Eurovision Song Contest 1961


The Eurovision Song Contest 1961 was the 6th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Cannes, France, following Jacqueline Boyer's win at the 1960 contest in London, United Kingdom with the song "Tom Pillibi". It was the second time that France had hosted the contest; the first being in 1959 - also in Cannes. The contest was held at Palais des Festivals et des Congrès on 18 March 1961 and was the first to take place on a Saturday night, a tradition that has continued into modern times. The show was hosted by Jacqueline Joubert.
Sixteen countries participated in the contest - three more than in the previous edition; Finland, Spain and Yugoslavia all made their début 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. This was Luxembourg's first victory in the contest, with the United Kingdom finishing in second place for the third consecutive year.
As the contest overran its allocated time, and the show was being broadcast live, the winning song's reprise was not shown in the UK.

Location

The event took place in Cannes, France, with the venue being the original building of Palais des Festivals et des Congrès, after France got the right to host this edition of the Eurovision Song Contest for winning its previous 1960 edition with the song "Tom Pillibi" performed by Jacqueline Boyer.
Cannes, a city located on the French Riviera, is a busy tourist destination and known worldwide for hosting the annual Cannes Film Festival, with the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès also hosting the Film Festival. The original building was built in 1949 and was located on the boulevard of Promenade de la Croisette, on the present site of the JW Marriott Cannes. It also hosted the 1959 edition of the Eurovision Song Contest.

Format

Jacqueline Joubert presented the show, having already done so two years earlier in 1959. The stage used for the 1961 Contest was notably larger than in previous years and was decorated with flowers. 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.

Participating countries

A total of sixteen countries took part in the Contest, including the three debuting countries: Finland, Spain, and Yugoslavia.

Conductors

Each performance had a conductor who maestro the orchestra.
The contest saw the return of two artists this year with the Belgian representative, Bob Benny, who previously participated in the 1959 contest; and Nora Brockstedt, who performed for Norway in 1960.

Results

Scoreboard

Each country had 10 jury members who each awarded 1 point to their favourite song.

Broadcasters, commentators and spokespersons

Spokespersons

Listed below is the order in which votes were cast during the 1961 contest along with the spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for their respective country.
  1. – Enzo Tortora
  2. – Michael Aspel
  3. - TBC
  4. –
  5. – Mette Janson
  6. – Ward Bogaert
  7. –
  8. – Armand Lanoux
  9. – Heinz Schenk
  10. –
  11. –
  12. – Saša Novak
  13. –
  14. – Emil Kollpacher
  15. – TBC
  16. –

    Broadcasters and commentators

Each national broadcaster also sent a commentator to the contest, in order to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language.
CountryBroadcasterCommentator
AustriaORFWolf Mittler
BelgiumRTBFrench: Robert Beauvais
BelgiumBRTDutch:
DenmarkDanmarks Radio TVSejr Volmer-Sørensen
FinlandSuomen Televisio and Yleisradio
FranceRTFRobert Beauvais
GermanyDeutsches FernsehenWolf Mittler
ItalyProgramma NazionaleCorrado Mantoni
LuxembourgTélé-LuxembourgRobert Beauvais
MonacoTélé Monte CarloRobert Beauvais
NetherlandsNTSPiet te Nuyl
NorwayNRK and NRK P1Leif Rustad
TVE
SwedenSveriges TV and SR P1
SwitzerlandTV DRSGerman:
SwitzerlandTSRFrench: Robert Beauvais
United KingdomBBC TVTom Sloan
United KingdomBBC Light ProgrammePete Murray
YugoslaviaTelevizija BeogradSerbo-Croatian:
YugoslaviaTelevizija ZagrebSerbo-Croatian:
YugoslaviaTelevizija LjubljanaSlovene: