Eurovision Song Contest 1959

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Eurovision Song Contest 1959
ESC 1959 logo.png
Dates
Final11 March 1959
Host
VenuePalais des Festivals et des Congrès
Cannes, France
Presenter(s)Jacqueline Joubert
Musical directorFranck Pourcel
Directed byMarcel Cravenne
Host broadcasterRadiodiffusion-Télévision Française (RTF)
Interval actFranck Pourcel's Orchestra
Websiteeurovision.tv/event/cannes-1959 Edit this at Wikidata
Participants
Number of entries11
Debuting countries
Returning countries
Non-returning countries
Participation map
  • Belgium in the Eurovision Song Contest 1959France in the Eurovision Song Contest 1959France in the Eurovision Song Contest 1959Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest 1959Netherlands in the Eurovision Song Contest 1959Switzerland in the Eurovision Song Contest 1959Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest 1959Denmark in the Eurovision Song Contest 1959Austria in the Eurovision Song Contest 1959Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest 1959United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest 1959Monaco in the Eurovision Song Contest 1959Luxembourg 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 1959
Vote
Voting systemTen-member juries distributed 10 points among their favourite songs.
Nul points in finalNone
Winning song Netherlands
"Een beetje"
1958 ← Eurovision Song Contest → 1960

The Eurovision Song Contest 1959 was the fourth edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in the French seaside city of Cannes, following France's victory at the 1958 contest with the song "Dors, mon amour" by André Claveau. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française (RTF), the contest was held at Palais des Festivals et des Congrès on Wednesday 11 March 1959, and was hosted by French television presenter Jacqueline Joubert.[1]

Eleven countries participated in the contest. Monaco made its debut this year, the United Kingdom returned after one year of absence, and Luxembourg decided not to participate.

The winner was the Netherlands with the song "Een beetje", performed by Teddy Scholten, written by Willy van Hemert and composed by Dick Schallies. This was the Netherlands' second victory in the contest, having already won in 1957 - at the same time marking the first time a country had won more than once. Willy van Hemert had also written the first Dutch winner in 1957.

Location[]

Palais des Festivals et des Congrès, Cannes – host venue of the 1959 contest.

The event took place in Cannes, France, with the venue being the original building of Palais des Festivals et des Congrès, after France got the right to host this edition of the Eurovision Song Contest for winning the 1958 edition with the song "Dors, mon amour" performed by André Claveau. Cannes, a city located on the French Riviera, is a busy tourist destination and known worldwide for hosting the annual Cannes Film Festival, with the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès also hosting the Film Festival. The original building was built in 1949 and was located on the boulevard of Promenade de la Croisette, on the present site of the JW Marriott Cannes.

Format[]

A new rule was created for this Eurovision, ensuring that no professional publishers or composers were allowed in the national juries. During the voting, Italy gave one point to France, no points to the UK and seven points to the Netherlands placing them just three points ahead of the UK. Later on, France gave only three points to Italy and four points to the Netherlands thus giving them a five-point lead over the UK, who were only one point ahead of France, leaving Italy behind in sixth position, behind Denmark, on nine points. Something that occurred only this year was that the third- and second-placed songs, France and United Kingdom respectively, were allowed to sing again at the end of the show along with the winner, the Netherlands.

Participating countries[]

Luxembourg decided not to return to the competition, having competed every year until then. The United Kingdom returned after missing the previous contest (appearing on the scoreboard as "Grande Bretagne") and finished second for the first time. The UK would go on to have 15 second-place finishes in the country's history in the contest. The small principality of Monaco made its debut in this year's contest, but came last.[2]

Conductors[]

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

Returning artists[]

Artist Country Previous year(s)
Birthe Wilke  Denmark 1957 (alongside Gustav Winckler)
Domenico Modugno  Italy 1958

Results[]

Draw Country Artist Song Language[5][6] Place[7] Points
01  France Jean Philippe "Oui, oui, oui, oui" French 3 15
02  Denmark Birthe Wilke "Uh, jeg ville ønske jeg var dig" Danish 5 12
03  Italy Domenico Modugno "Piove (Ciao, ciao bambina)" Italian 6 9
04  Monaco Jacques Pills "Mon ami Pierrot" French 11 1
05  Netherlands Teddy Scholten "Een beetje" Dutch 1 21
06  Germany Alice and Ellen Kessler "Heute Abend wollen wir tanzen geh'n" German 8 5
07  Sweden Brita Borg "Augustin" Swedish 9 4
08   Switzerland Christa Williams "Irgendwoher" German 4 14
09  Austria Ferry Graf "Der K und K Kalypso aus Wien" German 9 4
10  United Kingdom Pearl Carr and Teddy Johnson "Sing, Little Birdie" English 2 16
11  Belgium Bob Benny "Hou toch van mij" Dutch 6 9

Scoreboard[]

Voting results[8][9]
Total score
Belgium
United Kingdom
Austria
Switzerland
Sweden
Germany
Netherlands
Monaco
Italy
Denmark
France
Contestants
France 15 2 1 1 4 2 1 4
Denmark 12 2 2 1 4 1 1 1
Italy 9 1 3 1 1 3
Monaco 1 1
Netherlands 21 3 1 3 2 1 7 4
Germany 5 1 1 1 2
Sweden 4 3 1
Switzerland 14 1 5 1 3 1 1 2
Austria 4 1 2 1
United Kingdom 16 2 2 3 5 2 1 1
Belgium 9 2 3 1 1 2

Spokespersons[]

  1.  Belgium –  [nl]
  2.  United Kingdom – Pete Murray
  3.  Austria – Karl Bruck
  4.   Switzerland –  [fr]
  5.  Sweden –  [sv]
  6.  Germany –  [de]
  7.  Netherlands –  [nl][10]
  8.  Monaco – TBC
  9.  Italy – Enzo Tortora
  10.  Denmark – Svend Pedersen
  11.  France –  [fr]

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 Elena Gerhard
 Belgium INR French: Paule Herreman
NIR Dutch:  [nl]
 Denmark Danmarks Radio TV Sejr Volmer-Sørensen
 France RTF  [fr]
 Germany Deutsches Fernsehen Elena Gerhard
 Italy Programma Nazionale  [it]
 Monaco Télé Monte Carlo Claude Darget
 Netherlands NTS Piet te Nuyl
 Sweden Sveriges TV, SR P1  [sv]
  Switzerland TV DRS German:  [de]
TSR French:
 United Kingdom BBC Television Service Tom Sloan [4]
BBC Light Programme Pete Murray
Broadcasters and commentators in non-participating countries
Country Broadcaster(s) Commentator(s) Ref(s)
 Luxembourg Télé-Luxembourg Claude Darget

References[]

  1. ^ "Eurovision History – Cannes 1959". European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 5 March 2012.
  2. ^ "Cannes 1959". Eurovision.tv.
  3. ^ "And the conductor is..." Retrieved 10 July 2018.
  4. ^ 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. 184–192. ISBN 978-1-84583-065-6.
  5. ^ "Eurovision Song Contest 1959". The Diggiloo Thrush. Retrieved 4 March 2012.
  6. ^ "Eurovision Song Contest 1959". 4Lyrics.eu. Retrieved 16 September 2020.
  7. ^ "Final of Cannes 1959". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 27 March 2021. Retrieved 27 March 2021.
  8. ^ "Results of the Final of Cannes 1959". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 27 March 2021. Retrieved 27 March 2021.
  9. ^ "Eurovision Song Contest 1959 – Scoreboard". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 29 June 2015. Retrieved 14 June 2021.
  10. ^ "Succes van Teddy Scholten in Cannes met „Een beetje"". Nieuwe Leidsche Courant. 12 March 1959. pp. 1, 5. Retrieved 11 June 2021.

External links[]

Coordinates: 43°33′12″N 7°01′20″E / 43.55333°N 7.02222°E / 43.55333; 7.02222

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