| Eurovision Song Contest | |
| Year: | 1966 |
| Final: | 5 March 1966 |
| Presenters: | Josiane Shen |
| Musdirector: | Jean Roderès |
| Exsupervisor: | Clifford Brown |
| Winner: | "French: [[Merci, Chérie]]|i=unset" |
| Vote: | Ten-member juries awarded points (5, 3 and 1) to their three favourite songs. |
| Host: | French: [[Compagnie Luxembourgeoise de Télédiffusion]]|i=unset (CLT) |
| Venue: | Villa Louvigny Luxembourg City, Luxembourg |
| Entries: | 18 |
| Debut: | None |
| Nonreturn: | None |
| Bluenosemis: | Y |
The Eurovision Song Contest 1966 was the 11th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Luxembourg City, Luxembourg, following the country's victory at the with the song "Poupée de cire, poupée de son" by France Gall. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster French: [[Compagnie Luxembourgeoise de Télédiffusion]]|i=unset (CLT), the contest was held at the Villa Louvigny on 5 March 1966 and was hosted by Luxembourgish television presenter Josiane Chen.
Eighteen countries participated in the contest, the same that had competed the year before.
The winner was with the song "French: [[Merci, Chérie]]|i=unset", performed and composed by Udo Jürgens, and written by Jürgens and Thomas Hörbiger.[1] This was Udo Jürgens third consecutive entry in the contest, finally managing to score a victory for his native country. Austria would not go on to win again until the edition. This was also the first winning song to be performed in German. The contest is also noted for its historic results for several countries. Austria who came first, who came second, who came third and who came fourth all achieved their best results up until then, some of which would stand for several decades. In contrast, traditional Eurovision heavyweights such as, and all achieved their worst result by far up till that point, with the general public in the aforementioned countries meeting these results with a degree of consternation.
The rule stating that a country could only sing in any of its national languages was created this year, possibly due to the 1965 edition's Swedish entry which was sung in English.[2]
The 1966 Eurovision Song Contest was hosted in Luxembourg City. The venue chosen to host the 1966 contest was the Villa Louvigny, which was also the venue for the edition. The building served as the headquarters of French: [[Compagnie Luxembourgeoise de Télédiffusion]]|i=unset, the forerunner of RTL Group. It is located in Municipal Park, in the French: [[Ville Haute]]|i=unset quarter of the centre of the city.
All countries who had participated in the 1965 contest returned for a second consecutive year.
| + Participants of the Eurovision Song Contest 1966[3] [4] [5] | |||||||
| Country | Broadcaster | Artist | Song | Language | Songwriter(s) | Conductor | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORF | Udo Jürgens | "French: [[Merci, Chérie]]|i=no" | German | Hans Hammerschmid | |||
| RTB | Tonia | "French: Un peu de poivre, un peu de sel|i=no" | French | Jean Roderès | |||
| DR | Ulla Pia | "Danish: Stop – mens legen er go'|i=no" | Danish | Erik Kåre | Arne Lamberth | ||
| YLE | Ann-Christine | "Playboy" | Finnish | Ossi Runne | Ossi Runne | ||
| ORTF | Dominique Walter | "French: Chez nous|i=no" | French | Franck Pourcel | |||
| HR | Margot Eskens | "German: Die Zeiger der Uhr|i=no" | German | Willy Berking | |||
| RÉ | Dickie Rock | "Come Back to Stay" | English | Rowland Soper | Noel Kelehan | ||
| RAI | Domenico Modugno | "Italian: [[Dio, come ti amo]]|i=no" | Italian | Domenico Modugno | Angelo Giacomazzi | ||
| CLT | Michèle Torr | "French: Ce soir je t'attendais|i=no" | French | Jean Roderès | |||
| TMC | Téréza | "French: Bien plus fort|i=no" | French | Alain Goraguer | |||
| NTS | Milly Scott | "Dutch; Flemish: Fernando en Philippo|i=no" | Dutch | Dolf van der Linden | |||
| NRK | Åse Kleveland | "Norwegian: Intet er nytt under solen|i=no" | Norwegian | Arne Bendiksen | Øivind Bergh | ||
| RTP | Madalena Iglésias | "Portuguese: Ele e ela|i=no" | Portuguese | Carlos Canelhas | Jorge Costa Pinto | ||
| TVE | Raphael | "Spanish; Castilian: [[Yo soy aquél]]|i=no" | Spanish | Manuel Alejandro | Rafael Ibarbia | ||
| SR | Lill Lindfors and Svante Thuresson | "Swedish: Nygammal vals|i=no" | Swedish | Gert-Ove Andersson | |||
| SRG SSR | Madeleine Pascal | "French: Ne vois-tu pas ?|i=no" | French | Jean Roderès | |||
| BBC | Kenneth McKellar | "A Man Without Love" | English | Harry Rabinowitz | |||
| JRT | Berta Ambrož | "Slovenian: Brez besed|i=no" | Slovene | Mojmir Sepe |
| Artist | Country | Previous year(s) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Domenico Modugno | , | ||
| Udo Jürgens | , |
A new change in rules was introduced this year, allowing music experts to be present in the juries again. 1966 also marked the year the first ever black singer graced the Eurovision stage, Milly Scott representing the . She was also the first singer to use a portable microphone.
This was one of the first contests in which an entry was not accompanied by an orchestra. The Italian entry "Italian: [[Dio, come ti amo]]|i=unset" performed by Domenico Modugno had been rearranged since its performance at the Sanremo Music Festival and officially broke the EBU rule that stated the arrangement should be finalised well in advance. During the Saturday afternoon rehearsal Modugno performed the new arrangement with three of his own musicians as opposed to the orchestra, which went over the three-minute time limit. Following his rehearsal Modugno was confronted by the show's producers about exceeding the time limit and was asked to use the original arrangement with the orchestra. Modugno was so dissatisfied with the orchestra that he threatened to withdraw from the contest. Both the producers and EBU scrutineer Clifford Brown felt it was too short notice to fly Gigliola Cinquetti to Luxembourg to represent Italy, so the EBU gave in and allowed Modugno to use his own ensemble instead of the orchestra. Despite websites and the official programme listing Angelo Giacomazzi as the conductor, Giacomazzi actually played the piano for the entry.[6]
During the voting process, the presenter (Josiane Shen) accidentally greeted United Kingdom by saying "Good night London". She then realized her mistake and said "Good evening, London". Michael Aspel, who was the spokesperson for the United Kingdom at the time, replied "Good morning, Luxembourg", prompting laughter from Josiane and the audience. Additionally, the Spanish spokesperson gave their results in reverse order, presenting the 5 points first, then 3 points second and then the 1 point third.
| + Results of the Eurovision Song Contest 1966[7] | ||||||
| Country | Artist | Song | Points | Place | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "German: Die Zeiger der Uhr|i=no" | 7 | 10 | |||
| 2 | Ulla Pia | "Danish: Stop – mens legen er go'|i=no" | 4 | 14 | ||
| 3 | Tonia | "French: Un peu de poivre, un peu de sel|i=no" | 14 | 4 | ||
| 4 | "French: Ce soir je t'attendais|i=no" | 7 | 10 | |||
| 5 | "Slovenian: Brez besed|i=no" | 9 | 7 | |||
| 6 | "Norwegian: Intet er nytt under solen|i=no" | 15 | 3 | |||
| 7 | Ann-Christine | "Playboy" | 7 | 10 | ||
| 8 | "Portuguese: Ele e ela|i=no" | 6 | 13 | |||
| 9 | "French: [[Merci, Chérie]]|i=no" | 31 | 1 | |||
| 10 | and Svante Thuresson | "Swedish: Nygammal vals|i=no" | 16 | 2 | ||
| 11 | Raphael | "Spanish; Castilian: [[Yo soy aquél]]|i=no" | 9 | 7 | ||
| 12 | "French: Ne vois-tu pas ?|i=no" | 12 | 6 | |||
| 13 | Téréza | "French: Bien plus fort|i=no" | 0 | 17 | ||
| 14 | "Italian: [[Dio, come ti amo]]|i=no" | 0 | 17 | |||
| 15 | "French: Chez nous|i=no" | 1 | 16 | |||
| 16 | "Dutch; Flemish: Fernando en Philippo|i=no" | 2 | 15 | |||
| 17 | "Come Back to Stay" | 14 | 4 | |||
| 18 | "A Man Without Love" | 8 | 9 |
Each country nominated a spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for their respective country via telephone. Known spokespersons at the 1966 contest are listed below.
| + Detailed voting results[11] [12] | ||||||||||||||||||||
| scope="col" | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Germany | 7 | 1 | 5 | 1 | ||||||||||||||||
| Denmark | 4 | 1 | 3 | |||||||||||||||||
| Belgium | 14 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 5 | |||||||||||||||
| Luxembourg | 7 | 1 | 5 | 1 | ||||||||||||||||
| Yugoslavia | 9 | 3 | 1 | 5 | ||||||||||||||||
| Norway | 15 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 5 | ||||||||||||||
| Finland | 7 | 3 | 3 | 1 | ||||||||||||||||
| Portugal | 6 | 1 | 5 | |||||||||||||||||
| Austria | 31 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 3 | ||||||||||
| Sweden | 16 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 1 | |||||||||||||||
| Spain | 9 | 1 | 5 | 3 | ||||||||||||||||
| Switzerland | 12 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 3 | |||||||||||||||
| Monaco | 0 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Italy | 0 | |||||||||||||||||||
| France | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Netherlands | 2 | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||||||||
| Ireland | 14 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 3 | |||||||||||||||
| United Kingdom | 8 | 3 | 5 | |||||||||||||||||
Below is a summary of all 5 points in the final:
| N. | Contestant | Nation(s) giving 5 points |
|---|---|---|
| 4 | ,,, | |
| 3 | ,, | |
| 2 | , | |
| 1 | ||
In addition to the participating countries, the contest was also reportedly broadcast in Morocco, and in Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania and the Soviet Union via Intervision, with an estimated global audience of 500 million viewers.[14] Known details on the broadcasts in each country, including the specific broadcasting stations and commentators are shown in the tables below.
| + Broadcasters and commentators in participating countries | ||||
| Country | Broadcaster | Channel(s) | Commentator(s) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORF | ORF | [15] [16] | ||
| RTB | RTB | [17] | ||
| French: [[La Première (Belgium)|Radio Une]]|i=unset | [18] | |||
| BRT | BRT | |||
| DR | DR TV | Skat Nørrevig | [19] | |
| YLE | Finnish: [[Yle TV1|TV-ohjelma 1]]|i=unset, Finnish: {{ill|Yleisohjelma|fi|Yleisohjelma (Suomen Yleisradio) | [20] [21] | ||
| Finnish: Ruotsinkielinen ula-ohjelma|i=unset | ||||
| ORTF | French: [[TF1|Première Chaîne]]|i=unset | François Deguelt | [22] | |
| France Inter | ||||
| ARD | German: [[Das Erste|Deutsches Fernsehen]]|i=unset | Hans-Joachim Rauschenbach | [23] | |
| RÉ | Irish: [[RTÉ One|Telefís Éireann]]|i=unset | [24] | ||
| Irish: [[RTÉ Radio 1|Radió Éireann]]|i=unset | ||||
| RAI | Italian: [[Rai 2|Secondo Programma]]|i=unset | [25] | ||
| CLT | French: [[RTL9|Télé-Luxembourg]]|i=unset, Radio Luxembourg | [26] | ||
| NTS | Dutch; Flemish: [[NPO 1|Nederland 1]]|i=unset | Teddy Scholten | [27] | |
| NRK | Norwegian: [[NRK1|NRK Fjernsynet]]|i=unset, NRK | [28] [29] | ||
| RTP | RTP | [30] | ||
| TVE | TVE | [31] [32] | ||
| RNE | ||||
| SR | Swedish: [[SVT1|Sveriges TV]]|i=unset, SR P1 | Sven Lindahl | [33] [34] [35] | |
| SRG SSR | TV DRS | Hans-Joachim Rauschenbach | [36] | |
| TSR | [37] | |||
| TSI | [38] | |||
| RSR 1 | [39] | |||
| BBC | BBC1 | David Jacobs | [40] | |
| BFBS | BFBS Radio | Ian Fenner | [41] | |
| JRT | [[RTS1 (Serbian TV channel)|Televizija Beograd]]|i=unset | [42] | ||
| Slovenian: [[Radiotelevizija Slovenija|Televizija Ljubljana]]|i=unset | [43] | |||
| [[HRT 1|Televizija Zagreb]]|i=unset | [44] |
| + Broadcasters and commentators in non-participating countries | |||||
| Country | Broadcaster | Channel(s) | Commentator(s) | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ČST | ČST | [45] | |||
| MTV | MTV | [46] | |||
| TP | Polish: [[TVP1|TV Polska]]|i=unset | [47] | |||
| TVR | TVR | [48] |