Eurovision Song Contest 1973

The Eurovision Song Contest 1973 was the 18th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Luxembourg City, Luxembourg, following the country's victory at the 1972 contest with the song "Après toi" by Vicky Leandros. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster Compagnie Luxembourgeoise de Télédiffusion (CLT), the contest was held at the Grand Théâtre on 7 April 1973 and was hosted by German television presenter Helga Guitton.

Eurovision Song Contest 1973
Dates
Final7 April 1973
Host
VenueGrand Théâtre
Luxembourg City, Luxembourg
Presenter(s)Helga Guitton
Musical directorPierre Cao
Directed byRené Steichen
Executive supervisorClifford Brown
Executive producerPaul Ulveling
Host broadcasterCompagnie Luxembourgeoise de Télédiffusion (CLT)
Websiteeurovision.tv/event/luxembourg-1973
Participants
Number of entries17
Debuting countries Israel
Returning countriesNone
Non-returning countries
Participation map
  • A coloured map of the countries of Europe
         Participating countries     Countries that participated in the past but not in 1973
Vote
Voting systemTwo-member juries (one aged 16 to 25 and the other 25 to 55) rated songs between one and five points.
Winning song Luxembourg
"Tu te reconnaîtras"

Seventeen countries took part in the contest this year, with Austria and Malta deciding not to participate, and Israel competing for the first time.

In a back-to-back victory, Luxembourg won the contest again with the song "Tu te reconnaîtras" by Anne-Marie David. The voting was a very close one, with Spain with "Eres tú" by Mocedades finishing only 4 points behind and the United Kingdom with "Power to All Our Friends" by Cliff Richard (who had come second in 1968 just behind Spain) another 2 points further back. The winning song scored the highest score ever achieved in Eurovision under any voting format until 1975, recording 129 points out of a possible 160, which represented almost 81% of the possible maximum. This was partly due to a scoring system which guaranteed all countries at least two points from each country.[1]

Location
Grand Théâtre, Luxembourg City – host venue of the 1973 contest.

Luxembourg City is a commune with city status, and the capital of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. It is located at the confluence of the Alzette and Pétrusse Rivers in southern Luxembourg. The city contains the historic Luxembourg Castle, established by the Franks in the Early Middle Ages, around which a settlement developed.

The Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg, inaugurated in 1964 as the Théâtre Municipal de la Ville de Luxembourg, became the venue for the 1973 contest. It is the city's major venue for drama, opera and ballet.[2][3]

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

Seventeen nations took part in this year's contest. Israel participated for the first time, while Austria and Malta decided against participating. Malta had originally being drawn to perform in sixth position between Norway and Monaco, however the Maltese broadcaster withdrew before the deadline to select an entry.[4]

The language rule forcing countries to enter songs sung in any of their national languages was dropped this year, so performers from some countries sang in English.

Participants of the Eurovision Song Contest 1973[5][4][6][7]
Country Broadcaster Artist Song Language Songwriter(s) Conductor
 Belgium BRT Nicole and Hugo "Baby Baby" Dutch[lower-alpha 1]
  • Ignace Baert
  • Erik Marijsse
 Francis Bay
 Finland YLE Marion Rung "Tom Tom Tom" English
Ossi Runne
 France ORTF Martine Clémenceau "Sans toi" French
Jean Claudric
 Germany HR[lower-alpha 2] Gitte "Junger Tag" German
  • Stephan Lego
  • Günther-Eric Thöner
 Günther-Eric Thöner
 Ireland RTÉ Maxi "Do I Dream" English
  • Jack Brierley
  • George F. Crosby
 Colman Pearce
 Israel IBA Ilanit "Ey Sham" (אי שם) Hebrew
Nurit Hirsh
 Italy RAI Massimo Ranieri "Chi sarà con te" Italian
Enrico Polito
 Luxembourg CLT Anne-Marie David "Tu te reconnaîtras" French
  • Vline Buggy
  • Claude Morgan
 Pierre Cao
 Monaco TMC Marie "Un train qui part" French
  • Boris Bergman
  • Bernard Liamis
 Jean-Claude Vannier
 Netherlands NOS Ben Cramer "De oude muzikant" Dutch Pierre Kartner Harry van Hoof
 Norway NRK Bendik Singers "It's Just a Game" English, French[lower-alpha 3]
Carsten Klouman
 Portugal RTP Fernando Tordo "Tourada" Portuguese
Jorge Costa Pinto
 Spain TVE Mocedades "Eres tú" Spanish Juan Carlos Calderón Juan Carlos Calderón
 Sweden SR The Nova "You're Summer" English
Monica Dominique
  Switzerland SRG SSR Patrick Juvet "Je vais me marier, Marie" French
Hervé Roy
 United Kingdom BBC Cliff Richard "Power to All Our Friends" English
David Mackay
 Yugoslavia JRT Zdravko Čolić "Gori vatra" (Гори ватра) Serbo-Croatian Kemal Monteno Esad Arnautalić

Returning artists
Artist Country Previous year(s)
Marion Rung  Finland 1962
Cliff Richard  United Kingdom 1968
Massimo Ranieri  Italy 1971

Contest overview

In light of the events that had happened during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, there were fears of a terrorist threat, particularly directed against Israel's first-ever entrant, leading to unusually tight security for the contest. This gave rise to one of the best-known Eurovision anecdotes, frequently recounted by the UK's long-serving commentator Terry Wogan. He recalled that the floor manager strongly advised the audience to remain seated while applauding the performances, otherwise they risked being shot by security forces.[9]

This contest holds the record for the most watched Eurovision Song Contest in the United Kingdom, and is also the 18th most watched television show in the same country, with an estimated 21.54 million tuning in on the night. Cliff Richard represented the UK with the song "Power to All Our Friends". He came 3rd with 123 points. The winner though was Anne-Marie David with "Tu te reconnaîtras".

Results of the Eurovision Song Contest 1973[10]
R/O Country Artist Song Points Place
1  Finland Marion Rung "Tom Tom Tom" 93 6
2  Belgium Nicole and Hugo "Baby Baby" 58 17
3  Portugal Fernando Tordo "Tourada" 80 10
4  Germany Gitte "Junger Tag" 85 8
5  Norway Bendik Singers "It's Just a Game" 89 7
6  Monaco Marie "Un train qui part" 85 8
7  Spain Mocedades "Eres tú" 125 2
8   Switzerland Patrick Juvet "Je vais me marier, Marie" 79 12
9  Yugoslavia Zdravko Čolić "Gori vatra" 65 15
10  Italy Massimo Ranieri "Chi sarà con te" 74 13
11  Luxembourg Anne-Marie David "Tu te reconnaîtras" 129 1
12  Sweden The Nova "You're Summer" 94 5
13  Netherlands Ben Cramer "De oude muzikant" 69 14
14  Ireland Maxi "Do I Dream" 80 10
15  United Kingdom Cliff Richard "Power to All Our Friends" 123 3
16  France Martine Clémenceau "Sans toi" 65 15
17  Israel Ilanit "Ey Sham" 97 4

Detailed voting results

Each country had two jury members, one aged between 16 and 25 and one aged between 26 and 55. They each awarded 1 to 5 points for each song (other than the song from their own country) immediately after it was performed and the votes were collected and counted as soon as they were cast. The juries watched the show on TV from the Ville du Louvigny TV Studios of CLT and appeared on screen to confirm their scores.

Detailed voting results[11][12]
Total score
Finland
Belgium
Portugal
Germany
Norway
Monaco
Spain
Switzerland
Yugoslavia
Italy
Luxembourg
Sweden
Netherlands
Ireland
United Kingdom
France
Israel
Contestants
 Finland 939566566726755945
Belgium 584343664424234522
Portugal 804655488634254565
Germany 852564597437656574
Norway 898556767657333369
Monaco 856324365986456954
Spain 1253899498910871010498
Switzerland 794334757646387723
Yugoslavia 655334258624245444
Italy 742535555755544554
Luxembourg 1296687876109989810108
Sweden 948445857965665745
Netherlands 694425545554735362
Ireland 803724667555656544
United Kingdom 123966778488510910989
France 654324455472355552
Israel 976657574677866755

10 points

Below is a summary of all perfect 10 scores that were given during the voting.

N. Contestant Nation(s) giving 10 points
3  Luxembourg  France,   Switzerland,  United Kingdom
 Spain  Ireland,  Italy,  Netherlands
2  United Kingdom  Netherlands,  Luxembourg

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.[13]

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 Austria, Greece, Iceland, Malta and Turkey, in Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania and the Soviet Union via Intervision, and in Japan.[4]

Broadcasters and commentators in participating countries
Country Broadcaster Channel(s) Commentator(s) Ref(s)
 Belgium BRT BRT Unknown [14][15]
BRT 1 Unknown
RTB RTB Unknown [14][16]
 Finland YLE TV1 Unknown [17]
Yleisohjelma Erkki Melakoski
Ruotsinkielinen ohjelma Unknown
 France ORTF Première Chaîne Pierre Tchernia [16][18]
 Germany ARD Deutsches Fernsehen Unknown [16][19]
 Ireland RTÉ RTÉ Mike Murphy [20][21]
RTÉ Radio Liam Devally [22][23]
 Israel IBA Israeli Television Unknown [24]
 Italy RAI Programma Nazionale Renato Tagliani [25][26]
 Luxembourg CLT RTL Télé-Luxembourg Unknown [14][16][27]
RTL Unknown
Radio Luxembourg Unknown
 Monaco Télé Monte-Carlo Unknown [28]
 Netherlands NOS Nederland 1 Pim Jacobs [14][29]
 Norway NRK NRK Fjernsynet, NRK John Andreassen [30]
 Portugal RTP I Programa Artur Agostinho [31][32]
 Spain TVE TVE 1 Julio Rico [33][34]
RNE Radio Nacional Unknown [33]
 Sweden SR TV1 Alicia Lundberg [17][30][35]
SR P3 Ursula Richter
  Switzerland SRG SSR TV DRS Theodor Haller [18][19][36][37][38]
TSR Georges Hardy
TSI Unknown
DRS 1[lower-alpha 4] Unknown
RSR 1 Robert Burnier
RSI 1 Unknown
 United Kingdom BBC BBC1 Terry Wogan [4][39]
BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 2 Pete Murray [4][40][41]
BFBS BFBS Radio Richard Astbury [4]
 Yugoslavia JRT TV Ljubljana 1 Unknown [42][43]
TV Zagreb 1 Unknown
Broadcasters and commentators in non-participating countries
Country Broadcaster Channel(s) Commentator(s) Ref(s)
 Austria ORF FS2 Ernst Grissemann [19][44]
 Greece EIRT EIRT Mako Georgiadou [45]
 Hungary MTV MTV[lower-alpha 5] Unknown [46]
 Iceland RÚV Sjónvarpið[lower-alpha 6] Jón O. Edwald [47]
 Malta MBA MTS, National Network Victor Aquilina [48][49]
 Turkey TRT TRT Televizyon Unknown [50]

Notes
  1. Also contains some lyrics in English, Spanish and French
  2. On behalf of the German public broadcasting consortium ARD[8]
  3. Also contains some lyrics in Spanish, Italian, Dutch, German, Irish, Hebrew, Serbo-Croatian, Finnish, Swedish and Norwegian
  4. Delayed broadcast on 9 April 1973 at 22:30 CET (21:30 UTC)[37]
  5. Delayed broadcast on 8 May 1973 at 21:15 CET (20:15 UTC)[46]
  6. Delayed broadcast on 29 April 1973 at 21:30 WET (21:30 UTC)[47]

References
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  3. "Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg" Archived 2011-07-22 at the Wayback Machine, Théâtre Info Luxembourg. (in French) Retrieved 27 December 2010.
  4. Roxburgh, Gordon (2014). Songs for Europe: The United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest. Volume Two: The 1970s. Prestatyn: Telos Publishing. pp. 113–128. ISBN 978-1-84583-093-9.
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