Wikiwand AI

Eurovision Song Contest 1967

International song competition From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Eurovision Song Contest 1967 was the 12th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, held on 8 April 1967 at the Großer Festsaal der Wiener Hofburg in Vienna, Austria, and presented by Erica Vaal. It was organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster Österreichischer Rundfunk (ORF), who staged the event after winning the 1966 contest for Austria with the song "Merci, Chérie" by Udo Jürgens. It was the first contest held in the month of April.

Final
  • 8 April 1967
ScrutineerClifford Brown
Quick facts Date and venue, Final ...
Eurovision Song Contest 1967
Date and venue
Final
  • 8 April 1967
VenueGroßer Festsaal der Wiener Hofburg
Vienna, Austria
Organisation
OrganiserEuropean Broadcasting Union (EBU)
ScrutineerClifford Brown
Production
Host broadcasterÖsterreichischer Rundfunk (ORF)
DirectorHerbert Fuchs
Executive producerKarl Lackner
Musical directorJohannes Fehring
PresenterErica Vaal
Participants
Number of entries17
Non-returning countries Denmark
  • A coloured map of the countries of EuropeBelgium in the Eurovision Song Contest 1967France in the Eurovision Song Contest 1967Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest 1967Netherlands in the Eurovision Song Contest 1967Switzerland in the Eurovision Song Contest 1967Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest 1967Austria in the Eurovision Song Contest 1967United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest 1967Monaco in the Eurovision Song Contest 1967Luxembourg in the Eurovision Song Contest 1967Norway in the Eurovision Song Contest 1967Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest 1967Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest 1967Yugoslavia in the Eurovision Song Contest 1967Portugal in the Eurovision Song Contest 1967Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest 1967Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest 1967Denmark in the Eurovision Song ContestDenmark in the Eurovision Song Contest
         Competing countries     Countries that participated in the past but not in 1967
Vote
Voting systemTen-member juries in each country; each member gave one vote to their favourite song
Winning song United Kingdom
"Puppet on a String"
1966 Eurovision Song Contest 1968
Event page at eurovision.com Edit this at Wikidata
Close

Broadcasters from seventeen countries participated in the contest, one fewer than the record eighteen that had competed in the 1965 and 1966 editions. Denmark decided not to enter and left the contest at this point, not returning until 1978.[1]

The winner was the United Kingdom with the song "Puppet on a String", written and composed by Bill Martin and Phil Coulter, and performed by Sandie Shaw. This was the first British win and the entry had one of the widest margins of victory ever witnessed in the competition; it garnered more than twice as many votes as the runner up. Ireland, France, Luxembourg and Monaco rounded out the top five, with Ireland achieving their best result to date.

This was the last contest to be produced in black and white as it would begin to be produced in colour from the 1968 edition onwards.

Location

Großer Festsaal der Wiener Hofburg, Vienna – host venue of the 1967 contest

Österreichischer Rundfunk (ORF) staged the 1967 contest in Vienna, after winning the 1966 contest for Austria with the song "Merci, Chérie" by Udo Jürgens. The venue selected was the Festival Hall of the Hofburg Palace.[2] With its 1,000 m2 (11,000 sq ft) of floor space, the Festival Hall is the largest room in the entire palace complex and was originally built as a throne room, but was never used as such. The Hofburg Palace was the principal winter residence of the Habsburg dynasty, rulers of the Austro-Hungarian empire,[3] and it currently serves as the official residence of the President of Austria.

At early stages of production, the Ronacher was considered as venue for the 1967 contest.[4]

Participants

Quick facts – Participation summaries by country ...
Eurovision Song Contest 1967  Participation summaries by country
Close

Broadcasters from seventeen countries participated in the 1967 contest. Of the eighteen countries that participated in 1966 only Denmark was absent. Danmarks Radio (DR) chose not to participate this year and left the contest at this point, not to be returning again until 1978. The reason was that the new director of the television entertainment department thought that the money could be spent in a better way.[1]

The contest featured three representatives who had previously performed as lead artists for the same country. Claudio Villa had represented Italy in 1962, Kirsti Sparboe had represented Norway in 1965, and Raphael had represented Spain in 1966.

Despite being a popular winning song for the United Kingdom, singer Sandie Shaw intensely disliked the composition, though her attitude towards the song somewhat mellowed in later years, even releasing a new version in 2007.[1]

The entry from Luxembourg, "L'amour est bleu", sung by Vicky Leandros, came in fourth; nonetheless, it went on to become one of the biggest hits of the 1967 contest, and a year later would be a big instrumental hit for French musician, Paul Mauriat, under the English title, "Love Is Blue". Portugal was represented by Eduardo Nascimento, who was the first black male singer in the history of the contest.[1] After winning the Sanremo Music Festival 1967, Italian participant Claudio Villa was due to perform the song "Non pensare a me", but it was disqualified due to being commercially released before the deadline set by the EBU, and was replaced with "Non andare più lontano".[5][6]

More information Country, Broadcaster ...
Close

Format

Following the confirmation of the seventeen competing countries, the draw to determine the running order of the contest was held on 21 March 1967.[10]

The stage setup was a little unusual this year. There was a staircase in the middle of the stage as well as two revolving mirrored walls on both ends of the stage; they began revolving at the start of each song, and stopped at its end. A change in rule also required half of every nation's jury to be less than 30 years old.

The presenter Erica Vaal became confused whilst the voting was taking place, and declared the United Kingdom's entry to be the winner before the last country, Ireland, had announced its votes. She also ended the programme by congratulating the winning song and country, and saying "goodbye" in several different languages.[1]

Contest overview

The contest took place on 8 April 1967, beginning at 22:00 CET.[11]

More information R/O, Country ...
Close

Spokespersons

Each participating broadcaster appointed a spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for its respective country via telephone. Known spokespersons at the 1967 contest are listed below.

Detailed voting results

Every participating broadcaster assembled a jury panel of ten people. Every jury member could give one vote to his or her favourite song, except that representing their own country. This means that any song could receive a maximum of 10 votes from a national jury, but none achieved this. The highest number of votes a song received from a jury was seven, received by the song from the United Kingdom three times (from the juries of Norway, Switzerland, and France). The Portuguese jury gave eight songs only one vote, and one song (the Spanish one) two votes.

The voting sequence was one of the more chaotic in Eurovision history; the students from the University of Vienna who were operating the scoreboard made several errors during the telecast, which were corrected by the scrutineer. Hostess Erica Vaal also began to announce the winner before realising she had excluded the last jury to vote, the Irish jury.

More information Total score, Netherlands ...
Detailed voting results[19][20]
Total score
Netherlands
Luxembourg
Austria
France
Portugal
Switzerland
Sweden
Finland
Germany
Belgium
United Kingdom
Spain
Norway
Monaco
Yugoslavia
Italy
Ireland
Contestants
Netherlands 211
Luxembourg 17421211132
Austria 211
France 201211422241
Portugal 3111
Switzerland 0
Sweden 711212
Finland 3111
Germany 71111111
Belgium 8131111
United Kingdom 4725371712337321
Spain 91112121
Norway 211
Monaco 1021151
Yugoslavia 7111121
Italy 41111
Ireland 2213122432211
Close

Broadcasts

Each participating broadcaster was required to relay the contest via its networks. Non-participating EBU member broadcasters were also able to relay the contest as "passive participants". Broadcasters were able to send commentators to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language and to relay information about the artists and songs to their television viewers.[21] Reports estimated the global viewership to be 150 to 350 million viewers.[22][23]

Known details on the broadcasts in each country, including the specific broadcasting stations and commentators are shown in the tables below. In addition to the participating countries, the contest was also reportedly broadcast in Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Poland and the Soviet Union via Intervision.[8]

More information Country, Broadcaster ...
Close
More information Country, Broadcaster ...
Close

Notes

  1. On behalf of the German public broadcasting consortium ARD[9]
  2. Ten-minute summary broadcast at 23:45 (CET)[38]
  3. Deferred broadcast on TVE Canarias the following day at 23:00 (WET)[41]
  4. Delayed broadcast on 11 April 1967 at 22:15 (CET)[51]
  5. Delayed broadcast on 9 April 1967 at 20:15 (CET)[57]
  6. Delayed broadcast on 15 April 1967 at 22:15 (EET)[60]

References

Related Articles

Timelines

Top Qs

Fact Checks