Eurovision Song Contest 1960
The Eurovision Song Contest 1960 was the fifth edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest, held on Tuesday 29 March 1960 at the Royal Festival Hall in London, United Kingdom, and hosted by British television presenter and actress Catherine Boyle. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), the United Kingdom was offered the rights to stage the contest after the , which had won the , declined the opportunity after having organised the event in . returned to the competition after an absence of one year, and made its first contest appearance, bringing the total number of participating countries to thirteen. The winner was with the song "Tom Pillibi", performed by Jacqueline Boyer, composed by André Popp and written by Pierre Cour. This marked France's second contest victory, having also won in 1958. The placed second for the second consecutive year and earned their first top three finish by placing third. Location The contest took place in London, United Kingdom. Although the had won the in Cannes, the Dutch broadcaster (NTS) declined to stage the event for a second time in three years, after hosting the in Hilversum. The rights to staging the contest subsequently passed to the United Kingdom's British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), following the UK's second place finish in the previous year's event, a decision which was announced in October 1959. The Royal Festival Hall was chosen to stage the 1960 contest. Situated on the South Bank of the River Thames, the venue was first opened in 1951 and was originally conceived for use during that year's Festival of Britain; it is now part of the Southbank Centre, a complex of several artistic venues. Participating countries The number of entries grew to thirteen for this edition, with the eleven competing countries from the 1959 contest being joined by , returning after a one year absence, and , making its first appearance. Fud Leclerc made his third appearance at the contest for , having represented the country in with "" (one of the two Belgian entries in that year's contest) and in with "". The song from Luxembourg was the first contest entry to be performed in Luxembourgish, and one of only three entries to be performed in the language (alongside the country's entries from and ). Format The contest was organised and broadcast by the BBC, with Harry Carlisle serving as producer, Innes Lloyd as director, Richard Levin as designer, and Eric Robinson as musical director, leading the orchestra during the event. Each country was allowed to nominate their own musical director to lead the orchestra during the performance of their country's entry, with the host musical director, Eric Robinson, also conducting for those countries which did not nominate their own conductor. As had been the case since the 1957 contest, each country, participating through a single EBU member broadcaster, was represented by one song performed by up to two people on stage. The results of the event were determined