Sixteen countries participated in the contest - three more than in the previous edition; Finland, Spain and Yugoslavia all competed for the first time this year.
Interest in the competition began to grow across Europe as three new countries participated for the first time: Finland, Spain, and Yugoslavia.[5]
Both Belgium's Bob Benny and Norway's Nora Brockstedt made their second appearances at the contest; Benny had previously represented Belgium in the 1959 contest with the song "Hou toch van mij", while Brockstedt represented Norway for the second consecutive year, having performed "Voi Voi" the previous year.[2]
Marcel Cravenne [fr] directed the show, the director of photography was Maurice Barry [fr].[8]Roger Valat served as technical director.[9] Six TV cameras were used, including one showing the Mediterranean sea and the outside of the venue during the first seconds of the show.[8]
Like in 1959, the stage was designed by Gérard Dubois.[1][10] It was notably larger than in previous years and featured a central staircase decorated with flowers, leading up to a terrace flanked by trees, so that the entire stage gave the impression of a Mediterranean garden.[8] Dubois first made a scale model of the stage in Paris, then went to Cannes and chose the trees together with André Racot, head of the Cannes municipal gardens,[11] paying attention that the trees were not too dark-colored for the TV cameras.[8] The flower pots were then added on the day of the show so that they were fresh and unaltered by unsuitable temperature and light conditions.[8]
Format
Initial plans foresaw that the greenroom was part of the stage so that artists stayed on the stage after having performed.[8] However, this idea finally was not realised in the live show.[12]
The draw to determine the running order took place on 16 March 1961 at the Carlton Hotel in Cannes.[9] It was presented by Jacqueline Joubert, assisted by two children aged six and four.[9]
The contest was held on 18 March 1961, beginning at 22:00 (CET) and lasted 1 hour and 30 minutes.[2][13] The event was hosted by French television presenter Jacqueline Joubert, who had previously presented the previous contest held in France in 1959.[2][5]
Each country nominated a spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for their respective country via telephone. Known spokespersons at the 1961 contest are listed below.
Each country had 10 jury members who each awarded 1 point to their favourite song. The jury members were television viewers representing the public.[1]
It is noticeable that during the voting, Luxembourg gave the UK eight points, and Norway also gave Denmark eight points. It was the largest number of points given to a country by a single jury since 1958, when Denmark provided France with nine points. Such a high number of points obtained by a country would not be achieved until 1970, when Ireland would receive nine points from Belgium.[5]
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.[23] The local press reported a total number of 14 commentators for the contest, and a total of 16 countries broadcasting the event.[8][17]
No official accounts of the viewing figures are known to exist. An estimate given in the French press ahead of the contest was 40 million viewers all over Europe.[8]
Known details on the broadcasts in each country, including the specific broadcasting stations and commentators are shown in the tables below.
Broadcasters and commentators in participating countries
^ abcdefghRoxburgh, Gordon (2012). Songs for Europe: The United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest. Vol. One: The 1950s and 1960s. Prestatyn: Telos Publishing. pp. 254–264. ISBN978-1-84583-065-6.
^ abcdefghiDany, Pierre (15 March 1961). "Le Palais des Festivals est fin prêt pour accueillir les concurrents du Grand Prix Eurovision de la Chanson". L'Espoir de Nice et du Sud-Est. Nice, France. p. 4. ISSN1166-9012.
^ abcdDany, Pierre (17 March 1961). "Grand Prix Eurovision de la chanson demain soir, à Cannes au Palais des Festivals". Nice-Matin. Nice, France. p. 6. ISSN0224-5477.
^Montaigne, Pierre (11 March 1959). "Le Grand Prix 1959 de la chanson européenne". Nice-Matin. Nice, France. p. 2. ISSN0224-5477.
^Ville de Cannes, ed. (2007). Cannes, elles & eux. Des hommes des femmes, leur destin à Cannes (in French). Vol. 2. Cannes: Archives communales. pp. 54–55. ISBN978-2-9162-6101-0. OCLC213499510.
^ abGrand Prix Eurovision 1961 de la chanson européenne (Television production) (in French). Cannes, France: Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française (RTF). 18 March 1961.
^ ab"TV". Radio TV – Je vois tout (in French). No. 10. Lausanne, Switzerland. 9 March 1961. pp. 24, 26. Retrieved 19 June 2022 – via Scriptorium.
^Dany, Pierre (20 March 1961). "A la suite d'une lutte serrée avec le Royaume-Uni, le Luxembourg remporte le Grand Prix Eurovision de la chanson". L'Espoir de Nice et du Sud-Est (in French). Nice, France. p. 6. ISSN1166-9012.
^ ab"Grand Prix Eurovision de la chanson" [Eurovision Song Grand Prix]. L'Espoir de Nice et du Sud-Est. Nice, France. 18 March 1961. p. 4. ISSN1166-9012.
^"Greetje vanavond nummer zes" [Greetje number six tonight]. Nieuwe Leidsche Courant. Amsterdam, Netherlands. 18 March 1961. p. 7. Retrieved 11 June 2021. De Nederlandse jury-van-tien, onder leiding van Siebe van der Zee, zal in de Irene-studio in Bussum bijeen komen. [The Dutch jury of ten, led by Siebe van der Zee, will meet in the Irene studio in Bussum.]
^Thorsson, Leif; Verhage, Martin (2006). Melodifestivalen genom tiderna : de svenska uttagningarna och internationella finalerna [Melodifestivalen through the ages: the Swedish selections and international finals] (in Swedish). Stockholm: Premium Publishing. pp. 34–35. ISBN91-89136-29-2.
^ abcd"6ème concours Eurovision de la chanson 1961" [6th Eurovision Song Contest 1961]. INA Mediapro (television broadcast). Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française. 2023 [18 March 1961]. Retrieved 14 April 2024 – via Institut national de l'audiovisuel (INA). Robert Beauvis: j'ai la charge d'assurer le commentaire pour le Grand Duché de Luxembourg, Monaco, la Suisse romande et parallèlement [...] Nic Bal, qui le fait en langue flamande pour la Belgique. [Robert Beauvis: I am responsible for ensuring the commentary for the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, Monaco, French-speaking Switzerland, in parallel with [...] Nic Bal, who does it in the Flemish language for Belgium.]
^Pajala, Mari (2013). Badenoch, Alexander; Fickers, Andreas; Henrich-Franke, Christian (eds.). "Intervision Song Contests and Finnish Television between East and West". Airy Curtains in the European Ether: Broadcasting and the Cold War. Baden-Baden, Germany: Nomos: 215–270. doi:10.5771/9783845236070-215. ISBN9783845236070 – via Academia.edu. Walli was closely involved in YLE's ESC productions; among other things he [...] provided the commentary for all the 1960s ESCs on Finnish television.
^"Rundfunk – SA | 18. März" [Radio – Sat | 18 March]. Hör Zu! (in German). No. 11. Hamburg, West Germany. 12 March 1961. pp. 74–75. Retrieved 24 May 2024 – via Internet Archive.
^Anselmi, Eddy (January 2020). Il festival di Sanremo: 70 anni di storie, canzoni, cantanti e serate [The Sanremo festival: 70 years of stories, songs, singers and evenings] (in Italian). Milan, Italy: Planeta DeAgostini. ISBN978-88-511-7854-3. Nel 1961 è il commentatore Rai dell'Eurovision Song Contest [In 1961 he was the commentator for Rai at the Eurovision Song Contest]
^"Eurovisie Songfestival ook op radio" [Eurovision Song Contest also on radio]. De Tijd De Maasbode (in Dutch). Amsterdam, Netherlands. 7 March 1961. p. 6. Retrieved 26 June 2023 – via Delpher. Coen Serré zal uit Cannes het radiocommentaar verzorgen. Piet te Nuyl jr licht de televisie-uitzending toe. [Coen Serré will provide the radio commentary from Cannes. Piet te Nuyl Jr. explains the television broadcast.]
^"Hørt i Radio" [Heard on the radio]. Haugesunds Dagblad (in Norwegian). Haugesund, Norway. 20 March 1961. p. 3. Retrieved 19 June 2022 – via National Library of Norway. Leif Rustad ved mikrofonen virket så hjelpeløs og opptrådte så stavrende beskjedent, at vi skjønte ikke stort va hele konkurransen. [Leif Rustad at the microphone seemed so helpless and acted so modestly, that we didn't really understand what the whole competition was about.]