Eurovision Song Contest 1958

Eurovision Song Contest 1958
Dates
Final date 12 March 1958
Host
Venue AVRO Studios
Hilversum, Netherlands
Presenter(s) Hannie Lips
Conductor Dolf van der Linden
Host broadcaster Nederlandse Televisie Stichting (NTS)
Interval act Metropole Orkest
Participants
Number of entries 10
Debuting countries
Returning countries None
Withdrawing countries
Vote
Voting system Each country had 10 jury members who each awarded 1 point to their favourite song
Nul points None
Winning song  France
"Dors, mon amour"
Eurovision Song Contest
◄1957 • 1958 • 1959►

The Eurovision Song Contest 1958 was the third Eurovision Song Contest. The contest took place in Hilversum, Netherlands, following the country's win at the 1957 Contest, forming the convention that the winning country of the previous Eurovision Song Contest hosts the following year's contest. The event was held on Wednesday 12 March 1958 at AVRO Studios. The winner was France with the song "Dors, mon amour", performed by André Claveau, written by Pierre Delanoë and composed by Hubert Giraud.

Ten countries participated. It was France's first win. Sweden made its debut while the United Kingdom did not enter the contest for the second and last time to date, having missed the first contest two years earlier. As in 1956, it is the only contest that has not featured a single song in the English language. The 1958 contest continued with the policy implemented the year before where each country was limited to one song entry. This policy has been retained to date.[1]

Location

For more details on the host city, see Hilversum.
AVRO Studios, Hilversum. Host venue of the 1958 Eurovision Song Contest.

Hilversum, a municipality and a town in the province of North Holland, is known as the "Media Capital" of the Netherlands.[1] Hilversum had become the centre of broadcasting and radio in the Netherlands since the 1920s when Dutch radio company Nederlandse Seintoestellen Fabriek settled there, and today the media sector stands as one of the top employers in the municipality of Hilversum.[2]

In the coming decades after the 1920s settlement of the Dutch Radio Company in Hilversum, almost all other radio stations in the Netherlands followed suit, with television following in the 1950s, thus making Hilversum at the end of the 1950s ripe to provide great experience of organization skills and staff to produce and broadcast such international TV-transmitted event as the Eurovision Song Contest, while on the other hand TV was still a challenging advanced technology in general within Europe.

One such media network was the host of the event, Nederlandse Televisie Stichting. The venue of the contest was the studio of AVRO (Algemene Vereniging Radio Omroep or "General Association of Radio Broadcasting"), a buildings-complex for the media's network among the medias buildings within Hilversum, and which belonged to the Dutch public broadcasting association operating within the framework of the Nederlandse Publieke Omroep system.

Format

The contest was held in one of Avro studios halls. The hall contained a very small stage to function as a slightly higher stand for the singers, with the program being shot from the stage-floor up, living outside the filming-frame the microphones' and other technical devices' wires which went through the studio's lower floor - at the foot of the stage. The decorative emphasis was at the stage background, the stage front and the left side from the stage from the spectator's view - where the orchestra and where the performers and host stairs-entrance were located. The background of the stage had an images-board to show behind each singer, to contextually feat each song's lyrics. The center-front of the stage before the performers, and the left area from the stage with the orchestra and stairs entrance, were decorated with tulips, of which the Netherlands are known for.[1]

The juries were not in the studio as in 1956. For the 1958 event, they remained in their own countries, listening to the event. Once the songs had all been sung, juries announced their results via telephone in reverse order of presentation, as in the previous year. The Italian entry was not picked up properly in some of the other countries, which meant that after all the other songs had been presented, Domenico Modugno had to perform his song again. It was the only year that the host country finished in last place, and the first time more than one country was placed last. The interval act was music by the Metropole Orkest, under the direction of maestro Dolf van der Linden. There were two interval acts, one in the middle of the competing songs performances and one after all the rest of the competing performances were shown.

Participating countries

Sweden, a country that would later be one of the most successful in the contest, debuted this year. The United Kingdom decided to withdraw from the contest.

After the contest, the Italian entry "Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu" (subsequently known as "Volare") by Domenico Modugno went on to become a worldwide hit. During the 1st Grammy Awards, held on 4 May 1959 at Hollywood's Beverly Hilton Hotel, "Nel blu dipinto di blu" received two awards, for Record of the Year and Song of the Year.[3] The song is the only foreign-language recording to achieve this honour,[4] and it is the only song to have competed in the Eurovision Song Contest and received a Grammy Award.[5] The song also managed to reach the No.1 spot in the US-American Billboard Charts, making it one of the most successful Eurovision songs in the history of the contest. The song was also voted the second best Eurovision entry of all time at the 50th anniversary show "Congratulations" in 2005.

Conductors

Each performance had a conductor who maestro the orchestra.[6]

Returning artists

Four artists who had participated in previous editions of the contest returned in 1958: Fud Leclerc, who also represented Belgium in 1956; Margot Hielscher for Germany, who also participated in 1957; Corry Brokken for the Netherlands, who participated in 1956 and won in 1957; and Lys Assia, who won the first contest in 1956 and participated in 1957.

Results

Draw Country Language[7] Artist Song English translation Place Points
01  Italy Italian Domenico Modugno "Nel blu dipinto di blu" In the blue painted blue 3 13
02  Netherlands Dutch Corry Brokken "Heel de wereld" The whole world 9 1
03  France French André Claveau "Dors, mon amour" Sleep, my love 1 27
04  Luxembourg French Solange Berry "Un grand amour" A great love 9 1
05  Sweden Swedish Alice Babs "Lilla stjärna" Little star 4 10
06  Denmark Danish Raquel Rastenni "Jeg rev et blad ud af min dagbog" I tore a page out of my diary 8 3
07  Belgium French Fud Leclerc "Ma petite chatte" My little sweetie 5 8
08  Germany German Margot Hielscher "Für zwei Groschen Musik" Music for two pennies 7 5
09  Austria German Liane Augustin "Die ganze Welt braucht Liebe" The whole world needs love 5 8
10   Switzerland German, Italian Lys Assia "Giorgio" — 2 24

Scoreboard

The scoreboard, after Austria contributed its points
André Claveau during a rehearsal, singing Dors, mon amour

Each country had 10 jury members who each decided the best song and each awarded 1 point.

Voting results
Italy 13 1 1 1 4 4 1 1
Netherlands 1 1
France 27 6 1 1 9 1 1 7 1
Luxembourg 1 1
Sweden 10 2 3 1 1 3
Denmark 3 1 1 1
Belgium 8 1 1 5 1
Germany 5 2 1 1 1
Austria 8 3 1 1 1 2
Switzerland 24 4 6 3 5 4 2

International broadcasts and voting

The table below shows the order in which votes were cast during the 1958 contest along with the spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for their respective country. Each national broadcaster also sent a commentator to the contest, in order to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language. Details of the commentators and the broadcasting station for which they represented are also included in the table below.[8]

Voting and spokespersons

  1.   Switzerland - Mäni Weber
  2.  Austria - TBC
  3.  Germany- Claudia Doren
  4.  Belgium - Paule Herreman
  5.  Denmark - TBC
  6.  Sweden - Roland Eiworth[9]
  7.  Luxembourg - TBC
  8.  France - Claude Darget
  9.  Netherlands - Piet te Nuyl
  10.  Italy - Fulvia Colombo

Commentators

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Eurovision History – Hilversum 1958". European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 5 March 2012.
  2. ↑ "From Hilvertshem to Hilversum" (in Dutch). Hilversum Mediastad. Retrieved 23 October 2012.
  3. ↑ Dornbrook, Don (24 May 1959). "And Now the Grammy Awards". The Milwaukee Journal. Retrieved 1 May 2011.
  4. ↑ "GRAMMY Rewind: 1st Annual GRAMMY Awards". www.grammy.com. Retrieved 22 January 2012.
  5. ↑ "International Pull of Grammys Veries In Key Markets - Grammy Facts". Billboard. 6 March 1999. p. 101. Retrieved 24 January 2012.
  6. ↑ http://www.andtheconductoris.eu
  7. ↑ "Eurovision Song Contest 1958". The Diggiloo Thrush. Retrieved 4 March 2012.
  8. ↑ "Eurovision 1958 Cast and Crew Details". IMDb. Retrieved 5 March 2012.
  9. ↑ "Infosajten.com". Infosajten.com. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
  10. ↑ "CONCOURS EUROVISION DE LA CHANSON 1958". Songcontest.free.fr. Retrieved 5 March 2012.
  11. ↑ "Nederlandse televisiecommentatoren bij het Eurovisie Songfestival". Eurovision Artists (in Dutch).
  12. ↑ Leif Thorsson. Melodifestivalen genom tiderna ["Melodifestivalen through time"] (2006), p. 14. Stockholm: Premium Publishing AB. ISBN 91-89136-29-2

External links

Coordinates: 52°14′N 5°11′E / 52.233°N 5.183°E