| International dissatisfaction
with last year's result led to a reduced field of 12 nations in 1970.
To pad out the run time, the NOS producers introduced the video
'postcard' as a prelude to each act. Another new feature that would
become a Eurovision artform was the introduction of the elaborately
articulated set. This first example, designed by Roland de Groot,
consisted of a series of baubles and curved bars. Their arrangement
could be varied for each song. In hindsight it looks a bit like the BBC Breakfast Time logo. The winning song on the night, Ireland's first victory, was the exceptionally twee "All Kinds of Everything" by Dana. But there's something of the Björk about Dana and as sickly as the song is, it has a kind of silly charm and some curious lyrics to keep it afloat. Spain introduced the world to an unknown goalkeeper by the name of Julio Iglesias, resplendent in a Salomé-blue suit which clashed somewhat with the cameras. His song is nothing terribly exciting; a simple, melancholy ballad but with a very slight hint of "You Don't Have To Say You Love Me" in the verse. Switzerland invented the cockney chanson, with Henri Dès putting in some terribly annoying comic double-take glances. The song treads a fine line between annoying and fun, summing up the year somewhat. Our winner was the Belgian entry. If you're going to impersonate Brel, the Belgians have an automatic advantage. Jean Vallée's song is not a Eurovision classic (much like the 1970 contest as a whole) but it's decent enough with a good, rousing chorus. 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 the UK's Mary Hopkins second and Yugoslavia eleventh. With three-way ties on fourth and eighth place, the organizers must've been thinking themselves lucky that their new first place tie-break system didn't have to be tested. |
 Julio Iglesias: don't look directly at the suit.  Europe's winner, Ireland's Dana.  OK: Switzerland's Henri Dès.  Our winner, Belgium's Jean Vallée.
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