity of 370 persons, used for the filming of programs and fiction and an auditorium . The Neapolitan song archives, are also housed here.

Format

Italy's hosting of the contest was its first. Participation of 18 countries, also meant the contest reached its highest ever number. After a year of absence, Sweden returned to the competition and Ireland debuted. Belgium, Germany, Finland and Spain all scored nul points while Luxembourg won for the second time with the highly controversial Poupée De Cire, Poupée De Son sung by teenager France Gall which later went on to be a massive hit in almost all European countries. The competition was also broadcast via the Intervision network, to the Eastern European nations for the very first time.

 Viktor Klimenko

Participating countries

Sweden returned after a one-year absence, and Ireland debuted in the competition. Belgium, Finland, Germany, and Spain each scored null points for the second time. Ingvar Wixell, the Swedish participant performed his song in English instead of the original Swedish title Annorstädes Vals. The native languages were used for all of the other participants. This led to a rule being introduced, that meant all participants had to perform their songs using one of their national languages.

Returning artists

Three artists returned for a second time in this year's contest. Udo Jürgens from Austria who's previous participation was in 1964; Conchita Bautista from Spain, previously representation in 1961; and Vice Vukov from Yugoslavia, who last participated in 1963.

Alcazar

Alcazar was a Swedish eurodance group which has established themselves as one of Sweden's most successful music groups with a string of hits since their debut single in 1999. Worldwide, Alcazar sold over 12 million records between 2001 and 2004. Alcazar have also had success around the world with their song Crying at the Discoteque, having charted in countries such as USA, Brazil, Australia, Japan and most countries in Europe. Alcazar disbanded indefinitely in August 2011 after a concert at Stockholm Pride.

Biography

The group formed in 1998 with three members: Andreas Lundstedt, Tess Merkel  and Annika Kjærgaard. Their first single, Shine On, was a hit in Sweden, but with their second release, Crying at the Discoteque they achieved success across Europe. Both singles appeared on their debut album, Casino, written and produced by Swedish record producers Alexander Bard and Anders Hansson. Later editions of Casino contained a cover of The Human League's hit Don't You Want Me which also served as the third single off the album. In the United States, Alcazar gained moderate success. Crying at the Discoteque peaked at #44 and Don't You Want Me peaked at #30 on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play.

In December 2002, Andreas Lundstedt's boyfriend at the time, Magnus Carlsson, joined the group. The second album, Alcazarized, was released in Sweden in 2003 and became a big hit. Subsequently, it was released internationally in 2004, with new cover artwork and a slightly different track list.

In the autumn of 2004, Alcazar released This Is the World We Live In. The song samples Diana Ross's 1980 hit single Upside Down and re-uses lyrics from Genesis' 1986 single Land of Confusion. Their follow-up single, Physical, also sampled an older hit: Londonbeat's I've Been Thinking About You. The singles were followed up by the album Dancefloor Deluxe which was released in Sweden in August 2004. In the winter of 2004/2005, they released the Christmas single Here I Am. Alcazar enjoyed considerable success in 2004 in their home country Sweden. 2005 saw the release of the single Start the Fire. During the making of its music video, Annika Kjærgaard had an accident in which she broke her foot.

In the autumn of 2005, the band decided to take a break. Andreas moved on to musicals and played the lead in Saturday Night Fever, while Tess became a poker pro.

In May 2007, the band did a one-off performance in London at the night club G-A-Y, together with Swedish colleagues BWO and Army Of Lovers, and invited their friend Lina Hedlund to join them on stage. It all turned out to be a very successful combination and a few months later the New Alcazar was formed.

In January 2008, their first and comeback single We Keep on Rockin', witten and produced by Anders Hansson, was released. The single quickly turned into a hit and only a week after the release the single passed gold status in sales. In March 2009, the new album Disco Defenders was released in Sweden. Disco Defenders has received great reviews from the Swedish critics.

In 2010, Alcazar recorded a duet with British pop group Same Difference, entitled Karma Karma. It was included on Same Difference's second album The Rest Is History Although not officially released as a single, the song charted on Swedish iTunes thanks to Alcazar's popularity in their homeland.

Break and line-up changes

The band claimed that they needed a break during the autumn of 2005. Male lead singer, Andreas Lundstedt claimed that the band would be back in the summer of 2007. In the meantime the male members launched solo careers. Lundstedt had appeared in the Eurovision Song Contest 2006, as a member of six4one, a multi-national band founded for the sole purpose of representing Switzerland at the contest, whilst Carlsson has twice taken part individually in the Swedish Melodifestivalen.

Lina Hedlund was announced as the replacement for Annika. Lina Hedlund has previously entered Melodifestivalen on two occasions. Andreas' 'Expressen' blog was recently updated, telling Alcazar fans that the group will now be back together permanently, they will take part in a concert in Sweden in December 2007 and will then head into the studio to produce the group's third studio album, with new member, Lina Hedlund. The band is now including Tess Merkel and Lina Hedlund as female vocalists, and Andreas Lundstedt as male vocalist.

Melodifestivalen

Alcazar have taken part in Melodifestivalen on numerous occasions. In 2003, Not a Sinner, Nor a Saint initially failed to qualify for the final, but got a wildcard in the second chance round, finishing 3rd overall. However, the song eventually became the biggest hit of all participating songs in Melodifestivalen 2003. It was Alcazar's first number 1 single in Sweden and was certified Gold.

During early 2005 Alcazar was offered a spot in the United Kingdom national selection for Eurovision Song Contest 2005 but refused the offer. Instead they tried their luck in Melodifestivalen 2005 with the disco tune Alcastar. As in 2003, they originally failed to qualify for the final, but eventually made it through after the second chance semi-final. And once again, the group again had to settle for the 3rd place in the final, the song was a hit and became Alcazar's second number 1 single in Sweden.

Alcazar are once again participating in Melodifestivalen 2009, this time with the song Stay the Night. After performing the song during the first semifinal in Scandinavium, Gothenburg, they finished in the top 2 of a Melodifestivalen semifinal for the first time, thus qualifying directly for the final. In the final in Globen, having placed 3rd with the regional juries and 4th in the televote, the song finished 5th overall. The song managed to peak at number 2 on Swedish Singles Charts giving Alcazar another Top 10 single in Sweden. Alcazar also participated in Melodifestivalen 2010 with the song Headlines, written and produced by Tony Nilsson and Peter Boström, but failed to reach the final.

Eurovision Song Contest 1964

Gigliola Cinquetti

Date: March 21, 1964
Venue: Tivolis Koncertsal, Copenhagen, Denmark
Presenter: Lotte Wæver
Orchestra: Grand Prix Orchestra
Conductor: Kai Mortensen
Director: Poul Leth Sørensen
Scruteneer: Miroslav Vilcek
Host broadcaster: DR
Price presenter: Svend Pedersen
Interval act: Ballet Harlequinade
Duration: 1 hour, 35 minutes
Number of entries: 16
Debuting countries: Portugal
Returning countries: -
Withdrawing countries: Sweden
Winning Song: Non Ho L'età - Gigliola Cinquetti, Italy
Voting system: Each country had 10 jury members who distributed three points among their one, two, or three favourite songs. The points were totalled and the first, second, and third placed songs were awarded 5, 3, and 1 votes in order. If only one song got every point within the jury it would get all 9 points. If only two songs were chosen, the songs would get 6 and 3 points in order.

Entries:

01. Luxembourg: Hugues Aufray - Dès que le printemps revient (4th place, 14 points)
02. The Netherlands: Anneke Grönloh - Jij bent mijn leven (10th place, 2 points)
03. Norway: Arne Bendiksen - Spiral (8th place, 6 points)
04. Denmark: Bjørn Tidmand - Sangen om dig (9th place, 4 points)
05. Finland: Lasse Mårtenson - Laiskotellen (7th place, 9 points)
06. Austria: Udo Jürgens - Warum nur warum (6th place, 11 points)
07. France: Rachel - Le chant de Mallory (4th place, 14 points)
08. UK: Matt Monro - I love the little things (2nd place, 17 points)
09. Germany: Nora Nova - Man gewöhnt sich so schnell ...  (13th place, 0  points)
10. Monaco: Romuald - Où sont-elles passées (3rd place, 15 points)
11. Portugal: António Calvário - Oração (13th place, 0 points)
12. Italy: Gigliola Cinquetti - Non ho l'età (1st place, 49 points)
13. Yugoslavia: Sabahudin Kurt - Život je sklopio krug (13th place, 0 points)
14. Switzerland: Anita Traversi - I miei pensieri (13 th place, 0 points)
15. Belgium: Robert Cogoi - Près de ma rivière (10th place, 2 points)
16. Spain: Tim, Nelly & Tony - Caracola (12th place, 1 point)

Anneke Grönloh

The Eurovision Song Contest 1964 was the ninth Eurovision Song Contest. It was held in Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark after the Danish victory the previous year. Italy won the contest for their first time scoring 49 points with the song Non ho l'età, performed by Gigliola Cinquetti and written by Nicola Salerno and Mario Panzeri.

Location

The venue choice for the contest was Denmark's famous amusement park and pleasure garden Tivoli Gardens. The park opened on August 15, 1843 and is the second oldest amusement park in the world, after Dyrehavsbakken in nearby Klampenborg. The amusement park was first called Tivoli & Vauxhall; Tivoli alluding to the Jardin de Tivoli in Paris, and Vauxhall alluding to the Vauxhall Gardens in London.

Format

A political protest occurred after the Swiss entry: a man trespassed onto the stage holding a banner that read Boycott Franco & Salazar. Whilst this was going on, television viewers were shown a shot of the scoreboard; once the man was removed the contest went on.

The immediate response of the Koncertsal audience to the Italian entry was markedly enthusiastic and prolonged and, most unusually for a contest performance, after leaving the stage Gigliola Cinquetti was allowed to return to take a second bow. Her performance was given an unscheduled repeat on British television the following afternoon. In the event, she won the most crushing victory in the history of the contest, with a score almost three times that of her nearest rival, a feat extremely unlikely ever to be beaten under the post-1974 scoring system.

Lotte Wæver

As with the 1956 contest, no video recording of the actual contest performance is known to survive (although one does of the shorter winning reprise); however like the 1956 contest an audio recording does exist. Reports say that this is because there was a fire at the studios of DR, the Danish broadcaster, in the 1970s. No other broadcaster recorded the entire show (although segments of the contest do exist in the archives of NDR Germany) other than for the Winners' reprise.

Participating countries

Sweden did not participate because of a boycott by singers. They did however broadcast it. Portugal made its début in the contest, however they became the first country to score nul points on their début. Germany, Switzerland, and Yugoslavia also scored nul points for the first time. The Netherlands became the first country to send a singer of non-European ancestry, Anneke Grönloh was of Indonesian descent.

Returning artists

Only one artist returned to the contest this year, with Anita Traversi representing Switzerland again, after previously participation in 1960.

The German song, Man gewöhnt sich so schnell an das Schöne. is the song with the longest title in Eurovision history, with 34 letters, two more than the second longest, Warum es hunderttausend Sterne gibt, the Austrian entry to the Eurovision Song Contest 1967.

Charlie McGettigan

Charles (Charlie) McGettigan (born in Ballyshannon, County Donegal on December 7 1950) is an Irish singer. He lives in Drumshanbo, Co. Leitrim.

Charlie came 3rd with 14 points at he Irish national final for the ESC in 1984 with the song Bee Bop Delight which was written by himself. In 1987 he participated again at the Irish national final with the song Are you shy which was also written by Charlie himself. The song finished in 3rd place with 75 points. For his album The man from 20, Charlie recorded a new version of Are you Shy.

In 1994 Charlie won, together with Paul Harrington, the Irish national final and the ESC in Dublin with the song Rock'n roll kids.

He made an appearance as a guest singer at Congratulations, the 50th anniversary concert of Eurovision.

Regina

In 1993 Regina participated for the first time at EMA, the Slovenian pre-selection for the ESC. Regina finished in 4th place with the song Naj ljubezen združi vse ljudi which was written by Marij Kogoj and Mojmir Sepe.

Regina (born Irena Jalšovec, July 4 1965, Murska Sobota, Yugoslavia — now Slovenia) is a Slovenian singer, best known for her participation at the ESC in 1996 in Oslo where she came 21st with the song Dan najlepših sanj.

As a child Regina sang in a choir and learned to play guitar and organ. In 1986 Regina began her study as a psychologist at the Ljubljana Universaty where she met her husband, the rock guitarist and composer Aleksander Kogoj. Since 1987 Aleksander produced many songs for Regina.

Regina paticipated seven times at EMA, the slovenian national final for the ESC:

•  1993: Naj ljubezen združi vse ljudi - 4th
•  1996: Dan najlepših sanj - 1st
•  1998: Glas gora - 3rd
•  2001: Zaljubljena v maj - 10th
•  2002: Ljubezen daje moč - Semi-final
•  2004: Plave očij - 12th
•  2005: Proti vetru - 9th

Regina has released seven albums and currently combines her singing and voiceover career with audio production work.

Eurovision Song Contest 1963

Grethe & Jørgen Ingmann

Price presenter: Steward Hood
Interval act: - Ola & Barbro
Duration: 1 hour, 38 minutes
Number of entries: 16
Debuting countries: -
Returning countries: -
Withdrawing countries: -
Winning Song: Dansevise - Grethe & Jørgen Ingmann, Denmark
Voting system: Each country had 20 jury members who awarded their five favourite songs 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1 points in order. All those points would then be added up and the five song with the most points got 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1 votes in order.

Entries:

01. UK: Ronnie Caroll - Say wonderful things (4th place, 28 points)
02. The Netherlands: Annie Palmen - Een speeldoos (13th place, 0 points)
03. Germany: Heidi Brühl - Marcel (9th place, 5 points)
04. Austria: Carmela Corren - Wielleicht geschieht ein Wunder (7th place, 16 points)
05. Norway: Anita Thallaug - Solherv (13th place, 0 points)
06. Italy: Emilio Pericole - Uno per tutte (3rd place, 37 points)
07. Finland: Laila Halme - Muistojeni laulu )13th place, 0 points)
08. Denmark: Grethe & Jørgen Ingmann - Dansevise (1st place, 42 points)
09. Yugoslavia: Vice Vukov - Brodovi (11th place, 3 points)
10. Switzerland: Esther Ofarim - T'en va pas (2nd place, 40 points)
11. France: Alain Barrière - Elle était si jolie (5th place, 25 points)
12. Spain: José Guardiola - Algo prodigioso (12th place, 2 points)
13. Sweden: Monica Zetterlund - En gång i Stockholm (13th place, 0 points)
14. Belgium: Jacques Raymond - Waarom? (10th place, 4 points)
15. Monaco: Françoise Hardy - L'amour s'en va (5th place, 25 points)
16. Luxembourg: Nana Mouskouri - A force de prier (8th place, 13 points)

Annie Palmen

The Eurovision Song Contest 1963 was the 8th Eurovision Song Contest. France had won the contest in 1962 but were incapable of hosting in 1963, as was their right, due to financial shortcomings. As was the case in 1960 - and as would become a tradition when smaller broadcasters could not afford to organise a contest - the BBC stepped in to save the event. Once again four countries got the famous nil points. The contest was won by Denmark with the song Dansevise, performed by Grethe & Jørgen Ingmann and written by Otto Francker and Sejr Volmer-Sørensen. Denmark's win was their first. Finland, Norway and Sweden all failed to score any points for the first time. The Netherlands received no points for the second time, and became the first country to go two years in a row without scoring a single point.

Location

The host venue was the BBC Television Centre, White City, London, which opened in 1960. It is one of the most readily recognisable facilities of its type having appeared as the backdrop for many BBC programmes. It remains one of the largest such facilities in the world.

Format

Two studios were used: one for the mistress of ceremonies Katie Boyle, the audience, and the scoreboard; the other for the performers and the orchestra accompanying them. Unusually, a boom microphone (normally used for drama and comedy shows) was employed - the viewer doesn't see this, so it appears as if the artists were miming to their vocals. This was not the case, but this innovation was to create a new look for the contest.

Grethe Ingmann

Voting controversy

One controversy this year was during the voting. When it was Norway's turn to announce their votes, the spokesman in Oslo did not use the correct procedure in that the song number, followed by the name of the country, should have been announced before awarding the points. Katie Boyle asked Norway to repeat their results, but the Norwegian spokesman asked Katie to return to them after all the other results were in. When Katie went back to Norway again the votes had mysteriously altered, thus changing the outcome of the contest and giving the victory to Norway's neighbours Denmark at Switzerland's expense. In fact, there was some doubt as to whether the Norwegian spokesman gave the correct votes on the first occasion.

It has also been speculated as to whether the juries were indeed on the end of a telephone line or in the actual studio given how clearly their voices could be heard as opposed to sounding as though they were being redirected through a telephone line. It is also been stated that Luxembourg came sixth in the Monaco voting as Monaco give one point to both the United Kingdom and Luxembourg. However when Katie Boyle went back to Monaco to receive the votes again Monaco's one vote to Luxembourg was efficiently discarded.

Participating countries

All countries who participated in the 1961 and 1962 contests, returned for a third consecutive year, with no new countries making a début, nor any returning or withdrawing nations this particular year.

Returning artists

This year saw the return of just one artist, with Ronnie Carroll representing the United Kingdom having previously done so at the 1962 contest.

Eurovision Song Contest 1962

Isabelle Aubret

Date: March 18th 1962
Venue: Grand auditorium de RTL, villa Louvigny, Luxembourg
Presenter: Mireille Delannoy
Orchestra: Jean Roderès Orchestra
Conductor: Jean Roderès
Directors: Jos Pauly, René Steichen
Scruteneer: -
Host broadcaster: CLT
Price presenter: Jean-Claude Pacal
Interval act: - Achille Zavatta
Duration: 1 hour, 26 minutes
Number of entries: 16
Debuting countries: -
Returning countries: -
Withdrawing countries: -
Winning Song: Un Premier Amour - Isabelle Aubret, France
Voting system: Each country had 10 jury members who awarded their three favourite songs 3, 2, and 1 points in order.

Entries:

01. Finland: Marion Rung - Tipi-tii (7th place, 4 points)
02. Belgium: Fud Leclerc - Ton nom (13th place, 0 points)
03. Spain: Victor Balaguer - Llámame (13th place, 0 points)
04. Austria: Eleonore Schwarz - Nur in der Wiener luft (13th place, 0 points)
05. Denmark: Ellen Winther - Vuggevise (10th place, 2 points)
06. Sweden: Inger Berggren - Sol och vår (7th place, 4 points)
07. Germany: Conny Froboes - Zwei kleine Italiener (6th place, 9 points)
08. The Netherlands: De Spelbrekers - Katinka (13th place, 0 points)
09. France: Isabelle Aubret - Un premier amour (1st, 26 points)
10. Norway: Inger Jacobsen - Kom sol, kom regn (10th place, 2 points)
11. Switzerland: Jean Phillipe - Le retour (10th place, 2 points0
12. Yugoslavia: Lola Novaković - Ne pali svetlo u sumrak (4th place, 10 points)
13. UK: Ronnie Caroll - Ring-A-Ding Girl (4th place, 10 points)
14. Luxembourg: Camilio Felgen - Petit bonhomme (3rd place, 11 points)
15. Italy: Claudio Villa - Addio, addio (9th place, 3 points)
16. Monaco: François Deguelt - Dis rien, (2nd place, 13 points)

De Spelbrekers

The Eurovision Song Contest 1962 was held in Luxembourg. France won for a third time with the song Un premier amour, performed by Isabelle Aubret and written by Claude Henri Vic and Roland Valande. This marked the first time a country had won three contests. Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Spain all scored null points for the first time.

Location

The venue chosen to host the 1962 contest was the Villa Louvigny. The building served as the headquarters of Compagnie Luxembourgeoise de Télédiffusion, the forerunner of RTL Group. It is located in Municipal Park, in the Ville Haute quarter of the centre of the city.

Format

After France's entry had been performed, there was a short power failure rendering the screens dark. There also seemed to be an even shorter power failure during the Netherlands entry, when viewers around Europe only saw darkness on their television screens when the Netherlands performed. The power failure seemed to affect the Netherlands score during the voting. Nevertheless the song turned out to be popular in Europe after the contest. The stage was decorated with twinkling stars on the backdrop.

Marion Rung

Participating countries

All countries who participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 1961 returned for a second consecutive year, with no new countries making a début, nor any retuning or withdrawing nations this particular year.

Returning artists

The contest saw the return of four artist this year, with three artists having previously participated in the 1960. Camillo Felgen for Luxembourg; François Deguelt for Monaco; and Fud Leclerc making his fourth appearance for Belgium, having also been present at the 1956, and 1958 contests. Jean Philippe, having previous represented France in 1959, returned to the contest as a representative for Switzerland.

Voting

The ESC 1962 featured a new scoring system. Juries were asked to award three points to their favourite song, two to the second and one to the third. Although this system produced the clearest winner since 1957, it was never used again in exactly the same form. There have been seven different voting systems and three of those systems were only used once. The 1962 system originated the idea of each jury ranking its favourite songs. However, as only three songs could be voted for, several entries were left behind in the voting.

Eurovision Song Contest 1961

Tessa Beaumont and Jean Claude Pascal

Date: March 18th 1961
Venue: Palais des Festivals et des Congrès Cannes, France
Presenter: Jacqueline Joubert
Orchestra: Franck Pourcel Orchestra
Conductor: Franck Pourcel
Director: Marcel Cravenne
Scruteneer: -
Host broadcaster: RTF
Price presenter: Tessa Beaumont
Interval act: Tessa Beaumont & Max Bozzoni
Duration: 1 hour, 35 minutes
Number of entries: 16
Debuting countries: Finland, Spain, Yugoslavia
Returning countries: -
Withdrawing countries: -
Winning Song: Nous Les Amoureux - Jean-Claude Pascal, Luxembourg
Voting system: Each country had 10 jury members who each awarded 1 point to their favourite song

Entries:

01. Spain: Conchita Bautista - Estando Contigo (9th place, 8 points)
02. Monaco: Colette Deréal - Allons, allons les enfants (10th place, 6 points)
03. Austria: Jimmy Makullis - Sehnsucht (15th place, 1 point)
04. Finland: Laila Kinnunen - Valoa ikkunassa (10th place, 6 points)
05. Yugoslavia: Ljiljana Petrović - Neke davne zvezde (8th place, 9 points)
06. The Netherlands: Greetje Kauffeld - Wat een dag (10th place, 6 points)
07. Sweden: Lill-Babs - April, April (14th place, 2 points)
08. Germany: Lale Andersen - Einmal sehen wir uns wieder (13th place, 3 points)
09. France: Jean-Paul Mauric - Printemps, avril carillonne (4th place, 13 points)
10. Switzerland: Franca di Rienzo - Nous aurons demain (3rd place, 16 points)
11. Belgium: Bob Benny - September, gouden roos (15th place, 1 point)
12. Norway: Nora Brockstedt - Sommer i Palma (7th place, 10 points)
13. Denmark: Dario Campeotto - Angelique (5th place, 15 points)
14. Luxembourg: Jean-Claude Pascal - Nous les amoureux (1st place, 31 points)
15. UK: The Allisons - Are you sure? (2nd place, 24 points)
16. Italy: Betty Curtis - Al di là (5th place, 12 points)

Dick Schallies (composer of Wat een dag) and Greetje Kauffeld

The Eurovision Song Contest 1961 was the sixth Eurovision Song Contest. It was held on March 18 1961 and was the first to take place on a Saturday night, a tradition that has continued into modern times. It was hosted in the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès located in Cannes, France which was also the 1959 venue. Luxembourg won for its first time with the song Nous les amoureux performed in French by Jean-Claude Pascal and written by Jacques Datin and Maurice Vidalin. Due to the contest overrunning in time, the winning song's reprise was not shown in the UK.

Location

The contest returned to the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès, which also played host venue for the 1959 contest, a building built in 1949 to host the Cannes Film Festival. The original building was located on the boulevard of Promenade de la Croisette on the present site of the JW Marriott Cannes. In response to the growing success of the Festival and the advent of the first business conventions, such as the MIPTV Media Market.

 Jean-Claude Pascal

Format

Jacqueline Joubert presented the show, having already done so two years earlier in 1959. The stage used for the 1961 Contest was notably larger than in previous years and was decorated with flowers. It is noticeable that during the voting, Luxembourg gave the UK 8 points, and Norway also gave Denmark 8 points. It was the largest amount of points given to a country by a single jury since 1958, when Denmark provided France with 9 points. Such a high number of points obtained by a country wouldn't be achieved until 1970, when Ireland would receive 9 points from Belgium.

Participating countries

A total of sixteen countries took part in the Contest, including the three debuting countries: Finland, Spain, and Yugoslavia. There were no returning or withdrawing countries this particular year.

Returning artists

The contest saw the return of two artist this year with the Belgian representative, Bob Benny, who previously participated in the 1959 contest; and Nora Brockstedt who performed for Norway in 1960.