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40 years ago today - Séverine brings Monaco their sole victory

03 April 2011 at 02:05 CEST

After Dana gave Ireland their first victory in Europe's Favourite TV Show in 1970 with All Kinds Of Everything, the honour of staging the 1971 Eurovision Song Contest went to Irish broadcaster RTE.

The show was held on April 3rd in the Gaiety Theatre and was presented by Bernadette Ní Ghallchoir. A total of 18 countries participated and competed for the coveted title of Grand Prix winner.

1971 Facts & Figures

  • The rule that only soloists or duets could compete was abolished, thus meaning that for the first time in the history of the competition, groups of up to six people were allowed to take part. 
  • Malta made their debut with Joe Grech, but unfortunately for them ended in last position.
  • A new voting system was introduced. Two jury members for each country, one of them had to be younger than 25, had to award between 1 and 5 points to each song. This created some problems because some juries gave fewer points than others. For example, Luxembourg awarded 43 points altogether compared to France's 107! This system meant that jury members could vote tactically, awarding few points and hoping to gain many.
  • A future Eurovision Song Contest winner, Hanne Krogh (One half of Bobbysocks in 1985) made her debut but only finished in 17th position for Norway this time around.
  • Finland, Norway, Sweden and Portugal all returned to the contest after a year of abstention in 1970 in protest at the 4 way winning tie in 1969.

About the winner Séverine

Séverine would turn out to be the only act to ever win Europe's Favourite TV Show for Monaco, but still to this day Un Banc, Un Arbre, Une Rue is considered to be one of the best and strongest winners of all time amongst fans.

The winning song scored some chart success, reaching number 9 in the UK Singles Chart in May 1971 Séverine went on to enjoy further success, and a long career in France and Germany. She made two further attempts at winning the Eurovision Song Contest, participating in the German national finals of 1975 and 1982.  She accompanied Monaco's delegation to the Eurovision Song Contest 2006 in Athens, Greece when Monaco returned from a 27 year absence to take part once more.

Full statistics including details of the performers, song titles and the full scoreboard can be found here in the 1971 history pages.