An edited down version of the Eurovision Song Contest 1970 from Amsterdam, with a scoreboard using today’s technology. This all started as a lockdown project!
This edit will give a flavour of the evening (Saturday 21 March, 10pm UK time) with a mixture of commentary from RTÉ and firstly, NOS.
Of course, one of the requirements of sainthood is to perform a miracle, and in Amsterdam we got one. Or more importantly, in the weeks and months following the Contest where ‘All Kinds of Everything’ sold remarkably well and became a top 10 hit across Europe. Why did we we need a miracle? Following 1969’s four-way tie, the Contest was widely criticised. The decision appeared to have prompted several countries to boycott this year, meaning the Contest opened with the lowest number of countries since 1959.
As @riva1958allan’s research notes, the tied result was only really a totem pole issue on which to hang Scandinavia’s disquiet about language rules in the Contest. The abstentions were mainly from Scandinavia, and with Denmark already out, that bloc was reduced to zero. Additionally, Portugal didn’t return, although andtheconductoris.eu notes that RTP were unhappy with how ‘Desfolhada portuguesa’ had performed…and similarly, I wonder if ORF in Vienna had continued to stay away as they were still scratching their heads over ‘Tausend Fenster’ performance in London.
Only now were the consequences of Ingvar Wixell’s decision to sing in English in 1965 really showing through – the Scandinavian music industry was operating mainly in English, and besides, with only one win amongst the bloc, it was looking increasingly that French and English had an advantage…although we’d just had two Spanish victories, Italian had triumphed in 1964 and even a minimally German song…the language perhaps most disadvantaged in these first 25-years after World War Two, had won in 1966.
With the walkout and the voting method ‘under review’, the Contest was on shaky ground, bandaged up with television’s most potent medicine: high viewing figures.
Despite the disquiet, apparently all four winning nations entered the ballot to host in 1970. Perhaps unremarkably, the broadcaster with the longest gap since last hosting won the day: NOS (newly born from the Dutch radio and television services). If you want a clear example of how quickly television production has progressed, look at the last Dutch organised show in 1958!
Back in 58, a line up like 1970’s would have probably resulted in a Francophone victory – three of the singers were French. In the end, this was an Anglophone dominated Contest (solidifying the Scandi point of view), with two citizens of the UK going for victory. Once again, the UK had the most recognised artist, and favourite, in Welsh-born Mary Hopkin (the BBC were clearly doing the national rounds, with Lulu being Scottish and the following artist being Northern Irish).
Hopkin and all-Ireland singer, Rosemary Brown (Dana to you and me) had a similar televisual quality that made this show interesting: the feeling that the audience were picking a new star. A potent format for television through the ages, a talent show had started Hopkin’s career before she became one of the first artists signed to Apple Records (The Beatles) – she was now an establish artist of course. Dana had entered for 1969 but got through this year and was largely unknown. Singing a pleasingly ‘Sound of Music’-esque song, viewers felt they were watching something new I expect, especially when told she was a schoolgirl from a rundown part of Derry (enticingly named Bogside)– a city embroiled in The Troubles too. All miracles have a whiff of hyperbole about them of course, and Dana being nearer to her 19th birthday than school age didn’t matter - with high sales of the record, Eurovision was saved.
DESIGN AND THE BOARD
I’ve been looking forward to doing this board, mainly for the prominent use of typography (Futura) in the song credits and I wanted to see how this would translate into a full board. Roland de Groot’s striking stage design was the only way forward for this one, unfortunately because of the need to show the data quite clearly, I didn’t really play around with light as much as I could have done (do take note of how light is used in this show, especially around the arcs and spheres and how different each entry looks…this is very new stuff compared to what we’ve had before, now taken for granted of course). The actual board was quite un-sexy in its design, still using Futura though, but in its bold and condensed form. This Contest also has our first real logo too, and a great piece of design it is too.
TRANSFER NEWS (source: Wiki)
OUT: FIN, NOR, SWE, POR.
INTERVAL ACT
The Don Lurio Dancers
CREDITS
@SvenskTV (many thanks once again); @ESC Stuff for RTÉ comms.
Flags: countryflags.com
00:00 Intro
04:54 Song super-cut
26:58 Interval
29:12 Voting intro
30:34 The reorder board 70
42:01 Recap, data & reprise
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