All Kinds of Everything

"All Kinds of Everything"
Eurovision Song Contest 1970 entry
Country	Ireland
Artist(s)	Dana Rosemary Scallon
As	Dana
Language	English
Composer(s)	Derry Lindsay, Jackie Smith
Lyricist(s)	Derry Lindsay, Jackie Smith
Conductor	Dolf van der Linden
Finals performance
Final result	1st
Final points	32
Appearance chronology
◄ "The Wages of Love" (1969)
"One Day Love" (1971) ►

"All Kinds of Everything" is a song written by Derry Lindsay and Jackie Smith; as performed by Dana, it won the Eurovision Song Contest 1970. "All Kinds of Everything" represented a return to the ballad form from the more energetic performances which had dominated Eurovision the previous years. Dana sings about all the things which remind her of her sweetheart, with the admission at the end of every verse that "all kinds of everything remind me of you". The recording by Dana became an international hit.

Dana had competed in the 1969 Irish National Song Contest — she was a resident of Northern Ireland and citizen of the United Kingdom but it was decided that year to have the Irish entry in Eurovision represent the island of Ireland in its entirety rather than just the Republic of Ireland. Although in 1970 the Irish Eurovision entry reverted to representing the Republic of Ireland only, Dana had made such a favorable impression in the previous year's Irish National Song Contest - her performance of "Look Around" had come second - that the contest's producer Tom McGrath invited her to participate again singing "All Kinds of Everything," a composition by Derry Lindsay and Jackie Smith, two twenty-eight-year-old amateur songwriters who worked as compositors for a Dublin newspaper.

Dana's performance of "All Kinds of Everything" won the 1970 Irish National Song Contest and that 21 March - a Saturday - she performed the song at the Eurovision Song Contest held in Amsterdam. Dana was the twelfth and final performer on the night (following Germany's Katja Ebstein with "Wunder Gibt Es Immer Wieder"). Ireland chose not to send its own conductor to accompany Dana, so Dolf van der Linden, the renowned musical leader of the Dutch Metropole Orchestra, conducted his own orchestra for the Irish entry. Dana sang seated on a stool fashioned as a cylinder which left her feet suspended above the floor and caused her concern that she'd slide off. However Dana performed the song with the self-possession she had displayed at rehearsals, when the production team had her rise from her stool mid-performance to accommodate a set adjustment she continued singing regardless and earned a standing ovation from the orchestra.

"All Kinds of Everything" took first place in the contest with a total of 32 votes besting second place "Knock, Knock Who's There?" by Mary Hopkin by seven votes. 1970 had augured to be an off year for Eurovision with five nations boycotting the contest and an apparently predictable outcome with a victory by Hopkin or possibly Julio Iglesias (who in fact came in fourth with "Gwendolyne"). The surprise victory of "All Kinds of Everything" by the ingenuous Dana made 1970 one of the most memorable Eurovision contests.