Eurovision Song Contest 1974

Eurovision Song Contest 1974
Dates
Final	6 April 1974
Host
Venue	The Dome Brighton, United Kingdom
Presenter(s)	Katie Boyle
Musical director	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
hide 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"
1973 ← Eurovision Song Contest → 1975

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

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 to host it for a second successive year on the grounds of expense.^[1]

The winner of the 1974 contest was Sweden with the song "Waterloo" which was performed by ABBA, who later went on to become one of the most popular global recording acts of all time. Sweden's win was its first in the competition, and also the first victory for a 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[]

At the time, Brighton was a separate town; it is now 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; 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 its own preview programme).^[2] The UK did not broadcast the programmes, instead airing its 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]

Each song was introduced by a 'postcard' featuring a montage of film material, beginning with library footage of the participating nation provided by the various national tourist organizations. This was then intercut with various clips of the artists in rehearsal, conducting their press conference with the media or posing for photographs in and around the Brighton Pavilion complex. It was the first time the contest had broadcast rehearsal footage or behind the scenes footage from the run-up to the grand final.^[4][5]

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, Newton-John personally disliked the song and preferred others from the UK heat, but "Long Live Love" was chosen as the UK's entry by a public postal vote.^[6]

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. Given that President Pompidou's memorial service (he had been buried in a private ceremony on 4 April), which was attended by numerous international dignitaries, was held on the same day as 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][6] In her absence, the Director General of the BBC and President of the EBU, Sir Charles Curran, presented the Grand Prix to the winners.^{[citation needed]}

Italy did not 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),^[7] could risk the accusation 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 until the referendum had been held.^[6]

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, given that the song finished last in the contest), while Des Mangan suggests that other Portuguese entries – he mentions "Se Eu Te Pudesse Abraçar" (1998) – would not be likely to inspire coups.^[6]

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.^[8] However, due to a scandal, the band was not allowed to compete at Eurovision, and Greek laiko singer Marinella was sent instead.^[8]

Participating countries[]

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.^[9][10]

Jean-Claude Petit was scheduled to conduct the French entry before France's last-minute withdrawal.^[11]

Returning artists[]

Bold indicates a previous winner

Artist	Country	Previous year(s)
Gigliola Cinquetti	Italy	1964
Romuald	Monaco	1964, 1969 (for  Luxembourg)
Bendik Singers	Norway	1973

Results[]

Draw	Country	Artist	Song	Language[12][13]	Place[14]	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	Poogy	"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

Scoreboard[]

Voting results^[15][16]

		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

Spokespersons[]

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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.

Broadcasts[]

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Each national broadcaster also sent a commentator to the contest, in order to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language.^[1]

Broadcasters and commentators in participating countries

Country	Broadcaster(s)	Commentator(s)	Ref(s)
Belgium	RTB	French:  [fr]
	BRT	Dutch:  [nl]
	RTB La Première	French: TBC	[10]
	BRT Radio 1	Dutch: TBC	[10]
Finland	YLE TV1 and Yleisohjelma	[fi]	[17]
Germany	Deutsches Fernsehen	Werner Veigel
	Deutschlandfunk	TBC	[10]
Greece	EIRT	[el]
Ireland	RTÉ	Mike Murphy
	RTÉ Radio	Liam Devally
Israel	Israeli Television	No commentator	[10]
Italy	Secondo Programma	Rosanna Vaudetti
Luxembourg	RTL Télé Luxembourg	Jacques Navadic
Monaco	Télé Monte Carlo	Carole Chabrier
Netherlands	Nederland 2	Willem Duys	[23]
Norway	NRK	John Andreassen	[18]
	NRK P1	[no]
Portugal	I Programa	Artur Agostinho	[24]
Spain	Primera Cadena	José Luis Uribarri	[25]
	Primer Programa RNE	TBC	[10]
Sweden	SR TV1	[sv]	[26]
	SR P3	[sv]	[26]
Switzerland	TV DRS	German:  [de]
	TSR	French:  [fr]	[27]
	TSI	Italian: Giovanni Bertini
	1e Programme	French: Robert Burnier	[28]
United Kingdom	BBC1	David Vine	[10][29]
	BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 2	Terry Wogan	[10]
	BFBS Radio	Richard Astbury	[10]
Yugoslavia	TVB 1	Serbo-Croatian: Milovan Ilić
	TVZ 1	Serbo-Croatian: Oliver Mlakar
	TVL 1	Slovene:  [sl]

Broadcasters and commentators in non-participating countries

Country	Broadcaster(s)	Commentator(s)	Ref(s)
Algeria	RTA	Unknown	[10]
Austria	FS2	[de]	[10]
Bulgaria	BT	Unknown	[10]
Cyprus	CyBC TV	Unknown	[10]
Czechoslovakia	ČST	Unknown	[10]
Denmark	DR TV	Claus Toksvig
France	Première Chaîne ORTF	Pierre Tchernia	[10]
Hungary	RTV	Unknown	[10]
Iceland	Sjónvarpið	Unknown	[10]
Japan	NHK	Unknown	[10]
Jordan	JRTV	Unknown	[10]
Malta	MTV	Charles Saliba
Morocco	TVM	Unknown	[10]
Poland	TVP	Unknown	[10]
Romania	TVR	Unknown	[10]
South Korea	KBS	Unknown	[10]
Tunisia	RTT	Unknown	[10]
Turkey	Ankara Television	Bülend Özveren
Soviet Union	Soviet Central Television	Unknown	[10]

Notes[]

References[]

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Eurovision Song Contest 1974.

• Official website