Eurovision Song Contest 1972

The Eurovision Song Contest 1972 was the 17th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, held on 25 March 1972 at the Usher Hall in Edinburgh, United Kingdom, and presented by Moira Shearer. It was organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), who staged the event after (TMC), which had won the Template:Escyr for Template:Esccnty, declined hosting responsibilities, citing the lack of a suitable venue, technical limitations, and related costs. As the Spanish and German broadcasters, which had placed second and third in 1971 respectively, also declined the offer to host, the BBC stepped in to stage the 1972 contest after no other offers were received. It was the first, and Template:As of only, edition of the contest to take place in Scotland. Broadcasters from a total of eighteen countriesTemplate:Sndthe same line-up as had competed the previous yearTemplate:Sndparticipated.

The winner was Template:Esccnty, represented by the song "", composed by Template:Ill and Leo Leandros under the pseudonym Mario Panas, written by Leandros and Template:Ill, and performed by Vicky Leandros. It was Luxembourg's third contest victory, following wins in Template:Escyr and Template:Escyr. The Template:Esccnty, Template:Esccnty, the Template:Esccnty and Template:Esccnty rounded out the top five positions, with the UK achieving its eighth runner-up position and Germany placing third for the third year in succession. Template:Esccnty achieved its best result to date, with a seventh-place finish, while Template:Esccnty placed last for the second year in a row.

Location

A modern photo of the exterior of the Usher Hall on a bright sunny day

The Usher Hall, Edinburgh – host venue of the 1972 contest

The 1972 contest was held in Edinburgh, United Kingdom. It was the fourth time that the contest was hosted in the UK, following the Template:Escyr, Template:Escyr, and Template:Escyr editions. It was the first contest held in the UK to be staged outside of London, and the first, and Template:As of only, contest to be held in Scotland, as well as the only contest held in the UK to be staged outside of England. The selected venue was the Usher Hall, a concert hall opened in 1914 and named after Andrew Usher, a whisky distiller who donated to the city specifically to fund a new concert venue.Template:Sfn Around 1,500 people were present in the audience during the contest.Template:Sfn

Host selection

The Template:Escyr was won by Template:Esccnty, represented by (TMC), with the song "" performed by Séverine, which according to Eurovision tradition made TMC the presumptive host of the 1972 contest. This was the first time that Monaco had won the contest and following its win the Monégasque broadcaster initially announced its intention to stage the event in 1972, which would have been the first time the contest was staged in the principality. As Monaco had no suitable television studio or contest venue large enough to stage the event, TMC proposed hosting the contest at an outdoor location in June 1972; an indoor venue was also reportedly already under construction, which TMC had hoped to get accelerated in time to host the contest.Template:Sfn

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) held parallel discussions with other member broadcasters to determine other suitable options in other countries; those of Template:Esccnty and Template:Esccnty, which had placed second and third in 1972, had let the EBU know that they would decline the offer to stage the event if asked, with (TVE) having held the contest only two years prior in Template:Escyr, and ARD believing that hosting both the song contest and leading broadcast responsibilities for the upcoming Olympic Games in Munich would be too much for the broadcaster in one year.Template:Sfn The BBC had also suggested that France's (ORTF) could take on the contest, given the French had lost out on staging the Template:Escyr to the Netherlands following a draw between them and Dutch (NTS) following the Template:Escyr.Template:Sfn The EBU subsequently declared that the contest had to be held in either March or April, precluding TMC's outdoor option, and by July 1971 citing the lack of a suitable venue, as well as technical limitations at the broadcaster and the costs of staging the event, TMC declared they would be unable to stage the event.Template:Sfn At this stage no firm offers to stage the contest had been received by the EBU from other member broadcasters, leading to the organisation to "call loudly" for volunteers, and it looked quite possible that the contest could be cancelled if no offers were to materialise.Template:Sfn The BBC ultimately put in an offer to stage the event, with Edinburgh and Blackpool considered as potential host cities,Template:Sfn and on 20 September 1971 it was publicly announced by Bill Cotton, the BBC's head of light entertainment, that the contest would be staged in the UK by the BBC if no other offers were received. On 19 October the Usher Hall in Edinburgh was confirmed publicly as the contest venue, with 25 March solidified as the date of the event; in his announcement, Cotton expressed a desire for the first time to bring a UK-held contest outside of London, which had been the host city on all three occasions that the event had been held in the UK.

Participants

A black-and-white photograph of the 1972 line-up of the New Seekers performing on a television studio set

The New Seekers, the first group to represent the Template:Esccnty, had previously achieved massive worldwide success, including with the song "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing (In Perfect Harmony)".

The same eighteen countries which had participated in 1971 returned for the 1972 contest.Template:Sfn

Several of the performing artists had participated in previous editions of the Eurovision Song Contest. Greek singer Vicky Leandros representing Template:Esccnty, had previously represented the nation Template:Esccnty; Carlos Mendes had represented Template:Esccnty; the Family Four, who had represented Template:Esccnty, returned for a second consecutive year; and Tereza Kesovija representing Template:Esccnty, had previously represented Template:Esccnty.Template:Sfn Additionally, Claude Lombard, who had represented Template:Esccnty, returned as a backing singer for the Belgian entry at this year's event. Template:Esccnty was the first, and Template:As of only, song in the contest's history to have been performed in the Irish language.Template:Sfn

Eurovision Song Contest 1972 participantsTemplate:Sfn

Country	Broadcaster	Artist	Song	Language	Songwriter(s)	Conductor
Template:Esc	ORF	The Milestones	""	German	Template:Hlist	Erich Kleinschuster
Template:Esc	RTB	Template:Ill	""	French	Template:Hlist	Template:Ill
Template:Esc	YLE	Päivi Paunu and Kim Floor	""	Finnish	Template:Hlist	Ossi Runne
Template:Esc	ORTF	Betty Mars	""	French	Frédéric Botton	Franck Pourcel
Template:Esc	SFBTemplate:Efn	Mary Roos	""	German	Template:Hlist	Paul Kuhn
Template:Esc	RTÉ	Sandie Jones	""	Irish	Template:Hlist	Colman Pearce
Template:Esc	RAI	Nicola Di Bari	""	Italian	Template:Hlist	Gian Franco Reverberi
Template:Esc	CLT	Vicky Leandros	""	French	Template:Hlist	Klaus Munro
Template:Esc	MBA	Helen and Joseph	""	Maltese	Template:Hlist	Charles Camilleri
Template:Esc	TMC	Template:Ill and Template:Ill	""	French	Template:Hlist	Raymond Bernard
Template:Esc	NOS	Sandra and Andres	""	Dutch	Template:Hlist	Harry van Hoof
Template:Esc	NRK	Grethe Kausland and Benny Borg	""	Norwegian	Template:Hlist	Carsten Klouman
Template:Esc	RTP	Carlos Mendes	""	Portuguese	Template:Hlist	Richard Hill
Template:Esc	TVE	Jaime Morey	""	Spanish	Template:Hlist	Augusto Algueró
Template:Esc	SR	The Family Four	""	Swedish	Template:Ill	Mats Olsson
Template:Esc	SRG SSR	Véronique Müller	""	French	Template:Hlist	Jean-Pierre Festi
Template:Esc	BBC	The New Seekers	"Beg, Steal or Borrow"	English	Template:Hlist	David Mackay
Template:Esc	JRT	Tereza	"" ()	Serbo-Croatian	Template:Hlist	Nikica Kalogjera

Production and format

The Eurovision Song Contest 1972 was produced by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).Template:Sfn Bill Cotton served as executive producer, Terry Hughes served as producer and director, Brian Tregidden served as designer, and Malcolm Lockyer served as musical director, leading the 44-piece BBC Radio Orchestra.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn A separate musical director could be nominated by each participating delegation to lead the orchestra during its country's performance, with the host musical director also available to conduct for those countries which did not nominate their own conductor.Template:Sfn On behalf of the EBU, the event was overseen by Clifford Brown as scrutineer.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The contest was presented by the Scottish ballet dancer and actor Moira Shearer.Template:Sfn

Each participating broadcaster submitted one song, which was required to be no longer than three minutes in duration and performed in the language, or one of the languages, of the country which it represented. A maximum of six performers were allowed on stage during each country's performance.

The voting system introduced at the previous year's contest returned: each participating broadcaster appointed two individualsTemplate:Sndone aged between 16 and 25, the other between 26 and 55, and with at least 10 years between their agesTemplate:Sndwho awarded each song a score between one and five votes, except for the song from their own country. For this year's edition the jurors were kept in a separate location during the contest, and were based within the Great Hall of Edinburgh Castle where they followed the contest on television. After each country had performed they were required to record their votes, so that they could not be altered later, and during the voting sequence were shown on screen, with the scores being announced by the jurors themselves in blocks of three countries.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The voting sequence was projected in black-and-white onto an Eidophor screen in the Usher Hall for the benefit of the audience;Template:Sfn this screen was also used during the contest itself to introduce the artists and song titles, and was the first time that video wall technology was introduced to the contest.

Rehearsals in the contest venue began on 21 March with presenter Moira Shearer.Template:Sfn The competing delegations took part rehearsals beginning on 22 March, with each country having an initial 50-minute slot with the orchestra in casual dress.Template:Sfn Countries took to the stage in the order in which they would perform during the contest over two days, with the first eight rehearsing on 22 March and the remaining ten rehearsing on 23 March; the only exceptions were France and Belgium, who swapped their slots, with Belgium as the second country on stage on 22 March and France the third-last to rehearse on 23 March. A second round of rehearsals was held on 24 March, with each country getting a 20-minute slot, performing in their show outfits and taking to the stage in full performance order. At the same time the jurors were assembled in Edinburgh Castle for a run-through of the voting procedure and to conduct test voting sequences. In the evening of 24 March a full dress rehearsal of the contest was held, including a test voting sequence. Further technical checks and rehearsals with Shearer and the scoreboard were held on the morning of the final, followed by another full dress rehearsal in the afternoon before the live transmission that evening.Template:Sfn

Contest overview

A photograph of Vicky Leandros performing on stage in 2018.

The Greek-born singer Vicky Leandros (pictured in 2018) became the third artist to win the contest for Template:Esccnty.

The contest was held on 25 March 1972, beginning at 21:30 (BST) and lasting 1 hour and 45 minutes.Template:Sfn Following the confirmation of the eighteen participating countries, the draw to determine the running order (R/O) of the contest was held on 1 December 1971 in London,Template:Sfn and announced by the BBC at the end of December 1971.

Following an introduction pre-recorded video montage of various Edinburgh locations, Moira Shearer was played onto the stage by a fanfare composed by the contest's musical director Malcolm Lockyer; this same fanfare had previously been used in the opening title music of the film Dr. Who and the Daleks, for which Lockyer had provided the score.Template:Sfn The interval entertainment between the competing songs and the voting segment was a 4-minute segment with pre-recorded footage taken from the 1968 Edinburgh Military Tattoo, featuring the massed pipes and drums of eight Scottish regiments marching to "The Inverness Gathering".Template:Sfn The prize for the winning artist and songwriters was presented by the previous year's winning artist Séverine;Template:Sfn before the Monégasque entry a planned camera cut showed Séverine sitting in the audience, however this shot would become somewhat infamous after she was seen glancing down at her watch in apparent boredom.Template:Sfn

The winner was Template:Esccnty represented by the song "", composed by Template:Ill and Leo Leandros under the pseudonym Mario Panas, with lyrics by Leandros and Template:Ill, and performed by the Greek singer Vicky Leandros. It was Luxembourg's third contest victory, following wins in Template:Esccnty and Template:Esccnty. Dessca had also provided the lyrics to the previous year's winning song "" for Monaco and thus became the first person to win back-to-back contests and to win for multiple countries. Vicky Leandros had previously represented Template:Esccnty, where she had performed mononymously and placed fourth with the song ""; this song went on to become a massive global hit after the contest, particularly following the release of an instrumental version by Paul Mauriat released as "Love Is Blue" which topped the US Billboard Hot 100 in 1968. The Template:Esccnty finished in second place for a record-extending eighth time, while Template:Esccnty placed third for the third year in succession. Further down the scoreboard Template:Esccnty in seventh achieved its best-ever result up to that point, while Template:Esccnty finished in last place for the second year in a row.Template:Sfn

Two separate disturbances were reported to have occurred on the evening of the event. Before the contest began, a local headmaster began shouting towards the stage at a BBC producer who was welcoming the audience, complaining that local schoolchildren were unable to attend the event and that they would have appreciated it more than the largely invited audience members. Later on, during the Irish and Spanish songs, another man was seen scattering a substance among the audience close to the Irish delegation, which led to small explosions; this was reported to have been a protest against the commercialisation of the music industry, and led to a partial evacuation of the venue by police and military for a short time.

Results of the Eurovision Song Contest 1972

R/O	Country	Artist	Song	Votes	Place
1	Template:Esc	Template:Sortname	""	107	3
2	Template:Esc	Template:Sortname	""	81	11
3	Template:Esc	Template:Sortname	""	72	15
4	Template:Esc	Template:Sortname	""	83	10
5	Template:Esc	Template:Sortname	"Beg, Steal or Borrow"	114	2
6	Template:Esc	Template:Sortname and Benny Borg	""	73	14
7	Template:Esc	Template:Sortname	""	90	7
8	Template:Esc	Template:Sortname	""	88	8
9	Template:Esc	Helen and Joseph	""	48	18
10	Template:Esc	Template:Sortname and Kim Floor	""	78	12
11	Template:Esc	Template:Sortname	""	100	5
12	Template:Esc	Template:Sortname	""	92	6
13	Template:Esc	Tereza	""	87	9
14	Template:Esc	Template:Sortname	""	75	13
15	Template:Esc	Template:Sortname and Peter MacLane	""	65	16
16	Template:Esc	Template:Sortname	""	55	17
17	Template:Esc	Template:Sortname	""	128	1
18	Template:Esc	Sandra and Andres	""	106	4

Detailed voting results

Jury voting was used to determine the votes awarded by all countries.Template:Sfn The announcement of the results from each country's two jury members was conducted in the order in which their nation performed; the jurors were shown on camera when presenting their scores, with each juror using small boards in front of their desks with numbers 1 to 5 which they flipped up to reveal their votes for the country being awarded. The results of three countries at a time were totalled and presented as one score, with all eighteen countries receiving their scores before moving on to the next three countries to award their scores: e.g. in the first round of voting the scores of the German, French and Irish juries were revealed together, which were announced as 14 votes for Germany, 10 votes for France, and so on until the Netherlands received the final scores from these three countries, with 20 votes; this was then followed by the votes from the Spanish, UK and Norwegian jurors, which awarded their scores starting again for Germany and ending with the Netherlands, with further countries voting in groups of three in the same manner.Template:Sfn The detailed breakdown of the votes awarded by each country is listed in the tables below, with voting countries listed in the order in which they presented their votes.

Detailed voting results

		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	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="18" Template:Vert header	Germany	107		8	6	9	5	6	6	5	4	5	5	7	5	8	8	7	7	6
France	81	5		5	2	9	7	2	3	5	4	2	3	5	2	6	7	8	6
Ireland	72	4	3		4	4	6	4	3	6	3	4	3	3	5	5	4	6	5
Spain	83	7	5	5		3	8	6	3	4	4	5	3	2	7	8	3	5	5
United Kingdom	114	8	9	6	2		10	4	8	2	7	7	7	9	6	9	4	8	8
Norway	73	4	3	6	5	4		5	2	5	7	3	2	5	4	4	4	6	4
Portugal	90	3	4	7	7	4	2		6	5	2	4	9	4	7	4	7	10	5
Switzerland	88	4	5	6	5	4	7	2		4	7	8	5	5	4	6	4	7	5
Malta	48	3	2	4	2	6	2	2	2		5	2	2	2	3	3	2	2	4
Finland	78	4	3	3	6	5	6	4	3	3		3	3	4	4	5	8	6	8
Austria	100	6	6	6	6	3	5	5	7	5	4		6	8	10	5	4	5	9
Italy	92	4	5	3	2	3	6	7	9	6	6	6		4	8	6	6	6	5
Yugoslavia	87	7	4	5	8	5	4	5	2	4	3	3	2		4	9	8	8	6
Sweden	75	5	3	5	3	3	5	4	2	4	5	4	3	7		5	7	5	5
Monaco	65	4	3	4	3	5	6	2	2	5	5	3	3	4	3		4	4	5
Belgium	55	2	3	4	2	5	2	3	3	5	4	2	3	2	2	4		6	3
Luxembourg	128	9	8	9	2	10	8	7	6	4	6	8	9	10	8	7	8		9
Netherlands	106	6	6	8	8	9	8	5	6	3	9	6	3	9	6	5	2	7

10 votes

The below table summarises where the potential maximum of 10 votes were awarded from one country to another. The winning country is shown in bold. Luxembourg received the maximum score of 10 votes from two of the voting countries, and Austria, Portugal and the United Kingdom received one set of 10 votes each.

Distribution of 10 votes awarded at the Eurovision Song Contest 1972

N.	Contestant	Nation(s) giving 10 votes
2	Template:Esc	Template:Esc, Template:Esc
1	Template:Esc	Template:Esc
	Template:Esc	Template:Esc
	Template:Esc	Template:Esc

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.

The 1972 contest was the first to be broadcast in Asia, with the contest reportedly bought for transmission by broadcasters in Hong Kong, Japan, the Philippines, Taiwan and Thailand. A global audience of 400 million was expected, and in addition to the participating countries and the previously mentioned Asian nations the contest was also reportedly broadcast by EBU member broadcasters in Iceland, Israel, Morocco and Tunisia, by OIRT member broadcasters in Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland and Romania via Intervision, and in Brazil, Chile and Zaire. 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	FS2	Ernst Grissemann
Template:Flagu	RTB	RTB	Paule Herreman
		RTB 1	Template:N/A
	BRT	BRT	Template:N/A
Template:Flagu	YLE		Template:N/A
			Template:Ill
			Template:Ill
Template:Flagu	ORTF		Pierre Tchernia
Template:Flagu	ARD		Template:Ill
Template:Flagu	RTÉ	RTÉ	Mike Murphy
		RTÉ Radio	Liam Devally and Kevin Roche
Template:Flagu	RAI	,	Template:Ill
Template:Flagu	CLT		Jacques Navadic
Template:Flagu	MBA	MTS, National Network	Norman Hamilton
Template:Flagu	NOS		Pim Jacobs
Template:Flagu	NRK	, NRKTemplate:Efn	Roald Øyen
Template:Flagu	RTP		Template:N/A
Template:Flagu	TVE	TVE 1	Julio Rico
	RNE		Template:N/A
		Centro Emisor del Atlántico	Template:N/A
	Template:Efn		Template:N/A
Template:Flagu	SR	TV1	Template:Ill	Template:Sfn
		SR P3	Björn Bjelfvenstam
Template:Flagu	SRG SSR	TV DRS	Template:Ill
		TSR	Template:Ill
		TSI	Template:N/A
		DRS 1Template:Efn	Template:N/A
		RSR 2	Robert Burnier
Template:Flagu	BBC	BBC1	Tom Fleming
		BBC Radio 2Template:Efn	Pete Murray
	BFBS	BFBS RadioTemplate:Efn	Terry James	Template:Sfn
Template:Flagu	JRT	, TV Zagreb 1	Oliver Mlakar
		TV Koper-Capodistria	Template:N/A
		TV Ljubljana 1	Template:N/A

Broadcasters and commentators in non-participating countries

Country	Broadcaster	Channel(s)	Commentator(s)	Ref(s)
Template:Flagu	Rede Tupi	TV Tupi Rio de Janeiro	rowspan="2" Template:N/A
		TV Paraná
Template:Flagu	ČST	Template:Ill, Template:IllTemplate:Efn	Blažena Kočtúchová
Template:Flagu	EIRT	EIRT	Template:N/A
Template:Flagu	MTV	MTVTemplate:Efn	Template:N/A
Template:Flagu	RÚV	Template:Efn	Björn Matthíasson
Template:Flagu	TVR	Template:Efn	Template:N/A

External links

• Template:Official website