Eurovision Song Contest 1973

The Eurovision Song Contest 1973 was the 18th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest.

Eurovision Song Contest 1973
Dates
Final7 April 1973
Host
VenueGrand Théâtre
Luxembourg City, Luxembourg
Presenter(s)Helga Guitton
ConductorPierre Cao
Executive supervisorClifford Brown
Host broadcasterCompagnie Luxembourgeoise de Télédiffusion (CLT)
Opening actPierre Cao and the orchestra performing "Aprés toi" to a montage of views of Luxembourg and behind the scenes.
Interval actCharlie Rivel
Websiteeurovision.tv/event/luxembourg-1973
Participants
Number of entries17
Debuting countries Israel
Returning countriesNone
Non-returning countries
Participation map
  • Belgium in the Eurovision Song Contest 1973France in the Eurovision Song Contest 1973Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest 1973Netherlands in the Eurovision Song Contest 1973Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest 1973United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest 1973Luxembourg in the Eurovision Song Contest 1973Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest 1973Denmark in the Eurovision Song ContestNorway in the Eurovision Song Contest 1973Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest 1973Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest 1973Malta in the Eurovision Song ContestAustria in the Eurovision Song Contest
         Participating countries     Countries that participated in the past but not in 1973
Vote
Voting systemTwo-member juries (one aged 16 to 25 and the other 25 to 55) rated songs between one and five points.
Nul pointsNone
Winning song Luxembourg
"Tu te reconnaîtras"

It was held in Luxembourg. In a back-to-back victory,the country won the contest with the song "Tu te reconnaîtras", this being Luxembourg's fourth win. The voting was a very close one, with Spain finishing only 4 points behind and Cliff Richard of the United Kingdom (who had come second in 1968) another 2 points further back. The winning song scored the highest score ever achieved in Eurovision under any voting format until 1975, recording 129 points out of a possible 160, which represented almost 81% of the possible maximum. This was partly due to a scoring system which guaranteed all countries at least two points from each other country.[1]

Location
Grand Théâtre, Luxembourg City – host venue of the 1973 contest.

Luxembourg City is a commune with city status, and the capital of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. It is located at the confluence of the Alzette and Pétrusse Rivers in southern Luxembourg. The city contains the historic Luxembourg Castle, established by the Franks in the Early Middle Ages, around which a settlement developed.

The Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg, inaugurated in 1964 as the Théâtre Municipal de la Ville de Luxembourg, became the venue for the 1973 contest. It is the city's major venue for drama, opera and ballet.[2][3]

Format

The language rule forcing countries to enter songs sung in any of their national languages was dropped, so performers from some countries sang in English. The event was marked by controversy when the Spanish song, "Eres tú" (by Mocedades), was accused of plagiarism due to reasonable similarities in the melody with the Yugoslav entry from the 1966 contest ("Brez besed" sung by Berta Ambrož); however, "Eres tú" was not disqualified. After finishing second in the contest, the song went on to become a huge international hit.

The somewhat elliptical lyrics to Portugal's entry "Tourada" provided sufficient cover for a song that was clearly understood as a blistering assault on the country's decaying dictatorship. Also, the word "breasts" was used during Sweden's song entry. However, no action was taken by the EBU. An argument broke out between the singer Maxi and her Irish delegation over how the song should be performed. During rehearsals she repeatedly stopped performing in frustration. When it began to appear possible that Maxi might withdraw from the contest, RTÉ immediately sent over another singer, Tina Reynolds, to take her place just in case. In the end Miss Reynolds wasn't needed as Maxi did perform, with her entry earning 10th place on the scoreboard. (Reynolds would perform the following year.)

This contest holds the record for the most watched Eurovision Song Contest in the United Kingdom, and is also the 18th most watched television show in the same country, with an estimated 21.54 million tuning in on the night. Cliff Richard represented the UK with the song Power to All Our Friends. He came 3rd with 123 points. The winner though was Anne-Marie David with 'Tu te reconnaîtras'. In the UK it was released in English under the title "Wonderful Dream" and released on Epic. It made number 13.

In the light of events at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, there were fears of a terrorist threat, particularly directed against Israel's first-ever entrant, leading to unusually tight security for the contest. This gave rise to one of the best-known Eurovision anecdotes, frequently recounted by the UK's long-serving commentator Terry Wogan. He recalled that the floor manager strongly advised the audience to remain seated while applauding the performances, otherwise they risked being shot by security forces.[4]

Voting

Each country had two jury members, one aged between 16 and 25 and one aged between 26 and 55. They each awarded 1 to 5 points for each song (other than the song from their own country) immediately after it was performed and the votes were collected and counted as soon as they were cast. The juries watched the show on TV from the Ville du Louvigny TV Studios of CLT and appeared on screen to confirm their scores.

Participating countries

Seventeen nations took part in this year's contest. Malta was drawn to perform in 6th place between Norway and Monaco, but the Maltese broadcaster withdrew before the deadline to select an entry.[5] This was the first year Israel competed in the contest. The 1973 contest marked the first time that women conducted the ESC orchestra. Monica Dominique conducted the Swedish entry and Nurit Hirsh conducted the Israeli entry.

Conductors

Each performance had a conductor who was the maestro of the orchestra.[6]

Returning artists

Three artists returned to the 1973 contest, Finland's Marion Rung, who last represented the nation in 1962; 1971 entrant Massimo Ranieri from Italy; and Cliff Richard, who last performed "Congratulations" for the United Kingdom in 1968.

Results
Draw Country Artist Song Language[7] Place Points
01  Finland Marion Rung "Tom Tom Tom" English 6 93
02  Belgium Nicole & Hugo "Baby, Baby" Dutch1 17 58
03  Portugal Fernando Tordo "Tourada" Portuguese 10 80
04  Germany Gitte "Junger Tag" German 8 85
05  Norway Bendik Singers "It's Just A Game" English, French2 7 89
06  Monaco Marie "Un train qui part" French 8 85
07  Spain Mocedades "Eres tú" Spanish 2 125
08   Switzerland Patrick Juvet "Je vais me marier, Marie" French 12 79
09  Yugoslavia Zdravko Čolić "Gori vatra" Croatian 15 65
10  Italy Massimo Ranieri "Chi sarà con te" Italian 13 74
11  Luxembourg Anne-Marie David "Tu te reconnaîtras" French 1 129
12  Sweden The Novas & The Dolls "You're Summer" English 5 94
13  Netherlands Ben Cramer "De oude muzikant" Dutch 14 69
14  Ireland Maxi "Do I Dream" English 10 80
15  United Kingdom Cliff Richard "Power to All Our Friends" English 3 123
16  France Martine Clémenceau "Sans toi" French 15 65
17  Israel Ilanit "Ey Sham" (אי שם) Hebrew 4 97
1.^ Also contains some lyrics in English, Spanish and French.
2.^ Also contains some lyrics in Spanish, Italian, Dutch, German, Irish, Hebrew, Serbo-Croatian, Finnish, Swedish and Norwegian.

Scoreboard
Results
Total score
Finland
Belgium
Portugal
Germany
Norway
Monaco
Spain
Switzerland
Yugoslavia
Italy
Luxembourg
Sweden
Netherlands
Ireland
United Kingdom
France
Israel
Contestants
 Finland 939566566726755945
Belgium 584343664424234522
Portugal 804655488634254565
Germany 852564597437656574
Norway 898556767657333369
Monaco 856324365986456954
Spain 1253899498910871010498
Switzerland 794334757646387723
Yugoslavia 655334258624245444
Italy 742535555755544554
Luxembourg 1296687876109989810108
Sweden 948445857965665745
Netherlands 694425545554735362
Ireland 803724667555656544
United Kingdom 123966778488510910989
France 654324455472355552
Israel 976657574677866755

10 points

Below is a summary of all perfect 10 scores that were given during the voting.

N.ContestantVoting nation
3LuxembourgFrance, Switzerland, United Kingdom
SpainIreland, Italy, Netherlands
2United KingdomNetherlands, Luxembourg

International broadcasts and voting

The table below shows the order in which votes were cast during the 1973 contest along with the spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for their respective country. Each national broadcaster [with the exception of Israel] also sent a commentator to the contest, in order to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language. Details of the commentators and the broadcasting station for which they represented are also included in the table below.

References
  1. O'Connor, John Kennedy. The Eurovision Song Contest – The Official History. Carlton Books. ISBN 978-1-84732-521-1 April 2010
  2. "The "Grand Théâtre" of Luxembourg City offers high quality cultural events" Archived 2011-07-22 at the Wayback Machine, Luxembourg National Tourist Office, London. Retrieved 27 December 2010.
  3. "Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg" Archived 2011-07-22 at the Wayback Machine, Théâtre Info Luxembourg. (in French) Retrieved 27 December 2010.
  4. O'Connor, John Kennedy. The Eurovision Song Contest – The Official History. Carlton Books, UK. 2007 ISBN 978-1-84442-994-3
  5. "No, No, Never!!! - Songs That Did Not Make It To Eurovision". eurovisionsongs.net. Archived from the original on 2009-03-01. Retrieved 2009-07-23.
  6. "Conductors 1973". 4Lyrics.com. Retrieved 16 June 2012.
  7. "Eurovision Song Contest 1973". The Diggiloo Thrush. Retrieved 4 March 2012.
  8. "Selostajat ja taustalaulajat läpi vuosien? • Viisukuppila". Viisukuppila.fi. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
  9. Christian Masson. "1973 – Luxembourg". Songcontest.free.fr. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
  10. "Festival da Canção, mezinha do pinga amor", Mário Castrim, Diário de Lisboa, 9 April 1973
  11. Eriksen, Espen: "Dyster skygge over Melodi Grand Prix", VG, page 14, 6 April 1973
  12. "FORO FESTIVAL DE EUROVISIÓN • Ver Tema – Uribarri comentarista Eurovision 2010". Eurosongcontest.phpbb3.es. Archived from the original on 2012-03-17. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
  13. Leif Thorsson. Melodifestivalen genom tiderna ["Melodifestivalen through time"] (2006), p. 102. Stockholm: Premium Publishing AB. ISBN 91-89136-29-2
  14. "Nederlandse televisiecommentatoren bij het Eurovisie Songfestival". Eurovision Artists (in Dutch).
  15. "Grand Final: 1973, Eurovision Song Contest". BBC.
  16. "Au Grand Prix Eurovision de la Chanson". Radio TV - Je vois tout. Lausanne, Switzerland: Le Radio SA. 5 April 1973.
  17. "RTÉ Archives". Stills Library. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
  18. "Eurovision Song Contest 1973 - BBC Radio 2 - 7 April 1973". BBC Genome Project. Retrieved 9 January 2019.
  19. Roxburgh, Gordon (2014). Songs For Europe – The United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest Volume Two: The 1970's. UK: Telos Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84583-065-6.
  20. Háskólabókasafn, Landsbókasafn Íslands -. "Timarit.is". timarit.is.
  21. "Muistathan: Eurovision laulukilpailu 1973". Viisukuppila.fi. 2012-01-09. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
  22. "Eurovisión 1978 Jurado TVE (I)". YouTube. 2008-01-25. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
  23. "ESC 1973 - French comments (ORTF) - The voting". YouTube. 2015-01-16. Retrieved 2015-01-16.
  24. Vladimir Pinzovski.
  25. "OGAE Macedonia". OGAE Macedonia. Archived from the original on 2013-12-14. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
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