Eurovision Song Contest 1959

Palais des Festivals et des Congrès, Cannes – host venue of the 1959 contest

The event took place in Cannes, France, following the nation's victory at the 1958 edition in Hilversum, Netherlands, with the song "Dors, mon amour", performed by André Claveau. The selected venue was the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès, built in 1949 to host the Cannes Film Festival and located on the Promenade de la Croisette along the shore of the Mediterranean Sea.[2][3] Due to the growth in the film festival a new building bearing the same name was opened in 1982, with the original building renamed as the Palais Croisette.[4]

A garden space with plants from Southern France was installed in front of the building for the contest, and the flags of the participating nations were raised on the roof.[5] The audience comprised 1500 invited guests.[6]

This marked the second occasion in which the previous year's winning country organised the event, and the first time in which the winning country was given first choice at hosting the following year's event, as the rights to host the 1958 contest were only awarded to the Netherlands after all other countries declined.[7]

A total of eleven countries competed in the contest, with Monaco making its first appearance and the United Kingdom returning after a one year absence.[8] The United Kingdom's absence from the 1958 contest is generally reported to have been due to the country's poor result in 1957, but their return coincided with the international success of "Nel blu, dipinto di blu", the Italian entry from the previous year's contest, and the appointment of Eric Maschwitz as Head of Light Entertainment at the BBC.[9][10] Beginning with this event the United Kingdom holds the record for the longest string of consecutive appearances in the Eurovision Song Contest, appearing in every subsequent contest final as of 2023.[11][12] Luxembourg was absent from the event, having participated in all previous contests, and appears to have decided against participating late in the preparations for the contest as the country was listed among the participants in several radio and television listings.[1][2][13]

Among this year's participants, two artists had previously competed in the contest. Birthe Wilke had placed third for Denmark in the 1957 contest, performing "Skibet skal sejle i nat" alongside Gustav Winckler, and Domenico Modugno had placed third for Italy in the 1958 contest with "Nel blu, dipinto di blu".[14][15]

Participants of the Eurovision Song Contest 1959[16][17][18][19]

Country	Broadcaster	Artist	Song	Language	Songwriter(s)	Conductor
Austria	ORF	Ferry Graf	"Der K. und K. Kalypso aus Wien"	German	Günther Leopold Norbert Pawlicki	Franck Pourcel
Belgium	NIR	Bob Benny	"Hou toch van mij"	Dutch	Hans Flower Ke Riema	Francis Bay
Denmark	DR	Birthe Wilke	"Uh, jeg ville ønske, jeg var dig"	Danish	Carl Andersen Otto Lington	Kai Mortensen
France	RTF	Jean Philippe	"Oui oui oui oui"	French	Pierre Cour Hubert Giraud	Franck Pourcel
Germany	HR[lower-alpha 1]	Alice and Ellen Kessler	"Heut' woll'n wir tanzen geh'n"	German	Astrid Voltmann Helmut Zander	Franck Pourcel
Italy	RAI	Domenico Modugno	"Piove"	Italian	Domenico Modugno Dino Verde	William Galassini
Monaco	TMC	Jacques Pills	"Mon ami Pierrot"	French	Raymond Bravard Florence Véran	Franck Pourcel
Netherlands	NTS	Teddy Scholten	"Een beetje"	Dutch	Willy van Hemert Dick Schallies	Dolf van der Linden
Sweden	SR	Brita Borg	"Augustin"	Swedish	Åke Gerhard Harry Sandin	Franck Pourcel
Switzerland	SRG SSR	Christa Williams	"Irgendwoher"	German	Lothar Löffler	Franck Pourcel
United Kingdom	BBC	Pearl Carr and Teddy Johnson	"Sing Little Birdie"	English	Stan Butcher Syd Cordell	Eric Robinson

The contest was organised and broadcast by the French public broadcaster Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française (RTF), with Marcel Cravenne serving as director and Franck Pourcel serving as musical director.[8][21][22] Each country was allowed to nominate their own musical director to lead the orchestra during the performance of their country's entry, with the host musical director also conducting for those countries which did not nominate their own conductor.[17][19]

The stage constructed for the event was designed by Gérard Dubois.[23] Its design was inspired by the era of Louis XIV.[24] The stage featured three revolving platforms, each of which was segmented into four, similar to a revolving door, to include various backdrops.[25] These backdrops were specific to each of the participating countries and featured scenery or objects associated with that country.[23][26]

A few days prior to the contest, hotel and shop owners in Cannes complained that the contest was covered and advertised too sparsely by RTF and subsequently feared that too few tourists would come to Cannes.[6][27] In contrast, the Cannes Comité des Fêtes, which was involved in the organisation of the contest, believed that the broadcast of images from Cannes to many European households would have a significant impact on tourism in the weeks to follow.[27]

As in the 1957 and 1958 contests, each country, participating through a single EBU member broadcaster, was represented by one song performed by up to two people on stage. The results of the event were determined through jury voting, with each country's jury containing ten individuals who each gave one vote to their favourite song, with no abstentions allowed and with jurors unable to vote for their own country.[8][28] One rule change implemented for this contest specified that individuals employed in the music industry were no longer allowed to be included among the national juries.[8]

The draw to determine the running order took place on 9 March 1959.[23]

Teddy Scholten upon returning to the Netherlands following her contest win

Assembled crowd at Schipol Airport for Scholten's homecoming

The contest was held on 11 March 1959, beginning at 21:00 CET (20:00 UTC) and lasted 1 hour and 12 minutes.[17][29] The event was hosted by French television presenter Jacqueline Joubert.[8][17]

The prelude of Charpentier's "Te Deum", the theme music of Eurovision broadcasts, was played as opening act by the orchestra under the direction of Franck Pourcel.[30]

The winner was the Netherlands represented by the song "Een beetje", composed by Dick Schallies, written by Willy van Hemert and performed by Teddy Scholten.[31] The Netherlands became the first country to achieve two victories in the event, and Van Hemert became the first individual to win the contest twice, after previously providing lyrics for the Netherlands' winner in 1957, "Net als toen".[8][25] The United Kingdom's result was the first of sixteen British entries to finish in second place, a contest record as of 2023.[11][25]

Alongside the traditional reprise performance of the winning song, the second- and third-placed songs were also performed again, for the first and only time at the contest.[8][28]

After the show, a supper for the participating delegations was held on behalf of the city of Cannes at the Salon des Ambassadeurs of the Casino municipal.[5] Initially, the prize of the contest taking the form of an engraved medallion was to be handed over solemnly during that supper but instead was presented by RTF's director of programming Jean d'Arcy to Teddy Scholten at the end of the show.[24][27]

Results of the Eurovision Song Contest 1959[17][32]

R/O	Country	Artist	Song	Points	Place
1	France	Jean Philippe	"Oui oui oui oui"	15	3
2	Denmark	Birthe Wilke	"Uh, jeg ville ønske jeg var dig"	12	5
3	Italy	Domenico Modugno	"Piove"	9	6
4	Monaco	Jacques Pills	"Mon ami Pierrot"	1	11
5	Netherlands	Teddy Scholten	"Een beetje"	21	1
6	Germany	Alice and Ellen Kessler	"Heut' woll'n wir tanzen geh'n"	5	8
7	Sweden	Brita Borg	"Augustin"	4	9
8	Switzerland	Christa Williams	"Irgendwoher"	14	4
9	Austria	Ferry Graf	"Der K. und K. Kalypso aus Wien"	4	9
10	United Kingdom	Pearl Carr and Teddy Johnson	"Sing Little Birdie"	16	2
11	Belgium	Bob Benny	"Hou toch van mij"	9	6

The announcement of the results from each country was conducted in reverse order to that which each country performed.[28]

Each participating broadcaster was required to relay the contest via its television network. No official accounts of the viewing figures are known to exist. An estimate given in the press was at least 20 million viewers.[6]

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. Twelve commentator boxes were installed on the balconies of the auditorium.[5] Known details on the broadcasts in each country, including the specific broadcasting stations and commentators are shown in the table below.

Broadcasters and commentators in participating countries

Country	Broadcaster	Channel(s)	Commentator(s)	Ref(s)
Austria	ORF	ORF		[37]
Belgium	NIR	NIR		[38]
	INR	INR		[38]
Denmark	DR	Danmarks Radio TV, Program 2	Sejr Volmer-Sørensen	[13]
France	RTF	RTF	Claude Darget	[29][39][30]
		France II
Germany	ARD	Deutsches Fernsehen		[29][38]
Italy	RAI	Programma Nazionale, Secondo Programma	Renato Tagliani	[39][40]
Monaco	Télé Monte-Carlo			[41]
	Radio Monte-Carlo			[39]
Netherlands	NTS	NTS	Piet te Nuyl Jr.	[38][42]
	NRU	Hilversum 1		[38][42]
Sweden	SR	Sveriges TV, SR P1	Jan Gabrielsson	[26]
Switzerland	SRG SSR	TV DRS		[29][39]
		TSR
		TSI
		DRS 2
		RSR 2
		RSI
United Kingdom	BBC	BBC Television Service	Tom Sloan	[1][17]

Broadcasters and commentators in non-participating countries

Country	Broadcaster	Channel(s)	Commentator(s)	Ref(s)
Luxembourg	CLT	Télé-Luxembourg		[43]

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