Eurovision Song Contest 1958

AVRO Studios, Hilversum - host venue of the 1958 contest.

Hilversum, a municipality and a town in the province of North Holland, is known as the "Media Capital" of the Netherlands.[2] Hilversum had become the centre of broadcasting and radio in the Netherlands in the 1920s when Dutch radio company Nederlandse Seintoestellen Fabriek settled there, and today the media sector stands as one of the top employers in the municipality of Hilversum.[3]

After the establishment of the Dutch Radio Company in Hilversum in the 1920s, almost all other radio stations in the Netherlands followed suit with television following in the 1950s, thus making Hilversum at the end of the 1950s the best venue in the Netherlands to produce and broadcast such an international TV-transmitted event as the Eurovision Song Contest, while on the other hand TV was still a challenging advanced technology in general within Europe.

One such media network was the host of the event, Nederlandse Televisie Stichting. The venue of the contest was the studio of AVRO (Algemene Vereniging Radio Omroep or "General Association of Radio Broadcasting"), a building complex for the media's network among the media buildings within Hilversum, and which belonged to the Dutch public broadcasting association operating within the framework of the Nederlandse Publieke Omroep system.

The contest was held in one of the Avro studio halls. The hall contained a very small stage to function as a slightly higher stand for the singers, with the program being shot from the stage floor up. Outside of frame were the microphones' and other technical devices' wires which went through the studio's lower floor at the foot of the stage. The decorative emphasis was on the stage background, the stage front and the left side from the stage from the spectator's view where the orchestra and where the performers and host's stairway entrance were located. The rear of the stage had interchangeable backgrounds for each song to add context to each song's lyrics. The centre-front of the stage, the left area from the stage with the orchestra and stairway entrance were decorated with tulips, of which the Netherlands are known for.[2]

The juries were not in the studio as in 1956. For the 1958 event, they remained in their own countries, listening to the event. Once the songs had all been sung, juries announced their results via telephone in reverse order of presentation, as in the previous year. The Italian entry was not picked up properly in some of the other countries, which meant that after all the other songs had been presented, Domenico Modugno had to perform his song again. It was the only year that the host country finished in last place until 57 years later in 2015 and again in 2018, and the first time more than one country was placed last. The interval act was music by the Metropole Orkest, under the direction of maestro Dolf van der Linden. There were two interval acts, one in the middle of the competing songs' performances and one after all the rest of the competing performances were shown.

Sweden, a country that would later be one of the most successful in the contest, debuted this year. The United Kingdom decided to withdraw from the contest after initially planning to submit an entry.[4]

After the contest, the Italian entry "Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu" (subsequently known as "Volare") by Domenico Modugno went on to become a worldwide hit. During the 1st Annual Grammy Awards, held on 4 May 1959 at Hollywood's Beverly Hilton Hotel, "Nel blu dipinto di blu" received two awards, for Record of the Year and Song of the Year.[5] The song is the only foreign-language recording to achieve this honour,[6] and it is the only song to have competed in the Eurovision Song Contest and received a Grammy Award.[7] The song also reached the No.1 spot in the US-American Billboard Charts, making it one of the most successful Eurovision songs in the history of the contest. The song was also voted the second best Eurovision entry of all time at the 50th anniversary show "Congratulations" in 2005.

The scoreboard, after Austria contributed its points

André Claveau during a rehearsal, singing Dors, mon amour

Each country had 10 jury members who each decided the best song and each awarded 1 point.

•  Belgium – Jack Say (Belgian conductor in the 1970 and 1982 Contests)[15]

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