Eurovision Song Contest 1974
| Eurovision Song Contest 1974 |
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|---|---|
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| Dates | |
| Final date | 6 April 1974 |
| Host | |
| Venue | The Dome Brighton, United Kingdom |
| Presenter(s) | Katie Boyle |
| Conductor | Ronnie Hazlehurst |
| Host broadcaster |  BBC |
| Interval act | The Wombles |
| Participants | |
| Number of entries | 17 |
| Debuting countries |  Greece |
| Returning countries | None |
| Withdrawing countries |  France |
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Participation map
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| Vote | |
| Voting system | Each country had 10 jurors who could all give 1 vote to their favourite song. |
| Nul points | None |
| Winning song |  Sweden"Waterloo" |
| Eurovision Song Contest | |
◄1973 .svg){kind=small} 1975► |
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1974 was the 19th Eurovision Song Contest. It was held in the seaside resort of Brighton on the south coast of the United Kingdom. The BBC agreed to stage the event after Luxembourg, having won in both 1972 and 1973, declined on the grounds of expense to host the contest for a second consecutive year.
Katie Boyle came back to host her fourth Eurovision Song Contest (she also hosted the contest in 1960, 1963 and 1968).
ABBA sang the song "Waterloo", and the group went to become one of the most popular singing groups of all time. Along with 1988 winner Celine Dion, ABBA are among the few Eurovision winners to achieve international superstar status. Sweden's win was their first. "Waterloo" itself was later voted the best song in the competition's history in the programme Congratulations: 50 Years of the Eurovision Song Contest, which marked the 50th anniversary of the contest in 2005.
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[edit] Preview programme
A two-night preview programme, Auftakt für Brighton (Prelude for Brighton), was coordinated by the German national broadcaster ARD in February and was hosted by the journalist Karin Tietze-Ludwig. It shares two special distinctions in that it was the first "preview"-type programme to be broadcast in many European countries simultaneously (traditionally each national broadcaster puts together their own preview programme), and also in that it aired nearly six weeks before the actual Contest, the earliest-ever airing of "preview week." The programme was also notable in being the European television debut for the winners, ABBA, who were peculiarly credited in previews as "The Abba."
[edit] Controversies and political events
- The United Kingdom was represented in the contest by the British/Australian pop singer Olivia Newton-John, who came fourth with the song "Long Live Love". As noted by author and historian John Kennedy O'Connor in his book The Eurovision Song Contest - The Official History, Olivia disliked this song and preferred others from the UK heat, but "Long Live Love" was chosen as the UK's entry by a public postal vote.[1]
- France had been going to enter this Eurovision with the song "La vie à vingt-cinq ans" by Dani, but they withdrew after the French President, Georges Pompidou, died in the week of the contest. Since his funeral was held the day of 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, after the Irish and before the German entry.[1] For the same reason, the French singer Anne-Marie David, who won the first place for Luxembourg in 1973, could not come to Brighton to hand the prize to the 1974 winner.
- Malta withdrew from the contest for unknown reasons, but had selected Enzo Guzman with the song 'Paċi Fid Dinja' (Peace in the World) to represent them. The singer has confirmed this to be the case. Malta would return to the competition in 1975.[2]
- Italy refused to broadcast the televised contest on the state television channel RAI because of a song sung by Gigliola Cinquetti which coincided with the intense political campaigning for the 1974 Italian referendum on divorce which was held a month later in May. Despite the Eurovision contest taking place more than a month before the planned vote and despite Cinquetti going as far as winning second place, Italian censors refused to allow the contest and song to be shown or heard. RAI censors felt the song which was titled "Sì", and which contained lyrics constantly repeating the word "SI" (yes) could be accused of being a subliminal message and a form of propaganda to influence the Italian voting public to vote "YES" in the referendum. The song remained censored on most Italian state TV and radio stations for over a month.[1]
- Portugal's entry "E depois do adeus" was used as one of the two signals to launch the Carnation Revolution against the Estado Novo regime. The song alerted the rebel captains and soldiers to begin the coup and the tanks of the left-wing military coup to move in. John Kennedy O'Connor describes it as "the only Eurovision entry to have actually started a revolution", while Des Mangan suggests that other Portuguese entries (he mentions 1998's "Se Eu Te Pudesse Abraçar") would not be likely to inspire coups.[1]
- Sweden won the contest with a score of 24 points, representing just 15% of the possible available vote. Such a low percentage has never been achieved since, but it is still higher than the 12% achieved by each of the four winners in 1969.
[edit] Individual Entries
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[edit] Results
[edit] Voting order
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 wouldn't be until 2006 that the voting sequence was decided by draw again. Finland, Norway, Switzerland and Italy drew the same position in both draws. Countries revealed their votes in the following order:[3]
Finland
Luxembourg
Israel
Norway
United Kingdom
Yugoslavia
Greece
Ireland
Germany
Portugal
Netherlands
Sweden
Spain
Monaco
Switzerland
Belgium
Italy
[edit] Score sheet
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Finland | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | ||||||||||||||||
| United Kingdom | 14 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3 | ||||||||||||
| Spain | 10 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||||||||||||||
| Norway | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||||||||
| Greece | 7 | 2 | 4 | 1 | |||||||||||||||||
| Israel | 11 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 3 | ||||||||||||||
| Yugoslavia | 6 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | |||||||||||||||
| Sweden | 24 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 1 | |||||||||
| Luxembourg | 14 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 2 | |||||||||||
| Monaco | 14 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| Belgium | 10 | 2 | 5 | 3 | |||||||||||||||||
| Netherlands | 15 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| Ireland | 11 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | |||||||||||||
| Germany | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||||||||
| Switzerland | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||||||||
| Portugal | 3 | 1 | 2 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Italy | 18 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||
[edit] Returning artists
| Artist | Country | Previous year(s) |
|---|---|---|
| Gigliola Cinquetti |  Italy |
1964 (winner) |
| Romuald |  Monaco |
1964, 1969 (for Luxembourg) |
| Bendik Singers |  Norway |
1973 |
[edit] Commentators
[edit] Spokespersons
- Finland - Aarre Elo[11]
- Luxembourg - TBC
- Israel - Yitzhak Shim'oni
- Norway - Sverre Christophersen[12]
- United Kingdom - Colin-Ward Lewis
- Yugoslavia - Helga Vlahović[13]
Greece - Irini Gavala- Ireland - Brendan Balfe
- Germany - TBC
- Portugal - Henrique Mendes
- Netherlands - Dick van Bommel
- Sweden - Sven Lindahl[14]
- Spain - Antolín García
- Monaco - Carole Chabrier
- Switzerland - Alexandre Burger
- Belgium - André Hagon
- Italy - Anna Maria Gambineri
[edit] National jury members
- Spain – Paloma Aleixandre (conference hostess), Gonzalo Tornos (chief sales officer), Asunción "Cionín" Villagrá (figure skater), Diego Serrano (theatre director), Analía Gadé (actress), Gabriel de la Casa (bullfighter), Elisa Ramírez (actress), Tomy Osinaga (fashion designer), José Ramón Ortiz (student), Gracia María González (student)[15]
[edit] Notes
- A ^ However the Eurovision Song Contest wasn't broadcast on French television due to the death of Georges Pompidou, it was broadcast the next morning via ORTF however it was edited slightly.
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d O'Connor, John Kennedy. The Eurovision Song Contest - The Official History. Carlton Books, UK. 2007 ISBN 978-1-84442-994-3
- ^ "No, No, Never!!! - Songs That Did Not Make It To Eurovision". eurovisionsongs.net. http://www.eurovisionsongs.net/nononever.htm. Retrieved 2009-07-23.
- ^ Diggiloo Thrush - scoreboard 1974
- ^ http://www.viisukuppila.fi/phpBB3/yleista/topic1578.html?sid=7d9d56818d7b9668738ff7b1ae631117
- ^ http://eurosongcontest.phpbb3.es/viewtopic.php?f=57&t=20310&start=45
- ^ Dyrseth, Seppo (OGAE Norway)
- ^ Leif Thorsson. Melodifestivalen genom tiderna ["Melodifestivalen through time"] (2006), p. 108. Stockholm: Premium Publishing AB. ISBN 91-89136-29-2
- ^ "Nederlandse televisiecommentatoren bij het Eurovisie Songfestival" (in Dutch). Eurovision Artists. http://www.eurovisionartists.nl/index.htm?content/esf480.asp.
- ^ http://songcontest.free.fr/bdd/cec1974.htm
- ^ Leif Thorsson. Melodifestivalen genom tiderna ["Melodifestivalen through time"] (2006), p. 108. Stockholm: Premium Publishing AB. ISBN 91-89136-29-2
- ^ http://www.viisukuppila.fi/phpBB3/yleista/topic1578.html?sid=4004772ec986da0c3795a6f5dd54f0d4
- ^ Dyrseth, Seppo (OGAE Norway)
- ^ http://www.evropesma.org/forum55/index.php?topic=870.msg144606#msg144606
- ^ http://www.infosajten.com/esc/esc/swedishspokesmen.html
- ^ http://www.aeveurovision.com/2008/04/05/jurado-espanol-de-eurovision-1974/
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