1956–2015: How Eurovision Changed
Building Bridges’ — Yes, it will be the slogan for the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest. Conchita Wurst’s win in Copenhagen last year automatically secured Austria’s place as the host country. The Contest will be held in Vienna after a lengthy review process by broadcaster ORF. (The other cities considered were Graz and Innsbruck.)
As fans would have noticed, the Eurovision logo have changed for the third time in the Contest’s history. This logo, created for the 2015 Contest and years to come, had been revamped, with the ‘friendly handwritten work mark.’ However, looking at the evolution of the Eurovision Song Contest’s logo was not enough to fully understand the complicated and yet, fascinated history of the most-watched non-sporting event in the world.
Lugano, 1956
The first Eurovision Song Contest was held in Lugano, Switzerland. European Broadcasting Union (EBU) was trying to bring the countries together after WWII; thus, it was decided that a song contest will be held annually. Only seven countries participated in the first contest, but many more would join over the decade.
The decade saw early wins for both the Netherlands and France, each accounting for 2 wins. However, their efforts would decline over the next two decades. (The Netherlands’s last win was in 1975 and France in 1977.)
At that time, French was predominate language in Eurovision. Grand Prix Eurovision de la Chanson Européenne had been the official logo language from 1956–1964. The logo name, experiencing various slight changes over the years, has been used till now. (The English name once took over for a few years.)
The style of the participating songs was nothing but pure 50s and 60s. Men sang in suits and women dressed formally and sang. An invisible cuff always bounded their hands behind their backs, and occasionally the hands were let free. Such is the formality of the contest, compared to nowadays.
Madrid, 1969
The Eurovision Song Contest resulted in a historic tie in 1969. France, Spain, the UK and the Netherlands all got 18 points. As no rules were installed on how to break a tie, they were declared as joint winners. This is much to the irritation to other nations. (Finland, Norway, Portugal and Sweden protested by boycotting the Contest in 1970.)
In the 60s of Eurovision, things became more balanced, with 8 out of 18 countries winning the Contest. Denmark, Italy and Austria won for the first time in this decade and had not ever won ever since till the 90s.
Style varies greatly, from gentle and soft ballads (e.g. Gigliola Cinquetti’s Non ho l’età) to yé-yé pop (e.g. France Gall’s Poupeé de cire, poupeé de son). Moreover, with the introduction of the colour television in the late 60s, contestants tend to put more and mote attention to their clothes.
And now…
The Best Decade of Eurovision: the 70s!
I always considered the 70s as the best decade of Eurovision. The 70s is the decade of change for everything in Eurovision — clothes, styles, voting system, language and so much more. As so many changes happened in this decade, I am going to write about a few of the most significant years.
Dublin, 1971
Ireland got to hold the contest for the first time when Dana won with All Kinds of Everything. (She later became a politician and tried to run for the president.) Anyway, Dublin was chosen as the host city and the night was held in the (a little bit too) cosy Gaiety Theatre. Also, Malta participated for the first time and, unfortunately, lost.
Rules were changed so to allow a limit of 6 persons onto the stage. Backing vocals have been used since. Moreover, 1971 also marks the start of a three-year period which extremely robust French ballads took over the contest.
Personal Note
Watching the Contest as an 11-year-old child, I was completely captivated by Séverine’s performance of the extremely powerful ballad Un Banc, Un Arbre, Une Rue. Sadly, this was the height (and the start) of the woman’s career. I have to admit that her later songs were not so good, although she enjoyed some success in Germany. Nonetheless, this is my first encounter with Eurovision, and I have fallen in love with it.
Brighton, 1974
Originally to be held in Luxembourg, the little duchy declined to host the Eurovision Song Contest due to financial reasons, after winning for two consecutive times. This year was the end of a voting system that had allowed judges to give points tactically and the birth of the current system next year. (The hideous nil point! Actually it is not grammatical French, but who cares? We all like the sound of it.)
And, most importantly, this marked the start of ABBA’s successful career. Their winning song, Waterloo, was one of the best-selling singles of all time. Their success prompted future contestants to follow ABBA’s example — clothes got brighter and sharper than ever and the winners of 1975 and 1976 were bands.
London, 1977
Following Brotherhood of Man’s win (yes, it is a band) for the UK, the Eurovision Song Contest went to London. After three years of bands, the contest finally swung back to a powerful ballad, L’Oiseau et L’Enfant, sang by Marie Myriam for France. Sadly, this would be France’s fifth yet last win.
The contest almost featured every kind of music, from risque disco to Nordic jazz and produced a very strong competition.
The 70s are nothing short of excitement and beautiful songs, sung in the nation’s own language, with live music by an orchestra. However, the 80s will also produce a diva…
Dublin, 1988
The year of a diva — Céline Dion. She performed for Switzerland and won with a dangerously small margin of 1 point over the UK. Ne partez pas sans moi happened to be the last French song to win in the history of the Eurovision Song Contest. The song was a breakthrough in her career, and she became well-known to the European market, going on to be one of the best-selling artists of all time, selling 220 million copies worldwide.
The 80s definitely created the sound of Eurovision nowadays — heartbreaking ballads, bubblegum pop, synthpop and Eastern European ethnic flavours all mixed into a giant mix-masher.
From the 90s and Onward
“There’s not enough silliness in the world. Eurovision helps to keep it balanced.” — Terry Wogan, BBC commentator for ESC for 35 years
Another tie happened in 1991 in Rome, when both France and Sweden got 146 points. The tie-breaking rule was used for the first time. Both France and Sweden got four 12 points; however, France only got two 10 points while Sweden got five. In the end, Sweden won. (If it is under today’s rule, France would have won, as it received points from more countries than Sweden.)
Moreover, after the breakup of the USSR and Yugoslavia, many countries requested to participate the Contest — so much that a semifinal called Kvalifikacija za Millstreet had to be set up for former Yugoslav republics in 1993.
In 1999, rules since 1977 requiring singers to perform in their own national language have been abolished, and almost all winning songs afterwards were sung in English.
Semifinals were introduced in 2004, in order to control the exploding number of participants, except for the Big Five — France, Italy, the UK, Germany and Spain, who are automatically qualified as they financed the contest heavily.
RE: Betting in Eurovision
I have heard that people started to bet in the Eurovision Song Contest. Now I have to make my stance clear that I oppose betting in the Contest. Eurovision is an entertainment programme, not horse racing. It is for enjoying and its aim is not to make people lose their money while betting. They want to bring Europe together, not to tear families apart.
© 2014 Francis Shelton
