Eurovision Song Contest 1974

The Eurovision Song Contest 1974 was the 19th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest.

Eurovision Song Contest 1974
Dates
Final	6 April 1974
Host
Venue	The Dome Brighton, United Kingdom
Presenter(s)	Katie Boyle
Conductor	Ronnie Hazlehurst
Directed by	Michael Hurll
Executive supervisor	Clifford Brown
Executive producer	Bill Cotton
Host broadcaster	British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
Interval act	The Wombles
Website	eurovision.tv/event/brighton-1974
Participants
Number of entries	17
Debuting countries	Greece
Returning countries	None
Non-returning countries	France
Participation map      Participating countries     Countries that participated in the past but not in 1974
Vote
Voting system	Ten-member juries distributed ten points among their favourite songs.
Nul points	None
Winning song	Sweden "Waterloo"

It was held in the seaside resort of Brighton on the south coast of the United Kingdom. The BBC agreed to stage the event after Luxembourg, having won in both 1972 and 1973, declined on the grounds of expense to host the contest for a second consecutive year.[1]

The winner of the Contest was Sweden with the song "Waterloo" which was performed by ABBA, who went on to become one of the most popular recording acts of all time. Sweden's win was their first, which was the first victory for the country from the Scandinavian Peninsula[1] Katie Boyle returned to host her fourth Eurovision Song Contest (after hosting the 1960, 1963 and 1968 contests).

Location

Brighton Dome, United Kingdom – host venue of the 1974 contest.

Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove (formed from the previous towns of Brighton, Hove, Portslade and several other villages) on the south coast of Great Britain.

The venue which hosted the 1974 Contest was the Brighton Dome, an arts venue that contains the Concert Hall, the Corn Exchange and the Pavilion Theatre. All three venues are linked to the rest of the Royal Pavilion Estate by a tunnel to the Royal Pavilion in Pavilion Gardens and through shared corridors to Brighton Museum, as the entire complex was built for the Prince Regent (later George IV) and completed in 1805.

Format

A two-night preview programme, Auftakt für Brighton (Prelude for Brighton), was coordinated by the German national broadcaster ARD broadcast at the end of March and was hosted by the journalist Karin Tietze-Ludwig. It was the first "preview"-type programme to be broadcast in many European countries simultaneously (traditionally each national broadcaster puts together their own preview programme).[2] The UK did not broadcast the programmes, instead airing their own preview shows introduced by David Vine on BBC1 on 24 and 31 March.[3] The French entry was broadcast by all the nations showing the previews, even though the song was withdrawn from the Eurovision final itself. The programme was also notable in being the European television debut for the winners, ABBA, who were credited in previews as "The Abba".[1]

Incidents

The United Kingdom was represented in the contest by the (British-born) Australian pop singer Olivia Newton-John, who finished in fourth place with the song "Long Live Love". As noted by author and historian John Kennedy O'Connor in his book The Eurovision Song Contest – The Official History, Olivia disliked this song and preferred others from the UK heat, but "Long Live Love" was chosen as the UK's entry by a public postal vote.[4]

France had been drawn to sing at No. 14 (after Ireland and before Germany) with the song "La vie à vingt-cinq ans" ("Life At 25") by Dani, but as a mark of respect following the death of the French President, Georges Pompidou, during Eurovision week, French broadcaster ORTF made the decision to withdraw the entry. Since President Pompidou's memorial service (he was buried in a private ceremony on 4 April), which was attended by international dignitaries, was held the day of the contest, it was deemed inappropriate for the French to take part. Dani was seen by viewers in the audience at the point the French song should have been performed. For the same reason, the French singer Anne-Marie David, who had won the first place for Luxembourg in 1973, could not come to Brighton to hand the prize to the 1974 winner.[1][4] In her absence, the Director General of the BBC and President of the EBU, Sir Charles Curran, presented the Grand Prix.

Malta had selected Enzo Guzman with the song "Paċi Fid-Dinja" (Peace in the World) to represent them, but withdrew from the contest for unknown reasons. Malta returned to the competition in 1975.[1]

Italy refused to broadcast the televised contest on the state television channel RAI because the contest coincided with the intense political campaigning for the 1974 Italian referendum on divorce, which was held a month later in May. RAI felt that Gigliola Cinquetti's song, which was entitled "Sì", and repeatedly featured the word "si" (yes),[5] could be accused of being a subliminal message and a form of propaganda to influence the Italian voting public to vote "yes" in the referendum. The song was not played on most Italian state TV and radio stations for over a month.[4]

Portugal's entry "E depois do adeus" was used as the first of the two signals to launch the Carnation Revolution against the Estado Novo regime. Played on a Portuguese radio station late in the evening of 24 April 1974, the broadcasting of the song alerted the rebel, largely left-wing captains and soldiers to prepare to begin the successful military coup. The second song to be broadcast, marking the actual start of military operations of the coup, was Grândola, Vila Morena by Zeca Afonso (but with no Eurovision Song Contest connection). John Kennedy O'Connor described "E depois do adeus" as "the only Eurovision entry to have actually started a revolution" (which is quite ironic as the song came in last), while Des Mangan suggests that other Portuguese entries (he mentions "Se Eu Te Pudesse Abraçar" (1998)) would not be likely to inspire coups.[4]

In 1974, during the dictatorship in Greece, rock band Nostradamos won the first Eurovision participation contest ran by the state broadcaster ERT to represent Greece at Eurovision.[6] However, due to a scandal, the band was not allowed to compete at Eurovision, and Greek laiko singer Marinella was sent instead.[6]

Participating countries

Further information: List of countries in the Eurovision Song Contest

Seventeen nations took part in this year's contest. Greece made their début, while France withdrew during the week of the contest after the sudden death of French President Georges Pompidou.[1]

Conductors

Each performance had a conductor who conducted the orchestra.[7][8]

•  Finland – Ossi Runne
•  United Kingdom – Nick Ingman
•  Spain – Rafael Ibarbia
•  Norway – Frode Thingnæs
•  Greece – Giorgos Katsaros
•  Israel – Yoni Rechter
•  Yugoslavia – Zvonimir Skerl
•  Sweden – Sven-Olof Walldoff
•  Luxembourg – Charles Blackwell
•  Monaco – Raymond Donnez
•  Belgium – Pierre Chiffre
•  Netherlands – Harry van Hoof
•  Ireland – Colman Pearce
•  Germany – Werner Scharfenberger
•   Switzerland – Pepe Ederer
•  Portugal – José Calvário
•  Italy – Gianfranco Monaldi

Jean-Claude Petit was scheduled to conduct the French entry before France's last minute withdrawal.[9]

Returning artists

Three artists returned to the contest this year. Gigliola Cinquetti winner of the 1964 Contest participated again for Italy. Romuald Figuier who also participated in the 1964 Contest for Monaco, as well as in 1969 Contest for Luxembourg. Norway's Bendik Singers also returned after last participating in Eurovision Song Contest 1973.[1]

Results

Draw	Country	Artist	Song	Language[10]	Place	Points
01	Finland	Carita	"Keep Me Warm"	English	13	4
02	United Kingdom	Olivia Newton-John	"Long Live Love"	English	4	14
03	Spain	Peret	"Canta y sé feliz"	Spanish	9	10
04	Norway	Anne-Karine Strøm feat. Bendik Singers	"The First Day of Love"	English	14	3
05	Greece	Marinella	"Krasi, thalassa ke t' agori mou" (Κρασί, θάλασσα και τ' αγόρι μου)	Greek	11	7
06	Israel	Kaveret	"Natati La Khayay" (נתתי לה חיי)	Hebrew	7	11
07	Yugoslavia	Korni Grupa	"Generacija '42" (Генерација '42)	Serbo-Croatian	12	6
08	Sweden	ABBA	"Waterloo"	English	1	24
09	Luxembourg	Ireen Sheer	"Bye Bye I Love You"	French^a	4	14
10	Monaco	Romuald	"Celui qui reste et celui qui s'en va"	French	4	14
11	Belgium	Jacques Hustin	"Fleur de liberté"	French	9	10
12	Netherlands	Mouth & MacNeal	"I See a Star"	English	3	15
13	Ireland	Tina Reynolds	"Cross Your Heart"	English	7	11
14	Germany	Cindy & Bert	"Die Sommermelodie"	German	14	3
15	Switzerland	Piera Martell	"Mein Ruf nach dir"	German	14	3
16	Portugal	Paulo de Carvalho	"E depois do adeus"	Portuguese	14	3
17	Italy	Gigliola Cinquetti	"Sì"	Italian	2	18

Notes:

a. ^ Contains some words in English.

Scoreboard

		Voting results
		Total score	Finland	Luxembourg	Israel	Norway	United Kingdom	Yugoslavia	Greece	Ireland	Germany	Portugal	Netherlands	Sweden	Spain	Monaco	Switzerland	Belgium	Italy
Contestants	Finland	4			2		1			1
	United Kingdom	14	1					4	1	1	2						1	1	3
	Spain	10		1		2					1	2	1			3
	Norway	3												1		1		1
	Greece	7										1	4	2
	Israel	11					2			1		2	2	1					3
	Yugoslavia	6	1									1			1			1	2
	Sweden	24	5	1	2	2		1		1	2	1	3		1		5
	Luxembourg	14			2			2	1	3	1				1	1		1	2
	Monaco	14		2	1	1				1	2	1		1	2		1	2
	Belgium	10		3		2			5
	Netherlands	15	1		1	1		3	2	1	1	1		3				1
	Ireland	11		2	1	2	1							2	2	1
	Germany	3							1								1	1
	Switzerland	3					1				1							1
	Portugal	3													1		2
	Italy	18	2	1	1		5			1		1			2	4		1

Broadcasters, commentators and spokespersons

Spokespersons

The two-person jury system used for the previous three contests was abandoned, with a resurrection of the 10-person jury system with one vote per juror, last used in 1970, returning. This was the final time it was used. Unusually, a separate draw was made for the order in which the participating countries would vote. In all previous contests either nations had voted in the same running order as the song presentation or in the reverse of that order. It was not until 2006 that the voting sequence was decided by draw again. Finland, Norway, Switzerland and Italy drew the same position in both draws.

Listed below is the order in which votes were cast during the 1974 contest along with the spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for their respective country.

1.  Finland – Aarre Elo[11]
2.  Luxembourg – TBC
3.  Israel – Yitzhak Shim'oni
4.  Norway – Sverre Christophersen[12]
5.  United Kingdom – Colin Ward-Lewis[8]
6.  Yugoslavia – Helga Vlahović[13]
7.  Greece – Mako Georgiadou[14]
8.  Ireland – Brendan Balfe[15]
9.  Germany – Ekkehard Böhmer
10.  Portugal – TBC
11.  Netherlands – Harry Hagedoorn
12.  Sweden – Sven Lindahl[16]
13.  Spain – Antolín García
14.  Monaco – Sophie Hecquet[17]
15.   Switzerland – Michel Stocker
16.  Belgium – André Hagon
17.  Italy – Anna Maria Gambineri

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.[1]

Country	Broadcaster(s)	Commentator(s)	Ref(s)
Participating countries
Belgium	RTB	French: Georges Désir
	BRT	Dutch: Herman Verelst	[15]
	RTB La Première	TBC	[8]
	BRT Radio 1	TBC	[8]
Finland	YLE TV1 and Yleisohjelma	Matti Paalosmaa	[15][11]
Germany	Deutsches Fernsehen	Werner Veigel	[15]
	Deutschlandfunk	TBC	[8]
Greece	EIRT	Mako Georgiadou
Ireland	RTÉ	Mike Murphy	[15]
	RTÉ Radio	Liam Devally
Israel	Israeli Television	No commentator	[8]
Italy	Secondo Programma	Rosanna Vaudetti	[15]
Luxembourg	RTL Télé Luxembourg	Jacques Navadic	[15]
Monaco	Télé Monte Carlo	Carole Chabrier
Netherlands	Nederland 2	Willem Duys	[15][18]
Norway	NRK	John Andreassen	[15][12]
	NRK P1	Erik Heyerdahl
Portugal	I Programa	Artur Agostinho	[15][19]
Spain	Primera Cadena	José Luis Uribarri	[15][20]
	Primer Programa RNE	TBC	[8]
Sweden	SR TV1	Johan Sandström	[21]
	SR P3	Ursula Richter	[21]
Switzerland	TV DRS	German: Theodor Haller	[15]
	TSR	French: Georges Hardy	[15][22]
	TSI	Italian: Giovanni Bertini
	1e Programme	French: Robert Burnier	[23]
United Kingdom	BBC1	David Vine	[8][15][24]
	BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 2	Terry Wogan	[8]
	BFBS Radio	Richard Astbury	[8]
Yugoslavia	TVB 1	Serbo-Croatian: Milovan Ilić
	TVZ 1	Serbo-Croatian: Oliver Mlakar
	TVL 1	Slovene: Tomaž Terček
Non-participating countries
Algeria	RTA	Unknown	[8]
Austria	FS2	Ernst Grissemann	[15][8]
Bulgaria	BT	Unknown	[8]
Cyprus	CyBC TV	Unknown	[8]
Czechoslovakia	ČST	Unknown	[8]
Denmark	DR TV	Claus Toksvig
France	Première Chaîne ORTF	Pierre Tchernia	[8][15]
Hungary	RTV	Unknown	[8]
Iceland	Sjónvarpið	Unknown	[8]
Japan	NHK	Unknown	[8]
Jordan	JRTV	Unknown	[8]
Malta	MTV	Charles Saliba
Morocco	TVM	Unknown	[8]
Poland	TVP	Unknown	[8]
Romania	TVR	Unknown	[8]
South Korea	KBS	Unknown	[8]
Tunisia	RTT	Unknown	[8]
Turkey	Ankara Television	Bülend Özveren	[15]
Soviet Union	Soviet Central Television	Unknown	[8]

References

1.^ Dutch commentator Willem Duys stated during the broadcast that the jury spokesman was Harry Hagedoorn.

1. "Eurovision Song Contest 1974". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 5 June 2011. Retrieved 2012-07-10.
2. "ABBA on TV – Melodifestivalen Rehearsal". www.abbaontv.com. Archived from the original on 2 August 2018. Retrieved 3 April 2016.
3. http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/c3c2a93df30e4c03a1559045cdd040c5
4. O'Connor, John Kennedy The Eurovision Song Contest – The Official History Carlton Books, UK, 2007 ISBN 978-1-84442-994-3
5. Sì – Lyrics The Diggiloo Thrush
6. Giorgos Foukos (9 March 2012). "Eurovision Greece 1974-2012". Translation by Google: The state television decides, after four years that it has already launched the contest, to try its luck. Nostradamos is the winner of the competition (see Stelios Fotiadis, Despina Glezou, etc.) A few weeks before the competition the participation is canceled because a scandal about the rape of a minor admirer by a member of the group.
7. "And the conductor is..." Retrieved 28 July 2020.
8. Roxburgh, Gordon (2014). Songs for Europe: The United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest. Volume Two: The 1970s. Prestatyn: Telos Publishing. pp. 142–168. ISBN 978-1-84583-093-9.
9. "Jean-Claude Petit's biography in 'And the conductor is...'". Retrieved 1 January 2017.
10. "Eurovision Song Contest 1974". The Diggiloo Thrush. Retrieved 4 March 2012.
11. Selostajat ja taustalaulajat läpi vuosien? (in Finnish) Viisukuppila, 18 April 2005
12. Dyrseth, Seppo (OGAE Norway)
13. Sumnja od Jugolasvenskog glasanja Archived 8 April 2012 at the Wayback Machine (in Serbian) OGAE Serbia forum, 8 September 2011
14. http://infegreece.gr/ellada-i-anakoinwsi-tis-ert-gia-ton-63-diagonismo-tragoudiou-tis-eurovision/
15. "Eurovision 1974 - Cast and Crew". IMDb. Retrieved 24 July 2020.
16. Infosajten.com Archived 16 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine
17. "Facets of Eurovision Song Contest 1975", Times of Malta, 31 March 1975
18. "Nederlandse televisiecommentatoren bij het Eurovisie Songfestival". Eurovision Artists (in Dutch).
19. "Um Waterloo onde faltou Cambronne", Diário de Lisboa, 7 April 1974
20. Uribarri comentarista Eurovision 2010 Archived 17 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine (in Spanish) FORO FESTIVAL DE EUROVISIÓN
21. Thorsson, Leif (2006). Melodifestivalen genom tiderna ["Melodifestivalen through time"]. Stockholm: Premium Publishing AB. p. 108. ISBN 91-89136-29-2.
22. "Au Grand Prix Eurovision de la Chanson". Radio TV - Je vois tout. Lausanne, Switzerland: Le Radio SA. 4 April 1974.
23. "Au Grand Prix Eurovision de la Chanson". Radio TV - Je vois tout. Lausanne, Switzerland: Le Radio SA. 4 April 1974.
24. Eurovision Song Contest 1974 BBC Archives

External links

• Official website