Eurovision Song Contest 1958

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Eurovision Song Contest 1958
ESC 1958 logo.png
Dates
Final12 March 1958
Host
VenueAVRO Studios
Hilversum, Netherlands
Presenter(s)Hannie Lips
Musical directorDolf van der Linden
Directed byPiet te Nuyl
Host broadcasterNederlandse Televisie Stichting (NTS)
Interval actMetropole Orkest
Websiteeurovision.tv/event/hilversum-1958 Edit this at Wikidata
Participants
Number of entries10
Debuting countries
  •  Sweden
Returning countriesNone
Non-returning countries
Participation map
  • Belgium in the Eurovision Song Contest 1958France in the Eurovision Song Contest 1958France in the Eurovision Song Contest 1958Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest 1958Luxembourg in the Eurovision Song Contest 1958Netherlands in the Eurovision Song Contest 1958Switzerland in the Eurovision Song Contest 1958Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest 1958Denmark in the Eurovision Song Contest 1958Austria in the Eurovision Song Contest 1958Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest 1958United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song ContestA coloured map of the countries of Europe
    About this image
         Participating countries     Countries that participated in the past but not in 1958
Vote
Voting systemTen-member juries distributed 10 points among their favourite songs.
Nul points in finalNone
Winning song France
"Dors, mon amour"
1957 ← Eurovision Song Contest → 1959

The Eurovision Song Contest 1958 was the third edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Hilversum, the Netherlands, following the country's victory at the 1957 contest with the song "Net als toen" by Corry Brokken. This formed the convention that the winning country of the previous year's event would host the following year. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster Nederlandse Televisie Stichting (NTS), the contest was held at the AVRO Studios on Wednesday 12 March 1958 and was hosted by Dutch television presenter Hannie Lips.

Ten countries participated in the contest, equalling the number in the previous edition. Sweden, a country that would go on to be one of the most successful countries in the contest made its debut this year, while the United Kingdom decided to withdraw.

The winner was France with the song "Dors, mon amour", performed by André Claveau, written by Pierre Delanoë and composed by Hubert Giraud. This was France's first of five victories in the contest. At 46 years and 76 days of age, Claveau became the oldest winner of the contest, and would remain so until 1990.[1]

Along with 1956, it was the second contest (and last contest to date) that has not featured a single song in the English language. The 1958 contest continued with the policy implemented the year before where each country was limited to one song entry. This policy has been retained to date.[2]

Location[]

AVRO Studios, Hilversum - host venue of the 1958 contest.

Hilversum, a municipality and a town in the province of North Holland, is known as the "Media Capital" of the Netherlands.[2] Hilversum had become the centre of broadcasting and radio in the Netherlands in the 1920s when Dutch radio company  [nl] settled there, and today the media sector stands as one of the top employers in the municipality of Hilversum.[3]

After the establishment of the Dutch Radio Company in Hilversum in the 1920s, almost all other radio stations in the Netherlands followed suit with television following in the 1950s, thus making Hilversum at the end of the 1950s the best venue in the Netherlands to produce and broadcast such an international TV-transmitted event as the Eurovision Song Contest, while on the other hand TV was still a challenging advanced technology in general within Europe.

One such media network was the host of the event, Nederlandse Televisie Stichting. The venue of the contest was the studios of AVRO (Algemene Vereniging Radio Omroep or "General Association of Radio Broadcasting"), a building complex for the media's network among the media buildings within Hilversum, and which belonged to the Dutch public broadcasting association operating within the framework of the Nederlandse Publieke Omroep system.

Format[]

The contest was held in one of the AVRO studio halls. The hall contained a very small stage to function as a slightly higher stand for the singers, with the program being shot from the stage floor up. Outside of frame were the microphones' and other technical devices' wires which went through the studio's lower floor at the foot of the stage. The decorative emphasis was on the stage background, the stage front and the left side from the stage from the spectator's view where the orchestra and where the performers and host's stairway entrance were located. The rear of the stage had interchangeable backgrounds for each song to add context to each song's lyrics. The centre-front of the stage, the left area from the stage with the orchestra and stairway entrance were decorated with tulips, of which the Netherlands are known for.[2]

The juries were not in the studio as in previous contests. For the 1958 event, they remained in their own countries, listening to the event. Once the songs had all been sung, juries announced their results via telephone in reverse order of presentation, as in the 1957. The Italian entry was not picked up properly in some of the other countries, which meant that after all the other songs had been presented, Domenico Modugno had to perform his song again. It was the only year that the host country finished in last place until 60 years later in 2018, and the first time more than one country was placed last. The interval act was music by the Metropole Orkest, under the direction of maestro Dolf van der Linden. There were two interval acts, one in the middle of the competing songs' performances and one after all the rest of the competing performances were shown.

Participating countries[]

Further information: List of countries in the Eurovision Song Contest

Sweden, a country that would later be one of the most successful in the contest, entered for the first time. The United Kingdom decided to withdraw from the contest after initially planning to submit an entry.[4]

After the contest, the Italian entry "Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu" (subsequently known as "Volare") by Domenico Modugno went on to become a worldwide hit. During the 1st Annual Grammy Awards, held on 4 May 1959 at Hollywood's Beverly Hilton Hotel, "Nel blu dipinto di blu" received two awards, for Record of the Year and Song of the Year.[5] The song is the only foreign-language recording to achieve this honour,[6] and it is the only song to have competed in the Eurovision Song Contest and received a Grammy Award.[7] The song also reached the No.1 spot in the US-American Billboard Charts, making it one of the most successful Eurovision songs in the history of the contest. The song was also voted the second best Eurovision entry of all time at the 50th anniversary show "Congratulations" in 2005.

Conductors[]

Each performance had a conductor who conducted the orchestra.[8][9]

Returning artists[]

Bold indicates a previous winner

Artist Country Previous year(s)
Fud Leclerc  Belgium 1956
Margot Hielscher  Germany 1957
Corry Brokken  Netherlands 1956, 1957
Lys Assia   Switzerland 1956, 1957

Results[]

Draw Country Artist Song Language[10][11] Place[12] Points
01  Italy Domenico Modugno "Nel blu, dipinto di blu" Italian 3 13
02  Netherlands Corry Brokken "Heel de wereld" Dutch 9 1
03  France André Claveau "Dors, mon amour" French 1 27
04  Luxembourg Solange Berry "Un grand amour" French 9 1
05  Sweden Alice Babs "Lilla stjärna" Swedish 4 10
06  Denmark Raquel Rastenni "Jeg rev et blad ud af min dagbog" Danish 8 3
07  Belgium Fud Leclerc "Ma petite chatte" French 5 8
08  Germany Margot Hielscher "Für zwei Groschen Musik" German 7 5
09  Austria Liane Augustin "Die ganze Welt braucht Liebe" German 5 8
10   Switzerland Lys Assia "Giorgio" German, Italian 2 24

Scoreboard[]

The scoreboard, after Austria contributed its points
André Claveau during a rehearsal, singing Dors, mon amour

Each country had 10 jury members who each decided the best song and each awarded 1 point.

Voting results[13][14]
Total score
Switzerland
Austria
Germany
Belgium
Denmark
Sweden
Luxembourg
France
Netherlands
Italy
Contestants
 Italy 13 1 1 4 4 1 1 1
Netherlands 1 1
France 27 1 7 1 1 9 1 1 6
Luxembourg 1 1
Sweden 10 3 1 1 3 2
Denmark 3 1 1 1
Belgium 8 1 5 1 1
Germany 5 1 1 1 2
Austria 8 2 1 1 1 3
Switzerland 24 2 4 5 3 6 4

Spokespersons[]

Listed below is the order in which votes were cast during the 1958 contest along with the spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for their respective country.

  1.   Switzerland –  [de]
  2.  Austria – Karl Bruck
  3.  Germany –  [de]
  4.  Belgium – Paule Herreman
  5.  Denmark – Svend Pedersen
  6.  Sweden –  [sv]
  7.  Luxembourg – Pierre Bellemare
  8.  France – Armand Lanoux
  9.  Netherlands – Piet te Nuyl
  10.  Italy –  [it]

Broadcasts[]

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

Broadcasters and commentators in participating countries
Country Broadcaster(s) Commentator(s) Ref(s)
 Austria ORF Wolf Mittler
 Belgium INR French:
NIR Dutch:  [nl]
 Denmark Statsradiofonien TV Svend Pedersen [15]
 France RTF Pierre Tchernia
 Germany Deutsches Fernsehen Wolf Mittler
 Italy Programma Nazionale Bianca Maria Piccinino
 Luxembourg Télé-Luxembourg Pierre Tchernia
 Netherlands NTS  [nl] [16]
 Sweden Sveriges TV  [sv]
  Switzerland TV DRS German:  [de]
TSR French:  [fr] [17]
Broadcasters and commentators in non-participating countries
Country Broadcaster(s) Commentator(s) Ref(s)
 United Kingdom[a] BBC Television Service Peter Haigh [9]

Notes and references[]

Notes[]

  1. ^ The BBC had scheduled to broadcast the contest on the 12 March 1958, however due to live coverage of a sports event on the same day meant that the broadcast had to be delayed until 16 March.

References[]

  1. ^ O'Connor, John Kennedy. The Eurovision Song Contest - The Official Celebration. Carlton Books, 2015. ISBN 978-1-78097-638-9. Pages 32-33
  2. ^ a b c "Eurovision History – Hilversum 1958". European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 5 March 2012.
  3. ^ "From Hilvertshem to Hilversum" (in Dutch). Hilversum Mediastad. Archived from the original on 26 July 2012. Retrieved 23 October 2012.
  4. ^ "Shining a light on the United Kingdom: 60 Years at Eurovision". European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 12 January 2017.
  5. ^ Dornbrook, Don (24 May 1959). "And Now the Grammy Awards". The Milwaukee Journal. Retrieved 1 May 2011.
  6. ^ "GRAMMY Rewind: 1st Annual GRAMMY Awards". www.grammy.com. Retrieved 22 January 2012.
  7. ^ "International Pull of Grammys Veries In Key Markets - Grammy Facts". Billboard. 6 March 1999. p. 101. Retrieved 24 January 2012.
  8. ^ "And the conductor is..." Retrieved 10 July 2018.
  9. ^ a b Roxburgh, Gordon (2012). Songs for Europe: The United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest. Volume One: The 1950s and 1960s. Prestatyn: Telos Publishing. pp. 160–165. ISBN 978-1-84583-065-6.
  10. ^ "Eurovision Song Contest 1958". The Diggiloo Thrush. Retrieved 4 March 2012.
  11. ^ "Eurovision Song Contest 1958". 4Lyrics.eu. Retrieved 16 September 2020.
  12. ^ "Final of Hilversum 1958". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 5 June 2021. Retrieved 22 June 2021.
  13. ^ "Results of the Final of Hilversum 1958". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 27 March 2021. Retrieved 27 March 2021.
  14. ^ "Eurovision Song Contest 1958 – Scoreboard". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 22 July 2015. Retrieved 14 June 2021.
  15. ^ "Sendeplan - 1958-03-12". danskkulturarv.dk. 12 March 1958. Retrieved 10 June 2021.
  16. ^ "Hilversum in actie voor 70 minuten Eurovisie". Nieuwe Leidsche Courant. 10 March 1958. p. 5. Retrieved 11 June 2021.
  17. ^ "Programme TV du 9 au 15 mars". Radio TV - Je vois tout. Lausanne, Switzerland: Le Radio SA. 6 March 1958.

External links[]

Coordinates: 52°14′N 5°11′E / 52.233°N 5.183°E / 52.233; 5.183

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