The Eurovision Song Contest 1959 was the fourth edition of the annual

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...

, held on Wednesday 11 March 1959 at the in

Cannes Cannes ( , , ; oc, Canas) is a city located on the French Riviera. It is a commune located in the Alpes-Maritimes department, and host city of the annual Cannes Film Festival, Midem, and Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. The ...

, France, and hosted by French television presenter

Jacqueline Joubert Jacqueline Joubert (29 March 1921 – 8 January 2005), born Jacqueline Annette Édith Pierre, was a French television continuity announcer, producer and director. Alongside Arlette Accart, Joubert was one of the first two in-vision continuity an ...

. Organised by the

European Broadcasting Union The European Broadcasting Union (EBU; french: Union européenne de radio-télévision, links=no, UER) is an alliance of public service media organisations whose countries are within the European Broadcasting Area or who are members of the C ...

(EBU) and host broadcaster (RTF), the contest, originally known as the (English: Grand Prix of the Eurovision Song Contest 1959), was held in France following the country's victory at the with the song "", performed by

André Claveau André Claveau (, 17 December 1911 – 4 July 2003) was a popular singer in France from the 1940s to the 1960s. He won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1958 singing "Dors, mon amour" (Sleep, My Love), with music composed by Pierre Delanoë and l ...

. In total eleven countries participated in the contest, with making its first appearance and the returning after their absence the previous year. , however, decided not to participate after competing in all former editions. The winner was the with the song "", performed by

Teddy Scholten Dorothea Margaretha "Teddy" Scholten (née van Zwieteren; 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 ...

, composed by Dick Schallies and written by

Willy van Hemert Willy van Hemert (29 March 1912 – 26 June 1993) was a Dutch actor and theatre and television director, but is best known as a songwriter who penned two winning Dutch songs for the Eurovision Song Contest. Biography Van Hemert was born in Utre ...

. This was the Netherlands' second victory in the contest, having also won in , and also marked the first time a country had won the contest more than once. Van Hemert also became the first individual to win twice, having also written the first Dutch winning song from 1957, "". The United Kingdom placed second, marking the first of a record sixteen times that the country would go on to finish as contest runners-up, while placed third.

Location

The event took place in

, France, following the nation's victory at the in

Hilversum Hilversum () is a city and municipality in the province of North Holland, Netherlands. Located in the heart of the Gooi, it is the largest urban centre in that area. It is surrounded by heathland, woods, meadows, lakes, and smaller towns. Hilver ...

, Netherlands, with the song "", performed by

. The selected venue was the , built in 1949 to host the

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films ...

and located on the along the shore of the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on ...

. 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 . This marked the second occasion in which the previous year's winning country organised the event, and the first time in which the winning country was given first choice at hosting the following year's event, as the rights to host the 1958 contest were only awarded to the Netherlands after all other countries declined.

Format

The contest was organised and broadcast by the French public broadcaster (RTF) and was hosted by French television presenter

. The stage constructed for the event featured three revolving platforms, each of which was segmented into four, similar to a

revolving door A revolving door typically consists of three or four doors that hang on a central shaft and rotate around a vertical axis within a cylindrical enclosure. Revolving doors are energy efficient as they, acting as an airlock, prevent drafts, thus de ...

, to include various backdrops. These backdrops were specific to each of the participating countries and featured scenery or objects associated with that country. As in the 1957 and 1958 contests, each country, participating through a single EBU member broadcaster, was represented by one song performed by up to two people on stage. The results of the event were determined through jury voting, with each country's jury containing ten individuals who each gave one vote to their favourite song, with no abstentions allowed and with jurors unable to vote for their own country. One rule change implemented for this contest specified that individuals employed in the music industry were no longer allowed to be included among the national juries. Alongside the traditional reprise performance of the winning song, the second- and third-placed songs were also performed again, for the first and only time at the contest.

Participating countries

A total of eleven countries competed in the contest, with making its first appearance and the returning after a one year absence. The United Kingdom's absence from the 1958 contest is generally reported to have been due to the country's poor result in 1957, but their return coincided with the international success of "", the Italian entry from the previous year's contest, and the appointment of

Eric Maschwitz Albert Eric Maschwitz OBE (10 June 1901 – 27 October 1969), sometimes credited as Holt Marvell, was an English entertainer, writer, editor, broadcaster and broadcasting executive. Life and work Born in Edgbaston, Birmingham, England, and des ...

as Head of Light Entertainment at the BBC. Beginning with this event the United Kingdom holds the record for the longest string of consecutive appearances in the Eurovision Song Contest, appearing in every subsequent contest final . was absent from the event, having participated in all previous contests, and appears to have decided against participating late in the preparations for the contest as the country was listed among the participants in several radio and television listings.

Conductors

Each country was allowed to nominate their own musical director to lead the orchestra during the performance of their country's entry, with the host musical director,

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, ...

, also

conducting Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance, such as an orchestral or choral concert. It has been defined as "the art of directing the simultaneous performance of several players or singers by the use of gesture." The primary dutie ...

for those countries which did not nominate their own conductor. The conductors listed below led the orchestra during the performance for the indicated countries. *

* Kai Mortensen * * Franck Pourcel *

Dolf van der Linden David Gijsbert van der Linden (22 June 1915 – 30 January 1999), known as Dolf van der Linden, was a Dutch conductor of popular music with a reputation which extended beyond the borders of the Netherlands. Biography David Gijsbert van der Lind ...

* Franck Pourcel * Franck Pourcel * Franck Pourcel * Franck Pourcel * Eric Robinson * Francis Bay

Participants and results

Among this year's participants, two artists had previously competed in the contest.

Birthe Wilke Birthe Wilke (born 19 March 1936) is a popular Danish singer. She grew up in a musical family in Copenhagen's Vesterbro area. Career When Wilke was in her teens, she won a talent competition at the National Scala Theatre in Copenhagen, san ...

had placed third for in the , performing "" alongside

Gustav Winckler Gustav Frands Wilzeck Winckler (13 October 1925 – 20 January 1979) was a popular Danish singer, composer and music publisher. He grew up in the Nørrebro district of Copenhagen and started his career as a decorator. In 1948 as a young man ...

, and

Domenico Modugno Domenico Modugno (; 9 January 1928 – 6 August 1994) was an Italian singer, actor and, later in life, a member of the Italian Parliament. He is known for his 1958 international hit song " Nel blu dipinto di blu", for which he received Grammy ...

had placed third for in the with "". The winner was the represented by the song "", composed by , written by

and performed by

. The Netherlands became the first country to achieve two victories in the event, and Van Hemert became the first individual to win the contest twice, after previously providing lyrics for the Netherlands' winner in 1957, "". The United Kingdom's result was the first of sixteen British entries to finish in second place, a contest record .

Detailed voting results

The announcement of the results from each country was conducted in reverse order to that which each country performed.

Spokespersons

Each country nominated a spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for their respective country via telephone. Known spokespersons at the 1959 contest are listed below. *

Enzo Tortora Enzo Tortora (30 November 1928 – 18 May 1988) was an Italian TV host on national RAI television, who was unjustly convicted of being a member of the Camorra and drug trafficking in 1985, and sentenced to 10 years in jail. He was acquitted of a ...

* *

Broadcasts

Each participating broadcaster was required to relay the contest via its television network. 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 table below.

References

Bibliography

* *

External links

* {{coord, 43, 33, 12, N, 7, 01, 20, E, source:kolossus-ptwiki, display=title

1959 Events January * January 1 - Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance. * January 2 - Lunar probe Luna 1 was the first man-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reached the vicinity of E ...

Music festivals in France 1959 in music 1959 in France Events in Cannes March 1959 events in Europe