ESC MADRID 1969 (14ª)

1969.jpg

  • Dates – Grand Final: Saturday, 29 March 1969 – 20:00 CET
  • Host – Venue & Location: Teatro Real (El Real), Madrid, 🇪🇸 Spain
  • Presenter (s): Laura ‘Laurita’ Valenzuela
  • Musical Director: Augusto Algueró
  • Director: Ramón Díez
  • Executive Producer:
  • Executive Supervisor: Clifford Brown
  • Multicamera Director: Ramón Díez
  • Host broadcaster: Televisión Española (TVE)
  • Interval Act: “La España diferente” film
  • Participants – Number of entries: 16 [🇧🇪 Belgium (14ª), 🇫🇷 France (14ª), 🇩🇪 Germany (14ª), 🇮🇹 Italy (14ª), 🇳🇱 The Netherlands (14ª), 🇨🇭 Switzerland (14ª), 🇬🇧United Kindom (12ª), 🇲🇨Monaco (11ª), 🇱🇺 Luxembourg (13ª), 🇳🇴 Norway (10ª), 🇫🇮 Finland (9ª), 🇪🇸 Spain (9ª),  Yugoslavia (9ª), 🇵🇹 Portugal (6ª), 🇮🇪 Ireland (5ª), 🇸🇪 Sweden (11ª)]
  • Debuting countries:
  • Return:
  • Non-returning countries: 🇦🇹 Austria (12ª)
  • Vote – Voting system: Ten-member juries distributed ten points among their favourite songs. Each participating country had 10 jury members, and each jury member could award one point to one song.
  • Nil Points:
  • Winning song: 1f3c6 “Vivo Cantando” – Salomé – 🇪🇸 Spain (2ª), 1f3c6 “Un Jour, Un Enfant” – Frida Boccara – 🇫🇷 France (4ª), 1f3c6 “De Troubadour” – Lenny Kuhr – 🇳🇱 The Netherlands (3ª), 1f3c6 “Boom Bang-a-bang” – Lulù – 🇬🇧 United Kindom (2ª)

Logo ESC 1969

AboutThe Spanish capital of Madrid hosted the 1969 Eurovision Song Contest after Massiel won the trophy in London the year before. Austria decided to stay home so the number of participants went down to 16 as no new countries entered.

Tie for first place. For the first time in the history of the Eurovision Song Contest, the outcome of the voting resulted in a tie for first place. Four countries gained 18 points each: France, the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom. Since there was no solution for this situation, all four countries were declared winners. Luckily, there were four medals available to the four winning singers – the four medals were originally intended for the winning singer and three winning songwriters.

About the winners. The four winners differed a lot from one another: France had a haunting ballad performed by Frida Boccara, the Netherlands sent in Lenny Kuhr with a guitar, Spain and Salomé performed the energetic “Vivo Cantando” where as the star from the United Kingdom, Lulu, the uptempo “Boom Bang a Bang”. However, having four winners caused a lot of criticism from the media and several TV-stations re-considered participating in the following Eurovision Song Contest.

o/r  country participant (s) song – translate – Language Points  rank
01  Yugoslavia JRT Ivan & 4M (Ivan & M’s, Иван & 3М) Pozdrav svijetu (Поздрав свијету, Greetings to the world) Serbo-Croatian 005 13
02 🇱🇺 Luxembourg CLT Romuald Cathérine French 007 11
03  🇪🇸 Spain TVE Salomé Vivo cantando (I live singing) Spanish 018 01
04 🇲🇨 Monaco TMC Jean-Jacques Maman, maman (Mum, mum) French 011 06
05 🇮🇪 Ireland RTÉ Muriel Day & The Lindsays The wages of love English 010 07
06 🇮🇹 Italy RAI Iva Zanicchi Due grosse lacrime bianche (Two big white tears) Italian 005 13
07 🇬🇧 United Kindom BBC Lulu Boom bang-a-bang English 018 01
08 🇳🇱 The Netherlands NTS Lenny Kuhr De troubadour (The troubadour) Dutch 018 01
09 🇸🇪 Sweden SR Tommy Körberg Judy, min vän (Judy, my friend) Swedish 008 09
10 🇧🇪 Belgium BRT Louis Neefs Jennifer Jennings Dutch 010 07
11 🇨🇭 Switzerland SSR SRG Paola del Medico Bonjour, bonjour (Hello, hello) German 013 05
12  🇳🇴 Norway NRK Kirsti Sparboe Oj, oj, oj, så glad jeg skal bli (Wow, wow, wow, how happy I’ll be) Norwegian 001 16
13 🇩🇪 Germany ARD Siw Malmkvist Prima ballerina German 008 09
14 🇫🇷 France ORTF Frida Boccara Un jour, un enfant (A day, a child) French 018 01
15 🇵🇹 Portugal RTP Simone de Oliveira Desfolhada portuguesa (Portuguese husking) Portuguese 004 15
16 🇫🇮 Finland YLE Jarkko & Laura Kuin silloin ennen (Like in those times) Finnish 006 12

Participation map

A coloured map of the countries of Europe

Transmitirá a 2º semifinal noutro horário. Participating countries  Transmitirá a 1º semifinal em direto. Countries that participated in the past but not in 1969

ESC 1969 Scoreboard Ι Detailed voting results: Scoreboard - Eurovision Song Contest 1969

The Eurovision Song Contest 1969 was the 14th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Madrid, Spain, following the country’s victory at the 1968 contest with the song “La, la, la” by Massiel. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster Televisión Española (TVE), the contest was held at the Teatro Real on Saturday 29 March 1969 and was hosted by Spanish television presenter and actress Laurita Valenzuela.

Sixteen countries took part in the contest with Austria deciding not to participate this year.

At the close of voting, four countries were controversially declared joint-winners: the United Kingdom with “Boom Bang-a-Bang” by Lulu, Spain with “Vivo cantando” by Salomé, the Netherlands with “De troubadour” by Lenny Kuhr, and France with “Un jour, un enfant” by Frida Boccara. It was the first time in the history of the contest that a tie had occurred, and as there was no tiebreaker rule in place at the time, all four countries were declared joint winners. France’s win was their fourth, thus making it the first country to win the contest four times. The Netherlands’ win was their third. Spain and the United Kingdom each won for the second time, with Spain becoming the first country to win the Eurovision Song Contest twice in a row.

Teatro Real, Madrid – host venue of the 1969 contest.

1.Location. The venue selected to host the 1969 contest was the Teatro Real, an opera house located in Madrid. The theatre reopened in 1966 as a concert theatre and the main concert venue of the Spanish National Orchestra and the RTVE Symphony Orchestra. The stage featured a metal sculpture created by surrealist Spanish artist Amadeo Gabino.

2.Format. The surrealist Spanish artist Salvador Dalí was responsible for designing the publicity material for the 1969 contest.

It was the first time that the contest resulted in a tie for first place, with four countries each gaining 18 votes. Since there was at the time no rule to cover such an eventuality, all four countries were declared joint winners. This caused an unfortunate problem concerning the medals due to be distributed to the winners as there were not enough to go round, so that only the singers received their medals on the night: the songwriters, to some disgruntlement, were not awarded theirs until some days later. It was the second contest to be filmed and transmitted in colour, even though TVE did not have colour equipment at the time. It had to rent colour TV cameras from the ARD German network. In Spain itself the broadcast was seen in black and white because the local transmitters did not support colour transmissions. The equipment for archiving the broadcast did not arrive in time, so TVE only had a black and white copy of the contest, until a colour copy was discovered in the archives of the NRK.

3.Participating countries. Austria was absent from the contest, officially because they could not find a suitable representative, but it was rumoured that they refused to participate in a contest staged in Franco-ruled Spain. Wales wanted to debut with Welsh language broadcaster BBC Cymru, and also made a national selection called Cân i Gymru, but in the end it was decided they would not participate in the competition – their participation was rejected because Wales is not a sovereign state. Only the BBC has the exclusive right to represent the United Kingdom.

3.1.Conductors. Each performance had a conductor who led the orchestra. These are listed below.

  •  Yugoslavia – Miljenko Prohaska
  • 🇱🇺 Luxembourg – Augusto Algueró
  • 🇪🇸 Spain – Augusto Algueró
  • 🇲🇨 Monaco – Hervé Roy
  • 🇮🇪 Ireland – Noel Kelehan
  • 🇮🇹 Italy – Ezio Leoni
  • 🇬🇧 United Kindom – Johnny Harris
  • 🇳🇱 The Netherlands – Frans de Kok
  • 🇸🇪 Sweden – Lars Samuelson
  • 🇧🇪 Belgium – Francis Bay
  • 🇨🇭 Switzerland – Henry Mayer
  • 🇳🇴 Norway – Øivind Bergh
  • 🇩🇪 Germany – Hans Blum
  • 🇫🇷 France – Franck Pourcel
  • 🇵🇹 Portugal – Ferrer Trindade
  • 🇫🇮 Finland– Ossi Runne

3.2.Returning artists. 

Artist Country Previous year(s)
Siw Malmkvist 🇩🇪 Germany 1960 (for 🇸🇪 Sweden)
Romuald 🇱🇺 Luxembourg 1964 (for 🇲🇨 Monaco)
Simone de Oliveira 🇵🇹 Portugal 1965
Kirsti Sparboe 🇳🇴 Norway 1965, 1967
Louis Neefs 🇧🇪 Belgium 1967

3.3.Participants and results.

3.4.All the national selections for Eurovision Song Contest 1969: 

• National Selections in 1969:

COUNTRY EVENT WINNER
🇧🇪 Belgium Eurosong 1969 (song selection) [b] Louis Neefs – “Jennifer Jennings”
🇫🇮 Finland (Finnish Selection 1969) Jarkko & Laura – “Kuin silloin ennen
🇩🇪 Germany Ein Lied für Madrid Siw Malmkvist – “Primaballerina
🇮🇪 Ireland (Irish Selection 1969) Muriel Day and the Lindsays – “The Wages of Love”
🇳🇱 The Netherlands Nationaal Songfestival 1969 Lenny Kuhr – “De troubadour
🇳🇴 Norway Melodi Grand Prix 1969 Kirsti Sparboe – “Oj, oj, oj, så glad jeg skal bli
🇵🇹 Portugal Grande Prémio TV da Canção 1969 Simone de Oliveira – “Desfolhada portuguesa
🇪🇸 Spain (Spanish Selection 1969) (song selection)  [c]  Salomé – “Vivo cantando
🇸🇪 Sweden Melodifestival 1969 Tommy Körberg – “Judy, min vän
🇬🇧 United Kindom A Song for Europe 1969 (song selection) [d]  Lulu – “Boom Bang-a-Bang”
 Yugoslavia Jugovizija 1969 Ivan and 4M – “Pozdrav svijetu” (Поздрав свијету)

• Internal Selections in 1969: 

🇫🇷 France Frida Boccara – “Un jour, un enfant
🇮🇹 Italy Iva Zanicchi – “Due grosse lacrime bianche
🇱🇺 Luxembourg Romuald – “Catherine”
🇲🇨 Monaco Jean-Jacques – “Maman, maman
🇨🇭 Switzerland Paola del Medico – “Bonjour, Bonjour

3.5.Connections:

4.Voting. Although neither jury made any errors in their announcements, scrutineer Clifford Brown asked both the Spanish and the Monegasque juries to repeat their scores. No adjustments were made to the scoring as a result of the repetition.

Voting results
Total score
Iugoslavia Luxemburg Spania Monaco Irlanda Italia Regatul Unit Țările de Jos Suedia Belgia Elveția Norvegia Germania Franța Portugalia Finlanda
C
o
n
t
e
s
t
a
n
t
s
Yugoslavia 5 1 1 3
🇱🇺 Luxembourg 7 1 3 1 1 1
🇪🇸 Spain 18 1 2 3 1 3 1 3 2 2
🇲🇨 Monaco 11 2 4 2 2 1
🇮🇪 Ireland 10 1 1 1 3 1 3
🇮🇹 Italy 5 1 1 1 1 1
🇬🇧 United Kindom 18 2 4 3 1 5 1 1 1
🇳🇱 The Netherlands 18 2 1 3 1 4 1 6
🇸🇪 Sweden 8 1 3 1 3
🇧🇪 Belgium 10 2 3 1 2 2
🇨🇭 Switzerland 13 2 3 2 1 1 2 2
🇳🇴 Norway 1 1
🇩🇪 Germany 8 3 2 1 1 1
🇫🇷 France 18 1 2 4 4 2 1 1 1 2
🇵🇹 Portugal 4 2 1 1
🇫🇮 Finland 6 1 1 1 1 1 1

4.1.Spokespersons. Listed below is the order in which votes were cast during the 1969 contest along with the spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for their respective country.

  1.  Yugoslavia – Helga Vlahović
  2. 🇱🇺 Luxembourg – TBC
  3. 🇪🇸 Spain – Ramón Rivera
  4. 🇲🇨 Monaco – TBC
  5. 🇮🇪 Ireland – John Skehan
  6. 🇮🇹 Italy – Mike Bongiorno
  7. 🇬🇧 United Kindom – Colin Ward-Lewis
  8. 🇳🇱 The Netherlands – Leo Nelissen
  9. 🇸🇪 Sweden – Edvard Matz 
  10. 🇧🇪 Belgium – Eugène Senelle
  11. 🇨🇭 Switzerland – Alexandre Burger 
  12. 🇳🇴 Norway – Janka Polanyi 
  13. 🇩🇪 Germany – Hans-Otto Grünefeldt
  14. 🇫🇷 France – Jean-Claude Massoulier 
  15. 🇵🇹 Portugal – Maria Manuela Furtado
  16. 🇫🇮 Finland – Poppe Berg 

5.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)
🇦🇹 Austria FS1 Willy Kralik
🇧🇪 Belgium RTB French: Paule Herreman
BRT Dutch: Herman Verelst 
🇫🇮 Finland TV-ohjelma 1, Yleisohjelma Aarno Walli 
🇫🇷 France Deuxième Chaîne ORTF Pierre Tchernia
🇩🇪 Germany Deutsches Fernsehen Hans-Joachim Rauschenbach
🇮🇪 Ireland RTÉ Gay Byrne
RTÉ Radio Kevin Roche
🇮🇹 Italy Secondo Programma Renato Tagliani 
🇱🇺 Luxembourg Télé-Luxembourg Jacques Navadic
🇲🇨 Monaco Télé Monte Carlo Pierre Tchernia
🇳🇱 The Netherlands Nederland 1 Pim Jacobs
🇳🇴 Norway NRK Sverre Christophersen [a]
NRK P1 Erik Heyerdahl 
🇵🇹 Portugal I Programa Henrique Mendes
🇪🇸 Spain Primera Cadena José Luis Uribarri
Radio Nacional Miguel de los Santos 
🇸🇪 Sweden Sveriges TV, SR P3 Christina Hansegård 
🇨🇭 Switzerland TV DRS German: Theodor Haller 
TSR French: Georges Hardy 
TSI Italian: Giovanni Bertini
🇬🇧 United Kindom BBC1 David Gell
BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 2 Pete Murray
 Yugoslavia Televizija Beograd Serbo-Croatian: Miloje Orlović 
Televizija Zagreb Serbo-Croatian: Mladen Delić
Televizija Ljubljana Slovene: Tomaž Terček 
Broadcasters and commentators in non-participating countries
Country Broadcaster(s) Commentator(s)
 Brazil TV Tupi Unknown
 Chile Canal 9 Unknown
🇨🇿 CZECHOSLOVAKIA ČST Unknown
 East Germany Deutscher Fernsehfunk Unknown
🇭🇺 Hungary RTV Unknown
 Mexico TBC Unknown
🇵🇱 POLAND TVP Unknown
 Puerto Rico TBC Unknown
🇷🇴 ROMANIA TVR Unknown
 Soviet Union CT USSR Igor Kirillov
 Tunisia RTT Unknown

6.Notes.

  • [a] Sverre Christophersen was the commentator during the broadcast, however the connection between Madrid and Oslo was disabled slightly midway through the broadcast. Janka Polanyi entered as a temporary commentator before NRK used the commentary from the Swedish feed. Just before the voting began, NRK managed to regain the connection, thus Christophersen was back as commentator.
  • [b] Louis Neefs was internally selected to represent Belgium at Eurovision 1969. The song “Jennifer Jennings” that Louis performed at Eurovision was selected through a national final with six songs.
  • [c] Salomé was internally selected to represent Spain at Eurovision 1969. The song “Vivo cantando”  that Salomé performed at Eurovision was selected through a national final with ten songs. Each of the songs were performed both by Salomé and another artist.
  • [d] Lulu was internally selected to represent United Kingdom at Eurovision 1969. Lulu presented one song a week for six weeks on the BBC1 TV series Lulu. She performed all six songs on A Song for Europe 1969, and the public could vote via postcards. The result was announced one week later.

7.Trivial. 

  • Austria, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Portugal and Sweden boycotted the 1970 contest as they were not pleased with the result of 1969 and the voting structure; Did you know…Austria boycotted the 1969-contest in Madrid because Spain at that time was ruled by Francisco Franco; Did you know…Titles of songs have included “Boom Bang-a-bang” (UK, 1969), “A-Ba-Ni-Ba” (Israel, 1978), Bana Bana (Turkey, 1989) and “Bourn Badaboru” (Monaco, 1967); Did you know…In 1969 there were four winners! They all had the same points, and back then there were no rules for a tie. If there’s a tie today, the country with points from most countries will win.
  • Austria stayed home for political reasons, so the number of participants went down to 16 as no new countries entered.
  • Salvador Dali designed the stage in 1969.

← Eurovision Song Contest 1968 • Eurovision Song Contest 1969 • Eurovision Song Contest 1970 →

Countries (in order of appearance)

Final Yugoslavia ⦁ Luxembourg ⦁ Spain (winner) ⦁ Monaco ⦁ Ireland ⦁ Italy ⦁ United Kingdom (winner) ⦁ The Netherlands (winner) ⦁ Sweden ⦁ Belgium • Switzerland ⦁ Norway ⦁ Germany ⦁ France (winner) ⦁ Portugal ⦁ Finland 

Artists (in order of appearance)

Final Ivan and 4M ⦁ Romuald ⦁ Salomé (winner) ⦁ Jean Jacques ⦁ Muriel Day and the Lindsays ⦁ Iva Zanicchi ⦁ Lulu (winner) ⦁ Lenny Kuhr (winner) ⦁ Tommy Körberg ⦁ Louis Neefs • Paola del Medico ⦁ Kirsti Sparboe ⦁ Siw Malmkvist ⦁ Frida Boccara (winner) ⦁ Simone de Oliveira • Jarkko and Laura

Songs (in order of appearance)

Final Pozdrav svijetu” (Поздрав свијету) ⦁ “Catherine” ⦁ “Vivo cantando” (winner) ⦁ “Maman, maman” ⦁ “The Wages of Love” ⦁ “Due grosse lacrime bianche” ⦁ “Boom Bang-a-Bang” (winner) ⦁ “De troubadour” (winner) ⦁ “Judy, min vän” ⦁ “Jennifer Jennings” • “Bonjour, Bonjour” ⦁ “Oj, oj, oj, så glad jeg skal bli” ⦁ “Primaballerina” ⦁ “Un jour, un enfant” (winner) ⦁ “Desfolhada portuguesa” • “Kuin silloin ennen