• Dates – Grand Final: Saturday, 22 March 1975 – 20:00 CET
• Host – Venue & Location:  St. Eriks Mässan Alvsjö (Stockholmsmässan, Stockholm International Fairs), Stockholm, 🇸🇪 Sweden
• Presenter (s):  Karin Falck
• Musical Director: Mats Olsson
• Director: Bo Billtén
• Executive Producer: Roland Eiworth
• Executive Supervisor: Frank Naef / Clifford Brown
• Multicamera Director: Bo Billtén
• Host broadcaster: Sveriges Television (SR)
• Interval Act: The World Of John Bauer
• Participants – Number of entries: 19 [🇧🇪 Belgium (19ª), 🇩🇪 Germany (19ª), 🇮🇹 Italy (19ª), 🇳🇱 The Netherlands (19ª), 🇨🇭 Switzerland (19ª), 🇬🇧United Kindom (17ª), 🇲🇨 Monaco (16ª), 🇪🇸 Spain (14ª),  Yugoslavia (14ª), 🇮🇪 Ireland (10ª), 🇱🇺 Luxembourg (18ª), 🇫🇮 Finland (13ª), 🇳🇴 Norway (14ª), 🇵🇹 Portugal (10ª), 🇸🇪 Sweden (15ª), 🇮🇱 Israel (2ª), 🇹🇷 Turkey (1ª), 🇫🇷 France (19ª), 🇲🇹 Malta (3ª)]
• Debuting countries: 🇹🇷 Turkey (1ª)
• Return: 🇫🇷 France (19ª), 🇲🇹 Malta (3ª)
• Non-returning countries: 🇬🇷 Greece (1ª)
• Vote – Voting system: Each country awarded 12, 10, 8-1 points to their 10 favourite songs.
• Nil Points: —
• Winning song: “Ding-A-Dong” – Teach-In – 🇳🇱 The Netherlands (4ª)

About. The Eurovision Song Contest moved northwards for its 20th anniversary. The 1975 Eurovision Song Contest was held in Stockholm, Sweden on 22nd March.

Stockholm calling!. In 1975 another voting system was implemented. Juries in every country would give 1 – 12 points to their 10 favourite songs, starting with 12 points to their top favourite, then 10 to the second favourite, 8 to their third favourite, 7 to their fourth favourite and ending with 1 point for their tenth favourite. This formula is still in place today. A record of 19 participating countries took part in the 1975 Eurovision Song Contest. After its debut in the preceding year, Greece withdrew from the contest. On the other hand, Turkey sent its first entry to the song contest and France and Malta returned. Ellen Nikolaysen from Norway performed for the third consecutive year on the Eurovision Song Contest stage which was only preceded in the 1950s by Lys Assia and Corry Brokken and in the 1960s by Udo Jürgens. More recently, San Marino’s Valentina Monetta took to the stage in 2012, 2013 and 2014. Portugal’s entry was a highly political one. Singer Duarte Mendes dedicated his song to the country’s peaceful revolution the previous year. 1975 saw a disappointing result for the German entry “Ein Lied Kann Eine Brücke Sein”, which was performed by Joy Fleming. The song ended up 17th with just 15 points altogether, but nowadays it is a big favourite among fans. 

About the winner. The winning country, the Netherlands, was also the first entry to be performed in 1975. The group, Teach-In, performed Ding-A-Dong. It was the fourth, and to date, the last time, that the Netherlands won the Eurovision Song Contest. 

Facts & figures. The host of the 1975 Eurovision Song Contest, Karin Falck, charmingly presented the show but got confused during the voting at one point, when she exclaimed “How much is 7 in French?”.

o/r	country	participant  (s)	song -translate – Language	Points	rank
01	🇳🇱 The Netherlands NOS	Teach-In	Ding-a-dong Engish	152	01
02	🇮🇪 Ireland RTÉ	The Swarbriggs	That’s what friends are for English	068	09
03	🇫🇷 France TF1	Nicole Rieu	Et bonjour à toi l’artiste (And hello to you, the artist) French	091	04
04	🇩🇪 Germany ARD	Joy Fleming	Ein lied kann eine brücke sein (A song can be a bridge) German, English	015	17
05	🇱🇺 Luxembourg CLT	Géraldine	Toi (You) French	084	05
06	🇳🇴 Norway NRK	Ellen Nikolaysen	Touch my life (with summer) (Det skulle ha vært sommer nå) English	011	18
07	🇨🇭 Switzerland SSR SRG	Simone Drexel	Mikado German	077	06
08	Yugoslavia JRT	Pepel In Kri (Пепел ин кри)	Dan ljubezni (Dan ljubavi, A Day Of Love) Slovene	022	13
09	🇬🇧 United Kindom BBC	The Shadows	Let me be the one English	138	02
10	🇲🇹 Malta MTPBS	Renato	Singing this song English	032	12
11	🇧🇪 Belgium BRT	Ann Christy	Gelukkig zijn (Being happy) Dutch, English	017	15
12	🇮🇱 Israel IBA	Shlomo Artzi (שלמה ארצי‎)	At ve’ani (את ואני, You and me) Hebrew	040	11
13	🇹🇷 Turkey TRT	Semiha Yankı	Seninle bir dakika (One Minute With You) Тurkish	003	19
14	🇲🇨 Monaco TMC	Sophie	Une chanson c’est une lettre (A Song Is A Letter) French	022	13
15	🇫🇮 Finland YLE	Pihasoittajat	Old-man fiddle (Viulu-ukko) English	074	07
16	🇵🇹 Portugal RTP	Duarde Mendes	Madrugada (Dawn) Portuguese	016	16
17	🇪🇸 Spain TVE	Sergio y Estíbaliz	Tú volverás (You’ll Return) Spanish	053	10
18	🇸🇪 Sweden SR	Lars Berghagen (Lars Berghagen and the Dolls)	Jennie, Jennie English	072	08
19	🇮🇹 Italy RAI	Wess & Dori Ghezzi	Era (It Was) Italian	115	03

Participation map

Participating countries   Countries that participated in the past but not in 1975

ESC 1975 Scoreboard Ι Detailed voting results:

The Eurovision Song Contest 1975 was the 20th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Stockholm, Sweden, following ABBA’s win at the 1974 contest in Brighton, United Kingdom with the song “Waterloo”, which became an international hit. It was the first time that the contest had taken place in Sweden. The contest was held at Stockholmsmässan on 22 March 1975 and was hosted by Swedish television director Karin Falck.

Nineteen countries participated in the contest, beating the previous record of eighteen, that was first set in the 1965 edition. France and Malta returned after their one-year and two-year absences, respectively. Turkey made its debut, while Greece decided not to enter after its debut the year prior.

The winner of the contest was the Netherlands who won with the song “Ding-a-dong”, performed by Teach-In, written by Will Luikinga and Eddy Ouwens, and composed by Dick Bakker. The country would not win again until 2019.

1.Location. The contest took place in Stockholm, the capital and largest city of Sweden, which has long been one of the country’s cultural, media, political, and economic centres as well as the most populated urban area in Scandinavia.

The venue for the contest was Stockholmsmässan (or Stockholm International Fairs in English). The main building is in Älvsjö – a southern suburb of Stockholm Municipality for which the building got its nickname. It was constructed in 1971 and holds 4,000 people.

2.Format. To introduce each song, all the artists were recorded on videotape painting a portrait of themselves during the rehearsal period, incorporating their nation’s flag into the illustration. Some artists included their backing artists in the painting, others chose only to paint the lead singer.

This year a new scoring system was implemented. Each country would be represented by a jury of 11 members, at least half of whom had to be under the age of 26. Each jury member had to award every song a mark of between 1 and 5 points, but could not vote for their own nation’s entry. The votes were cast immediately after the song was performed and collected by the adjudicator straight away. After the last song was performed, the jury secretary added up all the votes cast and awarded 12 points to the song with the highest score, 10 to the second highest score, then 8 to the third, and so forth down to 1 point for the song ranked 10th. The 12–1 points system remained in use until 2015. The jury spokesperson then announced the ten scores in the order the songs were presented when called upon by the hostess. The hostess Karin Falck several times confused the new system with questions like “How much is seven in France?”. 

Unlike today, the points were not given in order (from 1 up to 12), but in the order the songs were performed. The current procedure of announcing the scores in ascending order, beginning with 1 point, was not established until 1980. This scoring system remained in use until 1996, although the number of jurors varied (it was 11 from 1975 to 1987, and 16 from 1988 to 1997) and the scores they awarded each song increased to 10 rather than 5. In from 1997, some juries were replaced by televotes and from 1998, all countries were encouraged to televote when possible.

In the 2009 final and the 2010 semi-finals, the juries were reintroduced to provide 50% of the scores. Despite these changes in how the points were decided, the ‘douze points’ scoring system remained in place from 1975–2015. In 2016 it was altered to each country providing two separate sets of points, however, modelled after the former model.

3.Participating countries. Nineteen countries took part in the contest; As a result of Turkey competing in the competition for the very first time, Greece decided not to enter after its 1974 debut in protest at the Turkish participation due to the Turkish invasion of Cyprus that had occurred the year before. Meanwhile, France and Malta returned to the contest after having been absent for one and two years, respectively.

The Portuguese entry “Madrugada” was an unabashed celebration of the Carnation Revolution, during which the country’s 1974 Eurovision entry had played a pivotal practical role. According to author and historian John Kennedy O’Connor in his book The Eurovision Song Contest – The Official History, the Portuguese performer had to be dissuaded from wearing his Portuguese army uniform and carrying a gun onto the stage. Some competitors (notably Portugal and Yugoslavia) opted to perform their songs in English for the rehearsals heard by the judges, but in their native tongue at the final. Others, such as Belgium and Germany, opted for a mix of their own language and English.

3.1.Conductors. Each performance had a conductor who conducted the orchestra.

3.2.Returning artists.

Artist	Country	Previous year(s)
Ellen Nikolaysen	🇳🇴 Norway	1973 (as part of Bendik Singers) 1974 (as part of Bendik Singers)
John Farrar (as part of The Shadows)	🇬🇧 United Kindom	1973 (as backing singer for Cliff Richard)

3.3.Participants and results.

3.4.All the national selections for Eurovision Song Contest 1975: 

• National Selections in 1975:

COUNTRY	EVENT	WINNER
🇧🇪 Belgium	Eurosong 1975	Ann Christy – “Gelukkig zijn“
🇫🇮 Finland	(Finnish Selection 1975)	Pihasoittajat – “Old Man Fiddle” (Viulu-ukko)
🇩🇪 Germany	Ein Lied für Stockholm	Joy Fleming – “Ein Lied kann eine Brücke sein“
🇮🇪 Ireland	(Irish Selection 1975) (song selection) [a]	The Swarbriggs – “That’s What Friends Are For”
🇲🇹 Malta	(Maltese Selection 1975)	Renato – “Singing This Song” (Idhaq u iccajta)
🇳🇱 The Netherlands	Nationaal Songfestival 1975	Teach-In – “Ding-a-dong” (Dinge Dong)
🇳🇴 Norway	Melodi Grand Prix 1975	Ellen Nikolaysen – “Touch My Life (with Summer)” (Det skulle ha vært sommer nå)
🇵🇹 Portugal	Grande Prémio TV da Canção 1975	Duarte Mendes – “Madrugada“
🇸🇪 Sweden	Melodifestival 1975	Lasse Berghagen – “Jennie, Jennie”
🇨🇭 Switzerland	Concours Eurovision 1975	Simone Drexel – “Mikado”
🇹🇷 Turkey	Şarkı Yarışması 1975	Semiha Yankı – “Seninle Bir Dakika“
🇬🇧 United Kindom	A Song for Europe 1975 (song selection) [b]	The Shadows – “Let Me Be the One”
Yugoslavia	Opatija Festival 1975	Pepel in Kri – “Dan ljubezni“

• Internal Selections in 1975: 

4.Voting.

Voting results

		Total score
C o n t e s t a n t s	🇳🇱 The Netherlands	152		8	5	8	10	12	6	8	12	12	3	12	4	10	10	7	12	12	1
	🇮🇪 Ireland	68	6		6			4	7	1	6	4	12				1	4	3	10	4
	🇫🇷 France	91	8	12					3		8	7	2	7	1	7		12	8	8	8
	🇩🇪 Germany	15					8					3							4
	🇱🇺 Luxembourg	84	12	10	3					7	3	5		6	5		5	8	6	4	10
	🇳🇴 Norway	11	2													2					7
	🇨🇭 Switzerland	77	7	2	10	6	2	1			5	6	8		7	5	4	2			12
	Yugoslavia	22	3	4		2							5					1		7
	🇬🇧 United Kindom	138	4	3	12	10	12	7	8	12		8	10	10		12	7	5	10	5	3
	🇲🇹 Malta	32	1		8		5	2	4	2			7	1	2
	🇧🇪 Belgium	17	5			7				3										2
	🇮🇱 Israel	40	10	1	1	1	1	5	2		1		1		6		3			6	2
	🇹🇷 Turkey	3														3
	🇲🇨 Monaco	22				3	4				2	1		2			2	3			5
	🇫🇮 Finland	74		5		12	6	10	12	5	4			8		8			1	3
	🇵🇹 Portugal	16			2										12				2
	🇪🇸 Spain	53		7		5		3	5	4			4	4	3	4	8				6
	🇸🇪 Sweden	72			7		7	8	1	6	7	2		3	8	6	6	6	5
	🇮🇹 Italy	115		6	4	4	3	6	10	10	10	10	6	5	10	1	12	10	7	1

4.1.12 points. Below is a summary of all 12 points in the final:

N.	Contestant	Nation(s) giving 12 points
6	🇳🇱 The Netherlands	🇮🇱 Israel, 🇲🇹 Malta, 🇳🇴 Norway, 🇪🇸 Spain, 🇸🇪 Sweden, 🇬🇧 United Kindom
4	🇬🇧 United Kindom	🇫🇷 France, 🇱🇺 Luxembourg, 🇲🇨 Monaco,  Yugoslavia
2	🇫🇮 Finland	🇩🇪 Germany, 🇨🇭 Switzerland
	🇫🇷 France	🇮🇪 Ireland, 🇵🇹 Portugal
1	🇮🇪 Ireland	🇧🇪 Belgium
	🇮🇹 Italy	🇫🇮 Finland
	🇱🇺 Luxembourg	🇳🇱 The Netherlands
	🇵🇹 Portugal	🇹🇷 Turkey
	🇨🇭 Switzerland	🇮🇹 Italy

4.2.Spokespersons. Listed below is the order in which votes were cast during the 1975 contest along with the spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for their respective country.

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)	–
🇧🇪 Belgium	BRT	Dutch: Jan Theys
	RTB	French: Paule Herreman
	BRT Radio 1	Dutch: Nand Baert
	RTB La Première	French: Jacques Bauduin
🇫🇮 Finland	Yle TV1	Heikki Seppälä	–
	Yleisohjelma	Erkki Melakoski
🇫🇷 France	TF1	Georges de Caunes	–
🇩🇪 Germany	Deutsches Fernsehen	Werner Veigel	–
	Deutschlandfunk	Wolf Mittler
🇮🇪 Ireland	RTÉ	Mike Murphy
	RTÉ Radio	Liam Devally
🇮🇱 Israel	Israeli Television	No commentator
🇮🇹 Italy	Rete 1	Silvio Noto
🇱🇺 Luxembourg	RTL Télé Luxembourg	Jacques Navadic	–
	RTL	Camillo Felgen
🇲🇹 Malta	MTV	Norman Hamilton
🇲🇨 Monaco	Télé Monte Carlo	Georges de Caunes
🇳🇱 The Netherlands	Nederland 2	Willem Duys	–
🇳🇴 Norway	NRK	John Andreassen	–
	NRK P1	Erik Heyerdahl
🇵🇹 Portugal	I Programa	Júlio Isidro	–
	Emissora Nacional Programa 1	Amadeu Meireles
🇪🇸 Spain	Primera Cadena	José Luis Uribarri	–
🇸🇪 Sweden	SR TV1	Åke Strömmer	–
	SR P3	Ursula Richter	–
🇨🇭 Switzerland	TV DRS	German: Theodor Haller
	TSR	French: Georges Hardy	–
	TSI	Italian: Giovanni Bertini
	RSR 1	French: Robert Burnier	–
🇹🇷 Turkey	Ankara Television	Bülend Özveren
	Radyo 1	Şebnem Savaşçı
🇬🇧 United Kindom	BBC1	Pete Murray	–
	BBC Radio 2	Terry Wogan	–
	BFBS Radio	Richard Astbury	–
Yugoslavia	TVB 1	Serbo-Croatian: Milovan Ilić
	TVZ 1	Serbo-Croatian: Oliver Mlakar
	TVL 1	Slovene: Tomaž Terček

Broadcasters and commentators in non-participating countries

Country	Broadcaster(s)	Commentator(s)	–
🇦🇹 Austria	FS2	Ernst Grissemann
🇩🇰 Denmark	DR TV	Claus Toksvig
🇬🇷 Greece	EIRT	Mako Georgiadou
Hong Kong	RTV RTV-1 (delayed broadcast on 20 April and 4 August 1975)	Unkonwn	–
	RTV RTV-2 (delayed broadcast on 14 June 1975)	Unkonwn	–
🇮🇸 Iceland	Sjónvarpið	Dóra Hafsteinsdóttir	–
Japan	NHK	Unknown	–
Jordan	JRTV	Unknown	–
South Korea	KBS	Unknown	–
Soviet Union	Soviet Central Television	Info themed programme presented by Alexander Kavyerznyev, only shown are performances of songs (excluding the performance of Israel, voting procedure and winning performance)	–

6.Notable incidents. Intelligence reports at the time pointed out the festival as a possible target for a terrorist attack by the Red Army Faction which forced the organizers to tighten security considerably. The attack struck the West German embassy in Stockholm instead about a month later (see West German embassy siege).

The Swedish left movement protested against the contest and its commercial aspect. At first the criticism was directed towards SR for the huge amount of money they spent on the contest but soon the protests developed into a movement against commercial music overall. When the Eurovision Song Contest took place an alternative festival was organized in another part of Stockholm where anybody who wanted could perform a song. Sillstryparn’s entry “Doin’ the omoralisk schlagerfestival” (Doin’ the immoral Eurovision festival) with lyrics criticizing the commercialised nature and lacking moral integrity of Eurovision, was the most popular song from the alternative event. In the autumn of 1975 SR informed that Sweden would not participate in the 1976 edition of the Eurovision Song Contest due to the high costs that came with hosting the show. The rules later changed so that the costs were split more equally between the participating broadcasters. In the end, SR did not broadcast the 1976 contest. A concert film starring Cornelis Vreeswijk aired in its place.

Swedish TV technicians refused to broadcast the festival to Chile, where Canal 13 (an associate member of the EBU) had plans to air it. The refusal was in protest to the military dictatorship that has been ruling the country since the 1973 Chilean coup d’etat led by Augusto Pinochet.

7.Notes.

• [a] The Swarbriggs was internally selected to represent Ireland at Eurovision 1975. The song “That’s What Friends Are For” that the Swarbriggs performed at Eurovision was selected through a national final with eight songs.
• [b] The group The Shadows was internally selected to represent United Kingdom at Eurovision 1975. The Shadows performed one song a week for six weeks on the BBC1 TV series Lulu, where the public could vote on the songs via postcards. The winning song for Eurovision “Let Me Be The One” was revealed at the show A Song for Europe 1975.

8.Trivial / Fun facts.

• Karin Falck, charmingly presented the show but got confused during the voting, when she exclaimed “How much is 7 in French?”.
• A record of 19 participating countries took part in the 1975 Eurovision Song Contest.
• After its debut the preceding year, Greece withdrew again. Turkey sent its first entry and France and Malta returned.

← Eurovision Song Contest 1974 • Eurovision Song Contest 1975 • Eurovision Song Contest 1976 →
Countries (in order of appearance)
Final	The Netherlands (winner) ⦁ Ireland ⦁ France ⦁ Germany ⦁ Luxembourg ⦁ Norway ⦁ Switzerland ⦁ Yugoslavia ⦁ United Kingdom ⦁ Malta • Belgium ⦁ Israel ⦁ Turkey ⦁ Monaco • Finland • Portugal • Spain • Sweden • Italy
Artists (in order of appearance)
Final	Teach-In (winner) ⦁ The Swarbriggs ⦁ Nicole Rieu ⦁ Joy Fleming ⦁ Géraldine ⦁ Ellen Nikolaysen ⦁ Simone Drexel ⦁ Pepel in kri ⦁ The Shadows ⦁ Renato ⦁ Ann Christy ⦁ Shlomo Artzi ⦁ Semiha Yankı ⦁ Sophie • Pihasoittajat ⦁ Duarte Mendes ⦁ Sergio and Estíbaliz ⦁ Lasse Berghagen and the Dolls • Wess and Dori Ghezzi
Songs (in order of appearance)
Final	“Ding-a-dong” (winner) ⦁ “That’s What Friends Are For” ⦁ “Et bonjour à toi l’artiste” ⦁ “Ein Lied kann eine Brücke sein” ⦁ “Toi” ⦁ “Touch My Life (with Summer)” ⦁ “Mikado” ⦁ “Dan ljubezni” ⦁ “Let Me Be the One” ⦁ “Singing This Song” ⦁ “Gelukkig zijn” • “At Va’Ani” (את ואני) ⦁ “Seninle Bir Dakika” ⦁ “Une chanson c’est une lettre” ⦁ “Old Man Fiddle” • “Madrugada” ⦁ “Tú volverás” ⦁ “Jennie, Jennie” • “Era”