Eurovision Song Contest 1970

The Eurovision Song Contest 1970 was the 15th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Amsterdam, Netherlands and was held at the RAI Congrescentrum on Saturday 21 March 1970. The show was hosted by Willy Dobbe.

Eurovision Song Contest 1970
Dates
Grand final21 March 1970
Host
VenueRAI Theatre
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Presenter(s)Willy Dobbe
Musical directorDolf van der Linden
Directed byTheo Ordeman
Executive supervisorClifford Brown
Executive producerWarner van Kampen
Host broadcasterNederlandse Omroep Stichting (NOS)
Interval actThe Don Lurio Dancers
Websiteeurovision.tv/event/amsterdam-1970
Participants
Number of entries12
Debuting countriesNone
Returning countriesNone
Non-returning countries
Participation map
  •      Participating countries     Countries that participated in the past but not in 1970
Vote
Voting systemTen-member juries distributed ten points among their favourite songs.
Nul points Luxembourg
Winning song Ireland
"All Kinds of Everything"

Due to there being four winners in the previous contest, a question was raised as to which nation would host the 1970 contest. With the UK having hosted in 1968 and Spain in 1969, only France and Netherlands were in consideration. A toss of a coin resulted in the host country being decided as the Netherlands.[1]

Twelve countries participated in the contest. It was the lowest number of participants since the 1959 edition. Finland, Norway, Portugal, Sweden and Austria did not participate in 1970 in protest of the four-way tie result of 1969.[2]

The winner was Ireland with the song "All Kinds of Everything", performed by Dana, and written/composed by Derry Lindsay and Jackie Smith. This was Ireland's first victory 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.

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.

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 which 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 lower case 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 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.

Participating countries
Further information: List of countries in the Eurovision Song Contest

Austria (who had not taken part in 1969), Denmark, Finland, Norway, Portugal and Sweden boycotted this contest as they were not pleased with the result of 1969 and the voting structure.[2] Portugal did however host a National final, being won by Sérgio Borges.[1]

Of the participating singers, a number were already established performers. Notably, the United Kingdom sent Welsh singer and Apple recording artist Mary Hopkin, while David Alexandre Winter represented Luxembourg. The contest is also notable for the appearance of the then unknown Julio Iglesias, singing for Spain.

Voting and aftermath
Dana sings the winning song All Kinds of Everything

In the run-up to the Contest, the United Kingdom were favourites to win and also the favourite with the 50-piece orchestra. So sure of victory, the UK delegation had organised a winner's party to be thrown after the contest.[1] In the end, the only two countries in the running were the UK and Ireland, albeit the latter holding the lead throughout the voting. Ireland took the victory with 32 points, 6 points ahead of the UK, with Germany a distant third. Luxembourg failed to score any points at all - their only time ever to do so.

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. Scottish songwriter Bill Martin, who was responsible for the winning song's publishing, has on numerous subsequent occasions claimed that he and his song writing partner Phil Coulter (the team behind both Puppet on a String and Congratulations) actually wrote the song themselves, but were prevented from using their names on the credit.[3] Coulter has never repeated the claim and there is nothing public to substantiate Martin's story and it was only made after both Lindsay and Smith had died. The song became a million-seller and the singer an international star. 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.

Mary Hopkin scored a few more hits but downscaled her music career in 1971 after getting married. She later commented on her appearance at the Contest as humiliating and said that she hated the song she had to sing.[1] Spanish entrant Julio Iglesias went on to achieve worldwide success in the decades that followed, becoming one of the top-selling singers of all time. Dana, meanwhile, continued to score hit singles throughout the 1970s with songs such as "Fairytale" and "It's Gonna be a Cold Cold Christmas". In the 1990s she became a politician, running for the Irish presidential election in 1997 and 2011, and becoming an MEP in 1999.

Of the other performers, Stella Maessen (of Hearts of Soul), Jean Vallée, Guy Bonnet and Katja Ebstein all took part in the Eurovision Song Contest again, the latter twice more. The following year, Austria, Finland, Norway, Portugal and Sweden all returned to the contest.

Conductors

Each performance had a conductor who led the orchestral accompaniment.[4][1]

Returning artists

For the first time, no artists from previous contests returned.[5]

Results
Draw Country Artist Song Language[6][7] Place Points
01  Netherlands Hearts of Soul "Waterman" Dutch 7 7
02   Switzerland Henri Dès "Retour" French 4 8
03  Italy Gianni Morandi "Occhi di ragazza" Italian 8 5
04  Yugoslavia Eva Sršen "Pridi, dala ti bom cvet" Slovene 11 4
05  Belgium Jean Vallée "Viens l'oublier" French 8 5
06  France Guy Bonnet "Marie-Blanche" French 4 8
07  United Kingdom Mary Hopkin "Knock, Knock Who's There?" English 2 26
08  Luxembourg David Alexandre Winter "Je suis tombé du ciel" French 12 0
09  Spain Julio Iglesias "Gwendolyne" Spanish 4 8
10  Monaco Dominique Dussault "Marlène" French 8 5
11  Germany Katja Ebstein "Wunder gibt es immer wieder" German 3 12
12  Ireland Dana "All Kinds of Everything" English 1 32

Scoreboard
Results
Total score
Netherlands
Switzerland
Italy
Yugoslavia
Belgium
France
United Kingdom
Luxembourg
Spain
Monaco
Germany
Ireland
Contestants
 Netherlands 7331
Switzerland 822121
Italy 5122
Yugoslavia 44
Belgium 5311
France 81223
United Kingdom 26322422443
Luxembourg 0
Spain 8323
Monaco 51121
Germany 12113412
Ireland 3256914232

4 points

Below is a summary of all 4 points in the final:

N.ContestantVoting nation
4IrelandNetherlands1, Switzerland2, Belgium3, United Kingdom
3United KingdomYugoslavia, Monaco, Germany
1 GermanySpain
YugoslaviaUnited Kingdom
1.^ Netherlands gave Ireland 5 points.
2.^ Switzerland gave Ireland 6 points.
3.^ Belgium gave Ireland 9 points.

Broadcasters, commentators and spokespersons

Spokespersons

Listed below is the order in which votes were cast during the 1970 contest along with the spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for their respective country.[8]

  1.  Netherlands – Flip van der Schalie
  2.   Switzerland – Alexandre Burger
  3.  Italy – Enzo Tortora
  4.  Yugoslavia – Dragana Marković
  5.  Belgium – André Hagon
  6.  France – TBC
  7.  United Kingdom – Colin Ward-Lewis[1]
  8.  Luxembourg – TBC
  9.  Spain – Ramón Rivera
  10.  Monaco – TBC
  11.  Germany – Hans-Otto Grünefeldt
  12.  Ireland – John Skehan

Broadcasters and commentators

Each national broadcaster also sent a commentator to the contest, in order to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language.

Country Broadcaster(s) Commentator(s) Ref(s)
Participating countries
 Belgium RTB French: Claude Delacroix [9]
BRT Dutch: Herman Verelst [8]
RTB La Première French: TBC
BRT Radio 1 Dutch: Nand Baert
 France Deuxième Chaîne ORTF Pierre Tchernia [8][9]
 Germany Deutsches Fernsehen Marie-Louise Steinbauer [8]
Deutschlandfunk/Bayern 2 Wolf Mittler
 Ireland RTÉ Valerie McGovern
RTÉ Radio Kevin Roche
 Italy Secondo Programma Renato Tagliani
 Luxembourg Télé-Luxembourg Jacques Navadic [8][9]
RTL Camillo Felgen
 Monaco Télé Monte Carlo Pierre Tchernia
 Netherlands Nederland 1 Pim Jacobs [8][10]
 Spain Primera Cadena José Luis Uribarri [8]
Primer Programa RNE Miguel de los Santos
  Switzerland TV DRS German: Theodor Haller
TSR French: Georges Hardy
TSI Italian: Giovanni Bertini
 United Kingdom BBC1 David Gell [8][1]
BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 2 Tony Brandon [1]
BFBS Radio John Russell [1]
 Yugoslavia Televizija Beograd Serbo-Croatian: Milovan Ilić
Televizija Zagreb Serbo-Croatian: Oliver Mlakar
Televizija Ljubljana Slovene: Tomaž Terček
Non-participating countries
 Austria FS1 Ernst Grissemann [8]
 Brazil TV Tupi Unknown [1]
 Chile Televisión Nacional de Chile Raúl Matas [1]
 Czechoslovakia ČST Unknown [1]
 Greece EIRT Unknown [1]
 Hungary RTV Unknown [1]
 Iceland Sjónvarpið Unknown [1]
 Israel Israeli Television Unknown [1]
 Norway NRK No commentator
 Poland TVP No commentator [1]
 Portugal I Programa Henrique Mendes [8]
 Romania TVR Unknown [1]
 Tunisia RTT Unknown [1]

References
  1. Roxburgh, Gordon (2014). Songs for Europe: The United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest. Volume Two: The 1970s. Prestatyn: Telos Publishing. pp. 25–37. ISBN 978-1-84583-093-9.
  2. O'Connor, John Kennedy. The Eurovision Song Contest - The Official History. Carlton Books, UK. 2007 ISBN 978-1-84442-994-3
  3. Martin, Bill. Congratulations: Songwriter to the Stars. Dujio Publishing (1 Aug. 2017) ISBN 978-1527212817
  4. "And the conductor is..." Retrieved 10 July 2018.
  5. "Eurovision Song Contest 1970". EBU. Retrieved 16 June 2012.
  6. "Eurovision Song Contest 1970". The Diggiloo Thrush. Retrieved 4 March 2012.
  7. "Eurovision Song Contest 1970". 4Lyrics.eu. Retrieved 16 September 2020.
  8. "Eurovision 1970 - Cast and Crew". IMDb. Retrieved 24 July 2020.
  9. Christian Masson. "1970 - Amsterdam". Songcontest.free.fr. Retrieved 10 August 2012.
  10. "Nederlandse televisiecommentatoren bij het Eurovisie Songfestival". Eurovision Artists (in Dutch).

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