Eurovision Song Contest 1959

Eurovision Song Contest 1959;
Dates
Final date	11 March 1959
Host
Venue	Palais des Festivals et des Congrès; Cannes, France
Presenter(s)	Jacqueline Joubert
Conductor	Franck Pourcel
Director	Marcel Cravenne
Host broadcaster	RTF
Interval act	None
Participants
Number of entries	11
Debuting countries	Monaco
Returning countries	United Kingdom
Withdrawing countries	Luxembourg
	Participation map Participating countries Countries who have participated in the past but did not this year;
Vote
Voting system	Each country had 10 jury members who each awarded 1 point to their favourite song.
Nul points	None
Winning song	Netherlands; "Een beetje"
Eurovision Song Contest
	◄1958 1960►

The Eurovision Song Contest 1959 was the fourth Eurovision Song Contest. It was held in Cannes, following the French victory the previous year.^[1]

A new rule was created for this Eurovision, ensuring that no professional publishers or composers were allowed in the national juries.

The Netherlands' win was their second and the first time a country had won the contest twice. Willy van Hemert was also the lyricist of "Net als toen", which won the Eurovision Song Contest 1957. Van Hemert was the first person to win the Eurovision Song Contest twice.

Luxembourg withdrew from the contest for the first time. The United Kingdom returned after missing the previous contest (appearing on the scoreboard as "Grande Bretagne") and finished second for the first time. The UK would have 15 second-place finishes in the country's history in the contest. Monaco made its debut in the contest, but came last.

In the press it was suggested that Italy and France gave more points to the Netherlands because neither of those two countries wanted the other to win. This has never been verified.

Italy gave one point to France, no points to the UK and seven points to the Netherlands placing them just three points ahead of the UK. Later on France gave only three points to Italy and four points to the Netherlands giving them a five point lead over the UK, who were only one point ahead of France, leaving Italy behind in sixth position, behind Denmark, on nine points.

Something that occurred this year, but never again, was that more than the winning entry was performed once again. The second and third placed songs, United Kingdom and France, were allowed to sing again at the end of the show, together with eventual winner, the Netherlands.

[edit] Individual entries

[edit] Results

Draw	Country	Language^[2]	Artist	Song	English translation	Place	Points
01	France	French	Jean Philippe	"Oui, oui, oui, oui"	Yes, yes, yes, yes	3	15
02	Denmark	Danish	Birthe Wilke	"Uh, jeg ville ønske jeg var dig"	Oh, I wish I were you	5	12
03	Italy	Italian	Domenico Modugno	"Piove (Ciao, ciao bambina)"	It's raining (Bye, bye baby)	6	9
04	Monaco	French	Jacques Pills	"Mon ami Pierrot"	My friend Pierrot	11	1
05	Netherlands	Dutch	Teddy Scholten	"Een beetje"	A little bit	1	21
06	Germany	German	Alice & Ellen Kessler	"Heute Abend wollen wir tanzen geh'n"	Tonight we want to go dancing	8	5
07	Sweden	Swedish	Brita Borg	"Augustin"	–	9	4
08	Switzerland	German	Christa Williams	"Irgendwoher"	From somewhere	4	14
09	Austria	German	Ferry Graf	"Der K und K Kalypso aus Wien"	The K and K calypso from Vienna	9	4
10	United Kingdom	English	Pearl Carr & Teddy Johnson	"Sing, Little Birdie"	–	2	16
11	Belgium	Dutch	Bob Benny	"Hou toch van mij"	Please love me	6	9

[edit] Score sheet

		Results

	France		4	1	2		4		1	1		2
	Denmark			1	1	1		4	1	2	2
	Italy	3			1			1	3			1
	Monaco									1
	Netherlands	4		7	1		2			3	1	3
	Germany	2		1					1			1
	Sweden		1			3
	Switzerland		2		1		1	3		1	5	1
	Austria				1			2	1
	United Kingdom	1	1		2	5			3	2		2
	Belgium		2		1	1	3				2
THE TABLE IS ORDERED BY APPEARANCE