Eurovision Song Contest 1969

The Eurovision Song Contest 1969 was the 14th in the series. It was the first time that the contest resulted in a tie for first place, with four countries each gaining 18 votes. Since there was at the time no rule to cover such an eventuality, all four countries were declared joint winners. This caused an unfortunate problem concerning the medals due to be distributed to the winners as there were not enough to go round, so that only the singers received their medals on the night: the songwriters, to some disgruntlement, were not awarded theirs until after the date of the contest. Had the later tie-break rule been in place (i.e. the song receiving votes from the most countries, then the song receiving the most high votes in case of another tie), France would have been the overall winner.

The surrealist Spanish artist Salvador Dalí was responsible for designing the publicity material for the 1969 contest as well as the metal sculpture which was used on stage.

France's win was their fourth. France became the first country to win the contest four times. The Netherlands' win was their third. Spain and the United Kingdom each won for the second time. And it was the first time that any country (Spain, in this case) had a winning ESC entry two years in a row.

Austria was absent from the contest, refusing to participate in a contest staged in Franco-ruled Spain.^[1]

Individual Entries

Results

Score sheet

Returning artists

Commentators

•  Yugoslavia - Miloje Orlović (Televizija Beograd), Mladen Delić (Televizija Zagreb), Tomaž Terček (Televizija Ljubljana)
•  Luxembourg - Jacques Navadic (Télé-Luxembourg)
•  Spain - José Luis Uribarri (TVE1)^[2], Miguel de los Santos (Primer Programa RNE)
•  Monaco - Pierre Tchernia (Télé Monte Carlo)
•  Ireland - Gay Byrne (RTÉ Television)
•  Italy - Renato Tagliani (Secondo Programma)
•  United Kingdom - Michael Aspel (BBC 1),^[3][4] Tony Brandon (BBC Radio 1)
•  Netherlands – Pim Jacobs (Nederland 1)^[5]
•  Sweden - Christina Hansegård (Sveriges Radio-TV and SR P3)^[6]
•  Belgium - Herman Verelst (BRT), Paule Herreman (RTB)
•  Switzerland - Theodor Haller (TV DRS), Georges Hardy (TSR), Giovanni Bertini (TSI)
•  Norway - Sverre Christophersen (NRK)^[7][8], Erik Heyerdahl (NRK P1)
•  Germany - Hans-Joachim Rauschenbach (ARD Deutsches Fernsehen)^[9]
•  France - Pierre Tchernia (Première Chaîne ORTF)^[10]
•  Portugal - Henrique Mendes (RTP1)
•  Finland - Aarno Walli (YLE TV2)^[11]
•  Austria (Non-participating country) - Willy Kralik (ORF)

Spokespersons

•  Yugoslavia - Helga Vlahović
•  Luxembourg - TBC
•  Spain - Joaquín Prat
•  Monaco - TBC
•  Ireland - John Skehan
•  Italy - Mike Bongiorno
•  United Kingdom - Colin-Ward Lewis
•  Netherlands – Leo Nelissen
•  Sweden - Edvard Matz^[12]
•  Belgium - Nand Baert
•  Switzerland - Alexandre Burger
•  Norway - Janka Polanyi^[13]
•  Germany - Hans-Otto Grünefeldt
•  France - Roger Stéphane
•  Portugal - Maria Manuela Furtado
•  Finland - Aarre Elo^[14]

National jury members

•  Spain – Álvaro de la Iglesia (journalist and La Codorniz director), Paqui Crespo (student), Carmen Debén (TVE scriptwriter and journalist), Luis Sánchez (PhD in Medicine), Manuel Gil (actor), José Ramón Barrera (iron and steel technician), Pilar Suárez (student), José Luis García (student), Andrés Sobrevalls (agricultural worker), Román Alcalá (student)^[15]

Trivia

• Jean-Jacques Bertolai, representing Monaco, became one of the youngest Eurovision participants, at just 12 years old.
• Salomé caused a stir because her outfit was made of porcelain (and weighed over 30 pounds (14 kg)).
• Muriel Day was the first singer from Northern Ireland to represent the Republic of Ireland.
• There are conflicting reports that before the contest started, host Laurita Valenzuela asked EBU voting scrutineer, Clifford Brown what would happen if there was a tie. He assured her that it would never happen. After the last jury voted and four countries were tied, she laughed nervously and asked him in both Spanish and French to tell her who the winners were "exactly".
• ESC 1969 was the second to be filmed and transmitted in colour, even though TVE did not have colour equipment at the time. It had to rent colour TV cameras from the ARD German network. The colour transmission was distributed through the EBU network as well the east-European Intervision network, and through satellite also to Chile and Brazil. In Spain itself the broadcast was seen in black and white because the local transmitters did not support colour transmissions.
• Benny Hill once parodied this in his very first episode for Thames.
• Monty Python's Flying Circus parodied Lulu's performance with a similarly nonsensical number called "Bing Tiddle Tiddle Bong," written entirely in pictographs for sounds.
• As Norway's representative, Kirsti Sparboe, takes a bow at the end of her performance, she almost trips herself and falls over, she also caused a stir as a rumour was spread that her costume was made from the country's illegal sealskin.
• For years, there has been a common misconception that the country of Liechtenstein wanted to take part in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1969. They did not have their own broadcasting service, which is why they have not participated to date. It has been said that the song that would have represented them was "Un Beau Matin" ("A Beautiful Morning") by Vetty. The song is, in fact, a parody of a typical ESC entry of the day---and is in French. Had Liechtenstein wanted, let alone been allowed, to participate for real, they would have had to submit a song in German, as a national language rule was then in effect.
• Had the current rule preventing ties been in play, France would have been the only winner, followed by Spain, United Kingdom and Netherlands.

References