Eurovision Song Contest 1972

Eurovision Song Contest 1972
Dates
Final date 25 March 1972
Host
Venue Usher Hall
Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom
Presenter(s) Moira Shearer
Conductor Malcolm Lockyer
Director Terry Hughes
Executive supervisor Clifford Brown
Host broadcaster British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
Interval act Tattoo at Edinburgh Castle
Participants
Number of entries 18
Debuting countries None
Returning countries None
Withdrawing countries None
Vote
Voting system Two jury members from each country, with each of them awarding between 1 to 5 points for each song.
Nul points None
Winning song  Luxembourg
"Après toi"
Eurovision Song Contest
◄1971 • 1972 • 1973►

The Eurovision Song Contest 1972 was the 17th annual Eurovision Song Contest. It was held in Edinburgh, United Kingdom. Although Monaco had won the previous year's contest, the principality was unable to meet the demands of hosting the event (on January 31, 1972, Monaco's ruler Rainier III of Monaco received a letter from the European Broadcasting Union about holding the 1972 Eurovision in Monaco, he was unable to provide a venue, the props and everything else so in February 1972, Prince Rainier declined because of the expenses).

Séverine made the trip to the Scottish capital Edinburgh to pass on the 'Grand Prix' to Vicky Leandros. However, she looked thoroughly uninterested in the Monegasque entry when seen by viewers checking her watch before the song was performed.[1] This marked the fourth time that the contest was held in the United Kingdom. However, this is the first (and, so far, only) time that the UK hosted the Eurovision Song Contest in a venue outside England.

Luxembourg's win was their third. Yves Dessca also wrote the text for "Un Banc, Un Arbre, Une Rue" that won in 1971, and other than conductors of the winning song, became the second person to win the Contest twice, the first person to win for two different countries and the first person to win two years in a row.[1]

Location

For more details on the host city, see Edinburgh.
Usher Hall, Edinburgh - venue of the 1972 Eurovision Song Contest.

Edinburgh, the capital city of Scotland, was one of the historical major centres of the Enlightenment, led by the University of Edinburgh, helping to earn it the nickname Athens of the North.[2] The Old Town and New Town districts of Edinburgh were listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995 in recognition of the unique character of the Medieval Old Town and the planned Georgian New Town. It covers both the Old and New Towns together with the Dean Village and the Calton Hill areas. There are over 4,500 listed buildings within the city.[3]

The city is know to play host of the annual Edinburgh Festival, a group of official and independent festivals held annually over about four weeks beginning in early August. The number of visitors attracted to Edinburgh for the Festival is roughly equal to the settled population of the city. The best-known of these events are the Edinburgh Fringe, the largest performing-arts festival in the world; the Edinburgh International Festival; the Edinburgh Military Tattoo; and the Edinburgh International Book Festival. Other annual events include the Hogmanay street party and the Beltane Fire Festival. Edinburgh attracts over 1 million overseas visitors a year, making it the second most visited tourist destination in the United Kingdom.[4]

The Usher Hall, venue for the 1972 contest, is a concert hall, situated on Lothian Road, in the west end of Edinburgh, Scotland. It has hosted concerts and events since its construction in 1914 and can hold approximately 2,900[5] people in its recently restored auditorium, which is well loved by performers due to its acoustics. The Hall is flanked by The Royal Lyceum Theatre on the right and The Traverse Theatre on the left. Historic Scotland has registered the Hall with Category A listed building status.

Format

The stage design included a screen to introduce and accompany the on stage competing performances, and to show an interval act and voting sequence that were done at Edinburgh Castle. Before each country's performance, a picture of each song's performers along with their names and the song's title were projected on the screen, and during each performance, animated spiral shapes were projected as additional visual effect. The interval act was performed at the outside vast Esplanade of the Great Hall of Edinburgh Castle. The jurors were stationed in the safety of the castle, and watched the competing performances at Usher Hall on TV.

Each country had two jury members, one aged between 16 and 25 and one aged between 26 and 55. They each awarded 1 to 5 points for each song, other than the song of their own country. They cast their votes immediately after each song was performed and the votes were then collected and counted. For the public voting sequence after the interval act, the jury members were shown on the stage's screen with each lifting a signboard with the number between 1 to 5 for each song, as a visual verification of the scores they had awarded earlier. The eventual winner, Luxembourg, remained in a strong scoring position throughout the voting.

1972 was the first year that had no ties in the voting. Every year prior to 1972, at least two countries had received the same score.

Participating countries

All countries who participated in the 1971 contest were present this year; with no withdrawals, returns, or débutantes. The Irish entry was in Gaelic, so far the country's only entry in that language.

Conductors

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

Returning artists

Four artists returned to the competition this year. Luxembourg's Vicky Leandros who last performed for the nation in 1967; Carlos Mendes for Portugal who last participated in 1968; Swedish entry Family Four who returned for a second consecutive year; and Yugoslavia's Tereza Kesovija who previously represented Monaco in 1966.

Results

Draw Country Language[7] Artist Song English translation Place Points
01  Germany German Mary Roos "Nur die Liebe läßt uns leben" Only Love Lets Us Live 3 107
02  France French Betty Mars "Comé-comédie" Comic Comedy 11 81
03  Ireland Gaelic Sandie Jones "Ceol an Ghrá" The Music of Love 15 72
04  Spain Spanish Jaime Morey "Amanece" It's Dawning 10 83
05  United Kingdom English The New Seekers "Beg, Steal or Borrow" - 2 114
06  Norway Norwegian Grethe Kausland and Benny Borg "Småting" Little Things 14 73
07  Portugal Portuguese Carlos Mendes "A festa da vida" The Party of Life 7 90
08   Switzerland French Véronique Müller "C'est la chanson de mon amour" This is the Song of My Love 8 88
09  Malta Maltese Helen and Joseph "L-imħabba" Love 18 48
10  Finland Finnish Päivi Paunu & Kim Floor "Muistathan" Remember 12 78
11  Austria German Milestones "Falter im Wind" Butterfly in the Wind 5 100
12  Italy Italian Nicola di Bari "I giorni dell'arcobaleno" The Rainbow Days 6 92
13  Yugoslavia Croatian Tereza Kesovija "Muzika i ti" Music and You 9 87
14  Sweden Swedish Family Four "Härliga sommardag" Lovely Summer Day 13 75
15  Monaco French Anne-Marie Godart and Peter MacLane "Comme on s'aime" How We Love Each Other 16 65
16  Belgium French Serge & Christine Ghisoland "À la folie ou pas du tout" Madly or Not At All 17 55
17  Luxembourg French Vicky Leandros "Après toi" After You 1 128
18  Netherlands Dutch Sandra and Andres "Als het om de liefde gaat" When It's All About Love 4 106

Scoreboard

Results
Germany 107 8 6 9 5 6 6 5 4 5 5 7 5 8 8 7 7 6
France 81 5 5 2 9 7 2 3 5 4 2 3 5 2 6 7 8 6
Ireland 72 4 3 4 4 6 4 3 6 3 4 3 3 5 5 4 6 5
Spain 83 7 5 5 3 8 6 3 4 4 5 3 2 7 8 3 5 5
United Kingdom 114 8 9 6 2 10 4 8 2 7 7 7 9 6 9 4 8 8
Norway 73 4 3 6 5 4 5 2 5 7 3 2 5 4 4 4 6 4
Portugal 90 3 4 7 7 4 2 6 5 2 4 9 4 7 4 7 10 5
Switzerland 88 4 5 6 5 4 7 2 4 7 8 5 5 4 6 4 7 5
Malta 48 3 2 4 2 6 2 2 2 5 2 2 2 3 3 2 2 4
Finland 78 4 3 3 6 5 6 4 3 3 3 3 4 4 5 8 6 8
Austria 100 6 6 6 6 3 5 5 7 5 4 6 8 10 5 4 5 9
Italy 92 4 5 3 2 3 6 7 9 6 6 6 4 8 6 6 6 5
Yugoslavia 87 7 4 5 8 5 4 5 2 4 3 3 2 4 9 8 8 6
Sweden 75 5 3 5 3 3 5 4 2 4 5 4 3 7 5 7 5 5
Monaco 65 4 3 4 3 5 6 2 2 5 5 3 3 4 3 4 4 5
Belgium 55 2 3 4 2 5 2 3 3 5 4 2 3 2 2 4 6 3
Luxembourg 128 9 8 9 2 10 8 7 6 4 6 8 9 10 8 7 8 9
Netherlands 106 6 6 8 8 9 8 5 6 3 9 6 3 9 6 5 2 7

10 points

Below is a summary of all perfect 10 scores that were given during the voting.

N. Contestant Voting nation
2 Luxembourg United Kingdom, Yugoslavia
1 Austria Sweden
Portugal Luxembourg
United Kingdom Norway

International broadcasts and voting

Each national broadcaster sent a commentator to the contest, in order to provide coverage of the event in their own native language. Apart from the participating countries, the contest was transmitted in live for the first time in the continent of Asia, in the countries Japan, Tawian, Thailand, the Philippines and Hong Kong. Brazil and Greece also provided live broadcasting. Iceland and Israel broadcast it a few days later. The table below shows the order in which the votes were cast along with each country's two jury members, commentator and broadcasting station.

Voting order Country Jury members Commentator Broadcaster
01  Germany TBC Hanns Verres ARD Deutsches Fernsehen[8]
Wolf Mittler Deutschlandfunk/Bayern 2
02  France TBC Pierre Tchernia Première Chaîne ORTF[9]
TBC TBC
03  Ireland TBC Mike Murphy RTÉ Television
Kevin Roche Radio Éireann
04  Spain Emma Cohen (under 25) and Luis María Ansón (over 25)[10] Julio Rico TVE1[11]
Miguel de los Santos Primer Programa RNE
05  United Kingdom Doreen Samuels (under 25) and Robert Bruce Walker (over 25)[12] Tom Fleming BBC1
Pete Murray BBC Radio 1[12]
Terry James British Forces Radio[13]
06  Norway Signe Abusdal and Rachel Mord Roald Øyen NRK[14][15]
Erik Heyerdahl NRK P1
07  Portugal Pedro Sousa Macedo (under 25) and Maria João Aguiar (over 25)[16] Henrique Mendes RTP1
Amadeu Meireles RDP Antena 1
08   Switzerland TBC Theodor Haller TV DRS
Georges Hardy TSR
Giovanni Bertini TSI
TBC TBC
09  Malta Mary Rose Mallia (under 25) and Joe Zerafa (over 25)[17] Norman Hamilton[18] MTV
TBC TBC
10  Finland Merita Merikoski (under 25) and Åke Granholm (over 25)[19] Heikki Seppälä YLE TV1
Poppe Berg YLE Radio 1
11  Austria TBC Ernst Grissemann FS2
Hubert Gaisbauer Hitradio Ö3
12  Italy TBC Renato Tagliani Programma Nazionale
Secondo Programma Radio
13  Yugoslavia Vera Zlokovic (under 25) and Veljko Bakasun (over 25)[20] Milovan Ilić Televizija Beograd
Oliver Mlakar Televizija Zagreb
Tomaž Terček Televizija Ljubljana
TBC TBC
14  Sweden Titti Sjöblom (under 25) and Arne Domnérus (over 25)[21] Bo Billtén[21] SR TV1
Björn Bjelfvenstam SR P3
15  Monaco Pierre Tchernia Télé Monte Carlo
TBC TBC
16  Belgium TBC Herman Verelst BRT
Arlette Vincent RTB
Nand Baert BRT Radio 1
André Hagon RTB La Première
17  Luxembourg TBC Jacques Navadic Télé-Luxembourg
Camillo Felgen RTL Radio
18  Netherlands Jennifer Baljet (under 25) and Cornelis Wagter (over 25) Pim Jacobs Nederland 1
TBC TBC

Non-participating countries

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 O'Connor, John Kennedy. The Eurovision Song Contest - The Official History. Carlton Books, UK. 2007 ISBN 978-1-84442-994-3
  2. ↑ "Edinburgh, the 'Athens of the North'". Learning and Teaching Scotland. Retrieved 2 March 2011.
  3. ↑ "Conservation in Edinburgh". The City of Edinburgh Council. Archived from the original on 22 May 2007. Retrieved 20 May 2007.
  4. ↑ "National Statistics Online – International Visits". ONS. Archived from the original on 26 April 2009. Retrieved 19 July 2009.
  5. ↑ The Usher hall on Geograph
  6. ↑ "Conductors 1972". 4Lyrics.com. Retrieved 16 June 2012.
  7. ↑ "Eurovision Song Contest 1972". The Diggiloo Thrush. Retrieved 4 March 2012.
  8. ↑ Rau, Oliver (OGAE Germany)
  9. ↑ Christian Masson. "1971 - Dublin". Songcontest.free.fr. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
  10. ↑ Eurojaume dice: (2008-02-15). "Eurovisión 1972 – Programa posterior al festival | AEV ESPAÑA". Aeveurovision.com. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
  11. ↑ "FORO FESTIVAL DE EUROVISIÓN • Ver Tema - Uribarri comentarista Eurovision 2010". Eurosongcontest.phpbb3.es. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 "Eurovision 1972". Songs4europe.com. 1972-03-25. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
  13. ↑ Roxburgh, Gordon (2014). Songs For Europe - The United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest Volume Two: The 1970's. UK: Telos Publishing. p. 80. ISBN 978-1-84583-065-6.
  14. ↑
  15. ↑ Dyrseth, Seppo (OGAE Norway)
  16. ↑ Vasco Hogan Teves, 1964-1983 20 anos de Festival RTP da Canção
  17. ↑ "Views and comments on the Eurovision Song Contest", Times of Malta, 29 March 1972
  18. ↑ "Eurovision Song Contest 1972", Times of Malta, 25 March 1972
  19. ↑ "Muistathan: Eurovision laulukilpailu 1972". Viisukuppila.fi. 2012-01-09. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
  20. ↑ Vladimir Pinzovski
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 Leif Thorsson. Melodifestivalen genom tiderna ["Melodifestivalen through time"] (2006), p. 94. Stockholm: Premium Publishing AB. ISBN 91-89136-29-2

External links