Eurovision Song Contest 1972


The Eurovision Song Contest 1972 was the 17th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom, and was held at the Usher Hall on Saturday 25 March 1972. The show was hosted by Moira Shearer.
Following Séverine's win for Monaco at the 1971 contest in Dublin, Ireland with the song "Un banc, un arbre, une rue", the principality were unable to meet the demands of hosting the event. Rainier III of Monaco received a letter from the European Broadcasting Union about hosting the 1972 contest in the principality, but he was unable to provide a venue, the props and the remainder of the requirements. The BBC stepped in, and chose to stage the contest in Edinburgh. This was the fourth time the UK played host, after the 1960, 1963, and 1968 editions, however, this is the first time that the UK hosted the contest in a venue outside England.
The winner was Luxembourg with the song "Après toi", performed by Vicky Leandros, written by Klaus Munro and Yvess Dessca, and composed by Munro and Mario Panas. Munro also conducted the song at the contest. This was Luxembourg's third victory in the contest, following their wins in 1961, and 1965. Yves Dessca also wrote for "Un Banc, Un Arbre, Une Rue" that won the previous edition, and other than conductors of the winning song, became the second person to win the Contest twice, the first person to win for two different countries and the first person to win two years in a row. Germany finished in third place for the third consecutive year, equalling their highest placement from the previous two editions.
Séverine made the trip to Edinburgh to pass on the 'Grand Prix' to Vicky Leandros. However, she looked thoroughly uninterested in the Monegasque entry when seen by viewers checking her watch before the song was performed.

Location

The 1972 Eurovision Song Contest was hosted by Edinburgh, the capital city of Scotland. The Usher Hall, the venue for the 1972 contest, is a concert hall, situated on Lothian Road, in the west end of Edinburgh, Scotland. It has hosted concerts and events since its construction in 1914 and can hold approximately 2,900 people in its recently restored auditorium, which is well loved by performers due to its acoustics. The Hall is flanked by The Royal Lyceum Theatre on the right and The Traverse Theatre on the left. Historic Scotland has registered the Hall with Category A listed building status.

Format

The stage design included a screen to introduce and accompany the on stage competing performances, and to show an interval act and voting sequence that were done at Edinburgh Castle. Before each country's performance, a picture of each song's performers along with their names and the song's title were projected on the screen, and during each performance, animated spiral shapes were projected as additional visual effect. The interval act was performed at the outside vast Esplanade of the Great Hall of Edinburgh Castle. The jurors were stationed in the safety of the castle, and watched the competing performances at Usher Hall on TV.
Each country had two jury members, one aged between 16 and 25 and one aged between 26 and 55. They each awarded 1 to 5 points for each song, other than the song of their own country. They cast their votes immediately after each song was performed and the votes were then collected and counted. For the public voting sequence after the interval act, the jury members were shown on the stage's screen with each lifting a signboard with the number between 1 and 5 for each song, as a visual verification of the scores they had awarded earlier. The eventual winner, Luxembourg, remained in a strong scoring position throughout the voting.
1972 was the first year that had no ties in the voting. Every year prior to 1972, at least two countries had received the same score.

Participating countries

All countries that participated in the 1971 contest were present this year.

Conductors

Each performance had a musical director who conducted the orchestra.
Four artists returned to the competition this year. Luxembourg's Vicky Leandros who last performed for the nation in 1967; Carlos Mendes for Portugal who last participated in 1968; Swedish entry Family Four who returned for a second consecutive year; and Yugoslavia's Tereza Kesovija who previously represented Monaco in 1966.

Results

Scoreboard

10 points

Below is a summary of all perfect 10 scores that were given during the voting.
N.ContestantVoting nation
2LuxembourgUnited Kingdom, Yugoslavia
1AustriaSweden
1PortugalLuxembourg
1United KingdomNorway

Broadcasters, commentators and jury members

Jury members

Listed below is the order in which votes were cast during the 1972 contest along with the names of the two jury members who voted for their respective country. Each country announced their results in groups of three.
  1. – Unknown
  2. – Unknown
  3. – Unknown
  4. – Emma Cohen and Luis María Ansón
  5. – Doreen Samuels and Robert Walker
  6. – Rachel Nord and Signe Abusdal
  7. – Pedro Sousa Macedo and Maria João Aguiar
  8. – Unknown
  9. – Mary Rose Mallia and Joe Zerafa
  10. – Merita Merikoski and Åke Granholm
  11. – Unknown
  12. – Unknown
  13. – Vera Zlokovic and Veljko Bakasun
  14. – Titti Sjöblom and Arne Domnérus
  15. – Unknown
  16. – Unknown
  17. – Unknown
  18. – Jennifer Baljet and Cornelis Wagter

    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.