Eurovision Song Contest 1973

The Eurovision Song Contest 1973 was the 18th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest.

Eurovision Song Contest 1973
Dates
Final	7 April 1973
Host
Venue	Grand Théâtre Luxembourg City, Luxembourg
Presenter(s)	Helga Guitton
Conductor	Pierre Cao
Executive supervisor	Clifford Brown
Host broadcaster	Compagnie Luxembourgeoise de Télédiffusion (CLT)
Opening act	Pierre Cao and the orchestra performing "Aprés toi" to a montage of views of Luxembourg and behind the scenes.
Interval act	Charlie Rivel
Website	eurovision.tv/event/luxembourg-1973
Participants
Number of entries	17
Debuting countries	Israel
Returning countries	None
Non-returning countries	Austria  Malta
Participation map      Participating countries     Countries that participated in the past but not in 1973
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 "Tu te reconnaîtras"

It was held in Luxembourg. In a back-to-back victory, the country won the contest with the song "Tu te reconnaîtras", this being Luxembourg's fourth win. The voting was a very close one, with Spain finishing only 4 points behind and Cliff Richard of the United Kingdom (who had come second in 1968) 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 other 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]

Format

The language rule forcing countries to enter songs sung in any of their national languages was dropped, so performers from some countries sang in English. The event was marked by controversy when the Spanish song, "Eres tú" (by Mocedades), was accused of plagiarism due to reasonable similarities in the melody with the Yugoslav entry from the 1966 contest ("Brez besed" sung by Berta Ambrož); however, "Eres tú" was not disqualified. After finishing second in the contest, the song went on to become a huge international hit.

The somewhat elliptical lyrics to Portugal's entry "Tourada" provided sufficient cover for a song that was clearly understood as a blistering assault on the country's decaying dictatorship. Also, the word "breasts" was used during Sweden's song entry. However, no action was taken by the EBU. An argument broke out between the singer Maxi and her Irish delegation over how the song should be performed. During rehearsals she repeatedly stopped performing in frustration. When it began to appear possible that Maxi might withdraw from the contest, RTÉ immediately sent over another singer, Tina Reynolds, to take her place just in case. In the end Miss Reynolds wasn't needed as Maxi did perform, with her entry earning 10th place on the scoreboard. (Reynolds would perform the following year.)

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'. In the UK it was released in English under the title "Wonderful Dream" and released on Epic. It made number 13.

In the light of events at 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.[4]

Voting

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.

Participating countries

Seventeen nations took part in this year's contest. Malta was drawn to perform in 6th place between Norway and Monaco, but the Maltese broadcaster withdrew before the deadline to select an entry.[5] This was the first year Israel competed in the contest. The 1973 contest marked the first time that women conducted the ESC orchestra. Monica Dominique conducted the Swedish entry and Nurit Hirsh conducted the Israeli entry.

Conductors

Each performance had a conductor who was the maestro of the orchestra.[6][7]

•  Finland – Ossi Runne
•  Belgium – Francis Bay
•  Portugal – Jorge Costa Pinto
•  Germany – Günther-Eric Thöner
•  Norway – Carsten Klouman
•  Monaco – Jean-Claude Vannier
•  Spain – Juan Carlos Calderón
•   Switzerland – Hervé Roy
•  Yugoslavia – Esad Arnautalić
•  Italy – Enrico Polito
•  Luxembourg – Pierre Cao
•  Sweden – Monica Dominique
•  Netherlands – Harry van Hoof
•  Ireland – Colman Pearce
•  United Kingdom – David Mackay
•  France – Jean Claudric
•  Israel – Nurit Hirsh

Returning artists

Three artists returned to the 1973 contest, Finland's Marion Rung, who last represented the nation in 1962; 1971 entrant Massimo Ranieri from Italy; and Cliff Richard, who last performed "Congratulations" for the United Kingdom in 1968.

Results

Draw	Country	Artist	Song	Language[8]	Place	Points
01	Finland	Marion Rung	"Tom Tom Tom"	English	6	93
02	Belgium	Nicole & Hugo	"Baby, Baby"	Dutch^1	17	58
03	Portugal	Fernando Tordo	"Tourada"	Portuguese	10	80
04	Germany	Gitte	"Junger Tag"	German	8	85
05	Norway	Bendik Singers	"It's Just A Game"	English, French^2	7	89
06	Monaco	Marie	"Un train qui part"	French	8	85
07	Spain	Mocedades	"Eres tú"	Spanish	2	125
08	Switzerland	Patrick Juvet	"Je vais me marier, Marie"	French	12	79
09	Yugoslavia	Zdravko Čolić	"Gori vatra"	Serbo-Croatian	15	65
10	Italy	Massimo Ranieri	"Chi sarà con te"	Italian	13	74
11	Luxembourg	Anne-Marie David	"Tu te reconnaîtras"	French	1	129
12	Sweden	The Nova & The Dolls	"You're Summer"	English	5	94
13	Netherlands	Ben Cramer	"De oude muzikant"	Dutch	14	69
14	Ireland	Maxi	"Do I Dream"	English	10	80
15	United Kingdom	Cliff Richard	"Power to All Our Friends"	English	3	123
16	France	Martine Clémenceau	"Sans toi"	French	15	65
17	Israel	Ilanit	"Ey Sham" (אי שם)	Hebrew	4	97

1.^ Also contains some lyrics in English, Spanish and French.

2.^ Also contains some lyrics in Spanish, Italian, Dutch, German, Irish, Hebrew, Serbo-Croatian, Finnish, Swedish and Norwegian.

Scoreboard

		Results
		Total score	Finland	Belgium	Portugal	Germany	Norway	Monaco	Spain	Switzerland	Yugoslavia	Italy	Luxembourg	Sweden	Netherlands	Ireland	United Kingdom	France	Israel
Contestants	Finland	93		9	5	6	6	5	6	6	7	2	6	7	5	5	9	4	5
	Belgium	58	4		3	4	3	6	6	4	4	2	4	2	3	4	5	2	2
	Portugal	80	4	6		5	5	4	8	8	6	3	4	2	5	4	5	6	5
	Germany	85	2	5	6		4	5	9	7	4	3	7	6	5	6	5	7	4
	Norway	89	8	5	5	6		7	6	7	6	5	7	3	3	3	3	6	9
	Monaco	85	6	3	2	4	3		6	5	9	8	6	4	5	6	9	5	4
	Spain	125	3	8	9	9	4	9		8	9	10	8	7	10	10	4	9	8
	Switzerland	79	4	3	3	4	7	5	7		6	4	6	3	8	7	7	2	3
	Yugoslavia	65	5	3	3	4	2	5	8	6		2	4	2	4	5	4	4	4
	Italy	74	2	5	3	5	5	5	5	7	5		5	5	4	4	5	5	4
	Luxembourg	129	6	6	8	7	8	7	6	10	9	9		8	9	8	10	10	8
	Sweden	94	8	4	4	5	8	5	7	9	6	5	6		6	5	7	4	5
	Netherlands	69	4	4	2	5	5	4	5	5	5	4	7	3		5	3	6	2
	Ireland	80	3	7	2	4	6	6	7	5	5	5	6	5	6		5	4	4
	United Kingdom	123	9	6	6	7	7	8	4	8	8	5	10	9	10	9		8	9
	France	65	4	3	2	4	4	5	5	4	7	2	3	5	5	5	5		2
Israel	97	6	6	5	7	5	7	4	6	7	7	8	6	6	7	5	5

10 points

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

N.	Contestant	Voting nation
3	Luxembourg	France, Switzerland, United Kingdom
	Spain	Ireland, Italy, Netherlands
2	United Kingdom	Netherlands, Luxembourg

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, with the final two countries voting in a group of two.

1.  Finland – Kristiina Kauhtio and Heikki Sarmanto[9]
2.  Belgium – Unknown
3.  Portugal – José Calvário and Teresa Silva Carvalho
4.  Germany – Unknown
5.  Norway – Inger Ann Folkvord and Johannes Bergh[10]
6.  Monaco – Unknown
7.  Spain – Teresa González and José Luis Balbín[11]
8.   Switzerland – Paola del Medico and Yor Milano[12]
9.  Yugoslavia – Dušan Lekić and Ivan Antonov[13][14]
10.  Italy – Unknown
11.  Luxembourg – Unknown
12.  Sweden – Lena Andersson and Lars Samuelson[15]
13.  Netherlands – Unknown
14.  Ireland – Unknown
15.  United Kingdom – Catherine Woodfield and Pat Williams[7]
16.  France – Adeline Estragnat and Danièle Heymann
17.  Israel – Unknown

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: Paule Herreman	[16][17]
	BRT	Dutch: Herman Verelst	[16]
	RTB La Première	André Hagon
	BRT Radio 1	Nand Baert] and Jan Theys
Finland	YLE TV1	Erkki Pohjanheimo	[16][18]
	Yleisohjelma	Erkki Melakoski
France	Première Chaîne ORTF	Pierre Tchernia	[16][17]
Germany	Deutsches Fernsehen	Hanns Verres	[16][16]
	Deutschlandfunk	Wolf Mittler
Ireland	RTÉ	Frank Hall	[16]
	RTÉ Radio	Liam Devally	[19]
Israel	Israeli Television	No commentator
Italy	Programma Nazionale	Renato Tagliani
Luxembourg	RTL Télé Luxembourg	Jacques Navadic	[16][17]
	RTL	Camillo Felgen
Monaco	Télé Monte Carlo	Hélène Vida
Netherlands	Nederland 1	Pim Jacobs	[16][20]
Norway	NRK and NRK P1	John Andreassen	[16][10]
Portugal	I Programa	Artur Agostinho	[16][21]
	Emissora Nacional Programa 1	Amadeu Meireles
Spain	Primera Cadena	Julio Rico	[16][22]
Sweden	SR TV1	Alicia Lundberg	[16][15]
	SR P3	Ursula Richter	[15]
Switzerland	TV DRS	German: Theodor Haller	[16]
	TSR	French: Georges Hardy	[16][23]
	TSI	Italian: Giovanni Bertini
	1e Programme	French: Robert Burnier	[24]
United Kingdom	BBC1	Terry Wogan	[7][16]
	BBC Radio 2	Pete Murray	[7]
	BFBS Radio	Richard Astbury	[7]
Yugoslavia	TVB 1	Serbo-Croatian: Milovan Ilić
	TVZ 1	Serbo-Croatian: Oliver Mlakar
	TVL 1	Slovene: Tomaž Terček
Non-participating countries
Austria	FS2	Ernst Grissemann	[16][7]
Bulgaria	BT	Unknown	[7]
Czechoslovakia	ČST	Unknown	[7]
East Germany	Deutscher Fernsehfunk	Unknown	[7]
Greece	EIRT	Mako Georgiadou	[7]
Hungary	Magyar Televízió	Unknown	[7]
Iceland	Sjónvarpið	Jón O. Edwald	[25]
Japan	TBC	Unknown	[7]
Malta	MTV	Charles Saliba	[7]
Poland	TVP	Unknown	[7]
Romania	TVR	Unknown	[7]
Turkey	Ankara Television	Bülend Özveren	[7][16]
Soviet Union	Soviet Central Television	Unknown	[7]

References

1. O'Connor, John Kennedy. The Eurovision Song Contest – The Official History. Carlton Books. ISBN 978-1-84732-521-1 April 2010
2. "The "Grand Théâtre" of Luxembourg City offers high quality cultural events" Archived 2011-07-22 at the Wayback Machine, Luxembourg National Tourist Office, London. Retrieved 27 December 2010.
3. "Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg" Archived 2011-07-22 at the Wayback Machine, Théâtre Info Luxembourg. (in French) Retrieved 27 December 2010.
4. O'Connor, John Kennedy. The Eurovision Song Contest – The Official History. Carlton Books, UK. 2007 ISBN 978-1-84442-994-3
5. "No, No, Never!!! - Songs That Did Not Make It To Eurovision". eurovisionsongs.net. Archived from the original on 2009-03-01. Retrieved 2009-07-23.
6. "And the conductor is..." Retrieved 27 July 2020.
7. 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.
8. "Eurovision Song Contest 1973". The Diggiloo Thrush. Retrieved 4 March 2012.
9. "Muistathan: Eurovision laulukilpailu 1973". Viisukuppila.fi. 2012-01-09. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
10. Eriksen, Espen: "Dyster skygge over Melodi Grand Prix", VG, page 14, 6 April 1973
11. "Eurovisión 1978 Jurado TVE (I)". YouTube. 2008-01-25. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
12. "ESC 1973 - French comments (ORTF) - The voting". YouTube. 2015-01-16. Retrieved 2015-01-16.
13. Vladimir Pinzovski
14. "OGAE Macedonia". OGAE Macedonia. Archived from the original on 2013-12-14. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
15. Thorsson, Leif (2006). Melodifestivalen genom tiderna ["Melodifestivalen through time"]. Stockholm: Premium Publishing AB. p. 102. ISBN 91-89136-29-2.
16. "Eurovision 1973 - Cast and Crew". IMDb. Retrieved 27 July 2020.
17. Christian Masson. "1973 – Luxembourg". Songcontest.free.fr. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
18. "Selostajat ja taustalaulajat läpi vuosien? • Viisukuppila". Viisukuppila.fi. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
19. "RTÉ Archives". Stills Library. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
20. "Nederlandse televisiecommentatoren bij het Eurovisie Songfestival" (in Dutch). Eurovision Artists. Retrieved 1 June 2010.
21. "Festival da Canção, mezinha do pinga amor", Mário Castrim, Diário de Lisboa, 9 April 1973
22. "FORO FESTIVAL DE EUROVISIÓN • Ver Tema – Uribarri comentarista Eurovision 2010". Eurosongcontest.phpbb3.es. Archived from the original on 2012-03-17. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
23. "Au Grand Prix Eurovision de la Chanson". Radio TV - Je vois tout. Lausanne, Switzerland: Le Radio SA. 5 April 1973.
24. "Au Grand Prix Eurovision de la Chanson". Radio TV - Je vois tout. Lausanne, Switzerland: Le Radio SA. 5 April 1973.
25. Háskólabókasafn, Landsbókasafn Íslands -. "Timarit.is". timarit.is.

External links

• Official website