Eurovision 1961: Cannes

The contest went back to Cannes, to the same hall on the Croisette that had held it two years earlier. No city had hosted twice before. It was also the first time the contest was held on a Saturday night, which — one Sunday aside — is where it has stayed.

A record field

Finland, Spain and Yugoslavia all entered for the first time. Added to the thirteen from London, that made sixteen — more than the contest had ever had.

Belgium’s Bob Benny and Norway’s Nora Brockstedt were both back for a second go. The name that stood out, though, was Germany’s. Lale Andersen had become famous across both sides of the Second World War for her recording of “Lili Marleen”. She was 56, the oldest performer the contest had seen, and she kept that record for forty-seven years.

A garden under studio lights

Jacqueline Joubert presented again; she is still one of only three people to have hosted the contest more than once.

Much of the production was carried over from 1959, down to the opening film and the scoreboard. The stage was not. It was far bigger, built around a wide central staircase planted with flowers, shrubs and trees in front of a painted outdoor scene — a Mediterranean garden, indoors. The designer chose the trees with the head of the Cannes municipal gardens, checking that none would come out too dark on black-and-white television.

One idea didn’t make it. The original plan put the green room on the stage itself, with the singers staying in view after they had performed.

The running order was drawn two days before at the Carlton Hotel, by Joubert and two small children, aged six and four.

The result

Luxembourg won for the first time. “Nous les amoureux”, sung by the French singer and actor Jean-Claude Pascal, took 31 votes. It was the first of five Luxembourgish victories.

The United Kingdom finished second for the third year in a row, this time with the Allisons. Switzerland was third. Austria and Belgium shared last place with one vote each, and Lale Andersen came thirteenth.

The interval was a ballet, “Rencontres à Cannes”, and one of its dancers, Tessa Beaumont, presented the winner’s medallion.

What the song was about

On the night it was heard as a song about a couple the world disapproves of. It took years for it to be widely understood that the couple were two men.

The words speak of a love that society frowns on and religion forbids, and of the hope that one day it won’t have to be hidden. Pascal, who was gay and never said so publicly in his lifetime, later confirmed the reading. In 1961 it could not have been sung any other way: sex between men was still a crime in almost half the countries competing that night, West Germany, Austria, Spain and the United Kingdom among them.

It has since been described as one of the earliest protest songs for gay rights, and decades later the French government used it in a campaign against homophobia. On the night in Cannes, hardly anyone heard it that way.