Final 18 March 1961 Conductor Franck Pourcel | Presenter(s) Jacqueline Joubert Director Marcel Cravenne | |
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Venue Palais des Festivals et des Congrès
Cannes, France Host broadcaster Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française (RTF) | ||
The Eurovision Song Contest 1961 was the sixth Eurovision Song Contest. It was held on 18 March 1961 and was the first to take place on a Saturday night, a tradition that has continued into modern times. It was hosted in the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès located in Cannes, France, where it had been staged two years previously. Luxembourg won for its first time with the song "Nous les amoureux" performed in French by Jean-Claude Pascal. 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.
Contents
Location
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.
Format
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 8 points, and Norway also gave Denmark 8 points. It was the largest amount of points given to a country by a single jury since 1958, when Denmark provided France with 9 points. Such a high number of points obtained by a country wouldn't be achieved until 1970, when Ireland would receive 9 points from Belgium.
Participating countries
A total of sixteen countries took part in the Contest, including the three debuting countries: Finland, Spain, and Yugoslavia. There were no returning or withdrawing countries this particular year.
Conductors
Each performance had a conductor who maestro the orchestra.
Returning artists
The contest saw the return of two artists this year with the Belgian representative, Bob Benny, who previously participated in the 1959 contest; and Nora Brockstedt, who performed for Norway in 1960.
Scoreboard
Each country had 10 jury members who each awarded 1 point to their favourite song.
International broadcasts and voting
The table below shows the order in which votes were cast during the 1961 contest along with the spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for their respective country. Each national broadcaster also sent a commentator to the contest, in order to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language. Details of the commentators and the broadcasting station for which they represented are also included in the table below.
Voting and spokespersons
All the juries (apart from Austria and the United Kingdom) announced their votes in French.