Intro Post

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Introduction

The 1973 edition of Eurovision was hosted once more in Luxembourg City, this time in the Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg. Unlike other Eurovision contests, the orchestra performers surrounded the singers this year, seated in vertical rows. That, together with the bold 1970’s style font, gave this contest a uniquely charming presentation. This contest had 17 participating countries, since Austria and Malta left from last year and a new country joined. It was the first Eurovision participant outside of Europe (but inside the European Broadcasting Union): Israel.

There’s no two ways about it—Israel is a highly controversial country. I don’t consider myself qualified to talk about political issues, but there are several instances of Israel-related drama in Eurovision that it’ll be hard to avoid discussing. In all my blog posts, I try to keep a neutral tone when discussing controversial topics, and the same will hold for Eurovision drama. Still, with four victories and many other iconic entries, Israel has become an integral part of the contest’s history.

The most notable change from prior contests is that for the first time, the language rule was lifted. Countries could sing in any language they chose for the next four years. Sweden and Finland jumped at the opportunity to sing in English, but Norway went the extra mile and sent a song using almost every participating country’s language. I feel like this change was made for the sake of the Nordic countries, which had a strong English-language music scene. When more non-Nordic countries started singing in English in 1976, the rule was reinstated the next year.

It’s unusually hard to find commentary on this contest because Belgium’s performance is blocked on YouTube everywhere except Belgium. With a VPN, the best I could find was an upload with British commentary, marred with lots of white noise. I watched that in alternation with an uncommentated archive on Mega. This was the first of many Eurovisions commentated on TV by Terry Wogan, who was famous for his deadpan humor. That’s why I wanted to access this contest’s British commentary so badly. I had never even used a VPN before writing this post!