Eurovision 1966: Luxembourg City

Luxembourg hosted again in 1966, back at the Villa Louvigny with the same production team that had run the 1962 contest there. Josiane Shen presented. The eighteen countries were the same eighteen as the year before.

The night turned the usual order upside down. Countries that had never been near the top filled the first four places, and three of the contest’s heavyweights had the worst results in their history.

Two rule changes

Both came out of 1965. After Sweden had sung in English in Naples, the rules now said every song must be performed in one of its country’s national languages.

And music professionals, barred from juries since 1959, were allowed back.

Modugno against the orchestra

Domenico Modugno was competing for Italy for the third time. His song, “Dio, come ti amo”, had won Sanremo, and he had rearranged it since — which broke the rule that arrangements had to be settled well ahead of the contest.

At the Saturday afternoon rehearsal he performed the new version with three musicians of his own instead of the orchestra. It ran over the three-minute limit. The producers told him to go back to the original arrangement and use the orchestra like everyone else.

Modugno was unhappy enough with the orchestra to threaten to pull out altogether. The organisers thought about flying in Gigliola Cinquetti as a replacement and decided there wasn’t time. So the EBU gave way, and he performed with his own ensemble. It was one of the first entries not accompanied by the orchestra. The man named in the programme as his conductor was in fact on stage playing the piano.

It got him nothing. Italy finished joint last, with no points.

The result

Austria won for the first time. Udo Jürgens had finished sixth in 1964 and fourth in 1965; at the third attempt, “Merci, Chérie” took 31 points, nearly double the runner-up. It was the first winning song in German.

Behind him it was all new names for the top of the board. Sweden was second and Norway third, with Belgium and Ireland sharing fourth. Each of those was the best result the country had ever had.

The traditional powers went the other way. The United Kingdom was ninth. France got a single point and finished sixteenth. Italy, with Modugno, was on zero alongside Monaco. In all three countries the results were met with some dismay.

Also that night

The Netherlands’ Milly Scott became the first black singer to compete at the contest.

The interval act was a French Dixieland jazz band, Les Haricots rouges. The winner’s medallion was presented by the previous year’s winner, France Gall.