Eurovision Song Contest 1973

The Eurovision Song Contest 1973 was the 18th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Luxembourg City, Luxembourg, following the country's victory at the with the song " Après toi" by Vicky Leandros. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster (CLT), the contest was held at the on 7 April 1973 and was hosted by German television presenter Helga Guitton.

Seventeen countries took part in the contest this year, with and deciding not to participate, and competing for the first time.

In a back-to-back victory, won the contest again with the song "" by Anne-Marie David. The voting was a very close one, with with " Eres tú" by Mocedades finishing only 4 votes behind and the with " Power to All Our Friends" by Cliff Richard (who had come second in just behind Spain) another 2 votes further back. The winning song scored the highest score ever achieved in Eurovision under any voting format until 1975, recording 129 votes out of a possible 160, which represented almost 81% of the possible maximum. This was partly due to a scoring system which guaranteed all countries at least two votes from each country.

Location

Luxembourg City is a commune with city status, and the capital of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. It is located at the confluence of the Alzette and Pétrusse Rivers in southern Luxembourg. The city contains the historic Luxembourg Castle, established by the Franks in the Early Middle Ages, around which a settlement developed.

The , inaugurated in 1964 as the , became the venue for the 1973 contest. It is the city's major venue for drama, opera and ballet."Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg"
, ''Théâtre Info Luxembourg''. Retrieved 27 December 2010.

Participants

Seventeen nations took part in this year's contest. participated for the first time, while and decided against participating. Malta had originally being drawn to perform in sixth position between Norway and Monaco, however the Maltese broadcaster withdrew before the deadline to select an entry.

Several of the performing artists had previously competed as lead artists representing the same country in past editions: Marion Rung had represented , Cliff Richard had represented the , and Massimo Ranieri had represented .

The language rule forcing countries to enter songs sung in any of their national languages was dropped this year, so performers from some countries sang in English.

Contest overview

In light of the events that had happened during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, there were fears of a terrorist threat, particularly directed against Israel's first-ever entrant, leading to unusually tight security for the contest. This gave rise to one of the best-known Eurovision anecdotes, frequently recounted by the BBC's long-serving commentator Terry Wogan. He recalled that the floor manager strongly advised the audience to remain seated while applauding the performances, otherwise they risked being shot by security forces.

This contest holds the record for the most watched Eurovision Song Contest in the United Kingdom, and is also the 18th most watched television show there, with an estimated 21.54 million tuning in on the evening. The song " Power to All Our Friends" performed by Cliff Richard represented the , finising 3rd with 123 votes. The winner though was "" performed by Anne-Marie David.

Detailed voting results

Each participating broadcaster appointed two jury members, one aged between 16 and 25 and one aged between 26 and 55, with at least 10 years between their ages. They each scored each song between 1 to 5 (other than the song from their own country) immediately after it was performed and the scores were collected and counted as soon as they were cast. All jury members were located at Villa Louvigny CLT studios, watched the show on television from there, and appeared on screen to confirm their scores after all songs were performed.

10 votes

Below is a summary of all perfect 10 scores that were given during the voting.

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.

In addition to the participating countries, the contest was also reportedly broadcast in Algeria, Austria, Greece, Iceland, Malta, Morocco, Tunisia, and Turkey; in Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and the Soviet Union via Intervision; and the Middle Eastern countries and Japan, with an estimated global audience of 400 million. The contest was reportedly broadcast via radio in countries including Ireland, Japan, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Known details on the broadcasts in each country, including the specific broadcasting stations and commentators are shown in the tables below.

Notes

References

External links

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1973
Music festivals in Luxembourg
1973 in Luxembourg
1973 in music
20th century in Luxembourg City
April 1973 in Europe
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