Eurovision Song Contest 1972

Eurovision Song Contest 1972
The Eurovision Song Contest 1972 was the 17th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Edinburgh, United Kingdom and was organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), who agreed to stage the event after , who won in , were unable to meet the demands of hosting the event and could not find a suitable venue. The contest was held at the Usher Hall on 25 March 1972 and was hosted by Scottish ballet dancer Moira Shearer.
Eighteen countries took part in the contest, the same countries as the previous year.
The winner was with the song "", performed by Vicky Leandros, with lyrics by Yves Dessca, and music composed by Mario Panas (which was the writing pseudonym of Vicky's father Leo Leandros). "" became the winner with the lowest percentage of the total vote, winning with just 8.30% of the points available. Yves Dessca also wrote "" that had won the previous edition, and became the second person to win the contest twice, the first person to win for two different countries and the first person to win two years in a row. finished in third place for the third consecutive year, equalling their highest placement from the previous two editions.
Location
Following Séverine's win for at the in Dublin, Ireland with the song "", the principality were unable to meet the demands of hosting the event. Rainier III of Monaco received a letter from the European Broadcasting Union about hosting the 1972 contest in the principality, but he was unable to provide a venue, the props and the remainder of the requirements. Therefore the BBC from the United Kingdom stepped in, and chose to stage the contest in Edinburgh, making it the first of five times that the BBC had chosen a venue outside London with the 1974, 1982, 1998 and 2023 contests held in Brighton, Harrogate, Birmingham and Liverpool respectively. It is also the only time that the contest has been held in Scotland. It is the only UK hosted Eurovision Song Contest to have been held outside England as of 2023.
The Usher Hall, the venue for the 1972 contest, is a concert hall, situated on Lothian Road, in the west end of the city. It has hosted concerts and events since its construction in 1914 and can hold approximately 2,900 people in its recently restored auditorium, which is well loved by performers due to its acoustics. The Hall is flanked by The Royal Lyceum Theatre on the right and The Traverse Theatre on the left. Historic Scotland has registered the Hall with Category A listed building status.
Participating countries
The same countries that participated in the 1971 contest were present this year.
Returning artists
Contest overview
Detailed voting results
Each country had two jury members, one aged between 16 and 25 and one aged between 26 and 55. They each awarded 1 to 5 points for each song, other than the song of their own country. They cast their votes immediately after each song was performed and the votes were then collected and counted. For the public voting sequence after the interval act, the jury members were shown on the stage's screen with each lifting a signboard with the number between 1 and 5 for each song, as a visual verification of the scores they had awarded earlier.
10 points
Below is a summary of all perfect 10 scores that were given during the voting.
Broadcasts
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.
Known details on the broadcasts in each country, including the specific broadcasting stations and commentators are shown in the tables below. In addition to the participating countries, the contest was also reportedly broadcast in Brazil, Hong Kong, Iceland, Israel, Japan, Morocco, the Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand and Zaire.
Notes
References
External links
1972
Music festivals in the United Kingdom
1970s in Edinburgh
1972 in music
1972 in the United Kingdom
March 1972 events in Europe
Events in Edinburgh