VENUE Dome Theatre, Brighton		ENTRIES 17
HOST Katie Boyle		DEBUTS Greece

Luxembourg TV couldn't afford to host consecutive contests so again the valiant Beeb stepped in to produce one of the most memorable contests of all time.  Not only did the contest announce the arrival of Abba, it produced (uniquely)  UK top ten hits for each of the top three songs and marked the final bow of Olivia Newton-John as MOR sweetheart just as her American career was to go ballistic. Sven-Olof Walldoff, the Swedish conductor, dressed up as Napoleon to conduct 'Waterloo', totally in keeping with the brash, 'in-your-face' nature of Abba's presentation. Ironic, though, given Abba's tremendously successful career in Britain, that 'Waterloo' received 'nul points' from the United Kingdom jury.  France withdrew in the week of the contest due to the death of President Pompidou.

The bizarre voting system used for the previous three years was abandoned and for one year only there was a return to the ten votes per jury system.  The countries announced their votes in an order 'determined by lot'. In the very early years of the contest, the votes were announced in reverse order of performance, but for most of ESC history, the order of voting has mirrored that of performance. However, in 1974 there was apparently a suspicion of vote-rigging so the votes were announced in a seemingly random order; although, strangely enough, Finland and Italy occupied first and last places in the voting, just as they had in the singing.

Katie Boyle hosted her fourth and last contest, and has famously recalled that she took the stage commando style as she discovered just before the contest that her underwear showed through her peach frock. She was confronted by a placard-carrying Womble at the end of the interval act, a video of the furry creatures who were storming the charts in 1974. It was not divulged whether our little friend from Wimbledon recognized a lost relative that had become part of Katie's ensemble.

WINNER: Sweden

WATERLOO by Abba

voting

IN THE NEWS THIS WEEK:

The local government map of England was transformed as new metropolitan counties and other revisions came into force. 

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