Eurovision 1959: Double Dutch (close voting!) | Super-cut with animated scoreboard

An edited down version of the Eurovision Song Contest 1959 on the glitzy French Riviera with a scoreboard using today’s technology. This all started as a lockdown project!

This edit will give a flavour of the evening (Wednesday 11 March) with what I am about 90% sure is French commentary.

1959 seemed to have the right ingredients. A classy location, the original setting for the Cannes Film Festival, which was shown off with the first Eurovision opening sequence – location shots that gradually make their way to the inside of the (not that well attended) hall. Note the camera had be pointed at the RTF Eurovision ident for a while, so it appears to have it burnt into the lens! The stage was innovative too: baroque style theatre sets with three performance points, and to one side the scoreboard. We also had an authoritative presenter who knew what she expected on everyone on stage, especially the jury spokesmen!

Now what we needed was some music. Unfortunately, this is where the problems started. RTF, unlike the previous broadcasters, didn’t have a regular radio orchestra to call upon. The leader, Franck Pourcel, a talented man who had a sparkling Eurovision and non-Eurovision career, had to cobble together the string section from freelancers across Southern France, although he did bring some of his own brass and rhythm players with him from Paris. The result caused a bit of an issue in the run up to the show, with Dominic Modugno (Italy) making them rehearse his song a dozen times before they were happy. Modugno was still fresh from his worldwide hit in 1958 and expected his next song to do just as well…spoiler, it did so commercially, but not with the juries. Dolf van der Linden (soon to be the champion conductor once again) did not hide his disappointment about Pourcel’s orchestra either: “Just listen to those violins! Absolutely shocking”.

The next problem was the songs. Not my favourite group ever, with many relying on internationally recognisable words or sounds. It does include some historically notable entries, though. There was just a lot of quirkiness around, including from newcomers Monaco. The UK’s entry is significant because it features in nearly every ‘super-cut’ of early years of the show, entirely unrepresentative of popular music in the UK at the time (Elvis Presley and Shirley Bassey were topping the charts then); but I love Pearl Carr’s enthusiasm, Teddy’s voice and the finger puppet of course.

What such a quirky bunch did produce though, was the closest voting sequence so far – the whole sequence being nip and tuck, with multiple leaders. The standout song was the Swiss entry, which I think was harshly treated by the juries, but it did lead for a while. In the end, Italy gave the highest mark of the night, making a third of the Dutch total, which was enough to secure a second victory for the Netherlands with a song I think we can rank quite lowly amongst the champions.

*DESIGN AND THE BOARD*
This first French board also gives us some Contest firsts – most importantly country names appear for the first time. Since 1957 it was clear that jurors were using country names to distinguish the songs more often than not. The 59 board had a compromise, use both! Song number, title, points and country would be the layout for a few years. Also, with 11 countries (and it looks like they planned for Luxembourg to turn up), there were 100 points available for the first time. Such a line-up would unlikely lead to every juror picking one entry, but it could happen, so three columns of numbers appear in quite a sophisticated display, using some sort of gear system perhaps? Either way, the numbers disappeared and then correct one appeared - much more efficient than rolling through every number.

For my design, I took a free baroque illustration and applied it to some revolving doors. With the use of an alpha key, and doors revolving, we get a chandelier effect. Letters were of course hand painted again, so I went for the free Inkut Antiqua, which mirrors the handy work of the French sign writer! It only seemed right to centralise all the alignments to make it ‘grander’.

*TRANSFER NEWS* (source: Wiki)
OUT: Luxembourg, but I can’t seem to source a reason.
IN: Monaco. Last on their first attempt, but the principality will go on to mainly supply French singers with an opportunity to enter the contest, with not a bad track record.
BACK: UK – woohoo!
Total = (10 – Lux) + MC + UK = 11

*INTERVAL ACT*
We’ve gone from 2 to 0. The running time of the contest remains 75 minutes.

*CREDITS*
@NATI NATAN for the show upload.
Flags: countryflags.com
All Copyright belongs to RTF (?)
Vector Swirl Floral Design Element Free vector (all-free-download.com) Author: http://www.webdesignhot.com/

00:00 Intro
04:18 Song super-cut
15:57 Voting intro
16:36 The reorder board 59
31:08 Recap, data & reprise

Видео Eurovision 1959: Double Dutch (close voting!) | Super-cut with animated scoreboard канала thereorderboard : Eurovision