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Date: 22 March 1975 - Host Venue: Stockholmsmässan, Stockholm, Sweden Presenter: Karin Falck - Musical director: Mats Olsson Directed by Bo Billtén - Executive supervisor: Clifford Brown Executive producer: Roland Eiworth - Host broadcaster: Sveriges Radio (SR) Interval act: The World of John Bauer The Eurovision Song Contest 1975 was the 20th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Stockholm, Sweden, following ABBA's win at the 1974 contest in Brighton, United Kingdom with the song "Waterloo". It was the first time the contest took place in Sweden, also marking the first time the Scandinavian Peninsula hosted the event. The contest was held at Stockholmsmässan on Saturday, 22 March 1975. The show was hosted by Karin Falck. Nineteen countries participated in the contest, beating the previous record of eighteen, that was first set in the 1965 edition. France and Malta returned after their one-year and two-year absence, respectively. Turkey made its debut, while Greece decided not to enter after its debut the year prior. The winner was the Netherlands with the song "Ding-a-dong", performed by Teach-In, written by Will Luikinga and Eddy Ouwens, and composed by Dick Bakker. This was the Netherlands' fourth victory in the contest, following their wins in 1957, 1959, and 1969. It would be another 44 years before the Netherlands' next win. The venue for the contest was Stockholmsmässan (or Stockholm International Fairs in English). The main building is in Älvsjö – a southern suburb of Stockholm Municipality for which the building got its nickname. It was constructed in 1971 and holds 4,000 people. Nineteen countries took part; Greece decided not to enter after its 1974 debut, while Turkey made its debut, and France and Malta returned to the contest. The Portuguese entry "Madrugada" was an unabashed celebration of the Carnation Revolution, during which the country's 1974 Eurovision entry had played a pivotal practical role. According to author and historian John Kennedy O'Connor in his book The Eurovision Song Contest – The Official History, the Portuguese performer had to be dissuaded from wearing his Portuguese army uniform and carrying a gun onto the stage. Some competitors (notably Portugal and Yugoslavia) opted to perform their songs in English for the rehearsals heard by the judges, but in their native tongue at the final. Others, such as Belgium and Germany, opted for a mix of their own language and English. Results: Draw Country Artist Song Language Place Points 01 Netherlands Teach-In "Ding-a-dong" English 1 152 02 Ireland The Swarbriggs "That's What Friends Are For" English 9 68 03 France Nicole Rieu "Et bonjour à toi l'artiste" French 4 91 04 Germany Joy Fleming "Ein Lied kann eine Brücke sein" German, English 17 15 05 Luxembourg Geraldine "Toi" French 5 84 06 Norway Ellen Nikolaysen "Touch My Life (with Summer)" English 18 11 07 Switzerland Simone Drexel "Mikado" German 6 77 08 Yugoslavia Pepel in kri "Dan ljubezni" Slovene 13 22 09 United Kingdom The Shadows "Let Me Be The One" English 2 138 10 Malta Renato "Singing This Song" English 12 32 11 Belgium Ann Christy "Gelukkig zijn" Dutch, English 15 17 12 Israel Shlomo Artzi "At Va'Ani" (את ואני) Hebrew 11 40 13 Turkey Semiha Yankı "Seninle Bir Dakika" Turkish 19 3 14 Monaco Sophie Hecquet "Une chanson c'est une lettre" French 13 22 15 Finland Pihasoittajat "Old Man Fiddle" English 7 74 16 Portugal Duarte Mendes "Madrugada" Portuguese 16 16 17 Spain Sergio & Estíbaliz "Tú volverás" Spanish 10 53 18 Sweden Lasse Berghagen "Jennie, Jennie" English 8 72 19 Italy Wess & Dori Ghezzi "Era" Italian 3 115

Date: Saturday, 6 April 1974 - 19th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest Venue: The Dome, Brighton, United Kingdom - Presentation: Katie Boyle Voting: Per country, 10 jurymembers each awarded 1 point to their favourite song. Number of countries: 17 This show is fully subtitled. it's never been easier to understand all the lyrics of the songs and our annotations that we created with much love. You have the choice between 5 commentary versions in this iconic edition of the Eurovision Song Contest: 1. Without Foreign Language Commentary (and some Dutch Commentary towards the end): https://youtu.be/R3-iN8tfEQA 2. German Commentary by ORF Austria speaker Ernst Grissemann: https://youtu.be/IhoMUw7GuSo 3. English Commentary by David Vine for the BBC: https://youtu.be/zbfQMgcu49Q 4. Swedish Commentary for the winning country Sweden (SVT) by Johan Sandström https://youtu.be/v9qwRvuvqmI and 5. Spanish Commentary by José Luis Uribarri for the Spanish broadcaster TVE Primera Cadena: https://youtu.be/2Z1BFQUWENo Abba' performance is here: https://youtu.be/R3-iN8tfEQA?t=2129 And because we like you and we recently had our 5 millionth click on our videos you can download the whole video including all 4 audio tracks in the best available picture and sound quality - and including ABBA - here: https://1drv.ms/v/s!ApdSqhArFWeSg99XoftWICO0fAfR2Q?e=Ht9ldt The Eurovision Song Contest 1974 was was held in the seaside resort of Brighton on the south coast of the United Kingdom. The BBC agreed to stage the event after Luxembourg, having won in both 1972 and 1973, declined on the grounds of expense to host the contest for a second consecutive year.The winner of the Contest was Sweden with the song "Waterloo" which was performed by ABBA, who went on to become one of the most popular recording acts of all time. Sweden's win was their first, which was the first victory for the country from the Scandinavian Peninsula Katie Boyle returned to host her fourth Eurovision Song Contest (after hosting the 1960, 1963 and 1968 contests). The programme was also notable in being the European television debut for the winners, ABBA, who were credited in previews as "The Abba".The United Kingdom was represented in the contest by the (British-born) Australian pop singer Olivia Newton-John, who finished in fourth place with the song "Long Live Love". She passed away in 2022. Portugal's entry "E depois do adeus" was used as the first of the two signals to launch the Carnation Revolution against the Estado Novo regime. Played on a Portuguese radio station late in the evening of 24 April 1974, the broadcasting of the song alerted the rebel, largely left-wing captains and soldiers to prepare to begin the successful military coup. John Kennedy O'Connor described "E depois do adeus" as "the only Eurovision entry to have actually started a revolution".In 1974, during the dictatorship in Greece, rock band Nostradamos won the first Eurovision participation contest ran by the state broadcaster ERT to represent Greece at Eurovision However, due to a scandal, the band was not allowed to compete at Eurovision, and Greek laiko singer Marinella was sent instead. Timeline: 0:01 Eurovision hymn 0:43 Host city introduction (Brighton) 3:17 Host introduction 6:18 Finland intro 6:59 Finland song 10:00 UK Intro 10:20 UK song 14:12 Spain intro 14:47 Spain song 18:15 Norway intro 18:47 Norway song 22:13 Greece intro 22:49 Greece song 26:22 Israel intro 27:02 Israel song 30:38 Yugoslavia intro 31:02 Yugoslavia song 34:48 Sweden intro 35:28 Sweden song 38:42 Luxemburg intro 39:24 Luxemburg song 42:48 Monaco intro 43:14 Monaco song 46:42 Belgium intro 47:15 Belgium song 50:42 Netherlands intro 51:34 Netherlands song 54:55 Ireland intro 55:37 Ireland song 58:48 Germany intro 59:17 Germany song 1:02:38 Switzerland Intro 1:03:10 Switzerland song 1:06:45 Portugal intro 1:07:14 Portugal song 1:10:20 Italy intro 1:10:52 Italy song 1:14:42 Introduction to voting 1:15:50 Wombles singing a song 1:19:24 Womble enters stage 1:19:46 Explanation of voting 1:23:40 Jury voting starts 1:40:14 Winner is announced 1:44:00 Replay of winning song 1:47:32 End credits 1:48:50 Eurovision hymn

Date: 7 April 1973 - Host Venue: Grand Théâtre Luxembourg City, Luxembourg Presenter: Helga Guitton - Conductor: Pierre Cao Executive supervisor: Clifford Brown Host broadcaster: Compagnie Luxembourgeoise de Télédiffusion (CLT) Opening act: Pierre Cao and the orchestra performing "Aprés toi" to a montage of views of Luxembourg and behind the scenes. Interval act: Clown Charlie Rivel The Eurovision Song Contest 1973 was held in Luxembourg. In a back-to-back victory, the country won the contest with the song "Tu te reconnaîtras", this being Luxembourg's fourth win. The voting was a very close one, with Spain finishing only 4 points behind and Cliff Richard of the United Kingdom (who had come second in 1968) another 2 points further back. The winning song scored the highest score ever achieved in Eurovision under any voting format until 1975, recording 129 points out of a possible 160, which represented almost 81% of the possible maximum. This was partly due to a scoring system which guaranteed all countries at least two points from each other country. The language rule forcing countries to enter songs sung in any of their national languages was dropped, so performers from some countries sang in English. The event was marked by controversy when the Spanish song, "Eres tú" (by Mocedades), was accused of plagiarism due to reasonable similarities in the melody with the Yugoslav entry from the 1966 contest ("Brez besed" sung by Berta Ambrož); however, "Eres tú" was not disqualified. After finishing second in the contest, the song went on to become a huge international hit. The somewhat elliptical lyrics to Portugal's entry "Tourada" provided sufficient cover for a song that was clearly understood as a blistering assault on the country's decaying dictatorship. Also, the word "breasts" was used during Sweden's song entry. However, no action was taken by the EBU. An argument broke out between the singer Maxi and her Irish delegation over how the song should be performed. During rehearsals she repeatedly stopped performing in frustration. When it began to appear possible that Maxi might withdraw from the contest, RTÉ immediately sent over another singer, Tina Reynolds, to take her place just in case. In the end Miss Reynolds wasn't needed as Maxi did perform, with her entry earning 10th place on the scoreboard. (Reynolds would perform the following year.) This contest holds the record for the most watched Eurovision Song Contest in the United Kingdom, and is also the 18th most watched television show in the same country, with an estimated 21.54 million tuning in on the night. Cliff Richard represented the UK with the song Power to All Our Friends. He came 3rd with 123 points. The winner though was Anne-Marie David with 'Tu te reconnaîtras'. In the UK it was released in English under the title "Wonderful Dream" and released on Epic. It made number 13. In the light of events at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, there were fears of a terrorist threat, particularly directed against Israel's first-ever entrant, leading to unusually tight security for the contest. This gave rise to one of the best-known Eurovision anecdotes, frequently recounted by the UK's long-serving commentator Terry Wogan. He recalled that the floor manager strongly advised the audience to remain seated while applauding the performances, otherwise they risked being shot by security forces. Results Draw Country Artist Song Language Place Points 01 Finland Marion Rung "Tom Tom Tom" English 6 93 02 Belgium Nicole & Hugo "Baby, Baby" Dutch1 17 58 03 Portugal Fernando Tordo "Tourada" Portuguese 10 80 04 Germany Gitte "Junger Tag" German 8 85 05 Norway Bendik Singers "It's Just A Game" English, French2 7 89 06 Monaco Marie "Un train qui part" French 8 85 07 Spain Mocedades "Eres tú" Spanish 2 125 08 Switzerland Patrick Juvet "Je vais me marier, Marie" French 12 79 09 Yugoslavia Zdravko Čolić "Gori vatra" Serbo-Croatian 15 65 10 Italy Massimo Ranieri "Chi sarà con te" Italian 13 74 11 Luxembourg Anne-Marie David "Tu te reconnaîtras" French 1 129 12 Sweden The Novas & The Dolls "You're Summer" English 5 94 13 Netherlands Ben Cramer "De oude muzikant" Dutch 14 69 14 Ireland Maxi "Do I Dream" English 10 80 15 United Kingdom Cliff Richard "Power to All Our Friends" English 3 123 16 France Martine Clémenceau "Sans toi" French 15 65 17 Israel Ilanit "Ey Sham" (אי שם) Hebrew 4 97

Date: 29 March 1969 - Host Venue: Teatro Real - Madrid, Spain Presenter: Laurita Valenzuela - Musical director: Augusto Algueró Directed by Ramón Díez - Executive supervisor: Clifford Brown Host broadcaster: Televisión Española (TVE) Interval act: "La España diferente" film The Eurovision Song Contest 1969 was the 14th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. Four countries (the United Kingdom, Spain, the Netherlands and France) won the contest, the first time ever a tie had occurred. However, there was no rule at the time to cover such an eventuality, so all four countries were declared joint winners. France's win was their fourth, thus making it the first country to win the contest four times. The Netherlands' win was their third. Spain and the United Kingdom each won for the second time. And it was the first time that any country (Spain, in this case) had a winning ESC entry two years in a row. This is so far the only occasion Spain has hosted the contest, as well as their last win to date. The venue selected to host the 1969 contest was the Teatro Real, an opera house located in Madrid. The theatre reopened in 1966 as a concert theatre and the main concert venue of the Spanish National Orchestra and the RTVE Symphony Orchestra. The final featured an onstage metal sculpture created by surrealist Spanish artist, Amadeo Gabino. Austria was absent from the contest, officially because they could not find a suitable representative, but it was rumoured that they refused to participate in a contest staged in Franco-ruled Spain. Regular Spanish commentator until 1968 was Federico Gallo, but José Luis Uribarri took over the job, which he continued at the 1970 Contest. Uribarri returned as the Spanish commentator between the 1974 and the 1976 Contests. After an hiatus between 1977 and 1991, he returned as commentator at the 1992 Contest and continued in the job until the 2003 Contest, which cemented his status as the voice of Eurovision in Spain. He made returns again for the 2008 and the 2010 Contest. Other than the contest itself, Uribarri presented the Spanish national final Pasaporte a Dublín for the 1971 Contest. In 1998, he directed and wrote the four-episode documentary series Eurovisión Siglo XX, which focused on the history of the Eurovision Song Contest. You can watch this documentary here: https://www.rtve.es/play/videos/eurovision-siglo-xx/eurovision-2009-repaso-eurovision-del-siglo-xx/490433/ for the 50s and 60s and https://www.rtve.es/play/videos/eurovision-siglo-xx/eurovision-siglo-xx-historia-del-festival-eurovision-anos-70/3586687/ for the 70s and https://www.rtve.es/play/videos/eurovision-siglo-xx/eurovision-siglo-xx-historia-del-festival-eurovision-anos-80/3586758/ covering the 80s and https://www.rtve.es/play/videos/eurovision-siglo-xx/eurovision-siglo-xx-historia-del-festival-eurovision-anos-90/3586958/ the final episode about the 90s in the ESC In 2000 and 2001, José Luis Uribarri directed Spanish national finals Eurocanción 2000 and Eurocanción 2001. He also made appearances as a member of the jury in Spanish national finals. In 2009 he headed the jury at Spanish national final Eurovisión 2009: El retorno, and he was a member of the Spanish jury as well at the Eurovision Song Contest 2009. For the first time in the history of the Eurovision Song Contest, the outcome of the voting resulted in a tie for first place. Four countries gained 18 points each: France, the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom. Since there was no solution for this situation, all four countries were declared winners. Luckily, there were four medals available to the four winning singers - the four medals were originally intended for the winning singer and three winning songwriters. Results: Draw Country Artist Song Language Place Points 01 Yugoslavia Ivan [hr] & 4M [hr] "Pozdrav svijetu" (Поздрав свијету) Serbo-Croatian 13 5 02 Luxembourg Romuald "Catherine" French 11 7 03 Spain Salomé "Vivo cantando" Spanish 1 18 04 Monaco Jean Jacques "Maman, Maman" French 6 11 05 Ireland Muriel Day & The Lindsays "The Wages of Love" English 7 10 06 Italy Iva Zanicchi "Due grosse lacrime bianche" Italian 13 5 07 United Kingdom Lulu "Boom Bang-a-Bang" English 1 18 08 Netherlands Lenny Kuhr "De troubadour" Dutch 1 18 09 Sweden Tommy Körberg "Judy, min vän" Swedish 9 8 10 Belgium Louis Neefs "Jennifer Jennings" Dutch 7 10 11 Switzerland Paola del Medico "Bonjour, Bonjour" German 5 13 12 Norway Kirsti Sparboe "Oj, oj, oj, så glad jeg skal bli" Norwegian 16 1 13 Germany Siw Malmkvist "Primaballerina" German 9 8 14 France Frida Boccara "Un jour, un enfant" French 1 18 15 Portugal Simone de Oliveira "Desfolhada portuguesa" Portuguese 15 4 16 Finland Jarkko & Laura "Kuin silloin ennen" Finnish 12 6

Date: 21 March 1970 - Host Venue: RAI Theatre, Amsterdam, Netherlands Presenter: Willy Dobbe - Musical director: Dolf van der Linden Directed by Theo Ordeman - Executive supervisor: Clifford Brown Executive producer: Warner van Kampen Host broadcaster: Nederlandse Omroep Stichting (NOS) Interval act: The Don Lurio Dancers The Eurovision Song Contest 1970 was the 15th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Amsterdam, Netherlands and was held at the RAI Congrescentrum on Saturday 21 March 1970. The show was hosted by Willy Dobbe. Due to there being four winners in the previous contest, a question was raised as to which nation would host the 1970 contest. With the UK having hosted in 1968 and Spain in 1969, only France and Netherlands were in consideration. A toss of a coin resulted in the host country being decided as the Netherlands. Twelve countries participated in the contest. It was the lowest number of participants since the 1959 edition. Finland, Norway, Portugal, Sweden and Austria did not participate in 1970 in protest of the four-way tie result of 1969. The winner was Ireland with the song "All Kinds of Everything", performed by Dana, and written/composed by Derry Lindsay and Jackie Smith. This was Ireland's first victory in the contest. The United Kingdom finished in second place for the seventh time, while Germany ended up in third place - the best result for the country at the time. This was also the only time that Luxembourg received 'nul points'. The Dutch producers were forced to pad out the show as only 12 nations decided to make the trip to Amsterdam. The result was a format which has endured almost to the present day. An extended opening sequence (filmed in Amsterdam) set the scene, while every entry was introduced by a short video 'postcard' featuring each of the participating artists, ostensibly in their own nation. However, the 'postcards' for Switzerland, Luxembourg and Monaco were all filmed on location in Paris (as was the French postcard). The long introduction film (over four minutes long) was followed by what probably is one of the shortest ever introductions by any presenter. Willy Dobbe only welcomed the viewers in English, French and Dutch, finishing her introduction after only 24 seconds. On screen captions introduced each entry, with the song titles listed all in lower case and the names of the artist and composers/authors all in capitals. The set design was devised by Roland de Groot; a simple design was composed of a number of curved horizontal bars and silver baubles which could be moved in a variety of different ways. To avoid an incident like in 1969, a tie rule was created. It stated that, if two or more songs gained the same number of votes and were tied for first place, each song would have to be performed again. After which each national jury (other than the juries of the countries concerned) would have a show of hands of which they thought was the best. If the countries tied again, then they would share first place. In the run-up to the Contest, the United Kingdom were favourites to win and also the favourite with the 50-piece orchestra. So sure of victory, the UK delegation had organised a winner's party to be thrown after the contest In the end, the only two countries in the running were the UK and Ireland, albeit the latter holding the lead throughout the voting. Ireland took the victory with 32 points, 6 points ahead of the UK, with Germany a distant third. Luxembourg failed to score any points at all - their only time ever to do so. Ireland won the contest with "All Kinds of Everything", penned by Derry Lindsay and Jackie Smith, and sung by another unknown, Dana, an 18-year-old schoolgirl from Derry, Northern Ireland. Scottish songwriter Bill Martin, who was responsible for the winning song's publishing, has on numerous subsequent occasions claimed that he and his song writing partner Phil Coulter (the team behind both Puppet on a String and Congratulations) actually wrote the song themselves, but were prevented from using their names on the credit. Results: Draw Country Artist Song Language Place Points 01 Netherlands Hearts of Soul "Waterman" Dutch 7 7 02 Switzerland Henri Dès "Retour" French 4 8 03 Italy Gianni Morandi "Occhi di ragazza" Italian 8 5 04 Yugoslavia Eva Sršen "Pridi, dala ti bom cvet" Slovene 11 4 05 Belgium Jean Vallée "Viens l'oublier" French 8 5 06 France Guy Bonnet "Marie-Blanche" French 4 8 07 United Kingdom Mary Hopkin "Knock, Knock Who's There?" English 2 26 08 Luxembourg David Alexandre Winter "Je suis tombé du ciel" French 12 0 09 Spain Julio Iglesias "Gwendolyne" Spanish 4 8 10 Monaco Dominique Dussault "Marlène" French 8 5 11 Germany Katja Ebstein "Wunder gibt es immer wieder" German 3 12 12 Ireland Dana "All Kinds of Everything" English 1 32

Date: 5 March 1966 - Host Venue: Villa Louvigny, Luxembourg City, Luxembourg Presenter: Josiane Shen - Musical director: Jean Roderès Directed by Jos Pauly and René Steichen - Executive supervisor: Clifford Brown Host broadcaster: Compagnie Luxembourgeoise de Télédiffusion (CLT) Interval act: Les Haricots Rouges The Eurovision Song Contest 1966 was the 11th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Luxembourg City, Luxembourg, following the country's victory at the 1965 contest with the song "Poupée de cire, poupée de son" by France Gall. It was the second time Luxembourg hosted the event after the 1962 edition. The contest was held at the Villa Louvigny on Saturday 5 March 1966 and was hosted by Josiane Chen. Eighteen countries participated in the contest. All countries that took part in the 1965 edition, also took part this year. The winner was Austria with the song "Merci, Chérie", performed and composed by Udo Jürgens, and written by Jürgens and Thomas Hörbiger. This was Austria's first victory - and Udo Jürgens third consecutive entry - in the contest. This was also the first winning song to be performed in German. This contest is also noted for its historic results for several countries. Austria who came first, Sweden who came second, Norway who came third and Belgium who came fourth all achieved their best results up until then, some of which would stand for several decades. In contrast traditional Eurovision heavyweights up to that point such as France, United Kingdom and Italy 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. 1966 marked the year the first ever black singer graced the Eurovision stage, Milly Scott representing the Netherlands. It was also one of the first contests in which an entry was not accompanied by an orchestra. The Italian entry "Dio, come ti amo" 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. This year's voting was also characterised with numerous cases of "neighbourly" or "bloc" voting - a problem that would plague the contest in many future decades. Sweden for example received all its 16 points, bar one, from its Nordic neighbours - as did Finland. Denmark likewise received all its points from Nordic nations. The voting of the Nordic countries was met with booing from the Luxembourg audience. Portugal and its sole neighbour Spain exchanged maximum five points, with Switzerland and Austria - also two countries neighbouring each other - doing likewise. France was spared the indignity of no points from its micro-state neighbour Monaco. Ireland awarded maximum points to its culturally closest neighbour the United Kingdom with the Netherlands doing the same for Belgium. Results: Draw Country Artist Song Language Place Points 01 Germany Margot Eskens "Die Zeiger der Uhr" German 10 7 02 Denmark Ulla Pia "Stop – mens legen er go'" Danish 14 4 03 Belgium Tonia "Un peu de poivre, un peu de sel" French 4 14 04 Luxembourg Michèle Torr "Ce soir je t'attendais" French 10 7 05 Yugoslavia Berta Ambrož "Brez besed" Slovene 7 9 06 Norway Åse Kleveland "Intet er nytt under solen" Norwegian 3 15 07 Finland Ann Christine "Playboy" Finnish 10 7 08 Portugal Madalena Iglésias "Ele e ela" Portuguese 13 6 09 Austria Udo Jürgens "Merci, Chérie" German 1 31 10 Sweden Lill Lindfors & Svante Thuresson "Nygammal vals" Swedish 2 16 11 Spain Raphael "Yo soy aquél" Spanish 7 9 12 Switzerland Madeleine Pascal "Ne vois-tu pas?" French 6 12 13 Monaco Téréza "Bien plus fort" French 17 0 14 Italy Domenico Modugno "Dio, come ti amo" Italian 17 0 15 France Dominique Walter "Chez nous" French 16 1 16 Netherlands Milly Scott "Fernando en Filippo" Dutch 15 2 17 Ireland Dickie Rock "Come Back to Stay" English 4 14 18 United Kingdom Kenneth McKellar "A Man Without Love" English 9 8

Date: 6 April 1968 - Host Venue: Royal Albert Hall, London, United Kingdom Presenter: Katie Boyle - Musical director: Norrie Paramor Directed by Stewart Morris - Executive supervisor: Clifford Brown Executive producer: Tom Sloan - Host broadcaster: BBC Interval act: Impressions from London This show is fully subtitled. It's never been easier to understand all the lyrics of the songs. Youtube deleted the "Congratulations" sequence with Sir Cliff. Sorry about that. But you can watch his performance here on Sir Cliff's Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xJcE9tnY6E The Eurovision Song Contest 1968 was the 13th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in London, United Kingdom, following the country's victory at the 1967 contest with the song "Puppet on a String" by Sandie Shaw. It was the third time the event took place in the UK; after the 1960 and 1963 editions, both of which also took place in London. The contest was held at the Royal Albert Hall on Saturday 6 April 1968, and was hosted by Katie Boyle (for the third time). The winner was Spain with the song "La, la, la", performed by Massiel, and written/composed by Manuel de la Calva and Ramón Arcusa. This was Spain's first victory - and their first ever top five placing - in the contest. Prior to the contest, the United Kingdom's entry, Cliff Richard with the song "Congratulations", was hotly tipped as the favourite to win, but lost out to Spain's Massiel by a margin of just one point. Originally Spain entered Joan Manuel Serrat to sing "La La La", but his demand to sing in Catalan was an affront to the Francoist State dictatorship. Serrat was replaced by Massiel, who sang the same song in Spanish. The contest was held at the Royal Albert Hall in London. 1968 was the first time that the Eurovision Song Contest was broadcast in colour. The countries that broadcast it in colour were France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, Sweden and the United Kingdom, although in the UK it was broadcast as an encore presentation in colour on BBC Two the next day. Also all of Eastern Europe and Tunisia broadcast the contest. In May 2008, a documentary by Spanish film-maker Montse Fernández Villa, 1968. Yo viví el mayo español, centred on the effects of May 1968 in Francoist Spain, and alleged that the 1968 Eurovision Song Contest was rigged by the Spanish caudillo Francisco Franco, who would have sent state television officials across Europe offering cash and promising to buy television series and contract unknown artists. The allegation was based on a testimony by journalist José María Íñigo, a TVE employee at the time, who claimed the rigging was common knowledge and suggested that Spanish record label representatives offered to release albums by Bulgarian and Czech artists (neither Bulgaria nor Czechoslovakia were members of the European Broadcasting Union at the time, though in the 1968 Contest, Austria was represented by Karel Gott, who was from Czechoslovakia.). The documentary claimed that the contest should in fact have been won by the United Kingdom's entry – "Congratulations" performed by Cliff Richard – which finished second by one vote. Massiel, the performer of the winning entry, was outraged by the allegations, and claimed that if there had been fixes, "other singers, who were more keen on Francoist Spain, would have benefited". José María Iñigo, author of the statement in the documentary, personally apologized to Massiel and said that he had repeated a widespread rumour. Both Massiel and Iñigo accused television channel La Sexta, broadcaster of the documentary, of manufacturing the scandal. Results: Draw Country Artist Song Language Place Points 01 Portugal Carlos Mendes "Verão" Portuguese 11 5 02 Netherlands Ronnie Tober "Morgen" Dutch 16 1 03 Belgium Claude Lombard "Quand tu reviendras" French 7 8 04 Austria Karel Gott "Tausend Fenster" German 13 2 05 Luxembourg Chris Baldo and Sophie Garel "Nous vivrons d'amour" French 11 5 06 Switzerland Gianni Mascolo "Guardando il sole" Italian 13 2 07 Monaco Line and Willy "À chacun sa chanson" French 7 8 08 Sweden Claes-Göran Hederström "Det börjar verka kärlek, banne mig" Swedish 5 15 09 Finland Kristina Hautala "Kun kello käy" Finnish 16 1 10 France Isabelle Aubret "La source" French 3 20 11 Italy Sergio Endrigo "Marianne" Italian 10 7 12 United Kingdom Cliff Richard "Congratulations" English 2 28 13 Norway Odd Børre "Stress" Norwegian 13 2 14 Ireland Pat McGuigan "Chance of a Lifetime" English 4 18 15 Spain Massiel "La, la, la" Spanish 1 29 16 Germany Wenche Myhre "Ein Hoch der Liebe" German 6 11 17 Yugoslavia Luci Capurso and Hamo Hajdarhodžić "Jedan dan" Serbo-Croatian 7 8

Date: Saturday, 8 April 1967 - Venue: Hofburg Palace, Vienna, Austria Presentation: Erica Vaal Voting: Per country, 10 jurymembers each awarded 1 point to their favourite song. Number of countries: 17 This show is fully subtitled. It's never been easier to understand all the lyrics of the songs. The Eurovision Song Contest 1967 was the 12th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Vienna, Austria, following the country's victory at the 1966 contest with the song "Merci, Chérie" by Udo Jürgens. It was the first time the event took place in Austria. The contest was held at the Großer Festsaal der Wiener Hofburg on Saturday 8 April 1967, and was hosted by Erica Vaal. Seventeen countries participated in the contest, one fewer than the record eighteen that competed in the 1965 and 1966 editions. Denmark did not enter after its 1966 participation, and left the contest at this point, not to return until 1978. The winner was the United Kingdom with the song "Puppet on a String", written and composed by Bill Martin and Phil Coulter, and performed by Sandie Shaw. This was the United Kingdom's first victory in the contest, and also the first winning song to be performed in English. The entry had one of the widest margins of victory ever witnessed in the competition; it garnered more than twice as many points as the second-placed song. (Only Italy has outdone this feat, in the 1964 Contest with a margin of 49 to 17, almost three times as many points as the second-placed entry). The presenter became confused whilst the voting was taking place, and declared the United Kingdom's entry to be the winner before the last country, Ireland, had announced its votes. Shaw intensely disliked the composition, though her attitude towards the song somewhat mellowed in later years, even releasing a new version in 2007. Until 2015, the 1967 Contest remained the only occasion when Austria hosted the event. The 1967 Eurovision Song Contest was held in Vienna, the capital of Austria. The venue for the contest was the Hofburg Palace, which was the principal winter residence of the Habsburg dynasty, rulers of the Austro-Hungarian empire. It currently serves as the official residence of the President of Austria. Format The stage setup was a little unusual this year. There were two revolving mirrored walls on both ends of the stage; they began revolving at the start of each song, and stopped at its end. The hostess, Erica Vaal, ended the programme by congratulating the winning song and country, and saying "goodbye" in several different languages. This was the last contest to be transmitted only in black and white. Participating countries Further information: List of countries in the Eurovision Song Contest The entry from Luxembourg, "L'amour est bleu", sung by Vicky Leandros, came in fourth; nonetheless, it went on to become the biggest international hit of the 1967 contest, and a year later would be a big instrumental hit for French musician, Paul Mauriat, under the English title, "Love is Blue". Denmark chose not to participate and left the contest at this point, only returning in 1978. The reason was that the new director for the TV entertainment department at DR thought that the money could be spent in a better way. The United Kingdom's win was its first. Television presenter, artist and musician Rolf Harris provided the commentary for BBC Television viewers. Switzerland received zero votes for the second time. Portugal was represented by Eduardo Nascimento, who was the first black male singer in the history of the Eurovision Song Contest, performing "O vento mudou" ("The wind changed"). Rumours claimed that Portuguese prime minister Salazar had chosen this particular singer to show the rest of Europe that he was not racist. Results Draw Country Artist Song Language Place Points 01 Netherlands Thérèse Steinmetz "Ring-dinge-ding" Dutch 14 2 02 Luxembourg Vicky Leandros "L'amour est bleu" French 4 17 03 Austria Peter Horton "Warum es hunderttausend Sterne gibt" German 14 2 04 France Noëlle Cordier "Il doit faire beau là-bas" French 3 20 05 Portugal Eduardo Nascimento "O vento mudou" Portuguese 12 3 06 Switzerland Géraldine "Quel cœur vas-tu briser?" French 17 0 07 Sweden Östen Warnerbring "Som en dröm" Swedish 8 7 08 Finland Fredi "Varjoon – suojaan" Finnish 12 3 09 Germany Inge Brück "Anouschka" German 8 7 10 Belgium Louis Neefs "Ik heb zorgen" Dutch 7 8 11 United Kingdom Sandie Shaw "Puppet on a String" English 1 47 12 Spain Raphael "Hablemos del amor" Spanish 6 9 13 Norway Kirsti Sparboe "Dukkemann" Norwegian 14 2 14 Monaco Minouche Barelli "Boum-Badaboum" French 5 10 15 Yugoslavia Lado Leskovar "Vse rože sveta" Slovene 8 7 16 Italy Claudio Villa "Non andare più lontano" Italian 11 4 17 Ireland Sean Dunphy "If I Could Choose" English 2 22

Date: 21 March 1964 - Host Venue: Tivolis Koncertsal, Copenhagen, Denmark Presenter: Lotte Wæver - Musical director: Kai Mortensen Directed by Poul Leth Sørensen - Executive supervisor: Miroslav Vilček Host broadcaster: Danmarks Radio (DR) - Opening act: Tivoli Youth Guard Interval act: Ballet-Harlequinade 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 1963 contest with the song "Dansevise" by Grethe & Jørgen Ingmann. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster Danmarks Radio (DR), the contest was held at Tivolis Koncertsal on 21 March 1964, and was hosted by Danish TV speaker Lotte Wæver. Sixteen countries participated in the contest. Portugal made its debut this year, while Sweden decided not to enter. The winner of the contest was Italy with the song "Non ho l'età", 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 1986. 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. As with the 1956 contest, no complete video recording of the actual contest is known to have survived; however, unlike the 1956 contest (where the interval act is mostly missing), a complete audio recording does exist in the form of the DR radio broadcast. Some clips of the contest have survived, including part of the opening ceremonies, including some of presenter Lotte Wæver's welcoming remarks, as well as the majority of the repeat performance of "Non ho l'età" from the end of the broadcast. For some time, there was a rumour that a copy of the entire contest existed in the French television archives. In 2021, INA confirmed to Wiwibloggs that the French television archives do not possess a copy of the contest. A persistent myth, even repeated on the official Eurovision site, is that the tape was destroyed in a fire in the 1970s. More recent interviews with DR, however, state that the broadcast was never recorded in the first place, allegedly due to no tape machines being available at the studio at the time. The audio of the entire show, however, is still available online, and fan reconstructions using available clips, press photos and other sources have been made. Our YouTube channel ESCstuff released a full reconstruction of the contest in December 2020, using footage recovered from Germany. It was the second reconstruction using the German footage uploaded on Youtube. In December 2021, after purchasing it from the Finnish broadcaster Yle's archives, Reddit user DYLCWS uploaded a 3-minute clip of the televised broadcast of the contest, including Gigliola Cinquetti being presented as the winner, the presenter Lotte Wæver introducing the award presenter Svend Pedersen, a shot of the medal, a shot of the audience, and a portion of the winning reprise of "Non ho l'età" at a front facing angle unlike most of the pre-existing footage. At the end of July 2022, new photos from the contest were found in the DR's archives. A few weeks later, YouTube user ESC Kazakhstan started uploading reconstructions of the contestants' performances using the found photos. The purpose of this video is to replicate the ideal look of the televised contest while including the new footage found under YLE archives and new footage of participants after the original reconstruction was released. Credits to LewisTheThing for putting it all together in so many hours of hard work. Thank you for watching, and enjoy the show. Participants and results: R/O Country Artist Song Language Points Place 1 Luxembourg Hugues Aufray "Dès que le printemps revient" French 14 4= 2 Netherlands Anneke Grönloh "Jij bent mijn leven" Dutch 2 10= 3 Norway Arne Bendiksen "Spiral" Norwegian 6 8 4 Denmark Bjørn Tidmand "Sangen om dig" Danish 4 9 5 Finland Lasse Mårtenson "Laiskotellen" Finnish 9 7 6 Austria Udo Jürgens "Warum nur, warum?" German 11 6 7 France Rachel "Le Chant de Mallory" French 14 4= 8 United Kingdom Matt Monro "I Love the Little Things" English 17 2 9 Germany Nora Nova "Man gewöhnt sich so schnell an das Schöne" German 0 13= 10 Monaco Romuald "Où sont-elles passées" French 15 3 11 Portugal António Calvário "Oração" Portuguese 0 13= 12 Italy Gigliola Cinquetti "Non ho l'età" Italian 49 1 13 Yugoslavia Sabahudin Kurt "Život je sklopio krug" (Живот је склопио круг) Serbo-Croatian 0 13= 14 Switzerland Anita Traversi "I miei pensieri" Italian 0 13= 15 Belgium Robert Cogoi "Près de ma rivière" French 2 10= 16 Spain Tim, Nelly and Tony "Caracola" Spanish 1 12

Date: 23 March 1963 - Host Venue: BBC Television Centre, London, United Kingdom Presenter: Katie Boyle - Musical director: Eric Robinson Directed by Yvonne Littlewood - Executive producer: Harry Carlisle Host broadcaster: British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Interval act: Ola & Barbro The Eurovision Song Contest 1963 was the eighth annual Eurovision Song Contest. The contest was held in London, United Kingdom, after the British broadcaster BBC stepped in to organise the event. France had won the 1962 edition with the right to host this following one but was unable to, due to financial shortcomings. The contest was won by Denmark with the song "Dansevise", performed by Grethe & Jørgen Ingmann. Denmark's win was their first, which was the first victory for a Nordic country. Four countries got nul points, with Finland, Norway and Sweden failing to score any points for the first time and the Netherlands for the second time, becoming the first country to go two years in a row without scoring a single point. The BBC was willing to host the contest instead of the previous year's winner France, as was the case in 1960. They would do so again in 1972 and 1974 because the winning broadcasters from the year before could not afford to produce the contest. The host venue was the BBC Television Centre, White City, London, which opened in 1960. It is one of the most readily recognisable facilities of its type having appeared as the backdrop for many BBC programmes. It remained to be one of the largest such facilities in the world until it redeveloped in March 2013. Two studios (TC3 and TC4) were used: one for the mistress of ceremonies Katie Boyle, the audience, and the scoreboard; the other for the performers and the orchestra accompanying them. Unusually, a boom microphone (normally used for drama and comedy shows) was employed - the viewer doesn't see this, so it appears as if the artists were miming to their vocals. This was not the case, but this innovation was to create a new look for the contest. One controversy this year was during the voting. When it was Norway's turn to announce their votes, the spokesman in Oslo, Roald Øyen, did not use the correct procedure in that the song number, followed by the name of the country, should have been announced before awarding the points. Katie Boyle asked Norway to repeat their results, but the Norwegian spokesman asked Katie to return to them after all the other results were in. When Katie went back to Norway again the votes had mysteriously altered, thus changing the outcome of the contest and giving the victory to Norway's neighbours Denmark at Switzerland's expense. In fact, the Norwegian spokesman had not given the correct votes on the first occasion. Monaco was also asked to repeat their voting a second time as initially Monaco gave one point to both the United Kingdom and Luxembourg. However, when Katie Boyle went back to Monaco to receive the votes again Monaco's one vote to Luxembourg was efficiently discarded (although this did not have any effect on the positions of the countries). It has also been speculated as to whether the juries were indeed on the end of a telephone line or in the actual studio given how clearly their voices could be heard as opposed to sounding as though they were being redirected through a telephone line. Each country had 20 jury members who awarded their five favourite songs 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1 points in order. All those points would then be added up and the five song with the most points got 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1 votes in order. Errors in the Norwegian (see above) and the Monegasque votes meant their scores had to be announced twice, with an adjustment to the scores being made in each case before the final score was verified. Results Draw Country Artist Song Language Place Points 01 United Kingdom Ronnie Carroll "Say Wonderful Things" English 4 28 02 Netherlands Annie Palmen "Een speeldoos" Dutch 13 0 03 Germany Heidi Brühl "Marcel" German 9 5 04 Austria Carmela Corren "Vielleicht geschieht ein Wunder" German, English 7 16 05 Norway Anita Thallaug "Solhverv" Norwegian 13 0 06 Italy Emilio Pericoli "Uno per tutte" Italian 3 37 07 Finland Laila Halme "Muistojeni laulu" Finnish 13 0 08 Denmark Grethe and Jørgen Ingmann "Dansevise" Danish 1 42 09 Yugoslavia Vice Vukov "Brodovi" (Бродови) Serbo-Croatian 11 3 10 Switzerland Esther Ofarim "T'en va pas" French 2 40 11 France Alain Barrière "Elle était si jolie" French 5 25 12 Spain José Guardiola "Algo prodigioso" Spanish 12 2 13 Sweden Monica Zetterlund "En gång i Stockholm" Swedish 13 0 14 Belgium Jacques Raymond "Waarom?" Dutch 10 4 15 Monaco Françoise Hardy "L'amour s'en va" French 5 25 16 Luxembourg Nana Mouskouri "À force de prier" French 8 13

Date: 18 March 1962 - Host Venue: Villa Louvigny, Luxembourg City, Luxembourg Presenter: Mireille Delannoy - Musical director: Jean Roderès Directed by Jos Pauly, René Steichen Host broadcaster: Compagnie Luxembourgeoise de Télédiffusion (CLT) Interval act: Achille Zavatta The Eurovision Song Contest 1962 was the 7th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Luxembourg City, Luxembourg, following the country's victory at the 1961 contest with the song "Nous les amoureux" by Jean-Claude Pascal. This was the first time Luxembourg hosted the event. The contest was held at the Villa Louvigny on Sunday 18 March 1962 and was hosted by Mireille Delannoy. Sixteen countries participated in the contest – the same that took part the year prior. The winner was France with the song "Un premier amour", performed by Isabelle Aubret, written by Roland Valade and composed by Claude Henri Vic. This was France's third victory in the contest in just five years, following their wins in 1958 and 1960. It was also the third consecutive winning song performed in French. For the first time in the contest's history, Austria, Belgium, Netherlands, and Spain all scored the infamous nul points. The 1962 Eurovision Song Contest was hosted in Luxembourg City. The venue chosen to host the 1962 contest was the Villa Louvigny. The building served as the headquarters of Compagnie Luxembourgeoise de Télédiffusion, the forerunner of RTL Group. It is located in Municipal Park, in the Ville Haute quarter of the centre of the city. After France's entry had been performed, there was a short power failure rendering the screens dark. There also seemed to be an even shorter power failure during the Netherlands entry, when viewers around Europe only saw darkness on their television screens when the Netherlands performed. The power failure seemed to affect the Netherlands score during the voting. Nevertheless, the song turned out to be popular in Europe after the contest This year marked the second jury voting system change in the contest's history, moving away from a point per favourite song from 10-member juries to the allocation of 3, 2 and 1 points given to the top three favourite songs from each country's 10-member jurors' ratings. Results Draw Country Artist Song Language Place Points 01 Finland Marion Rung "Tipi-tii" Finnish 7 4 02 Belgium Fud Leclerc "Ton nom" French 13 0 03 Spain Victor Balaguer "Llámame" Spanish 13 0 04 Austria Eleonore Schwarz "Nur in der Wiener Luft" German 13 0 05 Denmark Ellen Winther "Vuggevise" Danish 10 2 06 Sweden Inger Berggren "Sol och vår" Swedish 7 4 07 Germany Conny Froboess "Zwei kleine Italiener" German 6 9 08 Netherlands De Spelbrekers "Katinka" Dutch 13 0 09 France Isabelle Aubret "Un premier amour" French 1 26 10 Norway Inger Jacobsen "Kom sol, kom regn" Norwegian 10 2 11 Switzerland Jean Philippe "Le retour" French 10 2 12 Yugoslavia Lola Novaković "Ne pali svetla u sumrak" (Не пали светла у сумрак) Serbo-Croatian 4 10 13 United Kingdom Ronnie Carroll "Ring-A-Ding Girl" English 4 10 14 Luxembourg Camillo Felgen "Petit bonhomme" French 3 11 15 Italy Claudio Villa "Addio, addio" Italian 9 3 16 Monaco François Deguelt "Dis rien" French 2 13

Date: 20 March 1965 - Host Venue: Sala di Concerto della RAI, Naples, Italy Presenter: Renata Mauro - Musical director: Gianni Ferrio Directed by Romolo Siena - Executive supervisor: Miroslav Vilček Host broadcaster: Radiotelevisione Italiana (RAI) Interval act: Mario Del Monaco The Eurovision Song Contest 1965 was the 10th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Naples, Italy, following the country's victory at the 1964 contest with the song "Non ho l'età" by Gigliola Cinquetti. It was the first time the contest took place in Italy, also marking the first time the Italian Peninsula and Southern European country hosted the event. The contest was held at Sala di Concerto della RAI on Saturday 20 March 1965, and was hosted by Renata Mauro. Eighteen countries participated in the contest - setting a new record for the highest number of entrants. Sweden returned after their absence from the previous edition, while Ireland made their debut. The winner was Luxembourg with the song "Poupée de cire, poupée de son", performed by France Gall, and written/composed by Serge Gainsbourg. This was Luxembourg's second victory in the contest, following their win in 1961. It was also the first winning song since the Netherlands' "Een beetje" in 1959 to not be a ballad. For the fourth consecutive year, four countries all scored nul points; Belgium, Finland, Germany, and Spain - all of which finished with no points for the second time in the contest's history. The contest took place in Naples, the capital of region Campania in southern Italy and the third-largest city in Italy, after Rome and Milan. This is Italy's first hosting of the Eurovision Song Contest. The host venue was the then new Sala di Concerto della RAI (RAI Production Centre of Naples), founded few years prior to the contest, in the late fifties and early sixties. It is located in Viale Marconi in the district of Fuorigrotta. The structure has three TV studios for a total of 1227 m2 and capacity of 370 persons, used for the filming of programs and fiction and an auditorium. The Neapolitan song archives are also housed in it. Each country had 10 jury members who distributed three points among their one, two, or three favourite songs. The points were totalled 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. 18 countries took part, with the Eurovision Song Contest reaching its highest ever number. Sweden returned after a one-year absence, and Ireland debuted in the competition. Luxembourg won for the second time with the highly controversial Poupée De Cire, Poupée De Son sung by teenager France Gall which later went on to be a massive hit in almost all European countries. Belgium, Finland, Germany, and Spain all scored null points for the second time. The competition was also broadcast via the Intervision network, to the Eastern European nations for the very first time. Ingvar Wixell, the Swedish participant performed his song in English instead of the original Swedish title "Annorstädes vals". The native languages were used for all of the other participants. This led to a rule being introduced for the next 1966 edition, that meant all participants had to perform their songs using one of their national languages. Results Draw Country Artist Song Language Place Points 01 Netherlands Conny Vandenbos "'t Is genoeg" Dutch 11 5 02 United Kingdom Kathy Kirby "I Belong" English 2 26 03 Spain Conchita Bautista "¡Qué bueno, qué bueno!" Spanish 15 0 04 Ireland Butch Moore "Walking the Streets in the Rain" English 6 11 05 Germany Ulla Wiesner "Paradies, wo bist du?" German 15 0 06 Austria Udo Jürgens "Sag ihr, ich lass sie grüßen" German 4 16 07 Norway Kirsti Sparboe "Karusell" Norwegian 13 1 08 Belgium Lize Marke "Als het weer lente is" Dutch 15 0 09 Monaco Marjorie Noël "Va dire à l'amour" French 9 7 10 Sweden Ingvar Wixell "Absent Friend" English 10 6 11 France Guy Mardel "N'avoue jamais" French 3 22 12 Portugal Simone de Oliveira "Sol de inverno" Portuguese 13 1 13 Italy Bobby Solo "Se piangi, se ridi" Italian 5 15 14 Denmark Birgit Brüel "For din skyld" Danish 7 10 15 Luxembourg France Gall "Poupée de cire, poupée de son" French 1 32 16 Finland Viktor Klimenko "Aurinko laskee länteen" Finnish 15 0 17 Yugoslavia Vice Vukov "Čežnja" (Чежња) Serbo-Croatian 12 2 18 Switzerland Yovanna "Non, à jamais sans toi" French 8 8

Date: 18 March 1961 - Host Venue: Palais des Festivals et des Congrès, Cannes, France Presenter: Jacqueline Joubert - Musical director: Franck Pourcel Directed by Maurice Barry - Executive producer: Marcel Cravenne Host broadcaster :Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française (RTF) Interval act: Tessa Beaumont and Max Bozzoni The Eurovision Song Contest 1961 was the 6th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Cannes, France, following the country's victory at the 1960 contest with the song "Tom Pillibi" by Jacqueline Boyer. It was the second time that France had hosted the contest; the first being in 1959 - also in Cannes. The contest was held at Palais des Festivals et des Congrès on 18 March 1961 and was the first to take place on a Saturday night, a tradition that has continued into modern times. The show was hosted by Jacqueline Joubert. The English commentary for the BBC viewers was not complete in 1961 due to technical issues. Tom Sloan's remarks are missing throughout the show before some songs. Sixteen countries participated in the contest - three more than in the previous edition; Finland, Spain and Yugoslavia all made their début this year. The winner was Luxembourg with the song "Nous les amoureux", performed by Jean-Claude Pascal, written by Maurice Vidalin, and composed by Jacques Datin. This was Luxembourg's first victory in the contest, with the United Kingdom finishing in second place for the third consecutive year. As the contest overran its allocated time, and the show was being broadcast live, the winning song's reprise was not shown in the UK, but here in this video the show is complete of course with the winner's reprise. The event took place in Cannes, France, with the venue being the original building of Palais des Festivals et des Congrès, after France got the right to host this edition of the Eurovision Song Contest for winning its previous 1960 edition with the song "Tom Pillibi" performed by Jacqueline Boyer. Cannes, a city located on the French Riviera, is a busy tourist destination and known worldwide for hosting the annual Cannes Film Festival, with the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès also hosting the Film Festival. The original building was built in 1949 and was located on the boulevard of Promenade de la Croisette, on the present site of the JW Marriott Cannes. It also hosted the 1959 edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. Jacqueline Joubert presented the show, having already done so two years earlier in 1959. The stage used for the 1961 Contest was notably larger than in previous years and was decorated with flowers. It is noticeable that during the voting, Luxembourg gave the UK eight points, and Norway also gave Denmark eight points. It was the largest number of points given to a country by a single jury since 1958, when Denmark provided France with nine points. Such a high number of points obtained by a country would not be achieved until 1970, when Ireland would receive nine points from Belgium. Results: Draw Country Artist Song Language Place Points 01 Spain Conchita Bautista "Estando contigo" Spanish 9 8 02 Monaco Colette Deréal "Allons, allons les enfants" French 10 6 03 Austria Jimmy Makulis "Sehnsucht" German 15 1 04 Finland Laila Kinnunen "Valoa ikkunassa" Finnish 10 6 05 Yugoslavia Ljiljana Petrović "Neke davne zvezde" (Неке давне звезде) Serbo-Croatian 8 9 06 Netherlands Greetje Kauffeld "Wat een dag" Dutch 10 6 07 Sweden Lill-Babs "April, april" Swedish 14 2 08 Germany Lale Andersen "Einmal sehen wir uns wieder" German, French 13 3 09 France Jean-Paul Mauric "Printemps, avril carillonne" French 4 13 10 Switzerland Franca di Rienzo "Nous aurons demain" French 3 16 11 Belgium Bob Benny "September, gouden roos" Dutch 15 1 12 Norway Nora Brockstedt "Sommer i Palma" Norwegian 7 10 13 Denmark Dario Campeotto "Angelique" Danish 5 12 14 Luxembourg Jean-Claude Pascal "Nous les amoureux" French 1 31 15 United Kingdom The Allisons "Are You Sure?" English 2 24 16 Italy Betty Curtis "Al di là" Italian 5 12

Date: Friday, 25 March 1960 - Venue: Royal Festival Hall, London, United Kingdom Presentation: Katie Boyle Voting: Per country, 10 jurymembers each awarded 1 point to their favourite song. Number of countries: 13 The Eurovision Song Contest 1960 was the fifth edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in London, United Kingdom and was held at the Royal Festival Hall on Tuesday 29 March 1960. The show was hosted by Catherine Boyle (later Katie Boyle). It was the first Eurovision Song Contest held in a capital city, as well as in the British Isles and in the English-speaking world. Following Teddy Scholten's win for the Netherlands at the 1959 contest in Cannes, France with the song "Een beetje", the Netherlands Television Service (NTS) declined to host another contest so soon after staging the event in 1958. The honour of hosting the contest therefore passed to the United Kingdom, which had come second in 1959. Thirteen countries participated in the contest. Norway made their début, and Luxembourg returned after their absence from the previous edition. The winner was France with the song "Tom Pillibi", performed by Jacqueline Boyer, written by Pierre Cour, and composed by André Popp. This was France's second victory in the contest, following their win in 1958, and their fourth consecutive top three placing. Aged 18, Boyer became the first teenager and the youngest artist yet to win the contest. Following the death of Lys Assia in 2018, Jacqueline Boyer stands as the longest surviving Eurovision winner, although later winning singers are older in terms of age. The 1960 Eurovision Song Contest was hosted in London. The Royal Festival Hall, the venue for the 1960 contest, is a 2,900-seat concert, dance and talks venue within Southbank Centre in London. It is situated on the South Bank of the River Thames, not far from Hungerford Bridge. The result was a win for France, however Germany, Monaco and the UK led in the early stages of voting. The UK came second with 25 points, four more points than the winning song in 1959, and Monaco came third on 15 points making up for their disappointing début result the year before. Interest in the contest started to grow across Europe, with the number of participating nations increasing to 13 this year. Norway made its debut with one of their leading jazz singers. Luxembourg returned to the contest after a one-year break with a song in native Luxembourgish language. The Netherlands was mistakenly announced as Holland (which is only the western part of the country of The Netherlands). Results Draw Country Artist Song Language Place Points 01 United Kingdom Bryan Johnson "Looking High, High, High" English 2 25 02 Sweden Siw Malmkvist "Alla andra får varann" Swedish 10 4 03 Luxembourg Camillo Felgen "So laang we's du do bast" Luxembourgish 13 1 04 Denmark Katy Bødtger "Det var en yndig tid" Danish 10 4 05 Belgium Fud Leclerc "Mon amour pour toi" French 6 9 06 Norway Nora Brockstedt "Voi Voi" Norwegian 4 11 07 Austria Harry Winter "Du hast mich so fasziniert" German 7 6 08 Monaco François Deguelt "Ce soir-là" French 3 15 09 Switzerland Anita Traversi "Cielo e terra" Italian 8 5 10 Netherlands Rudi Carrell "Wat een geluk" Dutch 12 2 11 Germany Wyn Hoop "Bonne nuit ma chérie" German 4 11 12 Italy Renato Rascel "Romantica" Italian 8 5 13 France Jacqueline Boyer "Tom Pillibi" French 1 32

Date: 11 March 1959 - Host Venue: Palais des Festivals et des Congrès, Cannes, France Presenter: Jacqueline Joubert Musical director: Franck Pourcel Directed by Marcel Cravenne Host broadcaster: Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française (RTF) Interval act: Franck Pourcel's Orchestra The Eurovision Song Contest 1959 was the fourth edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Cannes, France, following the country's victory at the 1958 contest with the song "Dors, mon amour" by André Claveau. It was the first time France hosted the event. The contest was held at Palais des Festivals et des Congrès on Wednesday 11 March 1959, and was hosted by Jacqueline Joubert. It was the first Eurovision Song Contest held in a coastal town and in the Mediterranean Basin. Eleven countries participated in the contest. Monaco made its debut this year, the United Kingdom returned after a year of absence, and Luxembourg decided not to participate. The winner was the Netherlands with the song "Een beetje", performed by Teddy Scholten, written by Willy van Hemert and composed by Dick Schallies. This was the Netherlands' second victory in the contest, following their win in 1957 - marking the first time a country had won more than once. Willy van Hemert also wrote the first Dutch winner that year. A new rule was created for this Eurovision, ensuring that no professional publishers or composers were allowed in the national juries. During the voting, Italy gave one point to France, no points to the UK and seven points to the Netherlands placing them just three points ahead of the UK. Later on, France gave only three points to Italy and four points to the Netherlands thus giving them a five-point lead over the UK, who were only one point ahead of France, leaving Italy behind in sixth position, behind Denmark, on nine points. Something that occurred this year, but never again, was that more than the winning entry was performed once again. The third- and second-placed songs, France and United Kingdom respectively, were allowed to sing again at the end of the show, together with the eventual winner, the Netherlands. Luxembourg did not return to the competition after its 1958 participation. The United Kingdom returned after missing the previous contest (appearing on the scoreboard as "Grande Bretagne") and finished second for the first time. The UK would go on to have 15 second-place finishes in the country's history in the contest. Monaco made its debut in the contest, but came last. For the first and the last time in the history of the Eurovision Song Contest, the top three songs were reprised at the end of the show. Results Draw Country Artist Song Language Place Points 01 France Jean Philippe "Oui, oui, oui, oui" French 3 15 02 Denmark Birthe Wilke "Uh, jeg ville ønske jeg var dig" Danish 5 12 03 Italy Domenico Modugno "Piove (Ciao, ciao bambina)" Italian 6 9 04 Monaco Jacques Pills "Mon ami Pierrot" French 11 1 05 Netherlands Teddy Scholten "Een beetje" Dutch 1 21 06 Germany Alice & Ellen Kessler "Heute Abend wollen wir tanzen geh'n" German 8 5 07 Sweden Brita Borg "Augustin" Swedish 9 4 08 Switzerland Christa Williams "Irgendwoher" German 4 14 09 Austria Ferry Graf "Der K und K Kalypso aus Wien" German 9 4 10 United Kingdom Pearl Carr & Teddy Johnson "Sing, Little Birdie" English 2 16 11 Belgium Bob Benny "Hou toch van mij" Dutch 6 9 Timecodes: 20:32 🇳🇱 1) Netherlands🥇🏆/ 21 points 38:01 🇬🇧 2) United Kingdom🥈 / 16 points 07:08 🇫🇷 3) France🥉/ 15 points 31:20 🇨🇭 4) Switzerland / 14 points 09:50 🇩🇰 5) Denmark / 12 points 13:33 🇮🇹 6) Italy / 9 points (tie) 41:10 🇧🇪 6) Belgium / 9 points (tie) 24:28 🇩🇪 8) Germany / 5 points 27:50 🇸🇪 9) Sweden / 4 points (tie) 35:09 🇦🇹 9) Austria / 4 points (tie) 17:27 🇲🇨11) Monaco / 1 point 1:03:39 3rd Place Reprise 🇫🇷 France 1:06:54 2nd Place Reprise 🇬🇧 UK 1:09:52 1st Place Reprise 🇳🇱 Netherlands

Date: 12 March 1958 - Host Venue: AVRO Studios, Hilversum, Netherlands Presenter: Hannie Lips - Musical director: Dolf van der Linden Directed by Piet te Nuyl Host broadcaster: Nederlandse Televisie Stichting (NTS) Interval act: Metropole Orkest The Eurovision Song Contest 1958 was the third edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Hilversum, Netherlands, following the country's victory at the 1957 contest with the song "Net als toen" by Corry Brokken. This formed the convention that the winning country of the previous year's event would host the following year. The contest was held at the AVRO Studios on Wednesday 12 March 1958, and was hosted by Hannie Lips. It was the first Eurovision Song Contest held in a Benelux country. Ten countries participated in the contest, equalling the number in the previous edition. Sweden made its debut, while the United Kingdom withdrew. The winner was France with the song "Dors, mon amour", performed by André Claveau, written by Pierre Delanoë and composed by Hubert Giraud. This was France's first victory in the contest. At 46 years and 76 days of age, Claveau became the oldest winner of the contest, and would remain so until 1990. Along with 1956, it was the second contest (and last contest to date) that has not featured a single song in the English language. The 1958 contest continued with the policy implemented the year before where each country was limited to one song entry. This policy has been retained to date. The contest was held in one of the AVRO studio halls. The hall contained a very small stage to function as a slightly higher stand for the singers, with the program being shot from the stage floor up. Outside of frame were the microphones' and other technical devices' wires which went through the studio's lower floor at the foot of the stage. The decorative emphasis was on the stage background, the stage front and the left side from the stage from the spectator's view where the orchestra and where the performers and host's stairway entrance were located. The rear of the stage had interchangeable backgrounds for each song to add context to each song's lyrics. The centre-front of the stage, the left area from the stage with the orchestra and stairway entrance were decorated with tulips, of which the Netherlands are known for. The juries were not in the studio as in 1956. For the 1958 event, they remained in their own countries, listening to the event. Once the songs had all been sung, juries announced their results via telephone in reverse order of presentation, as in the previous year. The Italian entry was not picked up properly in some of the other countries, which meant that after all the other songs had been presented, Domenico Modugno had to perform his song again. It was the only year that the host country finished in last place until 60 years later in 2018, and the first time more than one country was placed last. The interval act was music by the Metropole Orkest, under the direction of maestro Dolf van der Linden. There were two interval acts, one in the middle of the competing songs' performances and one after all the rest of the competing performances were shown. Sweden, a country that would later be one of the most successful in the contest, debuted this year. The United Kingdom decided to withdraw from the contest after initially planning to submit an entry. After the contest, the Italian entry "Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu" (subsequently known as "Volare") by Domenico Modugno went on to become a worldwide hit. During the 1st Annual Grammy Awards, held on 4 May 1959 at Hollywood's Beverly Hilton Hotel, "Nel blu dipinto di blu" received two awards, for Record of the Year and Song of the Year. The song is the only foreign-language recording to achieve this honour, and it is the only song to have competed in the Eurovision Song Contest and received a Grammy Award. The song also reached the No.1 spot in the US-American Billboard Charts, making it one of the most successful Eurovision songs in the history of the contest. The song was also voted the second best Eurovision entry of all time at the 50th anniversary show "Congratulations" in 2005. Results: Draw Country Artist Song Language Place Points 01 Italy Domenico Modugno "Nel blu, dipinto di blu" Italian 3 13 02 Netherlands Corry Brokken "Heel de wereld" Dutch 9 1 03 France André Claveau "Dors, mon amour" French 1 27 04 Luxembourg Solange Berry "Un grand amour" French 9 1 05 Sweden Alice Babs "Lilla stjärna" Swedish 4 10 06 Denmark Raquel Rastenni "Jeg rev et blad ud af min dagbog" Danish 8 3 07 Belgium Fud Leclerc "Ma petite chatte" French 5 8 08 Germany Margot Hielscher "Für zwei Groschen Musik" German 7 5 09 Austria Liane Augustin "Die ganze Welt braucht Liebe" German 5 8 10 Switzerland Lys Assia "Giorgio" German, Italian 2 24

Date: Sunday, 3 March 1957 - Presentation: Anaid Iplicjian Venue: Großer Sendesaal des Hessischen Rundfunks, Frankfurt am Main, Germany Voting: Per country, 10 jurymembers each awarded 1 point to their favourite song. Number of countries: 10 The Eurovision Song Contest 1957 was the second edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Frankfurt-am-Main, West Germany and was held at the Großer Sendesaal des hessischen Rundfunks on Sunday 3 March 1957. The show was hosted by German actress Anaid Iplicjian. Like the first edition of the contest, this one was still mainly a radio programme, but there was a noticeable increase in the number of people with televisions. The winner was the Netherlands with the song "Net als toen", performed by Corry Brokken, written by Willy van Hemert and composed by Guus Jansen. This was the Netherlands' first victory in the contest. For some time, a rumour had existed that the privilege of hosting the 1957 contest was given to Germany because they had come in second place in 1956 with "Im Wartesaal zum großen Glück" by Walter Andreas Schwarz. In fact, not only were the official 1956 scores withheld, but the rule stating that the winning nation hosts the next year's Eurovision Song Contest had not yet been conceived. It was planned at the time that each participating country would take it in turns to host the event. However, as more countries wished to participate, this became impractical. The contest took place in Frankfurt, one of the largest cities in, at the time West Germany. The host venue was the Großer Sendesaal des Hessischen Rundfunks, a building, music hall and former television studio based in Frankfurt am Main. Today it is used as a music hall. After being devastated in the Second World War during the early 1940s, Frankfurt rebuilt itself well into the 1950s into one of Europe's most prominent financial centres. With investments coming in from both national and international financial institutions, 1957, the year of the contest, already saw the first of Frankfurt's high-rise business buildings. Format In this year's contest the Italian entry lasted for 5:09 minutes, whilst the UK's entry lasted for only 1:52 minutes. It was because of songs like the former that a rule was eventually introduced restricting each song to a maximum of 3 minutes; this rule still applies. In a change of rules from the previous year's contest, duos were allowed to compete. Danish representatives, Birthe Wilke and Gustav Winckler, were the first of such acts to participate under this rule change. At the end of their performance, the couple exchanged the longest kiss in the contest's history, although only people with televisions could actually see it. This was due to a member of the production staff forgetting to give a pre-arranged sign that the kiss should end. This was the first year where the juries were contacted by telephone. It was also the first time the Netherlands won the contest. Another notable change was that the national juries could not vote for their own song, a rule which would be continued throughout the contest's subsequent history. Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, and Switzerland made their second appearances following their débuts in 1956. Austria and Denmark made their débuts; these countries had wanted to participate in 1956, but had applied to the European Broadcasting Union after the deadline for song submissions for that year's contest had passed, thus missing it. With those joining in 1957, the total number of countries was ten, three more than in the first ever contest. It was thought that the United Kingdom had also missed the participation deadline for the 1956 contest, but the EBU revealed in January 2017 that this was unfounded speculation spread by fans of the contest. The EBU further went on to explain that the "Festival of British Popular Song", a contest created by the BBC for the United Kingdom, was the inspiration that brought in changes to the contest format from 1957. Results Draw Country Artist Song Language Place Points 01 Belgium Bobbejaan Schoepen "Straatdeuntje" Dutch 8 5 02 Luxembourg Danièle Dupré "Amours mortes (tant de peine)" French 4 8 03 United Kingdom Patricia Bredin "All" English 7 6 04 Italy Nunzio Gallo "Corde della mia chitarra" Italian 6 7 05 Austria Bob Martin "Wohin, kleines Pony?" German 10 3 06 Netherlands Corry Brokken "Net als toen" Dutch 1 31 07 Germany Margot Hielscher "Telefon, Telefon" German 4 8 08 France Paule Desjardins "La belle amour" French 2 17 09 Denmark Birthe Wilke and Gustav Winckler "Skibet skal sejle i nat" Danish 3 10 10 Switzerland Lys Assia "L'enfant que j'étais" French 8 5

Date: 24 May 1956 - Host Venue: Teatro Kursaal, Lugano, Switzerland Presenter: Lohengrin Filipello - Musical director: Fernando Paggi Directed by Franco Marazzi - Executive supervisor: Rolf Liebermann Host broadcaster: Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SRG SSR) & Radiotelevisione svizzera (RSI) Interval act: Les Joyeux Rossignols & Les Trois Ménestrels The Eurovision Song Contest 1956 was the first edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest, organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcasters the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SRG SSR) and Radiotelevisione svizzera (RSI). The contest, originally titled the Grand Prix Eurovision de la Chanson Européenne 1956 (Italian: Gran Premio Eurovisione 1956 della Canzone Europea, English: Grand Prix of the Eurovision Song Competition), was held on Thursday 24 May 1956 at the Teatro Kursaal in Lugano, Switzerland and hosted by Swiss television presenter Lohengrin Filipello, which remains the only time that the contest has been hosted by a solo male presenter. Inspired principally by the Italian Sanremo Music Festival, held annually since 1951, the concept of a televised European song contest, initially proposed by Italian broadcaster RAI, was formulated by an EBU committee led by Swiss broadcaster and executive Marcel Bezençon. Following approval at the EBU's General Assembly in 1955, the rules and structure of the contest were agreed upon. Several of the rules utilised in this first contest would subsequently be altered for future editions, and it remains the only edition in which each country was represented by two songs, with only solo performers allowed to compete, and a voting process which was held in secret and where juries could vote for the entries from their own country. Seven countries participated in the inaugural edition of the contest, and the first winner was the host country Switzerland, with the song "Refrain" performed by Lys Assia. The result was determined by an assembled jury composed of two jurors from each country, with each juror ranking each song between 1 and 10 points. Only the winning country and song were announced at the conclusion of the event, with the results of the remaining participants unknown. Each participating broadcaster was required to relay the contest via its networks. Non-participating EBU member broadcasters were also able to relay the contest as "passive participants". In addition to the television channels of the seven participating broadcasters and three non-participating passive broadcasters, the contest was also broadcast live on seven radio networks and recorded for later transmission by another 13. The United Kingdom's BBC took only partial live transmission of the event, joining 45 minutes into the contest and only showing the second set of entries from each country. Broadcasters were able to send commentators to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language and to relay information about the artists and songs to their television viewers. No complete video footage of the entire contest is known to exist, with the only known footage being clips of the reprise performance of the winning song via newsreel and other recordings. Audio of most of the contest have however survived, missing only part of the interval act, and a large cache of photographs has also been uncovered in recent years. As such, this is one of only two editions of the contest, along with the 1964 contest, to not have video recordings of the full event retained. The purpose of this video is to replicate the look what the telvised contest would've looked like. Credits to LewisTheThing for putting it all together in so many hours of hard work. Participants and results of the Eurovision Song Contest 1956: R/O Country Artist Song Language 1 Netherlands Jetty Paerl "De vogels van Holland" Dutch 2 Switzerland Lys Assia "Das alte Karussell" German 3 Belgium Fud Leclerc "Messieurs les noyés de la Seine" French 4 Germany Walter Andreas Schwarz "Im Wartesaal zum großen Glück" German 5 France Mathé Altéry "Le temps perdu" French 6 Luxembourg Michèle Arnaud "Ne crois pas" French 7 Italy Franca Raimondi "Aprite le finestre" Italian 8 Netherlands Corry Brokken "Voorgoed voorbij" Dutch 9 Switzerland Lys Assia "Refrain" French 10 Belgium Mony Marc "Le plus beau jour de ma vie" French 11 Germany Freddy Quinn "So geht das jede Nacht" German 12 France Dany Dauberson "Il est là" French 13 Luxembourg Michèle Arnaud "Les amants de minuit" French 14 Italy Tonina Torrielli "Amami se vuoi" Italian

Unter dem Titel Eurovision Song Contest – Unser Song 2017 fand am 9. Februar 2017 die deutsche Vorentscheidung für den Eurovision Song Contest 2017 statt. Die Sendung wurde von Jörg Grabosch für Brainpool produziert und wie in den Vorjahren von Barbara Schöneberger moderiert. Regie führte Ladislaus Kiraly, das Drehbuch stammte von Christof Mannschreck. Levina gewann mit dem Song Perfect Life und vertrat damit Deutschland beim ESC am 13. Mai in Kiew. Am 13. Mai erreichte sie beim ESC-Finale mit sechs Punkten den 25. und vorletzten Platz vor Spanien. Nachdem die deutschen Beiträge zum Eurovision Song Contest 2015 und 2016 den letzten Platz belegten, stellte der NDR am 14. September 2016 ein neues Konzept für die Auswahl des Interpreten und eines geeigneten Liedes vor. Bis zum 18. November 2016 hatten Interpreten die Möglichkeit, einen Coversong auf YouTube hochzuladen. Es durften sich ausschließlich Einzelinterpreten bewerben; Bands wurden nicht zugelassen. Die Einsendungen werden von Vertretern des NDR und weiterer ARD-Sendern, der Produktionsfirma Raab TV sowie musikalischen Experten, darunter Wolfgang Dalheimer von den heavytones, bewertet. Die Bewerber werden zu einer sogenannten Convention eingeladen, auf der schließlich fünf Kandidaten für die deutsche Vorentscheidung ausgewählt wurden. Diese fünf Kandidaten stellten sich am 9. Februar 2017 in einer Live-Sendung dem Publikum und präsentierten Lieder von nationalen und internationalen Komponisten und Produzenten. Ihr Auftritt wurde von den heavytones begleitet. Eine dreiköpfige Jury, bestehend aus Lena Meyer-Landrut, Tim Bendzko und Florian Silbereisen bewertete die Auftritte der Künstler. Außerdem fand eine Beurteilung der Auftritte mittels „europäischem Stimmungsbarometer“ statt. Hierbei konnten Fernsehzuschauer aus ganz Europa die Lieder auf internationale Tauglichkeit bewerten. In vier Abstimmungsrunden wählte ausschließlich das Publikum den Gewinner der deutschen Vorentscheidung. Am 2. und 3. Dezember 2016 fand in Köln eine zweite Castingrunde mit 33 Kandidaten statt, die sich im ersten Bewerbungsprozess durchgesetzt hatten. Die Kandidaten präsentierten einer Jury ihre Lieder, anhand derer die Kandidaten bewertet wurden. Zum ersten Mal wurde das internationale Publikum in eine nationale Vorentscheidung integriert. Über die offizielle Eurovision-App konnten sich ausländische Zuschauer die Proben und die Show anschauen. Die Livesendung wurde zudem in englischer Sprache ausgestrahlt. Unter der Kategorie Eurovision Vibes der Eurovision-App konnten die Zuschauer sich in jeder Runde kostenlos für einen der Kandidaten entscheiden, wobei die Wertungen nicht in das endgültige Ergebnis einflossen. Zwischendurch verkündete die Moderatorin das Ergebnis dieser Eurovision Vibes. Das Abstimmungsfenster für ausländische Zuschauer öffnete am Abend des 8. Februar 2017 und schloss mit dem Ende der Livesendung. Ausschließlich das deutsche Publikum entschied per Televoting, SMS und die Eurovision-App über den Gewinner der deutschen Vorentscheidung. Die Ergebnisse des Eurovision Vibes, die den europäischen Geschmack repräsentieren sollen, dienten als Orientierung. In den Abstimmungsphasen traten verschiedene Künstler auf. Die ehemaligen ESC-Gewinner Ruslana, Nicole und Conchita präsentierten ein Medley vergangener ESC-Gewinnerlieder. Sie sangen entsprechend ihrer Auftrittsreihenfolge Euphoria (Loreen), Merci, Chérie (Udo Jürgens) und Satellite (Lena). Matthias Schweighöfer präsentierte das Lied Supermann und seine Frau aus seinem ersten Album. Das Jurymitglied Tim Bendzko sang das Lied Leichtsinn. Die Kandidaten sangen ab der zweiten Runde die extra für den ESC komponierten englischsprachigen Songs Wildfire und Perfect Life. In der ersten Runde präsentierten die Kandidaten einen Coversong ihrer Wahl. Drei Kandidaten qualifizierten sich für die zweite Runde. In der ersten Runde wurden 204.249 Stimmen abgegeben. Die drei verbliebenen Kandidaten stellten das erste der beiden Lieder, Wildfire mit ihrem Arrangement vor. Zwei Kandidaten haben sich für die dritte Runde qualifiziert. Insgesamt gingen in der zweiten Runde 168.909 Stimmen ein. In der dritten Runde präsentierten die verbliebenen beiden Kandidaten das zweite Lied, Perfect Life, in ihrem Arrangement. Die beiden Lieder, die in der Abstimmung die meisten Stimmen erhielten, zogen in die vierte Runde. Die Zuschauer gaben 278.697 Stimmen in der dritten Runde ab. Im Finale standen die beiden Auftritte mit den meisten Stimmen: entweder ein Künstler mit beiden ESC-Songs, beide Künstler mit unterschiedlichen Songs oder beide Künstler mit demselben Song. Die Zuschauer bestimmten in einer finalen Abstimmung den Gewinner der deutschen Vorentscheidung. In der finalen Runde wurden 145.692 Stimmen gezählt. Unser Song 2017 war die schwächste deutsche Vorentscheidung seit Unser Star für Baku im Jahre 2012. Rund 3,14 Millionen Zuschauer haben die Live-Sendung verfolgt, in der Spitze schauten 4,01 Millionen Zuschauer zu. Somit verlor die deutsche Vorentscheidung rund 1,3 Millionen Zuschauer zum Vorjahr.

Eurovision Song Contest 2016 – Unser Lied für Stockholm, die deutsche Vorentscheidung zum Eurovision Song Contest 2016, fand am 25. Februar 2016 statt und diente dazu, ein Lied für die Teilnahme beim Eurovision Song Contest 2016 auszuwählen. Am 5. Januar 2016 wurden Sendungstitel, -datum und Konzeption der Vorentscheidung vom NDR veröffentlicht. Moderiert wurde die Sendung wie im Vorjahr von Barbara Schöneberger und kommentiert von Peter Urban. Ursprünglich sollte unter dem Titel Unser Song für Xavier ein Lied für den am 19. November 2015 verkündeten Teilnehmer Xavier Naidoo gesucht werden. Der NDR zog die Entscheidung jedoch zwei Tage später zurück. Jamie-Lee Kriewitz konnte sich mit dem Song Ghost unter zehn Kandidaten durchsetzen. Sie vertrat Deutschland im Mai 2016 beim Eurovision Song Contest und belegte den letzten Platz. Diesmal sollte ausschließlich das Publikum den Vertreter Deutschlands per Televoting und erstmals per Eurovision-Song-Contest-App in zwei Abstimmungsrunden wählen.[13] Der NDR und die ARD erhielten insgesamt 150 Bewerbungen von deutschen Hörfunksendern, Musiklabels, Produzenten, Künstlern und deren Managern. Eine zehnköpfige Jury, bestehend aus Vertretern der jungen ARD-Radios (Aditya Sharma/Fritz, Andreas Zagelow/Sputnik), des NDR (Carola Conze/Thomas Schreiber), der Musiklabels (Tom Bohne/Universal Music, Nico Gössel-Hain/Sony Music, Steffen Müller/Warner Music) und Independents (Konrad von Löhneysen/Embassy of Music) sowie der Produktionsfirma Brainpool (Claudia Gliedt/Jörg Grabosch) suchte die zehn Interpreten und deren Lieder aus. In der ersten Runde präsentierten die zehn Kandidaten ihr Lied. Die drei Kandidaten mit den höchsten Abstimmungsergebnissen qualifizierten sich für die zweite Runde. Insgesamt wurden in der ersten Runde 770.809 Zuschauerstimmen gezählt. In der zweiten und letzten Runde präsentierten die Finalisten ihren Beitrag ein zweites Mal. Jamie-Lee Kriewitz setzte sich mit 498.293 Zuschauerstimmen durch. In der Finalrunde wurden 1.120.159 Zuschauerstimmen abgegeben. Zu Beginn der Show präsentierte die Moderatorin Barbara Schöneberger ein Medley bekannter deutscher Popsongs, darunter größtenteils ehemalige deutsche ESC-Beiträge. Mit teilweise abgewandeltem Text sang sie dabei folgende Lieder: Dieser Weg (Originalinterpret: Xavier Naidoo), Dschinghis Khan (Originalinterpret: Dschinghis Khan), Ein bißchen Frieden (Originalinterpretin: Nicole), Satellite (Originalinterpretin: Lena Meyer-Landrut), Can’t Wait Until Tonight (Originalinterpret: Max Mutzke). Begleitet wurde Schöneberger von einem Pianisten. In der finalen Abstimmungsphase präsentierte die niederländische Band The Common Linnets ihren erfolgreichsten Titel Calm After the Storm, ehe sie im Anschluss mit der deutschen Country-Band The BossHoss ihr gemeinsames Cover des Liedes Jolene, das ursprünglich von Dolly Parton stammt, vortrugen. Die Vorentscheidung war ebenfalls über eurovision.de und eurovision.tv im Livestream zu sehen. Unser Lied für Stockholm war die erfolgreichste deutsche Vorentscheidung seit Unser Star für Oslo im Jahre 2010. Rund 4,47 Millionen Zuschauer haben die Live-Sendung verfolgt, in der Spitze schauten 5,85 Millionen Zuschauer zu.

Unser Lied für Liverpool war die deutsche Vorentscheidung für den Eurovision Song Contest 2023 im britischen Liverpool. Den Wettbewerb am 3. März 2023 gewann die Dark-Rock-Band Lord of the Lost aus Hamburg. Am 9. November 2022 gab der NDR bekannt, dass auch 2023 eine nationale Vorentscheidung stattfinden solle. Am selben Tag startete die offizielle Bewerbungsfrist, die am 28. November 2022 endete. Aus den eingereichten Bewerbungen wählte die ESC-Redaktion des NDR die Teilnehmer für die Vorentscheidung aus. Die Redaktion wurde dabei von Experten der Musikindustrie, der deutschen ESC-Delegation, der internationalen ESC-Welt und den Vertretern der ARD-Popradios beraten. Bis zum 20. November gingen mehr als 250 Songs über die Bewerbungsplattform ein. Neben dem Aufruf ging der NDR eigenen Angaben zufolge auch aktiv auf Künstler zu. Weiterhin wurde erstmals ein Teilnehmer über die Social-Media-Plattform TikTok gesucht. Unter dem Hashtag #UnserLiedFürLiverpool konnten dabei Bewerbungen eingereicht werden. Ab dem 27. Januar 2023 wurden ausgewählte Künstler auf TikTok zur Abstimmung gestellt. Der Sieger der Abstimmung, Ikke Hüftgold, wurde am 4. Februar 2023 auf eurovision.de verkündet, er erhielt automatisch einen Platz in der Vorentscheidung. Neun Teilnehmer waren für die Vorentscheidung vorgesehen. Nach heftiger Kritik zum vorigen Abstimmungsverfahren fand diesmal keine alleinige Entscheidung durch eine ausgewählte Radiojury statt. Es sollte zudem auf mehr Diversität bei der Liederauswahl gesetzt werden. Die ersten acht Teilnehmer wurden am 27. Januar 2023 vorgestellt. Über den neunten Teilnehmer wurde zwischen dem 27. Januar und dem 3. Februar 2023 auf TikTok abgestimmt und Ikke Hüftgold mit dem Beitrag Lied mit gutem Text am 4. Februar 2023 als Sieger bekanntgegeben. Insgesamt wurden 121.564 Stimmen abgegeben. Im Finale am 3. März 2023 wurde der Sieger zu 50,07 % vom internationalen Juryvoting und zu 49,93 % vom Televoting bestimmt. Insgesamt stimmten acht internationale Jurys ab, wobei jede Jury aus fünf Personen bestand. Das Televoting wiederum setzte sich zu je 50 % aus einem vorgeschalteten Online-Voting, das am 24. Februar startete und am 3. März 2023 endete, sowie den per Anruf bzw. SMS abgegebenen Stimmen zusammen. Am 3. März 2023 sagte Frida Gold die Teilnahme an der Vorentscheidung wegen Erkrankung der Sängerin Alina Süggeler ab. Alle bereits für Frida Gold abgegebenen Stimmen wurden nicht berücksichtigt. Beim Juryvoting wurden 368 Punkte, beim Televoting 367 Punkte vergeben. Jede Jury verteilte jeweils 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 3, 2, 1 auf die acht Beiträge, sodass ein Beitrag beim Juryvoting maximal 96 Punkte erhalten konnte. Die durch die Zuschauer vergebene Punktzahl ergab sich aus dem prozentualen Anteil der Stimmen je Beitrag von der Gesamtzahl an Punkten, die beim Televoting vergeben wurden (368). Die Grenze von 96 Punkten pro Beitrag bestand für die Zuschauer somit nicht und von ihnen wurden gut zwei Drittel der Punkte auf nur zwei Kandidaten verteilt. Von den Zuschauern erhielten genau diejenigen vier Beiträge am meisten Punkte, die von der Jury am wenigsten erhalten hatten. Insgesamt wurden über die Zuschauerabstimmung allerdings nur 367 Punkte vergeben, wobei es sich vermutlich um einen Rundungsfehler handelt, da im Vorfeld von einer paritätischen Abstimmung gesprochen wurde. Insgesamt wurden 538.897 Stimmen gezählt, 206.945 fielen dabei auf das vorab laufende Onlinevoting, 331.952 auf das Zuschauervoting während der Sendung. Nach der Veröffentlichung eines Artikels in der Süddeutschen Zeitung vom 8. April 2023, in dem der langjährige Kommentator des Eurovision Song Contest für Deutschland, Peter Urban, interviewt wurde, veröffentlichte der Finalist Ikke Hüftgold ein Statement, in dem er dem NDR Manipulation vorwarf. Der Grund sei, dass Urban in dem Artikel Hüftgold angegriffen habe. Der NDR wies den Vorwurf der Manipulation zurück, übersandte dem Teilnehmer die genauen Zahlen des Online- und Telefonvotings, die von der Firma Digame durchgeführt sowie notariell überwacht wurden und etwaige Rechenfehler ausgeschlossen werden können. Auch Urban äußerte sich zu den Vorwürfen und wies sie zurück. Die Zeitung habe ihn an mehreren Stellen falsch zitiert, und er würde keine derartige Wortwahl verwenden.

Unter dem Titel Germany 12 Points fand am 4. März 2022 die deutsche Vorentscheidung für den Eurovision Song Contest 2022 in Turin (Italien) statt. Malik Harris ging als Gewinner hervor und belegte im Mai 2022 in Turin mit dem Song Rockstars den letzten Platz. Am 3. November 2021 gab der NDR bekannt, dass 2022 wieder eine nationale Vorentscheidung unter dem Titel Unser Lied für Turin stattfinden soll. Es sollen drei bis sieben Teilnehmer an der Vorentscheidung teilnehmen. Am 18. Januar 2022 verkündete der NDR, dass die Sendung Germany 12 Points heißen und vermutlich sechs Teilnehmer umfassen werde. Ab dem 28. Februar 2022 konnte online abgestimmt werden, am 4. März 2022 per Telefon, SMS und Onlineabstimmung über die Radiosender und am Abend während der Fernsehshow. Für die Onlineabstimmung wurde unter vote.eurovision.de eine Seite geschaltet, die in Kennungen der Radiosender unterteilt war. Vom 4. November 2021 bis 30. November 2021 konnten Interessierte Beiträge beim NDR einreichen. Danach wählte der NDR in Kooperation mit den Popwellen der ARD (Antenne Brandenburg, Bayern 3, Bremen Vier, hr3, MDR Jump, NDR 2, SR 1, SWR3, WDR 2) sechs Beiträge aus. Es wurden insgesamt 944 Beiträge eingereicht, von denen 26 Beiträge in eine engere Auswahl kamen. Ursprünglich war lediglich eine Ausstrahlung in den dritten Programmen der ARD sowie beim Gemeinschaftssender one geplant, wobei die Vorentscheidung um 20:15 Uhr starten sollte. Durch den Ukraine-Krieg kam es zu einer Programmänderung, sodass die Vorentscheidung erst um 21:00 Uhr und neben den genannten Programmen auch im Ersten gezeigt wurde. Die sechs Teilnehmer und ihre Beiträge wurden am 10. Februar in einer Pressekonferenz vorgestellt, die per Livestream übertragen und von Alina Stiegler moderiert wurde. Die Stimmen des Online-Votings wurden nach Regionen geteilt im Douze-Points-Punkteschema verlesen. Als Punktesprecher der Regionen dienten Moderatoren und Moderatorinnen der jeweiligen ARD-Popwelle. Im Rahmen der Bekanntmachung der deutschen Vorentscheidung wurde die Sendung Wissen vor acht ab dem 21. Februar 2022 kurzzeitig durch das Format ESC vor acht ersetzt. In diesem rund dreiminütigen Format wurden die einzelnen Teilnehmer vorgestellt. Das im Ersten gezeigte Format präsentierte ebenfalls Alina Stiegler. Nach Bekanntgabe der sechs Teilnehmer entzündete sich ein Shitstorm in den sozialen Medien. Bemängelt wurde fehlende Vielfalt bei den ausgewählten Songs. So können die Beiträge überwiegend dem musikalischen Genre Pop zugeordnet werden und weisen lediglich teilweise geringe Rock- oder Rap-Anteile auf. Auch wurden die Beiträge nach der Bekanntgabe wiederholt als besonders radiotauglich bezeichnet. Besonders die Nicht-Nominierung der Metalcore-Band Electric Callboy, die bereits mehrere Top-10-Alben herausgebracht hat und auch Konzerte im europäischen Ausland spielt, sorgte bei Fans des Contests und der Band für Unverständnis. Aufgrund dessen wurde in der Folge eine Petition zur Nachnominierung der Band gestartet. Die Band selbst nahm das Ausscheiden humorvoll und veröffentlichte ein Video, das die Absage durch den NDR persifliert. Mit den Initiatoren der Petition führten die Verantwortlichen beim NDR ein Gespräch, ein Gesprächsangebot erhielten auch die beiden deutschen ESC-Fanclubs. Dies führte beim NDR nicht zu einer abweichenden Entscheidung. Ebenso kritisierte der Schlagersänger Ikke Hüftgold nach seiner Nicht-Nominierung, dass der Auswahlprozess nicht für die versprochene Vielfalt gesorgt habe. Weitere Kritik gab es an Nico Suave, weil er 2015 eine Solidaritätsbekundung für Xavier Naidoo unterschrieben und mit ihm im Anschluss weiter zusammengearbeitet hatte, nachdem es wiederholt zu Kritik an dessen politischen Aussagen gekommen war. Diese Kritik hatte damals auch zum Ausschluss von Xavier Naidoo als Vertreter für Deutschland am Eurovision Song Contest 2016 geführt.

Unter dem Titel Unser Lied für Israel fand am 22. Februar 2019 die deutsche Vorentscheidung zum Eurovision Song Contest 2019 statt, bei der der Interpret und das Lied für den Wettbewerb am 18. Mai 2019 in Tel Aviv gesucht wurde. Das Duo S!sters, bestehend aus Laura Kästel und Carlotta Truman, konnte sich durchsetzen und vertrat Deutschland beim Finale des Eurovision Song Contest. Dort erreichten sie den vorletzten Platz, wobei das Lied als einziger Beitrag des Wettbewerbs keine Punkte aus der Publikumsabstimmung erhielt. In einem Interview mit dem Norddeutschen Rundfunk bestätigte ARD-Unterhaltungskoordinator Thomas Schreiber, dass das Konzept von Unser Lied für Lissabon 2019 fortgeführt werden solle, nachdem Michael Schulte mit dem Lied You Let Me Walk Alone den vierten Platz im Finale des 63. Eurovision Song Contest und damit die beste Platzierung seit 2010 erreicht hatte. Vom 19. Mai 2018 bis zum 31. Juli 2018 hatten die Kandidaten die Möglichkeit, sich für die deutsche Vorentscheidung 2019 zu bewerben. Es wurden Bewerbungen von Solo-Interpreten und Bands akzeptiert. Die bis zum 31. Juli 2018 eingereichten Beiträge wurden von der Eurovision-Jury und der internationalen Experten-Jury bewertet. Aus ursprünglich 965 Einreichungen wählte der NDR 198 Interpreten aus, die der Eurovision-Jury zur Bewertung vorgelegt wurden. Die Jury-Sitzungen fanden an drei Tagen in Köln statt. Dort wurden 50 Interpreten ausgewählt und von der internationalen Experten-Jury auf 20 Interpreten reduziert. Diese 20 Kandidaten wurden zwischen dem 28. September und 2. Oktober 2018 zu einem Musik-Camp in den Kölner Maarwegstudios eingeladen. Dort wurden Videos produziert, die den Jurys zur Bewertung vorgelegt wurden. Insgesamt sind während des Songwriting-Camps 25 Lieder entstanden, die zusammen mit zwei weiteren eingereichten Liedern und den Stücken zwei weiterer Interpreten den Jurys zur Bewertung vorgelegt wurden. Welches Lied in die Vorentscheidung kommen würde, entschied der jeweilige Interpret in Absprache mit dem NDR auf Grundlage der Bewertung durch die beiden Jurys. Bei den bis dato noch unbekannten Interpreten handelte es sich um Künstler, die bereits ein Lied und eine entsprechende Inszenierung für ihre Lieder besitzen (Complete-Acts). Auch diese wurden den Jurys vorgelegt. Letztendlich kam zu den bereits bekannten sechs Teilnehmern noch der Complete Act Sisters hinzu. Alle sieben Acts nahmen an der Vorentscheidung teil. Barbara Schöneberger moderierte hatte bereits die Vorentscheidungen 2014, 2015, 2016 und 2017. Mit der Vorstellung der sechs Teilnehmer wurde auch Linda Zervakis als Moderatorin bestätigt. Wie schon 2018 gab es auch 2019 wieder drei abstimmungsberechtigte Gruppen, die die Teilnehmer mit dem Punktesystem des Eurovision Song Contests (12, 10, 8 bis 1) bewerteten. Die Punkte variierten allerdings nach Anzahl der Teilnehmer, womit die schlechteste Punktzahl aufgrund von sieben Teilnehmern bei vier Punkten lag. Das Ergebnis des Televotings wurde – wie 2018 – von Jon Ola Sand, dem Executive Supervisor des ESC, bekanntgegeben. Das Eurovision-Panel (auch: Eurovision-Jury) bestand aus 100 Mitgliedern, die von Simon, Kucher & Partners ausgewählt wurden. Am 13. Juli 2018 hatte der NDR dazu aufgerufen, sich für die Teilnahme am Eurovision-Panel zu bewerben. Ihre Wertung zählte 33 % des Gesamtergebnisses. Die Internationale Jury bestand aus 20 Mitgliedern, die ehemals Mitglieder der Jurys bzw. Künstler waren, die am Eurovision Song Contest teilgenommen haben. Auch ihre Wertung zählte 33 % des Gesamtergebnisses. Auch die Zuschauer zuhause hatten die Möglichkeit abzustimmen. In einem vorgegebenen Zeitfenster konnten die Zuschauer per Televoting ihren Favoriten wählen. Das Ergebnis der Zuschauer zählte ebenfalls zu 33 % des Gesamtergebnisses. Unser Lied für Israel war mit 2,99 Millionen Zuschauern etwas schlechter als Unser Lied für Lissabon. Der Marktanteil war wie im Vorjahr einstellig. Bei den 14- bis 49-Jährigen stieg der Marktanteil von 10,6 % auf 10,9 %. Beim Eurovision Song Contest 2019 im israelischen Tel Aviv. Beim dortigen Finale am 18. Mai erhielten sie von der internationalen Jury 24 Punkte und belegten im Jury-Voting den 21. Platz. Als einzige Teilnehmer erhielten sie vom Publikum keine Punkte im Televoting. Damit belegte das Duo den 25. Gesamtrang von 26 Teilnehmern.

Unser Lied für Lissabon war die deutsche Vorentscheidung für den Eurovision Song Contest 2018 im portugiesischen Lissabon. Die Veranstaltung fand am 22. Februar 2018 im Studio Berlin Adlershof statt. Die Sendung wurde von Linda Zervakis (Tagesschau) und Elton (Wer weiß denn sowas?) moderiert. Mike Singer trat in der Pause mit seinem Lied Deja Vu auf Regie führte Volker Weicker, das Drehbuch stammte von Christoph Schulte-Richtering und Christian Busemann. Michael Schulte gewann mit dem Lied You Let Me Walk Alone. Er erreichte im Finale des Eurovision Song Contest den vierten Platz und damit die erste Top-fünf-Platzierung seit 2010. An der Auswahl des deutschen Beitrags wirkten 2018 ein Eurovisions-Panel, das aus 100 Personen aus Deutschland bestand, weil das deutsche Televotingergebnis über die vergangenen Jahre fast deckungsgleich mit dem europäischen Zuschauerergebnis war, und eine 20- bis 25-köpfige internationale Jury mit, deren Mitglieder bereits in ihren jeweiligen Heimatländern als Teil der nationalen Jury ESC-Erfahrung hatten. In einer Liveshow hatten Fernsehzuschauer aus Deutschland die Möglichkeit, für einen Interpreten per Televoting abzustimmen. Margaret Berger, die norwegische Teilnehmerin von 2013 verkündete die Punkte für die Jury, Anke Giffhorn (ein Mitglied des 100-köpfigen Eurovision-Panels) stellvertretend die des Panels, und das Ergebnis des Televotings gab Jon Ola Sand, der Executive Supervisor des ESC bekannt. Der NDR arbeitete mit 17 Interpreten zusammen, um einen Eindruck vom Gesang und der Bühnenpräsenz der Kandidaten zu gewinnen. Anschließend wählten das Eurovision-Panel und die internationale Jury die sechs Teilnehmer für die deutsche Vorentscheidung aus. Vom 10. bis 12. Januar 2018 fand ein Song-Writing-Camp statt, bei dem an den Liedern für die Interpreten gearbeitet wurde. Als Austragungsort diente das Studio Berlin Adlershof in Berlin. Die Jury bestand aus ehemaligen Mitgliedern der Jurys bzw. aus Künstlern, die am Eurovision Song Contest teilgenommen haben. Unser Lied für Lissabon war mit 3,17 Millionen Zuschauern etwas erfolgreicher als Unser Song 2017. Seit 2012 ist der Marktanteil erstmals einstellig.

Unter dem Titel Unser Song für Österreich fand am 5. März 2015 die deutsche Vorentscheidung zum Eurovision Song Contest 2015 statt, bei der der Interpret und das Lied für den am 23. Mai 2015 in Wien, Österreich, stattfindenden Wettbewerb gesucht wurden. Als Sieger wurde Andreas Kümmert mit seinem Song Heart of Stone gewählt. Er verzichtete jedoch auf die Teilnahme am ESC im Mai, womit die Zweitplatzierte Ann Sophie mit ihrem Lied Black Smoke nachrückte und Deutschland vertrat. Moderiert wurde die Sendung wie im Vorjahr von Barbara Schöneberger. Das Konzept der Show war wie im vorherigen Jahr: Die acht vor Publikum auftretenden deutschen Künstler wurden ausschließlich von den Zuschauern bewertet. Sieben vorausgewählte Teilnehmer wurden am 14. Januar 2015 bekanntgegeben. Die Liedertitel wurden am 4. Februar veröffentlicht. Im Rahmen eines Clubkonzerts wurde der achte Teilnehmer ermittelt. Abstimmung Die Abstimmung ist wie 2014 verlaufen: Es gab insgesamt drei Abstimmungsrunden, in denen die Zuschauer per Televoting ihren Favoriten wählten. In der ersten Runde sangen alle acht Kandidaten einen Song. Die Zuschauer entschieden im Anschluss, welche vier Künstler es in die nächste Runde schafften. In dieser präsentierten die verbliebenen Kandidaten ein zweites Stück, sodass die Zuschauer in der zweiten Abstimmungsrunde ihren favorisierten Song auswählen konnten. In der entscheidenden dritten Runde traten dann nochmals die zwei Kandidaten mit den meisten Stimmen auf. Aus ihnen wurde in der letzten Abstimmungsrunde der Sieger von Unser Song für Österreich bestimmt. Clubkonzert Wieder wurde die Auswahl eines Interpreten durch eine Wildcard entschieden: Sowohl Solo-Interpreten als auch Bands konnten bis einschließlich 8. Januar 2015, 12 Uhr Videos auf YouTube hochladen, in denen sie entweder eine Eigenkomposition oder eine Coverversion eines Liedes vortragen. Bis dahin waren insgesamt 1270 Einsendungen eingetroffen. Zur Teilnahme riefen Andreas Bourani, Mark Forster sowie Elaiza, die letztjährigen Gewinner der Wildcard und deutsche Repräsentanten beim ESC 2014, auf. Vertreter des NDR, der Produktionsfirma Brainpool, der jungen Radiosender und Popwellen der ARD sowie der Labels Universal, Sony, Warner und einiger Independent-Labels werteten die eingegangenen Darbietungen aus und entschieden sich für zehn Kandidaten, die am 19. Februar 2015 im Musikclub Große Freiheit 36 in Hamburg auftraten. Dieses Clubkonzert wurde im NDR-Fernsehen und auf diversen Plattformen im Internet übertragen. Den Sieger der Wildcard bestimmten die Zuschauer via Televoting. Mark Forster hatte einen Auftritt auf der Bühne. Während der Darbietungen wurden die Künstler (wie im Vorjahr) von einer Liveband begleitet. Das Konzert entschied Ann Sophie für sich. In der ersten Runde traten alle acht Teilnehmer mit einem eigenen Lied an. Die vier Kandidaten mit den meisten Anrufen gelangten in die zweite Runde. Die vier Teilnehmer der zweiten Runde präsentierten ein zweites Lied. Die Zuschauer konnten sich dann für einen Interpreten und eines seiner beiden Lieder entscheiden. Zwei Kandidaten qualifizierten sich mit ihrem zweiten Lied für die dritte Runde. In der dritten Runde präsentierten die Finalisten die beiden von den Zuschauern gewählten Songs. Andreas Kümmert erhielt danach die meisten Stimmen, lehnte aber die weitere Teilnahme ab, womit Ann Sophie Deutschland beim Eurovision Song Contest 2015 vertrat. Kümmert begründete seine Entscheidung folgendermaßen: „Ich bin nicht wirklich in der Verfassung, diese Wahl anzunehmen und muss deshalb … Ich geb’ meinen Titel an Ann Sophie. Ich denke einfach, dass sie viel geeigneter und qualifizierter dafür ist – ich bin ein kleiner Sänger.“ Zur Eröffnung der Veranstaltung sang Conchita Wurst den Vorjahressiegertitel des Eurovision Song Contests, Rise Like a Phoenix. In einer der Abstimmungspausen präsentierte sie zum ersten Mal ihre neue Single You Are Unstoppable live. Mark Forster trat mit seiner Single Flash mich auf, und Stefanie Heinzmann präsentierte die erste Single In the End aus ihrem vierten Album. Die Vorentscheidung wurde am 5. März 2015 in einer Live-Sendung bei Das Erste übertragen. Das Clubkonzert wurde am 19. Februar 2015 in der Großen Freiheit 36 in Hamburg-St. Pauli ausgetragen.