Eurovision Song Contest 1973

 

Anne-Marie David

Date: April 7, 1973
Venue: The Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg, Luxembourg
Presenter: Helga Guitton
Conductor: Pierre Cao
Director: René Steichen
Scruteneer: Clifford Brown
Host broadcaster: RTL
Price presenter: Vicky Leandros
Interval act: Charlie Rivel
Duration: 1 hour, 41 minutes
Number of entries: 17
Debuting countries: Israel
Returning countries: -
Withdrawing countries: Austria, Malta
Winning Song: Tu te reconnaîtras - Anne-Marie David, 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. Finland: Marion Rung - Tom Tom Tom (6th place, 93 points)
02. Belgium: Nicole & Hugo - Baby, Baby (17th place, 58 points)
03. Portugal: Fernando Tordo - Tourada (10th place, 80 points)
04. Germany: Gitte - Junger Tag (8th place, 85 points)
05. Norway: Bendik Singers - It's just a game (7th place, 89 points)
06. Monaco: Marie - Un train qui part (8th place, 85 points)
07. Spain: Mocedades - Eres tú (2nd place, 125 points)
08. Switzerland: Patrick Juvet - Je vais me marier, Marie (12th place, 79 points)
09. Yugoslavia: Zdravko Čolić - Gori vatra (15th place, 65 points)
10. Italy: Massimo Ranieri - Chi sarà con te (13th place, 74 points)
11. Luxembourg: Anne-Marie David - Tu te reconnaîtras (1st place, 129 points)
12. Sweden: Nova and The Dolls - You're summer (5th place, 94 points)
13. The Netherlands: Ben Cramer - De oude muzikant (14th place, 69 points)
14. Ireland: Maxi - Do I dream (10th place, 80 points)
15. UK: Cliff Richard - Power to all our friends (3rd place, 123 points)
16. France: Martine Clémenceau - Sans toi (15th place, 65 points)
17. Israel: Ilanit - Ey sham (4th place, 97 points)

Ben Cramer

The Eurovision Song Contest 1973 was the eighteenth Eurovision Song Contest and was held in Luxembourg. Luxembourg's win was their fourth. The winning song Tu te reconnaîtras was sung by Anne-Marie David and was written by Claude Morgan and Vline Buggy. The voting was a very close one, with Spain finishing only 4 points behind and Cliff Richard (who came second in 1968) another 2 points after. According to The Eurovision Song Contest - The Official History by John Kennedy O'Connor, the winning song scored the highest score ever achieved in Eurovision under any voting format, recording 129 points out of a possible 160; scoring just under 81% of the possible maximum, but partly due to a scoring system which guaranteed all countries at least two points from each other country.

Location

The Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg, inaugurated in 1964 as the Théâtre Municipal de la Ville de Luxembourg, became the venue for the 1973 contest. It is the city's major venue for drama, opera and ballet.

Ilanit

Format

The language rule forcing countries to enter songs sung in any of their national languages was dropped, so performers from some countries sang in English. The event was marked by controversy when the Spanish song, Eres tú, was accused of plagiarism due to reasonable similarities in the melody with the Yugoslav entry from the 1966 contest (Brez besed sung by Berta Ambrož); however, Eres tú was not disqualified. After finishing second in the contest, the song went on to become a huge international hit.

The somewhat elliptical lyrics to Portugal's entry Tourada provided sufficient cover for a song that was clearly understood as a blistering assault on the country's decaying dictatorship. Also, the word breasts was used in Sweden's song entry. However, no action was taken by the EBU. An argument broke out between the singer Maxi and her Irish delegation over how the song should be performed. During rehearsals she repeatedly stopped performing in frustration. When it began to appear possible that Maxi might withdraw from the contest, RTÉ immediately sent over another singer, Tina Reynolds, to take her place just in case. In the end Miss Reynolds wasn't needed as Maxi did perform, with her entry earning 10th place on the scoreboard. (Tina Reynolds would perform the following year.)

Anne-Marie David

This contest holds the record for the most watched Eurovision Song Contest in the United Kingdom, and is also the 18th most watched television show in the same country, with an estimated 21.54 million tuning in on the night. Cliff Richard represented the UK with the song Power to All Our Friends. He came 3rd with 123 points.

In the light of events at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, there were fears of a terrorist threat, particularly directed against Israel's first-ever entrant, leading to unusually tight security for the contest. This gave rise to one of the best-known Eurovision anecdotes, frequently recounted by the UK's long-serving commentator Terry Wogan. He recalled that the floor manager strongly advised the audience to remain seated while applauding the performances, otherwise they risked being shot by security forces.

 Mocedades

Participating countries

Seventeen nations took part in this year's contest. Malta was drawn to perform in 6th place between Norway and Monaco, but the Maltese broadcaster withdrew before the deadline to select an entry. The 1973 contest marked the first time that women conducted the ESC orchestra. Monica Dominique conducted the Swedish entry and Nurit Hirsh conducted the Israeli entry.

Returning artists

Three artists returned to the 1973 contest, Finland's Marion Rung, who last represented the nation in 1962; 1971 entrant Massimo Ranieri from Italy; and Cliff Richard, who last performed Congratulations for the United Kingdom in 1968.