Eurovision Song Contest 1963

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) was willing to host the contest instead of the previous year's winner France's Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française (RTF), as was the case in 1960. They would do so again in 1972, 1974, and 2023 because the winning broadcasters of the previous year declined to produce the contest. The host venue was the BBC Television Centre, White City, London, which opened in 1960. It is one of the most readily recognisable facilities of its type having appeared as the backdrop for many BBC programmes. It remained one of the largest broadcasting facilities in the world until the property was redeveloped in March 2013.^[2]

All countries which participated in the 1962 edition also participated in the 1963 edition.

Only one of the performing artists had previously competed representing the same country in past editions: Ronnie Carroll had represented the United Kingdom in 1962.

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Eurovision Song Contest 1963 participants^[3][4]

Country	Broadcaster	Artist	Song	Language	Songwriter(s)	Conductor
Austria	ORF	Carmela Corren	"Vielleicht geschieht ein Wunder"	German, English	Erwin Halletz Norman Newell Peter Wehle	Erwin Halletz
Belgium	BRT	Jacques Raymond	"Waarom?"	Dutch	Wim Brabants Hans Flower [nl]	Francis Bay
Denmark	DR	Grethe and Jørgen Ingmann	"Dansevise"	Danish	Otto Francker [da] Sejr Volmer-Sørensen	Kai Mortensen
Finland	YLE	Laila Halme	"Muistojeni laulu"	Finnish	Börje Sundgren	George de Godzinsky
France	RTF	Alain Barrière	"Elle était si jolie"	French	Alain Barrière	Franck Pourcel
Germany	HR[a]	Heidi Brühl	"Marcel"	German	Charly Niessen [de]	Willy Berking
Italy	RAI	Emilio Pericoli	"Uno per tutte"	Italian	Giulio Rapetti Tony Renis Alberto Testa	Gigi Cichellero [it]
Luxembourg	CLT	Nana Mouskouri	"À force de prier"	French	Raymond Bernard [de] Pierre Delanoë	Eric Robinson
Monaco	TMC	Françoise Hardy	"L'amour s'en va"	French	Françoise Hardy	Raymond Lefèvre
Netherlands	NTS	Annie Palmen	"Een speeldoos"	Dutch	Pieter Goemans	Eric Robinson
Norway	NRK	Anita Thallaug	"Solhverv"	Norwegian	Dag Kristoffersen [no]	Øivind Bergh
Spain	TVE	José Guardiola	"Algo prodigioso"	Spanish	Fernando García Morcillo [es] Camillo Murillo Janero	Rafael Ibarbia
Sweden	SR	Monica Zetterlund	"En gång i Stockholm"	Swedish	Bobbie Ericson [sv] Beppe Wolgers	William Lind [sv]
Switzerland	SRG SSR	Esther Ofarim	"T'en va pas"	French	Émile Gardaz Géo Voumard	Eric Robinson
United Kingdom	BBC	Ronnie Carroll	"Say Wonderful Things"	English	Philip Green Norman Newell	Eric Robinson
Yugoslavia	JRT	Vice Vukov	"Brodovi" (Бродови)	Serbo-Croatian	Mario Nardelli	Miljenko Prohaska

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The production mode was unusual in comparison with other Eurovision Song Contests: In contrast to most previous and following editions which were filmed in concert halls or theatres, the staging of 1963 was done in television studios.^[6] Two studios (TC3 and TC4) were used: one for the mistress of ceremonies Katie Boyle, the audience, and the scoreboard (TC3); the other for the performers and the orchestra accompanying them (TC4). Unusually, a boom microphone (normally used for drama and comedy shows) was employed – the viewer could not see this, so it appeared as if the artists were miming to their vocals. This was not the case, but this innovation was to create a new look for the contest.^[1][7] The use of television studios allowed a broader variety of staging elements not seen before in the contest, and the use of close-ups so to create an atmosphere of intimacy for television viewers.^[6]

After the 1962 edition was the only one to be held on a Sunday, the contest was held on a Saturday again in 1963.

Each participating broadcaster assembled a 20-member jury panel who awarded their five favourite songs 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1 points in order. All those points would then be added up and the five songs with the most points got 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1 votes in order. Errors in the Norwegian (see below) and the Monegasque votes meant their scores had to be announced twice, with an adjustment to the scores being made in each case before the final score was verified.

One controversy this year was during the voting. When it was Norway's turn to announce their votes, the spokesman in Oslo did not use the correct procedure in that the song number, followed by the name of the country, should have been announced before awarding the points. Boyle asked Norway to repeat their results, but the Norwegian spokesman asked Boyle to return to them after all the other results were in. When Boyle went back to Norway again the votes had been altered, thus changing the outcome of the contest and giving the victory to Denmark at Switzerland's expense. In fact, the Norwegian spokesman had not given the correct votes on the first occasion, because votes from the 20 jury members were still being tallied.^[1] The Swiss participating broadcaster, SRG SSR, reportedly intended to appeal and following numerous complaints, checked the transmissions of the votes made.^[11][12] It was confirmed a month after the contest that the Norwegian jury didn't change their votes.^[13]

Monaco was also asked to repeat their voting a second time as initially Monaco gave one point to both the United Kingdom and Luxembourg. However, when Boyle went back to Monaco to receive the votes again Monaco's one vote to Luxembourg was efficiently discarded (although this did not have any effect on the positions of the countries).^[1]

5 points

Below is a summary of all 5 points received:

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N.	Contestant	Nation(s) giving 5 points
5	Denmark	Belgium,  Finland,  Luxembourg,  Netherlands,  Sweden
3	Italy	Denmark,  Monaco,   Switzerland
	Switzerland	Austria,  Italy,  United Kingdom
2	United Kingdom	Norway,  Spain
	Monaco	France,  Germany
1	France	Yugoslavia

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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.^[16] Reports estimate that 50 million people would see the contest.^[17]

Known details on the broadcasts in each country, including the specific broadcasting stations and commentators are shown in the tables below.

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Broadcasters and commentators in participating countries

Country	Broadcaster	Channel(s)	Commentator(s)	Ref(s)
Austria	ORF	ORF	Hanns Joachim Friedrichs	[4][18]
Belgium	BRT	BRT	Bob Boon [nl] and Denise Maes	[19]
	RTB	RTB	Pierre Delhasse	[20][21]
Denmark	DR	Danmarks Radio TV, Program 1	Ole Mortensen [da]	[22]
Finland	YLE	Suomen Televisio	Aarno Walli [fi]	[4][23]
		Yleisohjelma [fi]	Erkki Melakoski [fi]
		Ruotsinkielinen yleisohjelma	Jan Sederholm
France	RTF	RTF	Pierre Tchernia	[4][24]
Germany	ARD	Deutsches Fernsehen	Hanns Joachim Friedrichs	[25]
Italy	RAI	Programma Nazionale TV	Renato Tagliani [it]	[26]
Luxembourg	CLT	Télé-Luxembourg	Pierre Tchernia	[4][27]
Monaco	Télé Monte-Carlo		Pierre Tchernia	[4]
Netherlands	NTS	NTS	Willem Duys	[28][29]
	NRU	Hilversum 1	Coen Serré	[28][30]
Norway	NRK	NRK Fjernsynet, NRK	Øivind Johnssen	[31][32]
Spain	TVE	TVE	Federico Gallo [es]	[4][33][34]
	RNE	RNE[b]		[33]
Sweden	SR	Sveriges TV, SR P1	Jörgen Cederberg [sv]	[35]
Switzerland	SRG SSR	TV DRS	Theodor Haller [de; fr]	[36]
		TSR	Georges Hardy [fr]	[37]
		TSI	Renato Tagliani	[4][38]
		Radio Beromünster[c]		[39]
		Radio Sottens		[40]
		Radio Monte Ceneri		[38]
United Kingdom	BBC	BBC TV	David Jacobs	[41]
Yugoslavia	JRT	Televizija Beograd, Televizija Ljubljana, Televizija Zagreb	Saša Novak	[4][42]

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Broadcasters and commentators in non-participating countries

Country	Broadcaster	Channel(s)	Commentator(s)	Ref(s)
Ireland	RÉ	Telefís Éireann		[43]
Portugal	RTP	RTP	Federico Gallo	[4][44]

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