01 Germany
B: I love the line “Einer wird kommen, der dich von dienen Träumen befriet” and the way the ‘doch’ in the chorus changes to ‘denn’ to mark the transition.
A: Interesting composition here that makes the timing sound much more awkward than it actually is. It all sounds rather pretty, but with a kind of librarian’s officiousness to it.
V: Ms Eskens’ eyes carry this performance in a way her voice doesn’t.
02 Denmark
B: How oddly appropriate that a song called Stop While the Going’s Good should be Denmark’s last entry prior to their 11-year absence from the contest: they’d only won the thing a few years previously. Nice lyrics. Shows how liberal the country must have been in the mid-’60s that a girl coming home from her first dance was allowed out until two in the morning. The word kærlighedspuslespil itself resembles a puzzle you’re supposed to pull apart and put back together again in the right order.
A: Introducing the hook straight away before yanking the bait out of reach makes for a clever opening that keeps you listening. Great arrangement. There’s a lovely clarity to Ms Pia’s voice, which also has the edge it needs to sound convincing.
V: Love the dancers! I find Ulla strikingly beautiful for some reason.
03 Belgium
B: Paul and Phil the writing team emerge with the first of what would be several songs revolving around a repetition of ideas, both lyrical and musical. Were they that inspired by Poupée de cire, poupée de son?
A: Yes, this follows the kind of pattern you might reasonably expect it to, right down to Tonia’s vocals, which are very much the little girl who thinks she knows what she’s talking about. Arrangement and composition are a little pedestrian for my liking when they could both have been spiced up (boom boom).
V: Tonia’s teeth and eyes seem to be in competition with her beehive for the title of most prominent head and/or facial feature. I’d appreciate the thought she put into her performance if it were any more original than the song itself.
04 Luxembourg
B: There’s a nice sort of persistent joviality about the line “Et me voilà, là devant toi, tendant les bras”. It fits in here with what to me comes across as a desperate attempt to sound sincere.
A: The vocal arrangement in the chorus and the strings that accompany it are a nice surprise. The rest is jolly and passable but does little to lift itself above its stablemates.
V: What is she wearing? A body wrap? Nice vocals, but she delivers them as though she has a nervous twitch. The music is almost non-existent.
05 Yugoslavia
B: Thematically not all that different from Luxembourg but without any of the naivety. There’s plenty of painful self-awareness in lines like “Vdano in brez besed bova z jutrom se razšla”.
A: I suppose it’s fitting that this should sort of weigh upon you. The strings are fantastic, spilling out an entire backstory of their own.
V: Not the strength here live that I’d like to see. It’s all very wide-eyed.
06 Norway
B: While she might not have won, Ms Kleveland certainly achieved something no other Eurovision runner-up has ever matched to my knowledge: can you imagine someone like Sonia becoming the British Minister for Culture? “Hva har jeg å vente på meg selv der i stolen?” is a pertinent question in a set of lyrics that actually ask something.
A: Love the double bass. Norway does these kinds of songs rather well, doesn’t it? Like you’re reading the letter without realising you’ve even opened the envelope. Or perhaps telegram, given it’s little more than a minute and a half long.
V: Lovely unaffected delivery. I see they decided 97 seconds was not enough time in the spotlight.
07 Finland
B: The ultimate diss – I love the lines “Nolla nolla seitsemän, nimes muka liitetään / Nollat siinä olla vois, mutta seiskan jätän pois”! I wonder why this was the only time Ossi Runne composed for Finland when he conducted for them basically forever.
A: The first song to really play the Luxembourg ’65 card successfully in my opinion. Listening to it, I may have answered my own question there about Ossi Runne, as composition-wise this shows a certain finesse but not a lot of imagination. Strong chorus.
V: Ms Christine appears to have left the hairdresser’s with the hair dryer still on her head. She almost single-handedly keeps this afloat. It seems to have been stripped of almost all of its oomph bar her vocals.
08 Portugal
B: The fact that the last line here is “Ele sem ela não é ninguém” after the Finnish entry ends on “Elää ilman sua voin” is perfect accidental symmetry, even if ‘He’ here is anything but a playboy.
A: Ms Iglésias has a wonderful voice. It’s odd to hear Portugal doing something so unapologetically boppy, even more so when they do it this well and it makes you wonder why they eschew pastels so often in favour of pencil and charcoal.
V: That hairstyle adds 10 years to her. (She clearly visited the same salon as Ms Christine earlier in the afternoon.) Great vocals again, and nice performance.
09 Austria
B: The embodiment of ‘third time lucky’ and any number of other hackneyed catchphrases. I love the anecdote about him opening the reprise with “merci juries”! He must have come as a welcome change after the uninterrupted line-up of demure young ladies opening the show.
A: No doubt about it, Mr Jürgens grabs your attention as the first male vocalist. Unexpectedly layered arrangement here that works tremendously with his voice and delivery.
V: Can you have a restrained outpouring of emotion? If you can, that’s how I would describe this performance, which seems about right for Austria in any case.
10 Sweden
B: It’s not often you get song titles like New-Old Waltz (Hip Pig Farmer) in Eurovision, or at all for that matter; not nearly often enough! The lyrics are mad, and full of innuendo: I wonder if kastrull means more than just ‘saucepan’ in Swedish. It would make “jeg vill trummelumma på din kastrull” an unusual chat-up line. I hope Lill and Svante deliver as much of a performance as the screengrabs imply.
A: This would probably have been labelled 1966’s ‘joke entry’, but while it’s far too accomplished to be thus pigeon-holed, it’s not as immediate as I thought it would be.
V: Lill Lindfors has the biggest eyes in history. This works perfectly on stage. If Svante Thuresson was that old then, how ancient was he in Melodifestivalen in 2007?!
11 Spain
B: I guess coming one place higher a year later with the same handful of points wasn’t really much of an achievement for someone of Raphael’s standing (in Spain at least). Then again, if he’d stuck with the same composer for another five years after that, maybe 9 points would have been enough to win?
A: Hmmm, the delivery seems a bit overblown throughout when it could have just been cranked up for the choruses. Nice ending.
V: Camp as a row of tents! I love the fact that even with a frock on he wouldn’t look all that more much like a drag queen.
12 Switzerland
B: I quite like the frustration at the heart of this song. Shame everything works out in the end.
A: Pity, too, that it’s only in the bridge that any of that frustration is reflected in the music. Another serviceable composition, all the same.
V: Ms Pascal’s vocals aren’t all that convincing.
13 Monaco
B: “Je veux pleurer de tes yeux” is a romantic notion in what is a simple but rather delightful set of lyrics.
A: I like the way the piano, strings and vocals are interwoven in this like a string of DNA, sometimes independent of each other but always tied together. Beyond that I don’t really have anything to say about it.
V: Except that Sarah Parish lookalike Téréza has quite a nice voice for it. I wonder whether she and Berta Ambrož sat in some corner somewhere bitching about socialism.
14 Italy
B: Not much of a comeback as composer, lyricist and performer for Mr Modugno after Volare, but at least coming last with no points was in keeping with the downward spiral of his ’59 and ’62 entries, and an unhappy fate he was able to share with the lovely Téréza.
A: I can see how the composition here might have put the juries off, but I think it works really well in terms of what Mr Modugno’s saying and the emotion of it all – that epiphany where there are so many things running through your head about this person in front of you when suddenly every other thought vanishes and you realise just how much you love them.
V: Yep, can totally understand how it ended up with zilch at the end of the night. Much of it comes across as hugely unorthodox and possibly progressive.
15 France
B: Why does the idea of someone saying “Il n’empêche que l’on s’aime” appeal to me so much? Scary snapshot of Mr Walter on Diggiloo.
A: I find this neither interesting nor adventurous. The piano livens things up in what is otherwise a fairly spartan arrangement. Even Belgium, uninspired though it may be, is more appealing.
V: Given how prevalent they became in later years, it’s amazing to see it take until song #15 before we hear any backing vocalists. Then again, they need to add something to the mix here, I suppose.
16 The Netherlands
B: As the first black artist in the contest’s history, Milly Scott representing the Netherlands with a song about Mexican boys sounds like it should work for some reason. That said, “Tong-ki tong ri-ki kong-kong-tong” doesn’t do much for the lyrical reputation of the contest.
A: And having said that, it’s the best bit of the song, lending it a jauntiness the music singularly fails to. They really ought to have gone for the whole cactus and muchacha thing instead of settling on something more mainstream.
V: Hurray! Glad to see them reinstating the cheery nonsense for the performance. Love Ms Scott’s entrance, although her exit in the same manner doesn’t really work.
17 Ireland
B: Dickie Rock and Rowland Soper sound like spoonerisms. Awful rhyming dictionary lyrics.
A: As diligently and as shamelessly as it aspires to it, this has none of the greatness of Unchained Melody.
V: Those glorious ears are crying out for a much bigger bowtie.
18 United Kingdom
B: We need more hairy-legged highlanders in kilts at Eurovision, albeit preferably looking less like a history teacher with a penchant for the dandy. “A man without love is only half a man” is not a statement everyone would agree with, and I can’t say “all [my] life is roses and rainbows and songbirds”, but in general I’d give this the nod.
A: This seems wilfully old-fashioned for the mid-’60s and is just as overblown in its way as Spain’s effort. Lovely arrangement though, and Mr McKellar has a strong voice. Perhaps he was without love for so long because he took it all so seriously?
V: What a strap of a man our Kenneth is. The audience clearly appreciate a bit of skirt. Why do the BBC not have the imagination these days to send someone in national costume?
And so to the points...
1 point goes to the Netherlands
2 points go to Sweden
3 points go to Monaco
4 points go to Yugoslavia
5 points go to Finland
6 points go to Portugal
7 points go to Italy
8 points go to Norway
10 points go to Denmark
and finally...
12 points go to...
Austria!
The wooden spoon is awarded to France.
*Comment predates Austria's victory in 2014 and, needless to say, Luxembourg's return in 2024 ;)
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