Eurovision 1965: Gall against them all | Super-cut with animated scoreboard

An edited down version of the Eurovision Song Contest 1965 from Naples, with a scoreboard using today’s technology. This all started as a lockdown project!
This edit will give a flavour of the evening (Saturday 20th March) with the BBC commentary from David Jacobs.
For the second year in a row, Eurovision was heading somewhere new. As this was posted we are eagerly awaiting the location for the 2022 Italian organised contest, and just like now, Rome wasn’t the obvious choice. Like the BBC in 1963, RAI had a new building to show off in Naples - it had a capacity of 1,000 reclining seats in fetching blue velvet, a 400m2 stage plus the largest secular organ in Europe! All this made a spectacular setting for Eurovision’s biggest outing so far - both by number of competitors, and broadcasting countries.
What viewers behind and in front of the Iron Curtain witnessed was a 17-year-old France Gall successfully take on the more established musical styles of Eurovision and achieve Luxembourg’s second win. Of course, France Gall, the conductor Alain Goraguer, and the writer of the song, Serge Gainsbourg, were Parisian, so this didn’t represent new territory for Eurovision but it’s rocky, up-tempo sound (which the RAI orchestra really made special), together with teenage delivery of some catchy lyrics felt like a breath of fresh air in a Contest which was heavily laden with ballads. Gainsbourg’s lyrics were known for being challenging for the time (see Je t’aime) and full of double-entendre. Poupée de Cire talks of young singers who are being asked to sing about love but aren’t old enough to know what they are singing about. A follow up song about lollipops which Gall again was not aware of being laden with innuendo would lead her to sever her connection with Gainsbourg, and strip her Eurovision success from her performances and public utterances.
Luxembourg’s position in the performance order undoubtedly helped it over the line. I felt that the first six songs represented a great Contest, so Gall’s performance at 15 was ideally seated amongst the more cerebral Danish entry (which had quite a modern feminist message) and slightly haunting Finnish song. In the voting Luxembourg looked to be pulling a repeat of Italy the year before, but although they seldom vacated the top spot, the race did tighten up considerably. The UK entry, Kathy Kirby, was the first woman the BBC had put on the Eurovision stage since Pearl Carr in 1959. Kirby was named in a magazine poll as a top British female singer, ahead of Cilla Black, Dusty Springfield and Petula Clark, and to be fair she restored Britain’s record of being runner-up. Her entry is far from my favourite, both in terms of delivery and lyrics but Kirby’s selection showed the BBC’s intent for success in the show. The ever-impressive Udo Jürgens might have something to say about that first, though.
This year also had some other important happenings. Ireland joined the party for the first time, with a rather dated sounding entry but it saved itself from Portugal’s 1964 fate quite late on in the voting for a respectable finish. I can’t see us ever going to Dublin, can you? 😊 Sweden returned and caused a bit of stir by singing a slightly odd operatic number in English - well explained by the commentator and I wonder whether the large Francophone group in the Contest saw a potential threat to its dominance - the EBU would alter the rules for 1966.
*DESIGN AND THE BOARD*
1965 was always going to be a bit on an evolution rather than revolution as I know the 1964 board design was shipped over the Alps and reconstructed in Napoli. To reflect the look of the auditorium, I’ve incorporated some more classical typography elements to my interpretation of the 1965 board and song straps. I’ve also removed the very heavy version of the BlueScreens font that debuted in 1964 with a mixture of lighter weights. For a backing, I had to go with pipes, but with 18 countries and the progress bars beneath each - there was quite a lot to fit in so it takes a back seat compared to other years. This is far from my favourite board, but I still wanted it to reflect what we saw in 1965 and I’ve left plenty of the original in the edit.
*TRANSFER NEWS* (source: Wiki)
OUT: None.
BACK: Sweden.
IN: Ireland. Television services started at the very end of 1961, but RTÉ has been in the EBU since 1950. More below.
16 + SWE + IRE = 18.
*INTERVAL ACT*
Two Neopolitan songs by Mario Del Monaco.
*CREDITS*
Decent quality French comms by :@Biggie Ballz ‘s upload.
English commentary from @Lucas ESC Archive
Flags: countryflags.com
00:00 Intro
04:17 Song super-cut
29:41 Interval
31:09 Voting intro
32:32 The reorder board 65
45:48 Recap, data & reprise

[@thereorderboard]

A few other things I couldn’t fit in the description: - A big thank you again to those who’ve supported the channel on ko-fi/thereorderboard! Your support is very much appreciated as I continue on this journey to 1979! You can also follow me on Twitter now too @thereorderboard…I had a personal account for 11 years which I ditched during the pandemic, now back! I don’t think this is one of my greatest boards, in fact I think I caused a few problems. The progress bars are a little more redundant with the circular arrangement of the countries, but hey it was a good experiment. - The second mistake I made was about the footage I think. The UK commentary upload looked worse, and the video with French commentary was better…but I realised it had been squeezed down in size. Once I blew it up, the two are on par with their poor quality. However, it’s better than nothing at all, like 1964!! - There are the obvious quirks to the board again this year with the 135699 system which means that countries (France and UK) could have still won had Switzerland awarded a full 9 points to either - as soon as they opted for a 1-3-5 split, it confirmed Luxembourg as the winner - so it was Monaco’s 1 point that tipped them over, rather than the 3 that they got that round. - Slight design change on the real board this year with the switch to Italian and then the addition of country codes, which I think is the first time we’ve seen that. Once again the UK is listed as Great Britain, and the Netherlands and ‘Holland’. - Sometimes there’s a small detail that you might get wrong and I did wonder about the name of where this show was hosted from. Most sources list it as the ‘Sala di Concerto della RAI’…basically the RAI Concert Hall, however Italian Wikipedia lists it as the Auditorium RAI - it’s now called the L’Auditorium Domenico Scarlatti but that’s obviously post 1965. Although the Auditorium had a stellar career in the 60s and 70s, by the 90s it was transformed into a television studio, which included walling up the massive organ (stop sniggering). Luckily from 2005 it was renovated, the seating reduced to 600 and the organ partially restored - it still hosts a number of programmes with a focus on music. Other small details were the juries were coming from - the English commentary often has Jacobs talking over them, but the French allowed some of the locations to be discovered. The Italian jury definitely says ‘ici Naples’. For some reason Italian seems to alter the spelling of many cities, compared to other languages (including a tricksy spelling of Copenhagen that looks like a typo)…Helsinki seems the most immune to that, Vienna is often the most changed as we saw in those lovely 2014 graphics (weirdly though the Italian spelling of Vienna and Austria is the same as English). - The other tricksy part is Gainsbourg’s lyrics in the winning ‘Poupée de cire, poupée de son’ - there’s a handy Wikipedia article about it, particularly the translation of ‘poupée de son’ which literally means a doll made of straw, or bran. It’s often translated as ‘sawdust’ too. Cire is quite easy, it means wax…here’s the key part of the article: “The double meanings of the two terms cire and son come in because of the subject matter of the lyrics, which contain many references to singing and recording. "Cire" (wax) brings to mind the old shellac records, commonly known in France as "wax disks". "Son" has a second meaning--"sound". - (wiki continued:) These double meanings are amplified in Gainsbourg's lyrics. For instance, the first verse refers to the fact that the singer's heart is engraved in her songs, much in the way the sound vibrations are engraved in a wax recording. A later reference is made to the singer being broken into a thousand pieces of voice, as though she herself is made of sound. - (wiki continued:) English versions of the lyrics often translate the title as "Wax Doll, Singing Doll". The lonely singing doll" (the version sung by Twinkle), or something similar-translations that are not literally correct, but which capture some of the double meaning implicit in the original version. - At 24 characters, without spaces, ‘Poupée de cire, poupée de son’ remains the longest title of a winning song, with ‘Un banc, un arbre, une rue’ coming in at 21. There’s a crowded field below that of ‘Save Your Kisses For Me’, ‘Ne partez pas sans moi’ and ‘Fly on the Wings of Love’. The shortest is much easier, 2018’s ‘Toy’ stole the record from 2016’s ‘1944’. - Broadcasting in Ireland had started in 1926, the existing Radio Éireann was made responsible for the new television service which kicked off in 1961 and that name remained until 1966 - so had Ireland won before 1970, it would have been Radio Éireann that would have hosted…obviously that name became Radio Telefís Éireann. A young Terry Wogan was working there at this time, presenting Jackpot - Ireland’s biggest quiz show and DJing for the light entertainment division. - I mentioned Cilla Black in the main description, and the BBC would have their sights on Cilla for 1968. She was mates with the Beatles, who encouraged her career which launched in 1963. By 1968 she was hosting a regular BBC show, but she wasn’t sure that the European juries would go for the UK twice in a row…something she must not have shared with her other friend Cliff Richard, whom she had on her show to select his entry for the 68 Contest. Cilla’s career was reimagined in the 1990s and she became the highest paid female presenters in the UK during that time, just ahead of Ulrika Jonsson (1998 host). - Kathy Kirby’s career was at its height in 1965 and ‘I Belong’ was one of her biggest hits and lead to her recording a dozen singles between 1965 and 1967, but all of the failed to chart. Like Cilla she had her own BBC tv show which ran until 1966, so I many ways she walked so Cilla Black could run! In the 1970s, Kirby’s singing career was eclipsed by a turbulent personal life, not helped by the death of her partner in 1971 and bankruptcy proceedings in 1975. She retired in 1983 and unfortunately was diagnosed with schizophrenia- she often suffered poor mental and physical health. She died in 2011. - This the last appearance by Eric Robinson the BBC conductor and De Godzinsky (1961-65) for Finland - he handed over over to Osse Runne who would conduct for the following 20 years. - Some other nuggets from andtheconductoris.eu: - Gaston Nuyts (Belgium): Together with the entries of West Germany, Spain, and Finland, Belgium ended up with no points at all in this 1965 contest, which was won by Luxembourg’s France Gall and her ‘Poupée de cire, poupée de son’. Gaston Nuyts tries to analyse what went wrong with the Belgian entry: “Lize Marke was a beautiful woman graced with a good voice. No, the song itself was the real problem. Of course, it was melodious and gracious, but even at that time, it sounded quite old-fashioned. Although I thought we would have deserved a couple of points, realistically, we had come up with something belonging to a genre of entertainment music that was no longer in demand. - Alain Goraguer (French conductor for 5 entries, for 3 countries between 1965-1994, but for Luxembourg in 1965): On the 1965 Eurovision success: “Writing the arrangement to this thing did not take me long… as so often, I sat behind the piano and the idea came to me within a couple of minutes. The string intro I wrote was based on a classical theme, which was quite innovative - not that I was consciously writing modern arrangements… it is just a part of my character to explore new ways. With hindsight, the way in which I treated the strings, but actually the entire arrangement of ‘Poupée de cire’, was somewhat revolutionary. The loud percussion gave the song a lot of dynamism. It was a totally different approach than the usual Eurovision orchestrations as Franck Pourcel and others used to write them in those days. As for France Gall, I already knew her longer than Gainsbourg, as she was the daughter of an important songwriter, Robert Gall. I was her arranger from the moment she made her debut in the recording business in ’63. She was a girl with a good heart and she sang well; working with her was a pleasure. At the time of the Eurovision Song Contest, she was only seventeen years old. When we won the festival in Naples, Serge Gainsbourg was beside himself with joy. After he had had to struggle for years for some recognition in France, it was a triumph for him to have such a major success in mainstream music on an international level. For my career, the 1965 contest was an important moment as well; it meant Europe-wide recognition for your work. After the show, we had a ball!”

[@DitzyNizzy2009]

“Vienna is often the most changed as we saw in those lovely 2014 graphics” That would have been a neat trick: it was in Copenhagen in 2014 (Vienna was the following year).

[@thereorderboard]

@@DitzyNizzy2009 Of course - I have this horrible condition where I conflate years won and years hosted. Gets me in a pickle.

[@dramaticScar]

@@thereorderboard Hello Would you mind If I used some of your footage in a video of mine? It's a lot more appealing and since I don't plan on using the audio it will squeak by the sensors. I'll credit you!!!

[@thereorderboard]

@@dramaticScar Sure, no problem

[@dramaticScar]

@@thereorderboard You are officially the best youtuber in the history of every thing

[@mrjdsworld80]

I really liked Renata as presenter, she’s competent and charming, and speaks English, French and Italian all evening, something we didn’t get in 1991. She’s also the first person to use a handheld microphone at Eurovision! People have commented before that Renata was very cold towards France Gall. True, but I’d take clinical competence over emotional incompetence any day.

[@thereorderboard]

I agree - I didn't mention it but she's a great presenter. I did notice the microphone and the earpiece reaction, but failed to mention it was new! Of course it was! I also enjoy her cool trouser dress thing - sorry male talking about female fashion...overall, I think you could pluck Renata and put her in 2021 and I think you'd be pleased. Not the case for someone like Jacqueline Joubert.

[@mrjdsworld80]

@@thereorderboard yes! She’s very good. Sad she’s no longer with us. I think she has pipped Ase then to the title of “first woman to wear trousers at Eurovision”

[@riva1958]

@@thereorderboard Renata was also a terrific singer. On KZbin you can find some selections from her now sadly deleted English language Ballads album. Her version of It Never Entered My Head is glorious.

[@mrjdsworld80]

Thank goodness RAI just reused the 1964 scoreboard - it’s the only way we have some idea how the 1964 board worked in practice!

[@paulojrneto]

- Spain didn't deserve zero points at all. - The year that Netherlands' Conny Van Den Bos took part. By 1998, that would be "a long time ago".

[@riva1958]

1965 is one of my favourite ever contests with Renata Mauro being one of my favourite presenters. I was never a lover of the winning song for years but now see how the frantic energy of it all galvanised many of the juries. Sadly it was followed by one of the most tedious winners ever. Some Euro Geek Information: France Gall's boyfriend at the time was the great Claude Francois. She telephoned him in Paris after she performed and he shouted abuse down the 'phone at her about how dreadful she had been. You can see a dramatisation of this in the Claude Francois bio-pic Cloclo. France's dress by the way is pink. There are two colour photographs of her taken after the show. My favourite songs that year are from Switzerland, Yugoslavia, UK and Italy. Bobby Solo didn't perform in rehearsals as he claimed a sore throat. Actually he was severely hungover after celebrating his 20th Birthday the night before. Bobby was loved for his bad boy image at the time. Kathy Kirby's milli-second walk to the microphone just as the music started was rehearsed and rehearsed to make sure it was literally on the second [Kathy talks about this in an interview]. There are some good photos about of Kathy site-seeing in Naples before the contest. In the voting rehearsal Luxembourg came last with zero points, the only time we know of that the winner came last in the voting rehearsal. There is a very good video on KZbin of the opening of the building housing the Rai Concert Hall in 1963. Search for: la Fabbrica televise, 1963 inauguration side Rai Napoli. Belter the record company spent a lot of money promoting the Spanish entry in the USA and in South America as they were convinced that it was going to win. Yovanna representing Switzerland is actually Greek. In the Norwegian NF, Karusell was due to be sung by Wenche Myhre in the version that eventually went to Eurovision [songs were sung twice in the Norwegian NF by different singers] however she claimed illness [it is said she had a diva moment and refused to sing the song she thought was rubbish] so Kirsti sang it twice. The Belgian song should have been disqualified as it had already been performed on television by other artists before being in the NF which was against the rules at the time. The home town Italian song was very nearly disqualified as it had been published in February and almost a quarter of a million copies of the record been distributed before the contest. The EBU asked all the other countries for their opinion on how it should deal with the situation. Although some countries objected to the breaking of the rules it was agreed that Italy shouldn't be disqualified in a contest they were hosting. So had the song not been from Italy, it would probably have been the first Eurovision song to be 'disqualified'. There was some discussion as to what would happen if Italy won as it could be said that some jury members in neighbouring countries may have got copies of the record before the contest. There is a rumour that the Swiss jury were told by their TV station not to vote for Italy. In the televised Finnish NF, Viktor Klimenko actually came second with his song, yet after the NF it was announced that an expert jury would also look at the songs and make the final decision and they decided he should go to Naples over the televised winner. Many commentators didn't explain the 9 vote rule as the Italian producer cut the time so most people thought the Belgian vote was a mistake for many years. France Gall is one of 10 winners we have lost, and Renata Mauro one of 13 presenters. Also gone from 1965 are: Udo Jurgens, Conny Van Den Bos, Kathy Kirby, Butch Moore, Marjorie Noel, Ingar Vixell, Birgit Bruel and Vice Vukov who died falling down the steps of the Croatian Parliament where he'd become an MP. Cilla Black had more discussions about doing Eurovision for the UK in the early 1970's, it is thought 1972 but withdrew early on as she believed herself to be pregnant. I used to watch the Kathy Kirby show with my gran every week. It started with Kathy rushing along a corridor as she was late for the show starting. All episodes are now thought lost although a couple of short snippets survive. Kathy was know as 'Miss Lipstick'. Kathy's manager, and much older married lover, Bert Ambrose squandered all her money that she thought he was investing for her. Strangely the BBC decided to retain a copy of the 1965 contest despite not retaining a master copy of any of the contests it hosted in the 1960's or any of the other 1960s contests. The copies of 1960s contests held by the BBC are later acquisitions and not masters. The first British Song Festival was organised in 1965 by the MPA as a UK version of San Remo with the idea it would eventually become the way the UK entry was chosen. However it was a disaster as the wrong winner [Lulu - Love A Little Love] was announced and this wasn't discovered until after the show finished, the audience booed much of the voting and the whole thing made a financial loss. despite being planned for 1966 as a joint venture between ITV and the BBC it was never repeated.

[@thereorderboard]

Also super interesting! So much detail, I was aware of the Italian song issue but each contest throws up so many stories there's only so much you can put in. Thanks for adding to the knowledge!

[@71gmf]

Thanks for that wonderful information. Regarding Gall's performance, she went to the stage completely out of focus. The first two notes were out of tune, and then she seemed uninterested by the rest. No wonder, Claude François was quite disappointed by it. He did what he had to do and surely she listened instead of sobbing because the reprise was much better.

[@martinbertilsson1654]

For all the effort you have done to these videos last year... I have to congratulate on making it to a "Eurovision Again" last night when they showed the 1992 edition

[@Starfilter1]

Thanks as always @therorderboard - another labour of love. We don't deserve you! RAI's stage is strange. It looks more like a radio show (something like Friday Night is Music Night) with the orchestra taking up all the space and the singers shunted off to one side. The Italian camera work and direction, however, is perhaps the very best yet at Eurovision. Behind the scenes photos suggest four cameras were used. Only two were on the singers, but both of these had integral zoom lenses and one was on a crane which allows for much more movement than we've seen before. The ballads are all shot very well (Austria is particularly good - shooting a singer at a grand piano is always difficult to do in an interesting way), but the livelier songs are given more basic treatment. Renata Mauro is great and I love how (just like Marlene Charell in 1983) she shouts her English in an endearing way! The songs are still quite old fashioned this year - Sweden's is particularly poor. I'm very happy with the Luxembourg/UK 1/2 and I'd give an honourable mention to Austria and Ireland as well. FINE (as they say in Naples!)

[@thereorderboard]

Yea I agree - much more technical camera work. I didn't notice the extreme close-ups so much, although I wondered if the Eurovision backing was to preserve some simplicity for those watching on older sets. Maybe not, perhaps it was just a branding exercise. Seems a shame to shove the singers, like you say, to one side when you've got that great hall. Ooo yea and I was going to mention the ITA/FRE/ENG routine was very 1983. I always think German and Italian are the languages most harshly treated when it comes to European things...most people on the continent speak German (as amother tongue, I'm sure it's English now if you include second languages), and Italian has a fair number of speakers too. Seems right that both 65 and 83 put their language front an centre. Thanks for commenting! FINE.

[@luukjoling1]

Such a catchy winner, and a beautiful board! Well done!

[@prodigy1979]

Oh, Udo, what a beautiful song you had in 1965 already

[@paulojrneto]

This year UK's entry, coming up in second place, remains the best result ever of a song that was second to perform.

[@DadgeCity]

Such a good presenter

[@meskbren]

What a nice suprise on my birthday!!! Another excellent production by you with a rather slick scoreboard. I must say that, with the exception of the amazing winner, this is a weak year musically. Oh, and your comment "I don't think we'll ever go to Dublin', while meant in jest here, is actually true if uttered today. My points for 65: Luxembourg - 9 points It really blew everyone else out of the water. Maybe Norway, Portugal and Germany were appealling to me but I this is a year I usually bypass when I am doing one of my fantasy Eurovision scoreboards. Looking forward to 1966, where there are several songs that I like!

[@andreaskrapp12]

always a highlight of the day when a new year comes up

[@pointlessnostalgic78]

I think you did a brillanti job with the board this time again. Rai decided to focus the show on the huge organ and so it was right to recall the pipes in the background. Besides, the moving pipes reminds of the peculiar actual scoreboard, with the moving lines. Besides, putting the names of the countries in two large brackets, recalls the two "arms" of the organ, again the due reference to the stage. It's such a brilliant job! As for the contest itself, I just wanna take a second to say what a great host Renata was: absolutely professional, perfect command of English and French (that's so impressive considering it was 1965), wonderful Italian too, kind, smiley, but keeping the rhythm of the show high. As someone said, her hosting would be still fresh even in 2022. She's truly missed and I'm sorry she's been mostly forgotten in Italy.

[@thereorderboard]

Thank you for taking the time to comment! I'm glad you enjoyed it - you actually came up with a better design justification than I did *takes notes*

[@clarinetmoonesc]

I never realised there was surviving audio of BBC commentary for this- you can tell David Jacobs is bored of the UK coming 2nd so much. It's interesting how Ireland makes a late burst, and the battle between France/UK for second is quite entertaining- it's a shame that the voting wasn't in reverse as it seems like it would've been a lot more exciting.

[@thereorderboard]

Yes - that's some extra content there I think! I'll consider a reversed order edition!

[@hariton2038]

28:01 - Yovanna is the third Greek artist to take part in Eurovision. The first one was Jimmy Makulis (🇦🇹 1961), followed by Nana Mouschouri (🇱🇺 1963).

[@sebastiandumagat6948]

And then Luxembourg 1967

[@mrjdsworld80]

The 1965 contest seems to be one of the more parodied editions, and it’s clear why - the extreme close- ups, the dramatic ballads, and the over-acting of seemingly all the contestants!

[@ranapxious]

I mean, the Norwegians even made a parody of the contest!

[@peterkirby7270]

Great to watch.

[@nadirhajjour]

Its funny how newspapers were writing about Kirsti Sparboe false singing after the interlude, Mario del Monaco playbacking and Spain being a pre favorite lol

[@MSalt69]

France Gall is so charming and she sings better in the reprise.

[@JamieJooESC]

Great board as always. I understand if you feel it's not the best board you have created, but it still looks like it matches the feel and theme that of the year in question, something you have always done in every contest (though I feel many debate about the same for 1999 lol). I did wonder if you were going to mention about Twinkles version of the winning song in the comments. I was going to mention it, but I suspect you might know that Twinkles English version was released a year prior to the French version. Something I feel the EBU will take a dim view of in today's rules. Looking forward to 66 (I hope you haven't forgotten my little proposal lol)

[@karlomorosin7880]

Thanks for your effort and for the re-editing all these eurovision shows. This is amazing what're doing. Have you noticed how scandinavian countries srpead the points between them? Sweden gave 5 pts to Denmark; Denmark and Finland gave 3 points to Sweden!

[@karlomorosin7880]

@@dawidjan1993 It is only because they're neighbours, it was political and tactical voting, as always from early 60's till today.

[@riva1958]

Just wait until 1966 and you'll see some even more extreme friendly neighbour voting.

[@karlomorosin7880]

@@riva1958 1966. the year when Danmark, Norway and Finland aworded 5 points to Sweden? As I recall that year Danmark and Norway also give 3 points to Finland, Finland 3 to Denmark and Sweden 3 to Norway.

[@riva1958]

@@karlomorosin7880 Indeed, and apart from those 3 x 5, Sweden only picked up 1 more point. Then Norway gave its 1 point Denmark giving all its points to its neighbours. This was the year they introduced professionals to the juries to try and get a more balanced vote so that obviously didn't work. No wonder the audience spent much of the voting laughing. Even some of the jury spokespersons joined in with the hilarity it was so ridiculous. Ireland gave the UK its 5 and Portugal and Spain swapped top marks. It made the whole thing a farce and there were many complaints from both the watching public and indeed some of the delegations. Hence the ditching of the system the following year. There is some thought that much of the voting was in protest to the EBU refusing to let countries sing in English as the Scandinavians thought this put them at a disadvantage, which it did in many ways.

[@karlomorosin7880]

@@riva1958 As a journalist I spoke with many jury members in each country and they told me there's no real voting, everythig is decided several days before Contest during the EBU members meeting. This words told me several jury members from each single country which took part in the Eurovision, except jury members from nordic countries. One of jury member from Spain told me 1998. look what will happen next year, Sweden will win no matter what, after that at least 25 years a chief of Eurovision will be from nordic country. Those words came true: nordic countries helped Sweden to win Eurovision 1999. setting up to Croatia (trying to disqualify Croatia from the contest) which was the biggest favorite that year, and from the 2000. till today men from nordic country rules Eurovision: 1. Svante Stockelius (first as deputy of Sarah Yuen then leading scruteneer), after him Jon Ola Sand, and now Martin Österdahl. In couloirs occupation of Eurovision by nordic countries journalists call Eurovision scandinavian mafia who ruin Eurovision.

[@mrjdsworld80]

Since international vehicle registration codes only ever appeared on scoreboards not in English or French, I’ve always assumed they were a requirement on any scoreboard not in an EBU working language. I’m surprised RAI didn’t try to get away with an Italian scoreboard in 1991.

[@JeSuisRene]

As am I. One question I do have is, what moved the black bar that indicated score?

[@mrjdsworld80]

@@JeSuisRene someone on a ladder I assume!

[@Starfilter1]

You could well be right about the registration codes. They seem to be replaced by flags on the scoreboard after colour television became standard for most viewers in the late seventies.

[@danielvanr.8681]

I'm glad that this voting system was so shortlived. With only two juries left, four countries were still at nil points. But with each jury only having nine points to dole out -- and in units of one, three and five -- I'd say it was inevitable that so many countries get completely shifted.... 😮

[@thereorderboard]

- In history, 1965 would be another year dominated by US news, with both crucial dates in the Civil Rights movement and the now regular increase in activity in Vietnam. A few months after the contest the draft was extend, troop levels rose to 125,000 and the brutal bombing of North Vietnam began. Politically, LBJ would start his first full term and Medicare and Medicaid would become a thing. In the UK the state funeral Sir Winston Churchill in January drew the largest collection of dignitaries to London, topped only by the funeral of John Paul II in 2005. Later in the year the country would be transfixed by the revelations of a series of murders of children and young adults in Northern England - the Moors Murders still remain in the public consciousness today. Elsewhere, both De Gaulle was re-elected in December, and Erhard in Germany in October. In Romania, Nicolae Ceaușescu would take power for the first time, a few days after Eurovision. In August, in a reminder that WW2 is still very much hanging over the continent, 66 ex-SS personnel were imprisoned for life in the Frankfurt Auschwitz trials. In other news, cigarette advertising would be banned on UK TV from August, (I can’t get no) Satisfaction by the Rolling Stones is released and it went on to be their first number 1 in America, whilst the other UK super band, The Beatles, performed the first stadium concert in the history of music, playing before 55,600 persons at Shea Stadium in New York City. The organisers of Copenhagen 2001 were taking notes, surely.

[@esczaman1299]

The thumbnail title sounds fun as well as the scoreboard reminiscent of the 2004 contest in Istanbul, Turkey!

[@nadirhajjour]

My 5 points go to Luxembourg, my 3 points to the Netherlands and my 1 point to the United Kingdom!!

[@riva1958]

Straight after the 1965 contest [the following Monday] the EBU canvassed all the participating countries as to what shape the contest should take in the future. Various proposals were put forward and discussed initially at a planning meeting in Berlin in April 1965. Germany proposed: 18 countries were too many and only half should take part one year and the other half the following year. There should be a professional jury in the hall to give extra marks Entry and release dates should be very fixed with automatic disqualification for any songs released or performed too early. Belgium proposed: Regional semi finals Countries shouldn't be allowed to vote for songs singing in the same language as them Luxembourg proposed: 50% of the marks should come from a professional jury The songs should be presented not live but as film montages based in each countries [similar to what many of the early preview films would become] Should the show be live it should come from 3 different countries. For 1966 they proposed that only the opening, interval and voting should be in Luxembourg with the songs coming from two other locations. [Remember the original idea of the contest was to showcase technical advancement in TV, so this suggestion of the contest coming live from various locations isn't as odd as it may sound for the time] Yugoslavia proposed: 50% of marks from an expert jury also 'Regions' shouldn't be allowed to vote for each other Netherlands proposed: Only 'new' 'bright' 'young' performers should be allowed to enter and it should be a showcase for new voices [X factor !] Countries must be made to sing in national language after Sweden singing in English The 1/3/5 voting should be abandoned as it left too many countries behind with no chance of catching up There should be two semis with regional countries in different heats with all the countries in the full contest voting on both semis The song writers and artists and conductors etc should be featured more and there should be a prize for best performance, writing etc Austria proposed: Votes should be sent in during the interval to stop countries changing them during the voting sequence [This would indicate that there was some knowledge or worry that this practice was actually taking place] France proposed: Two Semis split in to North/South Europe with only 5 songs from each Semi going on to the final Italy proposed: Having the contest over 3 nights like Sanremo Ireland Proposed: 50% expert juries Tougher deadline rules and immediate disqualification if broken [It is thought Ireland was the only country who wanted Italy disqualified in 1965 for breaking the early release rules] Portugal proposed: Tightening the rules about what constituted a 'new' song UK proposed 50% of jury members to be professionals [as opposed to 2 juries one professional one not as proposed by other countries] EBU appoint an Executive Producer who would oversee the whole contest Songs must be written and performed by nationals of the country Clearer scoreboards Better rehearsed prize presentation Songs should be 'pop' songs that reflected what was happening in the charts Jury selection should be standard across the countries [jury selection was very ad hoc across the countries with at times people literally pulled in off the street] In the end, and after much discussion and argument, the only proposals agreed on were; national language must be used, juries would be 50% professional music experts, and the contest would take place as near to 5 weeks after the Sanremo festival with a strict cut off date for qualifying performances.

[@thereorderboard]

Super interesting! Thanks for posting! Is this detailed anywhere? I wonder if the Danish scoreboard was dropped because of this meeting?

[@riva1958]

@@thereorderboard This information is held by the BBC archive in minutes of meetings and internal memos etc, and also in the archives of some of the other countries. The EBU didn't start keeping a contest specific archive until 2003 but some of the information is in their general administration archive. Following the Berlin meeting, an EBU Planning Group met in London in June to finalise recommendation for a meeting in Estoril, Portugal in September. A woking paper was drawn up. The BBC, who did a lot of audience research in the 1960's, strongly recommended the 'Danish' scoreboard be dropped as audience members couldn't read it clearly and had to rely on the commentator to tell them what the scores were. The Planning Group were highly impressed by the work put in to the BBC's full submission and asked the countries who had suggested Semi Finals etc to reconsider this. RAI, ORTF and ARD said they would accept staying with one show. Miroslav Vilcek would discuss further with NTS and ORF. BRT withdrew their proposals rather than back down. Luxembourg's proposals of using either film montages or various locations got a lot of discussion. The Planning Group were initially interested in the various location idea and the BBC even agreed there was something to be said for splitting the contest across locations. However the BBC later raised a lot of issues for consideration. Some were: What would happen if there was a technical failure in one of the locations? The paper uses the examples of London, Rome, Luxembourg City. What would happen if one audience was noisier or applauded louder than the other? Two orchestras would be required and would need to sound the same and have the same musical director, an impossibility. Although design could be made standard, what guarantees could be given on lighting or the professionalism of camera work etc. The running order would have to be decided well in advance to ensure that songs were sung from alternate centres [The idea of the running order being decided in advance was seen almost as bizarre in the early 1960's. In some contests it was only decided on the day]. Where would you base the commentators? You'd need two awards as you wouldn't know where the winner would be. And, most importantly perhaps, there couldn't be a general big party for everyone after the show. So the idea of Semis or split locations was dropped due to technical issues, practicalities and the fact it could end up costing even more than one location. although it was agreed that some form of sharing the cost should be looked at.

[@EldaMengisto]

I like your scoreboard again! Good job using the circular layout (again, it reminds me of the 2004 scoreboard), along with the dice-like points distribution. While I understand the use of the organ background, it's kind of distracting because sometimes, I think it's the actual scoring. 1965 show some signs of development beyond the winning song. Despite these traces (from the lyrics of the Danish and Dutch songs to the more high-tempo offerings), it still feels like another early Eurovision year to me. I'm looking forward to 1966 as a result of this. On the plus side, we have proof that RAI can host a well-produced contest; the voting went by in almost a breeze! #allora My top five: 5. GBR 4. NED (what a difference a year makes for the Dutch representatives--from sticking by her man in 1964 to just tossing everything on the floor the following year. A long time ago...) 3. AUT -- The second of Udo's three entries sits in between the two others in terms of quality. I get the same vibe here as with "Merci, Cherie" the following year, though there's a buoyancy to this entry. It's also quite sad. 2. ESP -- Whereas I didn't know what to expect with Conchita Batiusta in 1961, by 1965 I actually like this song. She has a flirtatious vibe with her and the Que Bueno, Que Bueno reflects that too, albeit it does get repetitive at times. With that in mind, zero points seems unfair for her. 1. LUX -- But this stands head and shoulders above the rest of the field, not only because of its poppy sound but also the interesting double meanings behind the lyrics and the orchestra's interpretation of it. Poupée de cire, poupée de son is not a song I would put on everyday, but it conveys a certain vibe with both instrumentation and the story behind it. Even though France was a bit off-key at times (apparently...), I sense the innocence in her, which would slap her in the face in real life. Still great, though!

[@johndiax4147]

Wow this was great!! now on to Luxembourg For the Concours Eurovision De La Chanson 1966!

[@grahamnancledra7036]

As David Jacobs said - every year we seem to come second. It's still the same in 2022. now 16 times the UK have been second.

[@jezt42]

A grand effort, thank you! France Gall performs the winning song better in the reprise, IMO. But who says dodgy intonation doesn’t stop you from winning (looking at you, Bucks Fizz…)? Not a favourite year of mine for Eurovision, 1965, but it was indeed a pleasant change to have a winner that was a bit more up-tempo and racy, rather than the somewhat dated (but not unpleasant) salon music from other countries. BTW, I really like your circular scoreboard! 👍

[@eurodara]

it was her style at the time, with being a little bit pitchy

[@MiroHeinonen]

About Helsinki (my home city): it is called Helsingfors in Swedish and Norwegian, Helsingi in Estonian, and Helsínquia in (European) Portuguese.

[@LuizCarneiro]

Helsinque in (brazilian) portuguese.

[@MiroHeinonen]

@@LuizCarneiro I know, but since this is about the Eurovision Song Contest, I said the European Portuguese word.

[@EdgeRatedR007]

While this song by France Gall is relatively "innocent", though it's making fun of girls like her, the song Lollipops / Les Succetes, also written by Serge Gainsbourg a year later, was a double entendre of exactly what you think it is and the music video is even worse. France said that she had no idea about this and was embarrassed when she found out.

[@Midnightsstan521]

Love to see Abraham Lincoln representing Finland.

[@henrikasatryan3908]

My 1 point To Italy. 3 points go to UK.And 5 Points go to The Winner Luxembourg! I love old Songs! 🧡

[@kaitlinbilous4605]

Our debut! We'll have to wait another year for the legendary Noel Kelahan though Edit: Renata was very proficient with languages, what happened in Rome? (Toto anyway. Gigliola was fine)

[@mrjdsworld80]

While Gigliola was miles better than Toto in ‘91, her English wasn’t great. Probably stopped her from hosting alone. Speaking of, where was she in ‘65?

[@JeSuisRene]

@@mrjdsworld80 Gigliola’s French was fine, I think (bear in mind, I’m not a French speaker; I did Spanish at GCSE). Still, her grasp of languages was much better than Toto’s!

[@mrjdsworld80]

@@JeSuisRene her French is fine, there’s lot of clips on here of her singing in French, or giving interviews in French, I guess Toto was hired to cover the English speaking parts.

[@henrikasatryan3908]

Yes Irelands debut in 1965. And Good Song!

[@bobekspekiel9890]

Are You planning to do Your subjective rankings from contest?

[@mrjdsworld80]

37:26 - earpiece too loud?

[@diegofonseca28]

For me, 5 for Luxembourg 🇱🇺 3 for Spain 🇪🇸 1 for United Kingdom 🇬🇧

[@jacekpokrywka6857]

Mr. Klimenko is damn handsome

[@jamestodd6831]

Simone de Oliveira - the most underscored Eurovision act ever?

[@c0tr]

Please guys read about poupée de cire, poupée de son and France gall in particular! Just a couple of things to get you interested: 1. Kathy vs. France round 2! Fight! (no but actually physically) 2. I wanna break up, bye bye © France's bf at the time 3. Going into the Cafe to watch the show there because the performance was bad and humiliating (even the composer thought that)

[@bulgaria9003]

38:10 thug life

[@pirukiddingme1908]

Is this the first time a song has been sung in a non native language? (Sweden and, if you’re cheeky, Ireland)

[@joshukaunarak]

Technically, the first was Germany 1961, whose second verse was sung in French. If you mean the complete song, it was indeed Sweden 1965.

[@KarlDowney]

French speaking Spokespersons were still saying England instead of UK. Lol

[@artsed08]

Everyone still says England in foreign languages. It's like saying 'Holland' instead of 'Netherlands' - it only upsets people who have very little in life to worry about.

[@j.t.5178]

While this year was one of the weaker ones in the 60s, many of the songs have grown on me and I like it more than when I first watch this edition. Out of the 18 songs, I only dislike France, the chorus is too annoying. You would think that having 4 countries scoring 0 points for 4 years in a row (with Germany & Netherlands getting nul points two years in a row), would make the EBU consider changing the voting procedure. I'm fairly certain that if they used the system from 1961, I think nobody would have gotten nul points. Also, how can you not like this edition! It's got everything! Italian Elvis, Finnish Abraham Lincoln, and Mexican soap opera close-ups! Luxembourg's win was needed to push the broadcasters into the modern era and send more contemporary music. I totally understand not getting the meaning behind Poupée de Cire, because it seems the entire French language is a nothing but double meanings.

[@thereorderboard]

lol Finnish Abraham Lincoln is exactly how I described him in my head!! A felt Italy and Ireland were doing Elvis impersonations too! I've been wondering whether there's some mathematical reason that 4 countries have been failing to score - it's a weird quirk!

[@Cilla0415]

Except for Luxembourg, this yeas was kind of boring. A lot of the songs were older for the time imo.

[@thereorderboard]

I agree - not my favourite year by far!

[@JeSuisRene]

I agree that it’s not a great year for the songs. However, I think RAI’s production was quite competent, unlike 1991. My points (honourable mentions to 🇮🇹Italy and 🇵🇹Portugal). 1p 🇳🇱 Netherlands 3p 🇦🇹 Austria 5p 🇬🇧 United Kingdom