Eurovision 1965: Gall against them all | Super-cut with animated scoreboard

An edited down version of the Eurovision Song Contest 1965 from Naples, with a scoreboard using today’s technology. This all started as a lockdown project!

This edit will give a flavour of the evening (Saturday 20th March) with the BBC commentary from David Jacobs.

For the second year in a row, Eurovision was heading somewhere new. As this was posted we are eagerly awaiting the location for the 2022 Italian organised contest, and just like now, Rome wasn’t the obvious choice. Like the BBC in 1963, RAI had a new building to show off in Naples – it had a capacity of 1,000 reclining seats in fetching blue velvet, a 400m2 stage plus the largest secular organ in Europe! All this made a spectacular setting for Eurovision’s biggest outing so far - both by number of competitors, and broadcasting countries.

What viewers behind and in front of the Iron Curtain witnessed was a 17-year-old France Gall successfully take on the more established musical styles of Eurovision and achieve Luxembourg’s second win. Of course, France Gall, the conductor Alain Goraguer, and the writer of the song, Serge Gainsbourg, were Parisian, so this didn’t represent new territory for Eurovision but it’s rocky, up-tempo sound (which the RAI orchestra really made special), together with teenage delivery of some catchy lyrics felt like a breath of fresh air in a Contest which was heavily laden with ballads. Gainsbourg’s lyrics were known for being challenging for the time (see Je t’aime) and full of double-entendre. Poupée de Cire talks of young singers who are being asked to sing about love but aren’t old enough to know what they are singing about. A follow up song about lollipops which Gall again was not aware of being laden with innuendo would lead her to sever her connection with Gainsbourg, and strip her Eurovision success from her performances and public utterances.

Luxembourg’s position in the performance order undoubtedly helped it over the line. I felt that the first six songs represented a great Contest, so Gall’s performance at 15 was ideally seated amongst the more cerebral Danish entry (which had quite a modern feminist message) and slightly haunting Finnish song. In the voting Luxembourg looked to be pulling a repeat of Italy the year before, but although they seldom vacated the top spot, the race did tighten up considerably. The UK entry, Kathy Kirby, was the first woman the BBC had put on the Eurovision stage since Pearl Carr in 1959. Kirby was named in a magazine poll as a top British female singer, ahead of Cilla Black, Dusty Springfield and Petula Clark, and to be fair she restored Britain’s record of being runner-up. Her entry is far from my favourite, both in terms of delivery and lyrics but Kirby’s selection showed the BBC’s intent for success in the show. The ever-impressive Udo Jürgens might have something to say about that first, though.

This year also had some other important happenings. Ireland joined the party for the first time, with a rather dated sounding entry but it saved itself from Portugal’s 1964 fate quite late on in the voting for a respectable finish. I can’t see us ever going to Dublin, can you? 😊 Sweden returned and caused a bit of stir by singing a slightly odd operatic number in English – well explained by the commentator and I wonder whether the large Francophone group in the Contest saw a potential threat to its dominance – the EBU would alter the rules for 1966.

*DESIGN AND THE BOARD*
1965 was always going to be a bit on an evolution rather than revolution as I know the 1964 board design was shipped over the Alps and reconstructed in Napoli. To reflect the look of the auditorium, I’ve incorporated some more classical typography elements to my interpretation of the 1965 board and song straps. I’ve also removed the very heavy version of the BlueScreens font that debuted in 1964 with a mixture of lighter weights. For a backing, I had to go with pipes, but with 18 countries and the progress bars beneath each – there was quite a lot to fit in so it takes a back seat compared to other years. This is far from my favourite board, but I still wanted it to reflect what we saw in 1965 and I’ve left plenty of the original in the edit.

*TRANSFER NEWS* (source: Wiki)
OUT: None.
BACK: Sweden.
IN: Ireland. Television services started at the very end of 1961, but RTÉ has been in the EBU since 1950. More below.
16 + SWE + IRE = 18.

*INTERVAL ACT*
Two Neopolitan songs by Mario Del Monaco.

*CREDITS*
Decent quality French comms by :@Biggie Ballz ‘s upload.
English commentary from @Lucas ESC Archive
Flags: countryflags.com

00:00 Intro
04:17 Song super-cut
29:41 Interval
31:09 Voting intro
32:32 The reorder board 65
45:48 Recap, data & reprise

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