The Eurovision Song Contest 1970 was the 15th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest and took place in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster Nederlandse Omroep Stichting (NOS), the contest was held at the RAI Congrescentrum on 21 March 1970, and was hosted by Dutch television presenter Willy Dobbe.

Quick Facts Dates, Final ...
Eurovision Song Contest 1970
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Dates
Final21 March 1970
Host
VenueRAI Congrescentrum
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Presenter(s)Willy Dobbe
Musical directorDolf van der Linden
Directed byTheo Ordeman
Executive supervisorClifford Brown
Executive producerWarner van Kampen
Host broadcasterNederlandse Omroep Stichting (NOS)
Websiteeurovision.tv/event/amsterdam-1970 Edit this at Wikidata
Participants
Number of entries12
Debuting countriesNone
Returning countriesNone
Non-returning countries
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         Competing countries     Countries that participated in the past but not in 1970
Vote
Voting systemTen-member juries distributed ten points among their favourite songs.
Winning song Ireland
"All Kinds of Everything"
1969 Eurovision Song Contest 1971
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Twelve countries participated in the contest this year. This was the lowest number of participants since the 1959 edition. The reason was that Finland, Norway, Portugal, Sweden and Austria all boycotted the 1970 edition, officially because they felt that the contest marginalised smaller countries and was no longer good television entertainment,[1] though it is rumoured that this was also in protest of the four-way tie result that had occurred in 1969.[2]

The winner of the competition was Ireland with the song "All Kinds of Everything", performed by Dana, and written by Derry Lindsay and Jackie Smith. This was Ireland's first of their eventual record seven victories in the contest. The United Kingdom finished in second place for the seventh time, while Germany ended up in third place  the best result for the country at the time. This was also the only time that Luxembourg received nul points.[2]

Location

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RAI Congrescentrum, Amsterdam – host venue of the 1970 contest.

Due to there being four winners in the previous contest, a question was raised as to which nation would host the 1970 contest. With Spain having hosted in 1969 and the United Kingdom in 1968, only France and the Netherlands were in consideration. A draw of ballots between these two countries resulted in the Netherlands being chosen as the host country.[3]

The Congrescentrum, venue of the 1970 contest, is a semi-permanent exhibit at the Ferdinand Bolstraat to Amsterdam and was opened on 31 October 1922. This building was replaced in 1961 by the current RAI building on Europe's Square. The current congress and event center on Europe Square, was designed by Alexander Bodon and opened on 2 February 1961.

Participating countries

Quick Facts – Participation summaries by country ...
Eurovision Song Contest 1970  Participation summaries by country
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Austria (who had not taken part in 1969), Finland, Norway, Portugal and Sweden boycotted this contest as they were not pleased with the result of 1969 and the voting structure.[2]

For the first time, no artists from previous contests returned.[4]

More information Country, Broadcaster ...
Participants of the Eurovision Song Contest 1970[5][6][7][8]
Country Broadcaster Artist Song Language Songwriter(s) Conductor
 Belgium RTB Jean Vallée "Viens l'oublier" French Jean Vallée Jack Say
 France ORTF Guy Bonnet "Marie-Blanche" French
Franck Pourcel
 Germany HR[a] Katja Ebstein "Wunder gibt es immer wieder" German
  • Christian Bruhn
  • Günter Loose
Christian Bruhn
 Ireland RTÉ Dana "All Kinds of Everything" English
  • Derry Lindsay
  • Jackie Smith
Dolf van der Linden
 Italy RAI Gianni Morandi "Occhi di ragazza" Italian Mario Capuano
 Luxembourg CLT David Alexandre Winter "Je suis tombé du ciel" French
Raymond Lefèvre
 Monaco TMC Dominique Dussault "Marlène" French
Jimmy Walter
 Netherlands NOS Patricia and Hearts of Soul "Waterman" Dutch Pieter Goemans Dolf van der Linden
 Spain TVE Julio Iglesias "Gwendolyne" Spanish Julio Iglesias Augusto Algueró
  Switzerland SRG SSR Henri Dès "Retour" French Henri Dès Bernard Gérard
 United Kingdom BBC Mary Hopkin "Knock, Knock (Who's There?)" English Johnny Arthey
 Yugoslavia JRT Eva Sršen "Pridi, dala ti bom cvet" Slovene Mojmir Sepe
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Format

The Dutch producers were forced to pad out the show as only 12 nations decided to make the trip to Amsterdam. The result was a format that has endured almost to the present day. An extended opening sequence (filmed in Amsterdam) set the scene, while every entry was introduced by a short video 'postcard' featuring each of the participating artists, ostensibly in their own nation. However, the 'postcards' for Switzerland, Luxembourg and Monaco were all filmed on location in Paris (as was the French postcard).[2] The long introduction film (over four minutes long) was followed by what probably is one of the shortest ever introductions by any presenter. Willy Dobbe only welcomed the viewers in English, French and Dutch, finishing her introduction after only 24 seconds. On-screen captions introduced each entry, with the song titles listed all in lowercase and the names of the artist and composers/authors all in capitals.

The set design was devised by Roland de Groot; a simple design was composed of a number of curved horizontal bars and silver baubles which could be moved in a variety of different ways.

To avoid an incident like in 1969, a tie-breaking rule was created. It stated that, if two or more songs gained the same number of votes and were tied for first place, each song would have to be performed again. After which each national jury (other than the juries of the countries concerned) would have a show of hands of which they thought was the best. If the countries tied again, then they would share first place.

Contest overview

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Dana sings the winning song "All Kinds of Everything"

Ireland won the contest with "All Kinds of Everything", penned by Derry Lindsay and Jackie Smith, and sung by another unknown, Dana, an 18-year-old schoolgirl from Derry, Northern Ireland. As the contest was held in the Netherlands this year, and the country was one of the four winners in 1969, Dana received her awards from the Dutch winner Lenny Kuhr.

More information R/O, Country ...
Results of the Eurovision Song Contest 1970[10]
R/O Country Artist Song Points Place
1  Netherlands Patricia and Hearts of Soul "Waterman" 7 7
2   Switzerland Henri Dès "Retour" 8 4
3  Italy Gianni Morandi "Occhi di ragazza" 5 8
4  Yugoslavia Eva Sršen "Pridi, dala ti bom cvet" 4 11
5  Belgium Jean Vallée "Viens l'oublier" 5 8
6  France Guy Bonnet "Marie-Blanche" 8 4
7  United Kingdom Mary Hopkin "Knock, Knock (Who's There?)" 26 2
8  Luxembourg David Alexandre Winter "Je suis tombé du ciel" 0 12
9  Spain Julio Iglesias "Gwendolyne" 8 4
10  Monaco Dominique Dussault "Marlène" 5 8
11  Germany Katja Ebstein "Wunder gibt es immer wieder" 12 3
12  Ireland Dana "All Kinds of Everything" 32 1
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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 1970 contest are listed below.

  •  United Kingdom  Colin Ward-Lewis[6]

Detailed voting results

More information Total score, Netherlands ...
Detailed voting results[11][12]
Total score
Netherlands
Switzerland
Italy
Yugoslavia
Belgium
France
United Kingdom
Luxembourg
Spain
Monaco
Germany
Ireland
Contestants
Netherlands 7331
Switzerland 822121
Italy 5122
Yugoslavia 44
Belgium 5311
France 81223
United Kingdom 26322422443
Luxembourg 0
Spain 8323
Monaco 51121
Germany 12113412
Ireland 3256914232
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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.[13]

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's introduction sequence claimed the contest was also broadcast in Greece, Iceland, Israel and Tunisia, in Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania and the Soviet Union via Intervision, and in Brazil and Chile.[6][4] The contest was also reportedly broadcast in Argentina.[14]

More information Country, Broadcaster ...
Broadcasters and commentators in participating countries
Country Broadcaster Channel(s) Commentator(s) Ref(s)
 Belgium RTB RTB [15]
BRT BRT Jan Theys [nl] [15][16]
 France ORTF Deuxième Chaîne Pierre Tchernia [17]
 Germany ARD Deutsches Fernsehen [18]
 Ireland RTÉ RTÉ Valerie McGovern [19][20]
RTÉ Radio [21]
 Italy RAI Secondo Programma Renato Tagliani [it] [22]
 Luxembourg CLT Télé-Luxembourg [23]
 Netherlands NOS Nederland 1 Pim Jacobs [24][25]
 Spain TVE TVE 1 José Luis Uribarri [26]
RNE RNE [27]
Radio Peninsular de Barcelona [es] [28]
Radio España [es]
Radio Juventud [es] [29]
SER Radio Castellón [es] [30]
Radio Rioja [31]
Radio San Sebastián [27]
Radio Tarragona [ca] [32]
Radio Valladolid [es] [33]
  Switzerland SRG SSR TV DRS [34]
TSR Georges Hardy [fr] [35]
TSI [36]
DRS 1[b] [37]
RSR 2 Robert Burnier [38]
 United Kingdom BBC BBC1 David Gell [39]
BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 2 Tony Brandon [40][41]
BFBS BFBS Radio John Russell [6]
 Yugoslavia JRT Televizija Beograd [42]
Televizija Ljubljana [43]
Televizija Zagreb [44]
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More information Country, Broadcaster ...
Broadcasters and commentators in non-participating countries
Country Broadcaster Channel(s) Commentator(s) Ref(s)
 Argentina Canal 13[c] Cacho Fontana [45]
 Austria ORF FS1 Ernst Grissemann [46][47]
 Brazil Rede Tupi TV Brasília[d] [48]
TV Paraná[d] [49]
TV Rádio Clube[d] [50]
 Chile TVN[e] Raúl Matas [es] [51]
 Czechoslovakia ČST ČST [52]
 Hungary MTV MTV [53]
 Iceland RÚV Sjónvarpið[f] [54]
 Israel IBA Israeli Television[g] [55]
 Malta MBA MTS Victor Aquilina [56][57]
 Poland TP Telewizja Polska [58]
 Romania TVR Programul 1[h] [59]
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Notes

  1. On behalf of the German public broadcasting consortium ARD[9]
  2. Delayed broadcast on 23 March 1970 at 22:30 (CET)[37]
  3. Delayed broadcast on 23 March at 21:30 (ART)[45]
  4. Deferred broadcast at 20:30 (BRT)[48]
  5. Deferred broadcast at 20:20 (CLST)[51]
  6. Delayed broadcast on 4 April 1970 at 20:55 (WET)[54]
  7. Delayed broadcast on 6 April 1970 at 19:35 (IST)[55]
  8. Delayed broadcast on 4 April 1970 at 20:55 (EET)[59]

References

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