Eurovision Song Contest 1964

The Eurovision Song Contest 1964 was the 9th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, held on 21 March 1964 at in Copenhagen, Denmark, and presented by Lotte Wæver. It was organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster (DR), who staged the event after winning the Template:Escyr for Template:Esccnty with the song "" by Grethe and Jørgen Ingmann. Broadcasters from sixteen countries participated in the contest. Template:Esccnty made its debut this year, whereas Template:Esccnty decided not to enter.

The winner of the contest was Template:Esccnty with the song "", performed by Gigliola Cinquetti, written by Nicola Salerno and composed by Mario Panzeri. At the age of 16 years and 92 days, Gigliola Cinquetti became the youngest winner of the contest yet; a record she held until Template:Escyr. The entry had one of the widest margins of victory ever witnessed in the competition. It garnered almost three times as many points as the second-placed song.

Besides the Template:Escyr, the 1964 contest is the only other one of which there are no complete surviving video recordings.

Location

File:Tivoli Concert Hall-2.jpg

, Copenhagen - host venue of the 1964 contest.

(DR) staged the 1964 contest in Copenhagen, after winning the Template:Escyr for Template:Esccnty with the song "" by Grethe and Jørgen Ingmann. The venue selected was (Tivoli Concert Hall), which lies within the amusement park and pleasure garden Tivoli Gardens. The park, alluding by its name to the that existed in Paris, was opened on 15 August 1843, and is the second oldest amusement park in the world, after in nearby Klampenborg. At the night of the contest, 800 spectators followed the show in the audience.

Participants

Template:Interlanguage link info Template:ESC 1964 participants Broadcasters from sixteen countries participated in the 1964 contest. Of the sixteen countries that participated in 1963 only Template:Esccnty was absent. (SR) did not participate due to a strike among members of the Swedish Union for Performing Arts and Film (Template:Langx). Template:Esccnty was represented in the contest for the first time, however it became the first country to score nul points on its début entry. Germany, Switzerland, and Yugoslavia also scored nul points for the first time. The Netherlands became the first country to be represented by a singer of non-European ancestry, Anneke Grönloh who was of Indonesian descent. Spain was represented by the Italian-Uruguayan group Los TNT who were the first group of three or more participants in the history of the contest.

Only one of the performing artists had previously competed representing the same country in past editions: Anita Traversi had represented Template:Esccnty, and had also provided backing vocals for Template:Esccnty.

Eurovision Song Contest 1964 participants

Country	Broadcaster	Artist	Song	Language	Songwriter(s)	Conductor
Template:Esc	ORF	Udo Jürgens	""	German	Udo Jürgens	Johannes Fehring
Template:Esc	RTB	Robert Cogoi	""	French	Robert Cogoi	Template:Ill
Template:Esc	DR	Bjørn Tidmand	""	Danish	Template:Hlist	Kai Mortensen
Template:Esc	YLE	Lasse Mårtenson	""	Finnish	Template:Hlist	George de Godzinsky
Template:Esc	RTF	Rachel	""	French	Template:Hlist	Franck Pourcel
Template:Esc	HRTemplate:Efn	Nora Nova	""	German	Template:Hlist	Willy Berking
Template:Esc	RAI	Gigliola Cinquetti	""	Italian	Template:Hlist	Template:Ill
Template:Esc	CLT	Hugues Aufray	""	French	Template:Hlist	Jacques Denjean
Template:Esc	TMC	Romuald	""	French	Template:Hlist	Michel Colombier
Template:Esc	NTS	Anneke Grönloh	""	Dutch	Template:Hlist	Dolf van der Linden
Template:Esc	NRK	Arne Bendiksen	""	Norwegian	Template:Hlist	Karsten Andersen
Template:Esc	RTP	António Calvário	""	Portuguese	Template:Hlist	Kai Mortensen
Template:Esc	TVE	Nelly with Tim and Tony	""	Spanish	Fina de Calderón	Rafael Ibarbia
Template:Esc	SRG SSR	Anita Traversi	""	Italian	Template:Hlist	Fernando Paggi
Template:Esc	BBC	Matt Monro	"I Love the Little Things"	English	Tony Hatch	Harry Rabinowitz
Template:Esc	JRT	Sabahudin Kurt	"" ()	Serbo-Croatian	Template:Hlist	Radivoje Spasić

Format

Poul Leth Sørensen served as producer, Bent Fabricius Bjerre and Marianne Drewes acted as co-producers.

The prize to be awarded to the winning artist took the form of an engraved medallion made of silver.

The event was covered by around 100 journalists and photographers. The artists were accompanied by a 41-piece orchestra. Rehearsals started on 19 March 1964.

Contest overview

The contest was held on 21 March 1964, beginning at 22:00 CET (21:00 UTC).

A political protest occurred after the Swiss entry: an anonymous man trespassed onto the stage holding a banner that read "Boycot [sic] Franco & Salazar". Whilst this was going on, television viewers were shown a shot of the scoreboard; once the man was removed by a television technician, the contest went on.

The interval act consisted of a ballet dance performance by dancers Solveig Østergaard, Niels Kehlet, Inge Olafsen and Mette Hønningen from the Royal Danish Ballet, choreographed by Niels Bjørn Larsen, and over the music of the "Columbine porka mazurka" and the "Champagne Galop" by Hans Christian Lumbye.

The immediate response of the Koncertsal audience to the Italian entry was markedly enthusiastic and prolonged and, most unusually for a contest performance, after leaving the stage Gigliola Cinquetti was allowed to return to take a second bow. Her performance was given an unscheduled repeat on British television the following afternoon. In the event, she won the most crushing victory in the history of the contest, with a score almost three times that of her nearest rival, a feat extremely unlikely ever to be beaten under the post-1974 scoring system.

An aftershow party was held for the participating delegations at the restaurant Ambassadeur in Copenhagen. Each of the 16 participating acts was awarded a silver trophy on this occasion.

Results of the Eurovision Song Contest 1964

R/O	Country	Artist	Song	Points	Place
1	Template:Esc	Template:Sortname	""	14	4
2	Template:Esc	Template:Sortname	""	2	10
3	Template:Esc	Template:Sortname	""	6	8
4	Template:Esc	Template:Sortname	""	4	9
5	Template:Esc	Template:Sortname	""	9	7
6	Template:Esc	Template:Sortname	""	11	6
7	Template:Esc	Rachel	""	14	4
8	Template:Esc	Template:Sortname	"I Love the Little Things"	17	2
9	Template:Esc	Template:Sortname	""	0	13
10	Template:Esc	Romuald	""	15	3
11	Template:Esc	Template:Sortname	""	0	13
12	Template:Esc	Template:Sortname	""	49	1
13	Template:Esc	Template:Sortname	""	0	13
14	Template:Esc	Template:Sortname	""	0	13
15	Template:Esc	Template:Sortname	""	2	10
16	Template:Esc	Nelly with Tim and Tony	""	1	12

Spokespersons

Each participating broadcaster appointed a spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for its respective country via telephone. Known spokespersons at the 1964 contest are listed below.

• Template:FlaguTemplate:SndTemplate:Ill

Detailed voting results

File:Anneke Grönloh 1964 Eurovision dress.jpg

Dutch contestant Anneke Grönloh's dress

Each participating broadcaster assembled a 10-member jury panel who distributed three points among their one, two, or three favourite songs. The points were totaled and the first, second, and third placed songs were awarded 5, 3, and 1 votes in order. If only one song got every point within the jury it would get all 9 points. If only two songs were chosen, the songs would get 6 and 3 points in order.

Detailed voting results

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rowspan="16" Template:Vert header	Luxembourg	14		3					3		5			3
Netherlands	2				1				1
Norway	6				5	1
Denmark	4			1													3
Finland	9			3	3				3
Austria	11												5			1	5
France	14	1					3				5	3		1			1
United Kingdom	17		1	5		3	1	1		1					5
Germany	0
Monaco	15	3						5						3	1	3
Portugal	0
Italy	49	5	5			5	5		5	3	3	5		5	3	5
Yugoslavia	0
Switzerland	0
Belgium	2										1	1
Spain	1												1

5 points

Below is a summary of all 5 points in the final:

N.	Contestant	Nation(s) giving 5 points
8	Template:Esc	Template:Esc, Template:Esc, Template:Esc, Template:Esc, Template:Esc, Template:Esc, Template:Esc, Template:Esc
2	Template:Esc	Template:Esc, Template:Esc
	Template:Esc	Template:Esc, Template:Esc
1	Template:Esc	Template:Esc
	Template:Esc	Template:Esc
	Template:Esc	Template:Esc
	Template:Esc	Template:Esc

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. No official accounts of the viewing figures are known to exist. Estimates given in the press ranged from 100 to 150 million viewers.

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

Broadcasters and commentators in participating countries

Country	Broadcaster	Channel(s)	Commentator(s)	Ref(s)
Template:Flagu	ORF	ORF	Template:N/A
Template:Flagu	RTB	RTB	Template:N/A
	BRT	BRT	Template:N/A
Template:Flagu	DR	DR TV, DR P1, DR P3	Claus Walter
Template:Flagu	YLE		Template:Ill
			Template:Ill
			Template:N/A
Template:Flagu	RTF	RTF, Inter Jeunesse	Robert Beauvais
Template:Flagu	ARD		Template:Ill
Template:Flagu	RAI		Template:Ill
Template:Flagu	CLT		Robert Beauvais
Template:Flagu			Robert Beauvais
Template:Flagu	NTS	NTS	Ageeth Scherphuis
	NRU	Hilversum 2	Template:N/A
Template:Flagu	NRK	, NRK	Odd Grythe
Template:Flagu	RTP	RTP	Template:N/A
Template:Flagu	TVE	TVE	Template:Ill
	RNE	RNETemplate:Efn	Template:N/A
Template:Flagu	SRG SSR	TV DRS	Template:N/A
		TSR	Robert Burnier
		TSI	Template:N/A
		Radio BeromünsterTemplate:Efn	Template:N/A
		Radio Sottens	Template:N/A
		Radio Monte Ceneri	Template:N/A
Template:Flagu	BBC	BBC TV	David Jacobs
Template:Flagu	JRT		Template:N/A
			Template:N/A
			Template:N/A

Broadcasters and commentators in non-participating countries

Country	Broadcaster	Channel(s)	Commentator(s)	Ref(s)
Template:Flagu	RÉ		Template:N/A
Template:Flagu	MBA	MTV	Victor Aquilina
Template:Flagu	ATM	TeleCuraçaoTemplate:Efn	Template:N/A
Template:Flagu	SR		Sven Lindahl

Lost recordings

As with the Template:Escyr, no complete video recording of the actual contest is known to have survived. Some clips of the contest have survived, including the winning announcement by Svend Pedersen, and part of Gigliola Cinquetti's reprise. For some time, there was a rumour that a copy of the entire contest existed in the French television archives. In 2021, INA confirmed to Wiwibloggs that the French television archives do not possess a video copy of the contest. However, the audio of a French radio broadcast can be found in the archives of INA.

A persistent myth, even repeated on the official Eurovision site, is that the tape was destroyed in a fire in the 1970s. In a 2019 interview, DR claimed that the broadcast was never recorded in the first place, allegedly due to no tape machines being available at the studio at the time. The audio of most of the show, however, is still available online, without the last few minutes, and short video clips and photos from various archives also remain available.

External links

• Template:Official website