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44 years ago today - Sandie Shaw registers United Kingdom's first win

08 April 2011 at 02:05 CEST

Following the Udo Jurgens victory for Austria in 1966, Vienna had the honour of hosting the 1967 Eurovision Song Contest in the Großer Festsaal der Wiener Hofburg. Erika Vaal was the host and 17 countries participated, all vying for top spot.

1967 Facts & Figures

  • The number of participants went down from 18 to 17 as Denmark chose to withdraw from the contest. This was the start of what would turn out to be an 12 year exile for the Danes before returnign in 1978.
  • The contest had a very glamorous setting: the stage included three revolving mirrors and a staircase entrance in the middle of the stage.
  • The juries underwent a change as well, as half of the jurors in every national jury had to be less than 30 years old. The jury system was each juror gave their favourite song 1 vote. Each country had 10 jurors.
  • The United Kingdom scored more than double the points of second placed Ireland in what was the most comprehensive victory to date back in 1967.
  • A future Eurovision Song Contest winner finished in 4th place in 1967. Vicky Leandros represented Luxembourg with L'Amour Est Bleu but would go on to win the 1972 contest with Apres Toi.
  • Fredi from Finland, who finished 12th in 1967 would also return in 1976, this time together with his friends with immortal Pump Pump!.

Sandie Shaw's career post 1967

Although she notoriously claimed to dislike Puppet On A String,  the song and thought it was unrepresentative of her material, the song gave Sandie Shaw a third UK  number 1 single, a record for a female at the time. Puppet on a String also became a worldwide hit  and the largest-selling single of the year in Germany, qualifying for a gold disc for one million plus sales in the UK and Europe. She also turned her hand to fashion, and in 1968 began the Sandie Shaw fashion label, selling her own brand of clothing and shoes. In the same year she hosted her own TV show, The Sandie Shaw Supplement, and issued an album of the same title.

In the early 1970's Sandie retired from life as a pop singer and began working on other ventures, including co-writing a full-length rock musical, songwriting, acting in stage productions and writing and painting children's books.

1980's and 1990's

In 1983,  a new phase in her career began after she received a letter from two incurable Sandie Shaw fans, singer Morrissey and lead guitarist Johnny Marr of The Smiths telling her that "The Sandie Shaw legend cannot be over yet, there is more to be done!."

The 1990s saw the release of many compilation albums of Shaw's material on various minor labels, as well as reissues of some of her original albums. Shaw's autobiography, The World at My Feet, was published in 1991, and the following year she began studying at Oxford and the University of London and qualified as a psychotherapist in 1994. During that time, she recorded new versions of some of her 1960s songs .During this decade, she reneged on previous declarations of hatred for the Eurovision Song Contest and announced that she was proud of her Eurovision past on the BBC show Making Your Mind Up. 

For the full details of all particpants, song titles and the full scoreboard statistics, check out the 1967 history pages here.