Eurovision Song Contest 1961
The Eurovision Song Contest 1961, originally known as the Grand Prix Eurovision 1961 de la Chanson Européenne, was the 6th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, held on 18 March 1961 at the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès in Cannes, France, and presented by Jacqueline Joubert. It was organised by the European Broadcasting Union and host broadcaster Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française, who staged the event after winning the for with the song "Tom Pillibi" by Jacqueline Boyer. It was the second time that France had hosted the contest, becoming the first country to host the contest on two separate occasions, following the which was also held in the Palais des Festivals in Cannes and was also presented by Jacqueline Joubert. In a new record number of participants broadcasters from sixteen countries entered the contest, with the thirteen countries which competed in 1960 present alongside,, and, all three making their first contest appearances.
The winner was with the song "Nous les amoureux", composed by Jacques Datin, written by and performed by Jean-Claude Pascal, the first of an eventual five contest victories for the country as of 2025. Although not interpreted as such at the time, the winning song has since been reevaluated and reinterpreted as a song about homosexual love, a topic which would have been considered taboo if publicly spoken in 1961. The placed second for the third consecutive contest, while came third.
Location
The 1961 contest took place in Cannes, France, following the nation's victory at the in London, the United Kingdom, with the song "Tom Pillibi", performed by Jacqueline Boyer. The selected venue was the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès, built in 1949 to host the Cannes Film Festival and located on the Promenade de la Croisette along the shore of the Mediterranean Sea. Due to the growth in the film festival a new building bearing the same name was opened in 1982, with the original building renamed as the Palais Croisette.This was the second time that the contest was staged in France, with the same venue having already hosted the. It also marked the first time that a country and city had staged the contest on two separate occasions.
Other events held during the week of the contest included a supper for the participating delegations, which was held after the contest in the Salon des Ambassadeurs in the city's.
Participants
The 1961 contest saw the first entries from, and. Joining the thirteen countries which had competed in the previous year's event, this led to the contest growing to a record number of sixteen participants.Bob Benny and Nora Brockstedt both made a second appearance in the contest for their respective countries. Benny had placed sixth for with the song "Hou toch van mij", while Brockstedt had placed fourth for with "Voi-voi". Also among the participating artists was 's Lale Andersen, who had gained significant international fame and popularity during World War II, both in Allied and Axis countries, for her interpretation of "Lili Marleen". At 56 years old, Andersen was the oldest performer to have competed in the contest, and held this record until, when 75-year-old Ladislav Demeterffy competed for with the group Kraljevi ulice.
| Country | Broadcaster | Artist | Song | Language | Songwriter | Conductor |
| ORF | Jimmy Makulis | "Sehnsucht" | German | Leopold Andrejewitsch | Franck Pourcel | |
| BRT | Bob Benny | "September, gouden roos" | Dutch | Francis Bay | ||
| DR | Dario Campeotto | "Angelique" | Danish | Aksel V. Rasmussen | Kai Mortensen | |
| YLE | Laila Kinnunen | "Valoa ikkunassa" | Finnish | George de Godzinsky | ||
| RTF | Jean-Paul Mauric | "Printemps " | French | Franck Pourcel | ||
| HR | Lale Andersen | "Einmal sehen wir uns wieder" | German, French | Franck Pourcel | ||
| RAI | Betty Curtis | "Al di là" | Italian | Gianfranco Intra | ||
| CLT | Jean-Claude Pascal | "Nous les amoureux" | French | Léo Chauliac | ||
| TMC | Colette Deréal | "Allons, allons les enfants" | French | Raymond Lefèvre | ||
| NTS | Greetje Kauffeld | "Wat een dag" | Dutch | Dolf van der Linden | ||
| NRK | Nora Brockstedt | "Sommer i Palma" | Norwegian | Øivind Bergh | ||
| TVE | Conchita Bautista | "Estando contigo" | Spanish | |||
| SR | Lill-Babs | "April, april" | Swedish | |||
| SRG SSR | "Nous aurons demain" | French | Fernando Paggi | |||
| BBC | The Allisons | "Are You Sure?" | English | Harry Robinson | ||
| JRT | Ljiljana Petrović | "Neke davne zvezde" | Serbo-Croatian | Jože Privšek |
Production and format
The contest was organised and broadcast by the French public broadcaster Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française. served as producer and director, served as cinematographer, Gérard Dubois served as designer, and Franck Pourcel served as musical director, leading forty musicians of the Orchestre National de France. Each participating delegation was allowed to nominate its own musical director to lead the orchestra during the performance of its country's entry, with the host musical director also conducting for those countries which did not nominate their own conductor. The event was presented by Jacqueline Joubert, who had also hosted the 1959 contest; Joubert remains as of 2025 one of only three individuals to have presented multiple Eurovision Song Contests, alongside the UK's Katie Boyle and Sweden's Petra Mede.Each country, participating through a single EBU member broadcaster, was represented by one song performed by up to two people on stage. The results of the event were determined through jury voting, with each country's jury containing ten individuals who each gave one vote to their favourite song, with no abstentions allowed and with jurors unable to vote for their own country. The jury comprised members of the public who represented the average television viewer. Many of the other aspects of the show were however almost identical to the previous contest in Cannes, including the opening film, direction, production and the scoreboard used during the voting process.
The stage design was notably larger than in previous years, featuring a central large staircase covered in flowers, trees and shrubs, with an painted outdoor scene in the background, giving an impression of a Mediterranean garden. Dubois chose the trees to be featured within the stage design with André Racot, the head of the Cannes municipal gardens, making sure that the trees were not too dark when shown on black-and-white television. The original design featured the green room within the stage, with the artists remaining on stage after they had performed, however this idea ultimately did not feature in the final design constructed for the event.
The draw to determine the running order took place on 16 March 1961 at the Carlton Hotel in Cannes, conducted by Jacqueline Joubert and assisted by two children aged six and four. The draw also featured interviews with some of the participating acts conducted by Robert Beauvais. Rehearsals commenced in the contest venue on the same day.
Contest overview
The contest was held on 18 March 1961 at 20:00 and lasted 1 hour and 39 minutes. It was the first time that the contest was staged on a Saturday night, which has since become the traditional day on which the grand final of the contest is staged. The interval act was a dance performance by Tessa Beaumont and titled Rencontres à Cannes, with music by Raymond Lefèvre. The prize for the winning artist and songwriters, an engraved medallion, was presented by Tessa Beaumont.The winner was represented by the song "Nous les amoureux", composed by Jacques Datin, written by and performed by the French singer and actor Jean-Claude Pascal. This was the first of an eventual five contest victories that Luxembourg has gone on to achieve as of 2025. The came second for the third consecutive contest, while the placed third.
Although not widely interpreted as such at the time of the contest, it has since become known that the winning song speaks clandestinely of a homosexual relationship: the lyrics refer to a love that is frowned upon by society and forbidden by religion, however the singer hopes that one day their relationship will continue without controversy. Songs of such subject matter would have been considered taboo, and would not have been allowed to be spoken of widely in 1961; same-sex sexual activities were illegal in almost half of the countries competing in the contest at the time, including in Austria, West Germany, the UK and Spain. Therefore, the true meaning of the lyrics was required to be hidden behind subtext and double meanings, an interpretation later affirmed by Pascal, himself a gay man, although he never publicly came out during his lifetime. Given the song was released before the emergence of the modern gay liberation movement, it has since been interpreted as an early protest song in favour of rights for sexual minorities. The song has since been used more visibly to highlight LGBTQ rights, including in a promotional video by the French government to highlight homophobia, biphobia and transphobia.
| Country | Artist | Song | Votes | Place | |
| 1 | "Estando contigo" | 8 | 9 | ||
| 2 | "Allons, allons les enfants" | 6 | 10 | ||
| 3 | "Sehnsucht" | 1 | 15 | ||
| 4 | "Valoa ikkunassa" | 6 | 10 | ||
| 5 | "Neke davne zvezde" | 9 | 8 | ||
| 6 | "Wat een dag" | 6 | 10 | ||
| 7 | Lill-Babs | "April, april" | 2 | 14 | |
| 8 | "Einmal sehen wir uns wieder" | 3 | 13 | ||
| 9 | "Printemps " | 13 | 4 | ||
| 10 | "Nous aurons demain" | 16 | 3 | ||
| 11 | "September, gouden roos" | 1 | 15 | ||
| 12 | "Sommer i Palma" | 10 | 7 | ||
| 13 | "Angelique" | 12 | 5 | ||
| 14 | "Nous les amoureux" | 31 | 1 | ||
| 15 | "Are You Sure?" | 24 | 2 | ||
| 16 | "Al di là" | 12 | 5 |
Spokespersons
Each participating broadcaster appointed a spokesperson, connected to the contest venue via telephone lines and responsible for announcing, in English or French, the votes for its respective country. Known spokespersons at the 1961 contest are listed below.- –
- –
- –
- – Michael Aspel
Detailed voting results
Jury voting was used to determine the scores awarded by all countries; each country assembled a ten-person jury, with each juror awarding one vote to their favourite song. The announcement of the results from each country was conducted in reverse order to that which each country performed, with the spokespersons announcing their country's votes in English or French in performance order. The detailed breakdown of the votes awarded by each country is listed in the tables below, with voting countries listed in the order in which they presented their votes.Broadcasts
Broadcasters competing in the event were required to relay the contest via its networks; non-participating EBU member broadcasters were also able to relay the contest. 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. These commentators were typically sent to the venue to report on the event, and were able to provide commentary from small booths constructed at the back of the venue. Local press reported a total of 14 commentators reporting on the contest, with a total of 16 countries broadcasting the event.No official accounts of total international viewing figures are known to exist; an estimate given in the French press ahead of the contest suggested there would be 40 million viewers across Europe. Known details on the broadcasts in each country, including the specific broadcasting stations and commentators are shown in the tables below.