Eurovision Song Contest 1971

Location

The 1971 contest was held in Dublin, Ireland, following the country's victory at the with the song "All Kinds of Everything" performed by Dana. It was the first time that the contest was hosted in Ireland. The selected venue was the Gaiety Theatre; opened in 1871, the staging of the contest coincided with the venue's centenary anniversary.

Within hours of Ireland's win at the 1970 contest, the director-general of the Irish public broadcaster Radio Telefís Éireann (RTÉ), Thomas P. Hardiman, confirmed that the broadcaster intended to stage the contest; however the staging of the contest in Ireland was not confirmed until a meeting of a European Broadcasting Union (EBU) committee in Helsinki in April 1970. The Gaiety was confirmed as the venue in July 1970, with other Dublin venues reported in relation to hosting the event including the Main Hall of the Royal Dublin Society, the Great Hall of University College Dublin, and the Abbey Theatre. An audience of around 700 was expected to be present in the contest venue, with around 400 seats removed to accommodate the orchestra and technical equipment.

Participants

Eighteen countries were represented in the 1971 contestthe twelve nations which had been represented in were joined by , , and , who all returned after a year's absence; , participating again after a two year break; and , in its debut appearance. The large number of returning countries was reported to have been mainly due to a number of rule changes proposed for this edition of the contest; broadcasters from Finland, Norway, Portugal and Sweden had all declined to participate in due to dissatisfaction with a four-way tie for first place in the and the lack of a tie-break rule.

Two artists which had previously competed in the contest returned to represent their countries again for a second time: Katja Ebstein who had represented , and Jacques Raymond who had represented . Raymond and his singing partner Lily Castel had been late replacements for the original duo selected to perform the Belgian entry, Nicole and Hugo, after Nicole had contracted jaundice before the contest.

Production and format

The Eurovision Song Contest 1971 was produced by the Irish public broadcaster Radio Telefís Éireann (RTÉ). Tom McGrath served as producer and director, Alpho O'Reilly served as designer, and Colman Pearce served as musical director, leading the 50-piece RTÉ Orchestra. A separate musical director could be nominated by each participating delegation to lead the orchestra during its country's performance, with the host musical director also available to conduct for those countries which did not nominate their own conductor. On behalf of the EBU, the event was overseen by Clifford Brown as scrutineer. The contest was presented by the Irish television presenter Bernadette Ní Ghallchóir.

Each participating broadcaster submitted one song, which was required to be no longer than three minutes in duration and performed in the language, or one of the languages, of the country which it represented. The maximum number of performers allowed on stage during each country's performance was raised at this contest to six, an upper limit which exists to the present day; previously entries were required to be performed by one or two principal vocalists with up to three supporting vocalists. This change effectively allowed groups to compete in the contest for the first time.

Following discussions and sustained pressure on the EBU to reform the contest, a new voting system was introduced, designed to produce a clear-cut winner and ensure no country would receive zero points. Each participating broadcaster appointed two individualsone aged between 16 and 25, the other between 26 and 60, and with at least 10 years between their ageswho awarded each song a score between one and five votes, except for the song from their own country. The jurors were present in the contest venue, and followed the event from a separate room via television. After each country had performed they were required to record their votes, so that they could not be altered later. For the voting sequence the jurors were brought on stage, with the scores being announced by the jurors themselves in groups of three countries.

An additional rule change introduced for this contest aimed to improve the visibility of the participating entries among the general public before the contest final and give equal exposure to all entries: each participating broadcaster was required to produce a series of preview programmes to highlight the competing entries, and to provide the EBU with a promotional video of their entry which would be sent to all broadcasters for use in their own preview programmes. Broadcasters were required to showcase the entries over two or more individual broadcasts, and these programmes could be broadcast only once before the contest final. The promotional videos needed to be ready by 12 March 1971 for broadcast over the Eurovision network to all broadcasters on 17 March, and each broadcaster's preview shows were expected to be aired between 22 and 30 March.

The overall organisational costs were , which was bigger than original estimates of between and . The contest was one of the first programmes produced by RTÉ in colour, with the contest leading to the broadcaster acquiring colour broadcasting equipment a year earlier than originally planned at a reported cost of over . The costs of producing the event and the acquisition of new colour equipment required RTÉ to make significant funding cuts across all areas of the organisation; these cuts and the costs of a massive uplift in colour equipment when only around 1% of Irish television viewers had colour television sets in 1971 led to protests by several RTÉ employeesamong them Eoghan Harrison the day of the contest, who were reported to have leafletted the public pushing for a boycott of the event and jeered and booed delegates as they arrived at the theatre. The contest was also the target of picketers from Official Sinn Féin, who opposed Ireland's planned entry into the European Economic Community; Conradh na Gaeilge, who opposed RTÉ's coverage and production of a pop contest; the Irish Women's Liberation Movement; and the National Athletic and Cycling Association.

Contest overview

Detailed voting results

A new voting system was introduced in this year's contest: each participating broadcaster appointed two jury members, one aged over 25 and the other under 25 (with at least ten years' difference between their ages), with both awarding each country (except their own) a score of between one and five.

While this meant that no entry could score fewer than 34 votes (and in the event all eighteen scored at least 52), it had one major problem: some jury members tended to award only one or two votes. Whether this was done to increase their respective countries' chances of winning is not known for sure, but this shortcoming was nonetheless plain. However, the system remained in place for the and .

10 votes

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

Broadcasts

Each participating broadcaster was required to relay the contest via its networks. Non-participating EBU member broadcasters were also able to relay the contest as "passive participants". 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. In addition to the participating countries, the contest was also reportedly broadcast in Greece, Iceland, Morocco, and Tunisia; in Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, and Romania via Intervision; and in Afghanistan, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Ethiopia, Hong Kong, Jamaica, Kenya, Mauritania, Mauritius, Sierra Leone, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda, and the United States. Germany, Ireland, Portugal and Turkey have been reported to broadcast on radio. At least 28 commentators were reportedly in the contest, with an estimated 500 million viewers reported in the media.

Known details on the broadcasts in each country, including the specific broadcasting stations and commentators are shown in the tables below.

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