La poupée de 60 ans: A new milestone for France Gall's Eurovision winner

We're currently basking in the reign of one groundbreaking Eurovision winner, after Switzerland's Nemo became the first non-binary artist to win the Contest in May with their song The Code. And as we look forward to Basel 2025, thoughts turn to another groundbreaking winning song, that will be celebrating its 60th anniversary there. 

Regarded as Eurovision's first 'pop' winner, Poupée De Cire, Poupée De Son ushered in a new era for the Eurovision Song Contest at what was its 10th edition in 1965. The song won for Luxembourg after an iconic performance by the artist France Gall. 

After the Contest's first decade saw its winners' 'Hall of Fame' dominated and defined by slower ballads, with Poupée De Cire, Poupée De Son, viewers got to see a contemporary entry - one which was more reflective of what Europe was listening to on the radio - triumph for the first time.

We'd had songs slightly higher in tempo than a ballad win the Eurovision Song Contest before (namely Netherlands' Een Beetje in 1959 and Denmark's Dansevise in 1963), but Luxembourg's Poupée De Cire, Poupée De Son was a pedal-to-the-metal pop bop in the 'Yé-Yé' mold - a genre of music that had originated in France, based on the rock n' roll of the United States and the United Kingdom, and was by the mid-'60s spreading across the rest of Western Europe, too. 

The song was therefore seen as a clear standout in a field of 18 when it was performed on the night of 20 March 1965, at Sala di Concerto della RAI in Naples, Italy. That number of 18 countries competing was a new record for the Eurovision Song Contest at the time, with Ireland debuting and Sweden returning after a year's absense. 

Each of the 18 countries had a 10-member jury awarding 9 points in total once all entries had been performed; 5 points to the jury's top scoring song, 3 points to the next popular song amongst the jury members, and 1 point for their third-favourite song. 

Poupée De Cire, Poupée De Son received the top set of 5 points from a total of 4 juries (Netherlands, Germany, Austria and Finland), 3 points from 3 juries (Ireland, Norway and Switzerland), and was the third-favourite song of 3 more juries, receiving 1 point from Spain, Sweden and Denmark.

The song ended the night on 32 points, giving Luxembourg its second win at the Eurovision Song Contest. The United Kingdom finished in second place with 26 points (for I Belong by Kathy Kirby), with France in third place on 22 points (for Guy Mardel's N'avoue Jamais). 

Poupée De Cire, Poupée De Son's victory saw a shift in the style of Eurovision music in the years that followed, and for the remainder of the now well-swinging '60s, the top of the scoreboard was dominated by female-fronted pop up-tempos. Sandie Shaw's Puppet On A String gave the United Kingdom its first victory in 1967, while Spain earned its first win one year later in 1968, courtesy of La La La by Massiel. 

Both countries then contributed two more gems of the genre in 1969, sharing victory (along with France and Netherlands) thanks to the vote-winning Vivo Cantando by Salomé for Spain and the banging Boom Bang-a-Bang by Lulu for the United Kingdom. 

After its win for Luxembourg in 1965, Poupée De Cire, Poupée De Son continued to “Voir la vie en rose bonbon” by ascending into its own journey outside the Contest. Eurovision victory saw it become a huge hit across Europe and the rest of the world, reaching number 1 in some countries and charting high in many more. 

In the months and years that followed, the song was covered by various singers around the world. It was translated into no less than 20 other languages for versions released by other artists. And its story continues into the 21st century, too, with the beloved classic having been taken on by the likes of Arcade Fire, Belle & Sebastian and Dubstar. 

France Gall herself re-recorded the song in German, Italian and Japanese. And the success of those recordings, as well as the French-language original, saw to it that the artist was able to launch an international career in music off the back of her Eurovision win.

The artist would go on to release a huge collection of studio albums, live and compilation albums, plus many singles, too. She also dabbled in film and theatre work, and continued to score hit albums and singles well into the '80s, before eventually retiring from music in the late '90s. 

France Gall sadly passed away in January 2018, in the same city she had been born 70 years earlier - Paris. 

Another element of Poupée De Cire, Poupée De Son's participation at Naples 1965 that caused unprecedented attention (and subsequent controversy) was that of its composer. Serge Gainsbourg, by then a prominent figure across the French arts, penned the pop tune using his signature style of lyric writing, which was often quite meta, and saw him play with words and themes that amused him. 

In this case, Poupée De Cire, Poupée De Son had a 17-year-old France Gall sing Serge Gainsbourg's words about being a young 'doll' who acts as a blank-canvas conduit for another person's own experiences. It was a self-fulfilling situation that contributed to the young artist eventually cutting ties with the older songwriter in later years, admitting that she'd felt betrayed by him due to lyrics he'd written for her in this and later songs.

Serge Gainsbourg would return to the Eurovision Song Contest two years later, co-writing Boum-Badaboum for Minouche Barelli, which gave Monaco a 5th-place finish in Vienna. And the singer, songwriter, painter, actor and director gave Eurovision one final shot over two decades later in 1990. At the Contest in Zagreb, Gainsbourg co-wrote White & Black Blues for Joëlle Ursull, giving his native France a second-place result, tied with Ireland on 132 points just behind Italy's winner Insieme: 1992.

Less than a year after Zagreb 1990, Serge Gainsbourg sadly passed away, aged just 62.

Luxembourg went on to win the Eurovision Song Contest three more times. Its 5th win in 1983 saw the Grand Duchy tie the record for most Eurovision victories with France, before both were surpassed by Ireland's 6th triumph in 1994. 

1994 was also the year that the country was prevented from competing at the Eurovision Song Contest due to a low-table result the previous year, in 1993. Luxembourg decided not to return in 1995, and would stay away from the Contest for 31 years until its much celebrated return at Malmö 2024. 

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