| Having staged the contest in
1958, last year's winning nation, the Netherlands, declined to host the
1960 contest and so the duties passed to the BBC and the divine Katie
Boyle. Teddy Johnson's brother, Bryan Johnson, was given singing duties
for the UK. The Cleese-ish Johnson whistled with gusto and knocked us
all down with the proverbial feather with a fantastic song, easily
superior to the 1959 entry. How can we convey how truly fantastic this
song is? Perhaps if we just sing it: "Looking high high high / looking
low low low / wondering why why why / did she go go go / for if I I I /
don't find my love I know / I shall die die die / for I love her so."
No. That doesn't really convey the wonder of it: a martially inflected
jaunt across land and sea in search of the absconded love of his life,
accompanied all the way by multi-consonantal rhymes (dearly /
sincerely; devotion / notion...) and his fine whistling. In our minds
this is the second victory for the United Kingdom and marks their
unmistakable arrival alongside Germany as a truly Great Power in
Eurovision. Germany, for their part, came up with a song with a French title in an attempt to appease the rather critical Francophone block that existed in the contest at the time. They employed a toothsome gentleman by the name of Wyn Hoop to convey a rather soothing bit of lulling chanson, only to have it punctuated at regular intervals with violent matador-ish brass-stabs and the odd castanet, dragging the number to the brink of schlager and occasionally leaning over it (which is all to the good). Last year's Swedish entry (the solid but outclassed "Augustin") was performed on the night by Brita Borg, but had won its national final out of the mouth of the magnificent Siw Malmkvist. This year's entry had been sung by Östen Warnerbring and Inger Berggren during the national finals but 1960 would be Malmkvist's year for Eurovision. Her song is a rather glitzy number with a very lengthy instrumental that sees her standing about a bit wondering what to do. Raiding the dressing up box this year was Denmark's Katy Bødtger, playing all coy with her bonnet, crinolines and parasol. Her song is a twee little ditty with more than a hint of Christmas about it. This folksy sleigh-bell sound would be a well-trod theme for the Scandinavian nations over following years. Typing of Scandinavia, 1960 also saw the debut of Norway, with the hollering icy swing of "Voi Voi", performed by Nora Brockstedt in a rather fetching piece of nationalistically inflected dress. Winning on the night was France's Jacqueline Boyer singing a wonderfully cute little toy-soldier of a song, the lyrics of which detailed the fantastic boasts of her prolific liar of a boyfriend. For each year's songs we apply our points in the 12-10-8 style of the modern contest, irrespective of how the voting functioned at the time. In brackets is the position the song came on the night:
Europe placed Belgium 6th (Fud Leclerc making yet another appearance and just missing out on a point from the AView jury), Italy joint 8th (likewise for us it was bubbling under), and Luxembourg in 13th and last place (which is where we had it too). Luxembourg's rather sedate entry was performed by the Ray Reardon-like Camillo Felgen, and against this sort of opposition it stood no chance. |
 "I can hear nothing at all!" Our host, the divine Katie Boyle.  "Oh, Aggers, do stop it!" Our winner, Bryan Johnson.  "You want to get that black-fly sorted out!" The magnificent Siw Malmkvist.  Denmark's Katy Bødtger.  The 18-year-old winner, Jacqueline Boyer. |
