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Introduction
When Sweden gets the chance to host Eurovision, it always comes down to three cities: Stockholm, Gothenburg (Göteborg), and Malmö. Stockholm and Malmö got to host it three times each (including the upcoming 2024 contest), but Gothenburg only in 1985. Greece and Israel returned from last year, but the Netherlands and Yugoslavia skipped, which kept the number of participants at 19 and broke the Netherlands’ perfect attendance.
This contest was hosted by an interesting figure: Lill Lindfors, one of Sweden’s two singers of 1966. She performed one of the strangest Swedish entries in Eurovision, “Nygammal vals”. She also has quite a career in comedy, and we’ll see a lot of her sense of humor throughout this contest, including the most famous thing a Eurovision host ever did on stage. The contest began with way more pleasantries than any year prior: Lill Lindfors first sang a pop song, then introduced Lys Assia (the first winner) as the guest of honor, then went on a lot of tangents before the songs began. Eurovision is truly evolving into modernity!
The winners were also a pair of prior contestants: Hanne Krogh and Elisabeth Andreassen, who gave Norway their surprising first victory. The next two highest were Germany and Sweden, so this was a good year for Germanic countries.
I watched this contest with Austrian commentary by a name whose commentary I’ve watched before: Ernst Grissemann. One thing he does that Terry Wogan doesn’t is that he takes the time to explain the lyrics of every song. Terry Wogan usually just translated the song’s title and made quips about it.
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