1959

VENUE Palais des Festivals, Cannes		ENTRIES 11
HOST Jacqueline Joubert		DEBUTS Monaco

The UK's second appearance brought it's first second place, a recurring feature of Britain's Eurovision history. Also, "Sing Little Birdie" captured the public's imagination in a way that Patricia Bredin's contribution had failed to a couple of years earlier. For the first of many times the UK were pipped at the post as the Dutch came up with something equally chipper. "Een Beetje" thus goes down as the contests first "perky" winner (so you know who to blame for the next forty years).

It was also a very even contest where the voting system had an arguably undue effect on the result. Each one of the first five songs received votes from seven of the other ten countries. The Netherlands hefty seven from the Italians effectively swung the result their way, although in fairness they were the outright favourite song of four of the ten other juries.

The Dutch became the first country to win the contest twice. Unfortunately this was to be a high watermark. Their record in the 1960s (despite the shared win in 1969) was the worst of any country and a win in 1975 with the English-sung "Dinge-Dong" was the only other time they've tasted victory).

France	Oui Oui Oui Oui	Jacques Phillipe	3
Denmark	Uh Jeg Ville Ønske Jeg Var Dig	Birthe Wilke	5
Italy	Piove	Domenico Modugno	6
Monaco	Mon Ami Pierrot	Jacques Pills	11
Netherlands	'N Beetje	Teddy Scholten	1
Germany	Heute Abend Wollen Wir Tanzen Gehen	Alice & Ellen Kessler	8
Sweden	Augustin	Brita Borg	9
Switzerland	Irgendwoher	Christa Williams	4
Austria	Der K Und K Kalypso Aus Wien	Ferry Graf	9
United Kingdom	Sing Little Birdie	Pearl Carr & Teddy Johnson	2
Belgium	Hou Toch Van Me	Bob Benny	6

WINNER:

Netherlands

'N BEETJE

Teddy Scholten

Voting

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