Eurovision Through the Years: 1958

  Eurovision Through the Years – In this series I will (in irregular time intervals and non-chronologically) present a year of the Eurovision Song Contest. We will look at songs and singers, hosts, gossip, interesting stories and funny incidents. Today we will take a close look at the 3rd edition. You can find all reviews we already published here: Eurovision Through the Years: The (Hi)Story.

The third Eurovision Song Contest in 1958 was held in the AVRO Studios in Hilversum in the Netherlands. It was the first year that the contest was held in the country that had won the contest the previous year, a rule that would prevail. The United Kingdom withdrew that year, but as Sweden became the second Scandinavian country to participate, there were still ten participating countries. Together with 1956, this was the only year in Eurovision history that no song was performed in English. According to the Dutch commentator “55 million viewers all over Europe” watched and listened to the contest that year.

The song from Italy was the 25^th performed on a Eurovision stage. The 24 coming before it and the over 1000 coming after it could not achieve what it did: Domenico Modugno’s “Nel blu di pinto di blu” is still the most successful Eurovision song. Under the title “Volare” It went on to win the Grammy for “Record of the year” and “Song of the Year” at the 1^st annual Grammy Awards in 1959. It spent 5 non-consecutive weeks atop the US Billboard Top 100 and was covered by countless artists among them Dean Martin and  the Gypsie Kings. The song is a ballad in a dramatic chanson style with jazz elements. Modugno sings about his feelings when he is with his lover, which resemble flying. The song’s title “Nel blu di pinto di blu” (“The Bluest of Blue”) describes the color of the sky while he is flying. Modungo performed the self-penned song with enthusiasm and passion. The jurors did not sense the hit they had on their hands. Behind France and Switzerland, “Volare” only came 3^rd.

The Netherlands sent the previous year’s winner Corry Brokken to the contest. Having won the contest in 1956, Lys Assia had also returned to compete in 1957. However, this did not turn into a tradition. Corry Brokken was the last winner trying to defend her title until 2011 when Lena tried the same for Germany. Maybe Brokken’s last place set a bad example for later winners. Brokken is the only artist to have come first and last at the Eurovision Song Contest. In 1957 she performed a typical chanson. In “Heel de wereld” (“The Whole World”) the she sings that she wants to tell the whole world her “secret”. She never says what her secret is, but the French version of her song entitled “Toi mon coeur, tu sais” (“You My Heart, You Know”), may give a clue.

The winner of the evening was France which sent André Claveau who performed a lullaby-chanson. “Dors,mon amour” (“Sleep, my love”) is a lullaby for Claveau’s lover. He tells her that they have “all the time to love, tonight” and that she is “protected by his arms” that surround her. While many of today’s Eurovision fans may say that the lullaby did its job for them, the jurors in 1958 liked it a lot and awarded it 27 points. However, the song is one of the least popular and known Eurovision winners.

As usual, Luxembourg found its representative abroad. The Belgian singer Solange Berry performed the chanson “Un grand amour” in Hilversum. In it, she sings about a “great love” that appeared unexpectedly. By the end of the song, this love has also ended and she claims that it is not a bad thing if a friendship between her and her lover is established instead. In 1960, Berry would enter the Belgian national final, but would lose out to Fud Leclerc (whom she competed with in Hilversum as well). She gave a good and elegant performance. The jurors seemingly did not care: Luxembourg came equal last.

For its first Eurovision participation, Sweden sent Alice Babs to Hilversum. She performed her ballad “Lilla stjärna” (“Little Stars”) in a Leksand national costume. There is no studio recording of the song because of a conflict between Babs and the original composer. Ake Gerhard had written the song and given it the title “Samma stjärnor lysa för oss två” (“The same stars shine for the two of us“). As neither the Swedish national broadcaster SVT nor Alice Babs approved of the lyrics, a journalist of SVT was engaged to rewrite the lyrics without Gerhard’s consent. The latter thus prohibited the recording of his composition and the only recording of the song is the Eurovision performance. Sweden started its long and successful Eurovision career with a 4^th place.

The interval act that year came in between the 5^th and 6^th performance to “give the jurors time to take their decision”. The orchestra performed “The wedding dance”

After the short intermezzo, the second Scandinavian effort of the evening from Denmark was performed.  In her song “Jeg rev et blad ud af min dagbog“ (“I tore a leaf out of my diary”), Raquel Rastenni  apologizes to a lover for the “words she used”, which is why she tears a leaf out of her diary. She askes him to forgive her. During the intro of her performance, Rastenni wrote into a diary she brought up on stage to then tear out a page. During the performance she also continued to look into the book. Rastenni was Jewish  and had to leave her native Denmark in 1943 as the country came under Nazi occupation. She fled to Sweden, but could return to Denmark in 1945 and became the countries’ leading ballad singer. Her song came 8^th in 1958 only above Luxembourg and the Netherlands.

Belgium sent its representative of 1956, Fud Leclerc to the Netherlands. Apart from his singing career, Leclerc  was also a pianist (among others for Julie Gréco), accordionist and song writer. In his entry “Ma petite chatte” (“My Little Sweetie”), Leclerc sings about walking in a bad part of town, where he meets the girl of his dreams.  The mid-tempo ballad got 8 points from the jurors and thus came 5^th. Leclerc would return to the Eurovision stage two more times.

After her good 4^th place the year before, Germany sent the popular singer, model and actress Margot Hielscher again. Just like the year before she used gimmicks to visualize the lyrics of her entry. In the song  “Für zwei Groschen Musik” (“Music for two pennies”).  she sings, that there is a “Miss Germany”, a “Miss Frankreich”, but as there isn’t a Miss Jukebox yet, she wants to take the position. She thus performed the song wearing a crown and with a “Miss Jukebox” sash. She also held up different LP’s when she asks which kind of music (Dixie music, music from the Rhine, Verdi’s operas) the audience would like to hear. No matter what they choose, according to the lyrics for very little money, they will “own a world”. Hielscher could not repeat her result from the year before and only came 7^th.

Austria selected the German-Austrian singer Liane Augustin for Eurovision. In the ballad “Die ganze Welt braucht Liebe” (“The whole world needs love”), Augustin sings that the whole world needs love and asks whether that is different for her. She answers her own question negatively saying “No, it can’t be any different”. After their last place in 1957, Augustin’s 5^th place was a success for Austria.

Switzerland sent the winner of 1956, Lys Assia for the third time in a row. Assia thus performed all 4 of Switzerland’s first Eurovision entries. Her 4^th effort “Giorgio” is about a “weekend”  the singer spends with said Giorgio at the Laggo Magiore in Ascona. Assia adds a number of Italian phrases and especially Italian culinary vocabulary such as “polenta” “risotto” and “espresso” to the German lyrics, suggesting that they spent most of the weekend eating.  She performed the song with a “grain of salt” and the jurors apparently liked the driving melody despite the rather senseless lyrics: Assia ended her Eurovision career (for now as it seems) with a second place.

After all songs had been performed, the hostess of the evening, Hannie Lips came on stage for the first time to announce in Dutch (later on struggling through the same announcement in English and French) that due to problems with the broadcast in certain countries, Italy’s performance had not been heard in all participating countries and that thus Modugno had to perform his song again.

Once more every country had a 10-member jury and each member could give 1 point to his/her favorite song. During the voting, the French song got 9 out of ten points from Denmark (which seemingly surprised the host) and high marks from Austria. However, before the last country’s (Italy’s) votes, France only lead Switzerland by one point. However, 6 points from the Italian jury to France and only 4 to Switzerland secured the first French victory.

The Austrian spokesperson was much too fast just like the year before and Hannie Lips had to tell him several times to slow down. She also seemed to have some problems with the French language and her own problems made her giggle at times. Incidentally, the highest votes for “Volare” came from Germany (4) and Belgium (4).

In a heavy Dutch accent, the head of the Dutch broadcaster thanked the orchestra and the winning composer and performer in French. Claveau then took the microphone to thank the composers of his song and then performed the reprise of his song.

Here you can watch the entire contest:

Here is the scoreboard:

Place		Country	Artist	Song
1		France	André Claveau	Dors, mon amour	27
2		Switzerland	Lys Assia	Giorgio	24
3		Italy	Domenico Modugno	Nel blu dipinto di blu	13
4		Sweden	Alice Babs	Lilla stjärna	10
5		Belgium	Fud Leclerc	Ma petite chatte	8
5		Austria	Liane Augustin	Die ganze Welt braucht Liebe	8
7		Germany	Margot Hielscher	Für zwei Groschen Musik	5
8		Denmark	Raquel Rastenni	Jag rev et blad ud af min dagbog	3
9		Netherlands	Corry Brokken	Heeö de wereld	1
9		Luxembourg	Solange Berry	Un grand amour	1

Inspirations: youtube, wikipedia, Klaus Berg ogae.de – ESC Geschichte(n)

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