Alaska's Choice 1960: London

Strangely, the 1960 contest didn't take place in the Netherlands.  It's an unwritten rule the the previous year's winner has the privilege of hosting the following year's contest.  But because the Dutch national broadcaster had hosted two years previously, they declined the honor.  Since the United Kingdom came in second,  The BBC picked up the slack and the contest went to London and the Royal Festival Hall.

Thirteen countries, entered the contest, with Luxembourg returning from a one year absence and Norway debuted with an interesting number about a Sami girl pining for her boyfriend.

Nora Brockstedt  "Voi Voi"  Norway

Sadly, Ms. Brockstedt didn't win the contest, she came in equal fourth place along with the German entry--with 11 points.

The winner was the final song performed in the contest, the French entry, sung by the comely Jacqueline Boyer.

Jacqueline Boyer  "Tom Pillibi"

It's a pretty song, but I don't envy her.  Tom Pillibi is a con artist and he's got the girl under his spell--he tells her that he's got castles in different places in Europe, but she knows it's a complete lie, but forgets it all when he holds her.  Co-dependant anybody?  Or is she a gold digger?

So naturally, I sent the songs out to my Eurovision jury so we could determine who we think the winner should be, and neither Ms. Brockstedt or Ms. Boyer did well.  We put "Tom Pillibi" in third place, while "Voi Voi" came in eleventh.

Our choice for the best song of the year was the Monegasque entry.  Although on the night, the European juries placed it fairly high--it came in third, following the United Kingdom, it was the only song that rated highly with all of the Alaska judges.

François Deguelt  "Ce soir-là"  Monaco

You could read this one as a companion piece to "Tom Pillibi".  In "Ce soir-là", Deguelt is pining for the first night he held his lover in his "arms", and is disconsolate that she left him.  My guess is that Tom Pillibi promised her castles. and that was that...

And for those enough nerdy enough to want to know our results, just drop me a line, and I'll be glad to share our rankings.

And that's 1960 in a nutshell.  Stay tuned for 1961.