Monthly Archives: November 2025

Cookie Fonster Plows Once Again Through Eurovision 1974: The Year Hosted in My Birthplace

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Intro Post

< 1973 Review | 1974 Review | 1975 Review >

Introduction

Yes, I was actually born in Brighton, England, which is where Eurovision 1974 (the year of my dad’s birth) took place. But I do not consider myself British at all. My parents just happened to be spending a year abroad in England and returned to the United States when I was three months old, and I haven’t been back to the UK since.

Luxembourg had hosted and won Eurovision 1973, but unsurprisingly for such a small country, they refused to host Eurovision twice in a row. Spain who came second place also declined to host, so the EBU asked the ever-eager BBC to hold their horses as they looked for other countries who could do it. Israel’s IBA offered to do it, as did the BBC’s rival broadcaster ITV, but the IBA lagged behind many European broadcasters in technology, and ITV participating meant the BBC wouldn’t be able to. So the BBC bidded to host after all, and after getting the offer they chose to put on the show in the Brighton Dome. The arena normally had 2100 seats, but half of them had to be temporarily removed to make way for commentator booths and other equipment, which means this is another show with a rather small audience.

As with the previous contest, 17 countries took part this year, but we have a little swap-out. Greece made their debut whereas France dropped out because of their president Georges Pompidou’s sudden death. This year has a mythic place in Eurovision lore because it has a lot of songs that tie in with real-world events in some way, not to mention two very big names: Olivia Newton-John representing the UK, and the winners, ABBA from Sweden. But what I’m interested in is, do the songs this year hold up? We’re about to find out together.

Before I dive into the songs, there are some clever details in this year’s production I’d like to point out. For one thing, I like that the producers picked one good-looking font and used it throughout the show. The font is called Optima Bold and looks remarkably timeless. It fits well in a 1970’s show and wouldn’t be out of place in something produced in 2025 either. The logo for this year’s contest is also timeless and cleverly designed: a bird holding a microphone circled by the text “EUROVISION SONG CONTEST 1974”. The postcards are fabulous too: first they show a bit of the participating country, then footage from the contestant’s rehearsal, and finally them having a good time exploring Brighton. They cram a lot of material into 40-ish seconds and do it really well.

Did I forget anything? Oh right… Katie Boyle hosted this contest, making it her fourth and final time presenting Eurovision. She still holds the record for most times having hosted Eurovision; the only other people who have hosted multiple contests are Jacqueline Joubert (1959, 1961) and Petra Mede (2013, 2016, 2024). Unfortunately, this time around Katie looks like she’s afraid something disastrous will happen throughout the show. If you read up a little bit on this contest, you’ll know why that is: it’s because she wasn’t wearing underwear beneath her dress. I watched the show with British commentary done by David Vine.

And one more thing: the voting system got reverted to “each jury has 10 members who can give a point to one song each” for one last time. Surprisingly, no country scored zero points this year. Instead, four countries tied for last place with three points each: Norway, Germany, Switzerland, and Portugal.

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Cookie Fonster Recounts Eurovision 1973 Again: The Year Where Fans Fixed the Audio

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Intro Post

< 1972 Review | 1973 Review | 1974 Review >

Introduction

Vicky Leandros’ victory brought Eurovision to Luxembourg for the third of four times. This time, the show took place in the Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg, which has 943 seats in the main theatre and 400 in the studio. That is a tiny audience by modern standards, the kind you might see in a smaller country’s national final. I think this gives the show an intimate feel, compared to those with grandiose arenas such as 1968 in the Royal Albert Hall. This intimate feel is further helped by the orchestra surrounding the performers in a circle, which I think looks just plain awesome. Unfortunately the show has no postcards this year. We only get a picture of each singer taken during a rehearsal with their name on the bottom to introduce each song, and they often have unflattering expressions.

Eurovision 1973 is a year of many firsts. It was the first year to have at least one female conductor (for Sweden and Israel), the first that explicitly let countries sing in any language they wanted, the first where at least one song used a backing track (“Power to All Our Friends” from the UK), and the first year where Israel participated. Austria and Malta from last year skipped this contest, meaning it had a total of 17 participating countries. Because this was Israel’s first time participating and came just a year after the horrific Munich massacre, the contest had extreme security measures in place, especially for the Israeli delegation. According to Swedish conductor Monica Dominique, two men with machine guns guarded both sides of the stage throughout the television broadcast.

The intro to the show is pretty simple: an opening film with little clips of the contestants set to an orchestration of “Après toi”, a glimpse at Vicky and Leo Leandros in the audience, then the presenter Helga Guitton introducing the show in French and English with a pinch of German and a few words in Luxembourgish. I watched the show with German commentary uploaded to YouTube just a few weeks ago, but I made sure to check out the versions of each song with strings created by awuga. The orchestra had major sound issues this year which caused the strings to be mostly inaudible on TV, although when I first watched the year I just thought the orchestra was brassier than usual.

The top three of this year are all quite iconic: Cliff Richard with “Power to All My Friends” at third place, a very famous Spanish song called “Eres tú” at second, and the winner was Luxembourg with “Tu te reconnaîtras”—the second of five times the host country won.

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Cookie Fonster Relistens to Eurovision 1972: Vicky Gets Her Revenge

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Intro Post

< 1971 Review | 1972 Review | 1973 Review >

Sorry this post took so long! I got sidetracked by other projects, that’s all. It’s quite exciting to see Romania and Bulgaria return after multi-year breaks to Eurovision 2026—let’s hope they send honest efforts and not flops. But I’m still very much worried about the elephant in the room that is Israel’s participation. I still firmly believe that country should be banned from 2026. It’s pretty clear that the EBU is trying to procrastinate dealing with this issue as long as possible. We’ll see what happens, I suppose. I don’t see any of the countries that said they would boycott the contest if Israel participates backing down from this position, especially not the Netherlands who are a huge financial contributor, because AVROTROS has been more stubborn than any other broadcaster regarding Eurovision ever since the Joost Klein incident, and for very good reason.

Unfortunately I probably won’t go to Vienna for Eurovision 2026, unless maybe I get a high-paying job very soon and get lucky regarding vacation days. Even then, it would be much wiser to save up money for later trips. I need a new job very badly, but even if I do have one I might need to watch next Eurovision from home.

Introduction

After having won Eurovision 1971, the tiny country of Monaco originally wanted to host the next Eurovision contest, but the country had no concert hall or TV studio big enough to host the show. The second and third place countries, Spain and Germany, both declined to host, so the BBC stepped in and offered to stage the event in either Blackpool or Edinburgh. In the end, Edinburgh had the honor of hosting the event, making this the first Eurovision in Scotland, and the only Eurovision hosted in a part of the UK other than England. The show took place in the Usher Hall, which has a modest 2200 seats. You won’t hear much of a Scottish accent from the presenter, Moira Shearer—her accent is total Received Pronunciation (RP), just as much as our good pal Katie Boyle.

This year had the same 18 participating countries as 1971, and the same 1-5 star voting system as well. The winner was Luxembourg with the iconic song “Après toi”, the UK scored yet another second place, and Germany scored a third place two years in a row although they still had yet to win. In last place came Malta for two years in a row, which led them to skip the next two years.

Last time I watched the contest with German commentary, but this time with British commentary done by Tom Fleming. He begins the show narrating the history of Scotland as though he’s a movie narrator. The orchestra plays an arrangement of “Un banc, un arbre, une rue” in homage to Monaco as the camera pans down to the audience, all dressed in fancy suits but with a little splash of color. Then Moira Shearer enters this year’s glamorous stage and gives the usual efficient British-style introduction to the show in English and French. Sadly the show doesn’t have postcards this year, but it does have cute little photos of each competing artist on the big screen before each song begins.

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