United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest 1973

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Eurovision Song Contest 1973
CountryFlag of the United Kingdom.svg  United Kingdom
National selection
Selection processArtist: Internal selection
Song: A Song for Europe 1973
Selection date(s)24 February 1973
Selected entrant Cliff Richard
Selected song"Power to All Our Friends"
Selected songwriter(s)
Finals performance
Final result3rd, 123 points
United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄1972 •1973• 1974►

The United Kingdom held a national preselection to choose the song that would go to the Eurovision Song Contest 1973.

Contents

Before Eurovision

A Song for Europe 1973

The show was held on 24 February 1973 and presented by Cilla Black as part of her BBC1 series Cilla . Cliff Richard performed all of the six finalists in the final, where the performances were then immediately repeated. He had previously performed one of the songs weekly in the run up to the final. Richard had been permitted to choose two songs for the shortlist of 12 entries, from which a panel including his manager and producer selected the final six. Viewers cast votes by postcards through the mail to choose the winning song and "Power to All Our Friends" was the winner with 125,505 votes, very nearly four times the score of the runner-up "Come Back Billie-Jo" which polled 34,209.

A Song for Europe 1973 –24 February 1973 [1]
DrawSongSongwriter(s)VotesPlace
1"Come Back, Billie Jo" Mitch Murray, Tony Macaulay 34,2092
2"Ashes to Ashes" Tony Cole 17,1166
3"Tomorrow Rising" Mike Hawker, Brian Bennett 21,8684
4"The Days of Love"Dougie Wright, Alan Hawkshaw 18,3045
5"Power to All Our Friends" Guy Fletcher, Doug Flett 125,5051
6"Help It Along" Christopher Neil 25,3693

Chart success

Both of the Top 2 songs were released as the A & B-Sides of a single, which reached No.4 in the UK singles chart, Cliff's first top 5 hit since "Congratulations" in 1968 and his last until 1979. For the first and only time in the history of the contest, all the entries from the UK final reached the UK singles chart. Following the release of the top two songs, the remaining four were issued as an extended play Eurovision Special single, which reached No.29 in the charts later in the year. The lead track, "Help It Along" was later released as the title track of Cliff's 1974 live album of Christian gospel music. All six songs were eventually made available on CD compilations. Richard recorded German, Spanish and French versions of the winning song. Eurovision Song Contest 1971 winner Séverine reached No.46 in the French singles chart with her French-language version of the song, "Il faut chanter la vie".

At Eurovision

"Power to All Our Friends" placed 3rd in the Eurovision Song Contest. [2] The 1973 contest became the most watched Eurovision Song Contest in the UK, with 23.54 million watching Cliff Richard perform in Luxembourg, almost 1 million more viewers than the record set in 1972. For the second year running, the contest was the No.1 rated TV show for the entire year in the UK. [3]

This was also the first Eurovision Song Contest where Terry Wogan provided the BBC television commentary, having previously provided the BBC radio commentary for the 1971 Contest. Pete Murray returned for the fourth time to provide the radio commentary for BBC Radio 1 and 2 listeners.

Each country nominated two jury members, one below the age of 25 and the other above, who voted for their respective country by giving between one and five points to each song, except that representing their own country. All jury members were colocated in a television studio in Luxembourg. The jury members from the United Kingdom were Catherine Woodfield and Pat Williams. [4]

Voting

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest</span>

Finland has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 56 times since its debut in 1961. Finland won the contest for the first – and to date only – time in 2006 with Lordi and their song "Hard Rock Hallelujah". The country's best result before then was achieved by Marion Rung with the song "Tom Tom Tom" in 1973, which placed sixth.

Sweden chose their entry for Eurovision Song Contest 1973 in the national final Melodifestivalen 1973. One of the competitors was a group of four who, later in the year, would become ABBA, but they only finished 3rd with their own entry. Instead, the winner was the song "Sommaren som aldrig säger nej" performed by the group Malta. To avoid being confused with the nation of Malta, who did not participate in that year's contest, they changed their name to "The Nova" for the contest. The song was translated into English with the title "You're Summer".

The Netherlands was represented by duo Sandra and Andres, with the song "Als het om de liefde gaat", at the 1972 Eurovision Song Contest, which took place on 25 March in Edinburgh. Sandra and Andres, an established act with five previous top 10 hits to their name, were internally selected by broadcaster NOS to be the Dutch representatives and the song was chosen at the national final on 22 February. Sandra.

Norway was represented by the Bendik Singers, with the song "It's Just a Game", at the 1973 Eurovision Song Contest, which took place on 7 April in Luxembourg City. "It's Just a Game" was chosen as the Norwegian entry at the Melodi Grand Prix on 17 February.

Portugal was represented for the second time by Carlos Mendes, with the song "A festa da vida", at the 1972 Eurovision Song Contest, which took place on 25 March in Edinburgh. "A festa da vida" was chosen as the Portuguese entry at the Grande Prémio TV da Canção Portuguesa on 22 February.

Portugal was represented by Tonicha, with the song "Menina do alto da serra", at the 1971 Eurovision Song Contest, which took place on 3 April in Dublin. "Menina do alto da serra" was chosen as the Portuguese entry at the Grande Prémio TV da Canção Portuguesa on 11 February.

Finland was represented by Marion Rung, with the song "Tom Tom Tom", at the 1973 Eurovision Song Contest, which took place on 7 April in Luxembourg.

Portugal was represented by Fernando Tordo, with the song "Tourada", at the 1973 Eurovision Song Contest, which took place on 7 April in Luxembourg City. "Tourada" was chosen as the Portuguese entry at the Grande Prémio TV da Canção Portuguesa on 26 February.

References

  1. ↑ Roxburgh, Gordon (2014). Songs for Europe: The United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest. Volume Two: The 1970s. Prestatyn: Telos Publishing. pp. 99–112. ISBN   978-1-84583-093-9.
  2. ↑ "Final of Luxembourg 1973". Eurovision Song Contest. Archived from the original on 9 April 2021. Retrieved 9 April 2021.
  3. ↑ "Classic TV - Old UK TV Show Ratings - 70s| FiftiesWeb".
  4. ↑ Roxburgh, Gordon (2014). Songs for Europe: The United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest. Volume Two: The 1970s. Prestatyn, United Kingdom: Telos Publishing. pp. 60, 124. ISBN   978-1-84583-093-9.
  5. 1 2 "Results of the Final of Luxembourg 1973". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 9 April 2021. Retrieved 9 April 2021.
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