Eurovision Song Contest 1972

The Eurovision Song Contest 1972 was the 17th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Edinburgh, United Kingdom and was organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), who agreed to stage the event after Monaco, who won in 1971, were unable to meet the demands of hosting the event and could not find a suitable venue. The contest was held at the Usher Hall on Saturday 25 March 1972 and was hosted by Scottish ballet dancer Moira Shearer.

Eurovision Song Contest 1972
Dates
Final25 March 1972
Host
VenueUsher Hall
Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Presenter(s)Moira Shearer
Musical directorMalcolm Lockyer
Directed byTerry Hughes
Executive supervisorClifford Brown
Executive producerBill Cotton
Host broadcasterBritish Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
Interval actMilitary Tattoo at Edinburgh Castle
Websiteeurovision.tv/event/edinburgh-1972
Participants
Number of entries18
Debuting countriesNone
Returning countriesNone
Non-returning countriesNone
Participation map
  •      Participating countries     Countries that participated in the past but not in 1972
Vote
Voting systemTwo-member juries (one aged 16 to 25 and the other 25 to 55) rated songs between one and five points.
Nul points in finalNone
Winning song Luxembourg
"Après toi"

Eighteen countries took part in the contest, the same countries as the previous year.

The winner was Luxembourg with the song "Après toi", performed by Vicky Leandros, with lyrics by Yves Dessca, and music composed by Mario Panas (which was the writing pseudonym of Vicky's father Leo Leandros). "Après toi" became the winner with the lowest percentage of the total vote, winning with just 8.30% of the points available. Yves Dessca also wrote "Un Banc, Un Arbre, Une Rue" that had won the previous edition, and became the second person to win the contest twice, the first person to win for two different countries and the first person to win two years in a row.[1] Germany finished in third place for the third consecutive year, equalling their highest placement from the previous two editions.

Location
Usher Hall, Edinburgh – host venue of the 1972 contest.

Following Séverine's win for Monaco at the 1971 contest in Dublin, Ireland with the song "Un banc, un arbre, une rue", the principality were unable to meet the demands of hosting the event. Rainier III of Monaco received a letter from the European Broadcasting Union about hosting the 1972 contest in the principality, but he was unable to provide a venue, the props and the remainder of the requirements. Therefore the BBC from the United Kingdom stepped in, and chose to stage the contest in Edinburgh, making it the first of four times that the BBC had chosen a venue outside London with the 1974, 1982 and 1998 contests held in Brighton, Harrogate and Birmingham respectively. It is also the only time that the contest has been held in Scotland.

The Usher Hall, the venue for the 1972 contest, is a concert hall, situated on Lothian Road, in the west end of the city. It has hosted concerts and events since its construction in 1914 and can hold approximately 2,900[2] people in its recently restored auditorium, which is well loved by performers due to its acoustics. The Hall is flanked by The Royal Lyceum Theatre on the right and The Traverse Theatre on the left. Historic Scotland has registered the Hall with Category A listed building status.

Format

The stage design included a screen to introduce and accompany the on stage competing performances, and to show an interval act and voting sequence that were done at Edinburgh Castle. Before each country's performance, a picture of each song's performers along with their names and the song's title were projected on the screen, and during each performance, animated spiral shapes were projected as additional visual effect. The interval act was performed at the outside vast Esplanade of the Great Hall of Edinburgh Castle. The jurors were stationed in the castle, and watched the competing performances at Usher Hall on TV.

Each country had two jury members, one aged between 16 and 25 and one aged between 26 and 55. They each awarded 1 to 5 points for each song, other than the song of their own country. They cast their votes immediately after each song was performed and the votes were then collected and counted. For the public voting sequence after the interval act, the jury members were shown on the stage's screen with each lifting a signboard with the number between 1 and 5 for each song, as a visual verification of the scores they had awarded earlier. The eventual winner, Luxembourg, remained in a strong scoring position throughout the voting.

Séverine made the trip to Edinburgh to pass on the winning trophy to Vicky Leandros. However, she looked thoroughly uninterested in the Monegasque entry when seen by viewers checking her watch before the song was performed.[1]

1972 was the first year that had no ties in the voting. Every year prior to 1972, at least two countries had received the same score.

Participating countries
Further information: List of countries in the Eurovision Song Contest

All countries that participated in the 1971 contest were present this year.

Conductors

Each performance had a musical director who conducted the orchestra.[3][4]

Returning artists
Artist Country Previous year(s)
Tereza Kesovija  Yugoslavia 1966 (for  Monaco)
Vicky Leandros  Luxembourg 1967
Carlos Mendes  Portugal 1968
Family Four  Sweden 1971

Results
Draw Country Artist Song Language[5][6] Place[7] Points
01  Germany Mary Roos "Nur die Liebe läßt uns leben" German 3 107
02  France Betty Mars "Comé-comédie" French 11 81
03  Ireland Sandie Jones "Ceol an Ghrá" Irish 15 72
04  Spain Jaime Morey "Amanece" Spanish 10 83
05  United Kingdom The New Seekers "Beg, Steal or Borrow" English 2 114
06  Norway Grethe Kausland and Benny Borg "Småting" Norwegian 14 73
07  Portugal Carlos Mendes "A festa da vida" Portuguese 7 90
08   Switzerland Véronique Müller "C'est la chanson de mon amour" French 8 88
09  Malta Helen and Joseph "L-imħabba" Maltese 18 48
10  Finland Päivi Paunu and Kim Floor "Muistathan" Finnish 12 78
11  Austria Milestones "Falter im Wind" German 5 100
12  Italy Nicola Di Bari "I giorni dell'arcobaleno" Italian 6 92
13  Yugoslavia Tereza Kesovija "Muzika i ti" (Музика и ти) Serbo-Croatian 9 87
14  Sweden Family Four "Härliga sommardag" Swedish 13 75
15  Monaco Anne-Marie Godart and Peter MacLane "Comme on s'aime" French 16 65
16  Belgium Serge and Christine Ghisoland "À la folie ou pas du tout" French 17 55
17  Luxembourg Vicky Leandros "Après toi" French 1 128
18  Netherlands Sandra and Andres "Als het om de liefde gaat" Dutch 4 106

Scoreboard
Voting results[8][9]
Total score
Germany
France
Ireland
Spain
United Kingdom
Norway
Portugal
Switzerland
Malta
Finland
Austria
Italy
Yugoslavia
Sweden
Monaco
Belgium
Luxembourg
Netherlands
Contestants
 Germany 10786956654557588776
France 8155297235423526786
Ireland 7243446436343355465
Spain 8375538634453278355
United Kingdom 114896210482777969488
Norway 7343654525732544464
Portugal 90347742652494747105
Switzerland 8845654724785546475
Malta 4832426222522233224
Finland 7843365643333445868
Austria 100666635575468105459
Italy 9245323679666486665
Yugoslavia 8774585452433249886
Sweden 7553533542454375755
Monaco 6543435622553343445
Belgium 5523425233542322463
Luxembourg 1289892108764689108789
Netherlands 10666889856396396527

10 points

Below is a summary of all perfect 10 scores that were given during the voting.

N. Contestant Nation(s) giving 10 points
2  Luxembourg  United Kingdom,  Yugoslavia
1  Austria  Sweden
 Portugal  Luxembourg
 United Kingdom  Norway

Jury members

Listed below is the order in which votes were cast during the 1972 contest along with the names of the two jury members who voted for their respective country. Each country announced their results in groups of three.

  1.  Germany – Unknown
  2.  France – Unknown
  3.  Ireland – Unknown
  4.  Spain – Emma Cohen and Luis María Ansón[10]
  5.  United Kingdom – Doreen Samuels and Robert Walker[4][11][12]
  6.  Norway – Rachel Nord and Signe Abusdal[13]
  7.  Portugal – Pedro Sousa Macedo and Maria João Aguiar[14]
  8.   Switzerland – Unknown
  9.  Malta – Mary Rose Mallia and Joe Zerafa[15]
  10.  Finland – Merita Merikoski and Åke Granholm[16]
  11.  Austria – Unknown
  12.  Italy – Unknown
  13.  Yugoslavia – Vera Zlokovic and Veljko Bakasun[17]
  14.  Sweden – Titti Sjöblom and Arne Domnérus[18]
  15.  Monaco – Unknown
  16.  Belgium – Unknown
  17.  Luxembourg – Unknown
  18.  Netherlands – Jennifer Baljet and Cornelis Wagter

Broadcasts

Each national broadcaster also sent a commentator to the contest, in order to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language. This contest marked the first to feature unique commentators for every Francophone country, as prior to this year the French commentary was simulcast in Monaco as well (and for several years in Belgium, Luxembourg, and Switzerland).

Broadcasters and commentators in participating countries
Country Broadcaster(s) Commentator(s) Ref(s)
 Austria FS1 Ernst Grissemann
Hitradio Ö3 Hubert Gaisbauer
 Belgium RTB French: Arlette Vincent
BRT Dutch: Herman Verelst
RTB La Première French: André Hagon
BRT Radio 1 Dutch: Nand Baert
 Finland YLE TV1 Heikki Seppälä
Yleisohjelma Matti Paalosmaa
 France Deuxième Chaîne ORTF Pierre Tchernia [19]
 Germany Deutsches Fernsehen Hanns Verres
Deutschlandfunk/Bayern 2 Wolf Mittler
 Ireland RTÉ Frank Hall
RTÉ Radio Kevin Roche
 Italy Programma Nazionale and
Secondo Programma Radio		 Renato Tagliani
 Luxembourg Télé-Luxembourg Jacques Navadic
RTL Camillo Felgen
 Malta MTV Norman Hamilton [20]
 Monaco Télé Monte Carlo, Radio Monte-Carlo José Sacré
 Netherlands Nederland 1 Pim Jacobs [21]
 Norway NRK Roald Øyen
NRK P1 Erik Heyerdahl
 Portugal I Programa Henrique Mendes
Emissora Nacional Programa 1 Amadeu Meireles
 Spain Primera Cadena Julio Rico
Primer Programa RNE Miguel de los Santos
 Sweden SR TV1 Bo Billtén [18]
SR P3 Björn Bjelfvenstam [18]
  Switzerland TV DRS German: Theodor Haller [22]
TSR French: Georges Hardy [23]
TSI Italian: Giovanni Bertini
2e Programme French: Robert Burnier [24]
 United Kingdom BBC1 Tom Fleming [4]
BBC Radio 2 Pete Murray [4]
BFBS Radio Terry James [4]
 Yugoslavia TVB 1 Serbo-Croatian: Milovan Ilić
TVZ 1 Serbo-Croatian: Oliver Mlakar
TVL 1 Slovene: Tomaž Terček
Broadcasters and commentators in non-participating countries
Country Broadcaster(s) Commentator(s) Ref(s)
 Brazil Rede Tupi Unknown
 Greece EIRT Mako Georgiadou
 Hong Kong TBC Unknown [25]
 Iceland Sjónvarpið Björn Matthíasson
 Israel Israeli Television No commentator
 Japan TBC Unknown [25]
 Philippines ABS-CBN No commentator [25]
 Taiwan TBC Unknown [25]
 Thailand TBC Unknown [25]

References
  1. O'Connor, John Kennedy. The Eurovision Song Contest – The Official History. Carlton Books, UK. 2007 ISBN 978-1-84442-994-3
  2. "Geograph:: The Usher Hall, Edinburgh (C) Kevin Rae". geograph.org.uk.
  3. "And the conductor is..." Retrieved 26 July 2020.
  4. Roxburgh, Gordon (2014). Songs for Europe: The United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest. Volume Two: The 1970s. Prestatyn: Telos Publishing. pp. 76–98. ISBN 978-1-84583-093-9.
  5. "Eurovision Song Contest 1972". The Diggiloo Thrush. Retrieved 4 March 2012.
  6. "Eurovision Song Contest 1972". 4Lyrics.eu. Retrieved 16 September 2020.
  7. "Final of Edinburgh 1972". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 9 April 2021. Retrieved 9 April 2021.
  8. "Results of the Final of Edinburgh 1972". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 9 April 2021. Retrieved 9 April 2021.
  9. "Eurovision Song Contest 1972 – Scoreboard". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 23 June 2021.
  10. Eurojaume dice (15 February 2008). "Eurovisión 1972 – Programa posterior al festival | AEV ESPAÑA". Aeveurovision.com. Archived from the original on 16 March 2012. Retrieved 10 August 2012.
  11. "Dubliner Jury bestochen?", Hamburger Abendblatt, 6 April 1971
  12. "Eurovision 1972". Songs4europe.com. 25 March 1972. Archived from the original on 22 March 2012. Retrieved 10 August 2012.
  13. http://www.nrk.no/debatt/index.phpshowtopic=87458&pid=1343226&mode=threaded&start=. Retrieved 21 May 2011. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  14. Vasco Hogan Teves, 1964–1983 20 anos de Festival RTP da Canção
  15. "Views and comments on the Eurovision Song Contest", Times of Malta, 29 March 1972
  16. "Muistathan: Eurovision laulukilpailu 1972". Viisukuppila.fi. 9 January 2012. Retrieved 10 August 2012.
  17. Vladimir Pinzovski
  18. Thorsson, Leif (2006). Melodifestivalen genom tiderna [Melodifestivalen through time]. Stockholm: Premium Publishing AB. p. 94. ISBN 91-89136-29-2.
  19. Christian Masson. "1972 – Édimbourg". Songcontest.free.fr. Retrieved 10 August 2012.
  20. "Eurovision Song Contest 1972", Times of Malta, 25 March 1972
  21. "Nederlandse televisiecommentatoren bij het Eurovisie Songfestival" (in Dutch). Eurovision Artists. Retrieved 1 June 2010.
  22. "Au Grand Prix Eurovision de la Chanson". Radio TV - Je vois tout. Lausanne, Switzerland: Le Radio SA. 23 March 1972.
  23. "Au Grand Prix Eurovision de la Chanson". Radio TV - Je vois tout. Lausanne, Switzerland: Le Radio SA. 23 March 1972.
  24. "Au Grand Prix Eurovision de la Chanson". Radio TV - Je vois tout. Lausanne, Switzerland: Le Radio SA. 23 March 1972.
  25. "Eurovision Song Contest: Edinburgh 1972". eurovision.tv. Retrieved 13 August 2020.
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