| Eurovision Song Contest | |
| Year: | 1964 |
| Final: | 21 March 1964 |
| Presenters: | Lotte Wæver |
| Musdirector: | Kai Mortensen |
| Director: | Poul Leth Sørensen |
| Exsupervisor: | Miroslav Vilček |
| Winner: | "Italian: [[Non ho l'età]]|i=unset" |
| Vote: | Ten-member juries awarded points (5, 3 and 1) to their three favourite songs. |
| Host: | Danish: [[DR (broadcaster)|Danmarks Radio]]|i=unset (DR) |
| Venue: | Danish: [[Tivolis Koncertsal]]|i=unset Copenhagen, Denmark |
| Entries: | 16 |
| Map Nosemis: | Y |
The Eurovision Song Contest 1964 was the 9th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Copenhagen, Denmark, following the country's victory at the with the song "Danish: [[Dansevise]]|i=unset" by Grethe and Jørgen Ingmann. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster Danish: [[DR (broadcaster)|Danmarks Radio]]|i=unset (DR), the contest was held at Danish: [[Tivolis Koncertsal]]|i=unset on 21 March 1964, and was hosted by Danish TV presenter Lotte Wæver.
Sixteen countries participated in the contest. made its debut this year, whereas decided not to enter.
The winner of the contest was with the song "Italian: [[Non ho l'età]]|i=unset", performed by Gigliola Cinquetti, written by Nicola Salerno and composed by Mario Panzeri. At the age of 16 years and 92 days, Gigliola Cinquetti became the youngest winner of the contest yet; a record she held until .[1] The entry had one of the widest margins of victory ever witnessed in the competition. It garnered almost three times as many points as the second-placed song.
Besides the, the 1964 contest is the only other one of which there are no surviving video recordings.
The host venue for the contest was Danish: [[Tivolis Koncertsal]]|i=unset (Tivoli Concert Hall) in Denmark's capital city Copenhagen, which lies within Denmark's famous amusement park and pleasure garden Tivoli Gardens. The park, alluding by its name to the French: [[Jardin de Tivoli, Paris|Jardin de Tivoli]]|i=unset that existed in Paris, was opened on 15 August 1843, and is the second oldest amusement park in the world, after Danish: [[Dyrehavsbakken]]|i=unset in nearby Klampenborg.[2]
At the night of the contest, 800 spectators followed the show in the audience.
did not participate this year due to a strike among members of the Swedish Union for Performing Arts and Film (Swedish: Teaterförbundet). Swedish broadcaster Sveriges Radio however did ultimately broadcast the event.[3] competed in the contest for the first time, however they became the first country to score nul points on their début entry. Germany, Switzerland, and Yugoslavia also scored nul points for the first time. The Netherlands became the first country to send a singer of non-European ancestry, Anneke Grönloh who was of Indonesian descent. Spain decided to send the Italian-Uruguayan group Los TNT who were the first group of three or more participants in the history of the contest.
| + Participants of the Eurovision Song Contest 1964[4] [5] [6] | |||||||
| Country | Broadcaster | Artist | Song | Language | Songwriter(s) | Conductor | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORF | Udo Jürgens | "German: [[Warum nur, warum?]]|i=unset" | German | Udo Jürgens | Johannes Fehring | ||
| RTB | Robert Cogoi | "French: Près de ma rivière|i=unset" | French | Robert Cogoi | Henri Segers | ||
| DR | Bjørn Tidmand | "Danish: Sangen om dig|i=unset" | Danish | Kai Mortensen | |||
| YLE | Lasse Mårtenson | "Finnish: Laiskotellen|i=unset" | Finnish | George de Godzinsky | |||
| RTF | Rachel | "French: Le Chant de Mallory|i=unset" | French | Franck Pourcel | |||
| HR | Nora Nova | "German: Man gewöhnt sich so schnell an das Schöne|i=unset" | German | Willy Berking | |||
| RAI | Gigliola Cinquetti | "Italian: [[Non ho l'età]]|i=unset" | Italian | Gianfranco Monaldi | |||
| CLT | Hugues Aufray | "French: [[Dès que le printemps revient]]|i=unset" | French | Jacques Denjean | |||
| TMC | Romuald | "French: Où sont-elles passées|i=unset" | French | Michel Colombier | |||
| NTS | Anneke Grönloh | "Dutch; Flemish: Jij bent mijn leven|i=unset" | Dutch | Dolf van der Linden | |||
| NRK | Arne Bendiksen | "Norwegian: Spiral|i=unset" | Norwegian | Karsten Andersen | |||
| RTP | António Calvário | "Portuguese: Oração|i=unset" | Portuguese | Kai Mortensen | |||
| TVE | Nelly with Tim and Tony | "Spanish; Castilian: Caracola|i=unset" | Spanish | Fina de Calderón | Rafael Ibarbia | ||
| SRG SSR | Anita Traversi | "Italian: I miei pensieri|i=unset" | Italian | Fernando Paggi | |||
| BBC | Matt Monro | "I Love the Little Things" | English | Tony Hatch | Harry Rabinowitz | ||
| JRT | Sabahudin Kurt | "Život je sklopio krug|i=unset" (Живот је склопио круг) | Serbo-Croatian | Radivoje Spasić |
Poul Leth Sørensen served as producer, Bent Fabricius Bjerre and Marianne Drewes acted as co-producers.[7]
Each country had 10 jury members who distributed three points among their one, two, or three favourite songs. The points were totaled and the first, second, and third placed songs were awarded 5, 3, and 1 votes in order. If only one song got every point within the jury it would get all 9 points. If only two songs were chosen, the songs would get 6 and 3 points in order.[8]
The prize to be awarded to the winning artist took the form of an engraved medallion made of silver.[9]
The event was covered by around 100 journalists and photographers. The artists were accompanied by a 41-piece orchestra. Rehearsals started on 19 March 1964.[10]
A political protest occurred after the Swiss entry: a man trespassed onto the stage holding a banner that read "Boycott Franco & Salazar". Whilst this was going on, television viewers were shown a shot of the scoreboard; once the man was removed the contest went on.[12]
The interval act consisted of a ballet dance performance by dancers Solveig Østergaard, Niels Kehlet, Inge Olafsen and Mette Hønningen from the Royal Danish Ballet, choreographed by Niels Bjørn Larsen, and over the music of the "Columbine porka mazurka" and the "Champagne Galop" by Hans Christian Lumbye.[13]
The immediate response of the Koncertsal audience to the Italian entry was markedly enthusiastic and prolonged and, most unusually for a contest performance, after leaving the stage Gigliola Cinquetti was allowed to return to take a second bow. Her performance was given an unscheduled repeat on British television the following afternoon. In the event, she won the most crushing victory in the history of the contest, with a score almost three times that of her nearest rival, a feat extremely unlikely ever to be beaten under the post-1974 scoring system.
An aftershow party was held for the participating delegations at the restaurant Ambassadeur in Copenhagen.[14] Each of the 16 participating acts was awarded a silver trophy on this occasion.
| + Results of the Eurovision Song Contest 1964[15] | ||||||
| Country | Artist | Song | Points | Place | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "French: [[Dès que le printemps revient]]|i=unset" | 14 | 4 | |||
| 2 | "Dutch; Flemish: Jij bent mijn leven|i=unset" | 2 | 10 | |||
| 3 | "Norwegian: Spiral|i=unset" | 6 | 8 | |||
| 4 | "Danish: Sangen om dig|i=unset" | 4 | 9 | |||
| 5 | "Finnish: Laiskotellen|i=unset" | 9 | 7 | |||
| 6 | "German: [[Warum nur, warum?]]|i=unset" | 11 | 6 | |||
| 7 | Rachel | "French: Le Chant de Mallory|i=unset" | 14 | 4 | ||
| 8 | "I Love the Little Things" | 17 | 2 | |||
| 9 | "German: Man gewöhnt sich so schnell an das Schöne|i=unset" | 0 | 13 | |||
| 10 | Romuald | "French: Où sont-elles passées|i=unset" | 15 | 3 | ||
| 11 | "Portuguese: Oração|i=unset" | 0 | 13 | |||
| 12 | "Italian: [[Non ho l'età]]|i=unset" | 49 | 1 | |||
| 13 | "Život je sklopio krug|i=unset" | 0 | 13 | |||
| 14 | "Italian: I miei pensieri|i=unset" | 0 | 13 | |||
| 15 | "French: Près de ma rivière|i=unset" | 2 | 10 | |||
| 16 | Nelly with Tim and Tony | "Spanish; Castilian: Caracola|i=unset" | 1 | 12 |
| + Detailed voting results[16] [17] | ||||||||||||||||||
| scope="col" | ||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Luxembourg | 14 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 3 | |||||||||||||
| Netherlands | 2 | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||||||
| Norway | 6 | 5 | 1 | |||||||||||||||
| Denmark | 4 | 1 | 3 | |||||||||||||||
| Finland | 9 | 3 | 3 | 3 | ||||||||||||||
| Austria | 11 | 5 | 1 | 5 | ||||||||||||||
| France | 14 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||
| United Kingdom | 17 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | ||||||||||
| Germany | 0 | |||||||||||||||||
| Monaco | 15 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 3 | ||||||||||||
| Portugal | 0 | |||||||||||||||||
| Italy | 49 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 5 | ||||||
| Yugoslavia | 0 | |||||||||||||||||
| Switzerland | 0 | |||||||||||||||||
| Belgium | 2 | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||||||
| Spain | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||||||||
Below is a summary of all 5 points in the final:
| N. | Contestant | Nation(s) giving 5 points |
|---|---|---|
| 8 | ,,,,,,, | |
| 2 | , | |
| , | ||
| 1 | ||
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 | [20] | ||
| RTB | RTB | [21] | ||
| BRT | BRT | |||
| DR | DR TV, DR P1, DR P3 | [22] | ||
| YLE | Finnish: [[Yle TV1|Suomen Televisio]]|i=unset | [23] [24] | ||
| Finnish: {{ill|Yleisohjelma|fi|Yleisohjelma (Suomen Yleisradio) | ||||
| Finnish: Ruotsinkielinen ula-ohjelma|i=unset | ||||
| RTF | RTF, Inter Jeunesse | Robert Beauvais | [25] [26] | |
| ARD | German: [[Das Erste|Deutsches Fernsehen]]|i=unset | [27] | ||
| RAI | Italian: [[Rai 1|Programma Nazionale]]|i=unset | [28] | ||
| CLT | French: [[RTL9|Télé-Luxembourg]]|i=unset | Robert Beauvais | [29] | |
| French: [[TMC (TV channel)|Télé Monte-Carlo]]|i=unset | Robert Beauvais | |||
| NTS | NTS | Ageeth Scherphuis | [30] [31] | |
| NRU | Hilversum 2 | |||
| NRK | Norwegian: [[NRK1|NRK Fjernsynet]]|i=unset, NRK | Odd Grythe | [32] [33] | |
| RTP | RTP | [34] | ||
| TVE | TVE | [35] [36] | ||
| RNE | RNE | |||
| SRG SSR | TV DRS | [37] | ||
| TSR | Robert Burnier | [38] | ||
| TSI | [39] | |||
| DRS 1 | ||||
| RSR 1 | [40] | |||
| RSI 1 | ||||
| BBC | BBC TV | David Jacobs | [41] [42] | |
| JRT | [[RTS1 (Serbian TV channel)|Televizija Beograd]]|i=unset | [43] | ||
| Slovenian: [[Radiotelevizija Slovenija|Televizija Ljubljana]]|i=unset | [44] | |||
| [[HRT 1|Televizija Zagreb]]|i=unset | [45] | |||
| + Broadcasters and commentators in non-participating countries | |||||
| Country | Broadcaster | Channel(s) | Commentator(s) | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RÉ | Irish: [[RTÉ One|Telefís Éireann]]|i=unset | [46] | |||
| MBA | MTV | Victor Aquilina | [47] | ||
| TeleCuraçao | [48] | ||||
| SR | Swedish: [[SVT1|Sveriges TV]]|i=unset | Sven Lindahl | |||
As with the, no complete video recording of the actual contest is known to have survived. Some clips of the contest have survived, including the winning announcement by Svend Pedersen, and part of Gigliola Cinquetti's reprise.[49] For some time, there was a rumour that a copy of the entire contest existed in the French television archives.[50] In 2021, INA confirmed to Wiwibloggs that the French television archives do not possess a video copy of the contest.[51] However, the audio of a French radio broadcast can be found in the archives of INA.
A persistent myth, even repeated on the official Eurovision site, is that the tape was destroyed in a fire in the 1970s. In a 2019 interview, DR claimed that the broadcast was never recorded in the first place, allegedly due to no tape machines being available at the studio at the time.[52] The audio of most of the show, however, is still available online, without the last few minutes, and short video clips and photos from various archives also remain available.[53]