Welcome to Jerusalem. Turkey got pressured by Arab states to withdraw, leaving us with 19 countries in the running. This is also Monaco’s last attendance until the next century, so let’s see if their send-off is good.
Guess who’s back, back again. Denmark’s back, tell a friend. Sorry, I really wanted to do this joke. But yeah, Denmark is finally back. And so is Turkey. Surprisingly, nobody withdrew, bringin us up to a historical high of 20 countries participating. Yes, 20, crazy numbers, I know. I wonder if Eurovision will ever exceed this number.
Welcome to London, again. We’re back to being hosted by the BBC, so you know this contest will be smooth and simple. Sweden returned (and will never skip again), but Yugoslavia withdrew for the next four years. This leaves us with 18 participants for the millionth time, which is a number I’m getting tired of.
And it’s back to the Netherlands for us. Austria decided to come back and so did Greece, which caused Turkey to withdraw. Malta withdrew as well and wouldn’t come back until 1991, but Sweden withdrew as well because they couldn’t afford to host if they won again (talk about hubris, huh). This left us with the ever-so-popular 18 countries in the contest.
And here we have one of many years hosted in Sweden, which we’ll revisit several times in the next few decades. France and Malta returned and we have a new debutant - Turkey. Sadly, Greece skipped this year, but this still means a record 19 countries took part this year.
Welcome to 1974, another year hosted in the UK - Brighton to be specific. This year is mainly known because ABBA competed, but I think that’s unfair because there were other songs too, yet everyone forgets about those. For example, Greece debuted this year, which would’ve brought the number of participants back to 18 if France didn’t withdraw at the last minute because of the death of their president.
And it’s back to Luxembourg for the second-to-last time. Malta decided to withdraw as they couldn’t afford to participate and Austria decided to skip out just cause. Luckily, we were joined by Israel, which left us with just 17 countries and a rather inelegant jury voting sequence. Countries were also allowed to sing in any language, which a lot of them put to use immediately.
Woooo, Edinburg. Since Monaco couldn’t host Eurovision (and they tried to), the BBC hosted it on their behalf (as they usually did back then). No changes in the makeup from the previous year, same 18 countries are taking part.
Welcome to Dublin for the first of many times. We’re rejoined by the countries who sat out 1970 (sans Denmark) and the tiny Malta, who are still yet to win. The voting system was also redone to please everyone (or at least displease the smallest number of people).
As Spain and the UK hosted in 1969 and 1968 respectively, a draw was held between France and the Netherlands to decide who’d host. In the end, the Netherlands won the draw, which is why we’re in Amsterdam this year, missing our nordic friends and Portugal.