Eurovision 1959: Cannes

France had won in Hilversum, so in 1959 the contest went to the Riviera, to the hall built for the film festival.

Cannes

This was the first time the winning country was offered the next contest as of right. The Netherlands had hosted in 1958 only because nobody else wanted to.

The venue was the Palais des Festivals on the Croisette, opened in 1949 for the Cannes Film Festival. A garden of plants from the south of France was laid out in front of it for the occasion and the flags of the competing countries flew from the roof. The audience was 1,500 invited guests.

Not everyone in town was pleased. A few days beforehand, hotel and shop owners complained that French television had barely advertised the event and that the tourists wouldn’t come. The local festivities committee took the opposite view: pictures of Cannes going into living rooms across Europe would do more for the place than any poster.

A stage that turned

The designer, Gérard Dubois, took the age of Louis XIV as his theme. The stage had three revolving platforms, each divided into four like a revolving door, and each segment carried a different backdrop. Every country got its own scenery, turned into place for its song.

Jacqueline Joubert presented. The orchestra opened the evening with the prelude to Charpentier’s “Te Deum” — the fanfare that still announces Eurovision broadcasts — conducted by Franck Pourcel. The whole show ran for an hour and twelve minutes.

Who came, and who didn’t

Eleven countries took part. Monaco, which had been announced and then gone missing in both 1957 and 1958, finally made its debut.

The United Kingdom came back after a year away. Its absence in 1958 is usually put down to a poor result in 1957; its return coincided with “Volare” showing what a Eurovision song could do, and with a new head of light entertainment at the BBC. It has not missed a final since.

Luxembourg, present at every contest so far, was absent. Its broadcaster’s management rejected the song that had been put forward, too late to find another. Several radio and television listings had already printed Luxembourg among the participants.

Two of the singers had been here before. Denmark’s Birthe Wilke, third in 1957 as half of a duo, returned alone. And Domenico Modugno was back for Italy, a year after “Volare”.

One new rule

The voting was the same as before: ten jurors in each country, one vote each, none for their own country. The change was in who could sit on a jury. From 1959, people who worked in the music business were barred.

The result

The Netherlands won again. Teddy Scholten’s “Een beetje” took 21 votes, making the Dutch the first country to win twice — both times with words by the same lyricist, Willy van Hemert, who became the first person to write two winners.

The United Kingdom was second with “Sing Little Birdie”, sung by Pearl Carr and Teddy Johnson. Second place would become something of a British speciality: this was the first of sixteen.

France, the host, was third, a single vote behind. Modugno, the previous year’s sensation, finished joint sixth. Monaco’s debut ended in last place with one vote.

Three encores

Winners always sing again. In Cannes the runners-up did too: the second- and third-placed songs were both performed a second time, alongside the winner. It is the only time the contest has done that.

The winner’s medallion was meant to be handed over at the delegations’ supper afterwards. Instead French television’s head of programmes, Jean d’Arcy, gave it to Scholten on stage before the broadcast ended.