The Eurovision Song Contest 1959, originally known as the ( Due to the growth in the film festival a new building bearing the same name was opened in 1982, with the original building renamed as the .
This marked the second occasion in which the previous year's winning country organised the event, and the first time in which the winning country was given first choice at hosting the following year's event, as the rights to host the 1958 contest were only awarded to the Netherlands after all other countries declined.
A garden space with plants from Southern France was installed in front of the building for the contest, and the flags of the participating nations were raised on the roof. The audience comprised 1,500 invited guests.
Additional events during the contest week included a supper for the participating delegations on behalf of the city of Cannes held on the evening following the contest in the of the city's . The United Kingdom's absence from the 1958 contest is generally reported to have been due to the country's poor result in , but its return coincided with the international success of "", the Italian entry from the previous year's contest, and the appointment of Eric Maschwitz as Head of Light Entertainment at the BBC. Beginning with this event the United Kingdom holds the record for the longest string of consecutive appearances in the Eurovision Song Contest, appearing in every subsequent contest final . was absent from the event, having participated in all previous contests, with management at the Luxembourgish broadcaster (CLT) rejecting the proposed entry and leaving no sufficient time to find a replacement. This decision appears to have occurred late in the preparations for the contest as the country was listed among the participants in several radio and television listings.
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders sticky-header"
|-
|+ Eurovision Song Contest 1959 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
| Ferry Graf
| ""
| German
|
| Franck Pourcel
|-
! scope="row" |
| NIR
| Bob Benny
| ""
| Dutch
|
| Francis Bay
|-
! scope="row" |
| DR
| Birthe Wilke
| ""
| Danish
|
| Kai Mortensen
|-
! scope="row" |
| RTF
| Jean Philippe
| ""
| French
|
| Franck Pourcel
|-
! scope="row" |
| HR
| Alice and Ellen Kessler
| ""
| German
|
| Franck Pourcel
|-
! scope="row" |
| RAI
| Domenico Modugno
| ""
| Italian
|
|
|-
! scope="row" |
| TMC
| Jacques Pills
| ""
| French
|
| Franck Pourcel
|-
! scope="row" |
| NTS
| Teddy Scholten
| ""
| Dutch
|
| Dolf van der Linden
|-
! scope="row" |
| SR
| Brita Borg
| "Augustin"
| Swedish
|
| Franck Pourcel
|-
! scope="row" |
| SRG SSR
| Christa Williams
| ""
| German
|
| Franck Pourcel
|-
! scope="row" |
| BBC
| Pearl Carr and Teddy Johnson
| "Sing Little Birdie"
| English
|
| Eric Robinson
|}
Production and format
The contest was organised and broadcast by the French public broadcaster (RTF), with serving as producer and director, Gérard Dubois serving as designer, and Franck Pourcel serving as musical director and leading the . The stage featured three revolving platforms, each of which was segmented into four, similar to a revolving door, to include various backdrops. These backdrops were specific to each of the participating countries and featured scenery or objects associated with that country.
Contest overview<span class="anchor" id="Results"></span><span class="anchor" id="Participants and results"></span>
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The contest was held on 11 March 1959 at 21:00 (CET) and lasted 1 hour and 12 minutes. The Netherlands became the first country to achieve two victories in the event, and Van Hemert became the first individual to win the contest twice, after previously providing lyrics for the Netherlands' winner in 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
|
|
| ""
| 15
| 3
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 2
|
|
| ""
| 12
| 5
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 3
|
|
| ""
| 9
| 6
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 4
|
|
| ""
| 1
| 11
|- style="font-weight:bold; background:gold"
! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 5
|
|
| ""
| 21
| 1
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 6
|
|
| ""
| 5
| 8
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 7
|
|
| "Augustin"
| 4
| 9
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 8
|
|
| ""
| 14
| 4
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 9
|
|
| ""
| 4
| 9
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 10
|
|
| "Sing Little Birdie"
| 16
| 2
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 11
|
|
| ""
| 9
| 6
|}
Spokespersons
Each participating broadcaster appointed a spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for its respective country via telephone. Known spokespersons at the 1959 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 that which each country performed.
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;"
|-
|+ Detailed voting results of the Eurovision Song Contest 1959
|-
! colspan="2" |
! scope="col"
! scope="col"
! scope="col"
! scope="col"
! scope="col"
! scope="col"
! scope="col"
! scope="col"
! scope="col"
! scope="col"
! scope="col"
! scope="col"
|-
! rowspan="11"
! scope="row" style="text-align:left; background:#f2f2f2;" | France
| style="text-align:right; background:#f2f2f2;" | 15 || 2 || || 1 || 1 || || 4 || || 2 || 1 || 4 || style="text-align:left; background:#aaa;"|
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:left; background:#f2f2f2;" | Denmark
| style="text-align:right; background:#f2f2f2;" | 12 || || 2 || 2 || 1 || 4 || || 1 || 1 || 1 || style="text-align:left; background:#aaa;" | ||
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:left; background:#f2f2f2;" | Italy
| style="text-align:right; background:#f2f2f2;" | 9 || 1 || || || 3 || 1 || || || 1 || style="text-align:left; background:#aaa;" | || || 3
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:left; background:#f2f2f2;" | Monaco
| style="text-align:right; background:#f2f2f2;" | 1 || || || 1 || || || || || style="text-align:left; background:#aaa;" | || || ||
|- style="background:gold;"
! scope="row" style="text-align:left; font-weight:bold; background:gold;" | Netherlands
| style="text-align:right; font-weight:bold;" | 21 || 3 || 1 || 3 || || || 2 || style="text-align:left; background:#aaa;" | || 1 || 7 || || 4
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:left; background:#f2f2f2;" | Germany
| style="text-align:right; background:#f2f2f2;" | 5 || 1 || || || 1 || || style="text-align:left; background:#aaa;" | || || || 1 || || 2
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:left; background:#f2f2f2;" | Sweden
| style="text-align:right; background:#f2f2f2;" | 4 || || || || || style="text-align:left; background:#aaa;" | || || 3 || || || 1 ||
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:left; background:#f2f2f2;" | Switzerland
| style="text-align:right; background:#f2f2f2;" | 14 || 1 || 5 || 1 || style="text-align:left; background:#aaa;" | || 3 || 1 || || 1 || || 2 ||
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:left; background:#f2f2f2;" | Austria
| style="text-align:right; background:#f2f2f2;" | 4 || || || style="text-align:left; background:#aaa;" | || 1 || 2 || || || 1 || || ||
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:left; background:#f2f2f2;" | United Kingdom
| style="text-align:right; background:#f2f2f2;" | 16 || 2 || style="text-align:left; background:#aaa;" | || 2 || 3 || || || 5 || 2 || || 1 || 1
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:left; background:#f2f2f2;" | Belgium
| style="text-align:right; background:#f2f2f2;" | 9 || style="text-align:left; background:#aaa;" | || 2 || || || || 3 || 1 || 1 || || 2 ||
|}
Broadcasts<span class="anchor" id="Broadcasters and commentators"></span>
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Each participating broadcaster was required to relay the contest via its television network. No official accounts of the viewing figures are known to exist. An estimate given in the press was at least 20 million viewers.
|-
! scope="rowgroup" rowspan="2" |
| rowspan="2" | NIR/INR
| NIR
| Paula Sémer
| style="text-align:center" |
|-
| INR
| Paule Herreman
| style="text-align:center" |
|-
! scope="row" |
| DR
| , Program 2
| Sejr Volmer-Sørensen
| style="text-align:center" |
|-
! scope="rowgroup" rowspan="2" |
| rowspan="2" | RTF
| RTF
|
| style="text-align:center" |
|-
| France II
|
| style="text-align:center" |
|-
! scope="row" |
| ARD
|
| Elena Gerhardt
| style="text-align:center" |
|-
! scope="row" |
| RAI
| ,
|
| style="text-align:center" |
|-
! scope="row" |
| colspan="2" | Radio Monte-Carlo