TheEurovision Song Contest 1975 was the 20th edition of theEurovision Song Contest, held on 22 March 1975 at theSankt Eriks-Mässan inStockholm, Sweden, and presented byKarin Falck. It was organised by theEuropean Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcasterSveriges Radio (SR), who staged the event after winning the1974 contest forSweden with the song "Waterloo" byABBA. Nineteen countries were represented at the contest – a new record number of participants.Turkey made its first entry in the contest, andFrance andMalta returned after a one- and two-year absence, respectively.Greece, after participating for the first time in the previous year's event, opted not to participate in 1975, due to the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974.
The winner was theNetherlands with the song "Ding-a-dong", composed byDick Bakker, written byWill Luikinga [nl] andEddy Ouwens, and performed by the groupTeach-In. This was the Netherlands' fourth contest victory, matching the record number of contest wins previously set by France andLuxembourg. Having been the opening song of the contest, it was also the first time that a country had won from first position in the running order. TheUnited Kingdom,Italy,France, andLuxembourg rounded out the top five positions, with the UK achieving a record-extending ninth second-place finish. Anew voting system was introduced at this contest; each country gave 12 points to its favourite, 10 points to its second favourite, and then 8 points to 1 point to other countries in descending order of preference. This numerical order of awarded points has since been used in every subsequent edition of the contest.
The 1975 contest took place inStockholm, Sweden, following the country's victory at the1974 contest with the song "Waterloo" performed byABBA. It was the first time that Sweden had hosted the event.[1][2] The chosen venue was theSankt Eriks-Mässan, an exhibition centre in theÄlvsjö district of southern Stockholm opened in 1971; in 1976 the venue was renamed toStockholmsmässan.[2][3]
The Swedish broadcasterSveriges Radio (SR) had initially been reluctant to stage the event, mainly due to the high costs that came with it which would have been placed on the organisation. There had also been considerable pressure and disquiet fromleft-wing groups in the country that initially opposed the amount of money being spent by the public broadcaster on a commercial event, which subsequently developed into a wider protest against the general commercialisation ofmusic in Sweden;[2][4] this led to street protests and a counter-festival,Alternativfestivalen [sv] ('the Alternative Festival'), being held during the week of Eurovision 1975.[5][6][7][8]
SR had attempted to negotiate with theEuropean Broadcasting Union (EBU) and other participating broadcasters to enact a form of cost-sharing to fund the event, however a solution failed to materialise prior to the contest and SR was ultimately faced with funding the contest alone. These discussions, however, did eventually lead to the introduction of a new financing system for1976 and future events, with the running costs of the event being split across all participating countries.[2][9] However, fears of the potential costs required to host the event should Sweden have won again, coupled with the pressure from left-wing groups, meant that SR ultimately decided not to participate in the 1976 event.[2][5][10]
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Eurovision Song Contest 1975 – Participation summaries by country
A total of 19 countries participated in the 1975 contest – a new record number of participants. This included the first ever appearance ofTurkey, and entries fromFrance andMalta, which last participated in1973 and1972, respectively.[2][11] Broadcasters inGreece, which participated for the first time in1974, andAustria, last seen in the contest in 1972, had also considered participating in the contest, however no entries from these countries were ultimately submitted;[9][11] Greece had reportedly decided against participating at a late stage, and may have opted to refuse to compete alongside Turkey following theTurkish invasion of Cyprus.[6][7][9]
The Eurovision Song Contest 1975 was produced by SR.[11]Roland Eiworth [sv] served as executive producer,Bo Billtén [sv] served as producer and director,Bo-Ruben Hedwall [sv] served as production designer andMats Olsson served as musical director, leading the orchestra.[16] A separate musical director could be nominated by each participating delegation to lead the orchestra during its country's performance, with the host musical director also available toconduct for those countries which did not send their own conductor.[12] On behalf of the contest organisers, the EBU, the event was overseen byClifford Brown asscrutineer.[16][17][18]
Each participating broadcaster submitted one song, which was required to be no longer than three minutes in duration.[19][20] As in 1973 and 1974, artists were able to perform in any language, and not necessarily that of the country their represented.[21][22] A maximum of six performers were allowed on stage during each country's performance.[19][23] Each entry could utilise all or part of the live orchestra and could use instrumental-onlybacking tracks, however any backing tracks used could only include the sound of instruments featured on stage beingmimed by the performers.[24]
Rehearsals in the contest venue for the competing entries began on 19 March 1975, with each participating act having a 50-minute slot on stage to perform through its entry with the orchestra.[9] The first full rehearsals for all entries were held over two days on 19 and 20 March and conducted without stage costumes.[9] A second round of rehearsals, this time in full costume, was held for all acts on 21 March, with each country given 20 minutes on stage.[9] This was followed that evening with a generaldress rehearsal, including a dummy voting process.[9] Technical rehearsals and a final dress rehearsal were held on the morning of 22 March.[9] During the dress rehearsals some of the artists performed their songs in different languages to that which they would be presented during the live broadcast; specifically, the Yugoslav and Portuguese acts performed their entries in English in the dress rehearsal, and then in Slovene and Portuguese in the final, respectively.[6] The Dutch entrants were given an additional rehearsal shortly before the live transmission; this was requested byDick Bakker, the composer of the Dutch song. Bakker felt that during the general rehearsals the sound quality was noticeably poorer during their entry, the first to perform each time, and that the sound technicians needed time to fix their equipment, which was generally done during their rehearsal slot.[9]
There was a tight security situation at the venue in the run-up to, and during, the event;[6][7][25] theSwedish Security Service (SÄPO) had received intelligence reports that the contest may become a target of the West Germanfar-left militant group theRed Army Faction (RAF). The threat to the contest did not ultimately materialise, however one month after the event the RAFtargeted the West German embassy in Stockholm.[6][7]
Following theabandoned attempt at introducing a new voting system at the previous year's event, plans for a new system to replace both the system used between 1971 and 1973 and that used in 1974 came to fruition in autumn 1974. A sub-group, comprising individuals from Germany'sARD, Sweden's SR, and Finland'sYLE, was set-up, and various new voting systems were proposed: ARD suggested that each country should identify its top nine entries and award points ranging between 1 and 10, while YLE proposed a scoring system to award points to eight countries, with the favourite of each country given 14 points, then 10, 7 and 5–1. The Finnish broadcaster also proposed as a compromise awarding to nine countries 10 and 8–1 points. Based on the above ideas, the UK'sBBC proposed the 12, 10 and 8–1 pattern which was later adopted for this contest, and which had been used in all subsequent editions as of 2025[update].[11][26]
Each country had a jury of eleven members ranging from ages 16 to 60, with a recommendation that there should be a balance between the sexes and that half should be under 25 years old. Each jury member awarded all songs a score between one and five immediately after they had been performed, with no abstentions allowed and without voting for the country they represented. The song which gained the most votes received 12 points, followed by 10 points to the song which got the second highest number of votes, and then between 8 and 1 points for the third- to tenth-placed songs. Ties for any of the positions would be decided by a show of hands.[11][27] The order of presenting the points by each country's spokesperson was done in performance order; it would not be until1980 that the points would be awarded in ascending order, starting at 1 point and finishing with 12 points.[2][27]
Teach-In and the songwriters of "Ding-a-dong" at Schiphol Airport following the contest, with the medallions awarded to the songwriters
The contest was held on 22 March 1975, beginning at 21:00 (CET) and lasting 2 hours and 12 minutes.[11][12] The contest was presented by the Swedish television presenter, producer and directorKarin Falck.[2][28] Following the confirmation of the 19 participating countries, a draw was held inGeneva on 24 January 1975 to determine the running order (R/O) of the contest.[9]
The contest was opened by a film montage portraying various cultural stereotypes of Sweden and theSwedish people. Each entry was preceded by a video postcard, which served as an introduction to that country's entry and to create a transition between entries to allow stage crew to make changes on stage;[29][30] the postcards showed each country's entrant backstage painting a portrait of themselves and the flag of their nation onto a blank canvas.[31][32] The interval act was entitled "The World ofJohn Bauer" (Swedish:John Bauers värld), comprising a montage of examples of the Swedish illustrator's work, particularly from his anthologyAmong Gnomes and Trolls, set to music from the orchestra.[31][33] The medallions awarded to the winning songwriters were presented by the Secretary-General of the European Broadcasting UnionHenrik Hahr [sv].[31][33]
The winner was theNetherlands represented by the song "Ding-a-dong", composed by Bakker, written byWill Luikinga [nl] andEddy Ouwens, and performed byTeach-In.[34] It was the Netherlands' fourth contest win, following victories in1957,1959 and1969; the Netherlands thus joinedFrance andLuxembourg as the countries with the most contest wins at that point.[27][35] It was additionally the first time that the song which was performed first had gone on to win the contest.[2][27] The UK came second for a record-extending ninth time, and Malta, which had come last in its two previous contest appearances, achieved its best result to date with a twelfth-place finish.[27][36] Turkey, meanwhile, finished in last place on its debut appearance.[37]
Results of the Eurovision Song Contest 1975[27][38]
Each participating broadcaster appointed a spokesperson, connected to the contest venue viatelephone lines and responsible for announcing, in English or French, the votes for its respective country.[19][39] Known spokespersons at the 1975 contest are listed below.
Jury voting was used to determine the points awarded by all countries.[27] The announcement of the results from each country was conducted in the order in which they performed, with the spokespersons announcing their country's points in English or French in performance order.[27][31] The detailed breakdown of the points awarded by each country is listed in the tables below, with voting countries listed in the order in which they presented their votes.
Detailed voting results of the Eurovision Song Contest 1975[42][43]
The below table summarises how the maximum 12 points were awarded from one country to another. The winning country is shown in bold. The Netherlands received the maximum score of 12 points from six of the voting countries, with the UK receiving four sets of 12 points, Finland and France each receiving two sets of maximum scores, and Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal and Switzerland receiving one maximum score each.[42][43]
Distribution of 12 points awarded at the Eurovision Song Contest 1975[42][43]
Broadcasters competing in the event were required to relay the contest via its networks; non-participating EBU member broadcasters were also able to relay the contest. 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.[20]
In addition to the participating nations, the contest was also reportedly aired, live or deferred, by broadcasters in Eastern European countries viaIntervision, and in Australia, Denmark, Greece, Hong Kong, Iceland, Japan, Jordan, Morocco and South Korea.[2][9][44] The contest was reported to have had a possible maximum audience of over 700 million people.[25]
^abc"How it works". European Broadcasting Union (EBU). 18 May 2019. Archived fromthe original on 31 May 2022. Retrieved4 April 2024.
^ab"The Rules of the Contest". European Broadcasting Union (EBU). 31 October 2018.Archived from the original on 4 October 2022. Retrieved24 October 2023.
^"Luxembourg 1973". European Broadcasting Union (EBU).Archived from the original on 31 May 2022. Retrieved3 April 2024.
^"'Affaire' Eurovisión probó solidaridad de la TV chilena" [Eurovision 'affair' tested solidarity of Chilean TV].El Mercurio (in Spanish).Santiago, Chile. 22 March 1975. p. 33.
^ab"The Swabriggs quietly confident".Irish Examiner.Cork, Ireland. 19 March 1975.RTE's television commentator will be Mike Murphy and the radio commentary will be by Liam Devally.
^"Televizyon" [Television].Cumhuriyet (in Turkish).Istanbul, Turkey. 22 March 1975. p. 6.Archived from the original on 9 January 2023. Retrieved9 January 2023.
^"Danes, jutri na RTV" [Today, tomorrow on RTV].Delo (in Slovenian).Ljubljana, Yugoslavia. 22 March 1975. p. 6. Retrieved24 August 2025 – via Digital Library of Slovenia.
^"TV Avstrija 2" [TV Austria 2].Slovenski vestnik (in Slovenian).Klagenfurt, Austria. 21 March 1975. p. 8. Retrieved2 January 2024 – via Digital Library of Slovenia.
^ab"Vasárnap – április 20" [Sunday – 20 April].Rádió– és Televízióújság (in Hungarian). Vol. 20, no. 15.Budapest, Hungary. 14 April 1975. pp. 22–23. Retrieved15 February 2025 – via Nemzeti Archívum.
Thorsson, Leif; Verhage, Martin (2006).Melodifestivalen genom tiderna : de svenska uttagningarna och internationella finalerna [Melodifestivalen through the ages: the Swedish selections and international finals] (in Swedish).Stockholm, Sweden: Premium Publishing.ISBN91-89136-29-2.
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