This time, the contest is hosted by a broadcaster who hated it so much that they didn’t even want to spare any of the four recording machines they owned to preserve it (no, the recording wasn’t actually destroyed in a fire). Thankfully, other parties preserved the audio, so at the very least we can hear all of the songs.
First of all, I’m watching a colourised reconstruction of the contest by the YouTube user awuga.
Before we get introduced to a host, we get a small opening act. It’s fairly short. Then we get a little bit of surviving video footage of our host Lotte Wæver welcoming us to Denmark and indroducing the audience to the contest. As was normal in those days, this part is over quite quickly and we go to our first song just a little after six minutes.
Also, I’ve decided that I won’t write the scores after each review, they’ll only show up at the end in the Results table. I’m also going to remove the median score result as it’s very easy to see anyway.
Luxembourg decided to join its francophone brothers and send a song that sounds very contemporary for the time, which is great! The style of this song reminds me a lot of earier songs by Joe Dassin, but that’s probably because of the guitar.
Once again, I think this is a good opener for the show and makes me much more optimistic about the songs that will follow.
I’m glad the Netherlands are back to sending upbeat entries (that might even be called proto-girlbops). THey really stand out in the early years.
I really enjoyed the prominent brass in the orchestra and the general playfulness of the instrumental. It provies an interesting contast with the lyrics, which basically say that she knows that her partner is lying and cheating, but she’s going to stay with him because he’s her life.
Now, this probably isn’t the best message to send to people, I’ve seen what this mindset can do to people, but I’m willing to let it slide a little because this is from the 60s. Plus, I don’t think it was intended to be taken seriously, so I won’t.
I love the variety of songs so far. They all sound different, but in a good way. Norway sent an upbeat jazzy banger about a man floating on a balloon.
It sounds weirdly Christmassy to my ears. I keep expecting him to start singing Winter Wonderland to the instrumental. It’s hard to explain why this song has such an effect on me, but it does.
This is way more in-line with what I expect of 60s Eurovision. It’s a waltzy, old-timey song. Yet, even it manages to sound a little more modern because it uses some accordion.
Sadly, the accordion isn’t prominent enough and pretty much disappears after the first verse. To repurpose a famous quote: “It needs more cowbel accordion”.
This is a very different kind of jazzy song that, once again, gives me Christmas vibes, even though I’m 100% sure it wasn’t intended to.
Anyway, this is a chill song about relaxing on a Sunday, which is fitting. It’s a fairly pleasant listen, but doesn’t do much for me otherwise.
On the other hand, Austria decided to go with something more classy. After having them as my last place in 1960, 1961 and 1962 and top 5 last year, will I put them last again? The answer is no because I actually really like this.
It’s definitely a very gloomy and moody entry, but Udo completely owns it. I love the atmosphere he creates in the verses, helped a lot by the piano (I love pianos and you’ll see my love for them in some of the later years).
I also really like the bridge, which is less gloomy than the rest of the song and provides nice contrast.
Compared to Luxembourg, France seems to have backslid into sending old-fashioned romance chansons.
It isn’t a bad song if you like this sort of genre, but I don’t.
This is more of the same from the UK. A nice contemporary entry with a strong hook and a catchy instrumental. If something works and gives you good results, why change it?
It’s hard to say anything more as this isn’t very different from previous UK entries.
I find it quite difficult to describe this entry. It starts out slow, making you think it’s going to be another slow, old-fashioned song, but then changes into a musical theatre-style performance.
This is the first entry that I wish we had surviving footage of. I think I can’t appreciate it properly without that. But even without that, I found the song quite fun. Definitely a good change after the last three songs.
This song is nice enough, I enjoyed the instrumental, but it’s just more of the same as from France, though executed more interestingly. The key changes are quite subtle, I didn’t even notice them on the first listen, but they’re a good addition to the song.
And we welcome Portugal, easily one of my favourite countries in Eurovision. Unfortunately, they started out by getting zero points and wouldn’t reach top 5 until 2017 - the year they won.
I promise I’ll be more fair to Portugal in my reviews (and that’s not bias, I’ve never even been to Portugal before).
Anyway, the song is pretty good, definitely a good choice from Portugal for debut (even though it got a 0). It showcases Portuguese with an instrumental that’s probably more palatable to the audiences at the time. The change from minor to major is especially quite lovely.
It’s obvious why this won. It’s a very raw and intimate song that immediately captures your attention. The instrumental is very stripped back, only serving as simple accompaniment to complement and outline her voice. There’s only a little flourish at the start of each chorus to re-grab your attention after the verse. The full focus is on Gigliola. At just 16 years old, she gives one of the most moving and powerful performances seen in Eurovision up to this point.
The lyrics are great too. They’re simple, but, once again, the simplicitly works for the best here. The heavy repetition makes it very easy to remember the lyrics.
This song definitely deserved to win (though perhaps not by such a huge margin, but I suppose that’s just a consequence of the voting system). Just look at the length of the applause by the audience, they absolutely loved it. Sometimes I wonder if a song would’ve won if a televote had been used since the beginning and I’m 100% sure this definitely would’ve won anyway.
This is a rather pleasant ballad. It’s pretty soft and heavy on strings, not exactly something I’d expect from Yugoslavia after their previous entries.
I much prefer this over those entries, though I want to mention something funny. When he started singing, I thought he was singing in French at first. I guess Yugoslavia just wanted to present something closer to what the juries at the time liked. It clearly didn’t work out
I suppose coming right after a huge favourite made the juries forget about it. It still happens in modern contests too, so I’m not particularly surprised. The 0 is just a consequence of a pretty bad voting system.
Anita is back from 1960, but this time with a weaker entry. It’s a pleasant romatic ballad in Italian, rather unmemorable (I’ve listened to it thrice and I still can’t remember how it goes).
Maybe it could’ve done better if it was sent a year before or after, but being quite similar to Non ho l’età and coming so soon after it made sure that all jurors wouldn’t remember it at all. The stage invasion definitely didn’t help either.
This is pretty much what I’ve come to expect of early RTBF (the Walloon Belgian broadcaster). They usually send decent, but uninteresting songs as opposed to VRT (the Flemmish broadcaster). This easily could’ve been sung by Fud Leclerc (who didn’t return this year, thank god), I would’ve listened to it, moderately enjoyed it and then forgotten about it almost immediately.
This is exactly what I’ve come to expect of Spain in these early years and I’m glad they didn’t let me down. It’s still a fun Spanish banger with an instrumental that doesn’t try being normal.
I wish the backing vocals from Tim and Tony were more prominent though. It’s only Nelly in the verses and I think the song would’ve been improved if she was backed up all throughout the song.
Congratualtions to Luxembourg on being the first repeat winner of my reviews.
This was a fun year, I enjoyed it a lot. There was a decent amount of musical variety, the songs were good. I feel like I was a bit let down by the lack of video recordings, but oh well, there’s nothing I can do about that.
The interval act was more conservative than in 1963, being a piece of orchestral music. I still enjoyed it though.
The voting wasn’t interesting at all though. Italy got to a very early led and kept extending it with every vote.
I’ll see you all again in 1965, where Ireland - a country that has sent a lot of great songs (and not very great songs) - joins and Sweden rejoins.