Alaska's Winner 1959: Cannes

The fourth Eurovision Song Contest took place in Cannes, France on March 11th, 1959. Twelve countries participated in the fourth Eurovision Song Contest, with Luxembourg opting out, the United Kingdom returning, and Monaco debuting.

I'd love to be able to say that there was some sort of exciting scandal that took place during the fourth Eurovision Song Contest, but it seems that this contest took off without any hitches or scandals.  (Although there is an unconfirmed rumor that France and Italy didn't vote fore each other to prevent the rival song from winning.)

After the songs were performed (on a troika of rotating backdrops with pictures of scenery from each participating country), the juries, made up of 10 people each selected their favorite song.  After the voting, the winner was the Dutch entrant, making the Netherlands the first country to win the contest more than once.

Teddy Scholten "Een Beetje"  the Netherlands

But the Alaska jury, as usual, came up with a different result. and we did the same thing as the original jury--this is the first time a country won our contest more than once.

Freddy Quinn from Germany was our choice as the winner for the 1959 contest, and we gave the title to Germany again:

Alice and Ellen Kessler  "Heute Abend wollen wir tanzen geh'n"  Germany

We were suckers for singing and dancing German twins.  They did dance moves on the rickety set and sounded good.  Can you blame us for choosing them?

And be grateful it wasn't this entry. 

Ferry Graf  "Der K und K Calypso aus Wein"  Austria

A place checking song in a calypso beat that blends in waltzes and yodels.  Yep, it's one of the more bizarre entrants, and there was no way I could leave it out...even though we placed it in ninth place.

And for those of you who are interested, here's our breakdown of the songs.

1.  "Heute Abend wollen wir tanzen geh'n"  Alice and Ellen Kessler  Germany
2.  "Uh, jeg ville ønske jeg var dig"  Birthe Wilke  Denmark
3.  "Een beetje"  Teddy Scholten  the Netherlands
4.  "Piove (Ciao, ciao banbina)"  Domenico Modugno  Italy
5.  "Irgenwoher"  Christa Williams  Switzerland
6.  "Sing Little Birdie"  Pearl Carr and Teddy Johnson  the United Kingdom
7.  "Oui, oui, oui, oui"  Jean Phillippe  France
8.  "Augustin"  Brita Borg  Sweden
9.  "Der K und K Kalypso aus Wien"  Ferry Graf  Austria
10.  "Hour toch van mij"  Bob Benny  Belgium
11.  "Mon ami Peirrot"  Jacques Pills  Monaco