Eurovision Song Contest 1959

The Eurovision Song Contest 1959, originally known as the (Template:Langx), was the fourth edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, held on Wednesday 11 March 1959 at the in Cannes, France, and presented by Jacqueline Joubert. It was organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster (RTF), who staged the event after winning the Template:Escyr for Template:Esccnty with the song "", performed by André Claveau.

Broadcasters from eleven countries participated in the contest, with Template:Esccnty making its first appearance and the Template:Esccnty returning after its absence the previous year. Template:Esccnty, however, decided not to participate after competing in all former editions.

The winner was the Template:Esccnty with the song "", performed by Teddy Scholten, composed by Dick Schallies and written by Willy van Hemert. This was the Netherlands' second victory in the contest, having also won in Template:Escyr, 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 Template:Esccnty placed second, marking the first of a record sixteen times that the country would go on to finish as contest runners-up, while Template:Esccnty placed third.

Location

File:Palais des festivals et des congrès, Cannes, 1949.jpg

, Cannes – host venue of the 1959 contest

The event took place in Cannes, France, following the nation's victory at the Template:Escyr in Hilversum, Netherlands, with the song "", performed by André Claveau. 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.Template:Sfn 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.

A garden space with plants from Southern France was installed in front of the building for the contest, and the flags of the participating nations were raised on the roof. The audience comprised 1,500 invited guests.

Additional events during the contest week included a supper for the participating delegations on behalf of the city of Cannes held on the evening following the contest in the of the city's Template:Ill.

Participants

Template:Interlanguage link info Template:ESC 1959 participants A total of eleven countries competed in the contest, with Template:Esccnty making its first appearance and the Template:Esccnty 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 Template:Escyr, but its return coincided with the international success of "", the Italian entry from the previous year's contest, and the appointment of Eric Maschwitz as Head of Light Entertainment at the BBC.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn 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 Template:As of. Template:Esccnty was absent from the event, having participated in all previous contests, with management at the Luxembourgish broadcaster (CLT) rejecting the proposed entry and leaving no sufficient time to find a replacement. This decision appears to have occurred late in the preparations for the contest as the country was listed among the participants in several radio and television listings.Template:Sfn

Among this year's participants, two artists had previously competed in the contest. Birthe Wilke had placed third for Template:Esccnty, performing "" alongside Gustav Winckler, and Domenico Modugno had placed third for Template:Esccnty with "".

Eurovision Song Contest 1959 participantsTemplate:Sfn

Country	Broadcaster	Artist	Song	Language	Songwriter(s)	Conductor
Template:Esc	ORF	Ferry Graf	""	German	Template:Hlist	Franck Pourcel
Template:Esc	Template:Ill	Bob Benny	""	Dutch	Template:Hlist	Francis Bay
Template:Esc	DR	Birthe Wilke	""	Danish	Template:Hlist	Kai Mortensen
Template:Esc	RTF	Jean Philippe	""	French	Template:Hlist	Franck Pourcel
Template:Esc	HRTemplate:Efn	Alice and Ellen Kessler	""	German	Template:Hlist	Franck Pourcel
Template:Esc	RAI	Domenico Modugno	""	Italian	Template:Hlist	Template:Ill
Template:Esc	TMC	Jacques Pills	""	French	Template:Hlist	Franck Pourcel
Template:Esc	NTS	Teddy Scholten	""	Dutch	Template:Hlist	Dolf van der Linden
Template:Esc	SR	Brita Borg	"Augustin"	Swedish	Template:Hlist	Franck Pourcel
Template:Esc	SRG SSR	Christa Williams	""	German	Template:Ill	Franck Pourcel
Template:Esc	BBC	Pearl Carr and Teddy Johnson	"Sing Little Birdie"	English	Template:Hlist	Eric Robinson

Production and format

The contest was organised and broadcast by the French public broadcaster (RTF), with Template:Ill serving as producer and director, Gérard Dubois serving as designer, and Franck Pourcel serving as musical director and leading the .Template:Sfn Each participating delegation was allowed to nominate its own musical director to lead the orchestra during the performance of its country's entry, with the host musical director also conducting for those countries which did not nominate their own conductor.Template:Sfn

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.Template:Sfn 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.

Dubois' stage design was inspired by the era of Louis XIV. The stage featured three revolving platforms, each of which was segmented into four, similar to a revolving door, to include various backdrops.Template:Sfn These backdrops were specific to each of the participating countries and featured scenery or objects associated with that country.Template:Sfn

The draw to determine the running order took place on 9 March 1959. A few days prior to the contest, hotel and shop owners in Cannes complained that the contest was covered and advertised too sparsely by RTF and subsequently feared that too few tourists would come to Cannes. In contrast, the Cannes , which was involved in the organisation of the contest, believed that the broadcast of images from Cannes to many European households would have a significant impact on tourism in the weeks to follow.

Contest overview

The contest was held on 11 March 1959 at 21:00 (CET) and lasted 1 hour and 12 minutes.Template:Sfn The event was hosted by French television presenter Jacqueline Joubert.Template:Sfn

The prelude of Charpentier's "Te Deum", the theme music of Eurovision broadcasts, was played as opening act by the orchestra under the direction of Franck Pourcel.

The winner was the Template:Esccnty represented by the song "", composed by Template:Ill, written by Willy van Hemert and performed by Teddy Scholten. 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, "".Template:Sfn The United Kingdom's result was the first of sixteen British entries to finish in second place, a contest record Template:As of.Template:Sfn

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.Template:Sfn The prize awarded to the winning songwriters, taking the form of an engraved medallion, was to be handed over during the delegations' supper following the event, but instead was presented by RTF's director of programming Template:Ill to Teddy Scholten at the end of the show.

Results of the Eurovision Song Contest 1959Template:Sfn

R/O	Country	Artist	Song	Votes	Place
1	Template:Esc	Template:Sortname	""	15	3
2	Template:Esc	Template:Sortname	""	12	5
3	Template:Esc	Template:Sortname	""	9	6
4	Template:Esc	Template:Sortname	""	1	11
5	Template:Esc	Template:Sortname	""	21	1
6	Template:Esc	Template:Sortname	""	5	8
7	Template:Esc	Template:Sortname	"Augustin"	4	9
8	Template:Esc	Template:Sortname	""	14	4
9	Template:Esc	Template:Sortname	""	4	9
10	Template:Esc	Template:Sortname	"Sing Little Birdie"	16	2
11	Template:Esc	Template:Sortname	""	9	6

Spokespersons

Each participating broadcaster appointed a spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for its respective country via telephone. Known spokespersons at the 1959 contest are listed below.

• Template:FlaguTemplate:SndTemplate:Ill
• Template:FlaguTemplate:SndTemplate:IllTemplate:Sfn

Detailed voting results

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

Detailed voting results of the Eurovision Song Contest 1959Template:Sfn

		scope="col" Template:Vert header	scope="col" Template:Vert header	scope="col" Template:Vert header	scope="col" Template:Vert header	scope="col" Template:Vert header	scope="col" Template:Vert header	scope="col" Template:Vert header	scope="col" Template:Vert header	scope="col" Template:Vert header	scope="col" Template:Vert header	scope="col" Template:Vert header	scope="col" Template:Vert header
rowspan="11" Template:Vert header	France	15	2		1	1		4		2	1	4
Denmark	12		2	2	1	4		1	1	1
Italy	9	1			3	1			1			3
Monaco	1			1
Netherlands	21	3	1	3			2		1	7		4
Germany	5	1			1					1		2
Sweden	4							3			1
Switzerland	14	1	5	1		3	1		1		2
Austria	4				1	2			1
United Kingdom	16	2		2	3			5	2		1	1
Belgium	9		2				3	1	1		2

Broadcasts

Each participating broadcaster was required to relay the contest via its television network. No official accounts of the viewing figures are known to exist. An estimate given in the press was at least 20 million viewers.

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. Twelve commentator boxes were installed on the balconies of the auditorium. Known details on the broadcasts in each country, including the specific broadcasting stations and commentators are shown in the table below.

Broadcasters and commentators in participating countries

Country	Broadcaster	Channel(s)	Commentator(s)	Template:Refh
Template:Flagu	ORF	ORF	{Template:N/A
Template:Flagu	Template:Ill	NIR	Paula Sémer
		INR	Paule Herreman
Template:Flagu	DR	, Program 2	Sejr Volmer-Sørensen
Template:Flagu	RTF	RTF	Template:Ill
		France II	Template:N/A
Template:Flagu	ARD		Elena Gerhardt
Template:Flagu	RAI	,	Template:Ill
Template:Flagu	Radio Monte-CarloTemplate:Efn		Template:N/A
Template:Flagu	NTS	NTS	Piet te Nuyl Jr.
	NRU	Hilversum 1	Aad Bos
	RNWTemplate:Efn		Template:N/A
Template:Flagu	SR	, SR P1	Template:Ill
Template:Flagu	SRG SSR	TV DRS, Radio Bern	Template:N/A
		TSR,	Template:N/A
		TSI, Radio Monte Ceneri	Template:N/A
Template:Flagu	BBC	BBC Television Service	Tom Sloan

Broadcasters and commentators in non-participating countries

Country	Broadcaster	Channel(s)	Commentator(s)	Template:Refh
Template:Flagu	CLT		Template:N/A

External links

• Template:Official website