Switzerland was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 1961 with the song "", composed by Géo Voumard, with lyrics by Émile Gardaz, and performed by Franca di Rienzo. The Swiss participating broadcaster, the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SRG SSR), selected its entry through a national final.

Before Eurovision

The Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SRG SSR) held a national final to select its entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 1961. Applying artists and songwriters were required to have Swiss citizenship or have resided in Switzerland for at least five years. The broadcaster received 157 submitted songs, nine of which were chosen by juries to participate in the selection. Four of these songs were in Italian, three were in French, and two were in German. Five artists competed to represent Switzerland, among whom was Anita Traversi— who previously represented , and would repeat this in . Gino Latilla was supposed to participate, but was replaced by Carla Boni shortly before the final.

Swiss Italian broadcaster (TSI) staged the national final on 6 February 1961 at 21:00 CET (20:00 UTC) in the Conza Pavillion in Lugano. It was presented by Heidi Abel and Dario Bertoni. Fernando Paggi served as the musical director and accompanied the orchestra.

The winning song was chosen by a ten-member "expert" jury, whose members each gave one vote to their desired song. The three Ticinese (Swiss-Italian) jurors were Piero Bianconi, Cherubino Darani, and Gastone Luvini. The winner was the song "", written by Émile Gardaz, composed by Géo Voumard, and performed by Franca di Rienzo. From 25-27 August, Jo Roland participated in the Sopot International Song Festival with the song, "," and won the inaugural edition of that contest.

+ Final – 6 February 1961 Artist Song Language Songwriters Total Place Composer Lyricist 1 Carla Boni "" Italian Giovanni Pelli 0 3 2 Jo Roland "" French Géo Voumard Émile Gardaz 3 2 3 Jo Roland "" German Georg Benz-Stahl 0 3 4 Anita Traversi "" Italian Giovanni Pelli Velio Bargellini 0 3 5 Franca di Rienzo "" French Géo Voumard Émile Gardaz 0 3 6 Anita Traversi "" Italian Mario Robbiani 0 3 7 "" German Renato Bui Fritz Körner 0 3 8 Carla Boni "" Italian Mario Robbiani Louis Rey 0 3 9 Franca di Rienzo "" French Géo Voumard Émile Gardaz 7 1

At Eurovision

At the Eurovision Song Contest 1961 in Cannes, the Swiss entry was the tenth song of the night following and preceding . The Swiss entry was conducted by Fernando Paggi, who previously conducted multiple songs in the contest, where he served as the musical director. At the close of voting, Switzerland had received sixteen points in total; the country finished third among the sixteen participants.

Voting Each participating broadcaster assembled a ten-member jury panel. Every jury member could give one point to their favourite song.

+ Points awarded to Switzerland Score Country 4 points 2 points 1 point

+ Points awarded by Switzerland Score Country 7 points 1 point

References