Eurovision Song Contest 1966

The Eurovision Song Contest 1966 was the 11th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Luxembourg City, Luxembourg, following the country's victory at the 1965 contest with the song "Poupée de cire, poupée de son" by France Gall. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster Compagnie Luxembourgeoise de Télédiffusion (CLT), the contest was held at the Villa Louvigny on Saturday 5 March 1966 and was hosted by Luxembourgish television presenter Josiane Chen.

Eurovision Song Contest 1966
Dates
Final5 March 1966
Host
VenueVilla Louvigny
Luxembourg City, Luxembourg
Presenter(s)Josiane Shen
Musical directorJean Roderès
Directed by
Executive supervisorClifford Brown
Host broadcasterCompagnie Luxembourgeoise de Télédiffusion (CLT)
Interval actLes Haricots Rouges
Websiteeurovision.tv/event/luxembourg-1966
Participants
Number of entries18
Debuting countriesNone
Returning countriesNone
Non-returning countriesNone
Participation map
  •      Participating countries
Vote
Voting systemTen-member juries awarded points (5, 3 and 1) to their three favourite songs.
Nul points in final
Winning song Austria
"Merci, Chérie"

Eighteen countries participated in the contest, the same that had competed the year before.

The winner was Austria with the song "Merci, Chérie", performed and composed by Udo Jürgens, and written by Jürgens and Thomas Hörbiger.[1] This was Udo Jürgens third consecutive entry in the contest, finally managing to score a victory for his native country Austria. Austria would not go on to win again until the 2014 edition. This was also the first winning song to be performed in German. The contest is also noted for its historic results for several countries. Austria who came first, Sweden who came second, Norway who came third and Belgium who came fourth all achieved their best results up until then, some of which would stand for several decades. In contrast traditional Eurovision heavyweights up to that point such as France, United Kingdom and Italy all achieved their worst result by far up till that point, with the general public in the aforementioned countries meeting these results with a degree of consternation.

The rule stating that a country could only sing in any of its national languages was originally created this year, possibly due to the 1965 edition's Swedish entry which was sung in English.[2]

Location
Villa Louvigny, Luxembourg – host venue of the 1966 contest

The 1966 Eurovision Song Contest was hosted in Luxembourg City. The venue chosen to host the 1966 contest was the Villa Louvigny, which was also the venue for the 1962 edition. The building served as the headquarters of Compagnie Luxembourgeoise de Télédiffusion, the forerunner of RTL Group. It is located in Municipal Park, in the Ville Haute quarter of the centre of the city.

Format

A new change in rules was introduced this year, allowing music experts to be present in the juries again. 1966 also marked the year the first ever black singer graced the Eurovision stage, Milly Scott representing the Netherlands. She was also the first singer to use a portable microphone.

This year's voting was also characterised with numerous cases of "neighbourly" or "bloc" voting - a problem that would plague the contest in many future decades. Sweden for example received all its 16 points, bar one, from its Nordic neighbours - as did Finland. Denmark likewise received all its points from Nordic nations. The voting of the Nordic countries was met with booing from the Luxembourg audience. Portugal and its sole neighbour Spain exchanged maximum five points, with Switzerland and Austria - also two countries neighbouring each other - doing likewise. France was spared the indignity of no points from its micro-state neighbour Monaco. Ireland awarded maximum points to its culturally closest neighbour the United Kingdom with Netherlands doing the same for Belgium.

During the voting process, the presenter (Josiane Chen) accidentally greeted United Kingdom by saying "Good night London". She then realized her mistake and said "Good evening, London". Afterwards Michael Aspel, who was the spokesperson for the United Kingdom at the time, responded by saying "Good morning, Luxembourg" prompting laughter from Josiane and the audience.

Participating countries
Further information: List of countries in the Eurovision Song Contest
Udo Jürgens with last year's winner France Gall

All countries who had participated in the 1965 contest returned for a second consecutive year.[2]

Conductors

Each performance had a conductor who was maestro of the orchestra.[3][4]

Returning artists
Artist Country Previous year(s)
Domenico Modugno  Italy 1958, 1959
Udo Jürgens  Austria 1964, 1965

Results
Draw Country Artist Song Language[5][6] Place[7] Points
01  Germany Margot Eskens "Die Zeiger der Uhr" German 10 7
02  Denmark Ulla Pia "Stop – mens legen er go'" Danish 14 4
03  Belgium Tonia "Un peu de poivre, un peu de sel" French 4 14
04  Luxembourg Michèle Torr "Ce soir je t'attendais" French 10 7
05  Yugoslavia Berta Ambrož "Brez besed" Slovene 7 9
06  Norway Åse Kleveland "Intet er nytt under solen" Norwegian 3 15
07  Finland Ann-Christine Nyström "Playboy" Finnish 10 7
08  Portugal Madalena Iglésias "Ele e ela" Portuguese 13 6
09  Austria Udo Jürgens "Merci, Chérie" German[lower-alpha 1] 1 31
10  Sweden Lill Lindfors and Svante Thuresson "Nygammal vals" Swedish 2 16
11  Spain Raphael "Yo soy aquél" Spanish 7 9
12   Switzerland Madeleine Pascal "Ne vois-tu pas ?" French 6 12
13  Monaco Téréza "Bien plus fort" French 17 0
14  Italy Domenico Modugno "Dio, come ti amo" Italian 17 0
15  France Dominique Walter "Chez nous" French 16 1
16  Netherlands Milly Scott "Fernando en Filippo" Dutch 15 2
17  Ireland Dickie Rock "Come Back to Stay" English 4 14
18  United Kingdom Kenneth McKellar "A Man Without Love" English 9 8

Scoreboard
Voting results[8][9]
Total score
Germany
Denmark
Belgium
Luxembourg
Yugoslavia
Norway
Finland
Portugal
Austria
Sweden
Spain
Switzerland
Monaco
Italy
France
Netherlands
Ireland
United Kingdom
Contestants
 Germany 7151
Denmark 413
Belgium 145315
Luxembourg 7151
Yugoslavia 9315
Norway 1513335
Finland 7331
Portugal 615
Austria 31555113533
Sweden 165551
Spain 9153
Switzerland 121533
Monaco 0
Italy 0
France 11
Netherlands 211
Ireland 143353
United Kingdom 835

5 points

Below is a summary of all 5 points in the final:

N. Contestant Nation(s) giving 5 points
4  Austria  Belgium,  Luxembourg,  Monaco,  Yugoslavia
3  Sweden  Denmark,  Finland,  Norway
2  Belgium  Germany,  Netherlands
1  Germany   Switzerland
 Ireland  France
 Luxembourg  Sweden
 Norway  Italy
 Portugal  Spain
 Spain  Portugal
  Switzerland  Austria
 United Kingdom  Ireland
 Yugoslavia  United Kingdom

Spokespersons

Listed below is the order in which votes were cast during the 1966 contest along with the spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for their respective country.

  1.  Germany – Werner Veigel
  2.  Denmark – Claus Toksvig
  3.  Belgium – André Hagon
  4.  Luxembourg – Camillo Felgen (Luxembourgish representative in 1960 and 1962)
  5.  Yugoslavia – Dragana Marković
  6.  Norway – Erik Diesen
  7.  Finland – Poppe Berg
  8.  Portugal – Maria Manuela Furtado
  9.  Austria – Walter Richard Langer
  10.  Sweden – Edvard Matz[10]
  11.  Spain – Margarita Nicola
  12.   Switzerland – Alexandre Burger
  13.  Monaco – TBC
  14.  Italy – Enzo Tortora
  15.  France – Jean-Claude Massoulier[11]
  16.  Netherlands – Herman Brouwer[12]
  17.  Ireland – Frank Hall
  18.  United Kingdom – Michael Aspel[3]

Broadcasts

Each national broadcaster also sent a commentator to the contest, in order to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language.

Broadcasters and commentators in participating countries
Country Broadcaster(s) Commentator(s) Ref(s)
 Austria ORF Willy Kralik
 Belgium RTB French: Paule Herreman
BRT Dutch: Herman Verelst
 Denmark DR TV Skat Nørrevig
 Finland TV-ohjelma 1, Yleisohjelma Aarno Walli
 France Première Chaîne ORTF François Deguelt [13]
 Germany Deutsches Fernsehen Hans-Joachim Rauschenbach
 Ireland Telefís Éireann Brendan O'Reilly
Radió Éireann Kevin Roche
 Italy Secondo Programma Piero Angela
 Luxembourg Télé-Luxembourg Jacques Navadic [13]
 Monaco Télé Monte Carlo François Deguelt
 Netherlands Nederland 1 Teddy Scholten [12][14]
 Norway NRK, NRK P1 Sverre Christophersen
 Portugal RTP Henrique Mendes
 Spain TVE Federico Gallo
 Sweden Sveriges TV, SR P1 Sven Lindahl [15]
  Switzerland TV DRS German: Theodor Haller
TSR French: Georges Hardy
TSI Italian: Giovanni Bertini
 United Kingdom BBC1 David Jacobs [3]
BBC Light Programme John Dunn
 Yugoslavia Televizija Beograd Serbo-Croatian: Miloje Orlović
Televizija Zagreb Serbo-Croatian: Mladen Delić
Televizija Ljubljana Slovene: Tomaž Terček
Broadcasters and commentators in non-participating countries
Country Broadcaster(s) Commentator(s) Ref(s)
 Czechoslovakia ČST Unknown [3]
 East Germany Deutscher Fernsehfunk Unknown [3]
 Hungary RTV Unknown [3]
 Morocco TVM Unknown [3]
 Poland TVP Unknown [3]
 Romania TVR Unknown [3]
 Soviet Union CT USSR Igor Kirillov [3]

Incidents

Italian song arrangement

This was one of the first contests in which an entry was not accompanied by an orchestra. The Italian entry "Dio, come ti amo" performed by Domenico Modugno had been rearranged since its performance at the Sanremo Music Festival and officially broke the EBU rule that stated the arrangement should be finalised well in advance. During the Saturday afternoon rehearsal Modugno performed the new arrangement with three of his own musicians as opposed to the orchestra, which went over the three-minute time limit. Following his rehearsal Modugno was confronted by the show's producers about exceeding the time limit and was asked to use the original arrangement with the orchestra. Modugno was so dissatisfied with the orchestra that he threatened to withdraw from the contest. Both the producers and EBU scrutineer Clifford Brown felt it was too short notice to fly Gigliola Cinquetti to Luxembourg to represent Italy, so the EBU gave in and allowed Modugno to use his own ensemble instead of the orchestra. Despite websites and the official programme listing Angelo Giacomazzi as the conductor, Giacomazzi actually played the piano for the entry.[3][16]

Notes
  1. The song also contains phrases in French.

References
  1. "About Udo Jürgens". EBU.
  2. "Eurovision Song Contest 1966". EBU. Retrieved 14 June 2012.
  3. Roxburgh, Gordon (2012). Songs for Europe: The United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest. Volume One: The 1950s and 1960s. Prestatyn: Telos Publishing. pp. 407–417. ISBN 978-1-84583-065-6.
  4. "And the conductor is..." Retrieved 10 July 2018.
  5. "Eurovision Song Contest 1966". The Diggiloo Thrush. Retrieved 4 March 2012.
  6. "Eurovision Song Contest 1966". 4Lyrics.eu. Retrieved 16 September 2020.
  7. "Final of Luxembourg 1966". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 7 April 2021. Retrieved 7 April 2021.
  8. "Results of the Final of Luxembourg 1966". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 7 April 2021. Retrieved 7 April 2021.
  9. "Eurovision Song Contest 1966 – Scoreboard". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 6 July 2015. Retrieved 14 June 2021.
  10. "Infosajten.com". Infosajten.com. Archived from the original on 18 July 2012. Retrieved 10 August 2012.
  11. Deguelt, François et al. (5 March 1966). 11ème Concours Eurovision de la Chanson 1966 [11th Eurovision Song Contest 1966] (Television production). Luxembourg: RTL, ORTF (commentary).
  12. "Teddy Scholten geeft commentaar op het Eurovisie Songfestival". Limburgsch Dagblad. 25 February 1966. p. 5. Retrieved 14 June 2021.
  13. Christian Masson. "1966 – Luxembourg". Songcontest.free.fr. Retrieved 10 August 2012.
  14. "Nederlandse televisiecommentatoren bij het Eurovisie Songfestival". Eurovision Artists (in Dutch).
  15. Thorsson, Leif (2006). Melodifestivalen genom tiderna [Melodifestivalen through time]. Stockholm: Premium Publishing AB. p. 60. ISBN 91-89136-29-2.
  16. Angelo Giacomazzi bio at www.andtheconductoris.eu
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.