Eurovision Song Contest 1972

The Eurovision Song Contest 1972 was the 17th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom, and was held at the Usher Hall on Saturday 25 March 1972. The show was hosted by Moira Shearer.

Eurovision Song Contest 1972
Dates
Final	25 March 1972
Host
Venue	Usher Hall Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom
Presenter(s)	Moira Shearer
Conductor	Malcolm Lockyer
Directed by	Terry Hughes
Executive supervisor	Clifford Brown
Executive producer	Bill Cotton
Host broadcaster	British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
Interval act	Tattoo at Edinburgh Castle
Website	eurovision.tv/event/edinburgh-1972
Participants
Number of entries	18
Debuting countries	None
Returning countries	None
Non-returning countries	None
Participation map      Participating countries     Countries that participated in the past but not in 1972
Vote
Voting system	Two-member juries (one aged 16 to 25 and the other 25 to 55) rated songs between one and five points.
Nul points	None
Winning song	Luxembourg "Après toi"

Following Séverine's win for Monaco at the 1971 contest in Dublin, Ireland with the song "Un banc, un arbre, une rue", the principality were unable to meet the demands of hosting the event. Rainier III of Monaco received a letter from the European Broadcasting Union about hosting the 1972 contest in the principality, but he was unable to provide a venue, the props and the remainder of the requirements. The BBC stepped in, and chose to stage the contest in Edinburgh. This was the fourth time the UK played host, after the 1960, 1963, and 1968 editions, however, this is the first (and, so far, only) time that the UK hosted the contest in a venue outside England.

The winner was Luxembourg with the song "Après toi", performed by Vicky Leandros, written by Klaus Munro and Yvess Dessca, and composed by Munro and Mario Panas. Munro also conducted the song at the contest. This was Luxembourg's third victory in the contest, following their wins in 1961, and 1965. Yves Dessca also wrote for "Un Banc, Un Arbre, Une Rue" that won the previous edition, and other than conductors of the winning song, became the second person to win the Contest twice, the first person to win for two different countries and the first person to win two years in a row.[1] Germany finished in third place for the third consecutive year, equalling their highest placement from the previous two editions.

Séverine made the trip to Edinburgh to pass on the 'Grand Prix' to Vicky Leandros. However, she looked thoroughly uninterested in the Monegasque entry when seen by viewers checking her watch before the song was performed.[1]

Location

Usher Hall, Edinburgh – host venue of the 1972 contest.

The 1972 Eurovision Song Contest was hosted by Edinburgh, the capital city of Scotland. The Usher Hall, the venue for the 1972 contest, is a concert hall, situated on Lothian Road, in the west end of Edinburgh, Scotland. It has hosted concerts and events since its construction in 1914 and can hold approximately 2,900[2] people in its recently restored auditorium, which is well loved by performers due to its acoustics. The Hall is flanked by The Royal Lyceum Theatre on the right and The Traverse Theatre on the left. Historic Scotland has registered the Hall with Category A listed building status.

Format

The stage design included a screen to introduce and accompany the on stage competing performances, and to show an interval act and voting sequence that were done at Edinburgh Castle. Before each country's performance, a picture of each song's performers along with their names and the song's title were projected on the screen, and during each performance, animated spiral shapes were projected as additional visual effect. The interval act was performed at the outside vast Esplanade of the Great Hall of Edinburgh Castle. The jurors were stationed in the safety of the castle, and watched the competing performances at Usher Hall on TV.

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 of their own country. They cast their votes immediately after each song was performed and the votes were then collected and counted. For the public voting sequence after the interval act, the jury members were shown on the stage's screen with each lifting a signboard with the number between 1 and 5 for each song, as a visual verification of the scores they had awarded earlier. The eventual winner, Luxembourg, remained in a strong scoring position throughout the voting.

1972 was the first year that had no ties in the voting. Every year prior to 1972, at least two countries had received the same score.

Participating countries

Further information: List of countries in the Eurovision Song Contest

All countries that participated in the 1971 contest were present this year.

Conductors

Each performance had a musical director who conducted the orchestra.[3][4]

•  Germany – Paul Kuhn
•  France – Franck Pourcel
•  Ireland – Colman Pearce
•  Spain – Augusto Algueró
•  United Kingdom – David Mackay
•  Norway – Carsten Klouman
•  Portugal – Richard Hill
•   Switzerland – Jean-Pierre Festi
•  Malta – Charles Camilleri
•  Finland – Ossi Runne
•  Austria – Erich Kleinschuster
•  Italy – Gian Franco Reverberi
•  Yugoslavia – Nikica Kalogjera
•  Sweden – Mats Olsson
•  Monaco – Raymond Bernard
•  Belgium – Henri Segers
•  Luxembourg – Klaus Munro
•  Netherlands – Harry van Hoof

Returning artists

Four artists returned to the competition this year. Luxembourg's Vicky Leandros who last performed for the nation in 1967; Carlos Mendes for Portugal who last participated in 1968; Swedish entry Family Four who returned for a second consecutive year; and Yugoslavia's Tereza Kesovija who previously represented Monaco in 1966.

Results

Draw	Country	Artist	Song	Language[5]	Place	Points
01	Germany	Mary Roos	"Nur die Liebe läßt uns leben"	German	3	107
02	France	Betty Mars	"Comé-comédie"	French	11	81
03	Ireland	Sandie Jones	"Ceol an Ghrá"	Irish	15	72
04	Spain	Jaime Morey	"Amanece"	Spanish	10	83
05	United Kingdom	The New Seekers	"Beg, Steal or Borrow"	English	2	114
06	Norway	Grethe Kausland & Benny Borg	"Småting"	Norwegian	14	73
07	Portugal	Carlos Mendes	"A festa da vida"	Portuguese	7	90
08	Switzerland	Véronique Müller	"C'est la chanson de mon amour"	French	8	88
09	Malta	Helen and Joseph	"L-imħabba"	Maltese	18	48
10	Finland	Päivi Paunu & Kim Floor	"Muistathan"	Finnish	12	78
11	Austria	Milestones	"Falter im Wind"	German	5	100
12	Italy	Nicola Di Bari	"I giorni dell'arcobaleno"	Italian	6	92
13	Yugoslavia	Tereza Kesovija	"Muzika i ti"	Croatian	9	87
14	Sweden	Family Four	"Härliga sommardag"	Swedish	13	75
15	Monaco	Anne-Marie Godart & Peter MacLane	"Comme on s'aime"	French	16	65
16	Belgium	Serge & Christine Ghisoland	"À la folie ou pas du tout"	French	17	55
17	Luxembourg	Vicky Leandros	"Après toi"	French	1	128
18	Netherlands	Sandra & Andres	"Als het om de liefde gaat"	Dutch	4	106

Scoreboard

		Results
		Total score	Germany	France	Ireland	Spain	United Kingdom	Norway	Portugal	Switzerland	Malta	Finland	Austria	Italy	Yugoslavia	Sweden	Monaco	Belgium	Luxembourg	Netherlands
Contestants	Germany	107		8	6	9	5	6	6	5	4	5	5	7	5	8	8	7	7	6
	France	81	5		5	2	9	7	2	3	5	4	2	3	5	2	6	7	8	6
	Ireland	72	4	3		4	4	6	4	3	6	3	4	3	3	5	5	4	6	5
	Spain	83	7	5	5		3	8	6	3	4	4	5	3	2	7	8	3	5	5
	United Kingdom	114	8	9	6	2		10	4	8	2	7	7	7	9	6	9	4	8	8
	Norway	73	4	3	6	5	4		5	2	5	7	3	2	5	4	4	4	6	4
	Portugal	90	3	4	7	7	4	2		6	5	2	4	9	4	7	4	7	10	5
	Switzerland	88	4	5	6	5	4	7	2		4	7	8	5	5	4	6	4	7	5
	Malta	48	3	2	4	2	6	2	2	2		5	2	2	2	3	3	2	2	4
	Finland	78	4	3	3	6	5	6	4	3	3		3	3	4	4	5	8	6	8
	Austria	100	6	6	6	6	3	5	5	7	5	4		6	8	10	5	4	5	9
	Italy	92	4	5	3	2	3	6	7	9	6	6	6		4	8	6	6	6	5
	Yugoslavia	87	7	4	5	8	5	4	5	2	4	3	3	2		4	9	8	8	6
	Sweden	75	5	3	5	3	3	5	4	2	4	5	4	3	7		5	7	5	5
	Monaco	65	4	3	4	3	5	6	2	2	5	5	3	3	4	3		4	4	5
	Belgium	55	2	3	4	2	5	2	3	3	5	4	2	3	2	2	4		6	3
	Luxembourg	128	9	8	9	2	10	8	7	6	4	6	8	9	10	8	7	8		9
Netherlands	106	6	6	8	8	9	8	5	6	3	9	6	3	9	6	5	2	7

10 points

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

N.	Contestant	Voting nation
2	Luxembourg	United Kingdom, Yugoslavia
1	Austria	Sweden
	Portugal	Luxembourg
	United Kingdom	Norway

Broadcasters, commentators and jury members

Jury members

Listed below is the order in which votes were cast during the 1972 contest along with the names of the two jury members who voted for their respective country. Each country announced their results in groups of three.

1.  Germany – Unknown
2.  France – Unknown
3.  Ireland – Unknown
4.  Spain – Emma Cohen and Luis María Ansón[6]
5.  United Kingdom – Doreen Samuels and Robert Walker[4][7][8]
6.  Norway – Rachel Nord and Signe Abusdal[9]
7.  Portugal – Pedro Sousa Macedo and Maria João Aguiar[10]
8.   Switzerland – Unknown
9.  Malta – Mary Rose Mallia and Joe Zerafa[11]
10.  Finland – Merita Merikoski and Åke Granholm[12]
11.  Austria – Unknown
12.  Italy – Unknown
13.  Yugoslavia – Vera Zlokovic and Veljko Bakasun[13]
14.  Sweden – Titti Sjöblom and Arne Domnérus[14]
15.  Monaco – Unknown
16.  Belgium – Unknown
17.  Luxembourg – Unknown
18.  Netherlands – Jennifer Baljet and Cornelis Wagter

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
Austria	FS1	Ernst Grissemann	[15]
	Hitradio Ö3	Hubert Gaisbauer
Belgium	RTB	French: Arlette Vincent	[15]
	BRT	Dutch: Herman Verelst	[15]
	RTB La Première	André Hagon
	BRT Radio 1	Nand Baert
Finland	YLE TV1	Heikki Seppälä	[15]
	Yleisohjelma	Matti Paalosmaa
France	Deuxième Chaîne ORTF	Pierre Tchernia	[15][16]
Germany	Deutsches Fernsehen	Frank Elstner	[15]
	Deutschlandfunk/Bayern 2	Wolf Mittler
Ireland	RTÉ	Frank Hall	[15]
	RTÉ Radio	Kevin Roche
Italy	Programma Nazionale and Secondo Programma Radio	Renato Tagliani
Luxembourg	Télé-Luxembourg	Jacques Navadic
	RTL	Camillo Felgen
Malta	MTV	Norman Hamilton	[17]
Monaco	Télé Monte Carlo and Radio Monte-Carlo	José Sacré
Netherlands	Nederland 1	Pim Jacobs	[15][18]
Norway	NRK	Roald Øyen	[15]
	NRK P1	Erik Heyerdahl
Portugal	I Programa	Henrique Mendes	[15]
	Emissora Nacional Programa 1	Amadeu Meireles
Spain	Primera Cadena	Julio Rico	[15]
	Primer Programa RNE	Miguel de los Santos
Sweden	SR TV1	Bo Billtén	[14]
	SR P3	Björn Bjelfvenstam	[14]
Switzerland	TV DRS	German: Theodor Haller	[19]
	TSR	French: Georges Hardy	[20]
	TSI	Italian: Giovanni Bertini
	2e Programme	French: Robert Burnier	[21]
United Kingdom	BBC1	Tom Fleming	[4][15]
	BBC Radio 2	Pete Murray	[4]
	BFBS Radio	Terry James	[4]
Yugoslavia	TVB 1	Serbo-Croatian: Milovan Ilić
	TVZ 1	Serbo-Croatian: Oliver Mlakar
	TVL 1	Slovene: Tomaž Terček
Non-participating countries
Brazil	Rede Tupi	Unknown
Greece	EIRT	Mako Georgiadou
Hong Kong	TBC	Unknown	[22]
Iceland	Sjónvarpið	Björn Matthíasson
Israel	Israeli Television	No commentator
Japan	TBC	Unknown	[22]
Philippines	ABS-CBN	No commentator	[22]
Taiwan	TBC	Unknown	[22]
Thailand	TBC	Unknown	[22]

References

1. O'Connor, John Kennedy. The Eurovision Song Contest – The Official History. Carlton Books, UK. 2007 ISBN 978-1-84442-994-3
2. "Geograph:: The Usher Hall, Edinburgh (C) Kevin Rae". www.geograph.org.uk.
3. "And the conductor is..." Retrieved 26 July 2020.
4. Roxburgh, Gordon (2014). Songs for Europe: The United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest. Volume Two: The 1970s. Prestatyn: Telos Publishing. pp. 76–98. ISBN 978-1-84583-093-9.
5. "Eurovision Song Contest 1972". The Diggiloo Thrush. Retrieved 4 March 2012.
6. Eurojaume dice (15 February 2008). "Eurovisión 1972 – Programa posterior al festival | AEV ESPAÑA". Aeveurovision.com. Archived from the original on 16 March 2012. Retrieved 10 August 2012.
7. "Dubliner Jury bestochen?", Hamburger Abendblatt, 6 April 1971
8. "Eurovision 1972". Songs4europe.com. 25 March 1972. Archived from the original on 22 March 2012. Retrieved 10 August 2012.
9. http://www.nrk.no/debatt/index.phpshowtopic=87458&pid=1343226&mode=threaded&start=. Retrieved 21 May 2011. Missing or empty |title= (help)
10. Vasco Hogan Teves, 1964–1983 20 anos de Festival RTP da Canção
11. "Views and comments on the Eurovision Song Contest", Times of Malta, 29 March 1972
12. "Muistathan: Eurovision laulukilpailu 1972". Viisukuppila.fi. 9 January 2012. Retrieved 10 August 2012.
13. Vladimir Pinzovski
14. Thorsson, Leif (2006). Melodifestivalen genom tiderna ["Melodifestivalen through time"]. Stockholm: Premium Publishing AB. p. 94. ISBN 91-89136-29-2.
15. "Eurovision 1972 - Cast and Crew". IMDb. Retrieved 26 July 2020.
16. Christian Masson. "1972 – Édimbourg". Songcontest.free.fr. Retrieved 10 August 2012.
17. "Eurovision Song Contest 1972", Times of Malta, 25 March 1972
18. "Nederlandse televisiecommentatoren bij het Eurovisie Songfestival" (in Dutch). Eurovision Artists. Retrieved 1 June 2010.
19. "Au Grand Prix Eurovision de la Chanson". Radio TV - Je vois tout. Lausanne, Switzerland: Le Radio SA. 23 March 1972.
20. "Au Grand Prix Eurovision de la Chanson". Radio TV - Je vois tout. Lausanne, Switzerland: Le Radio SA. 23 March 1972.
21. "Au Grand Prix Eurovision de la Chanson". Radio TV - Je vois tout. Lausanne, Switzerland: Le Radio SA. 23 March 1972.
22. "Eurovision Song Contest: Edinburgh 1972". eurovision.tv. Retrieved 13 August 2020.

External links

• Official website