Eighteen countries participated in the contest, the same that had competed the year before.
The winner was Austria with the song "Merci, Chérie", performed and composed by Udo Jürgens, and written by Jürgens and Thomas Hörbiger.[1] This was Udo Jürgens third consecutive entry in the contest, finally managing to score a victory for his native country Austria. Austria would not go on to win again until the 2014 edition. This was also the first winning song to be performed in German. The contest is also noted for its historic results for several countries. Austria who came first, Sweden who came second, Norway who came third and Belgium who came fourth all achieved their best results up until then, some of which would stand for several decades. In contrast traditional Eurovision heavyweights such as France, United Kingdom and Italy all achieved their worst result by far up till that point, with the general public in the aforementioned countries meeting these results with a degree of consternation.
A new change in rules was introduced this year, allowing music experts to be present in the juries again. 1966 also marked the year the first ever black singer graced the Eurovision stage, Milly Scott representing the Netherlands. She was also the first singer to use a portable microphone.
This was one of the first contests in which an entry was not accompanied by an orchestra. The Italian entry "Dio, come ti amo" performed by Domenico Modugno had been rearranged since its performance at the Sanremo Music Festival and officially broke the EBU rule that stated the arrangement should be finalised well in advance. During the Saturday afternoon rehearsal Modugno performed the new arrangement with three of his own musicians as opposed to the orchestra, which went over the three-minute time limit. Following his rehearsal Modugno was confronted by the show's producers about exceeding the time limit and was asked to use the original arrangement with the orchestra. Modugno was so dissatisfied with the orchestra that he threatened to withdraw from the contest. Both the producers and EBU scrutineer Clifford Brown felt it was too short notice to fly Gigliola Cinquetti to Luxembourg to represent Italy, so the EBU gave in and allowed Modugno to use his own ensemble instead of the orchestra. Despite websites and the official programme listing Angelo Giacomazzi as the conductor, Giacomazzi actually played the piano for the entry.[4][8]
During the voting process, the presenter (Josiane Shen) accidentally greeted United Kingdom by saying "Good night London". She then realized her mistake and said "Good evening, London". Michael Aspel, who was the spokesperson for the United Kingdom at the time, replied "Good morning, Luxembourg", prompting laughter from Josiane and the audience. Additionally, the Spanish spokesperson gave their results in reverse order, presenting the 5 points first, then 3 points second and then the 1 point third.
Each country nominated a spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for their respective country via telephone. Known spokespersons at the 1966 contest are listed below.
Each participating broadcaster was required to relay the contest via its networks. Non-participating EBU member broadcasters were also able to relay the contest as "passive participants". Broadcasters were able to send commentators to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language and to relay information about the artists and songs to their television viewers.[16]
Known details on the broadcasts in each country, including the specific broadcasting stations and commentators are shown in the tables below. In addition to the participating countries, the contest was also reportedly broadcast in Morocco, and in Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania and the Soviet Union via Intervision.[4]
Broadcasters and commentators in participating countries
