April 3, 1971 Dublin's Gaiety Theater hosted the 16th Eurovision song contest. 18 countries were taking part when Austria, Finland, Norway, Portugal and Sweden returned from their protest withdrawel the year before, and Malta debuted. That year's new thing was the previews; each country was required to show them. Belgium had a lot of drama when singer Nicole of Nicole & Hugo fell ill days before the final and were quickly replaced by Lily Castel & Jacques Raymond - something that is strictly forbidden in the rules these days. I guess today the artist would be just drugged enough to go and try to sing for 3 minutes and that's it. Kortisone shots anyone?
Monaco scored their first and only win - and declined to host the year after - with a 100% French act. Séverine even claims she never set foot in Monaco, but that's not quite true. Her winning entry is a real evergreen. Séverine covered it in four languages and it was covered in many other languages, the Finnish one by Carola being one of the most fortunate ones. In the 2010's Hanna Pakarinen continues with the Carola tribute, soon also on a studio album.
Spain came second with Karina and Germany's Katja Epstein third, just like the year before. She would return for the third time and fails to win again placing 2nd!
Spain came second with Karina and Germany's Katja Epstein third, just like the year before. She would return for the third time and fails to win again placing 2nd!
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