page_title: History of the Eurovision Song Contest
section_title: 1960s
hierarchical_section_title: History of the Eurovision Song Contest / 1960s
caption_attribution_description: Nederlands: Collectie / Archief&#160;: Fotocollectie Anefo Reportage / Serie&#160;: Songfestival 1969 Beschrijving&#160;: Nationale finale van het Eurovisie Songfestival in Scheveningen, Lenny Kuhr zong het winnende liedje "Troubadour" Datum&#160;: 26 februari 1969 Locatie&#160;: Scheveningen, Zuid-Holland Trefwoorden&#160;: gitaren, muziek, songfestivals, zangeressen Persoonsnaam&#160;: Kuhr, Lenny Instellingsnaam&#160;: Nationaal Songfestival Fotograaf&#160;: Fotograaf Onbekend / Anefo Auteursrechthebbende&#160;: Nationaal Archief Materiaalsoort&#160;: Negatief (zwart/wit) Nummer archiefinventaris&#160;: bekijk toegang 2.24.01.05 Bestanddeelnummer&#160;: 922-1416
context_page_description: The Eurovision Song Contest was first held in 1956, originally conceived through a desire to unite European countries through cross-border television broadcasts following World War II, and in doing so to test the capabilities of international broadcast technology. Following a series of exchange broadcasts in 1954, the European Broadcasting Union commissioned an international song competition, from an idea developed by Sergio Pugliese and Marcel Bezençon and originally based on the Italian Sanremo Music Festival.
  64 contests have been held since its first edition, and over 1,500 songs representing 52 countries have been performed on the Eurovision stage as of 2020. Eurovision has seen many changes since its inauguration, such as the introduction of relegation in the 1990s, and subsequently semi-finals in the 2000s, as a response to growing numbers of interested participants. The rules of the contest have also seem multiple changes over the years, with the voting system and language criteria being modified on several occasions.
context_section_description: The Eurovision Song Contest 1960 was the fifth edition of the contest, organised by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and held on 25 March 1960 at the Royal Festival Hall in London, United Kingdom. Dutch broadcaster NTS declined the opportunity to stage the event for the second time in three years, leading the EBU to approach the BBC to host the event as the previous year's runner-up. The number of competing countries grew to 13, as Luxembourg returned and Norway sent its first entry. France recorded their second contest win, with Jacqueline Boyer taking the title with "Tom Pillibi".
  The Eurovision Song Contest 1961 was the sixth edition of the contest, organised by RTF and held on 18 March 1961 at the Palais des Festivals in Cannes, France. France became the first country to host two contests, with the Palais des Festivals having also hosted the 1959 event. This was also the first contest to be held on a Saturday night, which has now become the standard time-slot for the contest's final. A record 16 countries competed in this year's event, with debut entries from Finland, Spain and Yugoslavia. Luxembourg became the fourth country to win the Eurovision title, with French singer Jean-Claude Pascal giving the Grand Duchy their first win with "Nous les amoureux".
  The Eurovision Song Contest 1962 was the seventh edition of the contest, organised by Compagnie Luxembourgeoise de Radiodiffusion (CLT) and held on 18 March 1962 at the Grand Auditorium de RTL, Villa Louvigny in Luxembourg City, Luxembourg. For the first time there was no change in the countries competing, with the same line-up seen as in 1961. A new voting system was implemented at this contest, with each country now giving 3, 2 and 1 points to the top three songs as determined by the combined votes of the assembled jury. France's Isabelle Aubret was crowned the winner with "Un premier amour", giving France its third victory in five years.
  The Eurovision Song Contest 1963 was the eighth edition of the contest, organised by the BBC and held on 23 March 1963 at the BBC Television Centre in London, United Kingdom. France's RTF had declined the offer to stage the contest once again, and the BBC stepped in to host the contest for the second time. A modification of the voting system used in 1962 was adopted, with countries now giving 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 points for their favourite songs. In a close fought contest for first place between Denmark and Switzerland, Grethe and Jørgen Ingmann emerged victorious with "Dansevise" for Denmark, giving the Scandinavian country their first victory on the final vote.
  The Eurovision Song Contest 1964 was the ninth edition of the contest, organised by Danmarks Radio (DR) and held on 21 March 1964 at the Tivoli Concert Hall in Copenhagen, Denmark. Sweden were forced to withdraw due to industrial action by the Swedish Musicians' Union, however as Portugal made its debut appearance the total number of competing countries remained at 16. Another modification of the voting system now saw each country giving 5, 3 and 1 points to the top 3 songs based on the total of all votes cast by jury members, with each jury member having three votes to distribute among the songs; if all members voted for only two songs, these would get 6 and 3 points, and if all members voted for the same song it would get 9 points. This event marked the first time that the contest was interrupted by a protester, when a man demonstrating against the right-wing dictatorships of Spain and Portugal and the inclusion of these countries in the contest entered the stage holding a banner stating "Boycott Franco and Salazar", before being quickly removed as cameras cut to a shot of the scoreboard. No footage of this protest remains however as, like the 1956 contest, no video of the contest is known to exist, bar short footage of the opening sequence and the winning reprise, while audio recording are known to survive. Italy's Gigliola Cinquetti scored a landslide victory with the song "Non ho l'età", gaining almost three times as many points as the United Kingdom in second
caption: The Netherlands' Lenny Kuhr was one of four winners at the 1969 contest.
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