Eurovision Song Contest 1970

Eurovision Song Contest 1970
Dates
Final	21 March 1970
Host
Venue	RAI Congrescentrum Amsterdam, Netherlands
Presenter(s)	Willy Dobbe
Musical director	Dolf van der Linden
Directed by	Theo Ordeman
Executive supervisor	Clifford Brown
Executive producer	Warner van Kampen
Host broadcaster	Nederlandse Omroep Stichting (NOS)
Website	eurovision.tv/event/amsterdam-1970
Participants
Number of entries	12
Debuting countries	None
Returning countries	None
Non-returning countries	Finland   Norway   Portugal   Sweden
Participation map      Competing countries     Countries that participated in the past but not in 1970
Vote
Voting system	Ten-member juries distributed ten points among their favourite songs.
Winning song	Ireland "All Kinds of Everything"
1969 ←  Eurovision Song Contest  → 1971

The Eurovision Song Contest 1970 was the 15th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest and took place in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster Nederlandse Omroep Stichting (NOS), the contest was held at the RAI Congrescentrum on 21 March 1970, and was hosted by Dutch television presenter Willy Dobbe.

Twelve countries participated in the contest this year. This was the lowest number of participants since the 1959 edition. The reason was that Finland, Norway, Portugal, Sweden and Austria all boycotted the 1970 edition, officially because they felt that the contest marginalised smaller countries and was no longer good television entertainment, ^[1] though it is rumoured that this was also in protest of the four-way tie result that had occurred in 1969. ^[2]

The winner of the competition was Ireland with the song "All Kinds of Everything", performed by Dana, and written by Derry Lindsay and Jackie Smith. This was Ireland's first of their eventual record seven victories in the contest. The United Kingdom finished in second place for the seventh time, while Germany ended up in third place –the best result for the country at the time. This was also the only time that Luxembourg received nul points . ^[2]

Location

RAI Congrescentrum, Amsterdam – host venue of the 1970 contest.

Due to there being four winners in the previous contest, a question was raised as to which nation would host the 1970 contest. With Spain having hosted in 1969 and the United Kingdom in 1968, only France and the Netherlands were in consideration. A draw of ballots between these two countries resulted in the Netherlands being chosen as the host country. ^[3]

The Congrescentrum, venue of the 1970 contest, is a semi-permanent exhibit at the Ferdinand Bolstraat to Amsterdam and was opened on 31 October 1922. This building was replaced in 1961 by the current RAI building on Europe's Square. The current congress and event center on Europe Square, was designed by Alexander Bodon and opened on 2 February 1961.

Participating countries

Further information: List of countries in the Eurovision Song Contest

Eurovision Song Contest 1970 –Participation summaries by country
Belgium France Germany Ireland Italy Luxembourg Monaco Netherlands Spain Switzerland United Kingdom Yugoslavia

Austria (who had not taken part in 1969), Finland, Norway, Portugal and Sweden boycotted this contest as they were not pleased with the result of 1969 and the voting structure. ^[2]

For the first time, no artists from previous contests returned. ^[4]

Participants of the Eurovision Song Contest 1970 ^{[5] [6] [7] [8]}

Country	Broadcaster	Artist	Song	Language	Songwriter(s)	Conductor
Belgium	RTB	Jean Vallée	"Viens l'oublier"	French	Jean Vallée	Jack Say
France	ORTF	Guy Bonnet	"Marie-Blanche"	French	Guy Bonnet Pierre-André Dousset	Franck Pourcel
Germany	HR [lower-alpha 1]	Katja Ebstein	"Wunder gibt es immer wieder"	German	Christian Bruhn Günter Loose	Christian Bruhn
Ireland	RTÉ	Dana	"All Kinds of Everything"	English	Derry Lindsay Jackie Smith	Dolf van der Linden
Italy	RAI	Gianni Morandi	" Occhi di ragazza "	Italian	Gianfranco Baldazzi Sergio Bardotti Lucio Dalla	Mario Capuano
Luxembourg	CLT	David Alexandre Winter	"Je suis tombé du ciel"	French	Eddy Marnay Yves de Vriendt	Raymond Lefèvre
Monaco	TMC	Dominique Dussault	"Marlène"	French	Eddie Barclay Henri Dijan Jimmy Walter	Jimmy Walter
Netherlands	NOS	Patricia and Hearts of Soul	"Waterman"	Dutch	Pieter Goemans	Dolf van der Linden
Spain	TVE	Julio Iglesias	"Gwendolyne"	Spanish	Julio Iglesias	Augusto Algueró
Switzerland	SRG SSR	Henri Dès	"Retour"	French	Henri Dès	Bernard Gérard
United Kingdom	BBC	Mary Hopkin	"Knock, Knock (Who's There?)"	English	John Carter Geoff Stephens	Johnny Arthey
Yugoslavia	JRT	Eva Sršen	" Pridi, dala ti bom cvet "	Slovene	Mojmir Sepe Dušan Velkaverh	Mojmir Sepe

Format

The Dutch producers were forced to pad out the show as only 12 nations decided to make the trip to Amsterdam. The result was a format that has endured almost to the present day. An extended opening sequence (filmed in Amsterdam) set the scene, while every entry was introduced by a short video 'postcard' featuring each of the participating artists, ostensibly in their own nation. However, the 'postcards' for Switzerland, Luxembourg and Monaco were all filmed on location in Paris (as was the French postcard). ^[2] The long introduction film (over four minutes long) was followed by what probably is one of the shortest ever introductions by any presenter. Willy Dobbe only welcomed the viewers in English, French and Dutch, finishing her introduction after only 24 seconds. On-screen captions introduced each entry, with the song titles listed all in lowercase and the names of the artist and composers/authors all in capitals.

The set design was devised by Roland de Groot; a simple design was composed of a number of curved horizontal bars and silver baubles which could be moved in a variety of different ways.

To avoid an incident like in 1969, a tie-breaking rule was created. It stated that, if two or more songs gained the same number of votes and were tied for first place, each song would have to be performed again. After which each national jury (other than the juries of the countries concerned) would have a show of hands of which they thought was the best. If the countries tied again, then they would share first place.

Contest overview

Dana sings the winning song "All Kinds of Everything"

Ireland won the contest with "All Kinds of Everything", penned by Derry Lindsay and Jackie Smith, and sung by another unknown, Dana, an 18-year-old schoolgirl from Derry, Northern Ireland. As the contest was held in the Netherlands this year, and the country was one of the four winners in 1969, Dana received her awards from the Dutch winner Lenny Kuhr.

Results of the Eurovision Song Contest 1970 ^[10]

R/O	Country	Artist	Song	Points	Place
1	Netherlands	Patricia and Hearts of Soul	"Waterman"	7	7
2	Switzerland	Henri Dès	"Retour"	8	4
3	Italy	Gianni Morandi	" Occhi di ragazza "	5	8
4	Yugoslavia	Eva Sršen	" Pridi, dala ti bom cvet "	4	11
5	Belgium	Jean Vallée	"Viens l'oublier"	5	8
6	France	Guy Bonnet	"Marie-Blanche"	8	4
7	United Kingdom	Mary Hopkin	"Knock, Knock (Who's There?)"	26	2
8	Luxembourg	David Alexandre Winter	"Je suis tombé du ciel"	0	12
9	Spain	Julio Iglesias	"Gwendolyne"	8	4
10	Monaco	Dominique Dussault	"Marlène"	5	8
11	Germany	Katja Ebstein	"Wunder gibt es immer wieder"	12	3
12	Ireland	Dana	"All Kinds of Everything"	32	1

Spokespersons

Each country nominated a spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for their respective country via telephone. Known spokespersons at the 1970 contest are listed below.

•  United Kingdom –Colin Ward-Lewis ^[6]

Detailed voting results

Detailed voting results ^{[11] [12]}

		Total score	Netherlands	Switzerland	Italy	Yugoslavia	Belgium	France	United Kingdom	Luxembourg	Spain	Monaco	Germany	Ireland
Contestants	Netherlands	7			3	3			1
	Switzerland	8	2					2	1				2	1
	Italy	5				1					2		2
	Yugoslavia	4							4
	Belgium	5						3		1				1
	France	8			1	2						2		3
	United Kingdom	26	3	2	2	4		2		2		4	4	3
	Luxembourg	0
	Spain	8			3					2		3
	Monaco	5		1			1	2			1
	Germany	12		1	1					3	4	1		2
	Ireland	32	5	6			9	1	4	2	3		2

Broadcasts

Each participating broadcaster was required to relay the contest via its networks. Non-participating EBU member broadcasters were also able to relay the contest as "passive participants". Broadcasters were able to send commentators to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language and to relay information about the artists and songs to their television viewers. ^[13]

Known details on the broadcasts in each country, including the specific broadcasting stations and commentators are shown in the tables below. In addition to the participating countries, the contest's introduction sequence claimed the contest was also broadcast in Greece, Iceland, Israel and Tunisia, in Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania and the Soviet Union via Intervision, and in Brazil and Chile. ^{[6] [4]}

Broadcasters and commentators in participating countries

Country	Broadcaster	Channel(s)	Commentator(s)	Ref(s)
Belgium	RTB	RTB		[14] [15]
	BRT	BRT	Jan Theys  [ nl ]	[15] [16]
France	ORTF	Deuxième Chaîne	Pierre Tchernia	[14] [17]
Germany	ARD	Deutsches Fernsehen		[14] [17] [18]
Ireland	RTÉ	RTÉ	Valerie McGovern	[19] [20]
		RTÉ Radio		[21]
Italy	RAI	Secondo Programma	Renato Tagliani  [ it ]	[22]
Luxembourg	CLT	Télé-Luxembourg		[14]
Monaco	Télé Monte-Carlo
Netherlands	NOS	Nederland 1	Pim Jacobs	[15] [23]
Spain	TVE	TVE 1	José Luis Uribarri	[24] [25]
	RNE	RNE		[24]
	Radio Peninsular  [ es ]
Switzerland	SRG SSR	TV DRS		[18]
		TSR	Georges Hardy  [ fr ]	[17]
		TSI		[26]
		DRS 1 [lower-alpha 2]		[27]
		RSR 2	Robert Burnier	[28]
United Kingdom	BBC	BBC1	David Gell	[6] [29]
		BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 2	Tony Brandon	[6] [30] [31]
	BFBS	BFBS Radio	John Russell	[6]
Yugoslavia	JRT	Televizija Beograd		[32]
		Televizija Ljubljana		[33]
		Televizija Zagreb		[34]

Broadcasters and commentators in non-participating countries

Country	Broadcaster	Channel(s)	Commentator(s)	Ref(s)
Austria	ORF	FS1	Ernst Grissemann	[18] [35]
Brazil	Rede Tupi			[36] [37]
Chile	TVN [lower-alpha 3]		Raúl Matas  [ es ]	[38]
Hungary	MTV	MTV		[39]
Iceland	RÚV	Sjónvarpið [lower-alpha 4]		[40]
Israel	IBA	Israeli Television [lower-alpha 5]		[41]
Malta	MBA	MTS	Victor Aquilina	[42] [43]
Poland	TP	Telewizja Polska		[44]

Notes

1. On behalf of the German public broadcasting consortium ARD ^[9]
2. Delayed broadcast on 23 March 1970 at 22:30 CET (21:30 UTC) ^[27]
3. Delayed broadcast on 21 March 1970 at 20:20 CLT (00:20 UTC) ^[38]
4. Delayed broadcast on 4 April 1970 at 20:55 WET (20:55 UTC) ^[40]
5. Delayed broadcast on 6 April 1970 at 19:35 IST (17:55 UTC) ^[41]

References

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2. O'Connor, John Kennedy. The Eurovision Song Contest – The Official History. Carlton Books, UK. 2007 ISBN   978-1-84442-994-3
3. Escudero, Victor M. (29 April 2020). "Happy 50th Anniversary, Eurovision 1970!". European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 17 June 2021.
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20. Gray, Ken (23 March 1970). "Ireland as host of next year's contest?" . The Irish Times . p. 13. Retrieved 22 December 2022.
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23. "Vanavond: vijf kwartier Songfestival op de tv". Trouw (in Dutch). Meppel, Netherlands. 21 March 1970. p. 4. Retrieved 4 January 2023– via Delpher.
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28. "Radio – samedi 21 mars". Radio TV - Je vois tout (in French). Lausanne, Switzerland: Héliographia SA. 19 March 1970. pp. 54–56. Retrieved 4 January 2023.
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34. "Televizija – Subota 21. ožujka" . Slobodna Dalmacija (in Serbo-Croatian). Split, SR Croatia, Yugoslavia. 21 March 1970. p. 17. Retrieved 4 January 2023.
35. Halbhuber, Axel (22 May 2015). "Ein virtueller Disput der ESC-Kommentatoren". Kurier (in German). Archived from the original on 23 May 2015. Retrieved 5 January 2023.
36. "TV-Rádio". Correio Braziliense (in Portuguese). Brasília, Brazil. 21 March 1970. p. 16. Retrieved 17 March 2024– via BNDigital.
37. "Hoje no Canal 6" (PDF). Diario do Paraná (in Portuguese). Curitiba. 21 March 1970. p. 1. Retrieved 15 May 2024.
38. "Vía Satélite". Las Últimas Noticias (in Spanish). 19 March 1970. p. 11. El próximo sábado Rául Matas, director de programas de Canal Nacional, realizará una transmisión excepcional desde Amsterdam, Holanda, por Canal 7 de Televisión. Se trata del Festival de Eurovisión, al que Matas le dedicará todas sus energías mientras dure el evento que se transmitirá vía satélite.
39. "TV – szombat III.21". Rádió- és Televízió-újság (in Hungarian). 16 March 1970. p. 13. Archived from the original on 4 January 2023. Retrieved 4 January 2023– via MTVA Archívum.
40. "Sjónvarp – laugurdagur 4. april 1970". Morgunblaðið (in Icelandic). Reykjavík, Iceland. 4 April 1970. p. 29. Retrieved 4 January 2023– via Timarit.is.
41. "7 yamim al hamasakh hakatan" 7 ימים על המסך הקטן. Maariv (in Hebrew). Tel Aviv, Israel. 2 April 1970. p. 25. Retrieved 4 January 2023– via National Library of Israel.
42. "Sound and Vision – Today's TV Log". Times of Malta . 21 March 1970. p. 12.
43. Barry, Fred (18 March 1970). "All Eyes on Amsterdam – Eurovision Song Contest's 15th edition next Saturday". Times of Malta . p. 13.
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External links

• Official website

52°20′29″N4°53′18″E / 52.34139°N 4.88833°E / 52.34139; 4.88833