Eurovision Song Contest 1973

Infobox Eurovision
name = Eurovision Song Contest 1973


final = 7 April 1973
presenters = Helga Guitton
conductor = Pierre Cao
director =
host = flagicon|Luxembourg RTL
venue = Nouveau Théâtre Luxembourg, Luxembourg, Luxembourg
winner = flag|Luxembourg
"Tu Te Reconnaîtras"
vote = Each country had 2 jurors present in the hall. Each juror awarded all songs with a score between 1 and 5, so each country gave all other countries a score between 2 and 10 points.
entries = 17
debut = flag|Israel
return = None
withdraw = flag|Austria
flag|Malta
null = None
interval = Charlie Rivel
opening =
con = Eurovision Song Contest
pre = ◄1972
nex = 1974►

The Eurovision Song Contest 1973 was the eighteenth Eurovision Song Contest and was held in Luxembourg. The language rule forcing countries to enter songs sung in any of their national languages was dropped, so performers from some countries sang in English.

The event was marked by a scandal when the Spanish song, "Eres tú", was accused of plagiarism following suggestions that it was merely a rewrite of the Yugoslav entry from the 1966 contest ("Brez besed" sung by Berta Ambrož). "Eres tú" was not disqualified. After placing second in the contest, the song went on to become a huge international hit.

The somewhat elliptical lyrics to Portugal's entry "Tourada" provided sufficient cover for a song that was clearly understood as a blistering assault on the country's decaying dictatorship.

An argument broke out between the singer Maxi and her Irish delegation over how the song should be performed. During rehearsals she repeatedly stopped performing in frustration. When it began to appear possible that Maxi may withdraw from the contest, RTÉ immediately sent over another singer, Tina Reynolds, to take her place just in case. In the end Miss Reynolds wasn't needed as Maxi did perform, with her entry earning 10th place on the scoreboard.

Malta was drawn to perform in 6th place between Norway and Monaco, but the Maltese broadcaster withdrew before the deadline to select an entry. Malta would attempt to return to the contest in 1974.

The 1973 contest marked the first time that a woman conducted the ESC orchestra. There were actually two — Monica Dominique conducted the Swedish entry and Nurit Hirsh conducted the Israeli entry.

In the light of events at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, there were fears of a terrorist threat, particularly directed against Israel's first-ever entrant, leading to unusually tight security for the contest. This gave rise to one of the best-known Eurovision anecdotes, frequently recounted by the UK's long-serving commentator Terry Wogan. He recalled that the floor manager strongly advised the audience to remain seated while applauding the performances, otherwise they risked being shot by security forces. [O'Connor, John Kennedy. The Eurovision Song Contest - The Official History. Carlton Books, UK. 2007 ISBN 978-1-84442-994-3] .

Luxembourg's win was their fourth. The voting was a very close one, with Spain finishing only 4 points behind and Cliff Richard (who came second in 1968) another 2 points after.

Results

core sheet

{|class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; font-size: 85%"!colspan="2" rowspan="2"
!colspan="43"|Results
- Finland 9 5 6 6 5 6 6 7 2 6 7 5 5 9 4 5 Belgium 4 3 4 3 6 6 4 4 2 4 2 3 4 5 2 2 Portugal 4 6 5 5 4 8 8 6 3 4 2 5 4 5 6 5 Germany 2 5 6 4 5 9 7 4 3 7 6 5 6 5 7 4 Norway 8 5 5 6 7 6 7 6 5 7 3 3 3 3 6 9 Monaco 6 3 2 4 3 6 5 9 8 6 4 5 6 9 5 4 Spain 3 8 9 9 4 9 8 9 10 8 7 10 10 4 9 8 Switzerland 4 3 3 4 7 5 7 6 4 6 3 8 7 7 2 3 Yugoslavia 5 3 3 4 2 5 8 6 2 4 2 4 5 4 4 4 Italy 2 5 3 5 5 5 5 7 5 5 5 4 4 5 5 4 Luxembourg 6 6 8 7 8 7 6 10 9 9 8 9 8 10 10 8 Sweden 8 4 4 5 8 5 7 9 6 5 6 6 5 7 4 5 Netherlands 4 4 2 5 5 4 5 5 5 4 7 3 5 3 6 2 Ireland 3 7 2 4 6 6 7 5 5 5 6 5 6 5 4 4 United Kingdom 9 6 6 7 7 8 4 8 8 5 10 9 10 9 8 9 France 4 3 2 4 4 5 5 4 7 2 3 5 5 5 5 2 Israel 6 6 5 7 5 7 4 6 7 7 8 6 6 7 5 5 THE TABLE IS ORDERED BY APPEARANCE

Map

References