Eighteen countries participated in the contest. All countries that took part in the 1965 edition, also took part this year.
The winner was Austria with the song "Merci, Chérie", performed and composed by Udo Jürgens, and written by Jürgens and Thomas Hörbiger.[1] This was Austria's first victory - and Udo Jürgens third consecutive entry - in the contest. This was also the first winning song to be performed in German. This contest is also noted for its historic results for several countries. Austria who came first, Sweden who came second, Norway who came third and Belgium who came fourth all achieved their best results up until then, some of which would stand for several decades. In contrast traditional Eurovision heavyweights up to that point such as France, United Kingdom and Italy all achieved by their worst result by far up till that point, with the general public in the aforementioned countries meeting these results with a degree of consternation.
During the voting process, the presenter (Josiane Chen) accidentally greeted United Kingdom by saying "Good night, London". She then realized her mistake and said "Good evening, London", after Michael Aspel, who was the spokesperson for the United Kingdom, at that time, responded by saying "Good morning, Luxembourg".
1966 marked the year the first ever black singer graced the Eurovision stage, Milly Scott representing the Netherlands. She was also the first singer to use a portable microphone. This was the last contest that Denmark participated in until 1978, more than a decade later.[2]
It was also one of the first contests in which an entry was not accompanied by an orchestra. The Italian entry "Dio, come ti amo" performed by Domenico Modugno had been rearranged since its performance at the Sanremo Music Festival and officially broke the EBU rule that stated the arrangement should be finalised well in advance. During the Saturday afternoon rehearsal Modugno performed the new arrangement with three of his own musicians as opposed to the orchestra, which went over the three minute time limit. Following his rehearsal Modugno was confronted by the show's producers about exceeding the time limit and was asked to use the original arrangement with the orchestra. Modugno was so dissatisfied with the orchestra that he threatened to withdraw from the Contest. Both the producers and EBU scrutineer Clifford Brown felt it was too short notice to fly Gigliola Cinquetti to Luxembourg to represent Italy, so the EBU gave in and allowed Modugno to use his own ensemble instead of the orchestra. Despite websites and the official programme listing Angelo Giacomazzi as the conductor, Giacomazzi actually played the piano for the entry.[3][4]
This year's voting was also characterised with numerous cases of "neighbourly" or "bloc" voting - a problem that would plague the contest in many future decades. Sweden for example received all its 16 points, bar one, from its Nordic neighbours - as did Finland. Denmark likewise received all its points from Nordic nations. The voting of the Nordic countries was met with booing from the Luxembourg audience. Portugal and its sole neighbour Spain exchanged maximum five points, with Switzerland and Austria - also two countries neighbouring each other - doing likewise. France was spared the indignity of no points from its micro-state neighbour Monaco. Ireland awarded maximum points to its culturally closest neighbour the United Kingdom with the Netherlands doing the same for Belgium.
Listed below is the order in which votes were cast during the 1966 contest along with the spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for their respective country.[8]
^ abcdefghijkRoxburgh, Gordon (2012). Songs for Europe: The United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest. Volume One: The 1950s and 1960s. Prestatyn: Telos Publishing. pp. 407–417. ISBN978-1-84583-065-6.
^Angelo Giacomazzi bio at www.andtheconductoris.eu
^Deguelt, François et al. (5 March 1966). 11ème Concours Eurovision de la Chanson 1966 [11th Eurovision Song Contest 1966] (Television production). Luxembourg: RTL, ORTF (commentary).
^"Teddy Scholten geeft commentaar op het Eurovisie Songfestival", Limburgsch Dagblad, 25 February 1966
Austria
