The Eurovision Song Contest 1957, originally known as the (
, , and rounded out the top five.
A number of changes to the rules from the previous year's event were enacted; each country were now represented by only one song, while the voting system received an overhaul, with the results of the voting now conducted on a scoreboard in view of the public to allow the process to be followed by viewers and listeners at home. Jurors were also no longer allowed to vote for the song from their own country.
Location
thumb|221x221px|, Frankfurt – venue of the 1957 contest
The 1957 contest took place in Frankfurt, West Germany. The selected venue was the , a music hall and former broadcasting studio located in the Dornbusch district, and part of the wider Broadcasting House Dornbusch which serves as the headquarters and main broadcasting facility of the German public broadcaster for the state of Hesse, (HR). The contest was held in front of an audience of around 400 people.
A new plan for staging the event was invoked ahead of the 1957 contest, with a different broadcaster organising the contest each year, after Switzerland's SRG SSR, which had both hosted the contest and provided the winning entry in , declined to stage it for a second time. Frankfurt was selected as host city as early as June 1956 during an EBU meeting in Italy.
Participants
Ten countries participated in the 1957 contest, with the seven countries which took part in the first contest being joined by , and the in their first appearances. Initially, Monaco also figured on the list of participants for 1957, but disappeared from the list by 21 February 1957.
Two of the participating artists, Switzerland's Lys Assia and the Netherlands' Corry Brokken, had previously competed at the 1956 contest. Brokken was one of the two Dutch participants in that year's contest, competing with the song "", while Assia had performed both of Switzerland's entries, "" and "", the latter of which had won the contest.
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders sticky-header"
|-
|+ Eurovision Song Contest 1957 participants
|-
! scope="col" | Country
! scope="col" | Broadcaster
! scope="col" | Artist
! scope="col" | Song
! scope="col" | Language
! scope="col" | Songwriter(s)
! scope="col" | Conductor
|-
! scope="row" |
| ORF
|
| ""
| German
|
| Carl de Groof
|-
! scope="row" |
|
| Bobbejaan Schoepen
| ""
| Dutch
|
| Willy Berking
|-
! scope="row" |
|
| Birthe Wilke and Gustav Winckler
| ""
| Danish
|
| Kai Mortensen
|-
! scope="row" |
| RTF
| Paule Desjardins
| ""
| French
|
| Paul Durand
|-
! scope="row" |
| HR
| Margot Hielscher
| ""
| German
|
| Willy Berking
|-
! scope="row" |
| RAI
| Nunzio Gallo
| ""
| Italian
|
| Armando Trovajoli
|-
! scope="row" |
| CLT
| Danièle Dupré
| ""
| French
|
| Willy Berking
|-
! scope="row" |
| NTS
| Corry Brokken
| ""
| Dutch
|
| Dolf van der Linden
|-
! scope="row" |
| SRG SSR
| Lys Assia
| ""
| French
|
| Willy Berking
|-
! scope="row" |
| BBC
| Patricia Bredin
| "All"
| English
|
| Eric Robinson
|}
Format
The contest was organised and broadcast by HR on behalf of ARD, with Michael Kehlmann serving as director and Willy Berking serving as musical director, leading the during the event. HR took charge of all financial costs, except costs regarding the individual participants (such as travel and accommodation) and costs regarding the international transmission via the Eurovision network. The centre of the background contained a removable background, allowing for a different graphic to be used for each nation's performance. Held just over nine months after the inaugural contest, the contest date of 3 March remains the earliest date in the calendar year in which the contest has been held.
Contest overview<span class="anchor" id="Results"></span><span class="anchor" id="Participants and results"></span>
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thumb|250px|right|[[Corry Brokken (pictured in 1958) had previously represented the Netherlands in before entering the contest again in 1957 and ultimately winning.]]
The contest was held on 3 March 1957 at 21:00 (CET) and lasted 1 hour. Notable among this year's participants were Denmark's Birthe Wilke and Gustav Winckler, the first duo to compete in the contest, who made an impact with a passionate on-screen kiss at the end of their performance; and Germany's Margot Hielscher, the first Eurovision act to use a prop during their performance, in this instance a telephone.
{| class="sortable wikitable plainrowheaders sticky-header"
|-
|+ Results of the Eurovision Song Contest 1957
|-
! scope="col" |
! scope="col" | Country
! scope="col" | Artist
! scope="col" | Song
! scope="col" class="unsortable" | Votes
! scope="col" | Place
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 1
|
|
| ""
| 5
| 8
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 2
|
|
| ""
| 8
| 4
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 3
|
|
| "All"
| 6
| 7
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 4
|
|
| ""
| 7
| 6
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 5
|
|
| ""
| 3
| 10
|- style="font-weight:bold; background:gold"
! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 6
|
|
| ""
| 31
| 1
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 7
|
|
| ""
| 8
| 4
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 8
|
|
| ""
| 17
| 2
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 9
|
| and Gustav Winckler
| ""
| 10
| 3
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 10
|
|
| ""
| 5
| 8
|}
Spokespersons
Each participating broadcaster appointed a spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for its respective country via telephone. Known spokespersons at the 1957 contest are listed below.
Detailed voting results<span class="anchor" id="Scoreboard"></span>
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The announcement of the results from each country was conducted in reverse order to the order in which each country performed.
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;"
|-
|+ Detailed voting results of the Eurovision Song Contest 1957
|-
! colspan="2" |
! scope="col"
! scope="col"
! scope="col"
! scope="col"
! scope="col"
! scope="col"
! scope="col"
! scope="col"
! scope="col"
! scope="col"
! scope="col"
|-
! rowspan=10
! scope="row" style="text-align:left; background:#f2f2f2;"| Belgium
| style="text-align:right; background:#f2f2f2;"| 5 || 1 || 2 || || 2 || || || || || || style="text-align:left; background:#aaa;"|
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:left; background:#f2f2f2;"| Luxembourg
| style="text-align:right; background:#f2f2f2;"| 8 || || || || || || 3 || 4 || 1 || style="text-align:left; background:#aaa;"| ||
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:left; background:#f2f2f2;"| United Kingdom
| style="text-align:right; background:#f2f2f2;"| 6 || 2 || || || || 1 || 1 || || style="text-align:left; background:#aaa;"| || 1 || 1
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:left; background:#f2f2f2;"| Italy
| style="text-align:right; background:#f2f2f2;"| 7 || || 1 || || || 2 || || style="text-align:left; background:#aaa;"| || 2 || 1 || 1
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:left; background:#f2f2f2;"| Austria
| style="text-align:right; background:#f2f2f2;"| 3 || || || || || 1 || style="text-align:left; background:#aaa;"| || || 2 || ||
|- style="background:gold;"
! scope="row" style="text-align:left; font-weight:bold; background:gold;" | Netherlands
| style="text-align:right; font-weight:bold;" | 31 || 7 || 3 || 4 || 1 || style="text-align:left; background:#aaa;"| || 6 || 1 || 1 || 3 || 5
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:left; background:#f2f2f2;"| Germany
| style="text-align:right; background:#f2f2f2;"| 8 || || || 6 || style="text-align:left; background:#aaa;"| || || || 1 || || || 1
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:left; background:#f2f2f2;"| France
| style="text-align:right; background:#f2f2f2;"| 17 || || 2 || style="text-align:left; background:#aaa;"| || 6 || 1 || || || 2 || 4 || 2
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:left; background:#f2f2f2;"| Denmark
| style="text-align:right; background:#f2f2f2;"| 10 || || style="text-align:left; background:#aaa;"| || || || 5 || || 3 || 2 || ||
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:left; background:#f2f2f2;"| Switzerland
| style="text-align:right; background:#f2f2f2;"| 5 || style="text-align:left; background:#aaa;"| || 2 || || 1 || || || 1 || || 1 ||
|}
Broadcasts<span class="anchor" id="Broadcasters and commentators"></span>
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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. Known details on the broadcasts in each country, including the specific broadcasting stations and commentators are shown in the tables below.
The 1957 contest is the earliest edition to exist in full in the EBU's archives, as the 1956 edition has survived solely through audio recordings, with some missing segments, and limited video footage of the winning reprise performance through newsreel and other recordings. Although the number of households which had access to a television in Europe continued to grow, this edition, as in the case of the 1956 contest, was still mainly accessed by spectators via radio.
|-
! scope="rowgroup" rowspan="2" |
| rowspan="2" |
| NIR,
|
| style="text-align:center" |
|-
| INR
| Robert Beauvais
| style="text-align:center" |
|-
! scope="row" |
| RTF
| RTF,
| Robert Beauvais
| style="text-align:center" |
|-
! scope="rowgroup" rowspan="3" |
| ARD
|
|
| style="text-align:center" |
|-
| HR
|
|
| style="text-align:center" |
|-
| WDR
| UKW West