The Eurovision Song Contest 1960 was the fifth edition of the

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), often known simply as Eurovision, is an international Music competition, song competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) among its members since 1956. Each participating broadcaster ...

, 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, England. 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 G ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, United Kingdom, and hosted by British television presenter and actress

Catherine Boyle Caterina Irene Elena Maria Boyle, Lady Saunders (; 29 May 1926 – 20 March 2018), usually known as Katie Boyle, was an Italian-born British actress, writer, radio announcer and television personality. She became best known for presenting the E ...

. Organised by the

European Broadcasting Union The European Broadcasting Union (EBU; , UER) is an alliance of Public broadcasting, public service media organisations in countries within the European Broadcasting Area (EBA) or who are member states of the Council of Europe, members of the ...

(EBU) and host broadcaster the

British Broadcasting Corporation The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public broadcasting, public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved in ...

(BBC), which was offered the rights to stage the contest after the ' (NTS), which had won the , declined the opportunity after having 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 recorded by French singer Jacqueline Boyer with music composed by André Popp and French lyrics written by Pierre Cour. It was released as a single on 10 April 1960. It in the Eurovision Song Contest 1960 held in London, ...

", performed by

Jacqueline Boyer Eliane Ducos (born 23 April 1941), known professionally as Jacqueline Boyer (), is a French singer and actress. She is also the daughter of performers Jacques Pills and Lucienne Boyer. In Eurovision Song Contest 1960, 1960, she won the Eurovis ...

, 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 ...

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

Royal_Festival_Hall_and_Shot_Tower_c1959

The contest took place in London, United Kingdom. Although the had won the , the Dutch broadcaster (NTS) declined to stage the event for a second time in three years, after hosting the in

Hilversum Hilversum () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Holland, Netherlands. Located in the heart of the Gooi, it is ...

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

(BBC), following their 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 area on the south bank of the River Thames, in the London Borough of Lambeth, central London, England. The South Bank is not formally defined, but is generally understood to be situated betwe ...

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, s ...

, 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. Labour Party cabinet member Herbert Morrison was the prime mover; in 1947 he started with the ...

; it is now part of the

Southbank Centre Southbank Centre is an arts centre in London, England. It is adjacent to the separately owned National Theatre and BFI Southbank. It comprises the three main performance spaces – the Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, and Purcell R ...

, a complex of several artistic venues.

Participants

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. Fud Leclerc made his third appearance at the contest, having represented with "" (one of the two Belgian entries in that year's contest) and with "". The song from Luxembourg was the first entry performed in Luxembourgish at the contest, and one of only three entries performed in the language (alongside the country's entries and ).

Format

The contest was organised and broadcast by the BBC, with Harry Carlisle serving as producer,

Innes Lloyd George Innes Llewelyn Lloyd (24 December 1925 – 23 August 1991) was a Welsh television producer and former actor. He had a long career as a producer in BBC drama, which included series such as ''Doctor Who'' and ''Talking Heads''. Early li ...

as director,

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 ...

designer A designer is a person who plans the form or structure of something before it is made, by preparing drawings or plans. In practice, anyone who creates tangible or intangible objects, products, processes, laws, games, graphics, services, or exper ...

, and Eric Robinson as

musical director A music director, musical director or director of music is a person responsible for the musical aspects of a performance, production, or organization. This would include the artistic director and usually chief conductor of an orchestra or concert ...

, leading the orchestra during the event. 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 Choir, 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 d ...

for those countries which did not nominate their own conductor. 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. 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.

Contest overview

The contest was held on 29 March 1960 at 21:00 ( GMT) and lasted 1 hour and 20 minutes. The contest was presented by British television presenter and actress

, 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 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, Rog ...

and performed by

. Boyer is the daughter of

Jacques Pills Jacques Pills (born René Jacques Ducos; 6 March 1906 – 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 with the song " Mon ami ...

, 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 UK gained their second consecutive second place finish, while Monaco considerably improved upon their debut performance the previous year with a third place finish. 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 (; 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. Career In ...

; 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.

Spokespersons

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

Tage Danielsson Tage Ivar Roland Danielsson (; 5 February 1928 – 13 October 1985) was a Swedes, Swedish author, actor, comedian, poet and film director. He worked together with Hans Alfredson in the comedy duo Hasse & Tage. Early life Danielsson was bor ...

* Nick Burrell-Davis

Detailed voting results

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

Broadcasts

Broadcasters competing in the event were required to relay the contest via its networks; non-participating EBU member broadcasters were also able to relay the contest. 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. An estimated audience of 30 million would see the contest. 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 * Janu ...

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