all time rank: the position that the country and the song have between all the eurovision songs
chart from the game vote for the best eurovision song.
participating countries
History
For the second year in three, the United Kingdom and its national broadcaster BBC held the Eurovision Song Contest without having won in the preceding year. Due to the fact that the Luxembourg broadcaster RTL did not wish to host the song contest again because of financial reasons, British BBC embraced the possibility once more. This year, the Eurovision Song Contest was held at The Dome, in the seaside resort of Brighton.
Katie Boyle came back to host her fourth Eurovision Song Contest (she also hosted the contest in 1960, 1963 and 1968).
ABBA sang the song “Waterloo”, and the group went to become one of the most popular singing groups of all time. Along with 1988 winner Celine Dion, ABBA are among the few Eurovision winners to achieve international superstar status. Sweden’s win was their first. “Waterloo” itself was later voted the best song in the competition’s history in the programme Congratulations: 50 Years of the Eurovision Song Contest.
1974 saw the first participation of Greece who sent their national star Marinella. France was to enter the song contest with the entry La Vie A Vingt-cinq Ans by Dani, but the French singer never got the chance to perform though as the French president, Georges Pompidou, died in the week of the contest and France withdrew.
The United Kingdom was represented in the contest by the (British born) Australian pop singer Olivia Newton-John, who came fourth with the song “Long Live Love”. As noted by author and historian John Kennedy O’Connor in his book The Eurovision Song Contest – The Official History, Olivia disliked this song and preferred others from the UK heat, but “Long Live Love” was chosen as the UK’s entry by a public postal vote.
Malta withdrew from the contest for unknown reasons, but had selected Enzo Guzman with the song “Paċi Fid Dinja” (Peace in the World) to represent them.Italy refused to broadcast the televised contest on the state television channel RAI because of a song sung by Gigliola Cinquetti which coincided with the intense political campaigning for the 1974 Italian referendum on divorce which was held a month later in May. Despite the Eurovision contest taking place more than a month before the planned vote and despite Cinquetti going as far as winning second place, Italian censors refused to allow the contest and song to be shown or heard. RAI censors felt the song which was titled “Sì”, and which contained lyrics constantly repeating the word “SI” (yes)[3] could be accused of being a subliminal message and a form of propaganda to influence the Italian voting public to vote “YES” in the referendum. The song remained censored on most Italian state TV and radio stations for over a month.
Portugal’s entry “E depois do adeus” was used as one of the two signals to launch the Carnation Revolution against the Estado Novo regime. The song alerted the rebel captains and soldiers to begin the coup and the tanks of the left-wing military coup to move in. John Kennedy O’Connor describes it as “the only Eurovision entry to have actually started a revolution”, while Des Mangan suggests that other Portuguese entries (he mentions 1998’s “Se Eu Te Pudesse Abraçar”) would not be likely to inspire coups.
The voting system changed once more: 10 jury members in every country each awarded one point to their favorite song. For the first time, a draw of lots was used to decide the order in which countries would give the results of their juries. However, it was the last time this method was used to cast the votes – from 1975 onwards, a new voting system would be implemented which basically is still in use today.
# | Representing country | Performer(s) | Song title, writer(s) and composer(s) | Points | Place |
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01 | Finland
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Carita | Äla Mene Pois (keep Me Warm) | 004 | 13 |
02 | United Kingdom
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Olivia Newton-John | Long Live Love | 014 | 04 |
03 | Spain
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Peret | Canta Y Se Feliz | 010 | 09 |
04 | Norway
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Anne-Karine Ström and the Bendik Singers | The First Day Of Love | 003 | 14 |
05 | Greece
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Marinella | Krassi, Thalassa Ke T’agori Mou | 007 | 11 |
06 | Israel
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Poogy | Natati La Khaiai | 011 | 07 |
07 | Yugoslavia
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Korni | Generacija 42 | 006 | 12 |
08 | Sweden
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ABBA | Waterloo | 024 | 01 |
09 | Luxembourg
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Ireen Sheer | Bye, Bye, I Love You | 014 | 04 |
10 | Monaco
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Romuald | Celui Qui Reste Et Celui Qui S’en Va | 014 | 04 |
11 | Belgium
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Jacques Hustin | Fleur De Liberté | 010 | 09 |
12 | Netherlands
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Mouth and MacNeal | I See A Star | 015 | 03 |
13 | Ireland
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Tina | Cross Your Heart | 011 | 07 |
14 | Germany
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Cindy und Bert | Die Sommermelodie | 003 | 14 |
15 | Switzerland
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Piera Martell | Mein Ruf Nach Dir | 003 | 14 |
16 | Portugal
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Paulo de Carvalho | E Depois Do Adeus | 003 | 14 |
17 | Italy
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Gigliola Cinquetti | Si | 018 | 02 |
Returning artists
Artist | Country | Previous year(s) |
---|---|---|
Gigliola Cinquetti | ![]() |
1964 (winner) |
Romuald | ![]() |
1964, 1969 (for Luxembourg) |
Bendik Singers | ![]() |
1973 |