Eurovision Song Contest 1969

The Eurovision Song Contest 1969 was the 14th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Madrid, Spain, following the country's victory at the 1968 contest with the song "La La La" by Massiel. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster Televisión Española (TVE), the contest was held at the Teatro Real on 29 March 1969 and was hosted by Spanish television presenter and actress Laurita Valenzuela.

Eurovision Song Contest 1969
Dates
Final29 March 1969
Host
VenueTeatro Real
Madrid, Spain
Presenter(s)Laurita Valenzuela
Musical directorAugusto Algueró
Directed byRamón Díez
Executive supervisorClifford Brown
Host broadcasterTelevisión Española (TVE)
Websiteeurovision.tv/event/madrid-1969
Participants
Number of entries16
Debuting countriesNone
Returning countriesNone
Non-returning countries Austria
Participation map
  • A coloured map of the countries of Europe
         Participating countries     Countries that participated in the past but not in 1969
Vote
Voting systemTen-member juries distributed ten points among their favourite songs.
Winning song

Sixteen countries took part in the contest with Austria deciding not to participate this year.

At the close of voting, four countries were controversially declared joint-winners: the United Kingdom with "Boom Bang-a-Bang" by Lulu, Spain with "Vivo cantando" by Salomé, the Netherlands with "De troubadour" by Lenny Kuhr, and France with "Un jour, un enfant" by Frida Boccara. It was the first time in the history of the contest that a tie for first place had occurred, and as there was no tiebreaker rule in place at the time, all four countries were declared joint winners.[1] France's win was their fourth, thus making it the first country to win the contest four times. The Netherlands' win was their third. Spain and the United Kingdom each won for the second time, with Spain becoming the first country to win the Eurovision Song Contest twice in a row.

Location
Teatro Real, Madrid – host venue of the 1969 contest.

The venue selected to host the 1969 contest was the Teatro Real, an opera house located in Madrid. The theatre reopened in 1966 as a concert theatre and the main concert venue of the Spanish National Orchestra and the RTVE Symphony Orchestra. The stage featured a metal sculpture created by surrealist Spanish artist Amadeo Gabino.[2]

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

Austria was absent from the contest,[1] officially because they could not find a suitable representative,[3] but it was rumoured that they refused to participate in a contest staged in Franco-ruled Spain.[4] Wales wanted to debut with Welsh language broadcaster BBC Cymru, and also made a national selection called Cân i Gymru, but in the end it was decided they would not participate in the competition – their participation was rejected because Wales is not a sovereign state. Only the BBC has the exclusive right to represent the United Kingdom.

Participants of the Eurovision Song Contest 1969[5][6][7][8]
Country Broadcaster Artist Song Language Songwriter(s) Conductor
 Belgium BRT Louis Neefs "Jennifer Jennings" Dutch
  • Paul Quintens
  • Phil Van Cauwenbergh
 Francis Bay
 Finland YLE Jarkko and Laura "Kuin silloin ennen" Finnish
Ossi Runne
 France ORTF Frida Boccara "Un jour, un enfant" French
Franck Pourcel
 Germany HR[lower-alpha 1] Siw Malmkvist "Primaballerina" German Hans Blum Hans Blum
 Ireland RTÉ Muriel Day "The Wages of Love" English Michael Reade Noel Kelehan
 Italy RAI Iva Zanicchi "Due grosse lacrime bianche" Italian
  • Carlo Daiano
  • Piero Soffici
 Ezio Leoni
 Luxembourg CLT Romuald "Catherine" French
Augusto Algueró
 Monaco TMC Jean Jacques "Maman, maman" French Jo Perrier Hervé Roy
 Netherlands NTS Lenny Kuhr "De troubadour" Dutch
Frans de Kok
 Norway NRK Kirsti Sparboe "Oj, oj, oj, så glad jeg skal bli" Norwegian Arne Bendiksen Øivind Bergh
 Portugal RTP Simone de Oliveira "Desfolhada portuguesa" Portuguese
Ferrer Trindade
 Spain TVE Salomé "Vivo cantando" Spanish
  • Aniano Alcalde
  • Maria José de Cerato
 Augusto Algueró
 Sweden SR Tommy Körberg "Judy, min vän" Swedish
Lars Samuelson
  Switzerland SRG SSR Paola "Bonjour, Bonjour" German
Henry Mayer
 United Kingdom BBC Lulu "Boom Bang-a-Bang" English
Johnny Harris
 Yugoslavia JRT Ivan "Pozdrav svijetu" (Поздрав свијету) Serbo-Croatian[lower-alpha 2] Milan Lentić Miljenko Prohaska

Returning artists
Artist Country Previous year(s)
Siw Malmkvist  Germany 1960 (for  Sweden)
Romuald  Luxembourg 1964 (for  Monaco)
Simone de Oliveira  Portugal 1965
Kirsti Sparboe  Norway 1965, 1967
Louis Neefs  Belgium 1967

Format

The surrealist Spanish artist Salvador Dalí was responsible for designing the publicity material for the 1969 contest.

It was the first time that the contest resulted in a tie for first place, with four countries each gaining 18 votes. Since there was at the time no rule to cover such an eventuality, all four countries were declared joint winners. This caused an unfortunate problem concerning the medals due to be distributed to the winners as there were not enough to go round, so that only the singers received their medals on the night:[1] the songwriters, to some disgruntlement, were not awarded theirs until some days later. It was the second contest to be filmed and transmitted in colour, even though TVE did not have colour equipment at the time. It had to rent colour TV cameras from the ARD German network. In Spain itself the broadcast was seen in black and white because the local transmitters did not support colour transmissions. The equipment for archiving the broadcast did not arrive in time, so TVE only had a black and white copy of the contest, until a colour copy was discovered in the archives of the NRK.[10]

Contest overview
Results of the Eurovision Song Contest 1969[11]
R/O Country Artist Song Points Place
1  Yugoslavia Ivan "Pozdrav svijetu" 5 13
2  Luxembourg Romuald "Catherine" 7 11
3  Spain Salomé "Vivo cantando" 18 1
4  Monaco Jean Jacques "Maman, maman" 11 6
5  Ireland Muriel Day "The Wages of Love" 10 7
6  Italy Iva Zanicchi "Due grosse lacrime bianche" 5 13
7  United Kingdom Lulu "Boom Bang-a-Bang" 18 1
8  Netherlands Lenny Kuhr "De troubadour" 18 1
9  Sweden Tommy Körberg "Judy, min vän" 8 9
10  Belgium Louis Neefs "Jennifer Jennings" 10 7
11   Switzerland Paola "Bonjour, Bonjour" 13 5
12  Norway Kirsti Sparboe "Oj, oj, oj, så glad jeg skal bli" 1 16
13  Germany Siw Malmkvist "Primaballerina" 8 9
14  France Frida Boccara "Un jour, un enfant" 18 1
15  Portugal Simone de Oliveira "Desfolhada portuguesa" 4 15
16  Finland Jarkko and Laura "Kuin silloin ennen" 6 12

Spokespersons

Each country nominated a spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for their respective country via telephone. Known spokespersons at the 1969 contest are listed below.

Detailed voting results

Although neither jury made any errors in their announcements, scrutineer Clifford Brown asked both the Spanish and the Monegasque juries to repeat their scores. No adjustments were made to the scoring as a result of the repetition.

Lenny Kuhr's dress
Detailed voting results[16][17]
Total score
Yugoslavia
Luxembourg
Spain
Monaco
Ireland
Italy
United Kingdom
Netherlands
Sweden
Belgium
Switzerland
Norway
Germany
France
Portugal
Finland
Contestants
 Yugoslavia 5113
Luxembourg 713111
Spain 18123131322
Monaco 1124221
Ireland 10111313
Italy 511111
United Kingdom 1824315111
Netherlands 182131416
Sweden 81313
Belgium 1023122
Switzerland 132321122
Norway 11
Germany 832111
France 18124421112
Portugal 4211
Finland 6111111

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.[18]

Known details on the broadcasts in each country, including the specific broadcasting stations and commentators are shown in the tables below. In addition to the participating countries, the contest was also reportedly broadcast in Tunisia, in Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania and the Soviet Union via Intervision, and in Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Puerto Rico.[6]

Broadcasters and commentators in participating countries
Country Broadcaster Channel(s) Commentator(s) Ref(s)
 Belgium BRT BRT Jan Theys [19][20]
RTB RTB Unknown [19][21]
 Finland YLE TV-ohjelma 1, Yleisohjelma Aarno Walli [13][22]
Ruotsinkielinen ohjelma Unknown
 France ORTF Deuxième Chaîne, France Inter Pierre Tchernia [21][23][24]
 Germany ARD Deutsches Fernsehen Unknown [21][23][25]
 Ireland RTÉ RTÉ Unknown [26]
RTÉ Radio Unknown [27]
 Italy RAI Secondo Programma Renato Tagliani [28]
 Luxembourg CLT Télé-Luxembourg Unknown [21]
 Monaco Télé Monte-Carlo Unknown [29]
 Netherlands NTS Nederland 1 Pim Jacobs [19][30]
 Norway NRK NRK Fjernsynet, NRK[lower-alpha 3] Sverre Christophersen[lower-alpha 4] [31]
 Portugal RTP I Programa, II Programa Unknown [33]
 Spain TVE TVE 1, TVE 2 José Luis Uribarri [34][35]
RNE Radio Nacional Unknown [34]
Radio Barcelona Unknown
 Sweden SR Sveriges TV, SR P3 Christina Hansegård [15][22][31]
  Switzerland SRG SSR TV DRS Unknown [23][25][36]
TSR Georges Hardy
TSI Unknown
 United Kingdom BBC BBC1 David Gell [6][37]
BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 2 Pete Murray [6][38][39]
 Yugoslavia JRT Televizija Ljubljana Unknown [40]
Broadcasters and commentators in non-participating countries
Country Broadcaster Channel(s) Commentator(s) Ref(s)
 Austria ORF FS1 Unknown [25]
 Chile Canal 9[lower-alpha 5] Unknown [42]
 Hungary MTV MTV Unknown [43]
 Malta MBA MTS Victor Aquilina [44][45]
 Romania TVR Programul 1 Unknown [46]

Notes
  1. On behalf of the German public broadcasting consortium ARD[9]
  2. Contains phrases in Spanish, German, French, English, Dutch, Italian, Russian and Finnish
  3. Deferred broadcast on NRK at 22:30 CET (21:30 UTC)[31]
  4. The connection between the commentary booth in Madrid and the NRK studios in Oslo was disabled partway through the broadcast, resulting in the Norwegian commentary provided by Sverre Christophersen not being relayed to Norwegian viewers and listeners. Commentary was temporarily provided by Janka Polanyi before the Swedish feed was rerouted to also cover the Norwegian broadcasts, with the original connection to Christophersen ultimately fixed before the start of the voting sequence.[32]
  5. Delayed broadcast on 29 March 1969 at 20:15 CLT (00:15 UTC)[41]

References
  1. "Eurovision Song Contest 1969". EBU. Retrieved 16 June 2012.
  2. "Cultural Institutions: Teatro Real". esMADRID.com. Archived from the original on 7 September 2009. Retrieved 3 September 2009.
  3. "Eurovisionsfest ohne Österreich". Arbeiter-Zeitung. Vienna, Austria. 15 January 1969. Archived from the original on 15 November 2020. Retrieved 7 May 2023.
  4. O'Connor, John Kennedy (2005). The Eurovision Song Contest: The Official History.
  5. "Participants of Madrid 1969". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 8 February 2023. Retrieved 7 July 2023.
  6. Roxburgh, Gordon (2012). Songs for Europe: The United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest. Volume One: The 1950s and 1960s. Prestatyn: Telos Publishing. pp. 482–493. ISBN 978-1-84583-065-6.
  7. "1969 – 14th edition". diggiloo.net. Archived from the original on 8 August 2022. Retrieved 7 July 2023.
  8. "Detailed overview: conductors in 1969". And the conductor is... Retrieved 7 July 2023.
  9. "Alle deutschen ESC-Acts und ihre Titel" [All German ESC acts and their songs]. www.eurovision.de (in German). ARD. Archived from the original on 12 June 2023. Retrieved 12 June 2023.
  10. RTVE.es (29 March 2019). "50 años de Eurovisión 1969 | La final de Eurovisión 1969: por primera vez a todo color y con los comentarios de Uribarri". RTVE.es (in Spanish). Retrieved 23 May 2021.
  11. "Final of Madrid 1969". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 8 April 2021. Retrieved 8 April 2021.
  12. Janssens, Emiel (29 March 1969). "Drieluik Madrid, met een viertal kanshebbers naar het uur H". Gazet van Antwerpen (in Dutch).
  13. "Eurovision laulukipailu -69". Helsingin Sanomat (in Finnish). 29 March 1969. p. 33. Retrieved 23 December 2022.
  14. "Over til Madrid: Kveldens begivenhet Melodi Grand Prix". Sandefjords Blad (in Norwegian). Sandefjord, Norway. 29 March 1969. p. 7. Retrieved 3 January 2023 – via National Library of Norway.
  15. Thorsson, Leif; Verhage, Martin (2006). Melodifestivalen genom tiderna : de svenska uttagningarna och internationella finalerna (in Swedish). Stockholm: Premium Publishing. pp. 80–81. ISBN 91-89136-29-2.
  16. "Results of the Final of Madrid 1969". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 8 April 2021. Retrieved 8 April 2021.
  17. "Eurovision Song Contest 1969 – Scoreboard". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 1 July 2015. Retrieved 14 June 2021.
  18. "The Rules of the Contest". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 4 October 2022. Retrieved 19 December 2022.
  19. "Televisie". De Nieuwe Limburger (in Dutch). Maastricht, Netherlands. 29 March 1969. p. 38. Retrieved 3 January 2023 – via Delpher.
  20. "De festival-herinneringen van Jan Theys". Story (in Dutch). 12 May 1987. Archived from the original on 30 June 2022. Retrieved 3 January 2023.
  21. "Radio-Télévision". Luxemburger Wort (in German and French). Luxembourg City, Luxembourg. 28 March 1969. p. 23. Retrieved 3 January 2023.
  22. "Radio ja televisio". Helsingin Sanomat (in Finnish). 29 March 1969. p. 33. Retrieved 23 December 2022.
  23. "TV – samedi 29 mars". Radio TV - Je vois tout (in French). Lausanne, Switzerland: Héliographia SA. 27 March 1969. pp. 98–99. Retrieved 3 January 2023.
  24. "Programmes radio – samedi 29 mars". Radio TV - Je vois tout (in French). Lausanne, Switzerland: Héliographia SA. 27 March 1969. pp. 61–62. Retrieved 3 January 2023.
  25. "Fernsehen – Samstag". Die Tat (in German). Zürich, Switzerland. 29 March 1969. p. 23. Retrieved 3 January 2023 – via e-newspaperarchives.ch.
  26. "TV Today". The Irish Times. 29 March 1969. p. 19. Retrieved 22 December 2022.
  27. "Radio". The Irish Times. 29 March 1969. p. 19. Retrieved 22 December 2022.
  28. "Oggi alla televisione". La Stampa (in Italian). Turin, Italy. 29 March 1969. p. 6. Retrieved 3 January 2023.
  29. "Monaco – Madrid 1969". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 13 May 2018. Retrieved 3 January 2023.
  30. "De zeventien stemmen van Madrid". Algemeen Dagblad (in Dutch). Rotterdam, Netherlands. 29 March 1969. p. 19. Retrieved 3 January 2023 – via Delpher.
  31. "Radio ∗ Fjernsyn". Østlands-Posten (in Norwegian). Larvik, Norway. 29 March 1969. p. 12. Retrieved 3 January 2023 – via National Library of Norway.
  32. "Fire ikke-vinnere!". Verdens Gang (in Norwegian). Oslo, Norway. 31 March 1969. p. 7. Retrieved 3 January 2023 – via National Library of Norway. (subscription may be required or content may be available in libraries)
  33. "Boletim do dia". Diário de Lisboa (in Portuguese). Lisbon, Portugal. 29 March 1969. p. 14. Retrieved 3 January 2023 – via Casa Comum.
  34. "Programas de Radio y TV". La Vanguardia (in Spanish). 29 March 1969. p. 59. Retrieved 3 January 2023.
  35. 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 14 December 2022.
  36. "Sabato – Televisione Svizzera Italiana". Popolo e Libertà (in Italian). Bellinzona, Switzerland. 29 March 1969. p. 8. Retrieved 3 January 2023 – via Sistema bibliotecario ticinese.
  37. "Eurovision Song Contest: Grand Prix 1969 – BBC1". Radio Times. 29 March 1969. Retrieved 3 January 2023 – via BBC Genome Project.
  38. "Eurovision Song Contest – BBC Radio 1". Radio Times. 29 March 1969. Retrieved 3 January 2023 – via BBC Genome Project.
  39. "Schedule – BBC Radio 2 – 29 March 1969". Radio Times. 29 March 1969. Retrieved 10 January 2023 – via BBC Genome Project.
  40. "Televizija – sobota – 29. marca" (PDF). Glas (in Slovenian). Kranj, SR Slovenia, Yugoslavia. 29 March 1969. p. 20. Archived (PDF) from the original on 3 January 2023. Retrieved 3 January 2023.
  41. "Programación de TV". Las Últimas Noticias (in Spanish). 29 March 1969. p. 3.
  42. ""Capo" el Festival Eurovision" (PDF). Ecran (in Spanish). 8 April 1969. p. 41. Retrieved 5 May 2023.
  43. "TV – szombat III.29". Rádió- és Televízió-újság (in Hungarian). 24 March 1969. p. 13. Archived from the original on 3 January 2023. Retrieved 3 January 2023 – via MTVA Archívum.
  44. "Sound and Vision". Times of Malta. 29 March 1969. p. 10.
  45. Barry, Fred (29 March 1969). "Europe Ready for Song Finals Tonight – Maltese viewers' eyes on British, Italian entries". Times of Malta. p. 19.
  46. "Televisiune – sîmbătă 29 martie". Radio TV (in Romanian). p. 15. Archived from the original on 3 January 2023. Retrieved 3 January 2023.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Eurovision Song Contest 1969.

40°25′06″N 3°42′37″W

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.