A few other things I couldn’t fit in the description: - Full retro clips: ukposts.info/have/v-deo/somIZpqFn32r1HU.html. Do take a look if you’re into rehearsal clips which show some of the performers in alternative outfits, if you like that sort of thing. - A big thank you again to those who’ve supported the channel on ko-fi/thereorderboard! You can also follow me on Twitter too @thereorderboard. A big thank you to David King, all the way from Newfoundland who helped me with the Spanish at short notice. Thank you, David! There’s lots of shortages and delays around in the economy at the moment, and it seems this has creeped into HD downloads! I apologise for the ropey quality of the 69 footage, I know you’ve all seen this contest in much better quality elsewhere…however, I downloaded this copy when EurovisionAgain gave it an airing. I know there’s lovely AI HD versions now, but I could not get it to download in time. Even UKposts has changed it’s algorithm so normal downloads are running painfully slow…over 21 hours to download…I’d left it too late and whenever I returned to my computer, it had failed anyway. My graphics remain unaffected by this, but still! It’s a shame as this is one of the longest song edits I’ve done (per song)…I kept all but the first two lines of the Italian entry…how modern does that sound? The lyrics are just wonderful too, so if you need translations, skip back and watch that. Anyone know why the orchestra ended with an instrumental of Dansevise? It sounds like it! Maybe it was a call to get Denmark back! - I have similar affections for Monaco too…that song basically explains the basis of male psychology in 3 minutes (you’d have to look at all the lyrics). To my mind, I’d swap the UK and Spain out of the top four and put Italy and Monaco there. Perhaps even Switzerland you know…it’s a very strong year. - Another song which I think deserves a mention is Portugal. I had a lot of fun timing the lyrics to that! Portugal’s song, although slightly quirky lyrically appears deeply patriotic, almost like something you’d expect from Francoist Spain. The song is written by a critique of Portugal’s Estado Novo regime. Although democracy in Portugal would come slightly earlier than Spain, the Portuguese would have to wait until 1974. Salazar had fallen in 1968 and was taken to hospital. Believing he (who’d been in office longer than Franco) would die quickly, the Portuguese President appointed someone else to take over. Salazar didn’t die until 1970, but no one told him he wasn’t Prime Minister anymore and aides continued to let him ‘rule’ privately. The Portuguese entry won’t be the last time Eurovision is used in the transition to democracy. - I think Monaco was harmed by performing right after the similar tempo of Spain, you can see that clearly in my song edit. I think Sweden underperformed, maybe it’s just the mention of Judy, but it sounds very Beatles-esque. Perhaps 1969 was too late and it just looked like a poor imitation. France has amazing imagery in it’s lyrics, so simple, but in that style you could literally sing anything and it’d sound amazing. Keep an eye-out below for stories about Belgium and Finland which I think are worthy… - Some other production notes. I kept the alternative Spanish spelling for Yugoslavia, to keep in line with what was on the board, although I was more accurate with the diacritical marks above letters than the TVE painters were. I noticed that the number systems were almost identical to the BBC’s (the 1’s were the same) however the mechanism must have been improved…two digits can change at once now! The show started at 10pm UK time as it was observing day light savings all year round for this short period. Spain didn’t observe any DST, but was inline with CET, so I think the UK and Europe were in the same time zone during this period. - Let’s talk TVE briefly. TVE is now part of RTVE, which includes radio and looks and operates much like any modern European public service broadcaster. In the beginning, after some tests in the late 1940s, a regular TV service was up and running as the Contest was starting in 1956, so for the majority of it’s existence TVE was a separate entity from what I understand. There was a heavy reliance on government, and the Ministry of Information and Tourism to provide the service - this was, of course, a propaganda tool. It seems, if I’ve read correctly, that adverts appeared on the La 1 from 1957. The mid-1960s, like elsewhere in Spain, saw rapid growth with a second channel starting, similar to those seen in the UK and elsewhere. Although the 1969 Contest was broadcast in colour, the infrastructure wasn’t ready - they’d only finished connecting other parts of Spain to Madrid by 1964 (although that was the Canary Islands). Regular colour production wouldn’t be around until 1973. TVE diversified after democracy came of course, but Spanish television remained a largely a monopoly until 1990 (apart from some private regional stations), which although late, is in line with some other European countries too.

The reason why we will always have more Eurovision winners than Eurovision contests

I bet after Portugal voted everyone was thinking “it’s fine, the Finnish votes will resolve everything.”

For all that happened in 1969, the highlight of the show for me is at 55:33. In the midst of all the chaos, out comes Massiel, all chinchilla and jewels, with a swagger that says “Massiel is in the house”

A few curiosities about the Portuguese entry: - Its singer, Simone de Oliveira, was the 4th choice to sing this song and had almost no time to learn it before the national selection contest. She was uncomfortable and extremely dowdy (ukposts.info/have/v-deo/r2moiqenqIODrIk.html) but she was the first to perform and she won a passport to Eurovision (the Portuguese broadcaster was kind enough to give her a dress that didn't make her look like an Italian dame ripped off a Renaissance portrait); - Portuguese people are still reeling from Desfolhada ending up in second-to-last-place when they all thought it was going to end up, at least, in third place (the final Eurovision rehearsal took place in front of all the journalists who got to vote as they were testing the board and Portugal was one of the favourites) 😂; - While the voting was happening everyone backstage was shocked at the fact that Portugal wasn't getting any points. Lenny Kuhr herself apologized to Simone de Oliveira, and so did some conductors after the contest. There was even a supper that night and Portugal, the last country to arrive, was greeted with applause by the entire room despite the results; - Simone almost didn't perform after eating something that made her feel ill at a restaurant the previous day; - After a 10-hour long train trip back to Portugal, Simone was greeted at the Santa Apolónia station with the biggest manifestation there had ever been for any participant, which was obviously not allowed at the time--people did not have the right to protest during the dictatorship. Here's some footage of that: arquivos.rtp.pt/conteudos/chegada-de-simone-de-oliveira-a-santa-apolonia/ - Just a few weeks after that Simone lost her voice due to a problem on her vocal cords caused by being overworked and wouldn't sing again for another three years (and when she returned her voice had gotten much much lower--she lost quantity and gained quality, and nowadays she's still singing at the age of 83); - Desfolhada became a sort of anthem in Portugal, not only because of the daring lyrics that compared the love of Portugal to the love of making a child and having sexual pleasure as a woman, but also because of its melody which even children can recognize today and the fact that it completely changed the song style at the time.

Salome's outfit is iconic !

This live rendition of Vivo Cantando is much more fun than the studio version, and I also love Salomé's dress (which apparently weighed a lot). Another thing I also love is this scoreboard - fantastic job as always!

My favorite year. Not only because of the voting drama but so many good songs. What a way to end the 60s!

Laurita Valenzuela is the oldest living contest presenter, she’s 90 now. Some of the presenters of earlier contests are alive as well, but they were all younger than Laurita when they presented, e.g., Anaid from 1957 is alive, she’s 85.

I’m really pleased you didn’t imitate the extra 0 that appeared in front of Spain’s score for a while on the actual scoreboard (as seen at 38:39)

Frida Boccara's voice❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ and song ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

Well… THIS has been the one I’ve been waiting for. And the ReorderBoard delivers! Thank you so much for this! The “flippy” numbers on the scoreboard have been recreated faithfully again (after the 1968 triumph). I love all four winners from this year and thank you for the tie-break explanation at the end. For me, France was the winning song: there’s something about the way Frida Boccara sings that I find so incredibly moving. All were worthy winners though. (Am I the only one who likes the surreal nature of the interval?! It’s all very Dali-esque!) Thanks as always for your hard work. I really look forward to these uploads! 👍

Thank you so much! I've been waiting for this year for so long! I think this year was one of the strongest years in the history of the contest. All of the entries would have done well in another year. Honestly, I would say 10 out of the 16 countries would have been great winners. However, I think France or the Netherlands should have won outright. (Depends how I'm feeling that day.) However, I do agree that out of the 4 winners, the UK was the weakest, and Monaco, Italy or Switzerland would have been better replacements. Yeah, I don't understand how Italy did so poorly that year. Seriously, the EBU never thought to have a tie-breaker considering it was the one jury/one vote system had a chance of two countries receiving the same number of points? What's interesting is that Spain was given the right to host the first OTI Song Festival three years later, which was inspired by ESC, but for countries in Iberoamerica. They reused a few items from the 69 contest. Mostly the font and scoreboard. Although, the font was much bigger this time around with the entry's country in ginormous size. So when you get the countries like Dominican Republic participating, they had to shorten Republica Dominicana to "R. Dominicana" or it wouldn't fit on the tv screen. Also, if you think the voting this year was ridiculous, it was worse in this festival. Each country had a jury of 5 people instead of 10, and they had one supplemental jury member in the audience just in-case the host network couldn't reach the country. (Telephone infrastructure in most Latin American countries were pretty awful back then.) So, technically, the supplemental jury member could give a totally different result than what the jury back in their country actually voted for. So in the early days 1970-1978, a country could win with like 10 votes, or tie with 10 votes like what happened the following year. The contest lasted from 1972-2000. I don't know the real reason why they stopped holding the contest, but it was most likely the same reason why ESC was in decline in the 90s, lot completely lost its legitimacy to being a fair contest. Spain had a similar winning streak in the OTI Festival in the 90s that Ireland had with the ESC. They won in 1992, 1993, 1995, and 1996. It didn't help matters that the results were never released, and they usually used a 9 person "international expert jury" that would comprise of people mostly from those countries. While the EBU became more transparent and allowed the televoters to decide the winner in 1997, OTI went the opposite direction and gave even less choosing power to regular people by ending national juries altogether and doomed itself to cancellation, when less countries showed interest in participating. However, it wasn't all doom and gloom with the contest. There was a lot of crossover between Eurovision and the OTI Festival. Many singers who represented Spain and Portugal in the ESC would participate in the OTI Festival. Contestants like Betty Missiego representing Peru in OTI 1972 and Spain in ESC 1979, Tonicha represented Portugal in ESC 1971 and in OTI in 1972, Simone de Oliveira which represented Portugal this year, represented Portugal in OTI 1980, Trigo Limpio represented Spain in OTI 1977 and ESC 1980, Jose Cid representing Portugal in ESC 1980 and OTI 1981, Marcos Llunas won the OTI contest in 1995 and would later represent Spain in 1997 to a good result. Finally, Dave Benton represented the Dutch Antilles in OTI 1981 and would win for Estonia in ESC 2001. Many famous Latin American & Spanish singers would participate during its time there, and there have been many MANY songs remembered from the contest that became very popular evergreens in the Americas. Even though it was not as successful as Eurovision, it is still the longest running Eurovision spinoff at the moment. There have been attempts to revive the contest, but nothing has come to fruition. I do hope that it does come back as it would be a great addition to international song contests. Some of the past OTI Festival contests are on UKposts, so go check them out if you are interested in Latin American music. Thank you for reading my TED talk!

I love this! Congratulations on finishing the decade - there’s a lot of drab boards in the late 70s that badly need some reorderboard magic sprinkled on them!

It was so fun seeing Lenny Kuhr rocking De Troubadour during the 2021 ESC in Rotterdam, that song got me into the older Eurovisions. Great year with the entries, I sang the Spanish entry a month ago in Barcelona. Amazing job, thanks!

Great job!

The matte blue and gold looks really clean. Love the design!

Very exciting voting to watch, especially how it changes so suddenly Very excited to see how you tackled the new voting system in the 1970s as it’s very different, but almost makes it more exciting and unpredictable

I really love your channel, thank u

I love this scoreboard! You've taken the elements from 1969 but tweaked them so that something that was very dull on screen is now gorgeous. The revolving sculpture and medal, the small flags, the flip panels - all lovely! You also captured the not so nice italic Helvetica. If this isn't your best board so far, then it certainly is one of the best (ex aequo as Clifford Brown would say!).

1:49 has to be my favourite rendition of the anthem

Update: Congratulations on 2K!!

Once again another amazing job! I was very curious about potential surrealistic elements in the board, but you decided for a more "traditional" approach. Nevertheless I was truly amazed about the handling of the final part of the show: the explanations of the tie-break rules were absolutely great. Besides, I loved how you left a big part of the Italian and the Portuguese songs. Excellent acts. I think Due grosse lacrime bianche is a great song indeed, pity it's pretty forgotten here in Italy (Iva on the contrary has enjoyed constant popularity due to some tv shows). As for the contest itself, it's indeed a wonderful year and the charisma of the 4 winners is really exceptional and I'm glad they all won - they could have been easily joined by Italy, Portugal, maybe even Switzerland and Sweden. Such a great contest. Thank you for another lovely night with this project.

One of my favorite years

- Andtheconductoris.eu: BEL: At Brussels’ airport, prior to leaving to the Eurovision Song Contest final in Madrid, he was interviewed by BRT Television: “We’ve always been having such overblown expectations, but this time I’m confident we’ll finish among the first five. Admittedly, I haven’t heard all other competing songs yet, but what I’ve heard so far is so tame, so old-fashioned and irrelevant, that I believe our song - and I’m only speaking about the rhythm now, because foreigners cannot understand the lyrics anyway - could be successful. If I may put it that way, the song has a truly ‘young’ rhythm!” Asked about his experiences in Madrid some years later, Francis Bay remembered the Eurovision week not because the Spanish orchestra was giving him a hard time - unfortunately, Bay never explained how he went about rehearsing with an orchestra abroad -, but because he was awoken in the dead of night by a telephone call from BRT Head of Entertainment, Herman Verelst, who was getting desperate, as Louis Neefs seemed about to succumb to the stresses of the international competition. In the end, according to Bay’s harsh judgment, the singer killed the ‘young rhythm’: “It was the same old story all over again. Louis wanted to turn ‘Jennifer Jennings’ into a slow song. Perhaps, he’s simply unable to sing a happy, upbeat tune. It doesn’t fit his character.” Listening to Francis Bay, one might think that something terrible had gone wrong in Madrid, whereas, in truth, Louis Neefs finished in a respectable seventh position again. - Andtheconducturis.eu GER: According to Hans Blum, by the time of his third Eurovision participation in five years, in 1969, it was beginning to dawn on German television officials that Eurovision was not as highbrow as they were hoping it was; the 1968 festival was some sort of a watershed. “Was that the year when Cliff Richard took part with ‘Congratulations’? Can you believe it, it nearly won - and musically, speaking, that could have been a German march! And these Heads of Entertainment at the broadcasting services here in Germany were still trying to find a Eurovision song which fitted their own old-fashioned standards. Cliff Richard’s success made it a little easier for songwriters to compose in a style which was somewhat more commercial, but it wasn’t until ABBA that it was clear to everyone there was nothing sophisticated about Eurovision - a simple, effective pop song was enough to win it.” - Andtheconducturis.eu NED: Some suggest Van der Linden, because of his experiences during World War II, had such contempt for the Franco regime in Spain that he refused to travel to Madrid. Frans de Kok compiled an orchestra with which he accompanied the Dutch national final in Scheveningen, from which ‘De troubadour’, sung by young singer-songwriter Lenny Kuhr, emerged as the winner. He travelled to Madrid with Kuhr and guitarist Piet Souer, himself a future Eurovision arranger and conductor. During the first rehearsal, it came about that the orchestration which had been sent to Madrid from the Netherlands had not arrived yet. It took until two days before the actual broadcast, when Frans de Kok was on the verge of starting to work on a new arrangement himself, that the original score was found in a drawer of a Spanish custom-house. - Andtheconductoris.eu FIN When the contest moved to Madrid in 1969, Finland was represented by a boy-girl duo, Jarkko & Laura. Their song, ‘Kuin silloin ennen’, was a composition of Runne’s old mentor in the recording business, Toivo Kärki. It did not do very well, finishing twelfth. Runne: “That was not one of Toivo’s better songs. Perhaps it could have done better with more experienced artists performing it. I always felt it was one of my main duties to support the performing artists, keeping their spirits up and making them feel comfortable. I used to urge them to stay calm and relax… and to simply do the same as back in Helsinki, behaving as if it was just another performance. The problem with Jarkko & Laura, however, was that they were too amateurish. In Madrid, they simply were not able to control their nerves. It was kind of funny to see this duo competing in a contest amongst professional singers from all the other countries.” - Andtheconductoris.eu POR Officials of RTP, the Portugal’s broadcaster, felt so enraged by this humiliation and the voting procedure in general, that it was decided upon to withdraw from the 1970 contest in Amsterdam.

it's nice to see the information on how the scoring could've been dealt with during the 1969 4 way tie debacle.

Aaaahhhh crap. So if it was down to either countback system in place, The UK would not have won? Damn! Oh well, least it won't change lol. Another great board as always. Love the fact that the spanish commentator often referred to our song as bada-boom bada-bang lol. Why do I get the feeling you downloaded this from the Eurovision UKposts Channel? Onto the new board now. Looking forward the new decade too

Finally - my GCSE in Spanish coming into good use!

Wow thanks

Some great songs here! I think I will have to make Ireland my winner here - it’s such a fun entry without being too sickly sweet (like the UK for example). Switzerland is also a cracking entry and I was very close to making them my 1969 winner, though their time will come in my ranking in a few years. Shoutouts to Portugal and Sweden.

I find it funny how most eurofans think that Dalí was behind every single artistic bit of this contest... he actually just designed the poster! And not even a good one tbh, I get the surreal vibe and stuff but it was almost illegible. That iconic sculpture was made by Amadeo Gabino, whereas the stage was designed in-house by Bernardo Ballester (stage manager at TVE by that time). On the other hand, the interval video -yeah that big CHOICE- was made by Javier Aguirre, with the musical score of Luis de Pablos. Luckily this contest had lots of great songs, and that ending made history. Still don't get why some countries were so angry by this they decided to skip 1970, this could literally had happened the year before between Cliff and Massiel. I always thought it had something to do with their bad results and the outcome of this contest was just an excuse... And of course, another great scoreboard, it really captured the vibe of 1969. Visually this edition was quirky and dull, but at the same time was very in-line with the 60s trends. I'm glad this redesigned scoreboard leaned to the latest! :P

Laura Valenzuela has said many times that, during rehearsals, she asked Clifford Brown about what would happen in case of a tie. His answer: "Little lady: that has never happened and will never happen"

Another wonderful production by you. I liked the Dali sculpture moving at the start of each vote but it would have been nicer to have it constantly moving and to have smaller Eurovision medals as points discs. The results this year were infuriating and I don't blame 5 countries for boycotting the following year. In my opinion this year has one of the best ever winners (France - who should have won outright) and one of the worst (UK - I remember seeing a clip of Lulu saying "i was worried I wouldnt win but I did"; without acknowledging it was via a tiebreak). Here are my points for 69: 1pt Switzerland 2pt UK 3pt Norway 4pt Monaco 5pt Spain 6pt Portugal 7pt Netherlands 8pt Sweden 10pt Italy (totally underrated this year) and finally FRANCE 12 POINTS

It looks like Spanish song, besides being the first winning host entry, also holds the distinction I don't think anybody pointed out before (or that I saw anywhere else) - it's the eventual winner with the longest period of no points given during the voting. It happened here with 4 consecutive countries - Italy, United Kingdom, Netherlands and Sweden. It looks like several winners had 3 countries in a row not voting for them (including Lulu here and even twice) but not more.

I can’t be the only one that thinks some of these song would have a good chance at winning today, especially France !

Really like how you put in information about the different tie break systems and who would have won under which rules at the end. Very interesting info!

Massiel icónica siempre.

What the hell is that interval act 😭 The creepiest thing I have ever seen

Correction: Until 1999, the rules said that if countback would still consist a tie, then there would be more than one winner after all. The running order rule was introduced in 2000

Poor Kirsti Sparboe from Norway. She took part in the ESC 3 times, and got 4 points all together.

Last ESC victory for Spain.

NO-DO fue quien hizo el detrás de escena. NO-DO was the one who did the behind the scenes.

Here are my personal votes/rankings, i'am from the Netherlands 12 points: Belgium - Louis Neefs - Jennifer Jennings 10 points: Monaco - Jean Jacques - Maman, Maman 8 points: Italy - Iva Zanicchi - Due grosse lacrime bianche 7 points: United Kingdom - Lulu - Boom bang a bang 6 points: Spain - Salomé - Vivo cantando 5 points: Ireland - Muriel Day & the Lindsays - The wages of love 4 points: Sweden - Tommy Körberg - Judy, min vän 3 points: France - Frida Boccara - Un jour, un enfant 2 points: Yugoslavia - Ivan & 4M - Pozdrav svijetu 1 point : Germany - Siw Malmkvist - Primaballerina

It is awesome to know how some words in my native language (Spanish) had evolved. For example Yogoslavia was spelled then as "Yugoeslavia" when I'd always written that country´s spelling as "Yugoslavia" EDIT: I think this will be the only scoreboard where all the countries that tied will be blinking, noting they all won.

Seriously, Im actually thinking that, if you managed to finishe all the years, will you try making a scoreboard for the semi-finals instead? Since youre very good with scoreboards, I think youre the best one who should do them

Interesting to hear Spain and Italy (who typically voted in French) give their votes in English, and Sweden and Netherlands (who typically vote[d] in English) giving their results in French.

The visual identity of this contest was creater by Pablo Picasso.

That “Olé” at the end of Boom Bang- A-Bang makes me cringe every time I hear it. It should not have been in the final shake-up at all.

Euro Geek Stuff Another favourite contest of mine. My favourite at the time was Italy. Portugal is an astonishing song although the performance on the night wasn't great. The NF performance is superb. Rewatching the contest I'm always surprised how badly Ireland did in the voting. Despite being in colour thanks to the loan of equipment from Germany, the Spanish people only saw the transmission in Black & White. The BBC also only transmitted the contest in Black & White and it remains the only contest produced in colour never transmitted entirely in colour in Britain. [The 1968 contest was transmitted in B&W on the night but in colour the following afternoon]. Portugal, Yugoslavia, Italy, Ireland, Monaco, Belgium and Luxembourg also could not transmit colour pictures although some people could pick them up from neighbouring countries. There was almost a new country and language in the 1969 contest when Wales applied and were accepted as an entrant by the EBU. BBC Wales and BBC Scotland hold separate EBU membership alongside the national BBC membership. Wales then held a national song contest which was won by Margaret Willaims singing Y Cwilt Cymreig - the Welsh Quilt. BBC London were never informed of Wales' potential involvement and only got wind of it from publicity after the Welsh NF. The BBC and the UK government were concerned that letting Wales take part would lead to Scotland and Northern Ireland and some of the Islands wanting to send separate entries and this would undermine UK nationalism. So they complained to the EBU that they alone should be representing the whole UK and the EBU backed down and told Wales it couldn't enter. The Welsh National Final, called Cân I Gymru was such a success though that it has been held almost every year since. Imagine what difference the Welsh votes would have made! Wales is allowed in the Junior Eurovision so you never know, we may see the different countries of the UK in the main contest yet. Laurita Valenzuela is the oldest living presenter we have confirmed birth dates for. However Mireille Delannoy, Eurovision 1962, may be a few weeks older but information on her is very scarce and we don't know if she is still alive. A date of death was reported but later discovered to be a different person. Laurita wore a wig on the night and a different long wig in rehearsals. Wigs and hairpieces were very popular at the time and bang on trend. Laurita couldn't say Sweden in French and just avoided saying it whenever the country was mentioned. This was a particular problem as Sweden did very well in the rehearsal voting. It is thought Spain won the voting rehearsal. BBC commentary was again by David Gell with Michael Aspel on standby and Pete Murray on radio. The feed from the Norwegian commentator failed during the programme. The Norwegian spokesperson in Oslo took over commentating on what he was seeing on TV before they switched to using the Swedish commentary. The Norwegian feed was restored just before the voting. Groups were still not allowed hence the 4 Ms became Ivan and the 3 Ms. Salome's backing singers were the three Estaras brothers, Bernat, Rafael, and Tomeu. Salome came to the UK in the week before the contest and guest starred on the Lulu TV show singing Vivo Cantando. This was one of the very rare occasions for the time before previews that the UK public heard another Eurovision entry prior to the contest. This appearance though didn't garner any votes from the UK to Spain on the night. Jean-Jacques was the youngest to date singer at just 12. Spain and the UK were joint favourites with Norway strangely heavily bet upon before the contests. Lulu though the boy singer from Monaco would garner a lot of votes. Lulu's then husband Maurice Gibb of the Bee Gees was with her on trip to the contest and in the Green room. There is a photograph from the green room on file. Lulu later said about Boom Bang A Bang, "I know it's a rotten song, but I won, so who cares? I'd have sung "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep" standing on my head if that's what it took to win.... I am just so glad I didn't finish second like all the other Brits before me, that would have been awful." She always refused to sing the song later but in her anniversary tour a few years ago she sang all her released singles in order and sang Boom then. She said that despite not liking it the song had brought her a lot of work as it opened up continental Europe for her as an artist. The Irish backing singers were three young girls who had been brought together to sing with Muriel Day. On the first day of rehearsal they fled the stage in tears and became hysterical as they couldn't cope with the pressure. Muriel said she had a terrible time with them the whole contest as they kept crying and saying they wanted to go home. Dancing was technically not allowed. The EBU had forbidden it after Denmark brought two dancers in 1966. However many countries, Spain the UK Finland etc, performed 'choreographed movements', as they were known, with Ireland being the most vibrant. Clifford Brown decided it would be like herding cats to try and stop it all so just let people get on with it. The programme and the stage design, interval vision etc were by the great Salvador Dali. Lenny Ruhr was well known in France and it is thought her 6 votes came from simply her popularity rather than the song itself. Lous Neefs died in a car crash whilst drunk driving along with his wife on Christmas Day 1980. From the 1969 contest we have lost: Frida Boccarra, Louis Neefs, and Branko Marusic of the 3Ms. There were only 4 winning plaques so they were given to the singers and more had to be made for the song writers. The song writers were annoyed that they hadn't been given the plaques and thought the singers should have been made to wait instead and complained to the EBU. There was also a gold cup to be presented to the winning singer donated by the sponsors a Spanish sherry company but as there was only one of those it was never presented. It is thought Massiel may have nabbed it for herself. Salome recorded her song in various languages, including Basque and Catalan much to Franco's displeasure, and appeared on Spanish TV in 1998 and talked and talked and talked and talked and talked saying she also recorded English, German and 'Yugoslavian'. At the time many people said she had 'looked too deeply in to the pitcher', i.e. she was drunk, which she may well have been. However the English language version later turned up as a video clip so the German and Croatian versions may be out there someplace. The Yugoslav spokesperson was the great Helga Vlahović who would present in 1990. It is almost impossible to sort out who would have won had some of the later tie break rules be used. From 1970 the other countries would have voted again. Only the Netherlands, and possibly the UK could be guaranteed another vote due to their 6 and 5 score. How the other countries would have spread their 1 vote is debatable although many think the Scandinavians especially may have favoured Spain as hosts and avoided voting for France and Netherlands who had a tradition of winning, and the UK because they sang in English. If the count back system introduced from 1989 was used then Netherlands would win with its 6 votes from France. If the current rules were used then France would win as it was voted for by 9 countries and got a high of 4 votes. Spain would be second as it also got voted on by 9 countries but only got a high of 3 votes. The UK would be third with votes from 8 countries and The Netherlands fourth with votes from 7 countries. In fan revotes that have happened since, either France and Spain usually come out on top.

I have no complaints about the result being a tie because I find it difficult to choose a clear winner myself. Spain and France are both terrific but so different in style that it's hard for me to pick between them. I also like Ireland, Italy and Germany, but there are lots of great songs here. On the other hand, the Netherlands does nothing for me and the UK song is a bit of a parody entry which is only saved by Lulu's terrific performance. I looked up some of the British press coverage from 1969 and they were tipping the UK and Monaco. Personally I find the Monagasque song creepy(!)

What rules are your board working under as I see you have Netherlands briefly flashing?

We really missed not having a camera in the green room

The Italian song should have been included in the list of winners!!

Dark eyed cossack girl would have fared very well this year 1969

Number of countries that voted became the primary tie-breaking method already in 2004 (or maybe 2003), not in 2008.

Anyone else notice the Spanish commentator calling Lulu’s “Bada boom bada bang”? 😂😂

- So 1969 in history then…It starts badly in the UK when Rupert Murdoch buys The News of the World, martial law is declared in Madrid in January too, over 300 students are arrested, and probably tortured. Richard Nixon is inaugurated as US President. 10 days later (unrelated) The Beatles perform publicly for the last time! In July, they’d have that photo taken of them walking over the crossing on Abbey Road in preparation for the release of their Abbey Road album. Golda Meir becomes the first female prime minister of Israel in March too. In April, Charles De Gaulle steps down as President of France after losing a referendum on constitutional changes to the French Senate, which would have seen it made into a weaker body. The next month, a teenage dies of a baffling medical condition in St. Louis. It wouldn’t be until 1984 that it would be confirmed that this was the first case of HIV/AIDS in North America. In June, Franco closes the border and all communications between Gibraltar and Spain, which does end until 1982! Georges Pompidou becomes French President in June, and at the end of the month, the now famous Stonewall riots start the modern gay rights movement in the US. The UK celebrates Prince Charles being invested as Prince of Wales in July, but he’s sort of eclipsed by the moon landing that happens at 8:17pm UTC on July 20th. Two days later Franco ends speculation about his successor: Prince Juan Carlos will become king. Willy Brandt becomes German Chancellor in October, which keeps them nicely in step with changes in Paris. In November, BBC and ITV viewers get a dedicated colour service, with BBC One staying up late for a midnight show. In December, the first draft lottery in the US since the end of WW2 is held. Those born on Sept 14th between 1944 and 1951 were the first to be summoned.

55:57 why specifically was this to counter accusations of bloc voting, and how exactly did these moves help? In 2008, all it really did was enrage the BBC when they technically came =23rd with Germany and Poland (both much weaker songs, but the 2008 contest was just madness in general).

37:21

Why does she get an error when Sweden gets votes? "La Suède 1 vote.. ' '... ' 'je vous attends" "pardon?! Sweden 1 vote"

Is this the only time the Swiss vote came from Geneva?

Only winner in 1969, Lulu🇬🇧

Debieron deshacer el cuádruple empate. Para mi, única vencedora Lulu del Reino Unido.

Spanish Jury gave Nothing for other 3 Winners! OMG😄😂

Another great job on this scoreboard! I like the flippy-card things with the numbers and the figure on stage being incorporated. On the other hand, is there a reason why you have the medal out on front? While I understand its purpose, I still think it's a bit jarring. 1969--a notable year, if only for the ending. That said, it is a solid year, with a number of great songs beyond the four winners, and the production worked out as well. It's curious how you mentioned that while Eurovision became more popular, it also became less "consequential" to Europe; why do you think that is? My top five: 5. ITA (Yeah, it does sound quite modern for the time! Also reminds me of "I'll be There" in the beginning of the chorus) 4. NED 3. IRE -- I love the energy Muriel gives out, and the way she dances all around the stage. The warnings about falling in love are astute, but it is kind of a clash between more liberal and conservative values. Does the song imply that romance could not only lead to heartbreak, but also something else? 2. FRA -- Initially, De Troubadour was my favorite of the four winners, as it the medieval elements make it unique. Over time, however, I was more drawn to Un jour, un enfant, because of the dreamy soundscape and the fairytale-like lyrics to it all. Of course, Frida performed this with gusto, and apparently got the loudest applause! 1. PRT -- In the end, however, Desfolhada managed to get me. I thought I was going to be disappointed, because the sheer significance to the Portuguese people adds a bit of heaviness to it all. Listening to it, while I don't get on how subversive it is (except in a sexual sense), it delivers in melody, orchestration. and sheer power. Simone holds herself up like a queen, and sings this fantastically (plus, she was dressed to the nines in Madrid). It definitely deserved better, but I'm glad it stood the test of time.

Britian will say LULU is the true winner WEEEEEEEEEL

I don’t think it was ever yugoEslavia 😂 it’s Yugoslavia like in English.

France should have won alone and Portugal and Italy didn't deserve to be on the bottom tier.

I'm Portuguese and I'm gonna say it... our entry ISN'T THAT GOOD. It's just good. France on the other hand. What an anthem.

52:51 Top ten four word phrases that changed history

How I’d rank the winners: 1. 🇳🇱 Netherlands 2. 🇪🇸 Spain _huge gap_ 3. 🇬🇧 United Kingdom 4. 🇫🇷 France

Horrible recordar la voz del que introduce el Festival. Era la voz del noticiario fascista que obligaban a ver antes de la película que fueras a ver en todos los cines.

I think Netherlands was the best of the 4 winners, very powerful and the song that has aged the best.

Worst interval act ever.

I’d love to see a universe where they used the current voting system in 1969 and see who the real winner would have been.