Welcome to Madrid for the only time Spain actually hosted Eurovision (despite having taken part every years since their debut). Austria decided to skip out on this year as a protest against Franco’s regime, but everyone else stayed here.
Welcome to London. Again. For the third time. But now we’re here because the UK actually won! We’re joined by the same countries as before and hosted by Katie Boyle.
And we’re in Vienna this time, for the first out of (so far) two times. Denmark is out until the head of DR retires, but everyone else is still in (for now). This time, we’re in a palace that belonged to the Habsburg dynasty.
Welcome back to Luxembourg. We’ll be back several more times. No changes in the lineup this time, which is nice, there’s no need to introduce any newcommers.
There was a big change in the rules though - all countries were forbidden from singing in non-official languages, changing the direction of most of the 20th century forever.
We’re visiting Italy for the first out of (so far) three times. We’re joined by Sweden, who are back after skipping last year (and will do the same two more times) and Ireland (who will only sit out one contest in the future).
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.
And we’re back in London. France didn’t want to host for the third time, so the BBC hosted on their behalf. Once again, we’re joined by the same set of countries as last year, making it the third year in a row with no additions or withdrawals.
We’re off to Luxembourg, which is the smallest country to have ever hosted Eurovision (Monaco won in 1971, but the UK hosted in 1972). No changes in the lineup, nobody new joined or withdrew, for the first time in the contest’s history. Our host is Mireille Delannoy, who welcomes every participating country in their language, which is always something I’ll approve of.
We’re once again back in Cannes, still hosted by Jacqueline Joubert. The stage got a bit of a downgrade in my opinion, we don’t get the fun revolving carousels this time. We’re joined by three new countries, giving us 16 participants this year.
Welcome to the new decade. Norway joins, Luxembourg returns and the UK hosts despite not winning the previous year, which will become a bit of a trend during the 60s and 70s (and 2023).