Eurovision Song Contest 1961

Eurovision Song Contest 1961
Dates
Final date 18 March 1961
Host
Venue Palais des Festivals et des Congrès
Cannes, France
Presenter(s) Jacqueline Joubert
Conductor Franck Pourcel
Director Marcel Cravenne
Host broadcaster Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française (RTF)
Interval act Tessa Beaumont and Max Bozzoni
Participants
Number of entries 16
Debuting countries
Returning countries None
Withdrawing countries None
Vote
Voting system Each country had 10 jury members who each awarded 1 point to their favourite song
Nul points None
Winning song  Luxembourg
"Nous les amoureux"
Eurovision Song Contest
◄1960 • 1961 • 1962►

The Eurovision Song Contest 1961 was the sixth Eurovision Song Contest. It was held on 18 March 1961 and was the first to take place on a Saturday night, a tradition that has continued into modern times. It was hosted in the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès located in Cannes, France, where it was staged two years previously. Luxembourg won for its first time with the song "Nous les amoureux" performed in French by Jean-Claude Pascal. Due to the contest overrunning in time, the winning song's reprise was not shown in the UK.[1]

Location

For more details on the host city, see Cannes.
Cannes Palais des Festivals et des Congrès, France. Host venue of the 1961 Eurovision Song Contest.

Cannes is a city located in the French Riviera. It is a busy tourist destination and host of the annual Cannes Film Festival. It is a commune of France located in the Alpes-Maritimes department. Cannes is not renowned for traditional theatre. However, small venues stage productions and host short sketches during the annual International Actors’ Performance Festival. Popular theaters include the Espace Miramar and the Alexandre III.

The contest returned to the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès, which also played host venue for the 1959 contest, a building built in 1949 to host the Cannes Film Festival. The original building was located on the boulevard of Promenade de la Croisette on the present site of the JW Marriott Cannes. In response to the growing success of the Festival and the advent of the first business conventions, such as the MIPTV Media Market.

Format

Jacqueline Joubert presented the show, having already done so two years earlier in 1959. The stage used for the 1961 Contest was notably larger than in previous years and was decorated with flowers. It is noticeable that during the voting, Luxembourg gave the UK 8 points, and Norway also gave Denmark 8 points. It was the largest amount of points given to a country by a single jury since 1958, when Denmark provided France with 9 points. Such a high number of points obtained by a country wouldn't be achieved until 1970, when Ireland would receive 9 points from Belgium.[1]

Participating countries

A total of sixteen countries took part in the Contest, including the three debuting countries: Finland, Spain, and Yugoslavia. There were no returning or withdrawing countries this particular year.[1]

Conductors

Each performance had a conductor who maestro the orchestra.[2]

Returning artists

The contest saw the return of two artists this year with the Belgian representative, Bob Benny, who previously participated in the 1959 contest; and Nora Brockstedt, who performed for Norway in 1960.[1]

Results

Draw Country Language[3] Artist Song English translation Place Points
01  Spain Spanish Conchita Bautista "Estando contigo" Being with you 9 8
02  Monaco French Colette Deréal "Allons, allons les enfants" Come on, come on children 10 6
03  Austria German Jimmy Makulis "Sehnsucht" Longing 15 1
04  Finland Finnish Laila Kinnunen "Valoa ikkunassa" The lights in the window 10 6
05  Yugoslavia Serbian Ljiljana Petrović "Neke davne zvezde" (Неке давне звезде) Some ancient stars 8 9
06  Netherlands Dutch Greetje Kauffeld "Wat een dag" What a day 10 6
07  Sweden Swedish Lill-Babs "April, April" – 14 2
08  Germany German, French Lale Andersen "Einmal sehen wir uns wieder" We will meet again 13 3
09  France French Jean-Paul Mauric "Printemps, avril carillonne" Spring, April rings 4 13
10   Switzerland French Franca di Rienzo "Nous aurons demain" We'll have tomorrow 3 16
11  Belgium Dutch Bob Benny "September, gouden roos" September, golden rose 15 1
12  Norway Norwegian Nora Brockstedt "Sommer i Palma" Summer in Palma 7 10
13  Denmark Danish Dario Campeotto "Angelique" – 5 12
14  Luxembourg French Jean-Claude Pascal "Nous les amoureux" We the lovers 1 31
15  United Kingdom English The Allisons "Are You Sure?" – 2 24
16  Italy Italian Betty Curtis "Al di là" Beyond 5 12

Scoreboard

Each country had 10 jury members who each awarded 1 point to their favourite song.

Voting results
Spain 8 1 1 1 2 2 1
Monaco 6 1 3 1 1
Austria 1 1
Finland 6 1 1 2 2
Yugoslavia 9 3 1 2 1 1 1
Netherlands 6 2 1 1 2
Sweden 2 2
Germany 3 1 1 1
France 13 2 2 1 1 4 1 2
Switzerland 16 1 2 2 1 2 4 2 2
Belgium 1 1
Norway 10 1 2 1 5 1
Denmark 12 1 1 2 8
Luxembourg 31 2 4 4 3 5 1 1 5 1 1 1 3
United Kingdom 24 3 3 7 1 1 8 1
Italy 12 1 1 1 1 4 4
The table is ordered by appearance

International broadcasts and voting

The table below shows the order in which votes were cast during the 1961 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.[4]

Voting and spokespersons

  1.  Italy - Enzo Tortora
  2.  United Kingdom - Michael Aspel[5]
  3.  Luxembourg - TBC
  4.  Denmark - Claus Toksvig
  5.  Norway - Mette Janson[6]
  6.  Belgium - TBC
  7.   Switzerland - Boris Acquadro
  8.  France - TBC
  9.  Germany - TBC
  10.  Sweden - Roland Eiworth[7]
  11.  Netherlands - Siebe van der Zee[8]
  12.  Yugoslavia - TBC
  13.  Finland - Poppe Berg[9]
  14.  Austria - TBC
  15.  Monaco - TBC
  16.  Spain - Diego Ramírez Pastor[10]

All the juries (apart from Austria and the United Kingdom) announced their votes in French.

Commentators

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 "Eurovision Song Contest 1961". EBU. Retrieved 2009-02-13. |first1= missing |last1= in Authors list (help)
  2. ↑ http://www.andtheconductoris.eu
  3. ↑ "Eurovision Song Contest 1961". The Diggiloo Thrush. Retrieved 4 March 2012.
  4. ↑ "Eurovision 1961 - Cast and Crew". IMDb. Retrieved 5 March 2012.
  5. ↑ Roxburgh, Gordon (2012). Songs For Europe The United Kingdom at The Eurovision Song Contest Volume One: The 1950s and 1960s. UK: Telos. p. 259. ISBN 978-1-84583-065-6.
  6. ↑ Dyrseth, Seppo (OGAE Norway)
  7. ↑ "Infosajten.com". Infosajten.com. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
  8. ↑ "Greetje vanavond nummer zes", Nieuwe Leidsche Courant, 18 March 1961
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 "Selostajat ja taustalaulajat läpi vuosien? • Viisukuppila". Viisukuppila.fi. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 "FORO FESTIVAL DE EUROVISIÓN • Ver Tema - Uribarri comentarista Eurovision 2010". Eurosongcontest.phpbb3.es. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 Christian Masson. "1961 - Cannes". Songcontest.free.fr. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
  12. ↑ Rau, Oliver (OGAE Germany)
  13. ↑ "Nederlandse televisiecommentatoren bij het Eurovisie Songfestival". Eurovision Artists (in Dutch).
  14. ↑ Leif Thorsson. Melodifestivalen genom tiderna ["Melodifestivalen through time"] (2006), p. 34. Stockholm: Premium Publishing AB. ISBN 91-89136-29-2

External links

Coordinates: 43°33′12″N 7°01′20″E / 43.55333°N 7.02222°E