Eurovision Song Contest 1961

The Eurovision Song Contest 1961 was the 6th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. Once again, the contest was held in the French seaside city of Cannes, having also hosted the 1959 edition. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française (RTF), the contest was again held at the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès on Saturday 18 March 1961, becoming the first contest to take place on a Saturday evening, a tradition that has continued ever since (with the exception of 1962). The show was directed by Marcel Cravenne and again hosted by Jacqueline Joubert, who had also hosted in 1959.[1]

Eurovision Song Contest 1961
Dates
Final18 March 1961
Host
VenuePalais des Festivals et des Congrès
Cannes, France
Presenter(s)Jacqueline Joubert
Musical directorFranck Pourcel
Directed byMaurice Barry
Executive producerMarcel Cravenne
Host broadcasterRadiodiffusion-Télévision Française (RTF)
Websiteeurovision.tv/event/cannes-1961
Participants
Number of entries16
Debuting countries
Non-returning countriesNone
Participation map
  • A coloured map of the countries of Europe
         Participating countries
Vote
Voting systemTen-member juries distributed 10 points among their favourite songs.
Winning song Luxembourg
"Nous les amoureux"

Sixteen countries participated in the contest - three more than in the previous edition; Finland, Spain and Yugoslavia all competed for the first time this year.

The winner was Luxembourg with the song "Nous les amoureux", performed by Jean-Claude Pascal, written by Maurice Vidalin, and composed by Jacques Datin, with the United Kingdom finishing in second place for the third consecutive year.

Location
Palais des Festivals et des Congrès, Cannes – host venue of the 1961 contest

The event took place in Cannes, France, following the nation's victory at the 1960 edition with the song "Tom Pillibi", performed by Jacqueline Boyer. 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 and subsequently demolished in 1988.[4] It also hosted the 1959 edition of the Eurovision Song Contest.[2]

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

Interest in the competition began to grow across Europe as three new countries participated for the first time: Finland, Spain, and Yugoslavia.[5]

Both Belgium's Bob Benny and Norway's Nora Brockstedt made their second appearances at the contest; Benny had previously represented Belgium in the 1959 contest with the song "Hou toch van mij", while Brockstedt represented Norway for the second consecutive year, having performed "Voi Voi" the previous year.[2]

Participants of the Eurovision Song Contest 1961[2][6][7][8]
Country Broadcaster Artist Song Language(s) Songwriter(s) Conductor
 Austria ORF Jimmy Makulis "Sehnsucht" German Leopold Andrejewitsch Franck Pourcel
 Belgium BRT Bob Benny "September, gouden roos" Dutch
  • Wim Brabants
  • Hans Flower
 Francis Bay
 Denmark DR Dario Campeotto "Angelique" Danish Aksel V. Rasmussen Kai Mortensen
 Finland YLE Laila Kinnunen "Valoa ikkunassa" Finnish
  • Eino Hurme
  • Sauvo Puhtila
 George de Godzinsky
 France RTF Jean-Paul Mauric "Printemps (avril carillonne)" French
  • Francis Baxter
  • Guy Favereau
 Franck Pourcel
 Germany HR[lower-alpha 1] Lale Andersen "Einmal sehen wir uns wieder" German, French
Franck Pourcel
 Italy RAI Betty Curtis "Al di là" Italian
Gianfranco Intra
 Luxembourg CLT Jean-Claude Pascal "Nous les amoureux" French
Léo Chauliac
 Monaco TMC Colette Deréal "Allons, allons les enfants" French
Raymond Lefèvre
 Netherlands NTS Greetje Kauffeld "Wat een dag" Dutch
Dolf van der Linden
 Norway NRK Nora Brockstedt "Sommer i Palma" Norwegian
Øivind Bergh
 Spain TVE Conchita Bautista "Estando contigo" Spanish
Rafael Ferrer
 Sweden SR Lill-Babs "April, april" Swedish
  • Bo Eneby
  • Bobbie Ericsson
 William Lind
  Switzerland SRG SSR Franca di Rienzo "Nous aurons demain" French
Fernando Paggi
 United Kingdom BBC The Allisons "Are You Sure?" English
  • John Alford
  • Bob Day
 Harry Robinson
 Yugoslavia JRT Ljiljana Petrović "Neke davne zvezde" (Неке давне звезде) Serbo-Croatian
Jože Privšek

Production

Marcel Cravenne directed the show, the director of photography was Maurice Barry.[10] Roger Valat served as technical director.[11] Six TV cameras were used, including one showing the Mediterranean sea and the outside of the venue during the first seconds of the show.[10]

Like in 1959, the stage was designed by Gérard Dubois.[1][12] It was notably larger than in previous years and featured a central staircase decorated with flowers, leading up to a terrace flanked by trees, so that the entire stage gave the impression of a Mediterranean garden.[10] Dubois first made a scale model of the stage in Paris, then went to Cannes and chose the trees together witch André Racot, head of the Cannes municipal gardens,[13] paying attention that the trees were not too dark-colored for the TV cameras.[10] The flower pots were only added on the day of the show so that they were fresh and unaltered by unsuitable temperature and light conditions.[10]

Format

Initial plans foresaw that the greenroom was part of the stage so that artists stayed on the stage after having performed.[10] However, this idea finally was not realised in the live show.[14]

The draw to determine the running order took place on 16 March 1959 at the Carlton Hotel in Cannes.[11] It was presented by Jacqueline Joubert, assisted by two children aged six and four.[11]

Rehearsals started on 16 March 1959.[11]

Contest overview

The contest was held on 18 March 1961, beginning at 22:00 CET (21:00 UTC) and lasted 1 hour and 30 minutes.[2][15] The event was hosted by French television presenter Jacqueline Joubert, who had previously presented the previous contest held in France in 1959.[2][5]

The interval act was a ballet performance under the title "Rendez-vous à Cannes" with music written by Raymond Lefèvre and performed by Tessa Beaumont and Max Bozzoni.[10][16]

The winner was Luxembourg represented by the song "Nous les amoureux", composed by Jacques Datin, written by Maurice Vidalin and performed by Jean-Claude Pascal.[17] This was the first of an eventual five contest victories that Luxembourg would go on to achieve.[18]

After the show, a supper for the participating delegations was held at the Salon des Ambassadeurs of the Casino municipal.[19]

Results of the Eurovision Song Contest 1961[2][20]
R/O Country Artist Song Points Place
1  Spain Conchita Bautista "Estando contigo" 8 9
2  Monaco Colette Deréal "Allons, allons les enfants" 6 10
3  Austria Jimmy Makulis "Sehnsucht" 1 15
4  Finland Laila Kinnunen "Valoa ikkunassa" 6 10
5  Yugoslavia Ljiljana Petrović "Neke davne zvezde" 9 8
6  Netherlands Greetje Kauffeld "Wat een dag" 6 10
7  Sweden Lill-Babs "April, april" 2 14
8  Germany Lale Andersen "Einmal sehen wir uns wieder" 3 13
9  France Jean-Paul Mauric "Printemps (avril carillonne)" 13 4
10   Switzerland Franca di Rienzo "Nous aurons demain" 16 3
11  Belgium Bob Benny "September, gouden roos" 1 15
12  Norway Nora Brockstedt "Sommer i Palma" 10 7
13  Denmark Dario Campeotto "Angelique" 12 5
14  Luxembourg Jean-Claude Pascal "Nous les amoureux" 31 1
15  United Kingdom The Allisons "Are You Sure?" 24 2
16  Italy Betty Curtis "Al di là" 12 5

Spokespersons

Each country nominated a spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for their respective country via telephone. Known spokespersons at the 1961 contest are listed below.

Detailed voting results

Each country had 10 jury members who each awarded 1 point to their favourite song. The jury members were television viewers representing the public.[1]

It is noticeable that during the voting, Luxembourg gave the UK eight points, and Norway also gave Denmark eight points. It was the largest number of points given to a country by a single jury since 1958, when Denmark provided France with nine points. Such a high number of points obtained by a country would not be achieved until 1970, when Ireland would receive nine points from Belgium.[5]

Detailed voting results[23][24]
Total score
Italy
United Kingdom
Luxembourg
Denmark
Norway
Belgium
Switzerland
France
Germany
Sweden
Netherlands
Yugoslavia
Finland
Austria
Monaco
Spain
Contestants
 Spain 8122111
Monaco 61131
Austria 11
Finland 62211
Yugoslavia 9111213
Netherlands 62112
Sweden 22
Germany 3111
France 132141122
Switzerland 1622421221
Belgium 11
Norway 1015121
Denmark 128211
Luxembourg 31311151153442
United Kingdom 241811733
Italy 12441111

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.[25] The local press reported a total number of 14 commentators for the contest, and a total of 16 countries broadcasting the event.[10][19]

No official accounts of the viewing figures are known to exist. An estimate given in the French press ahead of the contest was 40 million viewers all over Europe.[10]

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

Broadcasters and commentators in participating countries
Country Broadcaster Channel(s) Commentator(s) Ref(s)
 Austria ORF ORF Unknown [26]
 Belgium BRT BRT Unknown [27][28]
RTB RTB Unknown [27]
 Denmark DR Danmarks Radio TV, Program 1 Sejr Volmer-Sørensen [29]
 Finland YLE Suomen Televisio, Yleisohjelma Aarno Walli [30][31]
 France RTF RTF, France I Robert Beauvais [15][32][33]
 Germany ARD Deutsches Fernsehen Unknown [15][27]
 Italy RAI Programma Nazionale, Secondo Programma Corrado Mantoni [34][35]
 Luxembourg CLT Télé-Luxembourg Unknown [36]
 Monaco Télé Monte-Carlo Unknown [37]
Radio Monte Carlo Unknown [33]
 Netherlands NTS NTS Piet te Nuyl Jr. [21][27][38]
NRU Hilversum 1 Coen Serré
 Norway NRK NRK Fjernsynet, NRK Leif Rustad [39][40]
 Spain TVE TVE Federico Gallo [41][42]
RNE RNE Unknown [41]
 Sweden SR Sveriges TV, SR P1 Jan Gabrielsson [22][30]
  Switzerland SRG SSR TV DRS Unknown [15][33]
TSR, RSR 1 Robert Beauvais
TSI Unknown
DRS 2 Unknown
RSI 1 Unknown
 United Kingdom BBC BBC TV Tom Sloan [2][43]
 Yugoslavia JRT Televizija Ljubljana Saša Novak [44][45][46]
Televizija Zagreb Unknown

Notes
  1. On behalf of the German public broadcasting consortium ARD[9]

References
  1. "Samedi 18 Mars". Télérama. No. 582. 12 March 1961. p. 24.
  2. Roxburgh, Gordon (2012). Songs for Europe: The United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest. Vol. One: The 1950s and 1960s. Prestatyn: Telos Publishing. pp. 254–264. ISBN 978-1-84583-065-6.
  3. "The Palais Croisette : 33 years of service". cannes.com. 4 October 2021. Archived from the original on 2 March 2022. Retrieved 14 June 2022.
  4. "The 1983 festival inaugurates the Palais des Festivals". cannes.com. 4 October 2021. Archived from the original on 1 March 2022. Retrieved 14 June 2022.
  5. "Eurovision Song Contest 1961". EBU. Retrieved 13 February 2009.
  6. "Participants of Cannes 1961". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 4 February 2023. Retrieved 10 June 2023.
  7. "1961 – 6th edition". diggiloo.net. Archived from the original on 2 January 2022. Retrieved 10 June 2023.
  8. "Detailed overview: conductors in 1961". And the conductor is... Retrieved 1 July 2022.
  9. "Alle deutschen ESC-Acts und ihre Titel". www.eurovision.de (in German). ARD. Archived from the original on 12 June 2023. Retrieved 12 June 2023.
  10. Dany, Pierre (15 March 1961). "Le Palais des Festivals est fin prêt pour accueillir les concurrents du Grand Prix Eurovision de la Chanson". L'Espoir de Nice et du Sud-Est. p. 4. ISSN 1166-9012.
  11. Dany, Pierre (17 March 1961). "Grand Prix Eurovision de la chanson demain soir, à Cannes au Palais des Festivals". Nice-Matin. p. 6. ISSN 0224-5477.
  12. Montaigne, Pierre (11 March 1959). "Le Grand Prix 1959 de la chanson européenne". Nice-Matin. p. 2. ISSN 0224-5477.
  13. Ville de Cannes, ed. (2007). Cannes, elles & eux. Des hommes des femmes, leur destin à Cannes (in French). Vol. 2. Cannes: Archives communales. pp. 54–55. ISBN 978-2-9162-6101-0. OCLC 213499510.
  14. Grand Prix Eurovision 1961 de la chanson européenne (Television production) (in French). Cannes, France: Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française (RTF). 18 March 1961.
  15. "TV". Radio TV - Je vois tout (in French). Lausanne, Switzerland: Héliographia SA. 9 March 1961. pp. 24–26. Retrieved 19 June 2022.
  16. Dany, Pierre (20 March 1961). "A la suite d'une lutte serrée avec le Royaume-Uni, le Luxembourg remporte le Grand Prix Eurovision de la chanson". L'Espoir de Nice et du Sud-Est (in French). p. 6. ISSN 1166-9012.
  17. "Jean-Claude Pascal – Luxembourg – Cannes 1961". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 12 May 2018. Retrieved 22 September 2022.
  18. "Luxembourg – Country Profile". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 23 May 2023. Retrieved 10 June 2023.
  19. "Grand Prix Eurovision de la chanson". L'Espoir de Nice et du Sud-Est. 18 March 1961. p. 4. ISSN 1166-9012.
  20. "Final of Cannes 1961". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 28 March 2021. Retrieved 28 March 2021.
  21. "Greetje vanavond nummer zes". Nieuwe Leidsche Courant. 18 March 1961. p. 7. Retrieved 11 June 2021.
  22. Thorsson, Leif; Verhage, Martin (2006). Melodifestivalen genom tiderna : de svenska uttagningarna och internationella finalerna (in Swedish). Stockholm: Premium Publishing. pp. 34–35. ISBN 91-89136-29-2.
  23. "Results of the Final of Cannes 1961". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 28 March 2021. Retrieved 28 March 2021.
  24. "Eurovision Song Contest 1961 – Scoreboard". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 10 June 2015. Retrieved 14 June 2021.
  25. "The Rules of the Contest". European Broadcasting Union. 31 October 2018. Archived from the original on 4 October 2022. Retrieved 13 December 2022.
  26. "Austria – Cannes 1961". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 13 May 2018. Retrieved 22 September 2022.
  27. "Programma's binnen- en buitenlandse zenders". De Telegraaf (in Dutch). 17 March 1961. p. 9. Retrieved 19 June 2022 – via Delpher.
  28. "Televisiekijkers voor U..." De Gazet van Aalst (in Flemish). 11 March 1961. Retrieved 22 June 2022.
  29. "Programoversigt – 18-03-1961" (in Danish). Dansk Kulturarv. 18 March 1961. Archived (PDF) from the original on 19 June 2022. Retrieved 15 June 2022.
  30. "Radio ja televisio". Helsingin Sanomat (in Finnish). 18 March 1961. p. 33. Retrieved 7 November 2022.
  31. Pajala, Mari (2013). Badenoch, Alexander; Fickers, Andreas; Henrich-Franke, Christian (eds.). "Intervision Song Contests and Finnish Television between East and West". Airy Curtains in the European Ether: Broadcasting and the Cold War. Baden-Baden, Germany: Nomos: 215–270. doi:10.5771/9783845236070-215. ISBN 9783845236070 – via Academia.edu. Walli was closely involved in YLE's ESC productions; among other things he [...] provided the commentary for all the 1960s ESCs on Finnish television.
  32. "Remise du Grand Prix Eurovision 1961 à Jean-Claude Pascal (Luxembourg)" (in French). Institut national de l'audiovisuel. Retrieved 19 June 2022.
  33. "Programmes des Émissions Suisses et Étrangères". Radio TV - Je vois tout (in French). Lausanne, Switzerland: Héliographia SA. 9 March 1961. pp. 33–36. Retrieved 19 June 2022.
  34. "I programmi TV e radio". La Stampa (in Italian). 18 March 1961. p. 4. Retrieved 19 June 2022.
  35. Anselmi, Eddy (January 2020). Il festival di Sanremo: 70 anni di storie, canzoni, cantanti e serate (in Italian). Milan, Italy: Planeta DeAgostini. ISBN 978-88-511-7854-3. Nel 1961 è il commentatore Rai dell'Eurovision Song Contest [In 1961 he was the commentator for Rai at the Eurovision Song Contest]
  36. "Télé-Luxembourg". Luxemburger Wort (in German and French). 18 March 1961. p. 19. Retrieved 11 November 2022.
  37. "Monaco – Cannes 1961". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 13 May 2018. Retrieved 22 September 2022.
  38. "Eurovisie Songfestival ook op radio" [Eurovision Song Contest also on radio]. De Tijd De Maasbode (in Dutch). 7 March 1961. p. 6. Retrieved 26 June 2023 – via Delpher.
  39. "Hørt i Radio". Haugesunds Dagblad (in Norwegian). 20 March 1961. p. 3. Retrieved 19 June 2022 – via National Library of Norway.
  40. "Radioprogrammet". Sandefjords Blad (in Norwegian). 18 March 1961. p. 8. Retrieved 19 June 2022 – via National Library of Norway.
  41. "Radio y TV". La Vanguardia (in Spanish). 18 March 1961. p. 30. Retrieved 14 December 2022.
  42. HerGar, Paula (28 March 2018). "Todos los comentaristas de la historia de España en Eurovisión (y una única mujer en solitario)" (in Spanish). Los 40. Archived from the original on 26 September 2021. Retrieved 19 June 2022.
  43. "Eurovision Song Contest Grand Prix 1961". Radio Times. 18 March 1961. Retrieved 10 July 2022 – via BBC Genome Project.
  44. "Radijski in televizijski spored" (PDF). Glas (in Slovenian). 11 March 1961. p. 6. Archived (PDF) from the original on 23 July 2022. Retrieved 23 July 2022.
  45. Mitrović, Nemanja (6 March 2022). "Evrovizijski put Jugoslavije - od socijalističkog autsajdera do festivalskog pobednika" (in Serbian (Latin script)). BBC News. Archived from the original on 14 May 2022.
  46. "TV Program". Slobodna Dalmacija (in Serbo-Croatian). Split, SR Croatia, Yugoslavia. 18 March 1961. p. 8. Retrieved 22 July 2022.
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