The Eurovision Song Contest 1964 was the 9th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, held on 21 March 1964 at in Copenhagen, Denmark, and presented by Lotte Wæver. It was organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster (DR), who staged the event after winning the for with the song "" by Grethe and Jørgen Ingmann.

Broadcasters from sixteen countries participated in the contest. made its debut this year, whereas decided not to enter.

The winner was with the song "", performed by Gigliola Cinquetti, written by Nicola Salerno and composed by Mario Panzeri. At the age of 16 years and 92 days, Gigliola Cinquetti became the youngest winner of the contest yet; a record she held until .O'Connor, John Kennedy. The Eurovision Song Contest - The Official Celebration. Carlton Books, 2015. . Pages 32-33 The entry had one of the widest margins of victory ever witnessed in the competition, managing to garner almost three times as many points as the runner-up song. The , , and rounded out the top five. Besides the , the 1964 contest is the only other one of which there are no complete surviving video recordings, with the exception of the winner's reprise performance.

Location

(DR) staged the 1964 contest in Copenhagen, after winning the for with the song "" by Grethe and Jørgen Ingmann. The venue selected was (Tivoli Concert Hall), which lies within the amusement park and pleasure garden Tivoli Gardens. The park, alluding by its name to the that existed in Paris, was opened on 15 August 1843, and is the second oldest amusement park in the world, after in nearby Klampenborg.Tivoli – Tivoli Gardens Copenhagen – Copenhagen Portal – Tourist Guide. Copenhagenet.dk. Retrieved on 15 August 2011. At the night of the contest, 800 spectators followed the show in the audience.

Participants

Broadcasters from sixteen countries participated in the 1964 contest. Of the sixteen countries that participated in 1963 only was absent. (SR) did not participate due to a strike among members of the Swedish Union for Performing Arts and Film (). was represented in the contest for the first time, however it became the first country to score nul points on its début entry. Germany, Switzerland, and Yugoslavia also scored nul points for the first time. The Netherlands became the first country to be represented by a singer of non-European ancestry, Anneke Grönloh who was of Indonesian descent. Spain was represented by the Italian-Uruguayan group Los TNT who were the first group of three or more participants in the history of the contest.

Only one of the performing artists had previously competed representing the same country in past editions: Anita Traversi had represented , and had also provided backing vocals for .

+ Eurovision Song Contest 1964 participants Country Broadcaster Artist Song Language Songwriter(s) Conductor ORF Udo Jürgens "" German Udo Jürgens Johannes Fehring RTB Robert Cogoi "" French Robert Cogoi DR Bjørn Tidmand "" Danish Kai Mortensen YLE Lasse Mårtenson "" Finnish George de Godzinsky RTF Rachel "" French Franck Pourcel HR Nora Nova "" German Willy Berking RAI Gigliola Cinquetti "" Italian CLT Hugues Aufray "" French Jacques Denjean TMC Romuald "" French Michel Colombier NTS Anneke Grönloh "" Dutch Dolf van der Linden NRK Arne Bendiksen "" Norwegian Karsten Andersen RTP António Calvário "" Portuguese Kai Mortensen TVE Nelly with Tim and Tony "" Spanish Fina de Calderón Rafael Ibarbia SRG SSR Anita Traversi "" Italian Fernando Paggi BBC Matt Monro "I Love the Little Things" English Tony Hatch Harry Rabinowitz JRT Sabahudin Kurt "" () Serbo-Croatian Radivoje Spasić

Format Poul Leth Sørensen served as producer, Bent Fabricius Bjerre and Marianne Drewes acted as co-producers.

The prize to be awarded to the winning artist took the form of an engraved medallion made of silver.

The event was covered by around 100 journalists and photographers. The artists were accompanied by a 41-piece orchestra. Rehearsals started on 19 March 1964.

Contest overview

The contest was held on 21 March 1964, beginning at 22:00 CET (21:00 UTC).

A political protest occurred after the Swiss entry: an anonymous man trespassed onto the stage holding a banner that read "Boycot Franco & Salazar". Whilst this was going on, television viewers were shown a shot of the scoreboard; once the man was removed by a television technician, the contest went on.

The interval act consisted of a ballet dance performance by dancers Solveig Østergaard, Niels Kehlet, Inge Olafsen and Mette Hønningen from the Royal Danish Ballet, choreographed by Niels Bjørn Larsen, and over the music of the "Columbine porka mazurka" and the "Champagne Galop" by Hans Christian Lumbye.

The immediate response of the Koncertsal audience to the Italian entry was markedly enthusiastic and prolonged and, most unusually for a contest performance, after leaving the stage Gigliola Cinquetti was allowed to return to take a second bow. Her performance was given an unscheduled repeat on British television the following afternoon. In the event, she won the most crushing victory in the history of the contest, with a score almost three times that of her nearest rival, a feat extremely unlikely ever to be beaten under the post-1974 scoring system.

An aftershow party was held for the participating delegations at the restaurant Ambassadeur in Copenhagen. Each of the 16 participating acts was awarded a silver trophy on this occasion. + Results of the Eurovision Song Contest 1964 Country Artist Song Points Place 1 "" 14 4 2 "" 2 10 3 "" 6 8 4 "" 4 9 5 "" 9 7 6 "" 11 6 7 Rachel "" 14 4 8 "I Love the Little Things" 17 2 9 "" 0 13 10 Romuald "" 15 3 11 "" 0 13 12 "" 49 1 13 "" 0 13 14 "" 0 13 15 "" 2 10 16 Nelly with Tim and Tony "" 1 12

Spokespersons Each participating broadcaster appointed a spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for its respective country via telephone. Known spokespersons at the 1964 contest are listed below.

Detailed voting results

Each participating broadcaster assembled a 10-member jury panel who distributed three points among their one, two, or three favourite songs. The points were totaled and the first, second, and third placed songs were awarded 5, 3, and 1 votes in order. If only one song got every point within the jury it would get all 9 points. If only two songs were chosen, the songs would get 6 and 3 points in order.

+ Detailed voting results scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" rowspan="16" Luxembourg 14 3 3 5 3 Netherlands 2 1 1 Norway 6 5 1 Denmark 4 1 3 Finland 9 3 3 3 Austria 11 5 1 5 France 14 1 3 5 3 1 1 United Kingdom 17 1 5 3 1 1 1 5 Germany 0 Monaco 15 3 5 3 1 3 Portugal 0 Italy 49 5 5 5 5 5 3 3 5 5 3 5 Yugoslavia 0 Switzerland 0 Belgium 2 1 1 Spain 1 1

5 points Below is a summary of all 5 points in the final:

N. Contestant Nation(s) giving 5 points 8 , , , , , , , 2 , , 1

Broadcasts

Each participating broadcaster was required to relay the contest via its networks. Non-participating EBU member broadcasters were also able to relay the contest as "passive participants". Broadcasters were able to send commentators to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language and to relay information about the artists and songs to their television viewers. No official accounts of the viewing figures are known to exist. Estimates given in the press ranged from 100 to 150 million viewers.

Known details on the broadcasts in each country, including the specific broadcasting stations and commentators are shown in the tables below.

+ Broadcasters and commentators in participating countries Country Broadcaster Channel(s) Commentator(s) ORF ORF RTB RTB BRT BRT DR DR TV, DR P1, DR P3 Claus Walter YLE RTF RTF, Inter Jeunesse Robert Beauvais ARD RAI CLT Robert Beauvais Robert Beauvais NTS NTS Ageeth Scherphuis VARA Hilversum 2 NRK , NRK Odd Grythe RTP RTP TVE TVE RNE RNE SRG SSR TV DRS TSR Robert Burnier TSI Radio Beromünster Radio Sottens Radio Monte Ceneri BBC BBC TV David Jacobs JRT

+ Broadcasters and commentators in non-participating countries Country Broadcaster Channel(s) Commentator(s) RÉ MBA MTV Victor Aquilina ATM TeleCuraçao SR Sven Lindahl

Lost recordings As with the , no complete video recording of the actual contest is known to have survived. Some clips of the contest have survived, including the winning announcement by Svend Pedersen, and part of Gigliola Cinquetti's reprise. For some time, there was a rumour that a copy of the entire contest existed in the French television archives. In 2021, INA confirmed to Wiwibloggs that the French television archives do not possess a video copy of the contest. However, the audio of a French radio broadcast can be found in the archives of INA.

A persistent myth, even repeated on the official Eurovision site, is that the tape was destroyed in a fire in the 1970s. In a 2019 retrospective article, DR claimed that the broadcast was never recorded in the first place, allegedly due to no tape machines being available at the studio at the time. The audio of most of the show, however, is still available online, without the last few minutes, and short video clips and photos from various archives also remain available. In 2026, the Eurovision Song Contest's YouTube channel published Cinquetti's reprise performance, which was edited from discovered segments of footage from the show.

Notes

References

External links