Eurovision Song Contest 1975

Eurovision Song Contest 1975
Dates
Final date 22 March 1975
Host
Venue Stockholm International Fairs
Sweden
Presenter(s) Karin Falck
Conductor Mats Olsson
Host broadcaster SR
Interval act The World of John Bauer
Participants
Number of entries 19
Debuting countries  Turkey
Returning countries  France
 Malta
Withdrawing countries  Greece
Vote
Voting system Each country awarded 12, 10, 8-1 points to their 10 favourite songs
Nul points None
Winning song  Netherlands
"Ding-A-Dong"
Eurovision Song Contest
◄1974 1976►

The Eurovision Song Contest 1975 was the 20th edition of the contest hosted by SR 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.

Intelligence reports at the time pointed out the festival as a possible target for a terrorist attack by the Red Army Faction which forced the organizers to tighten security considerably. The attack struck the West German embassy in Stockholm instead about a month later (see West German embassy siege).

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. [1] 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.

The Swedish left movement protested against the contest and its commercial aspect. At first the criticism was directed towards SR for the huge amount of money they spent on the contest but soon the protests developed into a movement against commercial music overall. When the Eurovision Song Contest took place an alternative festival was organized in another part of Stockholm where anybody who wanted could perform a song. Most popular became Sillstryparn's entry "Doing the omoralisk schlagerfestival" (Doing the immoral Eurovision festival). In the autumn of 1975 SR informed that Sweden would not participate in the 1976 edition of the Eurovision Song Contest due to the high costs that came with hosting the show. The rules later changed so that the costs were split more equally between the participating broadcasters.

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.

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 19 countries took part.

The Netherlands' victory was their fourth. To date, they have not managed to take any more.

Contents

Individual Entries

Results

Draw Country Language Artist Song English translation Place Points
01  Netherlands English Teach-In "Ding-A-Dong" - 1 152
02  Ireland English The Swarbriggs "That's What Friends Are For" - 9 68
03  France French Nicole Rieu "Et bonjour à toi l'artiste" And A Good Day To You Artist 4 91
04  Germany German, English Joy Fleming "Ein Lied kann eine Brücke sein" A Song Can Be A Bridge 17 15
05  Luxembourg French Geraldine "Toi" You 5 84
06  Norway English Ellen Nikolaysen "Touch My Life (With Summer)" - 18 11
07  Switzerland German Simone Drexel "Mikado" Mikado 6 77
08  Yugoslavia Slovene Pepel In Kri "Dan ljubezni" A Day Of Love 13 22
09  United Kingdom English The Shadows "Let Me Be The One" - 2 138
10  Malta English Renato "Singing This Song" - 12 32
11  Belgium Dutch, English Ann Christy "Gelukkig zijn" Being Happy 15 17
12  Israel Hebrew Shlomo Artzi "At Va'Ani" (את ואני) You And Me 11 40
13  Turkey Turkish Semiha Yankı "Seninle Bir Dakika" One Minute With You 19 3
14  Monaco French Sophie "Une chanson c'est une lettre" A Song Is A Letter 13 22
15  Finland English Pihasoittajat "Old Man Fiddle" - 7 74
16  Portugal Portuguese Duarte Mendes "Madrugada" Dawn 16 16
17  Spain Spanish Sergio y Estíbaliz "Tú volverás" You'll Return 10 53
18  Sweden English Lasse Berghagen "Jennie, Jennie" - 8 72
19  Italy Italian Wess & Dori Ghezzi "Era" It Was 3 115

Score sheet

Results
Netherlands 152 8 5 8 10 12 6 8 12 12 3 12 4 10 10 7 12 12 1
Ireland 68 6 6 4 7 1 6 4 12 1 4 3 10 4
France 91 8 12 3 8 7 2 7 1 7 12 8 8 8
Germany 15 8 3 4
Luxembourg 84 12 10 3 7 3 5 6 5 5 8 6 4 10
Norway 11 2 2 7
Switzerland 77 7 2 10 6 2 1 5 6 8 7 5 4 2 12
Yugoslavia 22 3 4 2 5 1 7
United Kingdom 138 4 3 12 10 12 7 8 12 8 10 10 12 7 5 10 5 3
Malta 32 1 8 5 2 4 2 7 1 2
Belgium 17 5 7 3 2
Israel 40 10 1 1 1 1 5 2 1 1 6 3 6 2
Turkey 3 3
Monaco 22 3 4 2 1 2 2 3 5
Finland 74 5 12 6 10 12 5 4 8 8 1 3
Portugal 16 2 12 2
Spain 53 7 5 3 5 4 4 4 3 4 8 6
Sweden 72 7 7 8 1 6 7 2 3 8 6 6 6 5
Italy 115 6 4 4 3 6 10 10 10 10 6 5 10 1 12 10 7 1

12 points

Below is a summary of all 12 points in the final:

N. Recipient nation Voting nation
6 Netherlands Israel, Malta, Norway, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom
4 United Kingdom France, Luxembourg, Monaco, Yugoslavia
2 Finland Germany, Switzerland
France Ireland, Portugal
1 Ireland Belgium
Italy Finland
Luxembourg Netherlands
Portugal Turkey
Switzerland Italy

Conductors

Returning artists

Artist Country Previous year(s)
Ellen Nikolaysen  Norway 1973, 1974 (part of Bendik Singers)

Commentators

Spokespersons

National jury members

References

  1. ^ O'Connor, John Kennedy. The Eurovision Song Contest - The Official History. Carlton Books, UK. 2007 ISBN 978-1-84442-994-3
  2. ^ "Nederlandse televisiecommentatoren bij het Eurovisie Songfestival" (in Dutch). Eurovision Artists. http://www.eurovisionartists.nl/index.htm?content/esf480.asp. 
  3. ^ http://songcontest.free.fr/bdd/cec1975.htm
  4. ^ http://www.ecgermany.de/archiv/1975esc.htm
  5. ^ http://songcontest.free.fr/bdd/cec1975.htm
  6. ^ Dyrseth, Seppo (OGAE Norway)
  7. ^ http://www.viisukuppila.fi/phpBB3/yleista/topic1578.html?sid=4004772ec986da0c3795a6f5dd54f0d4
  8. ^ http://21595.activeboard.com/t3895343/comentadores-do-esc/
  9. ^ http://eurosongcontest.phpbb3.es/viewtopic.php?f=57&t=20310&start=45
  10. ^ http://www.infosajten.com/esc/esc/swedishspokesmen.html
  11. ^ Dyrseth, Seppo (OGAE Norway)
  12. ^ Baumann, Peter Ramón (OGAE Switzerland)
  13. ^ http://sf.tapuz.co.il/shirshur-262-1949782.htm
  14. ^ http://www.viisukuppila.fi/phpBB3/yleista/topic1578-30.html
  15. ^ http://www.infosajten.com/esc/esc/swedishspokesmen.html
  16. ^ http://eurofestival.host22.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1435