| 1967 is another year in which,
as with 1958, a song which didn't win would go on to become a bigger
hit worldwide than the song which did. The song which didn't win in
this case was the Luxembourg entry: the hypnotic, "Greensleeves"-like
"L'amour est bleu" performed by Vicky Leandros. The actual winner was
barefoot contessa Sandie Shaw for the UK with the eminently sampleable
oom-pah of "Puppet on a String". Italy employed the tenor Claudio Villa for their ravishing entry, while Spain retained the services of Raphael but forgot to provide him with a song of any merit. At the other side of Europe, Yugoslavia performed their entry in the minority Solvene tongue. "Vse rože sveta" is a dark, moody number with moonlit trumpets and a sexy spoken section. The Netherlands grasped the early '60s Scandinavian innovation of onomatopoeic nonsense sing-along choruses and gave us the inevitable and definitive "Ring-dinge-ding". But Monaco went one better with the Gainsbourg penned filth of "Boum-Badaboum": a raucous cacophonous explosion like some banging rave anthem twenty-odd years ahead of time. Not a single sock remained in an on position; a truly fantastic performance and the without any kind of doubt the winning song of the AView jury. The stage-set this year employed a pair of revolving mirrors, allowing 360º views of the performers. 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 had Ireland in second place, France third, Spain sixth, Germany joint-eighth, Portugal joint-twelfth, Austria joint-14th, and Switzerland plumb last. |
 Europe's winner, Sandie Shaw.  Blue: Vicky Leandros.  "Ring-dinge-ding": Therese Steinmetz.  "Boum-Badaboum": Our winner, Minouche Barelli. |
