Tag Archives: 60's pop music

Cookie Fonster Investigates Eurovision 1969: The Notorious Quadruple Tie

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Intro Post

< 1968 Review | 1969 Review | 1970 Review >

Introduction

We’ve now reached the year my mother was born in! I can imagine her as a baby to get a feel for how long ago this contest was. Eurovision 1969 was the only contest hosted in Spain and the first hosted in a city I’ve been to: Madrid. The count of Eurovisions hosted in cities I’ve visited is anywhere from four to eight, depending on what you count. I’ve been to Madrid, Paris, Munich, and Lisbon; Brighton and Athens too, but only as a baby; and I’ve transferred at airports in Amsterdam and Düsseldorf. Counting all of these, I could increase the number to 14 if I ever visit Dublin.

This contest had 16 countries, since Austria skipped it this time. After a rapid increase in contestants in the first decade, it must have been disappointing when countries started skipping out. Except for people who hated Eurovision and thought it was the stupidest thing ever; they probably found it satisfying.

The most notable part about this contest is that four countries tied for the winner: the United Kingdom, Spain, France, and the Netherlands. I imagine that the people running Eurovision must have been embarrassed that they never made a tiebreaker rule, which they did next year. Luckily, there were just enough medals to give to the winners. Normally one medal went to the winning singer, and up to three medals went to the winning songwriters; this time, each medal went to a winning singer. The four-way win was so controversial that four more countries skipped out in 1970.

A few other facts: Madrid was the southernmost and westernmost host city at the time. It was the first Eurovision broadcast in the Americas; according to the presenter, Chile, Puerto Rico, and Brazil. The promotional material was designed by a name everyone knows: Salvador Dali. That sounds crazy to me, but is it any crazier than ABBA being from Eurovision?

Fittingly, I watched this contest with commentary in Spanish. This should be a fun way to test how well I know the language, after learning it on and off for a year.

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Cookie Fonster Uncovers Eurovision 1967: Catching up with 60’s Pop

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Intro Post

< 1966 Review | 1967 Review | 1968 Review >

Introduction

The 1967 edition of Eurovision was hosted in Vienna, Austria, in a building that once was a palace for the Habsburg dynasty. Appropriately enough, I watched it with commentary in Austrian German. This contest began a decline in participating countries that lasted until 1970, after which countries started joining again. This time, only Denmark didn’t return from last year, not to rejoin Eurovision until 1978. Because of this, Eurovision 1966 was the last contest to feature every country that had ever previously participated. I wonder how fans felt when more and more countries started to leave? Maybe they were thinking this contest was soon to die, but they were completely wrong.

Normally in this era of Eurovision, the presenter mostly spoke the host country’s language, plus some obligatory introduction in French and English. However, Erica Vaal went the extra mile and announced the introduction in as many languages as she knew: German, French, English, Italian, Spanish, and Russian. Then she apologized in English to all the countries whose languages she didn’t have the time to learn. I found that incredibly cool.

This contest returned to the original voting system where each country had ten votes to distribute across each entry. I’m guessing this was done to mitigate bloc voting, and it worked! For this contest, at least. It also caused a bunch of clumsiness on the scoreboard operators’ part.

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Cookie Fonster Assesses Eurovision 1964: The Second of Three Lost Years

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Intro Post

< 1963 Review | 1964 Review | 1965 Review >

Introduction

1956, 1964, and 2020 are the “lost years” of Eurovision because you can’t watch a full video recording of any of these contests. The first two because most of the video footage is lost media; the third because COVID-19 forced the contest’s cancellation. Fortunately, the audio of this contest is preserved entirely, and we know exactly who voted for who. This time, countries gave five, three, and one points to their top three songs. This led Italy to beat its nearest rival by almost three times, the most crushing victory in Eurovision history.

Sweden skipped this contest due to student protests, while Portugal made its debut, which kept the number of countries at 16. Since 2017, Portugal has been the most recent first-time winner of Eurovision. Many fans weren’t happy about including Portugal, since back then it was a dictatorship like Spain. Protests against these countries’ inclusion caused the first ever stage invasion in Eurovision history.

Anyway, this contest was hosted in Copenhagen, Denmark, the northernmost and easternmost host city thus far. The presenter spoke mostly in her own language, as was the norm back then. I understand Danish less than Dutch, but more than the other North Germanic languages.

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Cookie Fonster Examines Eurovision 1963: A Narrow Nordic Victory

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Intro Post

< 1962 Review | 1963 Review | 1964 Review >

Introduction

If you thought the whole point of music concerts was to see the singer in person, Eurovision 1963 would beg to differ. For some reason, the singers performed in one room, while the audience watched the shows on a screen in a different room. This apparently caused rumors that the performances were pre-recorded, even though with the technology of that time, that sounded like more trouble than just broadcasting them live.

For the second time, the United Kingdom substituted for a multi-time Eurovision winner: France, which had just celebrated its third victory and didn’t want to host again. Once again, the contest took place in London, specifically the BBC Television Centre. After the bare bones staging in the last two years, Eurovision 1963 returned to fanciful stage shenanigans. This is clear as soon as the singers are all introduced, where they’re backed by recursive mirrors. Too bad the audience didn’t get to see them in color!

The voting system of 1963 was adjusted from last year. This time, countries sent five to one points for their top five songs, which decreased bias towards the second half.

Oh yeah, I guess I’m watching with Dutch commentary again! I can’t speak Dutch, but it’s close enough to German that I can understand some of it. We’re now 60 years till we’ve caught up with the present, which means my grandparents were roughly as old back then as I am today. (I know their years of birth, and one was slightly older than me, the other three slightly younger.)

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