Eurovision Song Contest 1974
The Eurovision Song Contest 1974 was the 19th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Brighton, United Kingdom and was organized by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). The UK agreed to host the event after Luxembourg, having won in both 1972 and 1973, declined to host it for a second successive year on the grounds of expense.[1] The contest was held at the Brighton Dome on 6 April 1974 and was hosted by Katie Boyle for the fourth and final time (having hosted the 1960, 1963 and 1968 editions).
| Eurovision Song Contest 1974 | |
|---|---|
| Dates | |
| Final | 6 April 1974 |
| Host | |
| Venue | The Dome Brighton, United Kingdom |
| Presenter(s) | Katie Boyle |
| Musical director | Ronnie Hazlehurst |
| Directed by | Michael Hurll |
| Executive supervisor | Clifford Brown |
| Executive producer | Bill Cotton |
| Host broadcaster | British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) |
| Website | eurovision |
| Participants | |
| Number of entries | 17 |
| Debuting countries | Greece |
| Returning countries | None |
| Non-returning countries | France |
| |
| Vote | |
| Voting system | Ten-member juries distributed ten points among their favourite songs. |
| Nul points | None |
| Winning song | Sweden "Waterloo" |
| 1973 ← Eurovision Song Contest → 1975 | |
Seventeen countries took part in the contest, with France being absent and Greece competing for the first time this year.
The winner was Sweden with the song "Waterloo", performed by ABBA, who would later go on to become one of the best-selling acts in pop music history.
Sandie Shaw, who won the contest in 1967 for the song "Puppet on a String", was seen as a spectator in the audience.
Location
The contest was held in the seaside resort of Brighton on the south coast of the United Kingdom.
The venue which hosted the event was the Brighton Dome, an arts venue originally built for the Prince Regent (later George IV) and completed in 1805.
Format
Each song was introduced by a 'postcard' featuring a montage of film material, beginning with library footage of the participating nation provided by the various national tourist organizations. This was then intercut with various clips of the artists in rehearsal, conducting their press conference with the media or posing for photographs in and around the Brighton Pavilion complex. It was the first time the contest had broadcast rehearsal footage or behind the scenes footage from the run-up to the grand final.
Participating countries
Seventeen nations took part in this year's contest. Greece made their début in the contest, while France withdrew during the week of the contest after the sudden death of French President Georges Pompidou.[1]
Conductors
Each performance had a conductor who conducted the orchestra.[2][3]
- Finland – Ossi Runne
- United Kingdom – Nick Ingman
- Spain – Rafael Ibarbia[a]
- Norway – Frode Thingnæs
- Greece – Giorgos Katsaros
- Israel – Yoni Rechter
- Yugoslavia – Zvonimir Skerl
- Sweden – Sven-Olof Walldoff
- Luxembourg – Charles Blackwell
- Monaco – Raymond Donnez
- Belgium – Pierre Chiffre
- Netherlands – Harry van Hoof
- Ireland – Colman Pearce
- Germany – Werner Scharfenberger
- Switzerland – Pepe Ederer
- Portugal – José Calvário
- Italy – Gianfranco Monaldi
Jean-Claude Petit was scheduled to conduct the French entry prior to France's withdrawal.[5]
Returning artists
Bold indicates a previous winner
| Artist | Country | Previous year(s) |
|---|---|---|
| Gigliola Cinquetti | Italy | 1964 |
| Romuald | Monaco | 1964, 1969 (for Luxembourg) |
| Bendik Singers | Norway | 1973 |
Participants and results
| R/O | Country | Artist | Song | Language[6][7] | Points | Place[8] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Finland | Carita | "Keep Me Warm" | English | 4 | 13 |
| 2 | United Kingdom | Olivia Newton-John | "Long Live Love" | English | 14 | 4 |
| 3 | Spain | Peret | "Canta y sé feliz" | Spanish | 10 | 9 |
| 4 | Norway | Anne-Karine Strøm and the Bendik Singers | "The First Day of Love" | English | 3 | 14 |
| 5 | Greece | Marinella | "Krasi, thalassa ke t' agori mou" (Κρασί, θάλασσα και τ' αγόρι μου) | Greek | 7 | 11 |
| 6 | Israel | Poogy | "Natati La Khayay" (נתתי לה חיי) | Hebrew | 11 | 7 |
| 7 | Yugoslavia | Korni Grupa | "Generacija '42" (Генерација '42) | Serbo-Croatian | 6 | 12 |
| 8 | Sweden | ABBA | "Waterloo" | English | 24 | 1 |
| 9 | Luxembourg | Ireen Sheer | "Bye Bye I Love You" | French[b] | 14 | 4 |
| 10 | Monaco | Romuald | "Celui qui reste et celui qui s'en va" | French | 14 | 4 |
| 11 | Belgium | Jacques Hustin | "Fleur de liberté" | French | 10 | 9 |
| 12 | Netherlands | Mouth and MacNeal | "I See a Star" | English | 15 | 3 |
| 13 | Ireland | Tina Reynolds | "Cross Your Heart" | English | 11 | 7 |
| 14 | Germany | Cindy and Bert | "Die Sommermelodie" | German | 3 | 14 |
| 15 | Switzerland | Piera Martell | "Mein Ruf nach dir" | German | 3 | 14 |
| 16 | Portugal | Paulo de Carvalho | "E depois do adeus" | Portuguese | 3 | 14 |
| 17 | Italy | Gigliola Cinquetti | "Sì" | Italian | 18 | 2 |
Detailed voting results
| Finland | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | 14 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | |||||||||
| Spain | 10 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3 | |||||||||||
| Norway | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||||||
| Greece | 7 | 1 | 4 | 2 | ||||||||||||||
| Israel | 11 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 | |||||||||||
| Yugoslavia | 6 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||||||||||||
| Sweden | 24 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 5 | ||||||
| Luxembourg | 14 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||||||||
| Monaco | 14 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | |||||||
| Belgium | 10 | 3 | 2 | 5 | ||||||||||||||
| Netherlands | 15 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | |||||||
| Ireland | 11 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | ||||||||||
| Germany | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||||||
| Switzerland | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||||||
| Portugal | 3 | 1 | 2 | |||||||||||||||
| Italy | 18 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 1 | ||||||||
Spokespersons
This section needs additional citations for verification. (July 2021) |
The two-person jury system used for the previous three contests was abandoned, with a resurrection of the 10-person jury system with one vote per juror, last used in 1970, returning. This was the final time it was used. Unusually, a separate draw was made for the order in which the participating countries would vote. In all previous contests either nations had voted in the same running order as the song presentation or in the reverse of that order. It was not until 2006 that the voting sequence was decided by draw again. Finland, Norway, Switzerland and Italy drew the same position in both draws.
Listed below is the order in which votes were cast during the 1974 contest along with the spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for their respective country.
- Finland – Aarre Elo[11]
- Luxembourg – TBC
- Israel – Yitzhak Shim'oni
- Norway – Sverre Christophersen
- United Kingdom – Colin Ward-Lewis[3]
- Yugoslavia – Helga Vlahović[12]
- Greece – Mako Georgiadou
- Ireland – Brendan Balfe
- Germany – Ekkehard Böhmer
- Portugal – Henrique Mendes
- Netherlands – Dick van Bommel[13]
- Sweden – Sven Lindahl[14]
- Spain – Antolín García
- Monaco – Sophie Hecquet[15]
- Switzerland – Michel Stocker
- Belgium – André Hagon
- Italy – Anna Maria Gambineri[16]
Broadcasts
Each participating broadcaster was required to relay the contest via its networks. Non-participating EBU member broadcasters were also able to relay the contest as "passive participants". Broadcasters were able to send commentators to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language and to relay information about the artists and songs to their television viewers.[1][17]
The contest was broadcast live in all participating countries, except for Italy which took a deferred transmission. The contest was also reportedly broadcast in Algeria, Austria, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czechoslovakia, France, Hungary, Japan, Jordan, Iceland, Morocco, Poland, South Korea, the Soviet Union and Tunisia.[3] In addition to the broadcast on television, the contest was also provided via radio in Belgium, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.[3] Known details on the broadcasts in each country, including the specific broadcasting stations and commentators are shown in the tables below.
| Country | Broadcaster | Channel(s) | Commentator(s) | Ref(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Austria | ORF | FS2 | Ernst Grissemann | [62] |
| Hungary | MTV | MTV1[e] | Unknown | [63] |
| Iceland | RÚV | Sjónvarpið | Unknown | [64] |
| Malta | MTPBS | National Network | Victor Aquilina | [65] |
| Turkey | TRT | TRT Televizyon | Unknown | [66] |
Incidents
French withdrawal
France had been drawn to sing at No. 14 (after Ireland and before Germany) with the song "La Vie à vingt-cinq ans" by Dani, but as a mark of respect following the death of the French President Georges Pompidou during Eurovision week, French broadcaster ORTF made the decision to withdraw the entry. Given that President Pompidou's memorial service (he had been buried in a private ceremony on 4 April), which was attended by numerous international dignitaries, was held on the same day as the contest, it was deemed inappropriate for the French to take part. Dani was seen by viewers in the audience at the point the French song should have been performed. For the same reason, the French singer Anne-Marie David, who had won the first place for Luxembourg in 1973, could not come to Brighton to hand the prize to the 1974 winner.[1][67] In her absence, the Director General of the BBC and President of the EBU, Sir Charles Curran, presented the Grand Prix to the winners.[citation needed]
Italian broadcast
Italy did not broadcast the televised contest on the state television channel RAI because the contest coincided with the intense political campaigning for the 1974 Italian referendum on divorce, which was held a month later in May. RAI felt that Gigliola Cinquetti's song, which was entitled "Sì", and repeatedly featured the word "si" (yes),[68] could risk the accusation of being a subliminal message and a form of propaganda to influence the Italian voting public to vote "yes" in the referendum. The song was not played on most Italian state TV and radio stations until the referendum had been held.[67][69]
Notes
- ^ Juan Carlos Calderón was initially slated to conduct his own composition for Spain, only to be replaced by Rafael Ibarbia when he fell ill prior to the contest.[4]
- ^ Contains some words in English
- ^ Delayed broadcast on 6 June 1974 at 21:45 CEST (19:45 UTC)[35]
- ^ Delayed broadcast on 9 April 1974 at 21:30 CET (20:30 UTC)[52]
- ^ Delayed broadcast on 25 May 1974 at 21:45 CET (20:45 UTC)[63]
References
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- ^ "And the conductor is..." Retrieved 28 July 2020.
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- ^ Tukker, Bas. "Juan Carlos Calderón". Andtheconductoris.eu. Retrieved 2 November 2021.
- ^ "Jean-Claude Petit's biography in 'And the conductor is...'". Retrieved 1 January 2017.
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- ^ . European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 13 July 2021.
- ^ a b "Carita ensimmäisenä Eurovisiokilpailussa". Helsingin Sanomat (in Finnish). 6 April 1974. p. 45. Retrieved 23 December 2022. (subscription required)
- ^ "Helga Vlahović: 1990 presenter has died". European Broadcasting Union. 27 February 2012. from the original on 13 May 2018. Retrieved 28 March 2023.
- ^ "Nederlandse jurywoordvoerders bij het Eurovisie Songfestival" (in Dutch). Eurovision Artists. Retrieved 22 June 2022.
- ^ a b Thorsson, Leif; Verhage, Martin (2006). Melodifestivalen genom tiderna : de svenska uttagningarna och internationella finalerna (in Swedish). Stockholm: Premium Publishing. pp. 108–109. ISBN 91-89136-29-2.
- ^ "Facets of Eurovision's Song Contest '75". Times of Malta. 31 March 1975. p. 7.
- ^ Abbate, Mauro (7 May 2022). "Italia all'Eurovision Song Contest: tutti i numeri del nostro Paese nella kermesse europea" (in Italian). Notizie Musica. from the original on 9 June 2022. Retrieved 1 July 2022.
- ^ "The Rules of the Contest". European Broadcasting Union. 31 October 2018. from the original on 4 October 2022. Retrieved 19 December 2022.
- ^ "Belgium – Brighton 1974". European Broadcasting Union. from the original on 13 May 2018. Retrieved 8 January 2023.
- ^ a b "TV Programma". De Voorpost (in Dutch). Aalst, Belgium. 5 April 1974. p. 31. Retrieved 10 January 2023.
- ^ a b c "Télé-programmes – samedi 6 avril". Luxemburger Wort (in German and French). Luxembourg City, Luxembourg. 5 April 1974. Retrieved 8 January 2023.
- ^ a b c "Televisie | Radio". De Volkskrant (in Dutch). Amsterdam, Netherlands. 6 April 1974. p. 41. Retrieved 8 January 2023 – via Delpher.
- ^ a b "Radio ja TV". Helsingin Sanomat (in Finnish). 6 April 1974. p. 45. Retrieved 23 December 2022. (subscription required)
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- ^ a b "TV – samedi 6 avril". Radio TV - Je vois tout (in French). Lausanne, Switzerland: Héliographia SA. 4 April 1974. pp. 30–31. Retrieved 7 January 2023.
- ^ "Germany – Brighton 1974". European Broadcasting Union. from the original on 13 May 2020. Retrieved 8 January 2023.
- ^ "Greece – Brighton 1974". European Broadcasting Union. from the original on 13 May 2018. Retrieved 8 January 2023.
- ^ "Eurovision 2020: Giorgos Kapoutzidis -Maria Kozakou ston scholiasmo tou diagonismou gia tin ERT" Eurovision 2020: Γιώργος Καπουτζίδης -Μαρία Κοζάκου στον σχολιασμό του διαγωνισμού για την ΕΡΤ (in Greek). Matrix24. 12 February 2020. from the original on 14 February 2020. Retrieved 5 January 2023.
- ^ "Ireland – Brighton 1974". European Broadcasting Union. from the original on 12 May 2018. Retrieved 8 January 2023.
- ^ "Television Today". The Irish Times. 6 April 1974. p. 21. Retrieved 22 December 2022. (subscription required)
- ^ "Radio Today". The Irish Times. 6 April 1974. p. 21. Retrieved 22 December 2022. (subscription required)
- ^ Bedell, Roy (7 April 1973). (Photograph). Dublin Airport, Dublin, Ireland. Archived from the original on 20 September 2012. Retrieved 22 December 2022 – via RTÉ Libraries and Archives.
- ^ "Israel – Brighton 1974". European Broadcasting Union. from the original on 13 May 2018. Retrieved 8 January 2023.
- ^ "Televizia Klalit" טלוויזיה כללית. Al HaMishmar (in Hebrew). Tel Aviv, Israel. 5 April 1974. p. 47. Retrieved 8 January 2023 – via National Library of Israel.
- ^ a b "I programmi di giovedì 6". La Stampa (in Italian). Turin, Italy. 5 June 1974. p. 8. Retrieved 1 July 2022.
- ^ "Junior Eurovision: anche Gigliola Cinquetti, Rosanna Vaudetti ed Eugenio in Via di Gioia tifano per Chanel" (in Italian). L'Opinionista. 11 December 2022. from the original on 12 December 2022. Retrieved 8 January 2023.
- ^ "Italy – Brighton 1974". European Broadcasting Union. from the original on 13 May 2018. Retrieved 8 January 2023.
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- ^ "Monaco – Brighton 1974". European Broadcasting Union. from the original on 13 May 2018. Retrieved 8 January 2023.
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- ^ Castrim, Mário (7 April 1974). "Um Waterloo onde faltou Cambronne". Diário de Lisboa (in Portuguese). p. 32. Retrieved 1 July 2022 – via Casa Comum.
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- ^ "Sweden – Brighton 1974". European Broadcasting Union. from the original on 12 May 2018. Retrieved 8 January 2023.
- ^ "Radio – samedi 6 avril". Radio TV - Je vois tout (in French). Lausanne, Switzerland: Héliographia SA. 4 April 1974. pp. 60–61. Retrieved 6 January 2023.
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- ^ a b "TV – kedd május 8". Rádió- és Televízió-újság (in Hungarian). 20 May 1974. p. 20. from the original on 7 January 2023. Retrieved 7 January 2023 – via MTVA Archívum.
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- ^ Sì – Lyrics The Diggiloo Thrush
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External links
- Official website