TheEurovision Song Contest 1961, originally known as theGrand Prix Eurovision 1961 de la Chanson Européenne (English:Eurovision Song Contest Grand Prix 1961[1]), was the 6th edition of theEurovision Song Contest, held on 18 March 1961 at thePalais des Festivals et des Congrès inCannes, France, and presented byJacqueline Joubert. It was organised by theEuropean Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcasterRadiodiffusion-Télévision Française (RTF), who staged the event after winning the1960 contest forFrance with the song "Tom Pillibi" byJacqueline Boyer. It was the second time that France had hosted the contest, becoming the first country to host the contest on two separate occasions, following the1959 event which was also held in thePalais des Festivals in Cannes and was also presented by Jacqueline Joubert. In a new record number of participants broadcasters from sixteen countries entered the contest, with the thirteen countries which competed in 1960 present alongsideFinland,Spain, andYugoslavia, all three making their first contest appearances.
The winner wasLuxembourg with the song "Nous les amoureux", composed byJacques Datin, written byMaurice Vidalin [fr] and performed byJean-Claude Pascal, the first of an eventual five contest victories for the country as of 2025[update]. Although not interpreted as such at the time, the winning song has since been reevaluated and reinterpreted as a song about homosexual love, a topic which would have been considered taboo if publicly spoken in 1961. TheUnited Kingdom placed second for the third consecutive contest, whileSwitzerland came third.
This was the second time that the contest was staged in France, with the same venue having already hosted the1959 contest.[2][5][6] It also marked the first time that a country and city had staged the contest on two separate occasions.[7]
Other events held during the week of the contest included a supper for the participating delegations, which was held after the contest in theSalon des Ambassadeurs in the city'sCasino municipal [fr].[8]
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Eurovision Song Contest 1961 – Participation summaries by country
The 1961 contest saw the first entries fromFinland,Spain andYugoslavia. Joining the thirteen countries which had competed in the previous year's event, this led to the contest growing to a record number of sixteen participants.[2][6]
Bob Benny andNora Brockstedt both made a second appearance in the contest for their respective countries. Benny had placed sixth forBelgium in 1959 with the song "Hou toch van mij", while Brockstedt had placed fourth forNorway in 1960 with "Voi-voi".[9] Also among the participating artists wasGermany'sLale Andersen, who had gained significant international fame and popularity duringWorld War II, both inAllied andAxis countries, for her interpretation of "Lili Marleen".[9][10][11] At 56 years old, Andersen was the oldest performer to have competed in the contest, and held this record until2008, when 75-year-old Ladislav Demeterffy (also known as75 Cents) competed forCroatia with the groupKraljevi ulice.[12][13][14]
The contest was organised and broadcast by the French public broadcasterRadiodiffusion-Télévision Française (RTF).[6]Marcel Cravenne [fr] served as producer and director,Maurice Barry [fr] served as cinematographer, Gérard Dubois served as designer, andFranck Pourcel served asmusical director, leading forty musicians of theOrchestre national de la RTF.[1][17][18][19] 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.[9] The event was presented byJacqueline Joubert, who had also hosted the 1959 contest; Joubert remains as of 2025[update] one of only three individuals to have presented multiple Eurovision Song Contests, alongside the UK'sKatie Boyle (1960,1963,1968 and1974) and Sweden'sPetra Mede (2013,2016 and2024).[20]
Each country, participating through a single EBU member broadcaster, was represented by one song performed by up to two people on stage. The results of the event were determined through jury voting, with each country's jury containing ten individuals who each gave one vote to their favourite song, with no abstentions allowed and with jurors unable to vote for their own country.[6][21][22] The jury comprised members of the public who represented the average television viewer.[23] Many of the other aspects of the show were however almost identical to the previous contest in Cannes, including the opening film, direction, production and the scoreboard used during the voting process.[5][24]
The stage design was notably larger than in previous years, featuring a central large staircase covered in flowers, trees and shrubs, with an painted outdoor scene in the background, giving an impression of a Mediterranean garden.[5][17][24] Dubois chose the trees to be featured within the stage design with André Racot, the head of the Cannes municipal gardens, making sure that the trees were not too dark when shown onblack-and-white television.[17][25] The original design featured thegreen room within the stage, with the artists remaining on stage after they had performed, however this idea ultimately did not feature in the final design constructed for the event.[17][26]
The draw to determine the running order took place on 16 March 1961 at theCarlton Hotel in Cannes, conducted by Jacqueline Joubert and assisted by two children aged six and four.[27][28] The draw also featured interviews with some of the participating acts conducted byRobert Beauvais.[27] Rehearsals commenced in the contest venue on the same day.[28]
The contest was held on 18 March 1961 at 20:00 (CET) and lasted 1 hour and 39 minutes.[6][9][29] It was the first time that the contest was staged on a Saturday night, which has since become the traditional day on which the grand final of the contest is staged.[6] The interval act was a dance performance by Tessa Beaumont andMax Bozzoni [fr] titledRencontres à Cannes, with music byRaymond Lefèvre.[29][30][31] The prize for the winning artist and songwriters, an engraved medallion, was presented by Tessa Beaumont.[29][30][32]
Although not widely interpreted as such at the time of the contest, it has since become known that the winning song speaks clandestinely of ahomosexual relationship: the lyrics refer to a love that is frowned upon by society and forbidden by religion, however the singer hopes that one day their relationship will continue without controversy.[35][36] Songs of such subject matter would have been consideredtaboo, and would not have been allowed to be spoken of widely in 1961;same-sex sexual activities were illegal in almost half of the countries competing in the contest at the time, including inAustria,West Germany, theUK andSpain.[35] Therefore, the true meaning of the lyrics was required to be hidden behindsubtext anddouble meanings, an interpretation later affirmed by Pascal, himself a gay man, although he neverpublicly came out during his lifetime.[35][36][37] Given the song was released before the emergence of the moderngay liberation movement, it has since been interpreted as an earlyprotest song in favour ofrights for sexual minorities.[36][37] The song has since been used more visibly to highlightLGBTQ rights, including in a promotional video by theFrench government to highlight homophobia, biphobia and transphobia.[38]
Results of the Eurovision Song Contest 1961[9][39]
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.[40][41] Known spokespersons at the 1961 contest are listed below.
Jury voting was used to determine the scores awarded by all countries; each country assembled a ten-person jury, with each juror awarding one vote to their favourite song. The announcement of the results from each country was conducted in reverse order to that which each country performed, with the spokespersons announcing their country's votes in English or French in performance order.[22][26] The detailed breakdown of the votes 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 1961[45][46]
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.[40] 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.[47][48] Local press reported a total of 14 commentators reporting on the contest, with a total of 16 countries broadcasting the event.[8][17]
No official accounts of total international viewing figures are known to exist; an estimate given in the French press ahead of the contest suggested there would be 40 million viewers across Europe.[17] Known details on the broadcasts in each country, including the specific broadcasting stations and commentators are shown in the tables below.
^abcdefDany, Pierre (15 March 1961). "Le Palais des Festivals est fin prêt pour accueillir les concurrents du Grand Prix Eurovision de la Chanson".L'Espoir de Nice et du Sud-Est.Nice, France. p. 4.ISSN1166-9012.
^abGrand Prix Eurovision 1961 de la chanson européenne [Eurovision Song Contest Grand Prix 1961] (Television production) (in French).Cannes, France:Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française (RTF). 18 March 1961.
^abDany, Pierre (17 March 1961). "Grand Prix Eurovision de la chanson demain soir, à Cannes au Palais des Festivals".Nice-Matin.Nice, France. p. 6.ISSN0224-5477.
^Dany, Pierre (20 March 1961). "À la suite d'une lutte serrée avec le Royaume-Uni, le Luxembourg remporte le Grand Prix Eurovision de la chanson" [After a close fight with the United Kingdom, Luxembourg wins the Eurovision Song Contest].L'Espoir de Nice et du Sud-Est (in French).Nice, France. p. 6.ISSN1166-9012.
^abc"6ème concours Eurovision de la chanson 1961" [6th Eurovision Song Contest 1961].INA Mediapro (Television broadcast).Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française (RTF). 2023 [18 March 1961]. Retrieved14 April 2024 – viaInstitut national de l'audiovisuel (INA).Robert Beauvis: j'ai la charge d'assurer le commentaire pour le Grand Duché de Luxembourg, Monaco, la Suisse romande et parallèlement [...] Nic Bal, qui le fait en langue flamande pour la Belgique. [Robert Beauvis: I am responsible for ensuring the commentary for the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, Monaco, French-speaking Switzerland and in parallel with [...] Nic Bal, who does it in the Flemish language for Belgium.]
^Pajala 2013, "Walli was closely involved in YLE's ESC productions; among other things he [...] provided the commentary for all the 1960s ESCs on Finnish television".
^Anselmi 2020, "Nel 1961 è [Mantoni] commentatore Rai dell'Eurovision Song Contest." [In 1961 [Mantoni] was the commentator for Rai at the Eurovision Song Contest.].
Cannes, elles & eux : des hommes, des femmes, leur destin à Cannes [Cannes, them & them : men, women, their destiny in Cannes] (in French). Vol. 2.Cannes, France: Archives communales de Cannes. 2007.ISBN978-2-9162-6101-0.OCLC213499510.
Anselmi, Eddy (2020).Il festival di Sanremo: 70 anni di storie, canzoni, cantanti e serate [The Sanremo festival: 70 years of stories, songs, singers and evenings] (in Italian).Milan, Italy:Planeta DeAgostini.ISBN978-88-511-7854-3.
Murtomäki, Asko (2007).Finland 12 points! Suomen Euroviisut (in Finnish).Helsinki, Finland: Teos.ISBN951-851-106-3.
Pajala, Mari (2013). "Intervision Song Contests and Finnish Television between East and West". In Badenoch, Alexander; Fickers, Andreas; Henrich-Franke, Christian (eds.).Airy Curtains in the European Ether: Broadcasting and the Cold War.Baden-Baden, Germany:Nomos. pp. 215–270.doi:10.5771/9783845236070-215.ISBN9783845236070.
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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