Eurovision Song Contest 1975

Teach-In

Date: March 22, 1975
Venue: Stockholmsmässan, Stockholm, Sweden
Presenter: Karin Falck
Conductor: Mats Olsson
Director: Bo Billtén
Scruteneer: Clifford Brown
Host broadcaster: SR
Price presenter: Henrik Hahr
Interval act: The World of John Bauer
Duration: 2 hours, 13 minutes
Number of entries: 19
Debuting countries: Turkey
Returning countries: France, Malta
Withdrawing countries: Greece
Winning Song: Ding-A-Dong - Teach-In, The Netherlands
Voting system: Each country awarded 12, 10, 8-1 points to their 10 favourite songs

Entries

01. The Netherlands: Teach-In - Ding-A-Dong (1st place, 152 points)
02. Ireland: The Swarbriggs - That's what friends are for (9th place, 68 points)
03. France: Nicole Rieu - Et bonjour à toi l'artiste (4th place, 91 points)
04. Germany: Joy Fleming - Ein Lied kann eine Brücke sein (17th place, 15 points)
05. Luxembourg: Geraldine - Toi (5th place, 84 points)
06. Norway: Ellen Nikolaysen - Touch my life (18th place, 11 points)
07. Switzerland: Simone Drexel - Mikado (6th place, 77 points)
08. Yugoslavia: Pepel In Kri - Dan Ljubezni (13th place, 22 points)
09. UK: The Shadows - Let me be the one (2nd place, 138 points)
10. Malta: Renato - Singing this song (12th place, 32 points)
11. Belgium: Ann Christy - Gelukkig zijn (15th place, 17 points)
12. Israel: Schlomo Artzi - At va ani (11th place, 40 points)
13. Turkey: Semiha Yanki - Seninle bir dakika (19th place, 3 points)
14. Monaco: Sophie - Une chanson c'est une lettre (13th place, 22 points)
15. Finland: Pihasoittajat - Old man fiddle (7th place, 74 points)
16. Portugal: Duarte Mendes - Madrugada (16th place, 16 points)
17. Spain: Sergio y Estíbaliz - Tú volverás (10th place, 53 points)
18. Sweden: Lasse Berghagen - Jennie, Jennie (8th points, 72 points)
19. Italy: Wess & Dori Ghezzi - Era (3rd place, 115 points)

The Eurovision Song Contest 1975 was the 20th edition of the contest hosted by Karin Falck and held in Stockholm, Sweden. The arena for the event was the newly built Stockholm International Fairs in Älvsjö in southern Stockholm. ABBA's victory in Brighton the previous year gave Sweden the right to host the contest for the first time. The Contest was won by Teach-In, who sang Ding-A-Dong in English, representing the Netherlands. The song was written by Dick Bakker, Will Luikinga and Eddy Ouwens.

Getty Kaspers

Location

Stockholmsmässan (Stockholm International Fairs) was the venue for the twentieth edition of Eurovision. The main building is in Älvsjö – a southern suburb of Stockholm Municipality for which the building got its nickname – and was constructed in 1971, and holds 4,000 people.

Format

This year a new scoring system was implemented, one which is still used today. Each jury would now give 12 points to the best song, 10 to the second best, then 8 to the third, 7 to the fourth, 6 to the fifth and so forth until the tenth best song (in the jury's opinion) received a single point. The host Karin Falck several times confused the new system with questions like "How much is seven in France?" Unlike today, the points were not given in order (from 1 up to 12), but in the order the songs were performed. The current procedure was not established until 1980.

The Portuguese entry Madrugada was an unabashed celebration of the Carnation Revolution, during which the country's 1974 Eurovision entry had played a pivotal practical role. According to author and historian John Kennedy O'Connor in his book The Eurovision Song Contest - The Official History, the Portuguese performer had to be dissuaded from wearing his Portuguese army uniform and carrying a gun onto the stage. Some competitors (notably Portugal and Yugoslavia) opted to perform their songs in English for the rehearsals heard by the judges, but in their native tongue at the final. Others, such as Belgium and Germany, opted for a mix of their own language and English.

 Joy Fleming

Participating countries

Greece withdrew from this contest in response to the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus, in protest of Turkey's participation. Despite this, a record of nineteen countries took part. Turkey made their début, while France and Malta returned to the contest.

Returning artists

Norway's Ellen Nikolaysen was the only participant to return to the contest this year. Ellen's previous participations where with the band Bendik Singers in 1973 and 1974.