Eurovision Song Contest 1973

The Eurovision Song Contest 1973 was the 18th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, held on 7 April 1973 at the in Luxembourg City, Luxembourg, and presented by Helga Guitton. It was organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster (CLT), who staged the event after winning the Template:Escyr for Template:Esccnty with the song "Après toi" by Vicky Leandros. Broadcasters from a total of eighteen countries signed up to enter the contest, with Template:Esccnty competing for the first time, while Template:Esccnty pulled out after taking part in 1972 due to disputes between the broadcaster (ORF) and Austrian record labels. However Template:Esccnty's planned participation ultimately failed to materialise, after the Maltese Broadcasting Authority (MBA) deemed the quality of the songs that it had received of too low quality, leaving seventeen countries to participate.

For the second year in a row the winner was Template:Esccnty, represented by the song "", composed by Template:Ill, with lyrics by Template:Ill, and performed by Anne-Marie David. This was Luxembourg's fourth contest victory, matching the record number of contest wins previously set by Template:Esccnty, and marked the second time that a country had won the contest two years in succession, previously set by Template:Esccnty. Template:Esccnty, the Template:Esccnty, Template:Esccnty, and Template:Esccnty rounded out the top five positions, with Israel achieving the best performance for a debut nation since Template:Escyr. With 129 votes out of a possible maximum score of 160, "" remains Template:As of the best-ever scoring song when compared to the potential maximum available, receiving 80.63% of the maximum vote.

Location

Panoramic shot of the Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg, a modernist-style building, with a pavement fountain in front

, Luxembourg City – host venue of the 1973 contest

The 1973 contest took place in Luxembourg City, Luxembourg, following the country's victory at the Template:Escyr with the song "" performed by Vicky Leandros. It was the third time that the event was hosted in Luxembourg, following the contests held in Template:Escyr and Template:Escyr.

Within days of winning the 1972 contest the Luxembourgish broadcaster (CLT) had confirmed its intent to stage the event.Template:Sfn CLT proposed the , also known as the or , an arts venue inaugurated in 1964, as the venue and suggested either 28 April or 5 May 1973 as the date of the event, the latest calendar dates proposed for the contest since its Template:Escyr in 1956. A revised date of 7 April was subsequently accepted by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), and announced during the 1972 edition of the Rose d'Or festival in Montreux, Switzerland.Template:Sfn The venue's usual capacity of 800 seats was reduced by about 100 to allow space for technical equipment.Template:Sfn

Participants

A portrait photo of Cliff Richard taken in 1973

Cliff Richard represented the Template:Esccnty for a second time, having previously placed second in Template:Escyr by a single point.

Broadcasters from a total of eighteen countries initially signed up for the 1973 event. Seventeen of the eighteen which had participated in Template:Escyr were set to returnTemplate:Sndwith Template:Esccnty being the only absenceTemplate:Sndand were joined by Template:Esccnty in its contest debut.Template:Sfn The Israel Broadcasting Authority (IBA), who was eligible to participate as a member of the EBU, became the first broadcaster to enter the contest representing a non-European country.Template:Sfn The Austrian broadcaster, (ORF), in contrast refused to send an entry, reportedly due to disputes between its head of entertainment and Austrian record labels. In October 1972 the Greek broadcaster, the National Radio Television Foundation (EIRT), also enquired about entering the contest, however this was past the EBU's cut-off date;Template:Sfn it would ultimately enter for the first time at the Template:Escyr, in what was Template:Esccnty's debut. Template:Esccnty was among the eighteen countries initially scheduled to compete, however the Maltese Broadcasting Authority (MBA) withdrew its planned participation at a late stage, considering the standard of songs that it had received to be of too low quality for the contest;Template:Sfn this left seventeen countries in the contest.

Three artists which had previously competed in the contest returned to represent their countries again: Marion Rung who had represented Template:Esccnty, Cliff Richard who had represented the Template:Esccnty, and Massimo Ranieri who had represented Template:Esccnty, appeared in the contest for the second time.Template:Sfn Additionally, Nicole and Hugo had originally been selected to represent Template:Esccnty, however the duo were replaced after Nicole had contracted jaundice;Template:Sfn among the Belgian duo's backing singers was Claude Lombard, who had represented Template:Esccnty.Template:Sfn Template:Esccnty's group had originally performed in the Swedish selection, , as Malta; however to avoid confusion with the country, the group performed at Eurovision as "the Nova".Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Monica Dominique was the first female conductor in the contest's history when she led the orchestra during the Swedish entry; she was shortly followed by the second female conductor, Nurit Hirsh for Template:Esccnty, a few songs later.Template:Sfn

Eurovision Song Contest 1973 participantsTemplate:Sfn

Country	Broadcaster	Artist	Song	Language	Songwriter(s)	Conductor
Template:Esc	BRT	Nicole and Hugo	"Baby Baby"	Dutch	Template:Hlist	Francis Bay
Template:Esc	YLE	Marion Rung	"Tom Tom Tom"	English	Template:Hlist	Ossi Runne
Template:Esc	ORTF	Martine Clémenceau	""	French	Template:Hlist	Template:Ill
Template:Esc	HRTemplate:Efn	Gitte	""	German	Template:Hlist	Günther-Eric Thöner
Template:Esc	RTÉ	Maxi	"Do I Dream"	English	Template:Hlist	Colman Pearce
Template:Esc	IBA	Ilanit	"" ()	Hebrew	Template:Hlist	Nurit Hirsh
Template:Esc	RAI	Massimo Ranieri	""	Italian	Template:Hlist	Enrico Polito
Template:Esc	CLT	Anne-Marie David	""	French	Template:Hlist	Pierre Cao
Template:Esc	TMC	Marie	""	French	Template:Hlist	Jean-Claude Vannier
Template:Esc	NOS	Ben Cramer	""	Dutch	Pierre Kartner	Harry van Hoof
Template:Esc	NRK	Bendik Singers	"It's Just a Game"	English, French	Template:Hlist	Carsten Klouman
Template:Esc	RTP	Fernando Tordo	""	Portuguese	Template:Hlist	Template:Ill
Template:Esc	TVE	Mocedades	""	Spanish	Juan Carlos Calderón	Juan Carlos Calderón
Template:Esc	SR	The Nova	"You're Summer"	English	Template:Hlist	Monica Dominique
Template:Esc	SRG SSR	Patrick Juvet	""	French	Template:Hlist	Hervé Roy
Template:Esc	BBC	Cliff Richard	"Power to All Our Friends"	English	Template:Hlist	David Mackay
Template:Esc	JRT	Zdravko Čolić	"" ()	Serbo-Croatian	Kemal Monteno	Template:Ill

Production and format

A photo of Ilanit, holding a microphone on stage in 2016

A large security operation was mobilised to protect Template:Esccnty, with the nation's artist Ilanit (pictured in 2016) rumoured to have worn a bulletproof vest during their performance.

The Eurovision Song Contest 1973 was produced by the Luxembourgish public broadcaster (CLT), with some technical assistance provided by the German public broadcaster ARD.Template:Sfn Template:Ill served as producer, René Steichen served as director, Joachim Dzierzenga served as designer, and Pierre Cao served as musical director, leading the 46-piece Radio Télé Luxembourg 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 German radio and television presenter Helga Guitton, a regular presenter on the German-language and the French-language . The preparation and production activities of the contest coincided with the introduction of colour television on in late 1972.

Each participating broadcaster submitted one song, which was required to be no longer than three minutes in duration. A maximum of six performers were allowed on stage during each country's performance. Following the confirmation of the eighteen planned participating countries, the draw to determine the running order of the contest was held on 8 January 1973 at the Villa Louvigny television studios in Luxembourg City, conducted by Jacques Harvey and Helga Guitton in the presence of Clifford Brown for the EBU and Gust Graas and Camille Ernster for CLT.Template:Sfn

The voting system used for the previous two years returned: each participating broadcaster appointed two individualsTemplate:Sndone below the age of 25, the other above, 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.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The jurors were situated within Villa Louvigny, where they followed the contest on television, and after each country had performed were required to record their votes, so that they could not be altered later. The jurors were shown on screen during the voting sequence, with the scores being announced on screen by the jurors in blocks of three countries, with the final two countries voting as a block of two;Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn the jurors were accommodated in a hotel in Mondorf-les-Bains, Template:Convert from Luxembourg City, and were forbidden from mixing with the competing delegations.Template:Sfn

Songs were permitted for the first time to be performed in any language, and not solely the official or national language or languages of the country they represented. The countries which opted to take advantage of this new-found freedom were Template:Esccnty and Template:Esccnty, who sang in English, and Template:Esccnty, whose song was primarily in English and French but also featured lyrics in multiple other European languages.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn This edition was the first to feature pre-recorded backing tracks, which could be used either with or without supplementation by the orchestra; any backing tracks were however required to include only the sound of instruments featured on stage being mimed by the performers. The first entry to take advantage of this rule change was that of the Template:Esccnty.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Rehearsals for the participating artists began on 4 April 1973, with each delegation receiving a 45-minute slot on stage. The order in which the countries rehearsed was determined by how close they were to Luxembourg: the first day of rehearsals featured Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Switzerland; the second day, 5 April, saw the delegations from Monaco, Italy, Ireland, Spain, Yugoslavia, and Portugal take to the stage (had Malta competed as planned, its delegation would have rehearsed after Portugal); the remaining four countries, Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Israel, had their rehearsals on 6 April. This was followed by rehearsals of the interval act and presenter in the contest venue, and the juries in the television studio. A full dress rehearsal was then held on the evening of 6 April. Technical rehearsals and further rehearsals for the juries were held in the morning of 7 April, followed by another full dress rehearsal in the afternoon ahead of the live transmission.Template:Sfn

With Template:Esccnty participating for the first time, and with the contest being held only months after an attack on the Israeli team at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany, Luxembourg mounted extensive security arrangements for the contest: the was sealed off for the duration of the contest's preparation, and when not required at the contest venue the Israeli delegation were isolated on the top floor of the Holiday Inn protected by armed guards.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Audience members were instructed not to stand up during the contest itself at the risk of being shot by armed security within the venue, while Israeli entrant Ilanit was rumoured to have worn a bulletproof vest underneath her outfit during her performance.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Additional security was also posted at the Villa Louvigny, where the various commentators were situated during the contest, in particular to protect the UK delegation from potential attack by Irish republican paramilitaries.

Contest overview

A black-and-white photo of the original six-piece line-up of Mocedades taken in 1973

The Spanish group Mocedades went on to achieve global success with their Eurovision entry "", one of only a handful of non-English songs to chart within the top 10 of the United States' Billboard Hot 100.

The contest was held on 7 April 1973, beginning at 21:30 (CET) and lasting 1 hour and 40 minutes.Template:Sfn Prior to its withdrawal, Malta was scheduled to perform in sixth position, between the entries from Template:Esccnty and Template:Esccnty. In attendance for the contest were Princess Marie-Astrid, Princess Margaretha and Prince Jean of the grand ducal family of Luxembourg.

The interval act was a performance by the Spanish clown Charlie Rivel, introduced by Guitton as "", who performed a comedic routine in drag as an operatic prima donna.Template:Sfn It was the first occurrence of a drag performance at the Eurovision Song Contest, predating the first appearance of drag artists in a competing entry by thirteen years, and the first drag act to compete as the main performers for a country by twenty-nine years. The prize for the winning artist and songwriters was presented by the previous year's winning artist Vicky Leandros.Template:Sfn

The winner was Template:Esccnty represented by the song "", composed by Template:Ill, written by Template:Ill and performed by the French singer Anne-Marie David. It was Luxembourg's fourth contest victory, following wins in Template:Esccnty, Template:Esccnty and 1972, becoming the first to achieve two outright wins in a row, and the second country to win twice in a row after Template:Esccnty, which had achieved back-to-back wins in Template:Esccnty and Template:Esccnty, the latter of which as part of a four-way tie.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn With four wins David's victory also brought Luxembourg level for most wins overall, tied with Template:Esccnty who held three outright wins in Template:Esccnty, Template:Esccnty, and Template:Esccnty and one shared win in Template:Esccnty.Template:Sfn Template:Esccnty and the Template:Esccnty finished in second and third, respectively, with the top three separated by only six votes. Template:Esccnty placed fourth, the best result for a debuting entry since Template:Esccnty,Template:Sfn and Template:Esccnty placed fifth, despite some consternation over the lyrics of its entry, with one line in particular gaining much attention: "Oh your breasts are like swallows a-nestling".Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Template:Esccnty also achieved its best-ever result to that point, with a sixth-place finish. In addition to the traditional full reprise of the winning song by Anne-Marie David, a shorter version of the song was also performed by her during the closing credits.Template:Sfn

Following the contest, the Spanish entry "", written by Juan Carlos Calderón and performed by the group Mocedades, went on to achieve global success, charting within the top 10 on the US Billboard Hot 100 in 1974, one of only a handful of non-English-language songs to have achieved this feat. "" was subsequently 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 fourteen entries chosen to compete, "" ultimately finished in eleventh place.

Results of the Eurovision Song Contest 1973Template:Sfn

R/O	Country	Artist	Song	Votes	Place
1	Template:Esc	Template:Sortname	"Tom Tom Tom"	93	6
2	Template:Esc	Nicole and Hugo	"Baby Baby"	58	17
3	Template:Esc	Template:Sortname	""	80	10
4	Template:Esc	Gitte	""	85	8
5	Template:Esc	Bendik Singers	"It's Just a Game"	89	7
6	Template:Esc	Marie	""	85	8
7	Template:Esc	Mocedades	""	125	2
8	Template:Esc	Template:Sortname	""	79	12
9	Template:Esc	Template:Sortname	""	65	15
10	Template:Esc	Template:Sortname	""	74	13
11	Template:Esc	Template:Sortname	""	129	1
12	Template:Esc	Template:Sortname	"You're Summer"	94	5
13	Template:Esc	Template:Sortname	""	69	14
14	Template:Esc	Maxi	"Do I Dream"	80	10
15	Template:Esc	Template:Sortname	"Power to All Our Friends"	123	3
16	Template:Esc	Template:Sortname	""	65	15
17	Template:Esc	Ilanit	""	97	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 seventeen 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 Finnish, Belgian and Portuguese juries were revealed together, which were announced as 14 votes for Finland, 9 votes for Belgium, and so on until Israel received the final scores from these three countries, with 17 votes; this was then followed by the votes from the German, Norwegian and Monegasque jurors, which awarded their scores starting again for Finland and ending with Israel, with further countries voting in groups of three in the same manner, with the final group of two comprising the French and Israeli jurors.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.

With 129 votes "" is the highest-scoring song under the voting system used between 1971 and 1973; additionally, with 80.63% of the maximum votes available, this win represents, Template:As of, the most successful score for any winning entry when compared to the potential maximum score on offer.Template:Sfn

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
rowspan="17" Template:Vert header	Finland	93		9	5	6	6	5	6	6	7	2	6	7	5	5	9	4	5
Belgium	58	4		3	4	3	6	6	4	4	2	4	2	3	4	5	2	2
Portugal	80	4	6		5	5	4	8	8	6	3	4	2	5	4	5	6	5
Germany	85	2	5	6		4	5	9	7	4	3	7	6	5	6	5	7	4
Norway	89	8	5	5	6		7	6	7	6	5	7	3	3	3	3	6	9
Monaco	85	6	3	2	4	3		6	5	9	8	6	4	5	6	9	5	4
Spain	125	3	8	9	9	4	9		8	9	10	8	7	10	10	4	9	8
Switzerland	79	4	3	3	4	7	5	7		6	4	6	3	8	7	7	2	3
Yugoslavia	65	5	3	3	4	2	5	8	6		2	4	2	4	5	4	4	4
Italy	74	2	5	3	5	5	5	5	7	5		5	5	4	4	5	5	4
Luxembourg	129	6	6	8	7	8	7	6	10	9	9		8	9	8	10	10	8
Sweden	94	8	4	4	5	8	5	7	9	6	5	6		6	5	7	4	5
Netherlands	69	4	4	2	5	5	4	5	5	5	4	7	3		5	3	6	2
Ireland	80	3	7	2	4	6	6	7	5	5	5	6	5	6		5	4	4
United Kingdom	123	9	6	6	7	7	8	4	8	8	5	10	9	10	9		8	9
France	65	4	3	2	4	4	5	5	4	7	2	3	5	5	5	5		2
Israel	97	6	6	5	7	5	7	4	6	7	7	8	6	6	7	5	5

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 and Spain each received the maximum score of 10 votes from three of the voting countries, and the United Kingdom received two sets of 10 votes.

Distribution of 10 votes awarded at the Eurovision Song Contest 1973

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

In addition to the participating nations, the contest was also reportedly aired, live or deferred, by broadcasters in Algeria, Austria, Greece, Iceland, Malta, Morocco, Tunisia, and Turkey, in Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania and the Soviet Union via Intervision, and in the Middle East and Japan, with an estimated global audience of 400 million.Template:Sfn 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	BRT	BRT, BRT 1	Template:N/A
	RTB	RTB	Paule Herreman
		RTB 1	Template:N/A
Template:Flagu	YLE	TV1	Template:N/A
			Template:Ill
			Template:N/A
Template:Flagu	ORTF		Pierre Tchernia
Template:Flagu	ARD		Template:N/A
Template:Flagu	RTÉ	RTÉ	Mike Murphy
		RTÉ Radio	Liam Devally
Template:Flagu	IBA	Israeli Television	Template:N/A
Template:Flagu	RAI		Template:Ill
Template:Flagu	CLT		Template:N/A
		Template:Ill	Raym
		Radio Luxembourg	Template:N/A
Template:Flagu	NOS		Pim Jacobs
Template:Flagu	NRK	, NRKTemplate:Efn	John Andreassen
Template:Flagu	RTP		Artur Agostinho
Template:Flagu	TVE	TVE 1	Template:Ill
	RNE		Template:N/A
		Centro Emisor del Atlántico	Template:N/A
		Template:Ill	Template:N/A
	Template:Efn		Template:N/A
Template:Flagu	SR	TV1	Template:Ill
		SR P3	Template:Ill
Template:Flagu	SRG SSR	TV DRS	Template:Ill
		TSR	Template:Ill
		TSI	Template:N/A
		DRS 1Template:Efn	Template:N/A
		RSR 1	Robert Burnier
		Radio Monte Ceneri	Template:N/A
Template:Flagu	BBC	BBC1	Terry Wogan
		BBC Radio 2Template:Efn	Pete Murray
	BFBS	BFBS Radio	Richard Astbury	Template:Sfn
Template:Flagu	JRT		Template:N/A
		TV Koper-Capodistria	Template:N/A
		TV Ljubljana 1	Template:N/A
		TV SkopjeTemplate:Efn	Template:N/A
		TV Zagreb 1	Template:N/A

Broadcasters and commentators in non-participating countries

Country	Broadcaster	Channel(s)	Commentator(s)	Ref(s)
Template:Flagu	ORF	FS2	Ernst Grissemann
Template:Flagu	ČST	Template:Ill	J. Šrámek
Template:Flagu	EIRT	EIRT	Template:N/A
Template:Flagu	MTV	MTVTemplate:Efn	Template:N/A
Template:Flagu	RÚV	Template:Efn	Jón O. Edwald
Template:Flagu	MBA	MTS, National Network	Victor Aquilina
Template:Flagu	ATM	TeleCuraçaoTemplate:Efn	Template:N/A
Template:Flagu	TVR	Template:Efn	Template:N/A
Template:Flagu	TRT		Template:N/A

External links

• Template:Official website