The Eurovision Song Contest 1969 was the 14th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place on 29 March 1969 in the Teatro Real, in Madrid, Spain following Massiel's win at the 1968 Contest in London with her entry "La, la, la".
For the first and only time in the Contest's history the title was shared by four countries - France's win was their fourth. thus making them the first country to win the contest four times. The Netherlands' win was their third while Spain and the United Kingdom each won for the second time. It was also the first time that any country had won the contest in consecutive years.
Location[]
The venue selected to host the 1969 contest was the Teatro Real, an opera house located in Madrid. The theater reopened in 1966 as a concert theater and the main concert venue of the Spanish National Orchestra and the RTVE Symphony Orchestra. The final featured an onstage metal sculpture created by surrealist Spanish artist, Salvador Dalí.
Format[]
The surrealist Spanish artist Salvador Dalí was responsible for designing the publicity material for the 1969 contest as well as the metal sculpture which was used on stage.
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: the songwriters, to some disgruntlement, were not awarded theirs until after the date of the contest.
Had the later tie-break rule been in place (the country receiving the highest score from any other country, as used in 1991), the Netherlands would have won, having received 6 points from France. United Kingdom would then have been runner up, having received 5 points from Sweden. On the other hand, with the present tie-break rule been in place (i.e. the song receiving votes from the most countries, then the song receiving the most high votes in case of another tie), France would have been the overall winner, with Spain in 2nd place. Both countries received votes from 9 countries, but France received 4 points from 2 countries where as Spain received 3 points as their highest vote.
Participants[]
Returning artists[]
Artist | Note |
---|---|
Louis Neefs | Represented Belgium at the Eurovision Song Contest 1967 in Vienna with the song "Ik heb zorgen", finishing in 7th place with 8 points. |
Siw Malmkvist | Represented Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest 1960 in London with the song "Alla andra får varann", finishing in 10th place with 4 points. |
Romuald | Represented Monaco at the Eurovision Song Contest 1964 in Copenhagen with the song "Où sont-elles passées", finishing in 3rd place with 15 points. |
Kirsti Sparboe | Represented Norway at the Eurovision Song Contest 1965 in Naples with the song "Karusell", finishing in joint 13th place with 1 point. Returned two years later with the song "Dukkemann", finishing in 14th place with 2 points. |
Simone de Oliveira | Represented Portugal at the Eurovision Song Contest 1965 in Naples with the song "Sol de inverno", finishing in joint 13th place with 1 point. |
Results[]
Draw | Country | Performer(s) | Song | Language | Translation | Place | Points |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
01 | Yugoslavia | Ivan & 4M | "Pozdrav svijetu" | Croatian | Greetings to the world | 13 | 5 |
02 | Luxembourg | Romuald | "Catherine" | French | - | 11 | 7 |
03 | Spain | Salomé | "Vivo cantando" | Spanish | I Live Singing | 1 | 18 |
04 | Monaco | Jean Jacques | "Maman, Maman" | French | Mother, mother | 6 | 11 |
05 | Ireland | Muriel Day | "The Wages of Love" | English | - | 7 | 10 |
06 | Italy | Iva Zanicchi | "Due grosse lacrime bianche" | Italian | Two big white tears | 13 | 5 |
07 | United Kingdom | Lulu | "Boom Bang-a-Bang" | English | - | 1 | 18 |
08 | The Netherlands | Lenny Kuhr | "De troubadour" | Dutch | The troubadour | 1 | 18 |
09 | Sweden | Tommy Körberg | "Judy, min vän" | Swedish | Judy, my love | 9 | 8 |
10 | Belgium | Louis Neefs | "Jennifer Jennings" | Dutch | - | 7 | 10 |
11 | Switzerland | Paola Del Medico | "Bonjour, Bonjour" | German | Hello, Hello | 5 | 13 |
12 | Norway | Kirsti Sparboe | "Oj, oj, oj, så glad jeg skal bli" | Norwegian | Wow, wow, wow, how happy I'll be | 16 | 1 |
13 | Germany | Siw Malmkvist | "Primaballerina" | German | - | 9 | 8 |
14 | France | Frida Boccara | "Un jour, un enfant" | French | A Day, A Child | 1 | 18 |
15 | Portugal | Simone de Oliveira | " Desfolhada portuguesa " | Portuguese | Portuguese husking | 15 | 4 |
16 | Finland | Jarkko & Laura | " Kuin silloin ennen " | Finnish | Like in those times | 12 | 6 |