Country France Language French Lyricist(s) Pierre Cour | Artist(s) Jacqueline Boyer Composer(s) André Popp Conductor Franck Pourcel | |
"Tom Pillibi" was the winning song of the Eurovision Song Contest 1960, sung in French by Jacqueline Boyer. This was France's second victory in the first five years of the Contest.
The song was performed thirteenth on the night (following Italy's Renato Rascel with "Romantica"). At the close of voting, it had received 32 points, placing 1st in a field of 13.
The song is a moderately up-tempo number, with the singer talking about her lover - the title character. She describes his material wealth (two castles, ships, other women wanting to be with him) before admitting that he has "only one fault", that being that he is "such a liar" and that none of what she had previously said about him was true. Nonetheless, she sings, she still loves him.
In what would become increasingly the norm over Contest history, the English version of the song, while still about the same man, conveyed quite a different impression. In this version, Tom is a compulsive womaniser and not to be trusted at all. Perhaps as a result of this, Des Mangan's book on Contest history confuses the issue further by describing the song as being about "A man with two castles and two boats and who's generally a right bastard, but she still loves him anyway." Boyer also recorded a German language version of the song, under the same title.
The song was succeeded as Contest winner in 1961 by Jean-Claude Pascal, singing "Nous les amoureux" for Luxembourg.
It was succeeded as French representative at the 1961 Contest by Jean-Paul Mauric with "Printemps, avril carillonne".