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.