Eurovision Song Contest 1970
The Eurovision Song Contest 1970 was the 15th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, held on 21 March 1970 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Centre in Amsterdam, Netherlands, and presented by Willy Dobbe. It was organised by the European Broadcasting Union and host broadcaster Nederlandse Omroep Stichting, who staged the event after winning the for the in a joint victory with,, and the. As the 1969 contest was held in Spain, and the in the United Kingdom, a draw of ballots between the French and the Dutch broadcasters resulted in NOS being chosen as the host broadcaster.
Broadcasters from twelve countries participated in the contest this year, the lowest number of participants since.,,, and all boycotted the 1970 edition, officially because they felt that the contest marginalised smaller countries and was no longer good television entertainment, though it is rumoured that they, along with which had already opted not to take part in 1969, were protesting the four-way tie result that had occurred that year.
The winner of the competition was with the song "All Kinds of Everything", performed by Dana, and written by Derry Lindsay and Jackie Smith. This was Ireland's first of their eventual record seven victories in the contest. The finished in second place for the seventh time, while ended up in third place – the best result for the country at the time. This was also the only time that received nul points.
Location
Due to there being four winners in the –, the,, and the –, a question was raised as to which broadcaster would host the 1970 contest. With Televisión Española having hosted the 1969 contest in Madrid and the British Broadcasting Corporation the in London, only Office de Radiodiffusion Télévision Française and Nederlandse Omroep Stichting were in consideration. A draw of ballots between these two resulted in NOS being chosen as the host broadcaster.The Congrescentrum, venue of the 1970 contest, is a semi-permanent exhibit at the Ferdinand Bolstraat to Amsterdam and was opened on 31 October 1922. This building was replaced in 1961 by the current RAI building on Europe's Square. The current congress and event center on Europe Square, was designed by Alexander Bodon and opened on 2 February 1961.
Participants
,,,, and boycotted this contest as they were not pleased with the result of 1969 and the voting structure.For the first time, no lead artists from previous contests returned. However, María Jesús Aguirre and Mercedes Valimaña, members of, who provided backing vocals for, returned as backing singers for Spain.
| Country | Broadcaster | Artist | Song | Language | Songwriter | Conductor |
| RTB | Jean Vallée | "Viens l'oublier" | French | Jean Vallée | Jack Say | |
| ORTF | Guy Bonnet | "Marie-Blanche" | French | Franck Pourcel | ||
| HR | "Wunder gibt es immer wieder" | German | Christian Bruhn | |||
| RTÉ | Dana | "All Kinds of Everything" | English | Dolf van der Linden | ||
| RAI | Gianni Morandi | "Occhi di ragazza" | Italian | |||
| CLT | David Alexandre Winter | "Je suis tombé du ciel" | French | Raymond Lefèvre | ||
| TMC | "Marlène" | French | Jimmy Walter | |||
| NOS | Patricia and Hearts of Soul | "Waterman" | Dutch | Pieter Goemans | Dolf van der Linden | |
| TVE | Julio Iglesias | "Gwendolyne" | Spanish | Julio Iglesias | Augusto Algueró | |
| SRG SSR | Henri Dès | "Retour" | French | Henri Dès | Bernard Gérard | |
| BBC | Mary Hopkin | "Knock, Knock (Who's There?)" | English | Johnny Arthey | ||
| JRT | Eva Sršen | "Pridi, dala ti bom cvet" | Slovene | Mojmir Sepe |
Format
Following the confirmation of the twelve competing countries, the draw to determine the running order of the contest was held on 15 January 1970.The Dutch producers were forced to pad out the show as only 12 nations decided to make the trip to Amsterdam. The result was a format that has endured almost to the present day. An extended opening sequence set the scene, while every entry was introduced by a short video 'postcard' featuring each of the participating artists, ostensibly in their own nation. However, the 'postcards' for Switzerland, Luxembourg, and Monaco were all filmed on location in Paris. The long introduction film was followed by what probably is one of the shortest ever introductions by any presenter. Willy Dobbe only welcomed the viewers in English, French, and Dutch, finishing her introduction after only 24 seconds. On-screen captions introduced each entry, with the song titles listed all in lowercase and the names of the artist and composers/authors all in capitals.
The set design was devised by Roland de Groot; a simple design was composed of a number of curved horizontal bars and silver baubles which could be moved in a variety of different ways.
To avoid an incident like in 1969, a tie-breaking rule was created. It stated that, if two or more songs gained the same number of votes and were tied for first place, each song would have to be performed again. After which each national jury would have a show of hands of which they thought was the best. If the countries tied again, then they would share first place.
Contest overview
Ireland won the contest with "All Kinds of Everything", penned by Derry Lindsay and Jackie Smith, and sung by another unknown, Dana, an 18-year-old schoolgirl from Derry, Northern Ireland. As the contest was held in the Netherlands this year, and the country was one of the four winners in 1969, Dana received her awards from the Dutch winner Lenny Kuhr.| Country | Artist | Song | Votes | Place | |
| 1 | Patricia and Hearts of Soul | "Waterman" | 7 | 7 | |
| 2 | "Retour" | 8 | 4 | ||
| 3 | "Occhi di ragazza" | 5 | 8 | ||
| 4 | "Pridi, dala ti bom cvet" | 4 | 11 | ||
| 5 | "Viens l'oublier" | 5 | 8 | ||
| 6 | "Marie-Blanche" | 8 | 4 | ||
| 7 | "Knock, Knock (Who's There?)" | 26 | 2 | ||
| 8 | "Je suis tombé du ciel" | 0 | 12 | ||
| 9 | "Gwendolyne" | 8 | 4 | ||
| 10 | "Marlène" | 5 | 8 | ||
| 11 | "Wunder gibt es immer wieder" | 12 | 3 | ||
| 12 | Dana | "All Kinds of Everything" | 32 | 1 |
Spokespersons
Each participating broadcaster appointed a spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for their respective country via telephone. Known spokespersons at the 1970 contest are listed below.- – John Skehan
- – Ramón Rivera
- – Colin Ward-Lewis
Detailed voting results
Broadcasts
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.In addition to the participating countries, the contest was reported to have been broadcast by EBU member broadcasters in Greece, Iceland, Israel, and Tunisia; in Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and the Soviet Union via Intervision; and in Argentina, Brazil, and Chile. An estimated global audience of 400 million viewers was reported to have watched the contest. It was also known to broadcast on radio in countries including Ireland, Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom. Known details on the broadcasts in each country, including the specific broadcasting stations and commentators are shown in the tables below.