Sixteen countries participated in the contest, the same countries that had also participated the previous two years.
The contest this year was won by Denmark with the song "Dansevise", performed by Grethe and Jørgen Ingmann. This was the first victory for any of the Nordic countries. Four countries got nul points, with Finland, Norway and Sweden failing to score any points for the first time and the Netherlands for the second time, becoming the first country to go two years in a row without scoring a single point.[1]
Location
BBC Television Centre, London - host venue of the 1963 contest.
The BBC was willing to host the contest instead of the previous year's winner France, as was the case in 1960. They would do so again in 1972, 1974 and 2023 because the winning broadcasters from the year before could not afford to produce the contest. The host venue was the BBC Television Centre, White City, London, which opened in 1960. It is one of the most readily recognisable facilities of its type having appeared as the backdrop for many BBC programmes. It remained one of the largest broadcasting facilities in the world until the property was redeveloped in March 2013.[2]
The production mode was unusual in comparison with other Eurovision Song Contests: In contrast to most previous and following editions which were filmed in concert halls or theatres, the staging of 1963 was done in television studios.[8] Two studios (TC3 and TC4) were used: one for the mistress of ceremonies Katie Boyle, the audience, and the scoreboard (TC3); the other for the performers and the orchestra accompanying them (TC4). Unusually, a boom microphone (normally used for drama and comedy shows) was employed – the viewer could not see this, so it appeared as if the artists were miming to their vocals. This was not the case, but this innovation was to create a new look for the contest.[1] The use of television studios allowed a broader variety of staging elements not seen before in the contest, and the use of close-ups so to create an atmosphere of intimacy for television viewers.[8]
After the 1962 edition was the only one to be held on a Sunday, the contest was held on a Saturday again in 1963.
Each country nominated a spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for their respective country via telephone. Known spokespersons at the 1963 contest are listed below.
Each country had 20 jury members who awarded their five favourite songs 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1 points in order. All those points would then be added up and the five songs with the most points got 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1 votes in order. Errors in the Norwegian (see below) and the Monegasque votes meant their scores had to be announced twice, with an adjustment to the scores being made in each case before the final score was verified.
One controversy this year was during the voting. When it was Norway's turn to announce their votes, the spokesman in Oslo did not use the correct procedure in that the song number, followed by the name of the country, should have been announced before awarding the points. Boyle asked Norway to repeat their results, but the Norwegian spokesman asked Boyle to return to them after all the other results were in. When Boyle went back to Norway again the votes had been altered, thus changing the outcome of the contest and giving the victory to Denmark at Switzerland's expense. In fact, the Norwegian spokesman had not given the correct votes on the first occasion, because votes from the 20 jury members were still being tallied.[1]
Monaco was also asked to repeat their voting a second time as initially Monaco gave one point to both the United Kingdom and Luxembourg. However, when Boyle went back to Monaco to receive the votes again Monaco's one vote to Luxembourg was efficiently discarded (although this did not have any effect on the positions of the countries).[1]
Each participating broadcaster was required to relay the contest via its networks. Non-participating EBU member broadcasters were also able to relay the contest as "passive participants". Broadcasters were able to send commentators to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language and to relay information about the artists and songs to their television viewers.[13]
Known details on the broadcasts in each country, including the specific broadcasting stations and commentators are shown in the tables below.
Broadcasters and commentators in participating countries
^ abcdefghijklmRoxburgh, Gordon (2012). Songs for Europe: The United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest. Volume One: The 1950s and 1960s. Prestatyn: Telos Publishing. pp. 291–299. ISBN978-1-84583-065-6.
^ abPajala, Mari (2023). "The Eurovision Song Contest and European television history: continuity, adaption, experimentation". In Dubin, Adam; Vuletic, Dean; Obregón, Antonio (eds.). The Eurovision Song Contest as a cultural phenomenon : from concert halls to the halls of academia. London: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group. p. 192. doi:10.4324/9781003188933-16. ISBN978-1-03-203774-5. OCLC1296690839.
^Thorsson, Leif; Verhage, Martin (2006). Melodifestivalen genom tiderna : de svenska uttagningarna och internationella finalerna (in Swedish). Stockholm: Premium Publishing. pp. 46–47. ISBN91-89136-29-2.
^"Grand Prix". Morgenposten (in Norwegian). Oslo, Norway. 18 March 1963. p. 14. Retrieved 21 July 2023 – via National Library of Norway. Grythe was supposed to refer from this year's 'sound Olympiad', but now he has withdrawn in favour of Øyvind Johnssen from the steam radio's entertainment department. Grythe has so many irons in the fire that he simply does not have time to travel to London. [original: Grythe skulle refere årets «lyd-olympiade», men nå har han trakket seg til fordel for Øyvind Johnssen i dampradioens underholdningsavdeling. Grythe har så mange jern i ilden at han simpelthen ikke rekker å reise til London.]
^"Programme TV" [TV Program]. Radio TV - Je vois tout (in French). No. 11. Lausanne, Switzerland: Héliographia SA. 14 March 1963. pp. 28–30. Retrieved 19 December 2022 – via Scriptorium Digital Library.
^"Boletim do dia" [Bulletin of the day]. Diário de Lisboa (in Portuguese). Lisbon, Portugal. 23 March 1963. p. 15. Retrieved 19 December 2022 – via Casa Comum.
