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
Final6 April 1974
Host
VenueThe Dome
Brighton, United Kingdom
Presenter(s)Katie Boyle
Musical directorRonnie Hazlehurst
Directed byMichael Hurll
Executive supervisorClifford Brown
Executive producerBill Cotton
Host broadcasterBritish Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
Websiteeurovision.tv/event/brighton-1974
Participants
Number of entries17
Debuting countries Greece
Returning countriesNone
Non-returning countries France
Participation map
  • A coloured map of the countries of Europe
         Participating countries     Countries that participated in the past but not in 1974
Vote
Voting systemTen-member juries distributed ten points among their favourite songs.
Winning song Sweden
"Waterloo"

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.

Location
The Brighton Dome, host venue of the 1974 contest

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.

Participating countries
Further information: List of countries in the Eurovision Song Contest

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 the President of France Georges Pompidou. 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.[1] France had been drawn to sing in fourteenth position (after Ireland and before Germany) with the song "La Vie à vingt-cinq ans", written by Christine Fontaine and to have been performed by Dani, with Jean-Claude Petit scheduled to conduct the orchestra during the French entry.[2][3] Dani was seen by viewers in the audience at the point the French song should have been performed.

The French singer Anne-Marie David, who had won the first place for Luxembourg in 1973, was unable to come to Brighton to hand the prize to the 1974 winner due to the president's funeral.[1][4] In her absence, the Director General of the BBC and President of the EBU, Sir Charles Curran, presented the Grand Prix to the winners.

Participants of the Eurovision Song Contest 1974[2][5][6][7]
Country Broadcaster Artist Song Language Songwriter(s) Conductor
 Belgium RTB Jacques Hustin "Fleur de liberté" French
Pierre Chiffre
 Finland YLE Carita "Keep Me Warm" English
Ossi Runne
 Germany HR[lower-alpha 1] Cindy and Bert "Die Sommermelodie" German
Werner Scharfenberger
 Greece EIRT Marinella "Krassi, thalassa ke t' agori mou"
(Κρασί, θάλασσα και τ' αγόρι μου)		 Greek
Giorgos Katsaros
 Ireland RTÉ Tina Reynolds "Cross Your Heart" English Paul Lyttle Colman Pearce
 Israel IBA Poogy "Natati La Khaiai" (נתתי לה חיי) Hebrew
Yonatan Rechter
 Italy RAI Gigliola Cinquetti "Sì" Italian
Gianfranco Monaldi
 Luxembourg CLT Ireen Sheer "Bye Bye I Love You" French[lower-alpha 2]
Charles Blackwell
 Monaco TMC Romuald "Celui qui reste et celui qui s'en va" French
  • Jean-Pierre Bourtayre
  • Michel Jourdan
 Raymond Donnez
 Netherlands NOS Mouth and MacNeal "I See a Star" English
Harry van Hoof
 Norway NRK Anne-Karine and the Bendik Singers "The First Day of Love" English
Frode Thingnæs
 Portugal RTP Paulo de Carvalho "E depois do adeus" Portuguese
José Calvário
 Spain TVE Peret "Canta y sé feliz" Spanish Pedro Pubill Calaf Rafael Ibarbia[lower-alpha 3]
 Sweden SR ABBA "Waterloo" English
Sven-Olof Walldoff
  Switzerland SRG SSR Piera Martell "Mein Ruf nach dir" German Pepe Ederer Pepe Ederer
 United Kingdom BBC Olivia Newton-John "Long Live Love" English
Nick Ingman
 Yugoslavia JRT Korni Grupa "Generacija '42" (Генерација '42) Serbo-Croatian Kornelije Kovač Zvonimir Skerl

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

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.

Contest overview
Results of the Eurovision Song Contest 1974[10]
R/O Country Artist Song Points Place
1  Finland Carita "Keep Me Warm" 4 13
2  United Kingdom Olivia Newton-John "Long Live Love" 14 4
3  Spain Peret "Canta y sé feliz" 10 9
4  Norway Anne-Karine and the Bendik Singers "The First Day of Love" 3 14
5  Greece Marinella "Krassi, thalassa ke t' agori mou" 7 11
6  Israel Poogy "Natati La Khaiai" 11 7
7  Yugoslavia Korni Grupa "Generacija '42" 6 12
8  Sweden ABBA "Waterloo" 24 1
9  Luxembourg Ireen Sheer "Bye Bye I Love You" 14 4
10  Monaco Romuald "Celui qui reste et celui qui s'en va" 14 4
11  Belgium Jacques Hustin "Fleur de liberté" 10 9
12  Netherlands Mouth and MacNeal "I See a Star" 15 3
13  Ireland Tina Reynolds "Cross Your Heart" 11 7
14  Germany Cindy and Bert "Die Sommermelodie" 3 14
15   Switzerland Piera Martell "Mein Ruf nach dir" 3 14
16  Portugal Paulo de Carvalho "E depois do adeus" 3 14
17  Italy Gigliola Cinquetti "Sì" 18 2

Detailed voting results

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.

Detailed voting results[11][12]
Total score
Finland
Luxembourg
Israel
Norway
United Kingdom
Yugoslavia
Greece
Ireland
Germany
Portugal
Netherlands
Sweden
Spain
Monaco
Switzerland
Belgium
Italy
Contestants
 Finland 4211
United Kingdom 1414112113
Spain 10121213
Norway 3111
Greece 7142
Israel 11212213
Yugoslavia 611112
Sweden 2451221121315
Luxembourg 14221311112
Monaco 142111211212
Belgium 10325
Netherlands 151113211131
Ireland 112121221
Germany 3111
Switzerland 3111
Portugal 312
Italy 18211511241

Spokespersons

Each country nominated a spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for their respective country via telephone. Known spokespersons at the 1974 contest are listed below.

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] Known details on the broadcasts in each country, including the specific broadcasting stations and commentators are shown in the tables below.

The contest was broadcast live in all participating countries, except for Italy which took a deferred transmission; the contest coincided with the intense political campaigning for the 1974 Italian referendum on divorce, which was held a month later in May, and Italian broadcaster RAI felt that Gigliola Cinquetti's song, which repeatedly featured the word "sì" (yes), 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.[4][18]

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.[2] 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.[2]

Broadcasters and commentators in participating countries
Country Broadcaster Channel(s) Commentator(s) Ref(s)
 Belgium RTB RTB Unknown [19][20][21]
Radio Une Unknown
BRT BRT Unknown [19][21]
BRT 1 Unknown
 Finland YLE TV1, Yleisohjelma Matti Paalosmaa [13][22]
Ruotsinkielinen ohjelma Åke Grandell
 Germany ARD Deutsches Fernsehen Unknown [20][23][24]
 Greece EIRT EIRT Mako Georgiadou [25]
 Ireland RTÉ RTÉ Mike Murphy [26][27]
RTÉ Radio Unknown [28]
 Israel IBA Israeli Television Unknown [29]
 Italy RAI Secondo Programma[lower-alpha 4] Rosanna Vaudetti [30][31]
 Luxembourg CLT RTL Télé-Luxembourg Unknown [20]
 Monaco Télé Monte-Carlo Unknown [32]
 Netherlands NOS Nederland 2 Willem Duys [21][33]
 Norway NRK NRK Fjernsynet John Andreassen [34]
NRK Erik Heyerdahl
 Portugal RTP I Programa, Emissora Nacional Programa 1 Artur Agostinho [35][36]
 Spain TVE TVE 1 José Luis Uribarri [37][38]
RNE Radio Nacional Unknown [37]
 Sweden SR TV1 Johan Sandström [15][22][34]
SR P3 Ursula Richter
  Switzerland SRG SSR TV DRS Theodor Haller [23][24][39][40][41]
TSR Georges Hardy
TSI Unknown
DRS 1[lower-alpha 5] Max Rüeger
RSR 1 Robert Burnier
RSI 1 Unknown
 United Kingdom BBC BBC1 David Vine [2][42]
BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 2 Terry Wogan [2][43][44]
BFBS BFBS Radio Richard Astbury [2]
 Yugoslavia JRT TV Ljubljana 1 Unknown [45][46]
TV Zagreb 1 Unknown
Broadcasters and commentators in non-participating countries
Country Broadcaster Channel(s) Commentator(s) Ref(s)
 Austria ORF FS2 Ernst Grissemann [47]
 France ORTF Première Chaîne[lower-alpha 6] Pierre Tchernia [48][49]
 Hungary MTV MTV1[lower-alpha 7] Unknown [50]
 Iceland RÚV Sjónvarpið Unknown [51]
 Malta MBA National Network Victor Aquilina [52]
 Turkey TRT TRT Televizyon Unknown [53]

Notes
  1. On behalf of the German public broadcasting consortium ARD[8]
  2. Contains some words in English
  3. Juan Carlos Calderón, who had arranged the orchestration for "Canta y sé feliz", originally planned to conduct the Spanish entry, however Calderón fell ill in the days prior to the contest and was replaced as conductor by Rafael Ibarbia.[9]
  4. Delayed broadcast on 6 June 1974 at 21:45 CEST (19:45 UTC)[30]
  5. Delayed broadcast on 9 April 1974 at 21:30 CET (20:30 UTC)[40]
  6. Delayed shortened broadcast on 9 April at 20:30 CET (19:30 Coordinated Universal Time). The broadcast, lasting one hour and ten minutes, featured only the participating entries, with no postcards, voting sequence or winner's reprise, followed by the announcement of the winner by Pierre Tchernia and a pre-recorded presentation of the planned French entry, "La Vie à vingt-cinq ans" by Dani.[48][49]
  7. Delayed broadcast on 25 May 1974 at 21:45 CET (20:45 UTC)[50]

References
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