Eurovision Song Contest 1963
The Eurovision Song Contest 1963 was the eighth edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest and took place in London, United Kingdom. It was organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), who agreed to stage the event after , who had won the edition, declined to host it due to financial shortcomings, also having hosted the competition in and . The contest was held at the BBC Television Centre on Saturday 23 March 1963 and was hosted by Katie Boyle for a second time. Sixteen countries participated in the contest, the  same countries that had participated the previous year. The contest this year was won by with the song "Dansevise", performed by Grethe & Jørgen Ingmann. This was the first victory for any of the Nordic countries. Four countries got nul points, with , and failing to score any points for the first time and the for the second time, becoming the first country to go two years in a row without scoring a single point. Location. The BBC was willing to host the contest instead of the previous year's winner France, as was the case in . They would do so again  in and 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 to be one of the largest such facilities in the world until it redeveloped in March 2013. Format. After being held on a Saturday for the first time for the edition, the contest was held on a Sunday for the edition before reverting back to  being held on a Saturday again for this year's edition. No contest has been held on any other day than Saturday ever since (not taking the eventual semi-finals into account). Two studios (TC3 and TC4) were used: one for the mistress of ceremonies Katie Boyle, the audience, and the scoreboard; the other for the performers and the orchestra accompanying them. Unusually, a boom microphone (normally used for drama and comedy shows) was employed - the viewer couldn't 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. Voting controversy. One controversy this year was during the voting. When it was 's turn to announce their votes, the spokesman in Oslo, Roald Øyen, 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. Katie Boyle asked Norway to repeat their results, but the Norwegian spokesman asked Katie to return to them after all the other results were in. When Katie went back to Norway again the votes had mysteriously altered, thus changing  the outcome of the contest and giving the victory to Norway's neighbours at '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. 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 Katie 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). It has also been speculated as to whether the juries were indeed on the end of a telephone line or in the actual studio given how clearly their voices could be heard as opposed to sounding as though they were being redirected through a telephone line. Participating countries. All countries which participated in the edition also participated in the 1963 edition. Conductors. The participating conductors were: Scoreboard. 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  song with the most points got 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1 votes in order. Errors in the Norwegian (see above) 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. 5 points. Below is a summary of all 5 points received: Spokespersons. Listed below is the order in which votes were cast during the 1963 contest along with the spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for their respective country. Broadcasts. Each national broadcaster also sent a commentator to  the contest, in order to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language. Incidents. Norwegian jury votes. If Norway did not make a statement in terms of results, Norway would still have its mark on the vote. Switzerland and Denmark quickly took the lead in the competition, and when Norway voted as number five, problems arose. The Norwegian counter had not managed to figure out the votes of the jury members, and the Norwegian points were therefore not clear. In the confusion, Roald Øyen read a preliminary result and had to ask Katie Boyle to come back later  in the vote. At the end of the vote, Switzerland led two points ahead of Denmark. When the correct Norwegian points were read, however, Switzerland and Denmark switched places, so that Denmark won the competition two points ahead of Switzerland. The Norwegian jury was later accused of having helped a neighboring country to win, and Switzerland protested against the result. However, NRK rejected the accusations and emphasized that the Norwegian jury had given the right points. The reason for the chaos was that the Norwegian counter was simply not finished counting the votes when Norway was called up. Not only  were the votes wrong, but a stressed eye also read the points incorrectly. When Norway was called back at the end of the vote, the results from the Norwegian jury were clear and correct. "We have good conscience regarding the outcome. The 20 jury members' ballot papers are on the television for control if necessary ”, NRK's Odd Grythe assured. One of the Norwegian jury members from 1963, Olaf Kjell Wathne Gar, was interviewed by NRK P2 in 2017, and he told about chaotic conditions at NRK Marienlyst during the vote. Gar was a student in 1963, and according to  him, Gar and some fellow students were hacked in by NRK in a hurry the same day as the final. They were picked up in taxis and driven to NRK Marienlyst. There they heard the songs twice through loudspeakers in a tiny room. However, the students had decided in advance to vote for Denmark and a few other countries, because they "had the most sympathy for Denmark." The 20 jury members then voted, and program secretary Einar Johannessen summed up the votes on a chalkboard when London suddenly called. "We were barely half-finished, and at full speed he improvised  and scribbled some numbers," Gar said, adding: "It was all so simple and primitive that one would hardly have believed it today". The jury members received NOK 150 each in order to "throw away the Saturday night", which NRK, according to Gar, had called the assignment.