"Dors, mon amour" (; "Sleep, My Love") is a love song recorded by French singer André Claveau with music composed by

Pierre Delanoë Pierre Charles Marcel Napoléon Leroyer (16 December 1918 – 27 December 2006), known professionally as Pierre Delanoë (), was a French lyricist who wrote thousands of songs for dozens of singers, including Dalida, Edith Piaf, Charles Aznavou ...

and French lyrics written by

Hubert Giraud Hubert Yves Adrian Giraud (3 March 1920 – 16 January 2016) was a French composer and lyricist. Career Giraud began his career playing the harmonica with Django Reinhardt's jazz group, the Quintette du Hot Club de France. In 1941, he was recr ...

. It in the

Eurovision Song Contest 1958 The Eurovision Song Contest 1958 was the third edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster (NTS), the contest, originally known as the () was held on Wednesday 12 March 1958 ...

, held in

Hilversum Hilversum () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Holland, Netherlands. Located in the heart of the Gooi, it is ...

, resulting in the country's first win in the contest. Described as a romantic "lullaby", the song gained several cover versions, with the original version gaining

music chart A record chart, in the music industry, also called a music chart, is a ranking of Sound recording and reproduction, recorded music according to certain criteria during a given period. Many different criteria are used in worldwide charts, ofte ...

achievement in Belgium and featured in another commercially successful album.

Background

Composition

"Dors, mon amour" was composed by

with French lyrics by

. It is a love song, expressed by the singer telling his lover to sleep, while he muses on their love and the power of the night. It is reviewed as "a classical sort of lullaby", and is compared to newer editions entries songs as "hardly indicative of the camp and bombast which would later come to define Eurovision."

Eurovision

Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française (; RTF; "French Radio and Television Broadcasting") was the French national public broadcaster television organization established on 9 February 1949 to replace the post-war "''Radiodiffusion Française''" ...

(RTF) internally selected André Claveau as its performer for the of the

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), often known simply as Eurovision, is an international Music competition, song competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) among its members since 1956. Each participating broadcaster ...

. On 7 February 1958, "Dors, mon amour" competed in the televised show ', the national final organised by RTF to select the song he would sing in Eurovision. "Dors, mon amour" beat four other songs and became the for the contest. On 12 March 1958, the Eurovision Song Contest was held at

AVRO Studios AVRO Studios is a building complex and national heritage site in Hilversum, where the radio and TV studios and the head office of the Dutch public broadcasting system, Dutch public broadcasting association AVRO (Algemene Vereniging Radio Omroep or ...

hosted by (NTS), and broadcast live throughout the continent. Claveau performed third "Dors, mon amour" in a field of ten, following the ' entry " Heel de wereld" by

Corry Brokken Cornelia Maria "Corry" Brokken (3 December 1932 – 31 May 2016) was a Dutch singer, television presenter and jurist. In 1957, she won the second edition of the Eurovision Song Contest with the song " Net als toen", representing the Netherlands ...

and preceding 's " Un grand amour" by Solange Berry.

Franck Pourcel Franck Pourcel (14 August 1913 – 12 November 2000) was a French composer, arranger, and conductor of popular and classical music. Biography Early life Born in Marseille, France, Pourcel started learning the violin at the age of six. Later ...

conducted the live orchestra in the performance of the French entry. By the close of voting, it had received 27 points, placing it first, with three points above . This is the first winning entry sung by a male leading vocalist and France's first win. The song was succeeded as French entrant at the by " Oui, oui, oui, oui", sung by

Jean Philippe Jean Philippe Gargantiel (, 27 November 1930 – 7 January 2022) was a French singer who represented France at the Eurovision Song Contest 1959. He returned to the contest in 1962 representing Switzerland. He was the first artist to compete fo ...

, and as contest winner by "

Een beetje "n Beetje" (; "A little bit"), spelled in full as "Een beetje", is a song recorded by Dutch singer Teddy Scholten with music composed by and Dutch lyrics written by Willy van Hemert. It in the Eurovision Song Contest 1959 held in Cannes, winnin ...

", sung by

Teddy Scholten Dorothea Margaretha "Teddy" Scholten (; 11 May 1926 – 8 April 2010) was a Dutch singer and television presenter. She is known for winning the Eurovision Song Contest 1959 with the song " Een beetje", representing the Netherlands. Career In ...

representing the .

Charts

"Dors, mon amour" is marked as a numberless "peak"-note position on Belgium's Walloon region single

for the week of 1 June 1958, and is included in the 2005 compilation "50 Years Of The Eurovision Song Contest 1956 - 1980" which charted in Switzerland.

Legacy

The song was also covered in French in 1958, by the 1957 Eurovision winner

, Achille Togliani and Germana Caroli. It is covered in German by Camillo und die Bernd Hansen-Sänger as "Unser Glück, mon amour" and in Swedish by 1958 Eurovision entrant

Alice Babs Hildur Alice Nilson (26 January 1924 – 11 February 2014), known by her stage name Alice Babs, was a Swedish singer. She worked in a wide number of genres – Swedish folklore, Elizabethan songs and opera. While she was best known internationall ...

as "Sov min älskling".

References

External links

* {{Authority control Songs about sleep Eurovision songs of France Eurovision songs of 1958 Songs in French Eurovision Song Contest-winning songs Songs written by Hubert Giraud Songs written by Pierre Delanoë 1958 songs