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The fourth series of scoreboard reviews begins with an infamous scoreboard. It’s the scoreboard that at the end of voting displayed a four-way tie. It can only be Madrid 1969. #eurovision #eurovision1969 #eurovisionscoreboards
Having a four-way tie at the end of voting might not have been such an issue if there was a tie-break rule in place to resolve things. The problem was there wasn’t one.
The voting system in place this year was that used between 1957 and 1961 and again from 1967, where each participating country had a 10-member jury and each jury member awarded one point to their favourite song.
The EBU must have considered it a possibility there could be a tie for first place, but obviously dismissed it as something with little or no risk of happening.
This is despite there being a tie, albeit lower down the scoreboard, at every Eurovision since 1957.
Perhaps the EBU assumed that while a tie was possible lower down the scoreboard, the winner would always be clearly ahead of the others (despite Spain only winning the previous year by 1 point.)
The contest was already slightly controversial as Spain was still a dictatorship at this time. Despite that, most countries from the previous year weren’t put off, and only Austria withdrew. Whether or not this was a boycott has never been confirmed.
With Austria out, 16 countries competed.
The scoreboard this year was fixed in position to the right of the stage, as can be seen here as the presenter arrived on stage at the start of the contest.
The scoreboard this year was in Spanish, as it was common back then for scoreboards to be in the language of the host country. For those who couldn’t understand Spanish, the international vehicle registration code for each country was above and to the left of their name.
Countries were contacted via telephone in performance order, and points were awarded in performance order as well.
There was no indicator of voting country (Belgium (or “Belgica” as it appeared on the scoreboard) was voting here.) There was also no indicator of voting progress nor does the scoreboard show which countries had received points from the current voting country.
The upside of having less information on the scoreboard was that the entire board could be seen during a country’s votes unlike, for example, the 1967 scoreboard which offered more information but couldn’t fit clearly into one shot.
The scoreboard didn’t show who was leading after each jury voted, however the camera zoomed in on the leading country (United Kingdom (“Reino Unido”) at this stage, just after Belgium voted) after most juries had delivered their results.
This of course wasn’t always possible when there was a tie for the lead (which there was at various points.)
The voting actually ran smoothly enough this year, though both Spain and Monaco were asked to repeat their votes. Their spokespersons delivered their results correctly the first time, so I’m not entirely sure why they were asked to repeat them.
From my basic French it seems the EBU scrutineer thought (incorrectly) that Spain only awarded a total of 8 points. I think for Monaco the issue was the scrutineer couldn’t clearly hear the Monegasque spokesperson.
The scoreboard also showed the incorrect score for Finland for a short while.
At the half-way point in the voting, France (“Francia”) was leading, with United Kingdom in second. Spain (“España”) was joint 4th, and Netherlands (“Paises Bajos”) was down in joint 6th. So at this stage, all was well.
France and United Kingdom tie for first place for the first time as a result of the Swiss (“Suiza”) vote (the 11th jury to vote), but both are a few points clear of Netherlands in joint third, and Spain in 5th.
The camera (not entirely successfully) zoomed-in on both United Kingdom and France when they shared the lead at this point.
The juries that immediately followed Switzerland tended to be more generous to Spain than they were to Netherlands, France and United Kingdom.
After Germany (“Alemania”) voted (the 13th jury), France and United Kingdom remained tied, with Spain two points behind in 3rd. Netherlands was in 4th place.
The French jury (the third-last jury) was extremely generous to Netherlands, and once they had delivered all their votes, Netherlands was the leader, with France, United Kingdom and Spain all tying for second.
By now, it seemed a little ominous…
Portugal then gave 1 point each to Spain and France, so with one jury to go there was a three-way tie for first place.
I can only assume at this point that everyone was sure the final jury in Finland (“Finlandia”) would break the tie, and I’m sure many in the EBU had their fingers very tightly crossed that they would.
They didn’t, and in fact their results brought United Kingdom level with the other three.
So in the end, after all 16 countries had voted, the scoreboard showed a four-way tie for first place.
Since there was no rule at the time to cover a tie, Spain, United Kingdom, Netherlands and France were all declared winners.
Four medals had been prepared for the winning country, one for the singer, and three for the songwriters, but the medals ended up being given to the four winning singers. The songwriters had to wait to get theirs. All four winners then performed their winning songs again.
While the voting system was the same for the next contest, a tie-break rule would be in place.
As we know, Eurovision would see another tie some years after 1969, when Sweden and France tied in 1991. But as a tie-break rule was in place (different to the one introduced in 1970), Sweden was declared the winner.
There is no doubt what happened in 1969 damaged Eurovision, though thankfully not fatally. But the effects of the madness in Madrid could be felt a year later, when just 12 countries showed up. But Eurovision would be back, and back stronger.
I actually quite like the design of the scoreboard this year, though it’s rather overshadowed by how it looked after all countries had voted.
