Eurovision Song Contest 1959

The Eurovision Song Contest 1959 was the fourth edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in the French seaside city of Cannes, following France's victory at the 1958 contest with the song "Dors, mon amour" by André Claveau. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française (RTF), the contest was held at Palais des Festivals et des Congrès on Wednesday 11 March 1959, and was hosted by French television presenter Jacqueline Joubert.[1]

Eurovision Song Contest 1959
Dates
Final11 March 1959
Host
VenuePalais des Festivals et des Congrès
Cannes, France
Presenter(s)Jacqueline Joubert
Musical directorFranck Pourcel
Directed byMarcel Cravenne
Host broadcasterRadiodiffusion-Télévision Française (RTF)
Interval actFranck Pourcel's Orchestra
Websiteeurovision.tv/event/cannes-1959
Participants
Number of entries11
Debuting countries
Returning countries
Non-returning countries
Participation map
  •      Participating countries     Countries that participated in the past but not in 1959
Vote
Voting systemTen-member juries distributed 10 points among their favourite songs.
Nul points in finalNone
Winning song Netherlands
"Een beetje"

Eleven countries participated in the contest this year. Monaco made its debut in the contest, the United Kingdom returned after being absent the previous year, and Luxembourg decided not to participate.

The winner was the Netherlands with the song "Een beetje", performed by Teddy Scholten, written by Willy van Hemert and composed by Dick Schallies. This was already the Netherlands' second victory in the contest, having also won in 1957 - at the same time marking the first time a country had won more than once. Willy van Hemert had also written the first Dutch winner in 1957.

Location
Palais des Festivals et des Congrès, Cannes – host venue of the 1959 contest.

The event took place in Cannes, France, with the venue being the original building of Palais des Festivals et des Congrès, after France got the right to host this edition of the Eurovision Song Contest for winning the 1958 edition with the song "Dors, mon amour" performed by André Claveau. Cannes, a city located on the French Riviera, is a busy tourist destination and known worldwide for hosting the annual Cannes Film Festival, with the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès also hosting the Film Festival. The original building was built in 1949 and was located on the boulevard of Promenade de la Croisette, on the present site of the JW Marriott Cannes.

Format

A new rule was created for this edition, ensuring that no professional publishers or composers were allowed in the national juries. During the voting, Italy gave one point to France, no points to the UK and seven points to the Netherlands placing them just three points ahead of the UK. Later on, France gave only three points to Italy and four points to the Netherlands thus giving them a five-point lead over the UK, who were only one point ahead of France, leaving Italy behind in sixth position, behind Denmark, on nine points. The third- and second-placed songs, France and United Kingdom respectively, were also allowed to sing again at the end of the show along with the winner the Netherlands, something that occurred only this year and was never subsequently repeated again.

Participating countries
Further information: List of countries in the Eurovision Song Contest

Luxembourg decided not to return to the competition, having competed every year until then. The United Kingdom returned after missing the previous contest (appearing on the scoreboard as "Grande Bretagne") and finished second for the first time. The UK would go on to have 15 second-place finishes in the country's history in the contest. The small principality of Monaco competed for the first time in this year's contest, but unfortunately came last.[2]

Conductors

Each performance had a conductor who directed the orchestra.[3][4]

Returning artists
Artist Country Previous year(s)
Birthe Wilke  Denmark 1957 (alongside Gustav Winckler)
Domenico Modugno  Italy 1958

Results
Draw Country Artist Song Language[5][6] Place[7] Points
01  France Jean Philippe "Oui, oui, oui, oui" French 3 15
02  Denmark Birthe Wilke "Uh, jeg ville ønske jeg var dig" Danish 5 12
03  Italy Domenico Modugno "Piove (Ciao, ciao bambina)" Italian 6 9
04  Monaco Jacques Pills "Mon ami Pierrot" French 11 1
05  Netherlands Teddy Scholten "Een beetje" Dutch 1 21
06  Germany Alice and Ellen Kessler "Heute Abend wollen wir tanzen geh'n" German 8 5
07  Sweden Brita Borg "Augustin" Swedish 9 4
08   Switzerland Christa Williams "Irgendwoher" German 4 14
09  Austria Ferry Graf "Der K und K Kalypso aus Wien" German 9 4
10  United Kingdom Pearl Carr and Teddy Johnson "Sing, Little Birdie" English 2 16
11  Belgium Bob Benny "Hou toch van mij" Dutch 6 9

Scoreboard
Voting results[8][9]
Total score
Belgium
United Kingdom
Austria
Switzerland
Sweden
Germany
Netherlands
Monaco
Italy
Denmark
France
Contestants
 France 152114214
Denmark 122214111
Italy 913113
Monaco 11
Netherlands 213132174
Germany 51112
Sweden 431
Switzerland 141513112
Austria 4121
United Kingdom 162235211
Belgium 923112

Spokespersons
  1.  Belgium – Bert Leysen
  2.  United Kingdom – Pete Murray
  3.  Austria – Karl Bruck
  4.   Switzerland – Boris Acquadro
  5.  Sweden – Roland Eiworth
  6.  Germany – Hans-Joachim Rauschenbach
  7.  Netherlands – Siebe van der Zee[10]
  8.  Monaco – TBC
  9.  Italy – Enzo Tortora
  10.  Denmark – Svend Pedersen
  11.  France – Marianne Lecène

Broadcasts

Each national broadcaster also sent a commentator to the contest, in order to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language.

Broadcasters and commentators in participating countries
Country Broadcaster(s) Commentator(s) Ref(s)
 Austria ORF Elena Gerhard
 Belgium INR French: Paule Herreman
NIR Dutch: Nic Bal
 Denmark Danmarks Radio TV Sejr Volmer-Sørensen
 France RTF Claude Darget
 Germany Deutsches Fernsehen Elena Gerhard
 Italy Programma Nazionale Renato Tagliani
 Monaco Télé Monte Carlo Claude Darget
 Netherlands NTS Piet te Nuyl
 Sweden Sveriges TV, SR P1 Jan Gabrielsson
  Switzerland TV DRS German: Theodor Haller
TSR French: Claude Darget
 United Kingdom BBC Television Service Tom Sloan [4]
BBC Light Programme Pete Murray
Broadcasters and commentators in non-participating countries
Country Broadcaster(s) Commentator(s) Ref(s)
 Luxembourg Télé-Luxembourg Claude Darget

References
  1. "Eurovision History – Cannes 1959". European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 5 March 2012.
  2. "Cannes 1959". Eurovision.tv.
  3. "And the conductor is..." Retrieved 10 July 2018.
  4. Roxburgh, Gordon (2012). Songs for Europe: The United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest. Volume One: The 1950s and 1960s. Prestatyn: Telos Publishing. pp. 184–192. ISBN 978-1-84583-065-6.
  5. "Eurovision Song Contest 1959". The Diggiloo Thrush. Retrieved 4 March 2012.
  6. "Eurovision Song Contest 1959". 4Lyrics.eu. Retrieved 16 September 2020.
  7. "Final of Cannes 1959". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 27 March 2021. Retrieved 27 March 2021.
  8. "Results of the Final of Cannes 1959". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 27 March 2021. Retrieved 27 March 2021.
  9. "Eurovision Song Contest 1959 – Scoreboard". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 29 June 2015. Retrieved 14 June 2021.
  10. "Succes van Teddy Scholten in Cannes met „Een beetje"". Nieuwe Leidsche Courant. 12 March 1959. pp. 1, 5. Retrieved 11 June 2021.

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.