Festival of British Popular Songs 1956
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Festival of British Popular Songs 1956 was a song contest organised by BBC Television and the inaugural edition of the Festival of British Popular Songs, which became the United Kingdom's national selection process the following year for the 1957 Eurovision Song Contest. Held from May to October,[1] the contest featured 36 songs performed twice through 6 heats. The contest was made to promote British music, as an answer to claims that the BBC favoured American music.[2]
Festival of British Popular Songs 1956 | |
---|---|
Dates | |
Final | 22 October 1956 |
Host | |
Venue | King's Theatre, Hammersmith, London |
Presenter(s) | Wilfrid Thomas |
Executive producer | Francis Essex |
Host broadcaster | BBC Television |
Participants | |
Number of entries | 36 |
Vote | |
Winning song | "Everybody Falls in Love With Someone" by Peter Hart and Norman Newell |
Festival of British Popular Songs |
The eventual winner was "Everybody Falls in Love With Someone", written and composed by Peter Hart and Norman Newell. Though not recorded by any of its performers at the contest, the winning song went on to be recorded by Matt Monro[3] and Dickie Henderson.[4] The contest is notable for inspiring changes in the Eurovision Song Contest, most notably introducing a scoreboard to the voting sequence.[5]