The Eurovision Song Contest 1959 was the fourth edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest, held on Wednesday 11 March 1959 at the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès in Cannes, France, and hosted by French television presenter Jacqueline Joubert. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française (RTF), the contest, originally known as the Grand Prix Eurovision de la Chanson Européenne 1959 (English: Grand Prix of the Eurovision Song Contest 1959[1]), was held in France following the country's victory at the 1958 contest with the song "Dors, mon amour", performed by André Claveau.
Eurovision Song Contest 1959 | |
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Dates | |
Final | 11 March 1959 |
Host | |
Venue | Palais des Festivals et des Congrès Cannes, France |
Presenter(s) | Jacqueline Joubert |
Musical director | Franck Pourcel |
Directed by | Marcel Cravenne |
Host broadcaster | Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française (RTF) |
Website | eurovision |
Participants | |
Number of entries | 11 |
Debuting countries | Monaco |
Returning countries | United Kingdom |
Non-returning countries | Luxembourg |
Participation map
| |
Vote | |
Voting system | Ten-member juries in each country; each member gave one vote to their favourite song |
Winning song | Netherlands "Een beetje" |
1958 ← Eurovision Song Contest → 1960 |
In total eleven countries participated in the contest, with Monaco making its first appearance and the United Kingdom returning after their absence the previous year. Luxembourg, however, decided not to participate after competing in all former editions.
The winner was the Netherlands with the song "Een beetje", performed by Teddy Scholten, composed by Dick Schallies and written by Willy van Hemert. This was the Netherlands' second victory in the contest, having also won in 1957, and also marked the first time a country had won the contest more than once. Van Hemert also became the first individual to win twice, having also written the first Dutch winning song from 1957, "Net als toen". The United Kingdom placed second, marking the first of a record sixteen times that the country would go on to finish as contest runners-up, while France placed third.
The event took place in Cannes, France, following the nation's victory at the 1958 edition in Hilversum, Netherlands, with the song "Dors, mon amour", performed by André Claveau. 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.[4]
This marked the second occasion in which the previous year's winning country organised the event, and the first time in which the winning country was given first choice at hosting the following year's event, as the rights to host the 1958 contest were only awarded to the Netherlands after all other countries declined.[2][5]
The contest was organised and broadcast by the French public broadcaster Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française (RTF) and was hosted by French television presenter Jacqueline Joubert.[2][6] The stage constructed for the event featured three revolving platforms, each of which was segmented into four, similar to a revolving door, to include various backdrops.[7] These backdrops were specific to each of the participating countries and featured scenery or objects associated with that country.[8]
As in the 1957 and 1958 contests, each country, participating through a single EBU member broadcaster, was represented by one song performed by up to two people on stage. The results of the event were determined through jury voting, with each country's jury containing ten individuals who each gave one vote to their favourite song, with no abstentions allowed and with jurors unable to vote for their own country.[2][6] One rule change implemented for this contest specified that individuals employed in the music industry were no longer allowed to be included among the national juries.[6] Alongside the traditional reprise performance of the winning song, the second- and third-placed songs were also performed again, for the first and only time at the contest.[2][6]
A total of eleven countries competed in the contest, with Monaco making its first appearance and the United Kingdom returning after a one year absence.[6] The United Kingdom's absence from the 1958 contest is generally reported to have been due to the country's poor result in 1957, but their return coincided with the international success of "Nel blu, dipinto di blu", the Italian entry from the previous year's contest, and the appointment of Eric Maschwitz as Head of Light Entertainment at the BBC.[9][10] Beginning with this event the United Kingdom holds the record for the longest string of consecutive appearances in the Eurovision Song Contest, appearing in every subsequent contest final as of 2022[update].[11][12] Luxembourg was absent from the event, having participated in all previous contests, and appears to have decided against participating late in the preparations for the contest as the country was listed among the participants in several radio and television listings.[1][2][13]
Each country was allowed to nominate their own musical director to lead the orchestra during the performance of their country's entry, with the host musical director, Franck Pourcel, also conducting for those countries which did not nominate their own conductor.[14] The conductors listed below led the orchestra during the performance for the indicated countries.[2][15]
Among this year's participants, two artists had previously competed in the contest. Birthe Wilke had placed third for Denmark in the 1957 contest, performing "Skibet skal sejle i nat" alongside Gustav Winckler, and Domenico Modugno had placed third for Italy in the 1958 contest with "Nel blu, dipinto di blu".[16][17]
The winner was the Netherlands represented by the song "Een beetje", composed by Dick Schallies [nl], written by Willy van Hemert and performed by Teddy Scholten.[18] The Netherlands became the first country to achieve two victories in the event, and Van Hemert became the first individual to win the contest twice, after previously providing lyrics for the Netherlands' winner in 1957, "Net als toen".[6][7] The United Kingdom's result was the first of sixteen British entries to finish in second place, a contest record as of 2022[update].[7][11]
R/O | Country | Artist | Song | Language | Points | Place |
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1 | France | Jean Philippe | "Oui, oui, oui, oui" | French | 15 | 3 |
2 | Denmark | Birthe Wilke | "Uh, jeg ville ønske jeg var dig" | Danish | 12 | 5 |
3 | Italy | Domenico Modugno | "Piove (Ciao, ciao bambina)" | Italian | 9 | 6 |
4 | Monaco | Jacques Pills | "Mon ami Pierrot" | French | 1 | 11 |
5 | Netherlands | Teddy Scholten | "Een beetje" | Dutch | 21 | 1 |
6 | Germany | Alice and Ellen Kessler | "Heute Abend wollen wir tanzen geh'n" | German | 5 | 8 |
7 | Sweden | Brita Borg | "Augustin" | Swedish | 4 | 9 |
8 | Switzerland | Christa Williams | "Irgendwoher" | German | 14 | 4 |
9 | Austria | Ferry Graf | "Der K und K Kalypso aus Wien" | German | 4 | 9 |
10 | United Kingdom | Pearl Carr and Teddy Johnson | "Sing, Little Birdie" | English | 16 | 2 |
11 | Belgium | Bob Benny | "Hou toch van mij" | Dutch | 9 | 6 |
The announcement of the results from each country was conducted in reverse order to that which each country performed.[2]
Total score |
Belgium |
United Kingdom |
Austria |
Switzerland |
Sweden |
Germany |
Netherlands |
Monaco |
Italy |
Denmark |
France | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Contestants |
France | 15 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 4 | ||||
Denmark | 12 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||||
Italy | 9 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 3 | |||||||
Monaco | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||
Netherlands | 21 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 7 | 4 | |||||
Germany | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||||||||
Sweden | 4 | 3 | 1 | ||||||||||
Switzerland | 14 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | |||||
Austria | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | |||||||||
United Kingdom | 16 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 1 | |||||
Belgium | 9 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
Each country nominated a spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for their respective country via telephone.[23] Known spokespersons at the 1959 contest are listed below.
Each participating broadcaster was required to relay the contest via its television network. 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. Known details on the broadcasts in each country, including the specific broadcasting stations and commentators are shown in the table below.
Country | Broadcaster(s) | Commentator(s) | Ref(s) |
---|---|---|---|
Austria | ORF | Unknown | [26] |
Belgium | INR | Unknown | [27] |
NIR | Unknown | [27] | |
Denmark | Danmarks Radio TV | Sejr Volmer-Sørensen | [13] |
Program 2 | |||
France | RTF | Unknown | [28] |
France II | Unknown | [29] | |
Germany | Deutsches Fernsehen | Unknown | [27][28] |
Italy | Programma Nazionale | Renato Tagliani [it] | [30] |
Secondo Programma | [29][30] | ||
Monaco | Télé Monte-Carlo | Unknown | [31] |
Radio Monte-Carlo | Unknown | [29] | |
Netherlands | NTS | Piet te Nuyl Jr. | [27][32] |
Hilversum 1 | |||
Sweden | Sveriges TV | Jan Gabrielsson [sv] | [8] |
SR P1 | |||
Switzerland | TV DRS | Unknown | [28] |
TSR | Unknown | ||
TSI | Unknown | ||
Radio Bern | Unknown | [29] | |
Radio Genève | Unknown | ||
Radio Monte Ceneri | Unknown | ||
United Kingdom | BBC Television Service | Tom Sloan | [1][2] |
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Countries |
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Artists |
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Songs |
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