For the third time in five years the winner wasFrance with the song "Un premier amour", composed byClaude-Henri Vic [fr], written by Roland Valade and performed byIsabelle Aubret.Monaco placed second for the first time, while the host nation came third, resulting in French-language songs occupying all of the top three positions. For the first time in the contest's history an entry receivednul points from all juries, withAustria,Belgium, theNetherlands, andSpain all receiving zero points overall.
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Eurovision Song Contest 1962 – Participation summaries by country
There was no change in the participants line-up for the first time, with no new countries joining the event and the same sixteen countries which had competed in 1961 returning for 1962.[2][6]
The contest was organised and broadcast byCLT.[2] Jos Pauly and René Steichen served as producers and directors, Jean-Paul Conzemius served as designer, and Jean Roderès served asmusical director, leading around forty musicians of theGrand orchestre symphonique de Radio Luxembourg.[20][21][22] Each participating delegation was allowed to nominate its own musical director to lead the orchestra during the performance of its country's entry, with the host musical director alsoconducting for those countries which did not nominate their own conductor.[17] The contest was presented by Mireille Delannoy, one ofTélé-Luxembourg's regularcontinuity announcers.[2][5]
Each country, participating through a single EBU member broadcaster, was represented by one song performed by up to two people on stage.[2][23] The results of the event were determined through jury voting; in a change from previous events, each country awarded three points to the jury's collective favourite entry, with two points awarded to the jury's second favourite, and one point given the jury's third favourite.[2][24] Each jury comprised ten individuals representing the average television viewer and radio listener; as such no individuals in the music industry, including composers, music publishers, and people employed by record companies, were able to sit on the jury.[22][24]
The draw to determine the running order took place on 16 March 1962 in the Villa Louvigny, conducted by Delannoy and assisted by her 4-year-old son Olivier. Rehearsals were held in the contest venue on 17 and 18 March, with two full dress rehearsals scheduled before the live broadcast on the evening of 18 March.[21]
The contest was held at 18 March 1962 at 21:30 (CET) and lasted 1 hour and 27 minutes.[17][25] Held on a Sunday, this is the last time that the contest's grand final was not held on a Saturday.[26] The interval act was a performance by the French clownAchille Zavatta, in a skit as the contest's seventeenth participant representing "Zavattaland".[5][27][28] The prize for the winning artist and songwriters—a medallion engraved with the figure of awinged lion, theheraldic animal of CLT, and designed byHans Mettel [de]—was presented by the previous year's winning artistJean-Claude Pascal.[22][27][28][29]
The contest suffered from twopower failures which impacted the broadcast of the event:[2] the first occurred during the Dutch entry, which affected the picture quality and plunged the performance into total darkness for around 30 seconds for some broadcasters;[17][30] the second occurred immediately following the French entry as the auditorium went completely dark for around 1 minutes and 30 seconds, leading to broadcasters showing "breakdown" captions on-screen as the issue was resolved and a delay in the performance of the Norwegian entry.[17][26][30]
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.[37][38] Known spokespersons at the 1962 contest are listed below.
Jury voting was used to determine the points awarded by all countries. The announcement of the results from each country was conducted in reverse order to that in which each country performed, with the spokespersons announcing their country's points in English or French in descending order.[30][24] 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.
The new voting system produced what some consider to be one of the least exciting voting sequences in the contest's history, with France quickly taking the lead and ultimately finishing with double the number of points compared to the runner-up Monegasque entry.[2][26][24] With each country only able to award points to three of the potential fifteen countries available, leaving twelve countries without points, the new system also most likely contributed to countries being awarded zero points overall for the first time.[26][24]
Detailed voting results of the Eurovision Song Contest 1962[41][42]
The below table summarises how the maximum 3 points were awarded from one country to another. The winning country is shown in bold. France received the maximum score of 3 points from five of the voting countries, Luxembourg and Monaco each received three sets of 3 points, Yugoslavia received two sets of maximum scores, and Finland, Sweden and the United Kingdom received one maximum score each.[41][42]
Distribution of 3 points awarded at the Eurovision Song Contest 1962[41][42]
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.[43] 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. These commentators were typically sent to the venue to report on the event, and were able to provide commentary from small booths constructed at the back of the venue.[44][45] At least 15 commentators were present at the contest, with an estimated global viewership and listenership of 60 to 100 million reported in the media.[27][46] Known details on the broadcasts in each country, including the specific broadcasting stations and commentators are shown in the table below.
^Switzerland'sLys Assia also competed in the Eurovision Song Contest with four different songs; however, she only competed in three separate contests (1956,1957 and1958), participating in the 1956 contest with two songs.[11]
^On behalf of the German public broadcasting consortiumARD[18]
^Feddersen, Jan (28 July 2018)."Glückwunsch, Isabelle Aubret!" [Congratulations, Isabelle Aubret!] (in German).ARD.Archived from the original on 27 July 2018. Retrieved8 January 2025.
Roxburgh, Gordon (2012).Songs for Europe: The United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest. Vol. One: The 1950s and 1960s.Prestatyn, United Kingdom:Telos Publishing.ISBN978-1-84583-065-6.
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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