The Eurovision Song Contest 1969 was the 14th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Madrid, Spain, following the country's victory at the 1968 contest with the song "La La La" by Massiel. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster Televisión Española (TVE), the contest was held at the Teatro Real on 29 March 1969 and was hosted by Spanish television presenter and actress Laurita Valenzuela.

Quick Facts Dates, Final ...
Eurovision Song Contest 1969
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Dates
Final29 March 1969
Host
VenueTeatro Real
Madrid, Spain
Presenter(s)Laurita Valenzuela
Musical directorAugusto Algueró
Directed byRamón Díez
Executive supervisorClifford Brown
Host broadcasterTelevisión Española (TVE)
Websiteeurovision.tv/event/madrid-1969 Edit this at Wikidata
Participants
Number of entries16
Debuting countriesNone
Returning countriesNone
Non-returning countries Austria
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         Competing countries     Countries that participated in the past but not in 1969
Vote
Voting systemTen-member juries distributed ten points among their favourite songs.
Winning song
1968 Eurovision Song Contest 1970
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Sixteen countries took part in the contest with Austria deciding not to participate this year.

At the close of voting, four countries were declared joint-winners: the United Kingdom with "Boom Bang-a-Bang" by Lulu, Spain with "Vivo cantando" by Salomé, the Netherlands with "De troubadour" by Lenny Kuhr, and France with "Un jour, un enfant" by Frida Boccara. It was the first time in the history of the contest that a tie for first place had occurred, and as there was no tiebreaker rule in place at the time, all four countries were declared joint winners.[1] France's win was its fourth, thus making it the first country to win the contest four times. The Netherlands' win was its third. Spain and the United Kingdom each won for the second time, with Spain becoming the first country to win the contest twice in a row.

Location

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Teatro Real, Madrid – host venue of the 1969 contest.

The venue selected to host the 1969 contest was the Teatro Real, an opera house located in Madrid opened in 1850. After having to close in 1924 due to damage to the building, the venue reopened in 1966 as a concert hall and the main concert venue of the Spanish National Orchestra and the RTVE Symphony Orchestra.[2]

Participating countries

Quick Facts – Participation summaries by country ...
Eurovision Song Contest 1969  Participation summaries by country
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Austria was absent from the contest,[1] officially because they could not find a suitable representative,[3] but it was rumoured that they refused to participate in a contest staged in Franco-ruled Spain.[4] Wales wanted to debut with Welsh language broadcaster BBC Cymru, and also made a national selection called Cân i Gymru, but in the end it was decided they would not participate in the competition – their participation was rejected because Wales is not a sovereign state. Only the BBC has the exclusive right to represent the United Kingdom.

Five performers who had competed in previous editions of the contest featured among the participating artists at this year's event: Siw Malmkvist representing Germany had represented Sweden in 1960; Romuald representing Luxembourg had represented Monaco in 1964; Simone de Oliveira representing Portugal had represented the country in 1965; Kirsti Sparboe representing Norway had represented the country in 1965 and in 1967; and Louis Neefs representing Belgium had represented the country in 1967.

More information Country, Broadcaster ...
Participants of the Eurovision Song Contest 1969[5][6][7][8]
Country Broadcaster Artist Song Language Songwriter(s) Conductor
 Belgium BRT Louis Neefs "Jennifer Jennings" Dutch
  • Paul Quintens
  • Phil Van Cauwenbergh
Francis Bay
 Finland YLE Jarkko and Laura "Kuin silloin ennen" Finnish Ossi Runne
 France ORTF Frida Boccara "Un jour, un enfant" French Franck Pourcel
 Germany HR[a] Siw Malmkvist "Primaballerina" German Hans Blum Hans Blum
 Ireland RTÉ Muriel Day "The Wages of Love" English Michael Reade Noel Kelehan
 Italy RAI Iva Zanicchi "Due grosse lacrime bianche" Italian
Ezio Leoni
 Luxembourg CLT Romuald "Catherine" French Augusto Algueró
 Monaco TMC Jean Jacques "Maman, Maman" French Jo Perrier Hervé Roy
 Netherlands NTS Lenny Kuhr "De troubadour" Dutch
Frans de Kok
 Norway NRK Kirsti Sparboe "Oj, oj, oj, så glad jeg skal bli" Norwegian Arne Bendiksen Øivind Bergh
 Portugal RTP Simone de Oliveira "Desfolhada portuguesa" Portuguese
Ferrer Trindade
 Spain TVE Salomé "Vivo cantando" Spanish
  • Aniano Alcalde
  • Maria José de Cerato
Augusto Algueró
 Sweden SR Tommy Körberg "Judy, min vän" Swedish Lars Samuelson
  Switzerland SRG SSR Paola "Bonjour, Bonjour" German
Henry Mayer
 United Kingdom BBC Lulu "Boom Bang-a-Bang" English
Johnny Harris
 Yugoslavia JRT Ivan "Pozdrav svijetu" (Поздрав свијету) Serbo-Croatian Milan Lentić Miljenko Prohaska
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Format

The surrealist artist Salvador Dalí designed the publicity material for the contest. The stage featured a metal sculpture created by surrealist artist Amadeo Gabino [es].[b] The musical director of the event was Augusto Algueró, who made the arrangements and conducted the orchestra during the opening and ending acts. The show opened with a rendition of the Eurovision tune by the Teatro Real organ, followed by the orchestra performing the previous year's winning song, "La, la, la". The interval act consisted of a surrealist documentary titled La España diferente, directed by Javier Aguirre, with music by Luis de Pablo. The show ended with the orchestra performing a medley of previous Eurovision winning songs during the credits.[10]

This was the second contest to be filmed and transmitted in colour, even though TVE did not have the required colour equipment for such a big event. It had to rent colour television cameras from the ARD German network, which was provided by Fernseh and brought to Madrid from Cologne.[11] In Spain itself the broadcast was seen in black and white because the local transmitters did not support colour transmissions. The colour recording equipment did not arrive in time, so TVE only had a black and white copy of the contest, until a colour copy was discovered in the archives of NRK.[12]

It was the first time that the contest resulted in a tie for first place, with four countries each gaining 18 votes. Since there was at the time no rule to cover such an eventuality, all four countries were declared joint winners. This caused an unfortunate problem concerning the medals due to be distributed to the winners as there were not enough to go round, so that only the singers received their medals on the night:[1] the songwriters, to some disgruntlement, were not awarded theirs until some days later[citation needed]. The medals were presented by previous year's winner, Massiel.

Contest overview

More information R/O, Country ...
Results of the Eurovision Song Contest 1969[13]
R/O Country Artist Song Points Place
1  Yugoslavia Ivan "Pozdrav svijetu" 5 13
2  Luxembourg Romuald "Catherine" 7 11
3  Spain Salomé "Vivo cantando" 18 1
4  Monaco Jean Jacques "Maman, Maman" 11 6
5  Ireland Muriel Day "The Wages of Love" 10 7
6  Italy Iva Zanicchi "Due grosse lacrime bianche" 5 13
7  United Kingdom Lulu "Boom Bang-a-Bang" 18 1
8  Netherlands Lenny Kuhr "De troubadour" 18 1
9  Sweden Tommy Körberg "Judy, min vän" 8 9
10  Belgium Louis Neefs "Jennifer Jennings" 10 7
11   Switzerland Paola "Bonjour, Bonjour" 13 5
12  Norway Kirsti Sparboe "Oj, oj, oj, så glad jeg skal bli" 1 16
13  Germany Siw Malmkvist "Primaballerina" 8 9
14  France Frida Boccara "Un jour, un enfant" 18 1
15  Portugal Simone de Oliveira "Desfolhada portuguesa" 4 15
16  Finland Jarkko and Laura "Kuin silloin ennen" 6 12
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Spokespersons

Each participating broadcaster appointed a spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for their respective jury via telephone. Known spokespersons at the 1969 contest are listed below.

  •  Belgium  Eugène Senelle[14]
  •  Finland  Poppe Berg [fi][15]
  •  Norway  Janka Polanyi [no][16]
  •  Sweden  Edvard Matz [sv][17]
  •  United Kingdom  Colin Ward-Lewis[6]

Detailed voting results

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Lenny Kuhr's dress

Every participating broadcaster assembled a jury panel of ten people. Every jury member could give one point to his or her favourite song, except that representing their own country.

Although neither spokesperson made any errors in their announcements, scrutineer Clifford Brown asked both the Spanish and the Monegasque spokespersons to repeat their scores. No adjustments were made to the scoring as a result of the repetition.

More information Total score, Yugoslavia ...
Detailed voting results[18][19]
Total score
Yugoslavia
Luxembourg
Spain
Monaco
Ireland
Italy
United Kingdom
Netherlands
Sweden
Belgium
Switzerland
Norway
Germany
France
Portugal
Finland
Contestants
Yugoslavia 5113
Luxembourg 713111
Spain 18123131322
Monaco 1124221
Ireland 10111313
Italy 511111
United Kingdom 1824315111
Netherlands 182131416
Sweden 81313
Belgium 1023122
Switzerland 132321122
Norway 11
Germany 832111
France 18124421112
Portugal 4211
Finland 6111111
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Broadcasts

Each participating broadcaster was required to relay the contest live via its networks after receiving it through the Eurovision network. 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.[20]

Known details on the broadcasts in each country, including the specific broadcasting stations and commentators are shown in the tables below. In addition to the participating countries, the contest was also reportedly broadcast in 26 countries including Tunisia; in Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and the Soviet Union received via Intervision; and in Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Panama, and Puerto Rico received via satellite.[6][21]

More information Country, Broadcaster ...
Broadcasters and commentators in participating countries
Country Broadcaster Channel(s) Commentator(s) Ref(s)
 Belgium BRT BRT Jan Theys [nl] [22][23]
RTB RTB, Radio Une [22][24]
 Finland YLE TV-ohjelma 1, Yleisohjelma [fi] Aarno Walli [fi] [15][25]
Ruotsinkielinen ohjelma [25]
 France ORTF Deuxième Chaîne, France Inter Pierre Tchernia [26][27][28]
 Germany ARD Deutsches Fernsehen [29]
 Ireland RTÉ RTÉ [30]
RTÉ Radio [31]
 Italy RAI Secondo Programma Renato Tagliani [it] [32]
 Luxembourg CLT Télé-Luxembourg [26]
 Netherlands NTS Nederland 1 Pim Jacobs [33][34]
 Norway NRK NRK Fjernsynet, NRK[c] Sverre Christophersen [no][d] [35]
 Portugal RTP I Programa, II Programa Henrique Mendes [37][38]
 Spain TVE TVE 1, TVE 2, TVE Canarias[e] José Luis Uribarri [40][39][41]
RNE Radio Nacional [42]
Radio Juventud [es] [43]
Radio Popular [44]
SER Radio Barcelona [es] [42]
Radio Castellón [es] [45]
Radio Girona [ca] [46]
Radio Lérida [47]
Radio Murcia [es] [48]
Radio Orense [44]
Radio Pamplona [49]
Radio Rioja [50]
Radio San Sebastián [51]
Radio Sevilla [es] [52]
Radio Tarragona [ca] [53]
Radio Valladolid [es] [54]
Radio Zaragoza [55]
 Sweden SR Sveriges TV, SR P3 Christina Hansegård [sv] [56][57]
  Switzerland SRG SSR TV DRS [58]
TSR Georges Hardy [fr] [27]
TSI [59]
 United Kingdom BBC BBC1 David Gell [60]
BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 2 Pete Murray [61][62]
 Yugoslavia JRT Televizija Beograd [63]
Televizija Ljubljana [64]
Televizija Zagreb [65]
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More information Country, Broadcaster ...
Broadcasters and commentators in non-participating countries
Country Broadcaster Channel(s) Commentator(s) Ref(s)
 Austria ORF FS1 [66]
 Brazil Rede Tupi TV Tupi Rio de Janeiro Rubens Amaral [67][68]
TV Tupi São Paulo
TV Itacolomi
TV Paraná [68][69]
TV Piratini [68][70]
 Chile Canal 9[f] [72]
 Colombia Inravisión Canal Nacional[g] [73][74]
 Costa Rica Telecentro Canal 6[h] Roberto Giralt [75]
Telenac Canal 2[h]
 Czechoslovakia ČST ČST [76]
 Hungary MTV MTV [77]
 Malta MBA MTS Victor Aquilina [78][79]
 Romania TVR Programul 1 [80]
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Notes

  1. On behalf of the German public broadcasting consortium ARD[9]
  2. After the contest, TVE moved the sculpture to the garden at its premises in Prado del Rey, where it has remained ever since.
  3. Deferred broadcast on NRK at 22:30 (CET)[35]
  4. The connection between the commentary booth in Madrid and the NRK studios in Oslo was disabled partway through the broadcast, resulting in the Norwegian commentary provided by Sverre Christophersen [no] not being relayed to Norwegian viewers and listeners. Commentary was temporarily provided by Janka Polanyi [no] before the Swedish feed was rerouted to also cover the Norwegian broadcasts, with the original connection to Christophersen ultimately fixed before the start of the voting sequence.[36]
  5. Deferred broadcast on TVE Canarias the following day at 22:35 (WET)[39]
  6. Delayed broadcast on 29 March 1969 at 20:15 (CLT)[71]
  7. Delayed broadcast in a shortened format on 1 May 1969 at 16:00 (COT)[73]
  8. Delayed broadcast on 4 May 1969 at 21:00 (CST)[75]

References

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