A few other things I couldn’t fit in the description: COPYRIGHT: If you’re watching in the UK, Channel 5 and LDS own the performance on TH-cam in the UK, I think this is because the bot thinks I am copying a clip from ‘Eurovision Greatest Moments: 5 Goes to Eurovision’. To see the whole video, you’ll find it through ko-fi.com/thereorderboard (no donation necessary). Phew…this took a while. Work is not relenting right now and you may remember this is a lockdown project…we’re distinctly very far from lockdowns and the time freedoms that the pandemic brought! This project took a weekend making the background, then another getting the new song bar correct…so it’s not that I haven’t been attentive, but I haven’t been able to steal time from other projects as much as I usually do. Everyone has plenty of Eurovision to devour at the moment, so I think it might be better to finish the last three Contests after that, possibly at 1 a month. I do want to revisit some of my early boards again too, especially if @SvenskTV has upscaled the footage. The channel isn’t going anywhere, and I’d like to also create some infographics etc over on Twitter too, @thereorderboard. Design updates will continue on ko-fi and I want to thank those who’ve donated recently, it’s very kind of you! @SvenskTV brings me to my thanks - for this one, the quality of the footage and sound is amazing. Great too, the Joris Peters from the Netherland’s has the UK commentary in his archive too. That’s been a great addition - unfortunately it was only in mono, which I’ve adjusted in editing but I’ve tried to keep the superior sound from the upscaled footage as much as possible. Thanks to Joris for helping with the Dutch translations on this one too! You can’t do better for a full review of the original scoreboard used in The Hague than here: euroscoreboards.wordpress.com/2021/08/08/the-hague-1976/ Keen eyes will notice I’ve gone for ‘United Kingdom’ and ‘Germany’ to keep the channel consistent. I’ve also used the correct Greek flag…luckily it was quite easy to replace and to verify…the Montreal Olympics were the same year and Greece always comes out at the Opening Ceremony first…the first flag: what you see on my board, not what’s used in programme. The Greek flag has gone through quite a few changes, and the version used in the programme titles was actually a variant of the Greek flag we know today, but far too light…the official Greek flag of 1970-75 (under the military junta) was very dark blue. I’ve already mentioned why Sweden were sitting out this year. Malta decided to withdraw from the Contest. It’s not immediately obvious to me that’s a result of anything other than poor results, although I expect budgetary concerns were also a part. The Maltese language entries in 1971 and 1972 had both finished last with their one attempt last year in English ending in 12th. Things had improved, but obviously not by much. Malta would be locked out of the Contest when they wanted to return some 10 years later due to restrictions on the number of countries entering. Their return in 1991 proved much more successful, partly because they chose to sing in English when everyone else couldn’t: from 1991 to 2005, the island nation finished outside the top 10 only twice (1999 & 2003). Results post 2005 have been more mixed.
1/2 I wonder how close we came to having Greece and Turkey in the same Contest this year, but so close to the invasion of Cyprus and the political nature of Greece’s song ‘Panagia Mou’. Turkey did broadcast the final, but censored the Greek entry, playing a nationalist song ‘Memleketim’ - a symbol of the invasion. Austria make their return finally, having last competed in 1972. To my ears, it’s one of the worst songs there, but it was Austria’s first English only entry and they were rewarded with another 5th place (they finished 5th at their last appearance in Edinburgh). Austria would have a few words in English in 1977 and then switch back to German because of the rule changes until 1999. 1976 seems to be the year of contested spellings. Greece’s controversial song subject also reveals a couple of different spellings of ‘Panagia’…I think, based on the Greek, ‘Panagia’ is correct, although several places have it as ‘Panaghia’. Monaco’s singer…Christy or Cristy? Holland or The Netherlands? England, Great Britain or the United Kingdom? West Germany or Germany? Italy’s song is listed both with its Italian and English name. I ended up splitting the difference with Israel’s Chocolate Menta Mastik…comma or no commas!? I found this scoring sequence fascinating, particularly because it looked so close and you start to ignore the rest of the pack falling back quite sharply. ‘Save All Your Kisses’ ended up taking home 80.39% of the points available, just a behind 1973’s ‘Tu the reconnaîtras’ for Luxembourg that got 80.63%. As mentioned above, only Ireland, Italy and France gave the UK below 8 points. Needless to say, the UK scored in every round, together with France. France however, had six countries who gave them below 8 points, giving them an average 1 point per round deficit over the UK (8.65 v 9.65). Compare this to third place Monaco who scored 5.47 per round and only achieved 3 eight points, and 1 twelve. A top heavy race, but thrilling to watch which really only turned until the second half of the voting. Remarkably, and perhaps annoyingly for purists, the scoreboard only highlights the UK’s winning amount on a tie-break! Of course the count back doesn’t exist in Eurovision until the late 1980s, but it’s the UK’s dominance in the high value points that mean it can be declared the winner despite it being mathematically possible for a tie when Monaco give the UK 10 points. France go on to get the 12 of course, and the code knows that’s possible when the UK start flashing…however, even if France then get 12 from their remaining jury, Yugoslavia and France give the UK nothing AND Yugoslavia give the UK zero, both would be on 147 points but with the UK having an advantage in the count back. Thus we get a flashing Union Jack. Obviously that is immediately broken by France awarding the UK 7 points in the next round but that’s why the UK starts flashing when it does. I would have thought Italy’s entry is one of the most low energy and vocally ropey songs I’ve heard on a Eurovision stage. Of course Al Bano slightly forgetting the words wasn’t great and perhaps the pair thought very little of the Contest. You might be surprised to know, based on that performance, that they’ve sold 150 million copies of albums over the 6 decades they’ve been active. They do indeed return to Eurovision in 1985 (finishing 7th with ‘Magic Oh Magic’). Somehow this song made it to number 2 in France, but failed to chart elsewhere. Their breakthrough hit didn’t come until 1981 to be fair, after which they released a Spanish language album. In 1999 the couple separated, but they did reunited professionally, even appearing at San Remo 2015. Al Bano is about to be 79 years old in May 2022, with Romina turning 71 in October 2022.
2/2 Germany had had an eventful build up to the Contest, and as you can tell on stage, a chaotic performance in the final. ‘Ein Lied für Den Haag’ had selected ‘Der Star’ as the 1976 entry, but it was later found to have been performed in public before the national final and therefore was disqualified after the public had voted for it (the full final is here: th-cam.com/video/YeGvXD1AWK8/w-d-xo.html ) The result was the ‘Les Humphries Singers’, a name I originally thought was French - but no…the group, which often had up to 20 members on stage, was formed by Croydon born Les Humphries, who had formed the group in Hamburg in 1969. They had had a couple of hits prior the ESC, including appearing in a German movie in 1974. Les is pictured here on ZDF Disko in 1972: th-cam.com/video/oKrCmj22XUo/w-d-xo.html The Song Contest rules reduced them to 6 on stage of course, and well, perhaps the lack of Gospel realness on stage robbed ‘Sing Sang Song’ of greatness…or perhaps not. This was songwriter and producer Ralph Siegel’s second entry at the Eurovision final, after ‘Bye Bye I Love You’ (Ireen Sheer for Luxembourg in Brighton 1974). Of course, together with Bernd Meinunger, they’d write plenty of Eurovision songs and have a particularly successful period in the early 1980s, taking two second places and the trophy itself in 1982. Ralph would also be responsible for all the fun Valentina Monetta San Marino entries between 2012’s ‘Social Network Song’ and 2017’s ‘Spirit of the Night’. Only ‘Maybe’ got through to the final in Copenhagen 2014, finishing 24th. I’m always thankful that Terry Wogan became the UK’s regular commentator, but I do think Michael Aspel might have been great had he stuck around. He’s got the right mix of information and wit, with a little boyish/English country gentleman charm that takes a Wogan-like side swipe at things. His mention of the bouzouki, and the ‘small nudist’ was great, as well as the comment about ‘a man’s shame’. Aspel is a man that if you were born in the 1980s like me, was always on programmes for old people, namely ‘Antiques Roadshow’ and ‘This Is Your Life’, but he actually had a very mixed career. Starting in BBC Wales acting in children’s show, he quickly became on the BBC’s main newsreaders. Counter to this ‘straight’ career, he also presented ‘Come Dancing’ (the amateur version of Strictly), anarchic children’s sketch show ‘Crackerjack’ and also the Miss World contest, which he covered 14 times. He appeared in The Morecambe & Wise show doing a dance routine, just like fellow newsreader and 1977 host, Angela Rippon. He was a presenter who could also turn his hands to documentaries, doing some on radio about the then compulsory British National Service. He narrated the Oscar winning ‘The War Game’ documentary about a nuclear attack on the UK in 1966 - it was not shown on British television until 1966. Brotherhood of Man: Please don’t tell me that they look 24 and 25 years old in their postcard!? I’ve already mentioned their previous chart success. ‘United We Stand’ became a top 20 hit in the UK, US, Australia and Canada in January 1970. After Eurovision, Pye Records decided against releasing the soulful music from the groups up coming album but instead sticking with pop. ‘My Sweet Rosaline’ was a carbon copy song with the lyrical twist that the song was about a dog, rather than a child - it failed to chart highly. In 1977 a more female led ‘Oh Boy (The Mood I’m In) lead to more success. By 1979 three singles released in the first 6 months of the year all failed to chart. In 1980, the group produced a cover album (the result of a deal) that covered some top-20 hits from previous years. This was met with middling success, but performed much better than anything in the 1977-9 period. In 1982, one of the male members (Lee Sheridan) left the group and Barry Upton would join. Barry would go on to write many hits for 1993 Eurovision entrant Sonia, and then Steps. In 1983 three members of the group wrote ‘When the Kissing Stops’ and entered it into A Song For Europe. The group decided not to perform it themselves: "We all agreed it would be better to be remembered as winners, and we couldn't bear to lose!”. The band reformed in 1990s largely performing on the cabaret circuit, including teaming up with Bucks Fizz. In 2006 they appeared at the 50th anniversary of the Eurovision Song Contest in Denmark. Plenty going on in 1976: In January, the first commercial Concorde flight between London and Bahrain and Paris to Rio. In March, Harold Wilson suddenly resigns as Prime Minister of the UK. He had claimed to intimate friends that he was exhausted by the job (he had served from 1964-70, and then again from 1974. By this time, Wilson was drinking brandy during the day to deal with the stress, and doctors would detect problems that would lead to a colon cancer diagnosis and perhaps Wilson himself was aware of the symptoms of early onset dementia that were troubling his usually exemplary memory. A few weeks later, Star Wars would start filming in Tunisia. On April 1st a little known two Steves, Jobs & Wozniak form ‘Apple Computer Company’., releasing the ‘Apple 1’ days later. Two days after Eurovision on April 3rd, Jim Callaghan succeeds Harold Wilson. If you’re ever asked about Labour Party leaders called James, remember James Callaghan is not one of the 4 answers as Callaghan’s first name is Leonard. In the summer, as Wilson had resigned, when the G6 nations met, the German Chancellor and US President Gerald Ford decided they needed another experienced English speaker in the group, so they invited long time Prime Minister of Canada, Pierre Trudeau…the G7 was born. Portugal enact a new constitution on their road to democracy. In June the long running dispute between Iceland and the UK over fishing rights ends. At the end of June Palestinians hijack an Air France plane with 246 passengers and 12 crew and fly it to Entebbe, Uganda. Days later, Israeli operatives free 103 of the hostages. On July 2nd, North and South Vietnam reunite. The UK suffers a heat wave, with associated water shortages. An explosion in Seveso Italy causes pollution over large parts of Milan. Also in July, the Montreal Olympics are held and the USA celebrates it’s 200th birthday. Delegates attending an American Legion convention at The Bellevue-Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia begin falling ill with a form of pneumonia: this will eventually be recognised as the first outbreak of Legionnaires' disease and will end in the deaths of 29 attendees. Ebola is identified in Zaire in August. In September, Mao Zedong dies of a heart attack, aged 82. The Muppet Show is broadcast for the first time on ITV- two pilot shows produced by Jim Henson had failed to be picked up by American broadcaster ABC, meanwhile UK producer Lew Grade agreed to co-produce the programme in the UK. Henson was aware he was being typecast as a children’s entertainer by being in Sesame Street. By Christmas 1976, the Muppet Show series in the UK saw around 14 million viewers tuning in on Sunday evenings. In January 1977, over 100 countries had either acquired the series or were making offers, which had resulted in over £6 million in overseas sales. In October, during the Presidential race between Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, Ford stumbles when he declares that "there is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe. October 18th, Ford begin producing its ‘Fiesta’ car at its Valencia plant. October 22nd: Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh, the 5th President of Ireland, resigns after being publicly insulted by the Minister for Defense. November 2nd: Carter beats incumbent Gerald Ford, becoming the first candidate from the Deep South to win the US Presidency since the Civil War. November 26th, ‘Microsoft’ is registered in New Mexico. In December, Denis Healey announces to the British Parliament that he has successfully negotiated a £2.3bn loan from the International Monetary Fund - often seen as the one of the lowest points of the UK’s post-war period.
Turkey would be the 17th participant, but was forced to withdraw its participation in protest of the Greek participation, the song "Panagia Mou, Panagia Mou" (My lady, my lady) that spoke openly of the Turkish Invasion of Cyprus, which took place in 1974
Quite wonderful as ever - well done! I particularly like the title of the song and artist dangling from the top of the screen - very inventive! I also enjoyed hearing Aspel's commentary for all the reasons you stated... mind you, he couldn't conceal his delight at the moving set, could he?!! :)
And of course, the UK's winning song would be the last Eurovision winner to enter the Billboard charts in the United States until April 2021 with the chart debut of the 2019 winner "Arcade"
i have an interesting record from 1976 here in Norway, where the all these songs were rerecorded with Norwegian artists and all translated to Norwegian! very interesting indeed!
With the current ´sun´ controversies going on in Turin I don´t know if I ever heard this much talk about the set. It was lovely and gave loads of options but he was smitten! :)
Such a nice scoreboard! even though I have a soft spot for the original spartan design of the original, I like how you incorporated a scroller for the running order and the Dutch language on it. Plus, I'm glad you managed to switch up the backgrounds every time! 1976 feels like a filler edition for me, because the production was so minimalistic--hardly any fuss. The songs themselves are quite good, on the other hand, though they tend to lean towards lighter pop. My top ten: 1 pt: LUX 2 pt: IRE 3 pt: MCO 4 pt: FRA 5 pt: GBR 6 pt: PRT 7 pt: YUG 8 pt: GRE -- Definitely one of the more political songs Eurovision has ever had, but one which is still very strong. Panagia Mou, Panagia Mou is grand, but rough in terms of content, especially with the lyrics. Mariza has a beautiful, almost operatic voice; and the orchestration is fantastic. 10 pt: ISR -- Slightly less political (shalom can either be hello or peace), Emor Shalom is both playful and insistent. The girls are flirtatious towards their new love interest, and it shows with the song and performance! 12 pt: BEL -- Judy et cie is my favorite, however, because it's something deeper. I like the storytelling in it, and I could emphasize with the fictional Judy, in her attempts to be loved. The music reminds me of a Billy Joel song with its piano influences, along with its touches of melancholy.
Dublin’s Evening Herald newspaper had odds on the 1976 contest the day before the contest- the UK was the favourite at 4/1, followed by Netherlands at 11/2, Monaco at 6/1, Germany at 7/1, France 8/1 and Finland and Norway both at 10/1, then Israel, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Yugoslavia, Portugal, Spain (at various prices), with Ireland and Austria both long shots at 25/1, and Greece considered a total outsider at 40/1.
@@thereorderboard I’d have sent these to you earlier but I only just paid for access to the Irish newspaper archive two days ago! I’ll have a look and see if I can find odds for the last three contests of the 1970s and I’ll send them on.
@@mrjdsworld80 Oh dont' worry - these videos can't be an ultimate arbiter of Eurovision history, we're still learning! Thanks for providing it, it still adds to the story!
I just saw the Norwegian 1976 pre selection again. A bit strange that mata Hari did not score better, what could be the reason when it had good odds? mata Hari was the first winner in Norway in many years that the criticts showed a little enthusiasm. Tha last place is somehow a sad record for the team: Composer Frode Thinhnæs, (then married to Anne-Karine Strøm, lyricist Philip A, Kruse and Anne-Karine are, as fare as i know, the onlye team that has lost the ESC twice. One can imagine why Anne Karine is a style icon amongst ESC fans. But it would have been more interesting to se how the act Voodoo, that became second in the pre selection, would have been received in Europe.
Thank you so much for uploading this :-) It's interesting, that the english commentator speaks about Britains first win since 1967, not mentioning 1969 :-)
Germany's song made me think of "Bing bang bong, sing sang song, ding dang dong, UK Hun?" from RuPaul's Drag Race UK Season 2. I wonder if whoever wrote it was deliberately inspired by Les Humphries Singers' song.
Here are my personal votes/rankings, i'am from the Netherlands 12 points: Belgium - Pierre Rapsat - Judy et cie 10 points: United Kingdom - Brotherhood of Man - Save your kisses for me 8 points: Finland - Fredi & the Friends - Pump pump 7 points: Monaco - Mary Christy - Toi, la musique et moi 6 points: Norway - Anne Karine Strom - Mata Hari 5 points: Italy - Al Bano & Romina Power - We'll live it all again 4 points: Israël - Chocolate, Menta, Mastik - Emor shalom 3 points: Spain - Braulio - Sobran las palabras 2 points: Yugoslavia - Ambasadori - Ne mogu skriti svoju bol 1 point : Luxembourg - Jürgen Marcus - Chansons pour ceux qui s'aiment
The Greek flag on the song's title was wrong, because the people and the state along had always used the naval flag, no matter what Wikipedia might say... ;-)
1/2 www.andtheconductoris.eu/ Tony Rallo - FRA Rallo: With ‘Un, deux, trois’ being due to be performed on nationwide television, Cara and Rallo were in need of a singer - and they had to find someone fast. For Rallo, this was an opportunity to reward a friend in the business: “In those days, I extensively worked with Léo Missir, a producer at the Barclay record company. Thanks to him, a lot of arranging work, including Daniel Guichard’s repertoire, was coming my way. I felt it would be right to ask him first if there was an artiste he wanted to promote and who was perhaps suitable to embark on our Eurovision project. He invited me over to the Barclay studios, where an attractive young blond girl was waiting for us: Cathérine Ferry. She did not have a record deal - nothing. She turned out to be the girlfriend of Daniel Balavoine, one of Léo’s protégés, but who, at that time, was desperately unsuccessful. When Cathérine sang the song with a pianist accompanying her, I immediately realized she was exactly the kind of girl we needed. Formidable!. Shortly after, we recorded ‘Un, deux, trois’ with Cathérine. Léo Missir asked me for another favour: to include Daniel Balavoine and his brother in the group of backing singers accompanying Cathérine. Moreover, for the B side of the single release of ‘Un, deux, trois’, one of Daniel’s compositions was used. To be honest, I had never heard of Balavoine before.” What were Rallo’s emotions after finishing second behind the UK’s Brotherhood of Man? “Being up front with the British during the entire voting procedure, we were slightly disappointed to lose out against them in the end. ‘Save your kisses for me’ was a good song too… a light song, like ours - that was the style which sold well in those years! Of course, we were happy with the hit success of ‘Un, deux, trois’ in so many different European countries. For Daniel Balavoine, who was trying so hard to make a career in music, it was slightly painful to see his girlfriend rising to stardom all of a sudden. In the end, however, Daniel became a successful recording artist, while Cathérine faded away, unable to top the success of that one Eurovision hit. With ‘Un, deux, trois’, her career was launched beautifully, but, understandably, she did not want to continue recording songs in that style for the rest of her life… and perhaps that is what audiences expected of her.” Although Rallo did not make a second appearance in the Eurovision Song Contest as a composer, arranger, or conductor, there are two footnotes to add to his festival record. In 1981, he arranged ‘Moi je dis stop’ for Julie Bataille, the French cover version of ‘Making your mind up’, with which UK’s Bucks Fizz had won that year’s Eurovision Song Contest. Five years later, in 1986, Rallo again submitted a composition to the French selection committee, with lyrics by the renowned Eddy Marnay: ‘Tout commence et recommence’. The song was rejected by the selection committee, all the more incredible when realizing the interpreter was none other than… Céline Dion, the Canadian songstress who was to win the Eurovision Song Contest for Switzerland two years later with ‘Ne partez pas sans moi’ and then went on to worldwide stardom in the 1990s. “I must be the only producer in the world”, Rallo chuckles, “who has a Céline Dion recording on the shelf which has never been released! The project was Eddy Marnay’s brainchild. He had the lyrics ready and wanted me to compose and arrange the music to it. He came up with Céline Dion… we recorded the demo down here in my home studio. It was a gentle ballad. I cannot begin to understand why our recording was rejected by French television. I have often thought about passing it onto Michel Drucker (famous French TV host of music programmes, BT), who could then surprise Céline with it during his show… she has no doubt forgotten about the song altogether. So far, I have not done that, though - the demo is still here on the shelf.” www.andtheconductoris.eu/ Ossi Runne - FIN In Ossi Runne’s case, this was more true than ever in 1976, when Finland entered a simple schlager sing-a-long with an equally evocative title: ‘Pump-pump’, performed by Fredi (Matti Siitonen). Runne: “This song was visually well thought out: a huge singer with two pretty girls by his side. Of course it was not a personal favourite of mine, but my job was to do the best I could with the orchestra and keep the singers happy. All the rest was unimportant.” The amount of professional enthusiasm Runne put into this song can be deduced from his flamboyant style of conducting the orchestra in The Hague. “I wanted to convey the happy message of the song to the orchestra”, he explains. “During rehearsals, I always tried to bring about a good atmosphere between me and the orchestra right away. A happy feeling, no bad words... this is your job, this is my job: let’s make music. Though I cannot remember names, there were those fellows, other conductors, who behaved as bullies by shouting the musicians down, but that is a method which can only be counterproductive.” www.andtheconductoris.eu/ Jan Stulen - NED Quite unexpectedly, Jan Stulen received the invitation to be the chief conductor of the 1976 Eurovision Song Contest in The Hague. Stulen had not been involved at all in the Dutch preliminary contest, in which Hans van Hemert’s composition ‘The party is over’, interpreted by Sandra Reemer, was chosen as the Netherlands’ representative for the international festival. What was more, the then thirty-four year old maestro had never conducted the Metropole Orchestra before in his life and seemed a tabula rasa in the world of light entertainment music. Stulen: “It is fair to say that my musical upbringing was entirely classical.
2/2 www.andtheconductoris.eu/ Jan Stulen - NED Quite unexpectedly, Jan Stulen received the invitation to be the chief conductor of the 1976 Eurovision Song Contest in The Hague. Stulen had not been involved at all in the Dutch preliminary contest, in which Hans van Hemert’s composition ‘The party is over’, interpreted by Sandra Reemer, was chosen as the Netherlands’ representative for the international festival. What was more, the then thirty-four year old maestro had never conducted the Metropole Orchestra before in his life and seemed a tabula rasa in the world of light entertainment music. Stulen: “It is fair to say that my musical upbringing was entirely classical. Jan Stulen: “It was Dolf van der Linden himself who wanted me to take over for this commission of musical director of the Eurovision Song Contest! Frankly speaking, Dolf admitted he was fed up with the festival. The year before, he had had a conflict with Vicky Leandros, who, in the rehearsals for some television show, had arrogantly tried to explain him how she wanted him to conduct the orchestra for her. He felt genuinely insulted, for who was Vicky Leandros to tell him, with decades of experience under his belt, how to handle a group of musicians? Dolf frowned upon being lectured for an entire week by self-willed teenage pop singers - and to my mind, he had every right to say so. Therefore, he declined working on the Eurovision Song Contest in ’76. For some strange reason, Dolf wanted me to stand in. Feeling responsible for his orchestra, he suggested me to the organizing committee. He must have seen me at work with other broadcasting orchestras and felt that this young talent should be given the opportunity of working with his orchestra. It was only a couple of months later that I was contracted by the broadcaster, meaning they had to pay me for this Eurovision commission, but apparently that was not a problem.” As the Netherlands’ entry ‘The party is over’ was conducted by its arranger, Harry van Hoof, and all other delegations had brought along a conductor as well, Stulen did not conduct any of the participating songs. This makes Stulen one of only four maestros in the history of the Eurovision Song Contest who did not conduct one single entry, the other ones being Malcolm Lockyer, Yitzhak Graziani, and Igor Kuljerić. The interval music was played by Peter Schilperoort’s Dutch Swing College Band, meaning Stulen’s main job in the rehearsal week was to help out the guest conductors from all participating countries if need be: “No, we did not rehearse the songs before the guest conductors arrived. I am not sure whether Dolf had taken care of this as well or if it was up to the guest conductors to familiarize the orchestra’s musicians with their respective scores. My duty was to be there while the guest conductors rehearsed. Amazingly, strict care was taken that all countries were given exactly the same amount of time to rehearse their songs… fifteen or twenty minutes a day. All delegations were expected to rehearse their respective items within the time which had been allotted to them - and not one second more. After all, the Eurovision Song Contest is a competition and even a suspicion of bias had to be avoided!” During the week of rehearsals, Stulen observed the guest conductors at work: “I was the watchdog, so to speak, who had to avoid any hiccups from occurring. One guest was more successful than the other, but no disasters happened. The pieces that did not go well on Monday yet, sounded well on Tuesday. Mostly, in a Eurovision Song Contest, the arrangers conducted the songs - usually excellent musicians, but no trained conductors… and conducting is a profession! These pop songs are usually played in one tempo; if a conductor counts in the orchestra correctly and the drummer picks up the right tempo, virtually nothing can go wrong. For such simple songs, musicians hardly pay attention to the conductor… they need a conductor for changes of tempo; for example, ballads with rubato, in other words: a slight speeding up and slowing down of the tempo, require strict guidance from a conductor - the rhythm section cannot help out in such cases! But even when a guest conductor lacked the required technique, the Metropole Orchestra players were extremely skilled in guiding themselves through the music… “In the course of the week”, Stulen continues, “the contact with the orchestra musicians got closer and closer. This was nice - after all, they had never worked with me before. During the rehearsals, I was there all the time and there was ample time for a chat. When they had just had to work with one of those non-conductors, some of them asked me for my opinion. “This guy was hopeless… can’t you teach him a lesson?”, is what some of them wondered. Somewhat differently from what I was used to with musicians from symphony orchestras, they liked being quite informal. The worst conductor they had to work with for this contest was without a doubt Les Humphries, who participated for West Germany with his vocal group. He was extremely bad-tempered, venting his dissatisfaction about the orchestra, but about his own singers as well; they were rebuked by him in the rudest of manners. At the same time, his conducting technique was nothing to speak of… with his antics in front of the orchestra, he gave the impression of a lumberjack rather than a conductor.” “What struck me most about this Eurovision Song Contest”, Stulen recalls, “was the huge number of security officers walking around in and outside the concert hall. Nowadays, every musician is perfectly used to having to show an accreditation before being allowed into the hall, but in those days, it was a totally new experience. With Israel participating in the contest just four years after the massacre at the Munich Olympics, our local authorities were not keen to leave anything to chance. All those cocktail parties and receptions were a new feature for me as well… and I was expected to turn up on all these occasions. I believe I never drank more alcohol in one week!” In the international final, Jan Stulen conducted the opening tune and finale, both of which had been composed and arranged by Bert Paige, one of the most experienced arrangers to work for the Metropole Orchestra in those years. When Stulen was introduced to the international television audience by host Corry Brokken, he looked quite tense. “Appearances can be deceptive!”, Stulen comments. “I cannot remember being nervous. The most difficult part of my task was to make sure the overture had to be played in tune with the introduction film which opened the programme. This can be a tricky business - much later in my career, I conducted countless film scores on stage with the Brabants Orkest while the film itself was running. If you discover, just sixteen bars before the end of the piece, that you are trailing the image by eight bars or that you have played it eight bars too fast, you find yourself in a nasty situation. In the Eurovision Song Contest, however, everything went exactly according to plan”. Looking back, Stulen adds: “In a way, this Eurovision Song Contest was a special moment in my working life. Quite opposite to nowadays, the programme used to have a huge status; I could not help but noticing this in the days and weeks after the programme, when my wife came home telling me that all kinds of acquaintances had told her how they had seen her husband on television in the Eurovision Song Contest - they probably thought I could not rise much higher than that. Realistically speaking, I had not done more than conducting two nice pieces of music which had been composed and arranged by someone else… that was it. The best part of the whole episode was that Dolf van der Linden was apparently pleased by my performance, because, in the months and years which followed, he regularly invited me to perform as a guest with his Metropole Orchestra.
A great year for the Francophone countries (except Luxembourg, and I don’t count Switzerland in that as they didn’t sing in French.) Monaco is my personal favourite song of ‘76, and Belgium’s song was great and should have done a lot better.
Hey! As explained in the comments, it looks like that was the official Greek flag at the time....they marched out to it at the Olympics in Montreal later that year.. The flag in question was also called the Greek flag 'on land' whereas the design we see in Eurovision was often designated at flag on sea...and therefore in other countries. However, I can't see any specific evidence that it wasn't the Greek flag in all situations in 1976 (especially since they went to the Olympics with it). Remember, without the Internet, receiving this sort of information at a television producer level would have almost certainly relied on a printed book (my TV graphic design department still has them around!)...it maybe that both the Dutch and the BBC didn't know about the change.
A few other things I couldn’t fit in the description:
COPYRIGHT: If you’re watching in the UK, Channel 5 and LDS own the performance on TH-cam in the UK, I think this is because the bot thinks I am copying a clip from ‘Eurovision Greatest Moments: 5 Goes to Eurovision’. To see the whole video, you’ll find it through ko-fi.com/thereorderboard (no donation necessary).
Phew…this took a while. Work is not relenting right now and you may remember this is a lockdown project…we’re distinctly very far from lockdowns and the time freedoms that the pandemic brought! This project took a weekend making the background, then another getting the new song bar correct…so it’s not that I haven’t been attentive, but I haven’t been able to steal time from other projects as much as I usually do. Everyone has plenty of Eurovision to devour at the moment, so I think it might be better to finish the last three Contests after that, possibly at 1 a month. I do want to revisit some of my early boards again too, especially if @SvenskTV has upscaled the footage. The channel isn’t going anywhere, and I’d like to also create some infographics etc over on Twitter too, @thereorderboard. Design updates will continue on ko-fi and I want to thank those who’ve donated recently, it’s very kind of you!
@SvenskTV brings me to my thanks - for this one, the quality of the footage and sound is amazing. Great too, the Joris Peters from the Netherland’s has the UK commentary in his archive too. That’s been a great addition - unfortunately it was only in mono, which I’ve adjusted in editing but I’ve tried to keep the superior sound from the upscaled footage as much as possible. Thanks to Joris for helping with the Dutch translations on this one too!
You can’t do better for a full review of the original scoreboard used in The Hague than here: euroscoreboards.wordpress.com/2021/08/08/the-hague-1976/ Keen eyes will notice I’ve gone for ‘United Kingdom’ and ‘Germany’ to keep the channel consistent. I’ve also used the correct Greek flag…luckily it was quite easy to replace and to verify…the Montreal Olympics were the same year and Greece always comes out at the Opening Ceremony first…the first flag: what you see on my board, not what’s used in programme. The Greek flag has gone through quite a few changes, and the version used in the programme titles was actually a variant of the Greek flag we know today, but far too light…the official Greek flag of 1970-75 (under the military junta) was very dark blue.
I’ve already mentioned why Sweden were sitting out this year. Malta decided to withdraw from the Contest. It’s not immediately obvious to me that’s a result of anything other than poor results, although I expect budgetary concerns were also a part. The Maltese language entries in 1971 and 1972 had both finished last with their one attempt last year in English ending in 12th. Things had improved, but obviously not by much. Malta would be locked out of the Contest when they wanted to return some 10 years later due to restrictions on the number of countries entering. Their return in 1991 proved much more successful, partly because they chose to sing in English when everyone else couldn’t: from 1991 to 2005, the island nation finished outside the top 10 only twice (1999 & 2003). Results post 2005 have been more mixed.
1/2 I wonder how close we came to having Greece and Turkey in the same Contest this year, but so close to the invasion of Cyprus and the political nature of Greece’s song ‘Panagia Mou’. Turkey did broadcast the final, but censored the Greek entry, playing a nationalist song ‘Memleketim’ - a symbol of the invasion. Austria make their return finally, having last competed in 1972. To my ears, it’s one of the worst songs there, but it was Austria’s first English only entry and they were rewarded with another 5th place (they finished 5th at their last appearance in Edinburgh). Austria would have a few words in English in 1977 and then switch back to German because of the rule changes until 1999.
1976 seems to be the year of contested spellings. Greece’s controversial song subject also reveals a couple of different spellings of ‘Panagia’…I think, based on the Greek, ‘Panagia’ is correct, although several places have it as ‘Panaghia’. Monaco’s singer…Christy or Cristy? Holland or The Netherlands? England, Great Britain or the United Kingdom? West Germany or Germany? Italy’s song is listed both with its Italian and English name. I ended up splitting the difference with Israel’s Chocolate Menta Mastik…comma or no commas!?
I found this scoring sequence fascinating, particularly because it looked so close and you start to ignore the rest of the pack falling back quite sharply. ‘Save All Your Kisses’ ended up taking home 80.39% of the points available, just a behind 1973’s ‘Tu the reconnaîtras’ for Luxembourg that got 80.63%. As mentioned above, only Ireland, Italy and France gave the UK below 8 points. Needless to say, the UK scored in every round, together with France. France however, had six countries who gave them below 8 points, giving them an average 1 point per round deficit over the UK (8.65 v 9.65). Compare this to third place Monaco who scored 5.47 per round and only achieved 3 eight points, and 1 twelve. A top heavy race, but thrilling to watch which really only turned until the second half of the voting. Remarkably, and perhaps annoyingly for purists, the scoreboard only highlights the UK’s winning amount on a tie-break! Of course the count back doesn’t exist in Eurovision until the late 1980s, but it’s the UK’s dominance in the high value points that mean it can be declared the winner despite it being mathematically possible for a tie when Monaco give the UK 10 points. France go on to get the 12 of course, and the code knows that’s possible when the UK start flashing…however, even if France then get 12 from their remaining jury, Yugoslavia and France give the UK nothing AND Yugoslavia give the UK zero, both would be on 147 points but with the UK having an advantage in the count back. Thus we get a flashing Union Jack. Obviously that is immediately broken by France awarding the UK 7 points in the next round but that’s why the UK starts flashing when it does.
I would have thought Italy’s entry is one of the most low energy and vocally ropey songs I’ve heard on a Eurovision stage. Of course Al Bano slightly forgetting the words wasn’t great and perhaps the pair thought very little of the Contest. You might be surprised to know, based on that performance, that they’ve sold 150 million copies of albums over the 6 decades they’ve been active. They do indeed return to Eurovision in 1985 (finishing 7th with ‘Magic Oh Magic’). Somehow this song made it to number 2 in France, but failed to chart elsewhere. Their breakthrough hit didn’t come until 1981 to be fair, after which they released a Spanish language album. In 1999 the couple separated, but they did reunited professionally, even appearing at San Remo 2015. Al Bano is about to be 79 years old in May 2022, with Romina turning 71 in October 2022.
2/2 Germany had had an eventful build up to the Contest, and as you can tell on stage, a chaotic performance in the final. ‘Ein Lied für Den Haag’ had selected ‘Der Star’ as the 1976 entry, but it was later found to have been performed in public before the national final and therefore was disqualified after the public had voted for it (the full final is here: th-cam.com/video/YeGvXD1AWK8/w-d-xo.html ) The result was the ‘Les Humphries Singers’, a name I originally thought was French - but no…the group, which often had up to 20 members on stage, was formed by Croydon born Les Humphries, who had formed the group in Hamburg in 1969. They had had a couple of hits prior the ESC, including appearing in a German movie in 1974. Les is pictured here on ZDF Disko in 1972: th-cam.com/video/oKrCmj22XUo/w-d-xo.html The Song Contest rules reduced them to 6 on stage of course, and well, perhaps the lack of Gospel realness on stage robbed ‘Sing Sang Song’ of greatness…or perhaps not. This was songwriter and producer Ralph Siegel’s second entry at the Eurovision final, after ‘Bye Bye I Love You’ (Ireen Sheer for Luxembourg in Brighton 1974). Of course, together with Bernd Meinunger, they’d write plenty of Eurovision songs and have a particularly successful period in the early 1980s, taking two second places and the trophy itself in 1982. Ralph would also be responsible for all the fun Valentina Monetta San Marino entries between 2012’s ‘Social Network Song’ and 2017’s ‘Spirit of the Night’. Only ‘Maybe’ got through to the final in Copenhagen 2014, finishing 24th.
I’m always thankful that Terry Wogan became the UK’s regular commentator, but I do think Michael Aspel might have been great had he stuck around. He’s got the right mix of information and wit, with a little boyish/English country gentleman charm that takes a Wogan-like side swipe at things. His mention of the bouzouki, and the ‘small nudist’ was great, as well as the comment about ‘a man’s shame’. Aspel is a man that if you were born in the 1980s like me, was always on programmes for old people, namely ‘Antiques Roadshow’ and ‘This Is Your Life’, but he actually had a very mixed career. Starting in BBC Wales acting in children’s show, he quickly became on the BBC’s main newsreaders. Counter to this ‘straight’ career, he also presented ‘Come Dancing’ (the amateur version of Strictly), anarchic children’s sketch show ‘Crackerjack’ and also the Miss World contest, which he covered 14 times. He appeared in The Morecambe & Wise show doing a dance routine, just like fellow newsreader and 1977 host, Angela Rippon. He was a presenter who could also turn his hands to documentaries, doing some on radio about the then compulsory British National Service. He narrated the Oscar winning ‘The War Game’ documentary about a nuclear attack on the UK in 1966 - it was not shown on British television until 1966.
Brotherhood of Man: Please don’t tell me that they look 24 and 25 years old in their postcard!? I’ve already mentioned their previous chart success. ‘United We Stand’ became a top 20 hit in the UK, US, Australia and Canada in January 1970. After Eurovision, Pye Records decided against releasing the soulful music from the groups up coming album but instead sticking with pop. ‘My Sweet Rosaline’ was a carbon copy song with the lyrical twist that the song was about a dog, rather than a child - it failed to chart highly. In 1977 a more female led ‘Oh Boy (The Mood I’m In) lead to more success. By 1979 three singles released in the first 6 months of the year all failed to chart. In 1980, the group produced a cover album (the result of a deal) that covered some top-20 hits from previous years. This was met with middling success, but performed much better than anything in the 1977-9 period. In 1982, one of the male members (Lee Sheridan) left the group and Barry Upton would join. Barry would go on to write many hits for 1993 Eurovision entrant Sonia, and then Steps. In 1983 three members of the group wrote ‘When the Kissing Stops’ and entered it into A Song For Europe. The group decided not to perform it themselves: "We all agreed it would be better to be remembered as winners, and we couldn't bear to lose!”. The band reformed in 1990s largely performing on the cabaret circuit, including teaming up with Bucks Fizz. In 2006 they appeared at the 50th anniversary of the Eurovision Song Contest in Denmark.
Plenty going on in 1976: In January, the first commercial Concorde flight between London and Bahrain and Paris to Rio. In March, Harold Wilson suddenly resigns as Prime Minister of the UK. He had claimed to intimate friends that he was exhausted by the job (he had served from 1964-70, and then again from 1974. By this time, Wilson was drinking brandy during the day to deal with the stress, and doctors would detect problems that would lead to a colon cancer diagnosis and perhaps Wilson himself was aware of the symptoms of early onset dementia that were troubling his usually exemplary memory. A few weeks later, Star Wars would start filming in Tunisia. On April 1st a little known two Steves, Jobs & Wozniak form ‘Apple Computer Company’., releasing the ‘Apple 1’ days later. Two days after Eurovision on April 3rd, Jim Callaghan succeeds Harold Wilson. If you’re ever asked about Labour Party leaders called James, remember James Callaghan is not one of the 4 answers as Callaghan’s first name is Leonard. In the summer, as Wilson had resigned, when the G6 nations met, the German Chancellor and US President Gerald Ford decided they needed another experienced English speaker in the group, so they invited long time Prime Minister of Canada, Pierre Trudeau…the G7 was born. Portugal enact a new constitution on their road to democracy. In June the long running dispute between Iceland and the UK over fishing rights ends. At the end of June Palestinians hijack an Air France plane with 246 passengers and 12 crew and fly it to Entebbe, Uganda. Days later, Israeli operatives free 103 of the hostages. On July 2nd, North and South Vietnam reunite. The UK suffers a heat wave, with associated water shortages. An explosion in Seveso Italy causes pollution over large parts of Milan. Also in July, the Montreal Olympics are held and the USA celebrates it’s 200th birthday. Delegates attending an American Legion convention at The Bellevue-Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia begin falling ill with a form of pneumonia: this will eventually be recognised as the first outbreak of Legionnaires' disease and will end in the deaths of 29 attendees. Ebola is identified in Zaire in August. In September, Mao Zedong dies of a heart attack, aged 82. The Muppet Show is broadcast for the first time on ITV- two pilot shows produced by Jim Henson had failed to be picked up by American broadcaster ABC, meanwhile UK producer Lew Grade agreed to co-produce the programme in the UK. Henson was aware he was being typecast as a children’s entertainer by being in Sesame Street. By Christmas 1976, the Muppet Show series in the UK saw around 14 million viewers tuning in on Sunday evenings. In January 1977, over 100 countries had either acquired the series or were making offers, which had resulted in over £6 million in overseas sales. In October, during the Presidential race between Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, Ford stumbles when he declares that "there is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe. October 18th, Ford begin producing its ‘Fiesta’ car at its Valencia plant. October 22nd: Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh, the 5th President of Ireland, resigns after being publicly insulted by the Minister for Defense. November 2nd: Carter beats incumbent Gerald Ford, becoming the first candidate from the Deep South to win the US Presidency since the Civil War. November 26th, ‘Microsoft’ is registered in New Mexico. In December, Denis Healey announces to the British Parliament that he has successfully negotiated a £2.3bn loan from the International Monetary Fund - often seen as the one of the lowest points of the UK’s post-war period.
When will be ready the scoreboard of 1977?
Turkey would be the 17th participant, but was forced to withdraw its participation in protest of the Greek participation, the song "Panagia Mou, Panagia Mou" (My lady, my lady) that spoke openly of the Turkish Invasion of Cyprus, which took place in 1974
Interesting info. Thanks.
Thank you! this is simply amazing! The editing, the quality, the scoreboard, everything! spectacular. congratulations 🙏🏽
1:08:43 I think this is one of the few times a song had its title as its score
Great image and sound! 👍
Quite wonderful as ever - well done!
I particularly like the title of the song and artist dangling from the top of the screen - very inventive! I also enjoyed hearing Aspel's commentary for all the reasons you stated... mind you, he couldn't conceal his delight at the moving set, could he?!! :)
Ha ha yea I liked his enthusiasm! 'it really is a knock-out!' Thanks for your comment :-)
And of course, the UK's winning song would be the last Eurovision winner to enter the Billboard charts in the United States until April 2021 with the chart debut of the 2019 winner "Arcade"
i have an interesting record from 1976 here in Norway, where the all these songs were rerecorded with Norwegian artists and all translated to Norwegian! very interesting indeed!
I'm Norwegian too
Do u have a link
With the current ´sun´ controversies going on in Turin I don´t know if I ever heard this much talk about the set. It was lovely and gave loads of options but he was smitten! :)
He was very taken with it, wasn’t he?
Thanks again, with live going back to before I understand it will take longer! Thank god we have Turin 2022 next week! ;)
Such a nice scoreboard! even though I have a soft spot for the original spartan design of the original, I like how you incorporated a scroller for the running order and the Dutch language on it. Plus, I'm glad you managed to switch up the backgrounds every time!
1976 feels like a filler edition for me, because the production was so minimalistic--hardly any fuss. The songs themselves are quite good, on the other hand, though they tend to lean towards lighter pop.
My top ten:
1 pt: LUX
2 pt: IRE
3 pt: MCO
4 pt: FRA
5 pt: GBR
6 pt: PRT
7 pt: YUG
8 pt: GRE -- Definitely one of the more political songs Eurovision has ever had, but one which is still very strong. Panagia Mou, Panagia Mou is grand, but rough in terms of content, especially with the lyrics. Mariza has a beautiful, almost operatic voice; and the orchestration is fantastic.
10 pt: ISR -- Slightly less political (shalom can either be hello or peace), Emor Shalom is both playful and insistent. The girls are flirtatious towards their new love interest, and it shows with the song and performance!
12 pt: BEL -- Judy et cie is my favorite, however, because it's something deeper. I like the storytelling in it, and I could emphasize with the fictional Judy, in her attempts to be loved. The music reminds me of a Billy Joel song with its piano influences, along with its touches of melancholy.
thank you so much for posting this :)
Dublin’s Evening Herald newspaper had odds on the 1976 contest the day before the contest- the UK was the favourite at 4/1, followed by Netherlands at 11/2, Monaco at 6/1, Germany at 7/1, France 8/1 and Finland and Norway both at 10/1, then Israel, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Yugoslavia, Portugal, Spain (at various prices), with Ireland and Austria both long shots at 25/1, and Greece considered a total outsider at 40/1.
Thank you - I guess I'd better start adding the odds information back in! Completely forgot about that on this one!
@@thereorderboard I’d have sent these to you earlier but I only just paid for access to the Irish newspaper archive two days ago! I’ll have a look and see if I can find odds for the last three contests of the 1970s and I’ll send them on.
@@mrjdsworld80 Oh dont' worry - these videos can't be an ultimate arbiter of Eurovision history, we're still learning! Thanks for providing it, it still adds to the story!
I just saw the Norwegian 1976 pre selection again. A bit strange that mata Hari did not score better, what could be the reason when it had good odds? mata Hari was the first winner in Norway in many years that the criticts showed a little enthusiasm. Tha last place is somehow a sad record for the team: Composer Frode Thinhnæs, (then married to Anne-Karine Strøm, lyricist Philip A, Kruse and Anne-Karine are, as fare as i know, the onlye team that has lost the ESC twice. One can imagine why Anne Karine is a style icon amongst ESC fans. But it would have been more interesting to se how the act Voodoo, that became second in the pre selection, would have been received in Europe.
La calidad muy buena y la audición gracias para que no se pierda estas joyas de canciones y el video
I really really love the little 1966 section in the bottom of the screen during the voting :)
Thank you so much for uploading this :-)
It's interesting, that the english commentator speaks about Britains first win since 1967, not mentioning 1969 :-)
He did say "the only outright win" tho :)
Thank you so much!!
Germany's song made me think of "Bing bang bong, sing sang song, ding dang dong, UK Hun?" from RuPaul's Drag Race UK Season 2. I wonder if whoever wrote it was deliberately inspired by Les Humphries Singers' song.
Amazing job once again 😍
Here are my personal votes/rankings, i'am from the Netherlands
12 points: Belgium - Pierre Rapsat - Judy et cie
10 points: United Kingdom - Brotherhood of Man - Save your kisses for me
8 points: Finland - Fredi & the Friends - Pump pump
7 points: Monaco - Mary Christy - Toi, la musique et moi
6 points: Norway - Anne Karine Strom - Mata Hari
5 points: Italy - Al Bano & Romina Power - We'll live it all again
4 points: Israël - Chocolate, Menta, Mastik - Emor shalom
3 points: Spain - Braulio - Sobran las palabras
2 points: Yugoslavia - Ambasadori - Ne mogu skriti svoju bol
1 point : Luxembourg - Jürgen Marcus - Chansons pour ceux qui s'aiment
Thanks thanks your videos amazing your work wow
brilliant!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Great warm up before ESC2022
Great ❤️
The Greek flag on the song's title was wrong, because the people and the state along had always used the naval flag, no matter what Wikipedia might say... ;-)
1/2 www.andtheconductoris.eu/ Tony Rallo - FRA
Rallo: With ‘Un, deux, trois’ being due to be performed on nationwide television, Cara and Rallo were in need of a singer - and they had to find someone fast. For Rallo, this was an opportunity to reward a friend in the business: “In those days, I extensively worked with Léo Missir, a producer at the Barclay record company. Thanks to him, a lot of arranging work, including Daniel Guichard’s repertoire, was coming my way. I felt it would be right to ask him first if there was an artiste he wanted to promote and who was perhaps suitable to embark on our Eurovision project. He invited me over to the Barclay studios, where an attractive young blond girl was waiting for us: Cathérine Ferry. She did not have a record deal - nothing. She turned out to be the girlfriend of Daniel Balavoine, one of Léo’s protégés, but who, at that time, was desperately unsuccessful. When Cathérine sang the song with a pianist accompanying her, I immediately realized she was exactly the kind of girl we needed. Formidable!. Shortly after, we recorded ‘Un, deux, trois’ with Cathérine. Léo Missir asked me for another favour: to include Daniel Balavoine and his brother in the group of backing singers accompanying Cathérine. Moreover, for the B side of the single release of ‘Un, deux, trois’, one of Daniel’s compositions was used. To be honest, I had never heard of Balavoine before.”
What were Rallo’s emotions after finishing second behind the UK’s Brotherhood of Man? “Being up front with the British during the entire voting procedure, we were slightly disappointed to lose out against them in the end. ‘Save your kisses for me’ was a good song too… a light song, like ours - that was the style which sold well in those years! Of course, we were happy with the hit success of ‘Un, deux, trois’ in so many different European countries. For Daniel Balavoine, who was trying so hard to make a career in music, it was slightly painful to see his girlfriend rising to stardom all of a sudden. In the end, however, Daniel became a successful recording artist, while Cathérine faded away, unable to top the success of that one Eurovision hit. With ‘Un, deux, trois’, her career was launched beautifully, but, understandably, she did not want to continue recording songs in that style for the rest of her life… and perhaps that is what audiences expected of her.”
Although Rallo did not make a second appearance in the Eurovision Song Contest as a composer, arranger, or conductor, there are two footnotes to add to his festival record. In 1981, he arranged ‘Moi je dis stop’ for Julie Bataille, the French cover version of ‘Making your mind up’, with which UK’s Bucks Fizz had won that year’s Eurovision Song Contest. Five years later, in 1986, Rallo again submitted a composition to the French selection committee, with lyrics by the renowned Eddy Marnay: ‘Tout commence et recommence’. The song was rejected by the selection committee, all the more incredible when realizing the interpreter was none other than… Céline Dion, the Canadian songstress who was to win the Eurovision Song Contest for Switzerland two years later with ‘Ne partez pas sans moi’ and then went on to worldwide stardom in the 1990s.
“I must be the only producer in the world”, Rallo chuckles, “who has a Céline Dion recording on the shelf which has never been released! The project was Eddy Marnay’s brainchild. He had the lyrics ready and wanted me to compose and arrange the music to it. He came up with Céline Dion… we recorded the demo down here in my home studio. It was a gentle ballad. I cannot begin to understand why our recording was rejected by French television. I have often thought about passing it onto Michel Drucker (famous French TV host of music programmes, BT), who could then surprise Céline with it during his show… she has no doubt forgotten about the song altogether. So far, I have not done that, though - the demo is still here on the shelf.”
www.andtheconductoris.eu/ Ossi Runne - FIN
In Ossi Runne’s case, this was more true than ever in 1976, when Finland entered a simple schlager sing-a-long with an equally evocative title: ‘Pump-pump’, performed by Fredi (Matti Siitonen). Runne: “This song was visually well thought out: a huge singer with two pretty girls by his side. Of course it was not a personal favourite of mine, but my job was to do the best I could with the orchestra and keep the singers happy. All the rest was unimportant.” The amount of professional enthusiasm Runne put into this song can be deduced from his flamboyant style of conducting the orchestra in The Hague. “I wanted to convey the happy message of the song to the orchestra”, he explains. “During rehearsals, I always tried to bring about a good atmosphere between me and the orchestra right away. A happy feeling, no bad words... this is your job, this is my job: let’s make music. Though I cannot remember names, there were those fellows, other conductors, who behaved as bullies by shouting the musicians down, but that is a method which can only be counterproductive.”
www.andtheconductoris.eu/ Jan Stulen - NED
Quite unexpectedly, Jan Stulen received the invitation to be the chief conductor of the 1976 Eurovision Song Contest in The Hague. Stulen had not been involved at all in the Dutch preliminary contest, in which Hans van Hemert’s composition ‘The party is over’, interpreted by Sandra Reemer, was chosen as the Netherlands’ representative for the international festival. What was more, the then thirty-four year old maestro had never conducted the Metropole Orchestra before in his life and seemed a tabula rasa in the world of light entertainment music. Stulen: “It is fair to say that my musical upbringing was entirely classical.
2/2 www.andtheconductoris.eu/ Jan Stulen - NED
Quite unexpectedly, Jan Stulen received the invitation to be the chief conductor of the 1976 Eurovision Song Contest in The Hague. Stulen had not been involved at all in the Dutch preliminary contest, in which Hans van Hemert’s composition ‘The party is over’, interpreted by Sandra Reemer, was chosen as the Netherlands’ representative for the international festival. What was more, the then thirty-four year old maestro had never conducted the Metropole Orchestra before in his life and seemed a tabula rasa in the world of light entertainment music. Stulen: “It is fair to say that my musical upbringing was entirely classical.
Jan Stulen: “It was Dolf van der Linden himself who wanted me to take over for this commission of musical director of the Eurovision Song Contest! Frankly speaking, Dolf admitted he was fed up with the festival. The year before, he had had a conflict with Vicky Leandros, who, in the rehearsals for some television show, had arrogantly tried to explain him how she wanted him to conduct the orchestra for her. He felt genuinely insulted, for who was Vicky Leandros to tell him, with decades of experience under his belt, how to handle a group of musicians? Dolf frowned upon being lectured for an entire week by self-willed teenage pop singers - and to my mind, he had every right to say so. Therefore, he declined working on the Eurovision Song Contest in ’76. For some strange reason, Dolf wanted me to stand in. Feeling responsible for his orchestra, he suggested me to the organizing committee. He must have seen me at work with other broadcasting orchestras and felt that this young talent should be given the opportunity of working with his orchestra. It was only a couple of months later that I was contracted by the broadcaster, meaning they had to pay me for this Eurovision commission, but apparently that was not a problem.”
As the Netherlands’ entry ‘The party is over’ was conducted by its arranger, Harry van Hoof, and all other delegations had brought along a conductor as well, Stulen did not conduct any of the participating songs. This makes Stulen one of only four maestros in the history of the Eurovision Song Contest who did not conduct one single entry, the other ones being Malcolm Lockyer, Yitzhak Graziani, and Igor Kuljerić. The interval music was played by Peter Schilperoort’s Dutch Swing College Band, meaning Stulen’s main job in the rehearsal week was to help out the guest conductors from all participating countries if need be: “No, we did not rehearse the songs before the guest conductors arrived. I am not sure whether Dolf had taken care of this as well or if it was up to the guest conductors to familiarize the orchestra’s musicians with their respective scores. My duty was to be there while the guest conductors rehearsed. Amazingly, strict care was taken that all countries were given exactly the same amount of time to rehearse their songs… fifteen or twenty minutes a day. All delegations were expected to rehearse their respective items within the time which had been allotted to them - and not one second more. After all, the Eurovision Song Contest is a competition and even a suspicion of bias had to be avoided!”
During the week of rehearsals, Stulen observed the guest conductors at work: “I was the watchdog, so to speak, who had to avoid any hiccups from occurring. One guest was more successful than the other, but no disasters happened. The pieces that did not go well on Monday yet, sounded well on Tuesday. Mostly, in a Eurovision Song Contest, the arrangers conducted the songs - usually excellent musicians, but no trained conductors… and conducting is a profession! These pop songs are usually played in one tempo; if a conductor counts in the orchestra correctly and the drummer picks up the right tempo, virtually nothing can go wrong. For such simple songs, musicians hardly pay attention to the conductor… they need a conductor for changes of tempo; for example, ballads with rubato, in other words: a slight speeding up and slowing down of the tempo, require strict guidance from a conductor - the rhythm section cannot help out in such cases! But even when a guest conductor lacked the required technique, the Metropole Orchestra players were extremely skilled in guiding themselves through the music…
“In the course of the week”, Stulen continues, “the contact with the orchestra musicians got closer and closer. This was nice - after all, they had never worked with me before. During the rehearsals, I was there all the time and there was ample time for a chat. When they had just had to work with one of those non-conductors, some of them asked me for my opinion. “This guy was hopeless… can’t you teach him a lesson?”, is what some of them wondered. Somewhat differently from what I was used to with musicians from symphony orchestras, they liked being quite informal. The worst conductor they had to work with for this contest was without a doubt Les Humphries, who participated for West Germany with his vocal group. He was extremely bad-tempered, venting his dissatisfaction about the orchestra, but about his own singers as well; they were rebuked by him in the rudest of manners. At the same time, his conducting technique was nothing to speak of… with his antics in front of the orchestra, he gave the impression of a lumberjack rather than a conductor.”
“What struck me most about this Eurovision Song Contest”, Stulen recalls, “was the huge number of security officers walking around in and outside the concert hall. Nowadays, every musician is perfectly used to having to show an accreditation before being allowed into the hall, but in those days, it was a totally new experience. With Israel participating in the contest just four years after the massacre at the Munich Olympics, our local authorities were not keen to leave anything to chance. All those cocktail parties and receptions were a new feature for me as well… and I was expected to turn up on all these occasions. I believe I never drank more alcohol in one week!”
In the international final, Jan Stulen conducted the opening tune and finale, both of which had been composed and arranged by Bert Paige, one of the most experienced arrangers to work for the Metropole Orchestra in those years. When Stulen was introduced to the international television audience by host Corry Brokken, he looked quite tense. “Appearances can be deceptive!”, Stulen comments. “I cannot remember being nervous. The most difficult part of my task was to make sure the overture had to be played in tune with the introduction film which opened the programme. This can be a tricky business - much later in my career, I conducted countless film scores on stage with the Brabants Orkest while the film itself was running. If you discover, just sixteen bars before the end of the piece, that you are trailing the image by eight bars or that you have played it eight bars too fast, you find yourself in a nasty situation. In the Eurovision Song Contest, however, everything went exactly according to plan”.
Looking back, Stulen adds: “In a way, this Eurovision Song Contest was a special moment in my working life. Quite opposite to nowadays, the programme used to have a huge status; I could not help but noticing this in the days and weeks after the programme, when my wife came home telling me that all kinds of acquaintances had told her how they had seen her husband on television in the Eurovision Song Contest - they probably thought I could not rise much higher than that. Realistically speaking, I had not done more than conducting two nice pieces of music which had been composed and arranged by someone else… that was it. The best part of the whole episode was that Dolf van der Linden was apparently pleased by my performance, because, in the months and years which followed, he regularly invited me to perform as a guest with his Metropole Orchestra.
@@thereorderboard What a cute and lovely addition!
A great year for the Francophone countries (except Luxembourg, and I don’t count Switzerland in that as they didn’t sing in French.) Monaco is my personal favourite song of ‘76, and Belgium’s song was great and should have done a lot better.
The French singer was very unlucky with have had the UK at the same year, because with an average of 8.65 points she could have won most Eurovisions.
This contest takes place in the same place than in the contest of 1980.
at 17:26 you can see the drummer pretending to play which i thought was hillarious
Me encanta como ponen las traducciones así se entera lo que dice la canción otros paises
Diamond jobs❤
1:19:04 what a funny highlight
Thank you so much! May I ask you: why did you use that Greek flag design? In the postcards you see the same flag as all other years
Hey! As explained in the comments, it looks like that was the official Greek flag at the time....they marched out to it at the Olympics in Montreal later that year.. The flag in question was also called the Greek flag 'on land' whereas the design we see in Eurovision was often designated at flag on sea...and therefore in other countries. However, I can't see any specific evidence that it wasn't the Greek flag in all situations in 1976 (especially since they went to the Olympics with it). Remember, without the Internet, receiving this sort of information at a television producer level would have almost certainly relied on a printed book (my TV graphic design department still has them around!)...it maybe that both the Dutch and the BBC didn't know about the change.
@@thereorderboard ahhh thanks for the information!!
Didn’t one of the singers in ales Humphriea later become a vocalist in Uriah Heep?
Yes : John Lawton. Otherwise there was Jürgen Drews, who became popular in Germany afterwards.
Jürgen Drews by "Les Humphries Singer" 🤮🤢🤮🤢
U Can ESC 1977?
He will do it
@@VATJON ok