The Eurovision Song Contest 1958 was the third edition 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 ...

. Organised by the

European Broadcasting Union The European Broadcasting Union (EBU; , UER) is an alliance of Public broadcasting, public service media organisations in countries within the European Broadcasting Area (EBA) or who are member states of the Council of Europe, members of the ...

(EBU) and host broadcaster (NTS), the contest, originally known as the () was held on Wednesday 12 March 1958 at the

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 ...

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 ...

, the Netherlands and hosted by Dutch television presenter

Hannie Lips Hannie Lips (16 July 1924 – 19 November 2012) was a Dutch broadcaster and television announcer of among others Dutch public broadcasting association KRO. She is best known to international audiences for presenting the Third Eurovision Song C ...

. This marked the first time that the contest was hosted in the country of the preceding year's winner, a tradition that has been continued ever since (with some exceptions). Ten countries participated, equalling the number which took part the previous year; made its first appearance in the contest, while the decided not to participate. The winner of the contest was , represented by the song "" performed by

André Claveau André Claveau (, 29 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 a ...

, marking the first of five eventual wins for the country. Another entry however made a greater impact following the contest; the Italian entry, "" performed by

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 the fir ...

which had placed third, became a worldwide hit for Modugno, winning two

Grammy Awards The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious a ...

in 1959 and becoming a chart success in several countries.

Location

The 1958 contest took place in

, the Netherlands. The selected venue was the

, which served at the time as the main radio and television broadcasting facilities of the Dutch broadcaster

AVRO Avro (an initialism of the founder's name) was a British aircraft manufacturer. Its designs include the Avro 504, used as a trainer in the First World War, the Avro Lancaster, one of the pre-eminent bombers of the Second World War, and the d ...

. Often called "media city", Hilversum is the principal centre for radio and television broadcasting in the Netherlands and is the location of several of the organisations that make up the (NPO) public broadcasting organisation. Although they had won in 1957, the Netherlands' did not receive automatic rights to host the contest, as the convention in place at the time specified that each broadcaster would stage the event in turns. The

British Broadcasting Corporation The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public broadcasting, public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved in ...

(BBC) had been the first choice to stage the event in the United Kingdom, but gave up the rights after failing to reach agreement with artistic unions. Subsequently, the Dutch broadcaster, (NTS), only received the rights to host the event after other broadcasters declined the opportunity. This established the tradition that the previous year's winner would host it the following year.

Participants

Ten countries participated in the 1958 contest, the same number as had featured in the previous year's event. Sweden entered the contest for the first time, while the United Kingdom decided not to compete, despite having originally intended to participate and being listed as one of the participating countries in the original rules dated November 1957. had also intended to submit an entry, but ultimately did not feature among the participating nations. Several of the participants had previously competed in the contest. Switzerland's

Lys Assia Rosa Mina Schärer (3 March 1924 – 24 March 2018), known by her stage name Lys Assia, was a Swiss singer who won the first Eurovision Song Contest in . Assia was born in Rupperswil, Aargau, and began her stage career as a dancer, but changed ...

and the Netherlands'

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 ...

had both represented their countries in 1956 and 1957, and were both former winners; Assia was the first winner of the contest in 1956 with the song "", and had also performed Switzerland's other entry in that contest "", while Brokken had performed "" in the 1956 contest, one of the Netherlands' two entries, and was then the winner the following year with the song "". Belgium's

Fud Leclerc Ferdinand Urbain Dominic Leclerc (, 1924 – 20 September 2010) was a Belgian singer, who was also the pianist of Juliette Gréco. Leclerc had a career as a pianist, accordionist, songwriter and singer before retiring to travel the world. On his ...

had also competed in the 1956 contest, performing "", one of his country's two entries, and

Margot Hielscher Margot Hielscher (29 September 1919 – 20 August 2017) was a German singer and film actress. She appeared in over fifty films between and 1939 and 1994. Hielscher was born in Berlin. In 1957, she was chosen to represent Germany at the Eurovis ...

returned to perform for Germany for a second year in a row, having competed in 1957 with "".

Format

The contest was organised and broadcast by NTS, with Piet te Nuyl Jr. serving as producer, Gijs Stappershoef serving as director, and

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 (music), conductor of popular music with a reputation which extended beyond the borders of the Netherlands. Biography David Gij ...

serving as

musical director A music director, musical director or director of music is a person responsible for the musical aspects of a performance, production, or organization. This would include the artistic director and usually chief conductor of an orchestra or concert ...

, leading the during the event. 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 also

conducting Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance, such as an orchestral or Choir, 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 d ...

for those countries which did not nominate their own conductor. Held in one of the studios of the AVRO broadcasting complex, the hall contained a small stage for the singers, with the orchestra situated

stage right In theatre, blocking is the precise staging of actors to facilitate the performance of a play, ballet, film or opera. Historically, the expectations of staging/blocking have changed substantially over time in Western theater. Prior to the movem ...

. The rear of the performance area had interchangeable backgrounds for each song to add context to each song's lyrics, which could also be removed to show the scoreboard during the voting sequence, and the venue was decorated with thousands of

tulip Tulips are spring-blooming perennial herbaceous bulbiferous geophytes in the ''Tulipa'' genus. Their flowers are usually large, showy, and brightly coloured, generally red, orange, pink, yellow, or white. They often have a different colour ...

s. No significant changes to the rules of the 1957 contest were implemented; each country, participating through one EBU member broadcaster, was represented by one song performed by up to two people on stage. Due to several entries having violated the duration limit in the previous event, the maximum song limit of 3 minutes and 30 seconds was more stringently enforced for this year's entries. The voting system was the same as the one used the previous year; the results 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.

Contest overview

The contest was held on 12 March 1958 at 21:00 (

CET CET or cet may refer to: Places * Cet, Albania * Cet, standard astronomical abbreviation for the constellation Cetus * Colchester Town railway station (National Rail code CET), in Colchester, England Arts, entertainment, and media * Comcast En ...

), with an approximate duration of 1 hour and 10 minutes. The contest was hosted by Dutch presenter

. A performance by the featured as the interval act between the final competing performance and the commencement of the voting results, which included a rendition of . In addition, after the first five songs, the Metropole Orkest performed the "Wedding Dance" from the Symphonic Suite "Hasseneh" by as an interval act to give the juries a break to deliberate. During the live transmission of the contest several countries were unable to see or hear the Italian entry, which was the first act to perform, due to a technical fault, and it was subsequently allowed to perform again after the last song. The winner was represented by the song "", 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 ...

, 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 ...

and performed by

. This was the first of an eventual five contest victories that France would go on to achieve. The Italian entry, "" performed by

, went on to become a worldwide success, and was one of the first Eurovision songs to achieve notability outside of the contest. Popularly known as "Volare", the song went to number one in the US ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

Hot 100 The ''Billboard'' Hot 100, also known as simply the Hot 100, is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), o ...

, as well as reaching the top 5 in singles charts in Belgium, Canada, the Netherlands and Norway, and the top 10 in the United Kingdom, and was named

Record of the Year The Grammy Award for Record of the Year is presented by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to "honor artistic achievement, technical proficiency and overall excellence in the recording industry, without re ...

and Song of the Year at the

first edition The bibliographical definition of an edition is all copies of a book printed from substantially the same setting of type, including all minor typographical variants. First edition According to the definition of ''edition'' above, a book pr ...

of the

held in May 1959. The song has been

covered Cover or covers may refer to: Packaging * Another name for a lid * Cover (philately), generic term for envelope or package * Album cover, the front of the packaging * Book cover or magazine cover ** Book design ** Back cover copy, part of ...

by several artists, including

Dean Martin Dean Martin (born Dino Paul Crocetti; June 7, 1917 – December 25, 1995) was an American singer, actor, and comedian. Nicknamed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Cool", he is regarded as one of the most popular entertainers of ...

Dalida Iolanda Cristina Gigliotti (; 17 January 1933 – 3 May 1987), professionally known as Dalida (, ; ), was an Italian naturalized French singer and actress. Leading an international career, Dalida has sold over 140 million records worldwide. Some ...

and

Gipsy Kings Gipsy Kings (originally Los Reyes) are a musical group founded in 1979 in Arles, France. The band, whose members have Catalans, Catalan heritage, play a blend of Catalan rumba, flamenco, Salsa music, salsa, and Pop music, pop. They perform mos ...

, and many new versions with lyrics in different languages have been produced. "" was also nominated in 2005 to compete in '' Congratulations: 50 Years of the Eurovision Song Contest'', a special broadcast to determine the contest's most popular entry of its first 50 years as part of the contest's anniversary celebrations. One of 14 entries chosen to compete, "" ultimately finished in second place behind "

Waterloo Waterloo most commonly refers to: * Battle of Waterloo, 1815 battle where Napoleon's French army was defeated by Anglo-allied and Prussian forces * Waterloo, Belgium Waterloo may also refer to: Other places Australia * Waterloo, New South Wale ...

ABBA ABBA ( ) were a Swedish pop group formed in Stockholm in 1972 by Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. They are one of the most popular and successful musical groups of all time, and are one of the List ...

's winning song from the .

Spokespersons

Each participating broadcaster appointed a spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for its respective country via telephone. Known spokespersons at the 1958 contest are listed below. *

Armand Lanoux Armand Lanoux (24 October 1913 – 23 March 1983) was a French writer. Biography Lanoux was born in Paris, France. Early in life he had several jobs: he was a teacher, designer of candy boxes, bank employee, painter and journalist. He became ...

* Piet te Nuyl Jr. *

Tage Danielsson Tage Ivar Roland Danielsson (; 5 February 1928 – 13 October 1985) was a Swedes, Swedish author, actor, comedian, poet and film director. He worked together with Hans Alfredson in the comedy duo Hasse & Tage. Early life Danielsson was bor ...

Detailed voting results

Eurovision Song Contest 1958 - Scoreboard

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

Broadcasts

Broadcasters competing in the event were required to relay the contest via its networks; non-participating EBU member broadcasters were also able to relay the contest. 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. No official accounts of the viewing figures are known to exist. In his introductory remarks, the Dutch commentator stated that a total number of "about 25 million viewers" across Europe could be estimated.

Notes and references

Notes

References

Bibliography

* * * *

External links

* {{coord, 52, 14, N, 5, 11, E, source:kolossus-ptwiki, display=title

1958 Events January * January 1 – The European Economic Community (EEC) comes into being. * January 3 – The West Indies Federation is formed. * January 4 ** Edmund Hillary's Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition completes the thir ...

Music festivals in the Netherlands 1958 in music 1958 in the Netherlands Events in Hilversum Music in Hilversum