User:EurovisionLibrarian/IsItTrue

Not entirely reliable facts, unproven facts given by a single source etc.

1956
Choice of location: "(...) Lugano, was largely picked for financial reasons – the town was host to an excellent entertainment orchestra, La Radiosa, which was non-unionized and thus more affordable than other options." [doesn't cite any sources for the claim, unclear whence, needs more sources to be confirmed]

Reason of the United Kingdom's absence: “Denmark, Austria and the UK registered too late to take part and had to sit out the first year (...)."

Also claimed in:  ; Micro magazine (15 April 1956) says 9 countries are to participate.

Information is contested because: The UK seems to have chosen deliberately not to take part according to Roxburgh: "Nowhere in any paperwork retained by the BBC in relation to the Festival Of British Popular Songs 1956 does it state that any of the songs from that contest were ever intended to be entered in the Grand Prix Of The Eurovision Song Competition, as the first contest was known. It seems likely that the BBC were quite content to progress with their own contest, which was already being organised, and to wait and see what happened with its European counterpart." Note however that a contemporary source from 1956 (Danish newspaper) says that the UK also missed the deadline.

Luxembourg didn't send jurors to Lugano for financial reasons.

The artists were required to wear black ties and evening dresses.

The global viewership is estimated to have been four million viewers. // A press report of the time estimated that the contest had been broadcast to six million television sets in total, calculating that the contest could have reached about 20 million viewers if there were three viewers per set. [unreliable as long as there are no other sources]

The contest was broadcast (live or deferred) in Germany on RIAS, HR and NDR, as well as on radio stations in Morocco, Austria, Portugal, Monaco, Turkey, Australia and Canada. [unreliable, has to be confirmed by listings/radio programs.]


 * Germany and Austria: No broadcast could be found on the tv listings of Bild + Funk regarding RIAS, HR or NDR, as well as Austrian radio between 24 May and 3 June 1956.
 * Morocco: No broadcast on Radio-Maroc could be found between 24 May and 1 June 1956 (TV only began in 1962).
 * Portugal: No broadcast for Portuguese radio stations A and B could be found in República between 24 and 31 May (TV only began in September 1956).
 * Monaco: No broadcast on Monegasque Television TMC could be found in TV listings between 25 and 27 May.

Raymond Colbert commented also for Belgian INR. [De Standaard and Télévision Programme Magazine, in their TV programs for INR, announced the ESC with "Swiss commentary". INR's own Micro magazine wrote "Commentaires : S.S.R.". Raymond Colbert commented for Swiss French-speaking TSR so it seems logical that it was his commentary which was broadcast on INR. There's no certainty, however. Neither his name nor TSR are explicitly mentioned by the TV program. Needs more explicit sources to be confirmed.]

Results
[all results given here are speculative/unreliable]

"Refrain" won by one point. [<=> contradicts a post-contest interview with Stelio Molo, the Director General of SRG SSR, published in the Italian magazine Settimana Radio TV in the weeks following the contest: the gap between the first- and second-placed songs was revealed by Molo to be two points. ]

Dutch jury member Ger van Lugtenburg stated that many members had deemed Dany Dauberson’s “Il est là” the best song. Similarly, Italian newspaper Il Tempo reported that "Il est là" seemed to have been popular / a favourite.

2nd place: "Das Lied vom großen Glück", "Le Plus Beau Jour de ma vie"

3rd place: "Messieurs les noyés de la Seine" / Belgium, "So geht das jede Nacht"

4th place: "Aprite le finestre". , "Il est là"

Germany came 4th and 11th. [actually, 4 and 11 were the positions of the running order for Germany]

5th place: "Amami se vuoi"

6th place: "Les Amants de minuit"

7th place: "Voorgoed voorbij"

8th place: "Aprite le finestre"

9th place: "Messieurs les Noyés de la Seine"

10th place: "Das alte Karussell"

11th place: "Das Lied vom großen Glück" (a.k.a. "Im Wartesaal zum großen Glück")

12th place: "Le temps perdu"

13th place: "Ne crois pas"

14th place: "De vogels van Holland" The authors admit that they have "found the points on the internet."

1957
Host country: On 20 May 1956, several days before the contest in Lugano, RAI's periodical "Radiocorriere" stated that the winning country of 1956 would have the right to organise and host the next Eurovision Song Contest. However, this rule / right is absent from official EBU documents, such as the rules of 1956 or the EBU Bulletin.

Right before or after the contest in Lugano, Hans-Otto Grünefeldt, entertainment program director of Hessischer Rundfunk, is said to simply have risen his hand when the question arose who would host the contest the following year. However, other countries were sceptical/mistrusted Germany and it was only confirmed as host country weeks later when no other country wanted to host it. [needs more sources / contemporary sources to be confirmed]

Participants: On 28 January 1957, the ARD press service stated that "eleven countries" would be participating in the upcoming contest. [Ten was the actual number of participants on 3 March. Was this a mistake? Or was there one country initially scheduled to participate and which dropped out at a late stage? Sweden seems a likely candidate for the second claim since it broadcast the international final with its own commentator. It debuted one year later. Monaco also broadcast the ESC but only debuted in 1959. ARD press service corrected the number to be ten on a release 11 February 1957. ]

Danish kiss (kissing for 12 seconds ) at the end of their performance causing a "scandal" : No contemporary reports about that could be found so far. The Frankfurter Rundschau only notes that the Danish performance was "beautifully staged" ("hübsch inszeniert").

Viewership: 8 million. [where does this come from?]

1964
On the day after the contest, Danish newspaper Politiken claimed that DR had decided not to take part in the contest any longer. [Politiken gives no source nor details whatsoever]

1967
Sandie Shaw's song was published three days prior to the limit set by the official rules for eligible entries. Shortly before the contest, rumours about disqualification of the United Kingdom's entry were exchanged between the delegations in Vienna. => needs more sources to be confirmed to be true

1982
reason for France's absence: "costs too high and outcome [Nutzen] too low". <=> contradicts info in ESC 1982 (which is unsourced). => better or more sources needed

1983
Ralph Siegel's party was held at the Palais Lenbach (= Bernheimer-Haus? Künstlerhaus am Lenbachplatz?).

During Luxembourg's performance, which was the last in the running order, a number of spectators had already left the auditorium to consume sausages and cheese sticks at the food stands in the entrance hall. <=> not visible in original broadcast video, looks as if audience is more or less fully present after Luxembourg's performance

1956be
Was Henri Segers part of the jury that selected the ten entries for the national final? Micro magazine's photo seems to suggest that. – however, André Vermeulen doesn't list him as part of this jury. [needs more / explicit sources to be confirmed]

Results
The detailed voting results published by RAI in Radiocorriere no. 12/1956 present some irregularities:


 * Each regional radio jury should have had 14 members distributing 4 points each (making a total of 60 points per jury). However, the jury from Milan distributed 68 points, Genoa only 52, and Rome 56.
 * The jury composed of 35 people in the audience in Sanremo gave 2 votes each, making a total of 70 points. However, they only distributed 69 points.

The detailed jury vote table given by Anselmi 2009 seems very dubious for several reasons:


 * The total points for "Nota per nota" and "Il cantico del cielo" are different from those given earlier (p. 75): 24 for "Nota per Nota" and 92 for "Il cantico del cielo". The latter total numbers are also those given by an article in Il Tempo from 11 March 1956.
 * "Il cantico del cielo" is the only row with jury points that cannot be divided by four. According to Anselmi, regional radio jury members gave four votes each to their favourite song / they gave one vote to their favourite song and this was multiplied by four.
 * The total points given by each regional jury don't match each other: According to the table, Bolzano distributed 56 points in total, Naples 68 and Milan 73. If every juror had 4 votes, the total number for each jury would be 60.
 * The total points as stated by Anselmi for each regional jury don't correspond to the mathematical sums of the points attributed (for example 68 points given by the jury of Milan, the mathematical sum of its points is 73, however).

1957de
The jury voting was secret. [needs more (serious) sources to be confirmed]

1957it
According to the German TV press service, 4,000 songs were submitted for the Sanremo Music Festival 1957. [more references needed to be confirmed]

1964es
Decorative stage elements at the Spanish performance were designed by Salvador Dalí. [seems not plausible that they brought with them own stage elements if no-one else did and this was not common in the early years => additional source needed]

Anneke Grönloh
She moved to Europe in 1950. [better (high quality) source needed. A Danish newspaper for a Dutch person is not good enough]

Refrain (1956ch)
The single record of "Refrain" was only published several weeks after the contest. [needs additional citations for verification]