Eurovision Song Contest 1971

The Eurovision Song Contest 1971 was the 16th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Dublin, Ireland, following Dana's win at the 1970 contest in Amsterdam, Netherlands with the song "All Kinds of Everything". It was the first time Ireland hosted the event. The contest was held at the Gaiety Theatre on Saturday 3 April 1971, and was hosted by Bernadette Ní Ghallchóir.

Eurovision Song Contest 1971
Dates
Final	3 April 1971
Host
Venue	Gaiety Theatre Dublin, Ireland
Presenter(s)	Bernadette Ní Ghallchóir
Conductor	Colman Pearce
Directed by	Tom McGrath
Executive supervisor	Clifford Brown
Host broadcaster	Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ)
Interval act	Bunratty Castle Entertainers
Website	eurovision.tv/event/dublin-1971
Participants
Number of entries	18
Debuting countries	Malta
Returning countries	Austria  Finland  Norway  Portugal  Sweden
Non-returning countries	None
Participation map      Participating countries     Countries that participated in the past but not in 1971
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	Monaco "Un banc, un arbre, une rue"

Eighteen countries participated in the contest, equalling the record of the 1965 and 1966 editions. Austria returned after their two-year absence, while Finland, Norway, Portugal and Sweden all returned after their one-year absence. Malta made their début in this edition.

The winner was Monaco with the song "Un banc, un arbre, une rue", performed by Séverine, written by Yves Dessca, and composed by Jean-Pierre Bourtayre. This was Monaco's first and only victory in the contest. The song was performed by a French singer, living in France, sung in French, conducted by a French native and written by a French team. Séverine later claimed she never visited Monaco before or after her victory – a claim easily disproved by the preview video submitted by Télé-Monte-Carlo featuring the singer on location in the Principality.[1]

Location

Gaiety Theatre, Dublin – host venue of the 1971 contest.

The contest was held at the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin, the capital and most populous city of Ireland.[2][3] This was the first time that the contest was held in Ireland.

Format

For the first time, each participating broadcaster was required to televise all the songs in "previews" prior to the live final. Belgium's preview video featured Nicole & Hugo performing the song "Goeiemorgen, morgen", but Nicole was struck with a sudden illness days before the contest final, with Jacques Raymond & Lily Castel stepping in at short notice to perform the entry in their place. Reports suggested that Castel had not even had enough time to buy a suitable dress for the show.

The BBC were worried about the possible audience reaction to the UK song due to the hostilities raging in Northern Ireland. They specifically selected a singer from Northern Ireland, Clodagh Rodgers, who was popular in both the UK and the Republic of Ireland, to ease any ill-feeling from the Dublin audience. However, Rodgers still received death threats from the IRA for representing the UK.

Groups of up to six people were allowed to perform for the first time, with the rule in previous contests of performing either solo or as a duet abolished.[4]

This was only RTÉ's second outside broadcast in colour. The contest was broadcast in Iceland, the United States and Hong Kong several days later.[5]

Voting system

A new voting system was introduced in this year's contest: each country sent two jury members, one aged over 25 and the other under 25 (with at least ten years' difference between their ages), with both awarding each country (except their own) a score of between one and five points.

While this meant that no country could score fewer than 34 points (and in the event all eighteen scored at least 52), it had one major problem: some jury members tended to award only one or two points. Whether this was done to increase their respective countries' chances of winning is not known for sure, but this shortcoming was nonetheless plain.[4] However, the system remained in place for the 1972 and 1973 contests.

Participating countries

Further information: List of countries in the Eurovision Song Contest

Malta made their début in this year's contest, while Austria, Finland, Norway, Portugal and Sweden all returned after a brief absence. This brought the total number of countries to eighteen.

Conductors

Each performance had a conductor who directed the orchestra.[6][7]

•  Austria – Robert Opratko
•  Malta – Anthony Chircop
•  Monaco – Jean-Claude Petit
•   Switzerland – Hardy Schneiders
•  Germany – Dieter Zimmermann
•  Spain – Waldo de los Ríos
•  France – Franck Pourcel
•  Luxembourg – Jean Claudric
•  United Kingdom – Johnny Arthey
•  Belgium – Francis Bay
•  Italy – Enrico Polito
•  Sweden – Claes Rosendahl
•  Ireland – Noel Kelehan
•  Netherlands – Dolf van der Linden
•  Portugal – Jorge Costa Pinto
•  Yugoslavia – Miljenko Prohaska
•  Finland – Ossi Runne
•  Norway – Arne Bendiksen

Returning artists

Two artists returned to the competition this year: Katja Ebstein represented Germany for the second consecutive year, while Jacques Raymond had previously represented Belgium in 1963.

Results

Draw	Country	Artist	Song	Language[8]	Place	Points
01	Austria	Marianne Mendt	"Musik"	Viennese	16	66
02	Malta	Joe Grech	"Marija l-Maltija"	Maltese	18	52
03	Monaco	Séverine	"Un banc, un arbre, une rue"	French	1	128
04	Switzerland	Peter, Sue and Marc	"Les illusions de nos vingt ans"	French	12	78
05	Germany	Katja Ebstein	"Diese Welt"	German	3	100
06	Spain	Karina	"En un mundo nuevo"	Spanish	2	116
07	France	Serge Lama	"Un jardin sur la terre"	French	10	82
08	Luxembourg	Monique Melsen	"Pomme, pomme, pomme"	French	13	70
09	United Kingdom	Clodagh Rodgers	"Jack In The Box"	English	4	98
10	Belgium	Lily Castel & Jacques Raymond	"Goeiemorgen, morgen"	Dutch	14	68
11	Italy	Massimo Ranieri	"L'amore è un attimo"	Italian	5	91
12	Sweden	Family Four	"Vita vidder"	Swedish	6	85
13	Ireland	Angela Farrell	"One Day Love"	English	11	79
14	Netherlands	Saskia & Serge	"Tijd"	Dutch	6	85
15	Portugal	Tonicha	"Menina do alto da serra"	Portuguese	9	83
16	Yugoslavia	Krunoslav Slabinac	"Tvoj dječak je tužan"	Croatian	14	68
17	Finland	Markku Aro & Koivistolaiset	"Tie uuteen päivään"	Finnish	8	84
18	Norway	Hanne Krogh	"Lykken er"	Norwegian	17	65

Scoreboard

The Netherlands' Saskia & Serge finished 6th with their entry "Tijd".

		Results
		Total score	Austria	Malta	Monaco	Switzerland	Germany	Spain	France	Luxembourg	United Kingdom	Belgium	Italy	Sweden	Ireland	Netherlands	Portugal	Yugoslavia	Finland	Norway
Contestants	Austria	66		3	5	2	7	2	3	2	3	3	6	4	6	3	5	4	3	5
	Malta	52	4		2	2	3	5	3	2	3	4	4	2	4	5	2	2	3	2
	Monaco	128	4	5		10	10	2	8	4	8	10	4	10	9	9	8	10	7	10
	Switzerland	78	5	5	4		6	2	6	2	6	3	7	4	5	5	6	4	4	4
	Germany	100	6	5	7	6		8	8	2	6	7	6	6	5	5	7	7	5	4
	Spain	116	4	8	10	5	7		10	4	7	4	5	6	9	6	7	7	9	8
	France	82	3	2	8	8	5	5		2	5	3	4	4	6	9	5	5	3	5
	Luxembourg	70	2	7	6	3	2	4	5		6	3	3	2	5	3	6	4	5	4
	United Kingdom	98	4	8	8	6	5	2	8	4		8	3	5	7	5	7	6	6	6
	Belgium	68	3	2	5	4	2	2	5	2	6		3	5	4	6	6	3	6	4
	Italy	91	4	6	9	8	6	6	9	2	6	2		7	6	2	3	8	2	5
	Sweden	85	7	4	4	9	4	2	5	2	5	6	6		3	9	3	6	4	6
	Ireland	79	7	6	6	3	4	5	7	2	6	3	6	2		5	4	5	4	4
	Netherlands	85	6	2	6	5	4	5	7	2	5	2	2	6	5		9	5	6	8
	Portugal	83	4	3	6	2	5	10	8	5	6	4	4	2	3	5		6	5	5
	Yugoslavia	68	6	2	4	2	7	6	6	2	3	2	5	2	5	4	4		3	5
	Finland	84	4	4	4	4	4	3	4	2	10	10	2	4	6	3	8	6		6
	Norway	65	3	3	6	4	2	2	5	2	7	6	2	2	7	2	5	4	3

10 points

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

N.	Contestant	Voting nation
6	Monaco	Belgium, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Yugoslavia
2	Spain	France, Monaco
	Finland	Belgium, United Kingdom
1	Portugal	Spain

Broadcasters, commentators and jury members

Jury members

Listed below is the order in which votes were cast during the 1971 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.  Austria – Beatrix Neundlinger and Jochen Lieben
2.  Malta – Spiro Sillato and Gaetan Abela[9]
3.  Monaco – Unknown
4.   Switzerland – Unknown
5.  Germany – Kirsten Ludwig and Wolfgang Henk[10]
6.  Spain – Noelia Afonso and Francisco Madariaga
7.  France – Claude Crémieux and Jacques Ourevitch[11]
8.  Luxembourg – Unknown
9.  United Kingdom – Jeremy Paterson Fox and Gay Lowe[7][12]
10.  Belgium – Unknown
11.  Italy – Unknown
12.  Sweden – Eva Blomqvist and Putte Wickman[13]
13.  Ireland – Vivienne Colgan and Ken Steward[14]
14.  Netherlands – Jos Cléber and Unknown
15.  Portugal – Pedro Albergaria and Luís Filipe Costa[15]
16.  Yugoslavia – Miso Kukic and Zoran Krzisnik[16]
17.  Finland – Markku Veijalainen and Vieno Kekkonen[17]
18.  Norway – Sten Fredriksen and Liv Usterud

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
	Hitradio Ö3	Hubert Gaisbauer
Belgium	RTB	French: Janine Lambotte
	BRT	Dutch: Herman Verelst
	RTB La Première	André Hagon
	BRT Radio 1	Nand Baert
Finland	YLE TV1	Heikki Seppälä
	Yleisohjelma	Matti Paalosmaa
France	Deuxième Chaîne ORTF	Georges de Caunes	[18]
	France Inter	TBC
Germany	Deutsches Fernsehen	Hanns Verres
	Deutschlandfunk/Bayern 2	Wolf Mittler
Ireland	RTÉ	Noel Andrews
	RTÉ Radio	Kevin Roche	[19]
Italy	Programma Nazionale and Secondo Programma Radio	Renato Tagliani
Luxembourg	Télé-Luxembourg	Jacques Navadic
	RTL	Camillo Felgen
Malta	MTV	Victor Aquilina	[9]
Monaco	Télé Monte Carlo	Georges de Caunes
Netherlands	Nederland 1	Pim Jacobs	[20]
Norway	NRK	Sverre Christophersen
	NRK P1	Erik Heyerdahl
Portugal	I Programa	Henrique Mendes	[15]
	Emissora Nacional Programa 1	TBC
Spain	Primera Cadena	Joaquín Prat
	Primer Programa RNE	Miguel de los Santos
Sweden	SR TV1	Åke Strömmer	[13]
	SR P3	Ursula Richter	[13]
Switzerland	TV DRS	German: Theodor Haller
	TSR	French: Georges Hardy
	TSI	Italian: Giovanni Bertini
United Kingdom	BBC1	Dave Lee Travis	[7][21]
	BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 2	Terry Wogan	[7][22]
	BFBS Radio	John Russell	[7]
Yugoslavia	Televizija Beograd	Serbo-Croatian: Milovan Ilić
	Televizija Zagreb	Serbo-Croatian: Oliver Mlakar
	Televizija Ljubljana	Slovene: Tomaž Terček
Non-participating countries
Greece	EIRT	Mako Georgiadou
Iceland	Sjónvarpið	Unknown
United States	PBS	No commentator	[7][23]

References

1. "Eurovision 1971 PREVIEW Monaco – SÉVERINE "Un Banc, Un Arbre, Une Rue"". YouTube. 8 August 2009. Retrieved 10 August 2012.
2. "The Growth and Development of Dublin". Archived from the original (PDF) on 30 March 2013. Retrieved 30 December 2010.
3. "Primate City Definition and Examples". Retrieved 21 October 2009.
4. "Eurovision Song Contest 1971". European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 2 January 2010.
5. "Eurovision 1971 – Opening ceremony". YouTube. 7 July 2010. Retrieved 10 August 2012.
6. "And the conductor is..." Retrieved 16 October 2013.
7. Roxburgh, Gordon (2014). Songs for Europe: The United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest. Volume Two: The 1970s. Prestatyn: Telos Publishing. pp. 51–64. ISBN 978-1-84583-093-9.
8. "Eurovision Song Contest 1971". The Diggiloo Thrush. Retrieved 4 March 2012.
9. "It was all in the game", Fred Barry, Times of Malta, 7 April 1971
10. "1971 Eurovision Song Contest (German Commentary at 1h:14m:55s)". Retrieved 16 April 2020.
11. "ESC 1971 - French comments (ORTF) 4:5".
12. "Dubliner Jury bestochen?", Hamburger Abendblatt, 6 April 1971
13. Thorsson, Leif (2006). Melodifestivalen genom tiderna ["Melodifestivalen through time"]. Stockholm: Premium Publishing AB. p. 88. ISBN 91-89136-29-2.
14. Eriksen, Espen: "Vi tjener inn tapet på turisme", VG, page 13, 7 April 1971
15. "A África também vai ver o Grande Prémio da Eurovisão", Diário de Lisboa, 3 April 1971
16. Vladimir Pinzovski
17. Zitting, Marianne (27 June 2010). "Muistathan: Eurovision laulukilpailu 1971" (in Finnish). Viisukuppila. Retrieved 10 August 2012.
18. Masson, Christian. "1971 – Dublin" (in French). Songcontest.free.fr. Retrieved 10 August 2012.
19. "RTÉ Stills Library". RTÉ Archives. Retrieved 10 August 2012.
20. "Nederlandse televisiecommentatoren bij het Eurovisie Songfestival" (in Dutch). Eurovision Artists. Retrieved 1 June 2010.
21. "Grand Final: 1971, Eurovision Song Contest". BBC.
22. "Wogan quits Eurovision role". BBC News. 5 December 2008. Retrieved 22 August 2011.
23. "Fanfare; 28; Eurovision Song Contest". Retrieved 13 July 2020 – via americanarchive.org.

Bibliography

• The Eurovision Song Contest: The Official History, John Kennedy O'Connor, Carlton Books Ltd, ISBN 1-84442-994-6

External links

• Official website