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Eurovision Song Contest 1973
International song competition From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1973 was the 18th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, held on 7 April 1973 at the Nouveau Théâtre in Luxembourg City, Luxembourg, and presented by Helga Guitton. It was organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster Compagnie Luxembourgeoise de Télédiffusion (CLT), who staged the event after winning the 1972 contest for Luxembourg with the song "Après toi" by Vicky Leandros. Broadcasters from a total of eighteen countries signed up to enter the contest, with Israel competing for the first time, while Austria pulled out after taking part in 1972 due to disputes between the broadcaster Österreichischer Rundfunk (ORF) and Austrian record labels. However Malta's planned participation ultimately failed to materialise, after the Maltese Broadcasting Authority (MBA) deemed the quality of the songs that it had received of too low quality, leaving seventeen countries to participate.
For the second year in a row the winner was Luxembourg, represented by the song "Tu te reconnaîtras", composed by Claude Morgan, with lyrics by Vline Buggy, and performed by Anne-Marie David. This was Luxembourg's fourth contest victory, matching the record number of contest wins previously set by France, and marked the second time that a country had won the contest two years in succession, previously set by Spain in 1969. Spain, the United Kingdom, Israel, and Sweden rounded out the top five positions, with Israel achieving the best performance for a debut nation since 1957. With 129 votes out of a possible maximum score of 160, "Tu te reconnaîtras" remains as of 2025[update] the best-ever scoring song when compared to the potential maximum available, receiving 80.63% of the maximum vote.
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Location
The 1973 contest took place in Luxembourg City, Luxembourg, following the country's victory at the 1972 contest with the song "Après toi" performed by Vicky Leandros. It was the third time that the event was hosted in Luxembourg, following the contests held in 1962 and 1966.[1][2]
Within days of winning the 1972 contest the Luxembourgish broadcaster Compagnie Luxembourgeoise de Télédiffusion (CLT) had confirmed its intent to stage the event.[3][4] CLT proposed the Nouveau Théâtre, also known as the Grand Théâtre or Théâtre Municipal, an arts venue inaugurated in 1964,[5][6] as the venue and suggested either 28 April or 5 May 1973 as the date of the event, the latest calendar dates proposed for the contest since its first edition in 1956. A revised date of 7 April was subsequently accepted by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), and announced during the 1972 edition of the Rose d'Or festival in Montreux, Switzerland.[4][7] The venue's usual capacity of 800 seats was reduced by about 100 to allow space for technical equipment.[4]
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Participants
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Broadcasters from a total of eighteen countries initially signed up for the 1973 event. Seventeen of the eighteen which had participated in 1972 were set to return – with Austria being the only absence – and were joined by Israel in its contest debut.[2][4] The Israel Broadcasting Authority (IBA), who was eligible to participate as a member of the EBU, became the first broadcaster to enter the contest representing a non-European country.[2][9] The Austrian broadcaster, Österreichischer Rundfunk (ORF), in contrast refused to send an entry, reportedly due to disputes between its head of entertainment and Austrian record labels.[10][11] In October 1972 the Greek broadcaster, the National Radio Television Foundation (EIRT), also enquired about entering the contest, however this was past the EBU's cut-off date;[4] it would ultimately enter for the first time at the following year's event, in what was Greece's debut.[12] Malta was among the eighteen countries initially scheduled to compete, however the Maltese Broadcasting Authority (MBA) withdrew its planned participation at a late stage, considering the standard of songs that it had received to be of too low quality for the contest;[4][13][14] this left seventeen countries in the contest.[2]
Three artists which had previously competed in the contest returned to represent their countries again: Marion Rung who had represented Finland in 1962, Cliff Richard who had represented the United Kingdom in 1968, and Massimo Ranieri who had represented Italy in 1971, appeared in the contest for the second time.[15] Additionally, Nicole and Hugo had originally been selected to represent Belgium in 1971, however the duo were replaced after Nicole had contracted jaundice;[15][16] among the Belgian duo's backing singers was Claude Lombard, who had represented the nation in 1968.[17] Sweden's group had originally performed in the Swedish selection, Melodifestivalen 1973, as Malta; however to avoid confusion with the country, the group performed at Eurovision as "the Nova".[15][18] Monica Dominique was the first female conductor in the contest's history when she led the orchestra during the Swedish entry; she was shortly followed by the second female conductor, Nurit Hirsh for Israel, a few songs later.[2][4]
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Production and format
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1973 was produced by the Luxembourgish public broadcaster Compagnie Luxembourgeoise de Télédiffusion (CLT), with some technical assistance provided by the German public broadcaster ARD.[2][4] Paul Ulveling served as producer, René Steichen served as director, Joachim Dzierzenga served as designer, and Pierre Cao served as musical director, leading the 46-piece Radio Télé Luxembourg orchestra.[2][4][21] A separate musical director could be nominated by each participating delegation to lead the orchestra during its country's performance, with the host musical director also available to conduct for those countries which did not nominate their own conductor.[15] On behalf of the EBU, the event was overseen by Clifford Brown as scrutineer.[21][22][23] The contest was presented by the German radio and television presenter Helga Guitton, a regular presenter on the German-language Radio Luxemburg and the French-language Télé-Luxembourg.[24][25] The preparation and production activities of the contest coincided with the introduction of colour television on Télé-Luxembourg in late 1972.[26][27]
Each participating broadcaster submitted one song, which was required to be no longer than three minutes in duration. A maximum of six performers were allowed on stage during each country's performance.[28][29] Following the confirmation of the eighteen planned participating countries, the draw to determine the running order of the contest was held on 8 January 1973 at the Villa Louvigny television studios in Luxembourg City, conducted by Jacques Harvey and Helga Guitton in the presence of Clifford Brown for the EBU and Gust Graas and Camille Ernster for CLT.[3][4]
The voting system used for the previous two years returned: each participating broadcaster appointed two individuals – one below the age of 25, the other above, and with at least 10 years between their ages – who awarded each song a score between one and five votes, except for the song from their own country.[30][31][32] The jurors were situated within Villa Louvigny, where they followed the contest on television, and after each country had performed were required to record their votes, so that they could not be altered later. The jurors were shown on screen during the voting sequence, with the scores being announced on screen by the jurors in blocks of three countries, with the final two countries voting as a block of two;[30][31] the jurors were accommodated in a hotel in Mondorf-les-Bains, 28 kilometres (17 mi) from Luxembourg City, and were forbidden from mixing with the competing delegations.[4][33]
Songs were permitted for the first time to be performed in any language, and not solely the official or national language or languages of the country they represented.[2] The countries which opted to take advantage of this new-found freedom were Finland and Sweden, who sang in English, and Norway, whose song was primarily in English and French but also featured lyrics in multiple other European languages.[9][15][18][34] This edition was the first to feature pre-recorded backing tracks, which could be used either with or without supplementation by the orchestra; any backing tracks were however required to include only the sound of instruments featured on stage being mimed by the performers. The first entry to take advantage of this rule change was that of the United Kingdom.[15][18]
Rehearsals for the participating artists began on 4 April 1973, with each delegation receiving a 45-minute slot on stage. The order in which the countries rehearsed was determined by how close they were to Luxembourg: the first day of rehearsals featured Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Switzerland; the second day, 5 April, saw the delegations from Monaco, Italy, Ireland, Spain, Yugoslavia, and Portugal take to the stage (had Malta competed as planned, its delegation would have rehearsed after Portugal); the remaining four countries, Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Israel, had their rehearsals on 6 April. This was followed by rehearsals of the interval act and presenter in the contest venue, and the juries in the television studio. A full dress rehearsal was then held on the evening of 6 April. Technical rehearsals and further rehearsals for the juries were held in the morning of 7 April, followed by another full dress rehearsal in the afternoon ahead of the live transmission.[4]
With Israel participating for the first time, and with the contest being held only months after an attack on the Israeli team at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany, Luxembourg mounted extensive security arrangements for the contest: the Nouveau Théâtre was sealed off for the duration of the contest's preparation, and when not required at the contest venue the Israeli delegation were isolated on the top floor of the Holiday Inn protected by armed guards.[4][18][33] Audience members were instructed not to stand up during the contest itself at the risk of being shot by armed security within the venue, while Israeli entrant Ilanit was rumoured to have worn a bulletproof vest underneath her outfit during her performance.[9][18] Additional security was also posted at the Villa Louvigny, where the various commentators were situated during the contest, in particular to protect the UK delegation from potential attack by Irish republican paramilitaries.[33]
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Contest overview
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The contest was held on 7 April 1973, beginning at 21:30 (CET) and lasting 1 hour and 40 minutes.[2][15][35] Prior to its withdrawal, Malta was scheduled to perform in sixth position, between the entries from Norway and Monaco.[3][13] In attendance for the contest were Princess Marie-Astrid, Princess Margaretha and Prince Jean of the grand ducal family of Luxembourg.[36]
The interval act was a performance by the Spanish clown Charlie Rivel, introduced by Guitton as "la grande diva Carlotta Rivello", who performed a comedic routine in drag as an operatic prima donna.[32][37][38][39] It was the first occurrence of a drag performance at the Eurovision Song Contest,[38] predating the first appearance of drag artists in a competing entry by thirteen years, and the first drag act to compete as the main performers for a country by twenty-nine years.[40] The prize for the winning artist and songwriters was presented by the previous year's winning artist Vicky Leandros.[32][39]
The winner was Luxembourg represented by the song "Tu te reconnaîtras", composed by Claude Morgan, written by Vline Buggy and performed by the French singer Anne-Marie David.[41][42] It was Luxembourg's fourth contest victory, following wins in 1961, 1965 and 1972,[1] becoming the first to achieve two outright wins in a row, and the second country to win twice in a row after Spain, which had achieved back-to-back wins in 1968 and 1969, the latter of which as part of a four-way tie.[9][25][31] With four wins David's victory also brought Luxembourg level for most wins overall, tied with France who held three outright wins in 1958, 1960, and 1962 and one shared win in 1969.[31] Spain and the United Kingdom finished in second and third, respectively, with the top three separated by only six votes.[43] Israel placed fourth, the best result for a debuting entry since Denmark's third place in 1957,[9] and Sweden placed fifth, despite some consternation over the lyrics of its entry, with one line in particular gaining much attention: "Oh your breasts are like swallows a-nestling".[9][34][44] Finland also achieved its best-ever result to that point, with a sixth-place finish.[45] In addition to the traditional full reprise of the winning song by Anne-Marie David, a shorter version of the song was also performed by her during the closing credits.[21][32]
Following the contest, the Spanish entry "Eres tú", written by Juan Carlos Calderón and performed by the group Mocedades, went on to achieve global success, charting within the top 10 on the US Billboard Hot 100 in 1974, one of only a handful of non-English-language songs to have achieved this feat.[46][47] "Eres tú" was subsequently nominated in 2005 to compete in Congratulations: 50 Years of the Eurovision Song Contest, a special broadcast to determine the contest's most popular entry of its first 50 years as part of the contest's anniversary celebrations. One of fourteen entries chosen to compete, "Eres tú" ultimately finished in eleventh place.[48][49]
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Detailed voting results
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Jury voting was used to determine the votes awarded by all countries.[31] The announcement of the results from each country's two jury members was conducted in the order in which their nation performed; the jurors were shown on camera when presenting their scores, with each juror using small boards in front of their desks with numbers 1 to 5 which they flipped up to reveal their votes for the country being awarded. The results of three countries at a time were totalled and presented as one score, with all seventeen countries receiving their scores before moving on to the next three countries to award their scores: e.g. in the first round of voting the scores of the Finnish, Belgian and Portuguese juries were revealed together, which were announced as 14 votes for Finland, 9 votes for Belgium, and so on until Israel received the final scores from these three countries, with 17 votes; this was then followed by the votes from the German, Norwegian and Monegasque jurors, which awarded their scores starting again for Finland and ending with Israel, with further countries voting in groups of three in the same manner, with the final group of two comprising the French and Israeli jurors.[31][32] The detailed breakdown of the votes awarded by each country is listed in the tables below, with voting countries listed in the order in which they presented their votes.
With 129 votes "Tu te reconnaîtras" is the highest-scoring song under the voting system used between 1971 and 1973; additionally, with 80.63% of the maximum votes available, this win represents, as of 2025[update], the most successful score for any winning entry when compared to the potential maximum score on offer.[50]
10 votes
The below table summarises where the potential maximum of 10 votes were awarded from one country to another. The winning country is shown in bold. Luxembourg and Spain each received the maximum score of 10 votes from three of the voting countries, and the United Kingdom received two sets of 10 votes.[51][52]
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Broadcasts
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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.[29]
In addition to the participating nations, the contest was also reportedly aired, live or deferred, by broadcasters in Algeria, Austria, Greece, Iceland, Malta, Morocco, Tunisia, and Turkey, in Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania and the Soviet Union via Intervision, and in the Middle East and Japan, with an estimated global audience of 400 million.[4][53][54][55] Known details on the broadcasts in each country, including the specific broadcasting stations and commentators are shown in the tables below.
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Notes and references
External links
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