4 months ago

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