The Eurovision Song Contest 1960 was the fifth edition of the annual

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...

, held on Tuesday 29 March 1960 at the

Royal Festival Hall The Royal Festival Hall is a 2,700-seat concert, dance and talks venue within Southbank Centre in London. It is situated on the South Bank of the River Thames, not far from Hungerford Bridge, in the London Borough of Lambeth. It is a Grade I l ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

, and hosted by British television presenter and actress Catherine Boyle. Organised by the

European Broadcasting Union The European Broadcasting Union (EBU; french: Union européenne de radio-télévision, links=no, UER) is an alliance of Public broadcasting, public service media organisations whose countries are within the European Broadcasting Area or who ar ...

(EBU) and host broadcaster the

British Broadcasting Corporation #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

(BBC), the United Kingdom was offered the rights to stage the contest after the , which had won the , declined the opportunity after having previously organised the event in . returned to the competition after an absence of one year, and made its first contest appearance, bringing the total number of participating countries to thirteen. The winner was with the song "

Tom Pillibi "Tom Pillibi" is a song written in French by Pierre Cour, composed by André Popp and performed in 1960 by Jacqueline Boyer as 's entry and the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 1960, gaining other versions including covers by other Eurovisio ...

", performed by

Jacqueline Boyer Jacqueline Boyer (, born Eliane Ducos, 23 April 1941) is a French singer and actress. She is also the daughter of performers Jacques Pills and Lucienne Boyer. In 1960, she won the Eurovision Song Contest for France singing "Tom Pillibi", with m ...

, composed by

André Popp André Charles Jean Popp (19 February 1924 – 10 May 2014) was a French composer, arranger and screenwriter. Biography Popp was born into a family of German-Dutch background, in Fontenay-le-Comte, Vendée. He started his career as a church org ...

and written by Pierre Cour. This marked France's second contest victory, having also won in 1958. The placed second for the second consecutive year and earned their first top three finish by placing third.

Location

The contest took place in

, United Kingdom. Although the had won the in

Cannes Cannes ( , , ; oc, Canas) is a city located on the French Riviera. It is a communes of France, commune located in the Alpes-Maritimes departments of France, department, and host city of the annual Cannes Film Festival, Midem, and Cannes Lions I ...

, the Dutch broadcaster (NTS) declined to stage the event for a second time in three years, after previously hosting the in

Hilversum Hilversum () is a city and municipality in the province of North Holland, Netherlands. Located in the heart of the Gooi, it is the largest urban centre in that area. It is surrounded by heathland, woods, meadows, lakes, and smaller towns. Hilvers ...

. The rights to staging the contest subsequently passed to the United Kingdom's

(BBC), following the UK's second place finish in the previous year's event, a decision which was announced in October 1959. The

was chosen to stage the 1960 contest. Situated on the

South Bank The South Bank is an entertainment and commercial district in central London, next to the River Thames opposite the City of Westminster. It forms a narrow strip of riverside land within the London Borough of Lambeth (where it adjoins Alber ...

of the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, se ...

, the venue was first opened in 1951 and was originally conceived for use during that year's

Festival of Britain The Festival of Britain was a national exhibition and fair that reached millions of visitors throughout the United Kingdom in the summer of 1951. Historian Kenneth O. Morgan says the Festival was a "triumphant success" during which people: ...

; it is now part of the

Southbank Centre Southbank Centre is a complex of artistic venues in London, England, on the South Bank of the River Thames (between Hungerford Bridge and Waterloo Bridge). It comprises three main performance venues (the Royal Festival Hall including the Nat ...

, a complex of several artistic venues.

Format

The contest was presented by British television presenter and actress Catherine Boyle, the first of four contests in which she participated as host. Boyle presided over the opening of the contest and the voting process, while the various national broadcasters that carried the show provided commentary between each act, with the United Kingdom's commentator David Jacobs also being heard by the assembled audience of over 2,500 people in the hall. The draw to determine the order in which each country would perform was conducted on 28 March in the presence of the performers. Performance and technical rehearsals involving the artists and orchestra were held on 28 and 29 March ahead of the live transmission from 21:00

GMT Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) is the mean solar time at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London, counted from midnight. At different times in the past, it has been calculated in different ways, including being calculated from noon; as a cons ...

. The stage built for the contest was designed by

Richard Levin Richard Charles Levin (born April 7, 1947) is an American economist and academic administrator. From 1993 to 2013, he was the 22nd President of Yale University. From March 2014 to June 2017, he was Chief Executive Officer of Coursera. Early lif ...

. As had been the case since the 1957 contest, 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. A new innovation for this year's event was to allow the national juries to listen to the final rehearsal of each country, which was also recorded to allow jury members to listen to the entries ahead of the live contest. It was originally planned for the top three songs to be performed again following the voting, as had occurred in the 1959 contest, however this was ultimately scrapped and only the winning song received its traditional reprise performance. The winning artist was presented with a silver gilt vase, which was awarded by

Teddy Scholten Dorothea Margaretha "Teddy" Scholten (née van Zwieteren; 11 May 1926 – 8 April 2010) was a Dutch singer and television presenter. She is known for winning the Eurovision Song Contest 1959 with the song "Een beetje", representing the Netherlands ...

; this marked the first time that the previous year's winning artist awarded the prize to the next contest winner, which has since become Eurovision tradition.

Participating countries

The number of entries grew to thirteen for this edition, with the eleven competing countries from the 1959 contest being joined by , returning after a one year absence, and , making its first appearance.

Conductors

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, Eric Robinson, also

conducting Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance, such as an orchestral or choral concert. It has been defined as "the art of directing the simultaneous performance of several players or singers by the use of gesture." The primary duti ...

for those countries which did not nominate their own conductor. The conductors listed below led the orchestra during the performance for the indicated countries. * Eric Robinson *

Thore Ehrling Thore Ehrling (December 29, 1912, Stockholm - October 21, 1994, Stockholm) was a Swedish trumpeter, composer, and bandleader, who led jazz and popular music ensembles. Ehrling played with Frank Vernon's ensemble from 1930 to 1934, and concomitan ...

* Eric Robinson * Kai Mortensen * Henri Segers *

Øivind Bergh Øivind Bergh (3 December 190925 January 1987) was a Norwegian violinist and orchestral leader. Biography Øivind Ingvard Bergh was born in Hamar, Norway. His parents were Even Johannesen Bergh (1873–1958) and Karen Hanssen (1881–1940). He ...

Robert Stolz Robert Elisabeth Stolz (25 August 188027 June 1975) was an Austrian songwriter A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be call ...

Raymond Lefèvre Raymond Lefèvre (20 November 1929 – 27 June 2008) was a French easy listening orchestra leader, arranger and composer. Biography and career Born on 20 November 1929 in Calais, France, Raymond Lefèvre is best known for his interpretation of ...

* *

Dolf van der Linden David Gijsbert van der Linden (22 June 1915 – 30 January 1999), known as Dolf van der Linden, was a Dutch conductor of popular music with a reputation which extended beyond the borders of the Netherlands. Biography David Gijsbert van der Lind ...

* *

Cinico Angelini Angelo Cinico, best known as Cinico Angelini (12 November 1901 – 7 July 1983), was an Italian conductor, arranger and violinist. Life and career After his studies at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Turin, Angelini started his career as ...

Franck Pourcel Franck Pourcel (14 August 1913 – 12 November 2000) was a French composer, arranger, and conductor of popular and classical music. Biography Early life Born in Marseille, France, Pourcel started learning the violin at the age of six. Later, ...

Participants and results

Fud Leclerc Ferdinand Urbain Dominic Leclerc (, 1924 – 20 September 2010) was a Belgian singer, who was also the pianist of Juliette Gréco. Leclerc had a career as a pianist, accordionist, songwriter and singer before retiring to travel the world. On hi ...

made his third appearance at the contest for , having previously represented the country in with "" (one of the two Belgian entries in that year's contest) and in with "". The song from Luxembourg was the first contest entry to be performed in

Luxembourgish Luxembourgish ( ; also ''Luxemburgish'', ''Luxembourgian'', ''Letzebu(e)rgesch''; Luxembourgish: ) is a West Germanic language that is spoken mainly in Luxembourg. About 400,000 people speak Luxembourgish worldwide. As a standard form of th ...

, and one of only three entries to be performed in the language (alongside the country's entries from and ). The winner was represented by the song "

", composed by

, written by

Pierre Cour Pierre Cour (5 April 1916 – 22 December 1995) was a French songwriter who wrote songs for several generations of artists. He wrote a number of successful songs in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. Among those who recorded his songs are Dalida, Roge ...

and performed by

. Boyer is the daughter of

Jacques Pills Jacques Pills (born René Jacques Ducos; 7 January 1906, Tulle, France – 12 September 1970) was a French singer and actor. His impresario was Bruno Coquatrix. In 1959, Pills was the Monegasque entrant at the Eurovision Song Contest 1959 wit ...

, who had represented Monaco in the and placed last with "". France's victory was their second in the contest, following their win in 1958, and brought them level on number of victories with the Netherlands. The United Kingdom gained their second consecutive second place finish, while Monaco considerably improved upon their debut performance the previous year with a third place finish.

Detailed voting results

The announcement of the results from each country was conducted in reverse order to the order in which each country performed.

Spokespersons

Each country nominated a spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for their respective country via telephone. Known spokespersons at the 1960 contest are listed below. *

Enzo Tortora Enzo Tortora (30 November 1928 – 18 May 1988) was an Italian TV host on national RAI television, who was unjustly convicted of being a member of the Camorra and drug trafficking in 1985, and sentenced to 10 years in jail. He was acquitted of ...

* *

Tage Danielsson Tage Danielsson (; 5 February 1928 – 13 October 1985) was a Swedish author, actor, comedian, poet and film director. He is best known for his collaboration with Hans Alfredson in the comedy duo Hasse & Tage. Career After graduation from ...

* Nick Burrell-Davis

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. Known details on the broadcasts in each country, including the specific broadcasting stations and commentators are shown in the tables below.

Notes and references

Notes

References

Bibliography

* *

External links

* {{coord, 51, 30, 21.01, N, 0, 07, 00.44, W, display=title

1960 It is also known as the "Year of Africa" because of major events—particularly the independence of seventeen African nations—that focused global attention on the continent and intensified feelings of Pan-Africanism. Events January * Ja ...

Music festivals in the United Kingdom 1960 in music 1960 in the United Kingdom 1960 in London March 1960 events in the United Kingdom Royal Festival Hall Events in London