Eurovision 1969 and the Four Way Tie

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In today's episode, we are going to 69 for a little foreplay as we look back at one of the most notorious Eurovision song contests in history.

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Madrid: 1969

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I'm Stephen Perkins and this is Douce Moi.

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Hello, London, we are ready for your votes.

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th of April: 2025

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We've got another deep dive feature coming up in just a moment, but first let's take a quick look at the headlines from the last seven days.

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First up, the BBC has launched a hunt to find the UK's favourite 21st century Eurovision song.

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Members of the public have until 12 noon this Friday, 11th April to vote for their top five tracks from a short list of 67 drawn up by a group of Eurovision experts and others, with the results set to be revealed in a top 40 countdown hosted by Michelle Visage on 22nd of April.

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So if you've spent the last 10 years furious that nobody recognises Tonight Again by Guy Sebastian as the greatest Eurovision song of all time, well, there's not really anything I can do for you, but you can finally cast a vote into the ether and hope that it counts.

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To have your say, visit BBC.co.uk radio2eurovision.

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Meanwhile, if you fancy watching this year's contest with a massive group of fellow Eurovision fans but can't make it all the way to Switzerland, there is an alternative as for the third year in a row, the Grand Final will be shown live in over 100 cinemas across the UK on 17 May.

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To find a venue near you and book tickets, visit www.songcontestincinemas.co.uk and finally, not to say it's been a slow week, news wise or anything, but this year's UK representatives, remember Monday, have been making headlines a few times.

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Not only for saying that they haven't been focusing on their lengthening odds with the bookmakers and that they aren't doing it for the points, but also with their vow to get matching tattoos if they either finish in the top five or dead last.

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Well, at least someone will be pleased if the UK crashes and burns this year, even if it's just their tattoo artist.

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Now, it's probably not escaped your notice that this year is the 69th Eurovision Song Contest, given the amount of innuendos that have been flying around in these last few months.

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he Eurovision song contest in: 1969

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The only time this has ever happened and indeed the only time it's ever going to since the incident prompted them to bring in a tiebreak procedure for future editions of the contest.

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I have wanted to take a closer look at this one of a kind edition of Eurovision ever since I started this podcast and this seemed like a great time to do it.

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et's travel back to Madrid in: 1969

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The: 1969

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ry with La La La in London in: 1968

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Following her triumph, it was decided that the next contest would be held in Madrid's Teatro Real, although Spain was a controversial host country at this time, as it was under the rule fascist dictatorship of Francesco Franco.

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ason for withdrawing from the: 1969

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of the other nations from the: 1968

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Laurita Valenzuela, one of Spain's first ever television presenters, was selected as the host for that year's contest, with Ramon Diaz as the contest director.

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previous year's Eurovision in: 1968

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However, host broadcaster TVE did not have enough colour equipment to pull off such a large event at the time.

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And so, in the sort of Pan European display of cooperation that the contest was designed to encourage, they arranged to hire cameras from German broadcaster ard.

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Though since Spain's transmitters weren't yet colour compatible, viewers in Spain itself had to settle for watching the contest in black and white.

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There were also a lot of familiar faces among the artists this year for regular viewers of the contest, no fewer than 5 of the artists had taken part in Eurovision before.

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ted her country previously in: 1965

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um's Louis Neff's return from: 1967

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after representing Sweden in: 1960

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The contest opens with Laurita greeting the viewers watching in a variety of different languages, relying on a book that she's holding to read a few of them out, which does make the sequence a little bit faltering, although it is a lovely idea and one that was definitely worth doing.

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And in all fairness it was a bit unrealistic to make one person memorise how to say good evening in that many languages and expect them to get them all right on live tv.

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kly say in its favour is that: 1969

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There's not really a duff tune in the bunch, even if some aren't quite as strong as others.

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It is surprisingly easy to see how there ended up being a four way tie for first place with so many great entries this year, even if my favourite song of the bunch wasn't actually part of that four way tie.

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But we'll get back to that later.

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One more thing that's worth mentioning before we get into the songs themselves is just how swift the contest feels to a modern day viewer with very little time in between the songs.

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This is of course partially because there's no elaborate staging to set up or take down and it is really just a case of one act leading the stage and another one arriving, but also because this was before the time of the pre performance postcards.

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In fact we kind of have the: 1969

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He's also one of our snazziest male dresses of the evening in a rather funky green jacket with red, green, gold and white pattern for bells.

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Not quite so sartorially remarkable is Rabaul for Luxembourg, who's up next and he's in a slightly more conservative grey evening jacket with black piping.

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His song Katarina is a sweet ballad performed with passion, one of the evening's less standout songs, but still a decent effort.

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Things really kick up here though, when Spain's Salome arrives for the third song of the evening, Vivo Cantando or I Live Singing.

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Not to get too hung up on everyone's outfits, but hers is an excellent choice because she comes out in this high necked blue jumpsuit with lots of fringing, which really comes into its own as she swishes around on the spot while she's singing.

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concept as the contest got in: 1969

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And being our first properly uptempo track of the contest, it really made me sit up and take notice.

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After that, it's time for Monaco's Jean Jacques with Maman Maman, which was a record setter at Eurovision for a couple of reasons.

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Pack representing Belgium in: 1989

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er the contest was founded in: 1956

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For a youngster, he acquits himself pretty well.

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He's got a good voice and delivers a confident performance of a fun, bouncy song.

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He's followed by Muriel Day for Ireland with the Wages of Love, a very 60s feeling pop track about the challenges of romance, with another daring sartorial choice, a green caftan that barely comes down past her upper thighs.

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Again, this is a very convincing effort from Ireland.

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She's a very talented and charismatic singer and there are some lovely harmonies going on if you ignore the absolutely hideous outfits that her poor backing singers have been lumbered with.

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Then we're back to Ballardsville for Italy's Eva Zannici with Due grosse La creme bianche or Two Big White Tears.

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This one makes for a nice change of pace after the more poppy nature of the last three tracks.

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And it is a lovely song, sincerely delivered by Eva, who's resplendent in a sparkly sky blue dress.

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The only real problem with her performance is a couple of moments where she doesn't seem entirely sure which camera she's supposed to be looking into, but it's not enough to off balance the song, which does sound a little bit like the Jacksons I'll be there in places.

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Up next is the United Kingdom's Lulu with Boom Bang A Bang, a performance I have to admit I struggle with a bit.

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Don't get me wrong, I love this song.

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There's something so epic and sweeping and Viennese waltzy about it that I find impossible to resist.

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But I do find Lulu's delivery of it on stage at Eurovision quite cloying.

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All of the forced coquettish mugging to the camera is just too much for me.

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Part of me wonders if the excessive eye bugging throughout it is a manifestation of Lulu's personal dislike for the song, but that could just be me reading too much into it.

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Anyway, it's still a great song and she sings the heck out of it, so I'm not going to argue too much against it.

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She's immediately followed by another quite dramatic change of pace with the Netherlands Leni Koe and De Troubadour.

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Leni is the first artist of the evening to be playing her own instrument on stage as well as singing as she plays guitar on this wandering ballad type song with a catchy la la la la refrain in the contest, the sort of thing that I find very, very hard to resist at Eurovision.

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And it's an extremely assured performance.

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dish TV show S Mika better in: 2020

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This is quite a fun, laid back track that makes great use of the brass section of the orchestra, but it maybe never quite picks up the pace enough to make an impact in a night of generally very strong songs.

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Then we have Belgium's aforementioned Louis Neffs with Jennifer Jennings, which also really deploys the orchestra's full bombast and which features possibly my favourite moment of the entire night, the little celebratory whoop moment he does with his arms as he goes into the chorus.

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It's just so awkward but endearing and perfectly fits with his general TV newsreader kind of vibes.

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The next artist is Paula for Switzerland with Bonjour Bonjour, our second greeting themed song of the night.

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And as I covered in my two part history of Switzerland at Eurovision earlier this year, this one is surprisingly in German rather than in French.

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She's a great performer and this song is a lot of fun too, particularly when it all goes a bit a chorus line in the final third.

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The only criticism I have for this one is the dress, which is a line and covered in this daisy pattern that from a distance makes her look a little bit like a Dalek.

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She's followed by Norway's three beater Kirsty Sparber with Oi, oi, oi, Sor glad jaj Skalbi or oh, oh, oh, I'm so happy.

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This one, unfortunately gets my vote for the weakest song of the night.

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It starts off well and there's a nice kind of carnival energy to the drumming, but it just drags a little bit in the verses.

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Incidentally, there is a rather sad bit of trivia around Kirstie.

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Despite having competed at Eurovision three times, she received a grand total of four points across all of her entries.

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Though I guess that's an indictment of the scoring system in use at the time as much as it is anything else.

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Germany's Sil Mamkvist borrowed from Sweden is up next with Prima Ballerina.

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This is a decent song that has a bit of Spanish flamenco flavour to it.

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Again, it's not up there with the strongest entries of the night overall, but it is a solid enough effort and she sells it really well with her performance, really doing everything she can to bring some movement and life into it.

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Then it's time for France's Frida Bokhara with Enjol Une Enfants One Day a Child.

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And it's very much what you'd expect from a French entry.

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It's a soft, wistful ballad.

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She's got a fantastic voice, strong, clear and powerful.

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And the whole thing just gives winner vibes from the outse.

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There's no need for any bells and whistles on this one because the bass materials are so strong.

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The penultimate song of the night is Portugal's Simone de Oliveira with Das Fojada Portuguesa or in English, Portuguese Husking, which still doesn't make a lot of sense to me, but I'm assuming it is something idiosyncratically Portuguese.

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This one has a very dramatic musical intro and her vocals are crisp and clean throughout, almost operatic in their tone.

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She is absolutely working the camera in all the close ups as well, and I think this performance is just firing on all cylinders.

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It might not surprise anyone who knows me, but this is far and away my favourite song and performance of the night.

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And finally we come to Finland's Jako and Laura to close the competition with Kuin Siloin Enin.

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Like before, they're the only duo in the contest this year and they're as close to a comedy entry as we're likely to get around this time, since they make a big show of her putting a boater hat on him as the song starts and he's carrying this cane while they're performing.

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They even have a little bit of a dance break in the middle of the song where he does something vaguely resembling a Charleston.

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It's maybe not the most dramatic end to the whole evening, but I still really like this one for being entirely unlike the other entries of that year and also having some really lovely harmonies.

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With the songs all taken care of, we briefly return to La Rita and Her Big Book before we get to the evening's intermission.

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A very strange surrealist film called La Espagne Diferente by Javier Aguia, which I freely admit I can't make head nor tail of, but it is very fun to watch nonetheless.

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This is something, to be honest, I'd love to see a return to at Eurovision interval entertainment that is almost defiantly non commercial, something that is totally out of odds with the rest of the evening, but also feels totally right for the host broadcaster at the moment, which this inexplicably does.

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It is admittedly unlikely to ever happen again at Eurovision, but I can keep dreaming it's much more fun than the song about Martin Oosterdahl.

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Anyway, after that it's finally time for the voting.

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Now, this was the era when each country had a jury of 10 people, each of them giving one point to their favourite song, so there were a maximum of 10 points available to be dispersed however they saw fit, as long as they didn't vote for their own country.

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Of course, I'm not going to sit here and give you a play by play of each country's voting, because frankly, you can go to Wikipedia if you want the details.

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But there are a few moments of tension as the proceedings play out, including when Sweden are accidentally awarded the two points from Yugoslavia that were meant for Switzerland, the Spanish words for Sweden and Switzerland being quite similar, and the moment where the Spanish spokesperson is asked to repeat their scores, as the invigilators mistakenly believe they've only given out 8 points rather than 10.

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Monaco also get asked to repeat their scores because an error with the scoreboard operator gives Spain four points from them rather than the three that Monaco were actually offering.

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Now, I'm sure this was a genuine mistake rather than a deliberate attempt by the host broadcaster to rig the contest in their favour, although if it hadn't been spotted it could have ended up changing the course of Eurovision history because they didn't have a lot of fancy Technology at this time.

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First place was indicated by the camera zooming in on that part of the scoreboard after each round of voting.

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And the United Kingdom takes an early lead, then takes a backseat to France before heading out in front of again, only to be overtaken again by the Netherlands.

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By the time we've reached the penultimate set of votes from Portugal, we have a three way tie between Spain, Netherlands and France, all on 18 points, with the UK just one point behind.

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The final country to vote is Finland, who give three points to Ireland, three to Sweden, two to Switzerland, one to Italy and one to the uk, meaning we have a four way tie for first place between Spain, the United Kingdom, Netherlands and France.

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I have to admit, I was expecting this to be a little bit more dramatic.

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I thought there would be chaos, people running around the set tearing their hair out, smoke coming from behind the scenes, all of that.

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So it is a testament to the professionalism of everyone involved that the end result isn't really anything like that.

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All that happens is that Laurita throws over to the team of invigilators a little bit nervously and they confirm that, yes, we have got four winners of the contest this year.

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Since there's no rule in place to resolve a tie, Lolita double checks with them that the four countries have indeed won the contest.

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And you can see why she'd want to make absolutely sure, since I'm guessing this was not a scenario that had ever been rehearsed, otherwise they would have had a plan in place to resolve a tie.

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But yes, it's confirmed.

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Once again, four countries are tying for the top score, therefore we have four winners.

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Given that this was an unprecedented situation, there were a few hiccups as a result of this tie.

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For starters, it was customary at the time to award medals to the winning artists and songwriters.

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And by a massive stroke of luck, four medals had actually been made in preparation for the winning song having up to three writers.

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So there were at least enough medals for all of the winning artists, even if it meant the songwriters had to go without for now.

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Rumour has it that the songwriters did eventually get their medals, but not until a few days later.

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It is probably a good thing that all four of the winning countries had won the contest before.

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I can only imagine how much it would suck for your first victory at Eurovision to happen under these circumstances.

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Although: 1969

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So we had four separate medal presentations with Massiel doing the honours.

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And then best of all, because we had four winners, we had to have four winners.

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Reprises.

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I don't know how long the: 1969

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So I would assume this one was planned to be about the same.

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But it is safe to assume that this one probably overran its broadcast slot, as the number of encores required meant that they clocked in at almost an hour and three quarters in the end.

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So, yes, ultimately this was a very formative contest in that the organisers realised that they couldn't allow this to happen again.

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After all, it would undermine the credibility of the contest if they ever had another scenario in which a quarter of the songs that were entered ended up winning.

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But bizarrely, the plan they came up with in response was barely a sticking plaster.

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No adjustments were made in: 1970

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And the plan devised that year to resolve a tie for first place was that each of the songs involved would be performed for a second time.

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Then there would be a show of hands from the national juries, other than those from the nations of involved as to which one they thought was the best.

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lack of an outright winner in: 1969

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It took until: 1971

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k system was Revised again in: 1989

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And taking the modern scoring system into account so that the winner would be determined by the country that had received the highest number of maximum 12 points, then 10 points if it was still unresolved, then 8 points and so on.

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need to be implemented until: 1991

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But that's a story for another day.

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That's it for this week.

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I'll be back next Monday for a look at the latest Eurovision headlines, so please do come back and join me then.

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Don't forget to hit subscribe on your podcast platform of choice if you haven't done so already and maybe even leave us a glowing review to help us climb our way up the podcast charts.

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Until next time, good night, Europe, and good morning, Australia.