The Eurovision Song Contest 1969 was the 14th edition of the annual
Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in
Madrid
Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the Largest cities of the Europ ...
,
Spain
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
, national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond")
, national_anthem = (English: "Royal March")
, i ...
, following the country's victory at the with the song "
La, la, la
"La, la, la" is a song recorded by Spanish singer Massiel, written by Manuel de la Calva and Ramón Arcusa. It is best known as the Spanish winning entry at the Eurovision Song Contest 1968 in London. It was the first time that Spain won the C ...
" by
Massiel
María de los Ángeles Felisa Santamaría Espinosa (born 2 August 1947), professionally known as Massiel, is a Spanish pop singer. She won the Eurovision Song Contest 1968 with the song "La, la, la", beating the British pop singer Cliff Richard' ...
. Organised by the
European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster
Televisión Española
Televisión Española (acronym TVE, branded tve, "Spanish Television") is Spain's national state-owned public television broadcaster and the oldest regular television service in the country. It was also the first regular television service in ...
(TVE), the contest was held at the
Teatro Real
The Teatro Real (Royal Theatre) is an opera house in Madrid, Spain. Located at the Plaza de Oriente, opposite the Royal Palace, and known colloquially as ''El Real'', it is considered the top institution of the performing and musical arts in the ...
on 29 March 1969 and was hosted by Spanish television presenter and actress
Laurita Valenzuela
Rocío Espinosa López-Cepero (born 18 February 1931, in Seville), known professionally as Laura Valenzuela, or Laurita Valenzuela in her beginnings, is a retired Spanish television presenter, actress and model. She was one of the first televis ...
.
Sixteen countries took part in the contest with
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
deciding not to participate this year.
At the close of voting, four countries were controversially declared joint-winners: the with "
Boom Bang-a-Bang" by
Lulu
Lulu may refer to:
Companies
* LuLu, an early automobile manufacturer
* Lulu.com, an online e-books and print self-publishing platform, distributor, and retailer
* Lulu Hypermarket, a retail chain in Asia
* Lululemon Athletica or simply Lulu, ...
, with "
Vivo cantando" by
Salomé, the with "
De troubadour
"De troubadour" ("The troubadour"), sung in Dutch by Lenny Kuhr representing the , was – together with "Boom Bang-a-Bang", "Un jour, un enfant", and "Vivo cantando" from, respectively, the , , and – one of the four winners of the Eurovision ...
" by
Lenny Kuhr, and with "
Un jour, un enfant" by
Frida Boccara. It was the first time in the history of the contest that a tie had occurred, and as there was no tiebreaker rule in place at the time, all four countries were declared joint winners.
France's win was their fourth, thus making it the first country to win the contest four times. The Netherlands' win was their third. Spain and the United Kingdom each won for the second time, with Spain becoming the first country to win the Eurovision Song Contest twice in a row.
Location
The venue selected to host the 1969 contest was the Teatro Real, an opera house located in
Madrid
Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the Largest cities of the Europ ...
. The theatre reopened in 1966 as a concert theatre and the main concert venue of the
Spanish National Orchestra and the
RTVE Symphony Orchestra. The stage featured a metal sculpture created by surrealist Spanish artist .
Format
The
surrealist
Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to ...
Spanish artist
Salvador Dalí
Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquess of Dalí of Púbol (; ; ; 11 May 190423 January 1989) was a Spanish surrealist artist renowned for his technical skill, precise draftsmanship, and the striking and bizarre images in ...
was responsible for designing the publicity material for the 1969 contest.
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 some days later.
It was the second contest to be filmed and transmitted in colour, even though TVE did not have colour equipment at the time. It had to rent colour TV cameras from the
ARD German network. In Spain itself the broadcast was seen in black and white because the local transmitters did not support colour transmissions. The equipment for archiving the broadcast did not arrive in time, so TVE only had a black and white copy of the contest, until a colour copy was discovered in the archives of the
NRK
NRK, an abbreviation of the Norwegian ''Norsk Rikskringkasting AS'', generally expressed in English as the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, is the Norwegian government-owned radio and television public broadcasting company, and the largest ...
.
Participating countries
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
was absent from the contest,
officially because they could not find a suitable representative, but it was rumoured that they refused to participate in a contest staged in
Franco
Franco may refer to:
Name
* Franco (name)
* Francisco Franco (1892–1975), Spanish general and dictator of Spain from 1939 to 1975
* Franco Luambo (1938–1989), Congolese musician, the "Grand Maître"
Prefix
* Franco, a prefix used when ref ...
-ruled Spain.
Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...
wanted to debut with Welsh language broadcaster
BBC Cymru, and also made a national selection called ''
Cân i Gymru'', but in the end it was decided they would not participate in the competition – their participation was rejected because Wales is not a
sovereign state
A sovereign state or sovereign country, is a political entity represented by one central government that has supreme legitimate authority over territory. International law defines sovereign states as having a permanent population, defined te ...
. Only the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #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. ...
...
.
who led the orchestra.
Ossi Runne
Ossi Runne (23 April 1927 – 5 November 2020) was a Finnish trumpeter, orchestra leader, composer, and record producer.
Detailed voting results
Although neither jury made any errors in their announcements, scrutineer Clifford Brown asked both the Spanish and the Monegasque juries to repeat their scores. No adjustments were made to the scoring as a result of the repetition.
Spokespersons
Listed below is the order in which votes were cast during the 1969 contest along with the spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for their respective country.
#
Helga Vlahović
Helga Vlahović (28 January 1945 – 27 February 2012) was a Croatian journalist, producer, and television personality, whose career spanned five decades in both SFR Yugoslavia and later Croatia. She was one of the most popular television pr ...
# TBC
# Ramón Rivera
# TBC
#
John Skehan
John Skehan (18 July 1922 – 18 November 1992) was a prolific broadcaster on RTÉ, radio and television, for four decades.
Prior to joining RTÉ, Skehan served in the Irish Army, reaching the rank of captain during The Emergency.
Skehan be ...
#
Mike Bongiorno
# Colin Ward-Lewis
#
#
# Eugène Senelle
["Drieluik Madrid, met een viertal kanshebbers naar het uur H", Emiel Janssens, Gazet van Antwerpen, 29 March 1969]
#
#
#
#
# Maria Manuela Furtado
#
Broadcasts
Each national broadcaster also sent a commentator to the contest, in order to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language. In addition to the participating countries, the contest was also reportedly broadcast in Tunisia, in Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania and the Soviet Union via
Intervision, and in Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Puerto Rico.
Notes
References
External links
*
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1969
Music festivals in Spain
1969 in Spain
1969 in music
1960s in Madrid
March 1969 events in Europe
Events in Madrid