Eurovision Song Contest 1970

The Eurovision Song Contest 1970 was the 15th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Amsterdam, Netherlands and was held at the RAI Congrescentrum on Saturday 21 March 1970. The show was hosted by Willy Dobbe.

Eurovision Song Contest 1970
Dates
Final	21 March 1970
Host
Venue	RAI Theatre Amsterdam, Netherlands
Presenter(s)	Willy Dobbe
Conductor	Dolf van der Linden
Directed by	Theo Ordeman
Executive supervisor	Clifford Brown
Executive producer	Warner van Kampen
Host broadcaster	Nederlandse Omroep Stichting (NOS)
Interval act	The Don Lurio Dancers
Website	eurovision.tv/event/amsterdam-1970
Participants
Number of entries	12
Debuting countries	None
Returning countries	None
Non-returning countries	Finland  Norway  Portugal  Sweden
Participation map      Participating countries     Countries that participated in the past but not in 1970
Vote
Voting system	Ten-member juries distributed ten points among their favourite songs.
Nul points	Luxembourg
Winning song	Ireland "All Kinds of Everything"

Due to there being four winners in the previous contest, a question was raised as to which nation would host the 1970 contest. With the UK having hosted in 1968 and Spain in 1969, only France and Netherlands were in consideration. A toss of a coin resulted in the host country being decided as the Netherlands.[1]

Twelve countries participated in the contest. It was the lowest number of participants since the 1959 edition. Finland, Norway, Portugal, Sweden and Austria did not participate in 1970 in protest of the four-way tie result of 1969.[2]

The winner was Ireland with the song "All Kinds of Everything", performed by Dana, and written/composed by Derry Lindsay and Jackie Smith. This was Ireland's first victory in the contest. The United Kingdom finished in second place for the seventh time, while Germany ended up in third place - the best result for the country at the time. This was also the only time that Luxembourg received 'nul points'.[2]

Location

RAI Congrescentrum, Amsterdam - host venue of the 1970 contest.

The Congrescentrum, venue of the 1970 contest, is a semi-permanent exhibit at the Ferdinand Bolstraat to Amsterdam and was opened on 31 October 1922. This building was replaced in 1961 by the current RAI building on Europe's Square. The current congress and event center on Europe Square, was designed by Alexander Bodon and opened on 2 February 1961.

Format

The Dutch producers were forced to pad out the show as only 12 nations decided to make the trip to Amsterdam. The result was a format which has endured almost to the present day. An extended opening sequence (filmed in Amsterdam) set the scene, while every entry was introduced by a short video 'postcard' featuring each of the participating artists, ostensibly in their own nation. However, the 'postcards' for Switzerland, Luxembourg and Monaco were all filmed on location in Paris (as was the French postcard).[2] The long introduction film (over four minutes long) was followed by what probably is one of the shortest ever introductions by any presenter. Willy Dobbe only welcomed the viewers in English, French and Dutch, finishing her introduction after only 24 seconds. On screen captions introduced each entry, with the song titles listed all in lower case and the names of the artist and composers/authors all in capitals.

The set design was devised by Roland de Groot; a simple design was composed of a number of curved horizontal bars and silver baubles which could be moved in a variety of different ways.

To avoid an incident like in 1969, a tie rule was created. It stated that, if two or more songs gained the same number of votes and were tied for first place, each song would have to be performed again. After which each national jury (other than the juries of the countries concerned) would have a show of hands of which they thought was the best. If the countries tied again, then they would share first place.

Participating countries

Further information: List of countries in the Eurovision Song Contest

Austria (who had not taken part in 1969), Denmark, Finland, Norway, Portugal and Sweden boycotted this contest as they were not pleased with the result of 1969 and the voting structure.[2] Portugal did however host a National final, being won by Sérgio Borges.[1]

Of the participating singers, a number were already established performers. Notably, the United Kingdom sent Welsh singer and Apple recording artist Mary Hopkin, while David Alexandre Winter represented Luxembourg. The contest is also notable for the appearance of the then unknown Julio Iglesias, singing for Spain.

Voting and aftermath

Dana sings the winning song All Kinds of Everything

In the run-up to the Contest, the United Kingdom were favourites to win and also the favourite with the 50-piece orchestra. So sure of victory, the UK delegation had organised a winner's party to be thrown after the contest.[1] In the end, the only two countries in the running were the UK and Ireland, albeit the latter holding the lead throughout the voting. Ireland took the victory with 32 points, 6 points ahead of the UK, with Germany a distant third. Luxembourg failed to score any points at all - their only time ever to do so.

Ireland won the contest with "All Kinds of Everything", penned by Derry Lindsay and Jackie Smith, and sung by another unknown, Dana, an 18-year-old schoolgirl from Derry, Northern Ireland. Scottish songwriter Bill Martin, who was responsible for the winning song's publishing, has on numerous subsequent occasions claimed that he and his song writing partner Phil Coulter (the team behind both Puppet on a String and Congratulations) actually wrote the song themselves, but were prevented from using their names on the credit.[3] Coulter has never repeated the claim and there is nothing public to substantiate Martin's story and it was only made after both Lindsay and Smith had died. The song became a million-seller and the singer an international star. As the contest was held in the Netherlands this year, and the country was one of the four winners in 1969, Dana received her awards from the Dutch winner Lenny Kuhr.

Mary Hopkin scored a few more hits but downscaled her music career in 1971 after getting married. She later commented on her appearance at the Contest as humiliating and said that she hated the song she had to sing.[1] Spanish entrant Julio Iglesias went on to achieve worldwide success in the decades that followed, becoming one of the top-selling singers of all time. Dana, meanwhile, continued to score hit singles throughout the 1970s with songs such as "Fairytale" and "It's Gonna be a Cold Cold Christmas". In the 1990s she became a politician, running for the Irish presidential election in 1997 and 2011, and becoming an MEP in 1999.

Of the other performers, Stella Maessen (of Hearts of Soul), Jean Vallée, Guy Bonnet and Katja Ebstein all took part in the Eurovision Song Contest again, the latter twice more. The following year, Austria, Finland, Norway, Portugal and Sweden all returned to the contest.

Conductors

Each performance had a conductor who led the orchestral accompaniment.[4][1]

•  Netherlands – Dolf van der Linden
•   Switzerland – Bernard Gérard
•  Italy – Mario Capuano
•  Yugoslavia – Mojmir Sepe
•  Belgium – Jack Say
•  France – Franck Pourcel
•  United Kingdom – Johnny Arthey
•  Luxembourg – Raymond Lefèvre
•  Spain – Augusto Algueró
•  Monaco – Jimmy Walter
•  Germany – Christian Bruhn
•  Ireland – Dolf van der Linden

Returning artists

For the first time, no artists from previous contests returned.[5]

Results

Draw	Country	Artist	Song	Language[6]	Place	Points
01	Netherlands	Hearts of Soul	"Waterman"	Dutch	7	7
02	Switzerland	Henri Dès	"Retour"	French	4	8
03	Italy	Gianni Morandi	"Occhi di ragazza"	Italian	8	5
04	Yugoslavia	Eva Sršen	"Pridi, dala ti bom cvet"	Slovene	11	4
05	Belgium	Jean Vallée	"Viens l'oublier"	French	8	5
06	France	Guy Bonnet	"Marie-Blanche"	French	4	8
07	United Kingdom	Mary Hopkin	"Knock, Knock Who's There?"	English	2	26
08	Luxembourg	David Alexandre Winter	"Je suis tombé du ciel"	French	12	0
09	Spain	Julio Iglesias	"Gwendolyne"	Spanish	4	8
10	Monaco	Dominique Dussault	"Marlène"	French	8	5
11	Germany	Katja Ebstein	"Wunder gibt es immer wieder"	German	3	12
12	Ireland	Dana	"All Kinds of Everything"	English	1	32

Scoreboard

		Results
		Total score	Netherlands	Switzerland	Italy	Yugoslavia	Belgium	France	United Kingdom	Luxembourg	Spain	Monaco	Germany	Ireland
Contestants	Netherlands	7			3	3			1
	Switzerland	8	2					2	1				2	1
	Italy	5				1					2		2
	Yugoslavia	4							4
	Belgium	5						3		1				1
	France	8			1	2						2		3
	United Kingdom	26	3	2	2	4		2		2		4	4	3
	Luxembourg	0
	Spain	8			3					2		3
	Monaco	5		1			1	2			1
	Germany	12		1	1					3	4	1		2
	Ireland	32	5	6			9	1	4	2	3		2

4 points

Below is a summary of all 4 points in the final:

N.	Contestant	Voting nation
4	Ireland	Netherlands^1, Switzerland^2, Belgium^3, United Kingdom
3	United Kingdom	Yugoslavia, Monaco, Germany
1	Germany	Spain
	Yugoslavia	United Kingdom

1.^ Netherlands gave Ireland 5 points.

2.^ Switzerland gave Ireland 6 points.

3.^ Belgium gave Ireland 9 points

Broadcasters, commentators and spokespersons

Spokespersons

Listed below is the order in which votes were cast during the 1970 contest along with the spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for their respective country.[7]

1.  Netherlands – Flip van der Schalie
2.   Switzerland – Alexandre Burger
3.  Italy – Enzo Tortora
4.  Yugoslavia – Dragana Marković
5.  Belgium – André Hagon
6.  France – TBC
7.  United Kingdom – Colin Ward-Lewis[1]
8.  Luxembourg – TBC
9.  Spain – Ramón Rivera
10.  Monaco – TBC
11.  Germany – Hans-Otto Grünefeldt
12.  Ireland – John Skehan

Broadcasters and commentators

Each national broadcaster also sent a commentator to the contest, in order to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language.

Country	Broadcaster(s)	Commentator(s)	Ref(s)
Participating countries
Belgium	RTB	French: Claude Delacroix	[8]
	BRT	Dutch: Herman Verelst	[7]
	RTB La Première	TBC
	BRT Radio 1	Nand Baert
France	Deuxième Chaîne ORTF	Pierre Tchernia	[7][8]
Germany	Deutsches Fernsehen	Marie-Louise Steinbauer	[7]
	Deutschlandfunk/Bayern 2	Wolf Mittler
Ireland	RTÉ	Valerie McGovern
	RTÉ Radio	Kevin Roche
Italy	Secondo Programma	Renato Tagliani
Luxembourg	Télé-Luxembourg	Jacques Navadic	[7][8]
	RTL	Camillo Felgen
Monaco	Télé Monte Carlo	Pierre Tchernia
Netherlands	Nederland 1	Pim Jacobs	[7][9]
Spain	Primera Cadena	José Luis Uribarri	[7]
	Primer Programa RNE	Miguel de los Santos
Switzerland	TV DRS	German: Theodor Haller
	TSR	French: Georges Hardy
	TSI	Italian: Giovanni Bertini
United Kingdom	BBC1	David Gell	[7][1]
	BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 2	Tony Brandon	[1]
	BFBS Radio	John Russell	[1]
Yugoslavia	Televizija Beograd	Serbo-Croatian: Milovan Ilić
	Televizija Zagreb	Serbo-Croatian: Oliver Mlakar
	Televizija Ljubljana	Slovene: Tomaž Terček
Non-participating countries
Austria	FS1	Ernst Grissemann	[7]
Brazil	TV Tupi	Unknown	[1]
Chile	Canal 9	Unknown	[1]
Czechoslovakia	ČST	Unknown	[1]
Greece	EIRT	Unknown	[1]
Hungary	RTV	Unknown	[1]
Iceland	Sjónvarpið	Unknown	[1]
Israel	Israeli Television	Unknown	[1]
Norway	NRK	No commentator
Poland	TVP	No commentator	[1]
Portugal	I Programa	Henrique Mendes	[7]
Romania	TVR	Unknown	[1]
Tunisia	RTT	Unknown	[1]

References

1. Roxburgh, Gordon (2014). Songs for Europe: The United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest. Volume Two: The 1970s. Prestatyn: Telos Publishing. pp. 25–37. ISBN 978-1-84583-093-9.
2. O'Connor, John Kennedy. The Eurovision Song Contest - The Official History. Carlton Books, UK. 2007 ISBN 978-1-84442-994-3
3. Martin, Bill. Congratulations: Songwriter to the Stars. Dujio Publishing (1 Aug. 2017) ISBN 978-1527212817
4. "And the conductor is..." Retrieved 10 July 2018.
5. "Eurovision Song Contest 1970". EBU. Retrieved 16 June 2012.
6. "Eurovision Song Contest 1970". The Diggiloo Thrush. Retrieved 4 March 2012.
7. "Eurovision 1970 - Cast and Crew". IMDb. Retrieved 24 July 2020.
8. Christian Masson. "1970 - Amsterdam". Songcontest.free.fr. Retrieved 10 August 2012.
9. "Nederlandse televisiecommentatoren bij het Eurovisie Songfestival". Eurovision Artists (in Dutch).

External links

• Official website