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.