Eurovision Song Contest 1974
| Eurovision Song Contest 1974 | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Dates | |
| Final | 6 April 1974 |
| Host | |
| Venue | The Dome Brighton, United Kingdom |
| Presenter(s) | Katie Boyle |
| Conductor | Ronnie Hazlehurst |
| Directed by | Michael Hurll |
| Executive supervisor | Clifford Brown |
| Executive producer | Bill Cotton |
| Host broadcaster | British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) |
| Interval act | The Wombles |
| Participants | |
| Number of entries | 17 |
| Debuting countries |  Greece |
| Withdrawing countries |  France |
| |
| Vote | |
| Voting system | Ten-member juries distributed ten points among their favourite songs. |
| Nul points | None |
| Winning song |  Sweden"Waterloo" |
The Eurovision Song Contest 1974 was the 19th edition of the annual 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.[1]
The winner of the Contest was Sweden with the song "Waterloo" which was performed by ABBA, who went on to become one of the most popular recording acts of all time. Sweden's win was their first.[1] Katie Boyle returned to host her fourth Eurovision Song Contest (after hosting the 1960, 1963 and 1968 contests).
Contents
Location[edit]
Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove (formed from the previous towns of Brighton, Hove, Portslade and several other villages) on the south coast of Great Britain.
The venue which hosted the 1974 Contest was the Brighton Dome, an arts venue that contains the Concert Hall, the Corn Exchange and the Pavilion Theatre. All three venues are linked to the rest of the Royal Pavilion Estate by a tunnel to the Royal Pavilion in Pavilion Gardens and through shared corridors to Brighton Museum, as the entire complex was built for the Prince Regent (later George IV) and completed in 1805.
Format[edit]
A two-night preview programme, Auftakt für Brighton (Prelude for Brighton), was coordinated by the German national broadcaster ARD broadcast at the end of March and was hosted by the journalist Karin Tietze-Ludwig. 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).[2] The UK did not broadcast the programmes, instead airing their own preview shows introduced by David Vine on BBC1 on 24 and 31 March.[3] The French entry was broadcast by all the nations showing the previews, even though the song was withdrawn from the Eurovision final itself. The programme was also notable in being the European television debut for the winners, ABBA, who were peculiarly credited in previews as "The Abba".[1]
Incidents[edit]
The United Kingdom was represented in the contest by the (British-born) Australian pop singer Olivia Newton-John, who finished in fourth place 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.[4]
France had been drawn to sing at No. 14 (after Ireland and before Germany) with the song "La vie à vingt-cinq ans" ("Life At 25") 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. Since President Pompidou's memorial service (he was buried in a private ceremony on 4 April), which was attended by international dignitaries, 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. 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][4] In her absence, the Director General of the BBC and President of the EBU, Sir Charles Curran, presented the Grand Prix.[citation needed]
Malta had selected Enzo Guzman with the song "Paċi Fid Dinja" (Peace in the World) to represent them, but withdrew from the contest for unknown reasons. Malta would return to the competition in 1975.[1]
Italy refused to 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),[5] 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 was not played on most Italian state TV and radio stations for over a month.[4]
Portugal's entry "E depois do adeus" was used as the first of the two signals to launch the Carnation Revolution against the Estado Novo regime. Played on a Portuguese radio station late in the evening of 24 April 1974, the broadcasting of the song alerted the rebel, largely left-wing captains and soldiers to prepare to begin the successful military coup. The second song to be broadcast, marking the actual start of military operations of the coup, was Grândola, Vila Morena by Zeca Afonso (but with no Eurovision Song Contest connection). John Kennedy O'Connor described "E depois do adeus" as "the only Eurovision entry to have actually started a revolution" (which is quite ironic as the song came in last), while Des Mangan suggests that other Portuguese entries (he mentions "Se Eu Te Pudesse Abraçar" (1998)) would not be likely to inspire coups.[4]
In 1974, during the dictatorship in Greece, rock band Nostradamos won the first Eurovision participation contest ran by the state broadcaster ERT to represent Greece at Eurovision.[6] However, due to a scandal, the band was not allowed to compete at Eurovision, and Greek laiko singer Marinella was sent instead.[6]
Participating countries[edit]
Seventeen nations took part in this year's contest. Greece made their début, while France withdrew during the week of the contest after the sudden death of French President Georges Pompidou.[1]
Conductors[edit]
Each performance had a conductor who conducted the orchestra.[7]
Finland - Ossi Runne
United Kingdom - Nick Ingman
Spain - Rafael Ibarbia
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
Had France taken part in the contest, its entry would have been conducted by Jean-Claude Petit.[8]
Returning artists[edit]
Three artists returned to the contest this year. Gigliola Cinquetti winner of the 1964 Contest participated again for Italy. Romuald Figuier who also participated in the 1964 Contest for Monaco, as well as in 1969 Contest for Luxembourg. Norway's Bendik Singers also returned after last participating in Eurovision Song Contest 1973.[1]
Results[edit]
Notes:
- a. ^ Contains some words in English.
Scoreboard[edit]
| Results | |||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 | |||||||||||
International broadcasts and voting[edit]
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 would not 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:[1][10]
The table below shows 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. Each national broadcaster [with the exception of Israel] also sent a commentator to the contest, in order to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language. Details of the commentators and the broadcasting station for which they represented are also included in the table below.[1]
Non-participating countries[edit]
|
|
References[edit]
- ^ a b c d e f g h i "Eurovision Song Contest 1974". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 5 June 2011. Retrieved 2012-07-10.
- ^ "ABBA on TV – Melodifestivalen Rehearsal". www.abbaontv.com. Archived from the original on 2 August 2018. Retrieved 3 April 2016.
- ^ http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/c3c2a93df30e4c03a1559045cdd040c5
- ^ 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
- ^ Sì – Lyrics The Diggiloo Thrush
- ^ a b Giorgos Foukos (9 March 2012). "Eurovision Greece 1974-2012".
Translation by Google: The state television decides, after four years that it has already launched the contest, to try its luck. Nostradamos is the winner of the competition (see Stelios Fotiadis, Despina Glezou, etc.) A few weeks before the competition the participation is canceled because a scandal about the rape of a minor admirer by a member of the group.
- ^ "Conductors 1974". 4Lyrics.com. Retrieved 10 July 2012.
- ^ "Jean-Claude Petit's biography in 'And the conductor is...'". Retrieved 1 January 2017.
- ^ "Eurovision Song Contest 1974". The Diggiloo Thrush. Retrieved 4 March 2012.
- ^ "Diggiloo Thrush – scoreboard 1974". diggiloo.net.
- ^ a b Selostajat ja taustalaulajat läpi vuosien? (in Finnish) Viisukuppila, 18 April 2005
- ^ a b Dyrseth, Seppo (OGAE Norway)
- ^ Eurovision Song Contest 1974 BBC Archives
- ^ Roxburgh, Gordon (2014). Songs For Europe – The United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest Volume Two: The 1970's. UK: Telos Publishing. p. 149. ISBN 978-1-84583-065-6.
- ^ Sumnja od Jugolasvenskog glasanja Archived 8 April 2012 at the Wayback Machine (in Serbian) OGAE Serbia forum, 8 September 2011
- ^ http://infegreece.gr/ellada-i-anakoinwsi-tis-ert-gia-ton-63-diagonismo-tragoudiou-tis-eurovision/
- ^ "Um Waterloo onde faltou Cambronne", Diário de Lisboa, 7 April 1974
- ^ "Nederlandse televisiecommentatoren bij het Eurovisie Songfestival". Eurovision Artists (in Dutch).
- ^ Infosajten.com Archived 16 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Leif Thorsson Melodifestivalen genom tiderna ["Melodifestivalen through time"] (2006), p. 108; Stockholm: Premium Publishing AB ISBN 91-89136-29-2
- ^ Uribarri comentarista Eurovision 2010 Archived 17 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine (in Spanish) FORO FESTIVAL DE EUROVISIÓN
- ^ "Facets of Eurovision Song Contest 1975", Times of Malta, 31 March 1975
- ^ CONCOURS EUROVISION DE LA CHANSON 1974 SongContest
External links[edit]
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