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Introduction
Eurovision 1956 went by without any hitches that I know of: the show ran smoothly and the winner was a song that the audience in Lugano clearly loved. So it’s no wonder that the EBU decided they should do this again in 1957. I have to wonder why the date is so different this time: the first Eurovision was on May 24, whereas the second was on March 3. Maybe the contest was normally supposed to be in March, but the setup of 1956 ran into delays? I wonder if anyone knows the answer. Another mystery is why Frankfurt, Germany was chosen to host the 1957 contest. It’s sometimes believed that the EBU was originally going to rotate hosting duties between all the participating countries, until the next year when the rule was changed so that last year’s winner will host.
All seven countries that participated in Eurovision 1956 came back this year, and three new countries expanded the map: Austria, Denmark, and the United Kingdom. This time, each of the participating countries sent only one song. The show was hosted by a German actress of Armenian descent, whose name is a nightmare to spell: Anaïd Iplicjian. She did the whole show in German, except for the voting sequence which was done in a mix of German, English, and French.
That’s right, this is the first ever Eurovision contest to feature a live voting sequence. The EBU got this idea from the BBC, which ran a TV show from May to October 1956 called the Festival of British Popular Songs. This festival was heavily criticized for the low quality of the songs, but the voting sequences were seen as very entertaining, since they featured the host calling representatives of jury members throughout the UK to deliver their points. So the EBU copied this exact idea into Eurovision 1957. Personally I think Eurovision should’ve had the juries in person back then, because the show often ran overtime with many different types of voting mishaps. But the tradition of the host calling juries on the phone soon became one of the most iconic parts of Eurovision—so much that when the EBU tried an in-person voting system starting 1971, they went back to the host calling each country by phone just three years later.
The voting system of 1957 was simple: each country had ten jury members who could each give a vote to one song, so long as it wasn’t from their own country. I like this system personally: it’s very transparent and no-nonsense. But unfortunately, this system didn’t last too long, probably because some of the hosts and spokespersons didn’t get the numbers right. Even though it should be very easy—it’s really not that hard to make sure numbers add up to ten.
This contest was supposed to have a length rule limiting songs to three and a half minutes, but for whatever reason, the EBU didn’t actually enforce it, which led to a controversial Italian entry. Another new change is that duet performers were now allowed, but only one country chose to do that and their song also has a bit of controversy.
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