The Eurovision Song Contest 1973 was the 18th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, held on 7 April 1973 at the in Luxembourg City, Luxembourg, and presented by Helga Guitton. It was organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster (CLT), who staged the event after winning the for with the song "Après toi" by Vicky Leandros.
Broadcasters from a total of eighteen countries signed up to enter the contest, with competing for the first time, while pulled out after taking part in 1972 due to disputes between the broadcaster (ORF) and Austrian record labels. However 's planned participation ultimately failed to materialise, after the Maltese Broadcasting Authority (MBA) deemed the quality of the songs that it had received of too low quality, leaving seventeen countries to participate.
The winner was , represented by the song "", composed by , with lyrics by , and performed by Anne-Marie David. This was Luxembourg's fourth contest victory, matching the record number of contest wins previously set by , and marked the second time that a country had won the contest two years in succession, previously set by . , the , , and rounded out the top five positions, with Israel achieving the best performance for a debut nation since .
With 129 votes out of a possible maximum score of 160, "" remains the best-ever scoring song when compared to the potential maximum available, receiving 80.63% of the maximum vote.
Location
The 1973 contest took place in Luxembourg City, Luxembourg, following the country's victory at the with the song "" performed by Vicky Leandros. It was the third time that the event was hosted in Luxembourg, following the contests held in and .
Within days of winning the 1972 contest the Luxembourgish broadcaster (CLT) had confirmed its intent to stage the event. CLT proposed the (also known as the or ), an arts venue inaugurated in 1964, as the venue and suggested either 28 April or 5 May 1973 as the date of the event, the latest calendar dates proposed for the contest since its in 1956. A revised date of 7 April was subsequently accepted by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), and announced during the 1972 edition of the Rose d'Or festival in Montreux, Switzerland. The venue's usual capacity of 800 seats was reduced by about 100 to allow space for technical equipment.
Participants
Broadcasters from a total of eighteen countries initially signed up for the 1973 event. Seventeen of the eighteen which had participated in were set to returnwith being the only absenceand were joined by in its contest debut. The Israel Broadcasting Authority (IBA), which was eligible to participate as a member of the EBU, became the first broadcaster to enter the contest representing a non-European country. The Austrian broadcaster, (ORF), refused to send an entry, reportedly due to disputes between its head of entertainment and Austrian record labels. In October 1972 the Greek broadcaster, the National Radio Television Foundation (EIRT), also enquired about entering the contest, however this was past the EBU's cut-off date; it would ultimately enter for the first time at the . was among the eighteen countries initially scheduled to compete, however the Maltese Broadcasting Authority (MBA) withdrew its planned participation at a late stage, considering the standard of songs that it had received to be of too low quality for the contest; this left seventeen countries in the contest.
Three artists who had previously competed in the contest returned to represent their countries again: Marion Rung who had represented , Cliff Richard who had represented the , and Massimo Ranieri who had represented , appeared in the contest for the second time. Additionally, Nicole and Hugo had originally been selected to represent , however the duo were replaced after Nicole contracted jaundice; among the Belgian duo's 1973 backing singers was Claude Lombard, who had represented . 's group had originally performed in the Swedish selection, , as Malta; however to avoid confusion with the country, the group performed at Eurovision as "the Nova". Monica Dominique was the first female conductor in the contest's history when she led the orchestra during the Swedish entry; she was shortly followed by the second female conductor, Nurit Hirsh for , a few songs later.
+ Eurovision Song Contest 1973 participants Country Broadcaster Artist Song Language Songwriter(s) Conductor BRT Nicole and Hugo "Baby Baby" Dutch Francis Bay YLE Marion Rung "Tom Tom Tom" English Ossi Runne ORTF Martine Clémenceau "" French HR Gitte "" German Günther-Eric Thöner RTÉ Maxi "Do I Dream" English Colman Pearce IBA Ilanit "" () Hebrew Nurit Hirsh RAI Massimo Ranieri "" Italian Enrico Polito CLT Anne-Marie David "" French Pierre Cao TMC Marie "" French Jean-Claude Vannier NOS Ben Cramer "" Dutch Pierre Kartner Harry van Hoof NRK Bendik Singers "It's Just a Game" English, French Carsten Klouman RTP Fernando Tordo "" Portuguese TVE Mocedades "" Spanish Juan Carlos Calderón Juan Carlos Calderón SR The Nova "You're Summer" English Monica Dominique SRG SSR Patrick Juvet "" French Hervé Roy BBC Cliff Richard "Power to All Our Friends" English David Mackay JRT Zdravko Čolić "" () Serbo-Croatian Kemal Monteno
Production and format The Eurovision Song Contest 1973 was produced by the Luxembourgish public broadcaster (CLT), with some technical assistance provided by the German public broadcaster ARD. served as producer, René Steichen served as director, Joachim Dzierzenga served as designer, and Pierre Cao served as musical director, leading the 46-piece Radio Télé Luxembourg orchestra. A separate musical director could be nominated by each participating delegation to lead the orchestra during its country's performance, with the host musical director also available to conduct for those countries which did not nominate their own conductor. On behalf of the EBU, the event was overseen by Clifford Brown as scrutineer. The contest was presented by the German radio and television presenter Helga Guitton, a regular presenter on the German-language and the French-language . The preparation and production activities of the contest coincided with the introduction of colour television on in late 1972.
Each participating broadcaster submitted one song, which was required to be no longer than three minutes in duration. A maximum of six performers were allowed on stage during each country's performance. Following the confirmation of the eighteen planned participating countries, the draw to determine the running order of the contest was held on 8 January 1973 at the Villa Louvigny television studios in Luxembourg City, conducted by Jacques Harvey and Helga Guitton in the presence of Clifford Brown for the EBU and Gust Graas and Camille Ernster for CLT; had Malta competed as expected, they would have performed in sixth position, between the entries from and .
The voting system used for the previous two years returned: each participating broadcaster appointed two individualsone below the age of 25, the other above, and with at least 10 years between their ageswho awarded each song a score between one and five votes, except for the song from their own country. The jurors were situated within Villa Louvigny, where they followed the contest on television, and after each country had performed were required to record their votes, so that they could not be altered later. The jurors were shown on screen during the voting sequence, with the scores being announced on screen by the jurors in blocks of three countries, with the final two countries voting as a block of two; the jurors were accommodated in a hotel in Mondorf-les-Bains, from Luxembourg City, and were forbidden from mixing with the competing delegations.
Songs were permitted for the first time to be performed in any language, and not solely the official or national language or languages of the country they represented. The countries which opted to take advantage of this new-found freedom were and , who sang in English, and , whose song was primarily in English and French but also featured lyrics in multiple other European languages. This edition was the first to feature pre-recorded backing tracks, which could be used either with or without supplementation by the orchestra; any backing tracks were however required to include only the sound of instruments featured on stage being mimed by the performers. The first entry to be performed with a backing track accompaniment was that of the .
Rehearsals for the participating artists began on 4 April 1973, with each delegation receiving one 45-minute slot on stage between 4 and 6 April. The order in which the countries rehearsed was determined by how close they were to Luxembourg. Rehearsals of the interval act and presenter in the contest venue, and the juries in the television studio, were also conducted on 6 April, followed by a full dress rehearsal. Technical rehearsals and further rehearsals for the juries were held in the morning of 7 April, followed by another full dress rehearsal in the afternoon ahead of the live transmission.
With participating for the first time, and with the contest being held only months after an attack on the Israeli team at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany, Luxembourg mounted extensive security arrangements for the contest: the was sealed off for the duration of the contest's preparation, and when not required at the contest venue the Israeli delegation were isolated on the top floor of the Holiday Inn protected by armed guards. Audience members were instructed not to stand up during the contest itself at the risk of being shot by armed security within the venue, while Israeli entrant Ilanit was rumoured to have worn a bulletproof vest underneath her outfit during her performance.
Contest overview
The contest was held on 7 April 1973, beginning at 21:30 (CET) and lasting 1 hour and 40 minutes. In attendance for the contest were Princess Marie-Astrid, Princess Margaretha and Prince Jean of the grand ducal family of Luxembourg.
The interval act was a performance by the Spanish clown Charlie Rivel, introduced by Guitton as "", who performed a comedic routine in drag as an operatic prima donna. It was the first occurrence of a drag performance at the Eurovision Song Contest, predating the first appearance of drag artists in a competing entry by thirteen years, and the first drag act to compete as the main performers for a country by twenty-nine years. The prize for the winning artist and songwriters was presented by the previous year's winning artist Vicky Leandros.
The winner was represented by the song "", composed by , written by and performed by the French singer Anne-Marie David. It was Luxembourg's fourth contest victory, following wins in , and 1972, becoming the first to achieve two outright wins in a row, and the second country to win twice in a row after , which had achieved back-to-back wins in and , the latter of which as part of a four-way tie. With four wins David's victory also brought Luxembourg level for most wins overall, tied with who held three outright wins in , , and and one shared win in . and the finished in second and third, respectively, with the top three separated by only six votes. placed fourth, the best result for a debuting entry since , and placed fifth, despite some consternation over the lyrics of its entry, including: "Oh your breasts are like swallows a-nestling". also achieved its best-ever result to that point, with a sixth-place finish. In addition to the traditional full reprise of the winning song by Anne-Marie David, a shorter version of the song was performed by her during the closing credits.