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Cookie Fonster Actually Revisits Eurovision 1966: The First Woman Not to Wear a Dress

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Intro Post

< 1965 Review | 1966 Review | 1967 Review >

Introduction

My original review of 1966 was titled “Cookie Fonster Revisits Eurovision 1966”, which wasn’t entirely accurate because I was watching the year for the first time. Now that I am watching it for the second time, the old title is accurate, hence the title “Cookie Fonster Actually Revisits Eurovision 1966”.

We’re back in Luxembourg City, once again in the tiny Villa Louvigny, but this time the place is decorated much better. There’s a cute spiral staircase to the right of the stage and an elaborate chandelier behind the stage that looks nice in black and white. The presenter is different too: this time, her name is Josiane Shen, and she seemed to have a slightly bigger career than the last Luxembourgish host.

The lineup of countries was exactly the same as 1965, so once again we have 18 participant countries. Only two got zero points, and both are surprising ones: Monaco and Italy. In third place came a beautiful guitar tune from Norway, in second came a fun but bizarro jazzy waltz from Sweden, and in first place came Austria with an Udo Jürgens ballad. For him, third time was the charm! I should also mention that this was the first year where the EBU enforced a language rule, so it’s rather amusing that the winner had a few phrases in a different language thrown in.

I can’t find British commentary for this year, so I’ll watch with French commentary. François Deguelt commentated for France this year—he’s the singer of the wonderful “Ce soir-là”. He said at the start that he had to fill in for Pierre Tchernia who was unavailable and that he hoped he could comment the show in the same fashion.

I absolutely love the orchestral reprise of “Poupée de cire, poupée de son” at the start of the show and I’m pissed that rearranging the winner at the start of the show wasn’t done every year. Josiane gives us a short, no-nonsense introduction, then the first song begins.

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Cookie Fonster Re-Discusses Eurovision 1960: Storytelling Songs at the Start and End

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Intro Post

< 1959 Review | 1960 Review | 1961 Review >

Introduction

This is where the grayscale years start getting repetitive, but since I’m still unemployed and have way too much free time, I’ll prod on. Though it’s possible that if I get a new job soon, I’ll pause round 2 of my Eurovision blog.

Although the Netherlands won Eurovision 1959, their broadcaster NTS declined to host 1960, probably because they were short on money. So instead, the runner-up nation the United Kingdom had the honor of hosting. The BBC hosted Eurovision for the first of nine times, in London for the first of four times, and presented by Catherine “Katie” Boyle for the first of four times. She holds the record of presenting the most Eurovision contests, followed by Petra Mede three times and Jacqueline Joubert twice. Katie Boyle speaks in perfect Received Pronunciation, an accent that comes off as laughably posh today, but back then was seen as prestigious and educated.

Luxembourg returned to Eurovision this year after skipping 1959, and Norway made their debut, so this contest has a total of 13 participating countries.

To open the show, Katie Boyle introduces every contestant by saying “good evening, (country)” in English and each country’s national language, then “welcome, (contestant)”. The introduction isn’t quite as glamorous as what France did last year, but I like watching each contestant introduced one by one anyway. It’s a shame Eurovision didn’t start doing that consistently until 2013.

This contest has two countries’ commentary archived: the Norwegian commentary by Erik Diesen, and the British commentary by David Jacobs. Last time I watched the NRK commentary because that was the only archive I was aware of; this time I’ll watch the BBC commentary. David Jacobs is a confident, entertaining commentator whose commentating style is extremely British, and I mean that in a good way. He said the stage is “a blaze of blue, red, and gold”, which sounds absolutely lovely and makes me wish we could’ve seen this contest in color.

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