🔴 1966 Eurovision Song Contest Full Show From Luxembourg (French Commentary by Francois Deguelt)

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 RougesShow more

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