Eurovision Song Contest 1961

The Eurovision Song Contest 1961 was the 6th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. Once again, the contest was held in the French seaside city of Cannes, having also hosted the . Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française (RTF), the contest was again held at the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès on Saturday 18 March 1961, becoming the first contest to take place on a Saturday evening, a tradition that has continued ever since (with the exception of 1962). The show was again hosted by Jacqueline Joubert, who had also hosted in 1959.

Sixteen countries participated in the contest - three more than in the previous edition; , and all competed for the first time this year.

The winner was with the song "Nous les amoureux", performed by Jean-Claude Pascal, written by Maurice Vidalin, and composed by Jacques Datin, with the finishing in second place for the third consecutive year.

Location

The event took place in Cannes, France, following the nation's victory at the 1960 edition with the song "", performed by Jacqueline Boyer. The selected venue was the , built in 1949 to host the Cannes Film Festival and located on the along the shore of the Mediterranean Sea. Due to the growth in the film festival a new building bearing the same name was opened in 1982, with the original building renamed as the and subsequently demolished in 1988. It also hosted the edition of the Eurovision Song Contest.

Format

The stage used for the 1961 contest was notably larger than in previous years and was decorated with flowers. It is noticeable that during the voting, Luxembourg gave the UK eight points, and Norway also gave Denmark eight points. It was the largest number of points given to a country by a single jury since 1958, when Denmark provided France with nine points. Such a high number of points obtained by a country would not be achieved until 1970, when Ireland would receive nine points from Belgium.

Participating countries

Interest in the competition began to grow across Europe as three new countries participated for the first time: Finland, Spain, and Yugoslavia.

Conductors

Each performance had a conductor who directed the orchestra.

* Rafael Ferrer
* Raymond Lefèvre
* Franck Pourcel
* George de Godzinsky
* Jože Privšek
* Dolf van der Linden
*
* Franck Pourcel
* Franck Pourcel
* Fernando Paggi
* Francis Bay
* Øivind Bergh
* Kai Mortensen
* Léo Chauliac
* Harry Robinson
* Gianfranco Intra

Returning artists

Participants and results

Detailed voting results

Each country had 10 jury members who each awarded 1 point to their favourite song.

Spokespersons

Listed below is the order in which votes were cast during the 1961 contest along with the spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for their respective country.

# Enzo Tortora
# Michael Aspel
# TBC
#
# Mette Janson
# Ward Bogaert
#
# Armand Lanoux
# Heinz Schenk
#
#
# Saša Novak
#
# Emil Kollpacher
# TBC
#

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.

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

References

Bibliography

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External links

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1961
Music festivals in France
1961 in music
1961 in France
Events in Cannes
March 1961 events in Europe