Eurovision Song Contest 1962


The Eurovision Song Contest 1962 was the 7th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Luxembourg City, Luxembourg, following Jean-Claude Pascal's win at the 1961 contest in Cannes, France with the song "Nous les amoureux". 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.

Location

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.

Format

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.

Participating countries

All countries who participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 1961 also participated in this edition.

Conductors

Each performance had a conductor who conducted the orchestra.
The contest saw the return of four artists this year, with three artists having previously participated in the 1960 contest. Camillo Felgen for Luxembourg; François Deguelt for Monaco; and Fud Leclerc making his fourth appearance for Belgium, having also been present at the 1956 and 1958 contests. Jean Philippe, having previous represented France in 1959, returned to the contest as a representative for Switzerland.

Results

Scoreboard

3 points

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. Below is a summary of all 3 points received in the final:
N.ContestantVoting nation
5FranceGermany, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Yugoslavia
3LuxembourgBelgium, Spain, Monaco
3MonacoAustria, Luxembourg, Netherlands
2YugoslaviaFrance, Italy
1FinlandUnited Kingdom
1SwedenDenmark
1United KingdomFinland

Broadcasters, commentators and spokespersons

Spokespersons

Listed below is the order in which votes were cast during the 1962 contest along with the spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for their respective country.
  1. – TBC
  2. – Enzo Tortora
  3. – Robert Diligent
  4. – Alex Macintosh
  5. – Mladen Delić
  6. –
  7. –
  8. – André Valmy
  9. –
  10. – Klaus Havenstein
  11. – Tage Danielsson
  12. –
  13. – Emil Kollpacher
  14. –
  15. –
  16. –

    Broadcasters and commentators

Each national broadcaster also sent a commentator to the contest, in order to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language.
CountryBroadcasterCommentator
AustriaORF
BelgiumRTBFrench: Nicole Védrès
BelgiumBRTDutch: Willem Duys
DenmarkDanmarks Radio TVSkat Nørrevig
FinlandSuomen Televisio
FinlandYleisradio
FranceRTFPierre Tchernia
GermanyDeutsches FernsehenRuth Kappelsberger
ItalyProgramma Nazionale
LuxembourgTélé-LuxembourgTBC
MonacoTélé Monte CarloPierre Tchernia
NetherlandsNTSWillem Duys
NorwayNRK and NRK P1Odd Grythe
TVE
SwedenSveriges TV and SR P1
SwitzerlandTV DRSGerman:
SwitzerlandTSRFrench:
SwitzerlandTSIItalian: Renato Tagliani
United KingdomBBC TVDavid Jacobs
United KingdomBBC Light ProgrammePeter Haigh
YugoslaviaTelevizija BeogradSerbo-Croatian:
YugoslaviaTelevizija ZagrebSerbo-Croatian:
YugoslaviaTelevizija LjubljanaSlovene: