The 2023 host broadcaster , the BBC has announced that tomorrow , with the contest due to take place in Sweden in just over a month’s time , they will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of Abba’s win by broadcasting the 1974 Eurovision Song contest , which was held in Brighton and presented by the late Katie Boyle . There will still be many of us who remember watching Abba’s victory , whether it be on TV or actually being lucky enough to be present at the contest in Brighton. Eurovision Ireland’s very own Sarah is one of those who is old enough to have witnessed the night of 6th April 1974 and so has chosen to dedicate this article to her memories of 1974 and how the format of our beloved contest has changed from 1974 to how it is expected to be in 2024 in Malmö .

Sarah’s Memories ” My memory of 1974 is being 9 years old and just starting to develop a keen interest in music . Like most kids of that age, I was generally in bed well by 9.30 pm , which is the time that the contest broadcast started back then but for some reason , I was still up at the time the contest started. I remember being really intrigued at seeing performers from different countries and a different languages being spoken or sung . I became totally fixed to the screen watching the performances and I really believe to this day that my parents didn’t have to heart to send me to bed, seeing how interested I was. I remember the voting and Abba’s winning performance like it was yesterday . I can truly say that it was this contest that started my love of Eurovision and for that, it and Abba will always have a special place in my heart . Little could my 9 years old self have foreseen how significant this contest would be fifty years later or even that the contest itself would have grown so much and still be popular today! “

Eurovision 1974 V Eurovision 2024

The Venue

1974

In 1974 , the Eurovision Song contest was held at The Dome , Brighton. Like last year , the UK was hosting on behalf of the previous year’s winners , which was Luxembourg. With a capacity of just 2,500 seats, The Dome was chosen as the venue for the contest . In those days, Eurovision did not have the fan base that it has today and the contest took a much more formal format .

2024

Compare this with 2024 , the contest is being held in Malmö arena which has a 15,500 seat capacity and is a large multi purpose arena rather than the concert hall that the Dome in Brighton was . This in itself shows how Eurovision fan base has evolved over the years to become perhaps one of the most important events world wide in the 2020’s !

The Audience

1974

If you watch back the screenings of the 1970’s contests , you will see just how different an atmosphere there was to the contest then. The contest back in 1974 was very much a sit down affair,no standing spaces ,with very formal dress and no flags or Eurovision related dress and a much smaller audience . The contest was broadcast in all 17 countries , which up to today, is still a condition for countries to take part . However , in this year , Italy did a deferred transmission due to the contest date being on the day when intense political campaigning for the Italian 1974 referendum on divorce.Allegedly ,sixteen non participating countries also broadcast the event , including the former Iron curtain countries of Czechoslovakia , Bulgaria , Poland . These countries would in years to come also join the contest . In 1974 we had no internet, no live streaming , no mobile phones or video calling , the contest was dependent on the satellite method of transmission to broadcast the show to people’s homes around the globe

Audience in 1974

2024

Fast forward to 2024 and we are in an era where the Internet,live streaming, selfies and video recording has given the contest a much wider audience and enabled more fan participation . An example of this was in the 2010 edition of the contest in Oslo where the postcards showed pre-recorded videos of crowds in a city from the country next to perform , supporting and cheering their act .The interval act took the form of flashmobs where we saw a number of live public outdoor events from across Europe plus webcam footage from individual private household. We could never have imagined seeing this in 1974! The contest now reaches a wide audience globally , last year for Liverpool 2023 , 162 million viewers were reached , with record breaking online engagement .In 1974 there were just 17 countries participating , in 2024, we have 37 !

The Format

1974

In 1974 , the contest was a much more simple affair where its format was concerned . We only had the one Saturday night show , fewer countries taking part and the winner was decided by a jury in each country that was participating . However there are some elements that remain in the contest today . The postcards shown before each song were in place then but not with the technology to be as creative as the ones we see in the modern contest . The postcards in 1974 took the form of footage of the participating country , rather like a tourist guide and then footage of the country’s act in rehearsals and conducting their press conferences . This was the first time we had ever seen actual footage of contest rehearsals .

2023/4

With the coming of the digital era and advances in technology , the postcards for last year’s contest in Liverpool retained the theme of tourism in both UK and Ukraine and introducing the next performer . They showed a famous sight from the previous year’s winner Ukraine and then “twinned” it with a similar sight in the UK, , who were hosting on behalf of Ukraine , showing the country’s performer by a famous place or monument in their own country .

The Show

1974

In 1974 there was only one show held .

2024

IN 2024 , because of how much the contest has evolved over the years , with more countries now taking part, this necessitated the introduction of a Semi final in 2004, which then became two semi finals and a Grand Final in 2008 and remains the case to this day . Fans now have the opportunity to not just go to the live final and semi finals but can also get tickets to dress rehearsal shows at the venue .

Voting

1974

In 1974 , we had no televoting and actually no involvement of the public or even the audience at The Dome .The winner was decided by a Jury panel in each participating country . Each Jury panel consisted of 10 members and each Jury member could award one vote . This was the last year that the voting was done this way before it changed the next year to the familiar “douze points ” system that we know and love today . The Jury nominated a spokesperson who gave the scores and the host , Katie Boyle , called each Jury spokesperson , via telephone for their results .You could hear the Jury spokesperson but you could not see them. The scores were not given in order from 1-12 like today but according to which countries had been awarded votes .

2023/24

If anything has greatly changed in Eurovision over the years, it is the voting system . While the “douze points ” system is still retained , changes started to happen in the early 90’s with the introduction of the spokesperson being able to be seen on the screen . This was then followed by the introduction of televoting in the late 90’s where the viewing public at home could, for the first time, have a say in choosing the winner . There have been many changes made over the years to the voting system with the winners during the early years of this century being chosen entirely by televote with jurys being used as a back up in case for any reason the public vote could not take place, for example in 2000, when The Netherlands couldn’t do their televotes because of an adverse incident in the country which meant disruption of the broadcast of Eurovision that evening. The Juries were re-introduced in 2008 because of concerns about the impact of block voting, on a 50:50 basis with a public vote . Up until 2016, the jury votes and the public votes were combined but to make the contest more exciting the Jury votes and public votes are now given separately with the Jury votes being given first. This has given more tension and excitement as to the overall result as the public votes can often vastly differ and the public votes can completely change the situation on the scoreboard . The public votes are given in order starting from the bottom country of the jury votes and works up to the Jury Vote leader,creating the tension and excitement of the winner not being known until the very last minute of the contest . I wonder how Abba would have fared had they been scored under this system ?

We also now have the Rest of the world voting in the televote, which was introduced at Liverpool 2023 and voting in different countries is now not just by telephone, as it was when public voting first started but can now be done via an App or mobile text , depending on how each country organises their public voting.

The hosting

1974

In 1974 , we had just one host, who was there just to do a hosting job ( the late Katie Boyle ) . Like Petra Mede in Sweden this year, Katie also presented the show on previous occasions . In 1974, we did not see the host participating in any of the interval acts or performing anything themselves .

2023/2024

These days there are more than one host , last year in Liverpool we had four , with the honour being given to Graham Norton, Julia Sanina, Alesha Dixon and Hannah Waddingham .

It’s also not uncommon now for the hosts to take part in the entertainment during the show . A classic example of this was in Stockholm 2016 when Petra Mede and Måns Zelmerlow sang “Love ,love Peace , peace” during the interval in the Grand Final .

This year, Petra Mede again takes up the hosting duties, this time with Malin Åkerman .Will we perhaps see them perform on stage in Malmö?

The Interval Acts

1974

As there was only one show back in 1974 and a much shorter show , there was only need for one short interval act . In 1974 , the show only lasted an hour and thirty eight minutes and started at 21.30 (BST). The interval act was The Wombles, who were characters from a well known British children’s TV programme in 1974 .

2023/24

With the show now being much bigger than in 1974, several interval acts are now used to cover three shows . At time of writing this article , we have no knowledge yet of what Sweden has planned for us in 2024 but in 2023. the interval act in Semi Final 1 was a combination of Alyosha from Ukraine and Rebecca Ferguson from the UK singing “Our House /Ordinary world , in both English and Ukrainian alongside contemporary dancers.which told the story of why the UK was hosting on behalf of Ukraine .

In Semi Final 2 we had two interval acts . where the three female hosts, Alesha Dixon, Julia Sanina and Hannah Waddingham became three drag performers via a Queen Machine and sang a medley of songs celebrating diversity with the theme that we can be anyone or anything we want to be .

We also had a performance from Ukrainians, Maria Yaremchuk , Zlata Dzunkia and OTOY performing Music unites generations .

In the final we had the very emotional Liverpool Song book, featuring past Eurovision performers singing well known songs , originally sung by local singers and the performance of the anthemic “You’ll never walk alone ” by Duncan Laurence who was eventually joined on stage by the other performers and the hosts and joined via video link with Ruslana and a crowd in Ukraine .

Who would ever have thought, sitting in your living room in 1974 watching the Wombles doing the 1974 interval act that interval acts would progress to being as much a part of the show to look forward to as the actual contest performers? Or indeed that in years to come, the UK would once again be hosting on behalf of the previous year’s winning country ?

What about the other acts in Eurovision 1974?

Although the 50th anniversary of Abba’s win is the main reason for looking back at the 1974 contest , it should not be forgotten that there were other acts who were very successful before and after the contest as well as Abba . Italy’s Gigliola Cinquetti had already won the contest in 1964 with “Non ho l’eta “. In 1974 she was a favourite to win with her gentle ballad “Si”. Even though she didn’t win , the song remains one of the most popular songs from Eurovision and is certainly an all time favourite of mine. Gigliola also went on to host the contest in 1991 in Rome , together with the late Toto Cutugno and also performed her winning song “Non ho l’eta ” at the 2022 contest in Turin.

The late Olivia Newton-John represented the United Kingdom in 1974 with “Long , live Love ” , a song which she later admitted she wasn’t greatly fond of. Olivia came a respectable 4th place in the contest , although had been a favourite to win . She went on to perform with Abba in years to come and had a range of hit songs , with her finest moment starring alongside John Travolta in the film “Grease” in 1978 and then starring in the film Xanadu in 1980 . Olivia sadly died in 2022 after a long battle with cancer.

AND FINALLY ……..

We obviously must give a mention to the reason why the 1974 contest is being held in such esteem this year, the 50th anniversary of Abba’s win with “Waterloo” ! Did you know that Abba had actually tried to represent their country the year before their epic win in Brighton when the entered the Swedish National with the song “Ring , Ring” but finished in third place? However , they returned to Melodifestivalen in 1974 with ” Waterloo” and the rest is history……..

Abba went on to achieve world-wide fame and brought us great songs such as “Dancing Queen “, The Winner takes it all” “Mama Mia “, “Voulez vous”. At the 2005 Congratulation 50th Anniversary of Eurovision show in Copenhagen ,Denmark ,”Waterloo” was voted the best Eurovision song of the last 50 years. Abba’s songs to this day remain timeless and “Waterloo” remains as popular in the Eurovision world today as it was in 1974 . We at Eurovision Ireland would like to say “Thank you for the music” to them in the year where the fiftieth anniversary of their very significant victory is being celebrated . Can this year’s Swedish representatives , Marcus and Martinus bring Sweden another victory on the fiftieth anniversary of Abba’s win , when they open the Grand Final in Malmö on 11th May ?

Author: Sarah Rudman

Source: Eurovision Ireland, SVT , NRK ,BBC Eurovision.TV , YouTube , Wikipedia