The Eurovision Song Contest 1974 was the 19th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, held on 6 April 1974 at the Brighton Dome in Brighton, United Kingdom, and presented by Katie Boyle. It was organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), who staged the event after (CLT), which had won the for , declined hosting responsibilities as it had staged the competition in 1973. The BBC took over as host after (TVE), which had finished second for , declined the offer when approached, with the EBU ultimately choosing the BBC over bids from the Israel Broadcasting Authority (IBA) and the BBC's commercial rival ITV. This was the fourth time that the BBC had staged the contest after another broadcaster declinedfollowing the , and contestsand the fifth time overall including .
Entries representing eighteen countries were submitted for the contest, with making its first appearance. However, ultimately did not participate as the contest coincided with the death of French president Georges Pompidou, and with a national day of mourning scheduled for the date of the contest the French broadcaster, (ORTF), deemed participating in the event to be inappropriate. The voting system used between and 1973 was scrapped, and was replaced by the system last used in , with ten people in each country awarding one vote to their favourite song.
The winner was , with the song "Waterloo", composed by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, written by Stig Anderson and performed by ABBA. and the finishing second and third respectively, followed by a three-way tie for fourth place between Luxembourg, and the United Kingdom. It was Sweden's first contest win. After previous success within European markets with "Ring Ring", with which ABBA had attempted to represent , "Waterloo" gave the group their first global hit, and their Eurovision win was a launching point for ABBA to become one of the world's best-selling music artists. Olivia Newton-John, who represented the United Kingdom at this event, would also go on to achieve worldwide success in the years following the contest.
Location
thumb|220px|The Concert Hall of the [[Brighton Dome, Brighton – host venue of the 1974 contest]]
The 1974 contest was held in Brighton, United Kingdom. It was the fifth time that the United Kingdom had hosted the contest, having previously done so in , , , and . The selected venue was the Dome, completed in 1805 and originally built for the Prince Regent as stables and a riding school for his personal use. Sold by Queen Victoria in 1850, the stables were converted into a concert hall and assembly rooms in 1867, and the riding school into a market for corn merchants in 1868. The concert hall could normally seat up to 2,102 people, but for the contest some seating was removed for the commentator booths and technical equipment, leaving space for an audience of just over 1,000 people. The broadcaster had staged the event on three previous occasions, in , , and 1973, each time in Luxembourg City. As CLT had hosted the event the previous year, it declined the opportunity to stage the event for a second consecutive year due to the financial strain such an undertaking would entail.
The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) originally asked the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), as the participating broadcaster which came third the previous year, not to make an offer at this initial stage in order to determine if other participating broadcasters were willing to stage the event. Of the four previous events held by the BBC three of these had been staged in place of the previous year's winning broadcaster, specifically the 1960, 1963, and 1972 events. Two offers were subsequently made, from the Israel Broadcasting Authority (IBA) and from the BBC's commercial rival ITV. Concerns were raised about the prospect of hosting the event in Israel; they had just joined the contest in 1973 and it was felt some countries would not be prepared to accept an Israeli-held contest. Israel was also some distance geographically from the core of Western European nations which participated in the event at this time, and IBA still lagged behind many European broadcasters from a technological perspective. A successful ITV bid would have effectively barred the BBC from participating, as only one entry from a given country can participate in the event, resulting in the BBC submitting a counter-offer which the EBU accepted on 7 June 1973.
Participants
thumb|upright|[[Gigliola Cinquetti (pictured in 1966) who had won the contest for , participated again this year.]]
Broadcasters from a total of eighteen countries submitted entries to compete in this edition of the contest, comprising all seventeen countries which had participated in 1973, and , which was making its first appearance in the contest.
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders sticky-header"
|-
|+ Eurovision Song Contest 1974 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" |
| RTB
| Jacques Hustin
| ""
| French
|
| Pierre Chiffre
|-
! scope="row" |
| YLE
| Carita
| "Keep Me Warm"
| English
|
| Ossi Runne
|-
! scope="row" |
| HR
| Cindy and Bert
| ""
| German
|
| Werner Scharfenberger
|-
! scope="row" |
| EIRT
| Marinella
| ""<br /><small>()</small>
| Greek
|
| Giorgos Katsaros
|-
! scope="row" |
| RTÉ
| Tina Reynolds
| "Cross Your Heart"
| English
| Paul Lyttle
| Colman Pearce
|-
! scope="row" |
| IBA
| Poogy
| "" <small>()</small>
| Hebrew
|
| Yonatan Rechter
|-
! scope="row" |
| RAI
| Gigliola Cinquetti
| ""
| Italian
|
|
|-
! scope="row" |
| CLT
| Ireen Sheer
| "Bye Bye I Love You"
| French
|
| Charles Blackwell
|-
! scope="row" |
| TMC
| Romuald
| ""
| French
|
| Raymond Donnez
|-
! scope="row" |
| NOS
| Mouth and MacNeal
| "I See a Star"
| English
|
| Harry van Hoof
|-
! scope="row" |
| NRK
| Anne-Karine and the Bendik Singers
| "The First Day of Love"
| English
|
| Frode Thingnæs
|-
! scope="row" |
| RTP
| Paulo de Carvalho
| ""
| Portuguese
|
| José Calvário
|-
! scope="row" |
| TVE
| Peret
| ""
| Spanish
| Pedro Pubill Calaf
| Rafael Ibarbia
|-
! scope="row" |
| SR
| ABBA
| "Waterloo"
| English
|
| Sven-Olof Walldoff
|-
! scope="row" |
| SRG SSR
| Piera Martell
| ""
| German
| Pepe Ederer
| Pepe Ederer
|-
! scope="row" |
| BBC
| Olivia Newton-John
| "Long Live Love"
| English
|
| Nick Ingman
|-
! scope="row" |
| JRT
|
| " '42" <small>( '42)</small>
| Serbo-Croatian
| Kornelije Kovač
|
|}
Production and format
The Eurovision Song Contest 1974 was produced by the BBC. Bill Cotton served as executive producer, Michael Hurll served as producer and director, John Burrowes served as designer, and Ronnie Hazlehurst served as musical director, leading the BBC Concert Orchestra.
Each participating broadcaster submitted one song, which was required to be no longer than three minutes in duration. As with the previous year's event, artists were able to perform in any language, and not necessarily that of the country they represented.
Rehearsals in the contest venue began on Tuesday 2 April, involving technical rehearsals with the production team, the orchestra, and tests of the voting system and scoreboard. This was followed by rehearsals with the competing acts over subsequent days. The first rehearsals for all countries were held over two days on 3 and 4 April, with each participating act having a 50-minute slot on stage to perform through their entry with the orchestra without stage costumes. A second round of rehearsals, this time in costume, was held for all acts on 5 April, with each country given 20 minutes on stage, followed that evening by a complete run-through of the whole show, including dummy voting. Further technical rehearsals were held on the morning of 6 April, and a second full dress rehearsal was held that afternoon; this rehearsal was also recorded for use as a back-up in case technical failure meant the contest could not go ahead as planned. The contest presenter Katie Boyle also recalled being ferried in bulletproof coaches between the hotel and the contest venue, each time taking a different route.
Voting procedure
Due in part to the closeness of the voting in the previous year's contest, a new voting system was planned to be introduced for this event, which incorporated elements from the two previous voting systems used in the contest: each participating broadcaster would assemble a jury comprising ten members, which would be based in their own country, with each member awarding between one and five votes for each song, with no abstentions allowed and without the option to vote for their own country's entry. This would have resulted in each country potentially awarding a maximum of 50 votes and a minimum of 10 votes to any other country's song; with eighteen planned participating countries, this would have meant that the highest possible score any country could have received was 850, and the lowest possible score was 170. In case of a tie between two or more countries for first place, these acts would have performed again and each country not involved in the tie would have had one vote each to determine the winner. A lottery element to the voting, in order to add greater suspense, was also devised: the order of the voting would have been determined on stage during the voting segment, with cards being drawn at random to decide the order in which countries would vote.
During rehearsals however, it quickly became apparent to the organisers that they had misjudged how long it would take to conduct this new voting system, as well as mounting concerns that any issues with totalling the scores live could exacerbate the problems. Although a computerised system to calculate each country's total had been investigated, this was rejected for cost reasons. Ultimately the contest's executive producer Bill Cotton took the unilateral decision to abandon the proposed voting system and, given the jury structure of ten people had already been established and jury members had most likely already been recruited by the broadcasters, determined that the only alternative was to revert to the scoring system last used in : each of the ten jury members had one vote to award to their favourite song. The lottery aspect of the voting system was, however, retained, although due to timing and sound quality reasons this draw was held before the contest by the EBU's scrutineer Clifford Brown. Following the confirmation of the eighteen planned participating countries, the draw to determine the running order (R/O) of the contest was held on 5 December 1973; prior to its withdrawal, France was scheduled to perform in fourteenth position, between the entries from and .
The interval act was a pre-recorded video montage featuring the Wombles, a novelty pop band based on the children's characters, in various locations across Brighton. The medallions awarded to the winning songwriters were presented by the Director-General of the BBC and the President of the EBU, Charles Curran. It was Sweden's first contest win.
{| class="sortable wikitable plainrowheaders sticky-header"
|-
|+ Results of the Eurovision Song Contest 1974
|-
! 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
|
| Carita
| "Keep Me Warm"
| 4
| 13
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 2
|
|
| "Long Live Love"
| 14
| 4
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 3
|
| Peret
| ""
| 10
| 9
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 4
|
| Anne-Karine and the Bendik Singers
| "The First Day of Love"
| 3
| 14
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 5
|
| Marinella
| ""
| 7
| 11
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 6
|
| Poogy
| ""
| 11
| 7
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 7
|
|
| " '42"
| 6
| 12
|- style="font-weight:bold; background:gold;"
! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 8
|
| ABBA
| "Waterloo"
| 24
| 1
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 9
|
|
| "Bye Bye I Love You"
| 14
| 4
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 10
|
| Romuald
| ""
| 14
| 4
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 11
|
|
| ""
| 10
| 9
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 12
|
| Mouth and MacNeal
| "I See a Star"
| 15
| 3
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 13
|
|
| "Cross Your Heart"
| 11
| 7
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 14
|
| Cindy and Bert
| ""
| 3
| 14
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 15
|
|
| ""
| 3
| 14
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 16
|
|
| ""
| 3
| 14
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 17
|
|
| ""
| 18
| 2
|}
Spokespersons
Each participating broadcaster appointed a spokesperson, connected to the contest venue via telephone lines and responsible for announcing, in English or French, the votes for its respective country. Known spokespersons at the 1974 contest are listed below.
- Sophie Hecquet
- Sven Lindahl
- Colin Ward-Lewis
- Helga Vlahović
Detailed voting results<span class="anchor" id="Scoreboard"></span>
<!-- Anchor in the header is the old section name -->
Jury voting was used to determine the votes awarded by all countries. The announcement of the results from each country was conducted in a predetermined order chosen at random, with the spokespersons announcing their country's votes in English or French in performance order.
|-
! 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"
! scope="col"
! scope="col"
! scope="col"
! scope="col"
! scope="col"
! scope="col"
|-
! rowspan="17"
! scope="row" style="text-align:left; background:#f2f2f2;" | Finland
| style="text-align:right; background:#f2f2f2;" | 4 || style="text-align:left; background:#aaa;" | || || 2 || || 1 || || || 1 || || || || || || || || ||
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:left; background:#f2f2f2;" | United Kingdom
| style="text-align:right; background:#f2f2f2;" | 14 || 1 || || || || style="text-align:left; background:#aaa;" | || 4 || 1 || 1 || 2 || || || || || || 1 || 1 || 3
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:left; background:#f2f2f2;" | Spain
| style="text-align:right; background:#f2f2f2;" | 10 || || 1 || || 2 || || || || || 1 || 2 || 1 || || style="text-align:left; background:#aaa;" | || 3 || || ||
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:left; background:#f2f2f2;" | Norway
| style="text-align:right; background:#f2f2f2;" | 3 || || || || style="text-align:left; background:#aaa;" | || || || || || || || || 1 || || 1 || || 1 ||
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:left; background:#f2f2f2;" | Greece
| style="text-align:right; background:#f2f2f2;" | 7 || || || || || || || style="text-align:left; background:#aaa;" | || || || 1 || 4 || 2 || || || || ||
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:left; background:#f2f2f2;" | Israel
| style="text-align:right; background:#f2f2f2;" | 11 || || || style="text-align:left; background:#aaa;" | || || 2 || || || 1 || || 2 || 2 || 1 || || || || || 3
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:left; background:#f2f2f2;" | Yugoslavia
| style="text-align:right; background:#f2f2f2;" | 6 || 1 || || || || || style="text-align:left; background:#aaa;" | || || || || 1 || || || 1 || || || 1 || 2
|- style="background:gold;"
! scope="row" style="text-align:left; font-weight:bold; background:gold;" | Sweden
| style="text-align:right; font-weight:bold;" | 24 || 5 || 1 || 2 || 2 || || 1 || || 1 || 2 || 1 || 3 || style="text-align:left; background:#aaa;" | || 1 || || 5 || ||
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:left; background:#f2f2f2;" | Luxembourg
| style="text-align:right; background:#f2f2f2;" | 14 || || style="text-align:left; background:#aaa;" | || 2 || || || 2 || 1 || 3 || 1 || || || || 1 || 1 || || 1 || 2
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:left; background:#f2f2f2;" | Monaco
| style="text-align:right; background:#f2f2f2;" | 14 || || 2 || 1 || 1 || || || || 1 || 2 || 1 || || 1 || 2 || style="text-align:left; background:#aaa;" | || 1 || 2 ||
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:left; background:#f2f2f2;" | Belgium
| style="text-align:right; background:#f2f2f2;" | 10 || || 3 || || 2 || || || 5 || || || || || || || || || style="text-align:left; background:#aaa;" | ||
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:left; background:#f2f2f2;" | Netherlands
| style="text-align:right; background:#f2f2f2;" | 15 || 1 || || 1 || 1 || || 3 || 2 || 1 || 1 || 1 || style="text-align:left; background:#aaa;" | || 3 || || || || 1 ||
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:left; background:#f2f2f2;" | Ireland
| style="text-align:right; background:#f2f2f2;" | 11 || || 2 || 1 || 2 || 1 || || || style="text-align:left; background:#aaa;" | || || || || 2 || 2 || 1 || || ||
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:left; background:#f2f2f2;" | Germany
| style="text-align:right; background:#f2f2f2;" | 3 || || || || || || || 1 || || style="text-align:left; background:#aaa;" | || || || || || || 1 || 1 ||
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:left; background:#f2f2f2;" | Switzerland
| style="text-align:right; background:#f2f2f2;" | 3 || || || || || 1 || || || || 1 || || || || || || style="text-align:left; background:#aaa;" | || 1 ||
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:left; background:#f2f2f2;" | Portugal
| style="text-align:right; background:#f2f2f2;" | 3 || || || || || || || || || || style="text-align:left; background:#aaa;" | || || || 1 || || 2 || ||
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:left; background:#f2f2f2;" | Italy
| style="text-align:right; background:#f2f2f2;" | 18 || 2 || 1 || 1 || || 5 || || || 1 || || 1 || || || 2 || 4 || || 1 || style="text-align:left; background:#aaa;" |
|}
Broadcasts<span class="anchor" id="Broadcasters and commentators"></span>
<!-- Anchor in the header is the old section name -->
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. the EBU later put the actual estimated figure for the total audience at 231 million.
Known details on the broadcasts in each country, including the specific broadcasting stations and commentators are shown in the tables below.
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders sticky-header"
|-
|+ Broadcasters and commentators in participating countries
|-
! scope="col" | Country
! scope="col" | Broadcaster
! scope="col" | Channel(s)
! scope="col" | Commentator(s)
! scope="col" |
|-
! scope="rowgroup" rowspan="3" |
| rowspan="2" | RTB
| RTB
| Paule Herreman
| style="text-align:center" |
|-
| RTB 1
|
| style="text-align:center" |
|-
| BRT
| BRT, BRT 1
|
| style="text-align:center" |
|-
! scope="rowgroup" rowspan="2" |
| rowspan="2" | YLE
| TV1,
|
| rowspan="2" style="text-align:center" |
|-
|
|
|-
! scope="row" |
| ARD
|
|
| style="text-align:center" |
|-
! scope="row" |
| EIRT
| EIRT
|
| style="text-align:center" |
|-
! scope="rowgroup" rowspan="2" |
| rowspan="2" | RTÉ
| RTÉ
| Mike Murphy
| style="text-align:center" rowspan="2" |
|-
| RTÉ Radio
|
|-
! scope="row" |
| IBA
| Israeli Television
|
| style="text-align:center" |
|-
! scope="row" |
| RAI
| ,