The ninth edition of the Eurovision Song Contest took place in Copenhagen, Denmark, after the duo Grethe & Jørgen Ingmann won with the song Dansevise the previous year. This was the first time the contest took place in Denmark, and the first time a Nordic country had hosted the contest. The contest was held at Tivolis Koncertsal on Saturday the 21st of March. There was a solo presenter for the contest, and that was Lotte Wæver.
A total of sixteen nations participated, including Portugal who made their debut at the contest. No nations returned to the contest, however Sweden withdrew. The voting consisted of ten-member juries who each assigned points to their top three songs. The points were totalled, and the top three placed songs within that nation’s jury were then assigned the top three points, which were 5, 3 and 1 point.
Unfortunately, no complete video recording of the contest survived. There is a complete audio recording of the contest in the form of the DR radio broadcast. Some clips still exist, including part of the opening ceremony and opening remarks. Majority of the winner’s reprise also still exists. Allegedly, the tapes were destroyed in a fire in the 1970’s, but more recent interviews with the host broadcaster DR reveal that the broadcast was not recorded in the first place, due to the lack of tape machines at the venue.
Here is the full list of participating countries:
- Austria
- Belgium
- Denmark
- Finland
- France
- Germany
- Italy
- Luxembourg
- Monaco
- Netherlands
- Norway
- Portugal
- Spain
- Switzerland
- United Kingdom
- Yugoslavia
There was just one returning artist, and that was Anita Traversi who previously represented Switzerland back in 1960.
Here are the competitors:
- Hugues Aufray – Dès que le printemps revient (Luxembourg) 🇱🇺
- Anneke Grönloh – Jij bent mijn leven (Netherlands) 🇳🇱
- Arne Bendiksen – Spiral (Norway) 🇳🇴
- Bjørn Tidmand – Sangen om dig (Denmark) 🇩🇰
- Lasse Mårtenson – Laiskotellen (Finland) 🇫🇮
- Udo Jürgens – Warum nur, warum? (Austria) 🇦🇹
- Rachel – Le Chant de Mallory (France) 🇫🇷
- Matt Monro – I Love The Little Things (United Kingdom) 🇬🇧
- Nora Nova – Man gewöhnt sich so schnell an das Schöne (Germany) 🇩🇪
- Romuald – Où song-elles passes (Monaco) 🇲🇨
- António Calvário – Oração (Portugal) 🇵🇹
- Gigliola Cinquetti – Non ho l’età (Italy) 🇮🇹
- Sabahudin Kurt – Život je sklopio krug (Yugoslavia)
- Anita Traversi – I Miei Pensieri (Switzerland) 🇨🇭
- Robert Cogoi – Près de ma rivière (Belgium) 🇧🇪
- Los TNT – Caracola (Spain) 🇪🇸
The winner of the contest was Italy, with Gigliola Cinquetti and her song, Non ho l’età. Italy won the contest with a very convincing margin, with 49 points in total. In second place was the United Kingdom, who received just 17 points. In third was Monaco who received 15 points.
A total of four nations received nul points, including Portugal on their debut at the contest. Switzerland, Yugoslavia and Germany also joined Portugal with nul points.
Watch the winning performance below: