Eurovision Song Contest 1964

Eurovision Song Contest 1964
Dates
Final date 21 March 1964
Host
Venue Tivolis Koncertsal
Copenhagen, Denmark
Presenter(s) Lotte Wæver
Conductor Kai Mortensen
Host broadcaster DR
Interval act Ballet-harlequinade
Participants
Number of entries 16
Debuting countries  Portugal
Returning countries None
Withdrawing countries  Sweden
Vote
Voting system Each country had 10 jury members who distributed three points among their one, two, or three favourite songs. The points were totaled 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.
Nul points  Germany
 Portugal
 Switzerland
 Yugoslavia
Winning song  Italy
"Non ho l'età"
Eurovision Song Contest
◄1963 1965►

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. Sweden did not participate because of a boycott by singers. They did however broadcast it. 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.

Italy's win was their first. Germany, Portugal, Switzerland, and Yugoslavia each scored nul points for the first time. Portugal was the first country to score no points on their debut. The Netherlands became the first country to send a singer of non-European ancestry, Anneke Grönloh was of Indonesian descent.

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 bested under the post-1974 scoring system.

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. (Videos of Cinquetti's Sanremo performance and her Eurovision winning reprise have both appeared on YouTube.) 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.

Contents

Individual Entries

Results

Draw Country Language Artist Song English translation Place Points
01  Luxembourg French Hugues Aufray "Dès que le printemps revient" Once spring returns 4 14
02  Netherlands Dutch Anneke Grönloh "Jij bent mijn leven" You are my life 10 2
03  Norway Norwegian Arne Bendiksen "Spiral" 8 6
04  Denmark Danish Bjørn Tidmand "Sangen om dig" The song about you 9 4
05  Finland Finnish Lasse Mårtenson "Laiskotellen" Idling 7 9
06  Austria German Udo Jürgens "Warum nur warum?" Only why, why? 6 11
07  France French Rachel "Le chant de Mallory" Mallory's song 4 14
08  United Kingdom English Matt Monro "I Love the Little Things" 2 17
09  Germany German Nora Nova "Man gewöhnt sich so
schnell an das Schöne
"
How quickly we get
used to nice things
13 0
10  Monaco French Romuald "Où sont-elles passées" Where have they gone? 3 15
11  Portugal Portuguese Antonio Calvário "Oração" Prayer 13 0
12  Italy Italian Gigliola Cinquetti "Non ho l'età" I'm not old enough 1 49
13  Yugoslavia Serbo-Croatian Sabahudin Kurt "Život je sklopio krug" Life has come full circle 13 0
14  Switzerland Italian Anita Traversi "I miei pensieri" My thoughts 13 0
15  Belgium French Robert Cogoi "Près de ma rivière" Nearby my river 10 2
16  Spain Spanish Tim, Nelly & Tony "Caracola" Conch 12 1

Score sheet

Results
Luxembourg   3 3 5 3
Netherlands   1 1
Norway   5 1
Denmark 1   3
Finland 3 3   3
Austria   5 1 5
France 1 3   5 3 1 1
United Kingdom 1 5 3 1 1   1 5
Germany  
Monaco 3 5   3 1 3
Portugal  
Italy 5 5 5 5 5 3 3 5   5 3 5
Yugoslavia  
Switzerland  
Belgium 1 1  
Spain 1  
THE TABLE IS ORDERED BY APPEARANCE

5 points

Below is a summary of all 5 points in the final:

N. Recipient nation Voting nation
8 Italy Austria, Belgium, Finland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, United Kingdom, Yugoslavia
2 Austria Italy, Spain
United Kingdom Norway, Switzerland
1 France Monaco
Luxembourg Germany
Monaco France
Norway Denmark

Returning artists

Artist Country Previous year(s)
Anita Traversi  Switzerland 1960

Commentators

Spokespersons

References