Eurovision Song Contest 1959

Teddy Scholten

Date: March 11, 1959
Venue: Palais des Festivals et des Congrès Cannes, France
Presenter: Jacqueline Joubert
Orchestra: Frank Pourcel Orchestra
Conductor: Frank Pourcel
Director: Marcel Cravenne
Scruteneer: -
Host broadcaster: RTF
Price presenter: Jean D'Arcy
Interval act: -
Duration: 1 hour, 13 minutes
Number of entries: 11
Debuting countries: Monaco
Returning countries: UK
Withdrawing countries: Luxembourg
Winning Song: Een Beetje - Teddy Scholten , the Netherlands
Voting system: Each country had 10 jury members who each awarded 1 point to their favourite song

Entries:

01. France: Jean Philippe - Oui, Oui, Oui, Oui (3rd place, 15 points)
02. Denmark: Birthe Wilke - Uh, Jeg Ville ønske Jeg Var Dig (5th place, 12 points)
03. Italy: Domenico Modugno - Piove (Ciao, Ciao Bambina) (6th place, 9 points)
04. Monaco: Jacques Pills - Mon Ami Pierrot (11th place , 1 point)
05. Netherlands: Teddy Scholten - Een Beetje (1st place, 21 points)
06. Germany: Alice & Ellen Kessler - Heute Abend Wollen Wir Tanzen Geh'n) (8th place, 5 points)
07. Sweden: Brita Borg - Augustin (9th place, 4 points)
08. Switzerland: Christa Williams - Irgendwoher (4th place, 14 points)
09. Austria: Ferry Graf - Der K Und K Kalypso Aus Wien (9th place, 4 points)
10. United Kingdom: Pearl Carr & Teddy Johnson - Sing, Little Birdie (2nd place, 16 points)
11. Belgium: Bob Benny - Hou Toch Van Mij (6th place, 9 points)

Teddy Scholten

The Eurovision Song Contest 1959 was the fourth Eurovision Song Contest. It was held in Cannes, following the French victory the previous year.

Format

A new rule was created for this Eurovision, ensuring that no professional publishers or composers were allowed in the national juries.

The Netherlands' win was their second and the first time a country had won the contest twice. The song was composed by Dick Schallies and lyricist Willy van Hemert who was also the lyricist of Net Als Toen, which won the Eurovision Song Contest 1957. Willy Van Hemert was the first person to win the Eurovision Song Contest twice.

Participating countries

Luxembourg withdrew from the contest for the first time. The United Kingdom returned after missing the previous contest (appearing on the scoreboard as "Grande Bretagne") and finished second for the first time. The UK would have 15 second-place finishes in the country's history in the contest. Monaco made its debut in the contest, but came last.

Returning artists

Domenico Modugno also participated at the ESC 1958 and Birthe Wilke also represented Denmark in 1957. The Swedish broadcaster decided that Brita Borg would represent Sweden instead of the winner of the Swedish national final Siw Malmkwist. Corry Brokken, who participated in 1956, 1957 and 1958, took part in the Dutch national final but didn't win.

Voting

Each country had 10 jury members who each awarded 1 point to their favourite song.

In the press it was suggested that Italy and France gave more points to the Netherlands because neither of those two countries wanted the other to win. This has never been verified.

Italy gave one point to France, no points to the UK and seven points to the Netherlands placing them just three points ahead of the UK. Later on France gave only three points to Italy and four points to the Netherlands giving them a five point lead over the UK, who were only one point ahead of France, leaving Italy behind in sixth position, behind Denmark, on nine points.

Something that occurred this year, but never again, was that more than the winning entry was performed once again. The second and third placed songs, United Kingdom and France, were allowed to sing again at the end of the show, together with eventual winner, the Netherlands.