International song competition
The Eurovision Song Contest 1974 was the 19th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, held on 6 April 1974 in the Dome in Brighton, United Kingdom. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), and presented by Katie Boyle, this was the fifth time that the United Kingdom had staged the contest.
Although Luxembourg had won the 1973 contest with the song "" by Anne-Marie David, which made Luxembourg the presumptive host in 1974, the Luxembourgish broadcaster (CLT) opted not to host the event in 1974 as they had staged the contest in 1973, following their win in 1972. Spain, which had placed second the previous year, also declined the opportunity to stage the contest. The Israeli broadcaster IBA, and the British broadcasters the BBC and ITV, all subsequently made bids to stage the contest, with the BBC ultimately winning out. This was the fourth time that the BBC had staged the contest after another broadcaster declined the opportunity, having done so previously in 1960, 1963 and 1972.
Entries representing eighteen countries were submitted for the contest, with Greece making its first appearance. However, France ultimately did not participate as the contest coincided with the death of French president Georges Pompidou, and with a national day of mourning scheduled for the date of the contest the French broadcaster ORTF deemed participating in the event to be inappropriate. The voting system used between 1971 and 1973 was scrapped, and was replaced by the system last used in 1970, with ten people in each country awarding one vote to their favourite song.
The winner was Sweden, with the song "Waterloo", composed by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, written by Stig Anderson and performed by ABBA. Italy and the Netherlands placed second and third respectively, followed by a three-way tie for fourth place between Luxembourg, Monaco and the United Kingdom. It was Sweden's first contest win. After previous success within European markets with "Ring Ring", with which ABBA had attempted to represent Sweden at Eurovision in 1973, "Waterloo" gave the group their first global hit, and their Eurovision win was a launching point for ABBA to become one of the world's best-selling music artists. Olivia Newton-John, who represented the United Kingdom at this event, would also go on to achieve worldwide success in the years following the contest.
Location.
The 1974 contest was held in Brighton, United Kingdom. It was the fifth time that the United Kingdom had hosted the contest, having previously done so in 1960, 1963, 1968 and 1972. The selected venue was the Dome, completed in 1805 and originally built for the Prince Regent as stables and a riding school for his personal use. Sold by Queen Victoria in 1850, the stables were converted into a concert hall and assembly rooms in 1867, and the riding school into a market for corn merchants in 1868. The concert hall could normally seat up to 2,102 people, but for the contest some seating was removed for the commentator booths and technical equipment, leaving space for an audience of just over 1,000 people.
Among the other venues considered to stage the event by the BBC were the Royal Opera House and Royal Albert Hall in London, the latter of which had previously staged the 1968 contest. Both venues proved to be unavailable however, with the broadcaster then looking outside of the capital for potential venues. The Dome was then ultimately selected, and this choice was announced publicly by the BBC and EBU in July 1973.
Host selection.
The 1973 contest was won by Luxembourg with the song "Tu te reconnaîtras" performed by Anne-Marie David, which according to Eurovision tradition made Luxembourg the presumptive host of the 1974 contest. The country had staged the event on three previous occasions, in 1962, 1966 and 1973, each time in Luxembourg City. As Luxembourg had also hosted the event the previous year, the Luxembourgish broadcaster (CLT) declined the opportunity to stage the event for a second consecutive year due to the financial strain such an undertaking would entail. Spain, which had come second the previous year, was also considered for the event, however the Spanish broadcaster (TVE) also turned down the opportunity to stage the 1974 contest; Spain had previously hosted the event in 1969.
The contest organisers, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), originally asked the BBC, as the participating broadcaster for the country which came third, not to make an offer at this initial stage, in order to determine if other participating broadcasters were willing to stage the event. Of the four previous events held in the United Kingdom, three of these had been staged in place of the previous year's winning country, specifically the 1960, 1963 and 1972 events. Two offers were subsequently made, from the Israel Broadcasting Authority (IBA) and from the BBC's commercial rival ITV. Concerns were raised about the prospect of Israel hosting the event; the country had just joined the contest in 1973 and it was felt some countries would not be prepared to accept an Israeli-held contest. Israel was also some distance geographically from the core of Western European nations which participated in the event at this time, and IBA still lagged behind many European broadcasters from a technological perspective. A successful ITV bid would have effectively barred the BBC from participating, as only one broadcaster from a given country can participate in the event, resulting in the BBC submitting a counter-offer which the EBU accepted on 7 June 1973.
Participating countries.
A total of eighteen countries submitted entries to compete in this edition of the contest, comprising all seventeen countries which had participated in 1973, and Greece, which was making its first appearance in the contest. Turkey had also expressed an interest in competing, but the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation had been too late in submitting their request to the EBU and were subsequently informed that, as the scoreboard with space for eighteen countries had already been constructed, its planned entry would not have been possible. Ultimately, however, only seventeen participating entries were performed at the contest, as France made the decision to withdraw from the event due to the death of French president Georges Pompidou on 2 April. With the state memorial service and a national day of mourning scheduled to be held on the same day as the contest, it was deemed by French broadcaster (ORTF) that competing in and broadcasting the contest would be inappropriate. France would have been represented by the song "", written by Christine Fontaine and to have been performed by Dani, with Jean-Claude Petit scheduled to conduct the orchestra during the performance.
Among the participating artists were a number of acts which had competed in the Eurovision Song Contest in previous years: Italy's Gigliola Cinquetti had previously won the contest in 1964 with the song ""; Romuald, representing Monaco at this contest, had previously represented both Monaco and Luxembourg, in 1964 and 1969 respectively; and Norway's Bendik Singers, supporting Anne-Karine Strøm at this event, had represented Norway in the previous year's contest, with Strøm having also been a member of the group in that contest.
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Production and format.
The Eurovision Song Contest 1974 was produced by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). Bill Cotton served as executive producer, Michael Hurll served as producer and director, John Burrowes served as designer, and Ronnie Hazlehurst served as musical director, leading the BBC Concert Orchestra. A separate musical director could be nominated by each country to lead the orchestra during their performance, with the host musical director also available to conduct for those countries which did not nominate their own conductor. On behalf of the contest organisers, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the event was overseen by Clifford Brown as scrutineer.
Each participating broadcaster submitted one song, which was required to be no longer than three minutes in duration. As with the previous year's event, artists were able to perform in any language, and not necessarily that of the country they represented. A maximum of six performers were allowed on stage during each country's performance. Each entry could utilise all or part of the live orchestra and could use instrumental-only backing tracks, however any backing tracks used could only include the sound of instruments featured on stage being mimed by the performers.
Rehearsals in the contest venue began on Tuesday 2 April, involving technical rehearsals with the production team, the orchestra, and tests of the voting system and scoreboard. This was followed by rehearsals with the competing acts over subsequent days. The first rehearsals for all countries were held over two days on 3 and 4 April, with each participating act having a 50-minute slot on stage to perform through their entry with the orchestra without their stage costumes. A second round of rehearsals, this time in costume, was held for all acts on 5 April, with each country given 20 minutes on stage, followed that evening by a complete run-through of the whole show, including dummy voting. Further technical rehearsals were held on the morning of 6 April, and a second full dress rehearsal was held that afternoon; this rehearsal was also recorded for use as a back-up in case technical failure meant the contest could not go ahead as planned.
Security in Brighton was tight in the lead-up to, and during, the contest, due to the threat of actions by Irish republican militants. There was an increased police presence, and tanks could be seen in the streets of Brighton during the week of the contest. The contest presenter Katie Boyle also recalled being ferried in bulletproof coaches between the hotel and the contest venue, each time taking a different route.
Voting procedure.
Due in part to the closeness of the voting in the previous year's contest, a new voting system was planned to be introduced for this event, which incorporated elements from the two previous voting systems used in the contest: each country's jury would comprise ten members, which would be based in their own country, with each member awarding between one and five votes for each song, with no abstentions allowed and without the option to vote for their own country's entry. This would have resulted in each country potentially awarding a maximum of 50 votes and a minimum of 10 votes to any other country's song; with eighteen planned participating countries, this would have meant that the highest possible score any country could have received was 850, and the lowest possible score was 170. In case of a tie between two or more countries for first place, these acts would have performed again and each country not involved in the tie would have had one vote each to determine the winner. A lottery element to the voting, in order to add greater suspense, was also devised: the order of the voting would have been determined on stage during the voting segment, with cards being drawn at random to decide the order in which countries would vote.
During rehearsals however, it quickly became apparent to the organisers that they had misjudged how long it would take to conduct this new voting system, as well as mounting concerns that any issues with totalling the scores live could exacerbate the problems. Although a computerised system to calculate each country's total had been investigated, this was rejected for cost reasons. Ultimately the contest's executive producer Bill Cotton took the unilateral decision to abandon the proposed voting system and, given the jury structure of ten people had already been established and jury members had most likely already been recruited by the broadcasters, determined that the only alternative was to revert to the scoring system last used in 1970: each of the ten jury members had one vote to award to their favourite song. The lottery aspect of the voting system was, however, retained, although due to timing and sound quality reasons this draw was held before the contest by the EBU's scrutineer Clifford Brown.
Contest overview.
The contest was held on 6 April 1974, beginning at 21:30 (BST) and lasting 1 hour and 49 minutes. The contest was presented by the British television presenter and actress Katie Boyle, who had previously presented the contest in 1960, 1963 and 1968. Having hosted the contest four times, Boyle holds the record for most contest appearances as a presenter as of 2024[ [update]]. Following the confirmation