The Eurovision Song Contest 1961 was the 6th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. Once again, the contest was held in the French seaside city of Cannes, which had also hosted the 1959 edition. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française (RTF), the contest was again held at the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès on Saturday 18 March 1961, becoming the first contest to take place on a Saturday evening, a tradition that has continued ever since (with the exception of 1962). The show was directed by Marcel Cravenne [fr] and again hosted by Jacqueline Joubert, who had also hosted in 1959.[1]

Quick Facts Dates, Final ...
Eurovision Song Contest 1961
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Dates
Final18 March 1961
Host
VenuePalais des Festivals et des Congrès
Cannes, France
Presenter(s)Jacqueline Joubert
Musical directorFranck Pourcel
Directed byMaurice Barry
Executive producerMarcel Cravenne
Host broadcasterRadiodiffusion-Télévision Française (RTF)
Websiteeurovision.tv/event/cannes-1961 Edit this at Wikidata
Participants
Number of entries16
Debuting countries
Non-returning countriesNone
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         Participating countries
Vote
Voting systemTen-member juries distributed 10 points among their favourite songs.
Winning song Luxembourg
"Nous les amoureux"
1960 Eurovision Song Contest 1962
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Sixteen countries participated in the contest - three more than in the previous edition; Finland, Spain and Yugoslavia all competed for the first time this year.

The winner was Luxembourg with the song "Nous les amoureux", performed by Jean-Claude Pascal, written by Maurice Vidalin, and composed by Jacques Datin, with the United Kingdom finishing in second place for the third consecutive year.

Location

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Palais des Festivals et des Congrès, Cannes – host venue of the 1961 contest

The event took place in Cannes, France, following the nation's victory at the 1960 edition with the song "Tom Pillibi", performed by Jacqueline Boyer. The selected venue was the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès, built in 1949 to host the Cannes Film Festival and located on the Promenade de la Croisette along the shore of the Mediterranean Sea.[2][3] 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 Palais Croisette and subsequently demolished in 1988.[4] It also hosted the 1959 edition of the Eurovision Song Contest.[2]

Participating countries

Quick Facts – Participation summaries by country ...
Eurovision Song Contest 1961  Participation summaries by country
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Interest in the competition began to grow across Europe as three new countries participated for the first time: Finland, Spain, and Yugoslavia.[5]

Both Belgium's Bob Benny and Norway's Nora Brockstedt made their second appearances at the contest; Benny had previously represented Belgium in the 1959 contest with the song "Hou toch van mij", while Brockstedt represented Norway for the second consecutive year, having performed "Voi Voi" the previous year.[2]

More information Country, Broadcaster ...
Participants of the Eurovision Song Contest 1961[2][6][7][8]
Country Broadcaster Artist Song Language(s) Songwriter(s) Conductor
 Austria ORF Jimmy Makulis "Sehnsucht" German Leopold Andrejewitsch Franck Pourcel
 Belgium BRT Bob Benny "September, gouden roos" Dutch
  • Wim Brabants
  • Hans Flower
Francis Bay
 Denmark DR Dario Campeotto "Angelique" Danish Aksel V. Rasmussen Kai Mortensen
 Finland YLE Laila Kinnunen "Valoa ikkunassa" Finnish
  • Eino Hurme
  • Sauvo Puhtila
George de Godzinsky
 France RTF Jean-Paul Mauric "Printemps (avril carillonne)" French
  • Francis Baxter
  • Guy Favereau
Franck Pourcel
 Germany HR[a] Lale Andersen "Einmal sehen wir uns wieder" German, French
Franck Pourcel
 Italy RAI Betty Curtis "Al di là" Italian Gianfranco Intra
 Luxembourg CLT Jean-Claude Pascal "Nous les amoureux" French
Léo Chauliac
 Monaco TMC Colette Deréal "Allons, allons les enfants" French Raymond Lefèvre
 Netherlands NTS Greetje Kauffeld "Wat een dag" Dutch
Dolf van der Linden
 Norway NRK Nora Brockstedt "Sommer i Palma" Norwegian
Øivind Bergh
 Spain TVE Conchita Bautista "Estando contigo" Spanish
Rafael Ferrer
 Sweden SR Lill-Babs "April, april" Swedish
  • Bo Eneby
  • Bobbie Ericsson
William Lind
  Switzerland SRG SSR Franca di Rienzo "Nous aurons demain" French Fernando Paggi
 United Kingdom BBC The Allisons "Are You Sure?" English
  • John Alford
  • Bob Day
Harry Robinson
 Yugoslavia JRT Ljiljana Petrović "Neke davne zvezde" (Неке давне звезде) Serbo-Croatian Jože Privšek
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Production

Marcel Cravenne [fr] directed the show, the director of photography was Maurice Barry [fr].[10] Roger Valat served as technical director.[11] Six TV cameras were used, including one showing the Mediterranean sea and the outside of the venue during the first seconds of the show.[10]

Like in 1959, the stage was designed by Gérard Dubois.[1][12] It was notably larger than in previous years and featured a central staircase decorated with flowers, leading up to a terrace flanked by trees, so that the entire stage gave the impression of a Mediterranean garden.[10] Dubois first made a scale model of the stage in Paris, then went to Cannes and chose the trees together with André Racot, head of the Cannes municipal gardens,[13] paying attention that the trees were not too dark-colored for the TV cameras.[10] The flower pots were then added on the day of the show so that they were fresh and unaltered by unsuitable temperature and light conditions.[10]

Format

Initial plans foresaw that the greenroom was part of the stage so that artists stayed on the stage after having performed.[10] However, this idea finally was not realised in the live show.[14]

The draw to determine the running order took place on 16 March 1961 at the Carlton Hotel in Cannes.[11] It was presented by Jacqueline Joubert, assisted by two children aged six and four.[11]

Rehearsals started on 16 March 1961.[11]

Contest overview

The contest was held on 18 March 1961, beginning at 22:00 (CET) and lasted 1 hour and 30 minutes.[2][15] The event was hosted by French television presenter Jacqueline Joubert, who had previously presented the previous contest held in France in 1959.[2][5]

The interval act was a ballet performance under the title "Rendez-vous à Cannes" with music written by Raymond Lefèvre and performed by Tessa Beaumont and Max Bozzoni [fr].[10][16]

The winner was Luxembourg represented by the song "Nous les amoureux", composed by Jacques Datin, written by Maurice Vidalin [fr] and performed by Jean-Claude Pascal.[17] This was the first of an eventual five contest victories that Luxembourg would go on to achieve.[18]

After the show, a supper for the participating delegations was held at the Salon des Ambassadeurs of the Casino municipal [fr].[19]

More information R/O, Country ...
Results of the Eurovision Song Contest 1961[2][20]
R/O Country Artist Song Points Place
1  Spain Conchita Bautista "Estando contigo" 8 9
2  Monaco Colette Deréal "Allons, allons les enfants" 6 10
3  Austria Jimmy Makulis "Sehnsucht" 1 15
4  Finland Laila Kinnunen "Valoa ikkunassa" 6 10
5  Yugoslavia Ljiljana Petrović "Neke davne zvezde" 9 8
6  Netherlands Greetje Kauffeld "Wat een dag" 6 10
7  Sweden Lill-Babs "April, april" 2 14
8  Germany Lale Andersen "Einmal sehen wir uns wieder" 3 13
9  France Jean-Paul Mauric "Printemps (avril carillonne)" 13 4
10   Switzerland Franca di Rienzo "Nous aurons demain" 16 3
11  Belgium Bob Benny "September, gouden roos" 1 15
12  Norway Nora Brockstedt "Sommer i Palma" 10 7
13  Denmark Dario Campeotto "Angelique" 12 5
14  Luxembourg Jean-Claude Pascal "Nous les amoureux" 31 1
15  United Kingdom The Allisons "Are You Sure?" 24 2
16  Italy Betty Curtis "Al di là" 12 5
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Spokespersons

Each country nominated a spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for their respective country via telephone. Known spokespersons at the 1961 contest are listed below.

Detailed voting results

Each country had 10 jury members who each awarded 1 point to their favourite song. The jury members were television viewers representing the public.[1]

It is noticeable that during the voting, Luxembourg gave the UK eight points, and Norway also gave Denmark eight points. It was the largest number of points given to a country by a single jury since 1958, when Denmark provided France with nine points. Such a high number of points obtained by a country would not be achieved until 1970, when Ireland would receive nine points from Belgium.[5]

More information Total score, Italy ...
Detailed voting results[23][24]
Total score
Italy
United Kingdom
Luxembourg
Denmark
Norway
Belgium
Switzerland
France
Germany
Sweden
Netherlands
Yugoslavia
Finland
Austria
Monaco
Spain
Contestants
Spain 8122111
Monaco 61131
Austria 11
Finland 62211
Yugoslavia 9111213
Netherlands 62112
Sweden 22
Germany 3111
France 132141122
Switzerland 1622421221
Belgium 11
Norway 1015121
Denmark 128211
Luxembourg 31311151153442
United Kingdom 241811733
Italy 12441111
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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.[25] The local press reported a total number of 14 commentators for the contest, and a total of 16 countries broadcasting the event.[10][19]

No official accounts of the viewing figures are known to exist. An estimate given in the French press ahead of the contest was 40 million viewers all over Europe.[10]

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

More information Country, Broadcaster ...
Broadcasters and commentators in participating countries
Country Broadcaster Channel(s) Commentator(s) Ref(s)
 Austria ORF ORF Wolf Mittler [26][14]
 Belgium BRT BRT Nic Bal [nl] [27][28]
RTB RTB Robert Beauvais
 Denmark DR Danmarks Radio TV, Program 1 Sejr Volmer-Sørensen [29]
 Finland YLE Suomen Televisio, Yleisohjelma [fi] Aarno Walli [fi] [30][31]
 France RTF RTF, France I Robert Beauvais [1][32][33]
 Germany ARD Deutsches Fernsehen Wolf Mittler [34]
HR Frankfurt 1 [35]
 Italy RAI Programma Nazionale, Secondo Programma Corrado Mantoni [36][37][38]
 Luxembourg CLT Télé-Luxembourg Robert Beauvais [28][39]
 Monaco Télé Monte-Carlo, Radio Monte Carlo Robert Beauvais [28][32]
 Netherlands NTS NTS Piet te Nuyl Jr. [40][41]
NRU Hilversum 1 Coen Serré
 Norway NRK NRK Fjernsynet, NRK Leif Rustad [42][43]
 Spain TVE TVE Federico Gallo [es] [44][45]
RNE RNE [44]
 Sweden SR Sveriges TV, SR P1 Jan Gabrielsson [sv] [46]
  Switzerland SRG SSR TV DRS [47]
TSR, RSR 1 Robert Beauvais [15][28][32]
TSI [48]
DRS 2 [47]
RSI 1 [48]
 United Kingdom BBC BBC TV Tom Sloan [49]
 Yugoslavia JRT Televizija Beograd [50]
Televizija Ljubljana Saša Novak [51][52]
Televizija Zagreb [53]
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Notes

  1. On behalf of the German public broadcasting consortium ARD[9]

References

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