Eurovision Song Contest 1966 | |
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Dates | |
Final | 5 March 1966 |
Host | |
Venue |
Villa Louvigny Luxembourg City, Luxembourg |
Presenter(s) | Josiane Chen |
Conductor | Jean Roderès |
Executive supervisor | Clifford Brown |
Host broadcaster | Compagnie Luxembourgeoise de Télédiffusion (CLT) |
Interval act | Les Haricots Rouges |
Participants | |
Number of entries | 18 |
Debuting countries | None |
Returning countries | None |
Withdrawing countries | None |
Vote | |
Voting system | Each country had 10 jury members who distributed three points among their one, two, or three favourite songs. The points were totalled and the first, second, and third placed songs were awarded 5, 3, and 1 votes in order. If only one song got every point within the jury it would get all 9 points. If only two songs were chosen, the songs would get 6 and 3 points in order. |
Nul points | |
Winning song |
Austria "Merci, Chérie" |
The Eurovision Song Contest 1966 was the 11th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It was held on 5 March 1966 in Luxembourg, Luxembourg, following the country's win at the previous 1965 edition. The host venue was Grand Auditorium de RTL in Villa Louvigny. The presenter was Josiane Chen.
The winner was Austria with the song "Merci, Chérie" performed and composed by Udo Jürgens, and written by Jürgens and Thomas Hörbiger. This would remain Austria's only win in the contest until their second win in 2014. The rule stating that a country could only sing in any of its national languages was originally created in this year, possibly due to the 1965 edition's Swedish entry which was sung in English.
The 1966 Eurovision Song Contest was hosted in Luxembourg City. The venue chosen to host the 1966 contest was the Villa Louvigny, which also hosted the Eurovision Song Contest 1962. The building served as the headquarters of Compagnie Luxembourgeoise de Télédiffusion, the forerunner of RTL Group. It is located in Municipal Park, in the Ville Haute quarter of the centre of the city.
During the voting process, the presenter (Josiane Chen) accidentally greeted United Kingdom by saying "Good night, London". She then realized her mistake and said "Good evening, London", after Michael Aspel, who was the spokesperson for the United Kingdom, at that time, responded by saying "Good morning, Luxembourg".