Broadcasters from twelve countries participated in the contest this year. This was the lowest number of participants since the1959 edition. The reason was thatFinland,Norway,Portugal,Sweden, andAustria all boycotted the 1970 edition, officially because they felt that the contest marginalised smaller countries and was no longer good television entertainment,[1] though it is rumoured that this was also in protest of the four-way tie result that had occurred in 1969.[2]
The winner of the competition wasIreland with the song "All Kinds of Everything", performed byDana, and written by Derry Lindsay and Jackie Smith. This was Ireland's first of their eventual record seven victories in the contest. TheUnited Kingdom finished in second place for the seventh time, whileGermany ended up in third place – the best result for the country at the time. This was also the only time thatLuxembourg receivednul points.[2]
TheCongrescentrum, venue of the 1970 contest, is a semi-permanent exhibit at the Ferdinand Bolstraat toAmsterdam and was opened on 31 October 1922. This building was replaced in 1961 by the current RAI building on Europe's Square. The current congress and event center on Europe Square, was designed by Alexander Bodon and opened on 2 February 1961.
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Eurovision Song Contest 1970 – Participation summaries by country
Austria (who had not taken part in 1969),Finland,Norway,Portugal, andSweden boycotted this contest as they were not pleased with the result of 1969 and the voting structure.[2]
For the first time, no lead artists from previous contests returned.[4] However, María Jesús Aguirre and Mercedes Valimaña, members ofTrío La La La [es], who provided backing vocals forSpain in 1968, returned as backing singers for Spain.[5]
Following the confirmation of the twelve competing countries, the draw to determine the running order of the contest was held on 15 January 1970.[9]
The Dutch producers were forced to pad out the show as only 12 nations decided to make the trip to Amsterdam. The result was a format that has endured almost to the present day. An extended opening sequence (filmed in Amsterdam) set the scene, while every entry was introduced by a short video 'postcard' featuring each of the participating artists, ostensibly in their own nation. However, the 'postcards' for Switzerland, Luxembourg, and Monaco were all filmed on location in Paris (as was the French postcard).[2] The long introduction film (over four minutes long) was followed by what probably is one of the shortest ever introductions by any presenter. Willy Dobbe only welcomed the viewers in English, French, and Dutch, finishing her introduction after only 24 seconds. On-screen captions introduced each entry, with the song titles listed all in lowercase and the names of the artist and composers/authors all in capitals.
The set design was devised by Roland de Groot; a simple design was composed of a number of curved horizontal bars and silver baubles which could be moved in a variety of different ways.
To avoid an incident like in 1969, a tie-breaking rule was created. It stated that, if two or more songs gained the same number of votes and were tied for first place, each song would have to be performed again. After which each national jury (other than the juries of the countries concerned) would have a show of hands of which they thought was the best. If the countries tied again, then they would share first place.
Ireland won the contest with "All Kinds of Everything", penned by Derry Lindsay and Jackie Smith, and sung by another unknown,Dana, an 18-year-old schoolgirl fromDerry,Northern Ireland. As the contest was held in the Netherlands this year, and the country was one of the four winners in 1969, Dana received her awards from the Dutch winnerLenny Kuhr.
Each participating broadcaster appointed a spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for their respective country via telephone. Known spokespersons at the 1970 contest are listed below.
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.[15]
In addition to the participating countries, the contest was reported to have been broadcast by EBU member broadcasters in Greece, Iceland, Israel, and Tunisia; in Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and the Soviet Union viaIntervision; and in Argentina, Brazil, and Chile.[7][4][16] An estimated global audience of 400 million viewers was reported to have watched the contest.[17] It was also known to broadcast on radio in countries including Ireland, Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom.[18] 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
^abcdRoxburgh, Gordon (2014).Songs for Europe: The United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest. Volume Two: The 1970s. Prestatyn:Telos Publishing. pp. 25–37.ISBN978-1-84583-093-9.
^"Radio – samedi 21 mars" [Radio – Saturday 21 March].Radio TV – Je vois tout (in French). Vol. 48, no. 12. Lausanne, Switzerland. 19 March 1970. pp. 54–56. Retrieved4 January 2023 – via Scriptorium.
^"as Radio 1 – BBC Radio 2".Radio Times. London, United Kingdom. 21 March 1970. Archived fromthe original on 10 January 2023. Retrieved3 January 2025 – via BBC Genome Project.
^M. B. (23 March 1970)."Чуда се не догађају увек" [Miracles don't always happen].Borba (in Serbo-Croatian (Cyrillic script)). Belgrade, Yugoslavia. p. 12. Retrieved6 December 2024 – via Belgrade University Library.
^B.Š. (26 March 1970)."Naša skupna zabloda" [Our common delusion].Tedenska tribuna (in Slovenian). Vol. 18, no. 13.Ljubljana, Yugoslavia:Delo. p. 11. Retrieved1 July 2025 – viaDigital Library of Slovenia.Televizijski komentator prenosa iz Amsterdama Aleksander Čolnik, se je takole obrnil k slovenskim televizijskim poslušalcem, ki so spremljali nastop naše pevke [...] [Television commentator Aleksander [Sandi] Čolnik, who broadcast from Amsterdam, addressed Slovenian television listeners who were watching the performance of our singer [...]]
^ab"TV-Rádio" [TV-Radio].Correio Braziliense (in Brazilian Portuguese).Brasília,Federal District, Brazil. 21 March 1970. p. 16. Retrieved17 March 2024 – via National Library of Brazil.Dando prosseguimento às transmissões via satélite a TV Brasília apresentará hoje, às 20:30 horas, directamente da Holanda, o Festival Eurovision da Cancão. [Continuing with satellite broadcasts, TV Brasília will present today, at 8:30 pm, directly from the Netherlands, the Eurovision Song Contest.]
^ab"Vía Satélite" [Via Satellite].Las Últimas Noticias (in Spanish).Santiago, Chile. 19 March 1970. p. 11.El próximo sábado Rául Matas, director de programas de Canal Nacional, realizará una transmisión excepcional desde Amsterdam, Holanda, por Canal 7 de Televisión. Se trata del Festival de Eurovisión, al que Matas le dedicará todas sus energías mientras dure el evento que se transmitirá vía satélite. [Next Saturday Rául Matas, program director of Canal Nacional, will make an exceptional broadcast from Amsterdam, Holland, on Channel 7 Television. This is the Eurovision Song Contest, to which Matas will dedicate all his energy for the duration of the event, which will be broadcast via satellite.]
^"Sobota" [Saturday].Týdeník Československé televize (in Czech). No. 12.Prague, Czechoslovakia. 16 March 1970. Retrieved9 March 2025 – viaArcanum Newspapers.
^"TV – szombat III.21" [TV – Saturday III.21].Rádió– és Televízióújság (in Hungarian). Vol. 15, no. 11.Budapest, Hungary. 16 March 1970. p. 13. Retrieved15 February 2025 – via Nemzeti Archívum.
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