Eurovision 1974: Brighton

More happened around the 1974 contest than at almost any other. It launched ABBA. One country pulled out for a state funeral, one refused to broadcast its own song, and the entry that finished joint last helped to bring down a dictatorship eighteen days later.

It was held in a converted stable block in Brighton.

Who would host

Luxembourg had won twice in a row and could not afford to host twice in a row. Spain, the runner-up, said no as well.

The EBU asked the BBC, which had come third, to hold back while it found out whether anyone else wanted the job. Two broadcasters did. One was Israel’s, a year after its debut; the EBU doubted every country would accept a contest there, and it was a long way off and technically behind. The other was ITV, the BBC’s commercial rival.

That concentrated minds at the BBC. Only one broadcaster can enter for each country, so an ITV contest would have shut the BBC out. It made a counter-offer, and on 7 June 1973 the EBU accepted.

London’s Royal Opera House and Royal Albert Hall were both unavailable. The show went to the Dome in Brighton, built in 1805 as stables and a riding school for the Prince Regent and turned into a concert hall in 1867. With seats taken out for commentators and equipment, just over a thousand people got in.

Katie Boyle presented for the fourth time. Nobody has hosted more often.

Tanks in Brighton

Security was tight, because of the threat of attack by Irish republican militants. There were extra police, and tanks in the streets during contest week. Boyle recalled being driven between her hotel and the hall in bulletproof coaches, by a different route each time.

The missing eighteenth

Greece entered for the first time. Turkey asked to as well, but too late — and was told that a scoreboard with room for eighteen countries had already been built.

In the end there were only seventeen. Georges Pompidou, the President of France, died on 2 April. His memorial service and a national day of mourning fell on the day of the contest, and French television decided that neither taking part nor showing it would be right. Dani, who was to have sung fourteenth with “La vie à vingt-cinq ans”, did not perform.

A former winner was among those who did sing: Gigliola Cinquetti, ten years after her landslide. Romuald appeared for the third time, back with Monaco after singing for Luxembourg in 1969.

The voting system that lasted until rehearsals

A new way of voting had been designed for Brighton. Ten jurors in every country would each give every song between one and five votes, and the order in which countries voted would be drawn from cards live on stage, for suspense.

Then the organisers tried it out. It took far longer than they had allowed, and they began to worry about adding up all those numbers live. A computer to do the sums had been looked at and turned down as too expensive.

So the BBC’s executive producer, Bill Cotton, scrapped the system on his own authority. The ten-member juries had already been recruited, so he fell back on the only method that fitted them: one vote per juror, as in 1970. The lottery survived, though the draw was done before the show.

As a precaution of a different kind, the afternoon dress rehearsal was recorded, in case the live broadcast failed.

Waterloo

The four members of ABBA had been trying to get here for years. Anni-Frid Lyngstad came fourth in the Swedish selection in 1969; Benny Andersson wrote the song that came second the same night. He and Björn Ulvaeus wrote the third-placed song in 1972. In 1973 all four entered together, under their first names, with “Ring Ring”. Third again.

They wanted Eurovision for a reason. “Ring Ring” had sold in Europe, but the English-speaking markets had not noticed, and the contest was a way in.

For 1974 they hesitated between two songs. “Hasta Mañana” was closer to what usually did well at the contest. “Waterloo” was not like anything else that would be there, and all four of them could sing on it. They chose “Waterloo”.

It won with 24 votes, to 18 for Italy and 15 for the Netherlands. It was Sweden’s first victory. The song went to number one in several European countries, Britain included, and into the American top ten.

The lasting success took one more year, and another single, to arrive. But in 2005, when the contest marked its fiftieth anniversary by choosing its best song, it chose this one.

The favourite who came fourth

The United Kingdom’s singer was Olivia Newton-John, early in her career. British viewers had picked her song, “Long Live Love”, by postcard from six she performed. She was among the favourites and finished in a three-way tie for fourth, and told the press afterwards that she thought the wrong song had been chosen: she would rather have sung a ballad.

The song Italy would not show

Cinquetti’s song, the runner-up, was called “Sì”. Italy was a month away from a referendum on divorce, and the broadcaster feared that a song called “Yes” would look like an attempt to sway the vote.

So RAI did not show the contest. Italians near the northern borders could pick it up from Swiss and Yugoslav television. Everyone else waited until 6 June, after the referendum.

The song that started a coup

Portugal’s entry, “E depois do adeus” by Paulo de Carvalho, got three votes and shared last place.

On the evening of 24 April 1974 it was played on Portuguese radio. That broadcast was a signal, agreed in advance, telling rebel army officers to get ready. A second song in the early hours of the 25th set the coup in motion. The Carnation Revolution ended the dictatorship, and with it Portugal’s colonial wars.