Eurovision Song Contest 1969

Eurovision Song Contest 1969
Dates
Final date 29 March 1969
Host
Venue Teatro Real
Madrid, Spain
Presenter(s) Laurita Valenzuela
Conductor Augusto Algueró
Director Ramón Díez
Executive supervisor Clifford Brown
Host broadcaster Televisión Española (TVE)
Interval act "La España diferente" film
Participants
Number of entries 16
Debuting countries None
Returning countries None
Withdrawing countries  Austria
Vote
Voting system Each country had 10 jury members who each cast one vote for their favourite song
Nul points None
Winning song
Eurovision Song Contest
◄1968 1969 1970►

The Eurovision Song Contest 1969 was the 14th in the series. Four countries won the contest, the first time ever a tie-break situation had occurred. However, there was no rule at the time to cover such an eventuality, so all four countries were declared joint winners.[1]

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.

Location

For more details on the host city, see Madrid.
Teatro Real, Madrid. Host venue of the 1969 Eurovision Song Contest.

Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The city is located on the Manzanares river in the centre of both the country and the Community of Madrid (which comprises the city of Madrid, its conurbation and extended suburbs and villages); this community is bordered by the autonomous communities of Castile and León and Castile-La Mancha. As the capital city of Spain, seat of government, and residence of the Spanish monarch, Madrid is also the political centre of Spain.[2]

The venue selected to host the 1969 contest was the Teatro Real, an opera house located in Madrid. From 1867 it housed the Madrid Royal Conservatory until 1925 when a Royal Order on 6 December called for eviction owing to the damage that the construction of the Metro de Madrid had caused to the building). The theatre reopened in 1966 as a concert theatre and the main concert venue of the Spanish National Orchestra and the RTVE Symphony Orchestra. In 1969, the 14th Eurovision Song Contest was held at the theatre, featuring an onstage metal sculpture created by surrealist Spanish artist, Salvador Dalí.[3]

Format

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.[1]

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.[1]

Had the later tie-break rule been in place (the country receiving the highest score from any other country, as used in 1991), the Netherlands would have won, having received 6 points from France. United Kingdom would then have been runner up, having received 5 points from Sweden. On the other hand, with the present 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, with Spain in 2nd place. Both countries received votes from 9 countries, but France received 4 points from 2 countries whereas Spain received 3 points as their highest vote.

A common urban legend on ESC forums and festivals is that just prior to the show, Laurita Valenzuela, the presenter, asked the producers what would happen if there was a tie. The producers assured her that "such a thing would never happen".

Participating countries

Austria was absent from the contest, refusing to participate in a contest staged in Franco-ruled Spain.[1][4]

Conductors

Each performance had a conductor who led the orchestra.[5] These are listed below.

Returning artists

Five artists returned in this year's contest. Louis Neefs for Belgium who last represented the nation in 1967; Germany's Siw Malmkvist who was also the participant for Sweden in 1960. Romuald for Luxembourg who represented Monaco last time in 1964; Norway's Kirsti Sparboe who represented the Scandinavian nation twice before in 1965 and 1967; and finally Simone de Oliveira who also represented Portugal in 1965.[1]

Results

Draw Country Language[6] Artist Song English translation Place Votes
01  Yugoslavia Croatian Ivan & 4M "Pozdrav svijetu" Greetings to the world 13 5
02  Luxembourg French Romuald "Catherine" 11 7
03  Spain Spanish Salomé "Vivo cantando" I live singing 1 18
04  Monaco French Jean Jacques "Maman, Maman" Mum, mum 6 11
05  Ireland English Muriel Day "The Wages of Love" 7 10
06  Italy Italian Iva Zanicchi "Due grosse lacrime bianche" Two big white tears 13 5
07  United Kingdom English Lulu "Boom Bang-a-Bang" 1 18
08  Netherlands Dutch Lenny Kuhr "De troubadour" The troubadour 1 18
09  Sweden Swedish Tommy Körberg "Judy, min vän" Judy, my friend 9 8
10  Belgium Dutch Louis Neefs "Jennifer Jennings" 7 10
11   Switzerland German Paola Del Medico "Bonjour, Bonjour" Hello, hello 5 13
12  Norway Norwegian Kirsti Sparboe "Oj, oj, oj, så glad jeg skal bli" Wow, wow, wow, how happy I'll be 16 1
13  Germany German Siw Malmkvist "Primaballerina" 9 8
14  France French Frida Boccara "Un jour, un enfant" A day, a child 1 18
15  Portugal Portuguese Simone de Oliveira "Desfolhada portuguesa" Portuguese husking 15 4
16  Finland Finnish Jarkko & Laura "Kuin silloin ennen" Like in those times 12 6

Scoreboard

Lenny Kuhr's dress
The final results of ESC 1969
Results
Yugoslavia 5 1 1 3
Luxembourg 7 1 3 1 1 1
Spain 18 1 2 3 1 3 1 3 2 2
Monaco 11 2 4 2 2 1
Ireland 10 1 1 1 3 1 3
Italy 5 1 1 1 1 1
United Kingdom 18 2 4 3 1 5 1 1 1
Netherlands 18 2 1 3 1 4 1 6
Sweden 8 1 3 1 3
Belgium 10 2 3 1 2 2
Switzerland 13 2 3 2 1 1 2 2
Norway 1 1
Germany 8 3 2 1 1 1
France 18 1 2 4 4 2 1 1 1 2
Portugal 4 2 1 1
Finland 6 1 1 1 1 1 1

International broadcasts and voting

The table below shows the order in which votes were cast during the 1969 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.[1]

Voting order Country Spokespersons Commentator Broadcaster
01  Yugoslavia Helga Vlahović Miloje Orlović Televizija Beograd
Mladen Delić Televizija Zagreb
Tomaž Terček Televizija Ljubljana
02  Luxembourg TBC Jacques Navadic Télé-Luxembourg
03  Spain Ramón Rivera José Luis Uribarri[7] TVE1
Miguel de los Santos Primer Programa RNE
04  Monaco TBC Pierre Tchernia Télé Monte Carlo
05  Ireland John Skehan Gay Byrne RTÉ Television
Kevin Roche Radio Éireann
06  Italy Mike Bongiorno Renato Tagliani Secondo Programma
07  United Kingdom Colin-Ward Lewis David Gell[8] and Michael Aspel[9][10] BBC 1
Pete Murray[8] BBC Radio 1
08  Netherlands Leo Nelissen Pim Jacobs[11] Nederland 1
09  Sweden Edvard Matz[12] Christina Hansegård[13] Sveriges Radio-TV and SR P3
10  Belgium Ward Bogaert Herman Verelst BRT
Paule Herreman RTB
11   Switzerland Alexandre Burger Theodor Haller TV DRS
Georges Hardy TSR
Giovanni Bertini TSI
12  Norway Janka Polanyi[14] Sverre Christophersen[14][15] NRK
Erik Heyerdahl NRK P1
13  Germany Hans-Otto Grünefeldt Hans-Joachim Rauschenbach ARD Deutsches Fernsehen[16]
14  France TBC Pierre Tchernia Deuxième Chaîne ORTF[17]
15  Portugal Maria Manuela Furtado Henrique Mendes RTP1
16  Finland Aarre Elo[18] Aarno Walli[19] TV-ohjelma 1
-  Austria (Non-participating country) Emil Kollpacher ORF
-  Brazil (non-participating country) TBC TV Tupi
-  Chile (non-participating country) TBC Canal 13
-  Czechoslovakia (non-participating country) TBC Československá televize
-  East Germany (non-participating country) TBC Deutscher Fernsehfunk
-  Hungary (non-participating country) TBC m1
-  Morocco (non-participating country) TBC SNRT
-  Poland (non-participating country) TBC TVP
-  Romania (non-participating country) TBC TVR1
-  Soviet Union (non-participating country) TBC CT USSR
-  Tunisia (non-participating country) TBC ERTT

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 "Eurovision Song Contest 1969". EBU. Retrieved 16 June 2012.
  2. "Madrid". Indiana.edu. 10 July 2006.
  3. "Cultural Institutions: Teatro Real". esMADRID.com. Retrieved 2009-09-03.
  4. O'Connor, John Kennedy (2005). The Eurovision Song Contest: The Official History.
  5. "Conductors 1969". 4Lyrics.com. Retrieved 16 June 2012.
  6. "Eurovision Song Contest 1969". The Diggiloo Thrush. Retrieved 4 March 2012.
  7. "FORO FESTIVAL DE EUROVISIÓN • Ver Tema - Uribarri comentarista Eurovision 2010". Eurosongcontest.phpbb3.es. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
  8. 8.0 8.1 Roxburgh, Gordon (2012). Songs For Europe The United Kingdom at The Eurovision Song Contest Volume One: The 1950s and 1960s. UK: Telos. p. 483. ISBN 978-1-84583-065-6.
  9. "Eurovision Song Contest, Grand Final: 1969". BBC. 1969-03-29. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
  10. "Eurovision 1969". Songs4europe.com. 1969-03-29. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
  11. "Nederlandse televisiecommentatoren bij het Eurovisie Songfestival". Eurovision Artists (in Dutch).
  12. "Infosajten.com". Infosajten.com. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
  13. Leif Thorsson. Melodifestivalen genom tiderna ["Melodifestivalen through time"] (2006), p. 80. Stockholm: Premium Publishing AB. ISBN 91-89136-29-2
  14. 14.0 14.1 Dyrseth, Seppo (OGAE Norway)
  15. "Hvem kommenterte før Jostein Pedersen? - Debattforum". Nrk.no. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
  16. Rau, Oliver (OGAE Germany)
  17. Christian Masson. "1969 - Madrid". Songcontest.free.fr. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
  18. "Selostajat ja taustalaulajat läpi vuosien? • Viisukuppila". Viisukuppila.fi. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
  19. "Selostajat ja taustalaulajat läpi vuosien? • Viisukuppila". Viisukuppila.fi. Retrieved 2012-08-10.

External links

Coordinates: 40°25′06″N 3°42′37″W / 40.41833°N 3.71028°W