Country:	:	Austria
City	:	Vienna
Date	:	Saturday 8 April 1967
Location	:	Großer Festsaal der Wiener Hofburg, Vienna, Austria
Broadcaster	:	ORF
Host	:	Erica Vaal
EBU Scrutineer	:	Clifford Brown
Director	:	Herbert Fuchs
Winner	:	Sandie Shaw from United Kingdom
Interval Act	:	Wiener Sängerknaben

The Eurovision Song Contest 1967 was the 12th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Vienna, Austria, following the country’s victory at the 1966 contest with the song „Merci, Chérie“ by Udo Jürgens. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster Österreichischer Rundfunk (ORF), the contest was held at the Großer Festsaal der Wiener Hofburg on Saturday 8 April 1967, becoming the first contest held in the month of April, and was hosted by Austrian actress Erica Vaal.

Seventeen countries participated in the contest, one fewer than the record eighteen that had competed in the 1965 and 1966 editions. Denmark decided not to enter and left the contest at this point, not to return until 1978.

The United Kingdom won the contest for the first time with the song „Puppet on a String“, written and composed by Bill Martin and Phil Coulter, and performed by Sandie Shaw. The entry had one of the widest margins of victory ever witnessed in the competition; it garnered more than twice as many points as the second-placed song. Shaw intensely disliked the composition, though her attitude towards the song somewhat mellowed in later years, even releasing a new version in 2007.

This was the last contest to be transmitted only in black and white as it would begin to be transmitted in colour from the 1968 edition onwards.

Location

The 1967 Eurovision Song Contest was held in Vienna, the capital of Austria. The venue for the contest was the Hofburg Palace, which was the principal winter residence of the Habsburg dynasty, rulers of the Austro-Hungarian empire. It currently serves as the official residence of the President of Austria.

Format

The stage setup was a little unusual this year. There was a staircase in the middle of the stage as well as two revolving mirrored walls on both ends of the stage; they began revolving at the start of each song, and stopped at its end. A change in rule also required half of every nation’s jury to be less than 30 years old.

The presenter Erica Vaal became confused whilst the voting was taking place, and declared the United Kingdom’s entry to be the winner before the last country, Ireland, had announced its votes. She also ended the programme by congratulating the winning song and country, and saying „goodbye“ in several different languages.

Participating countries

Denmark chose not to participate this year and left the contest at this point, not to be returning again until 1978. The reason was that the new director for the TV entertainment department at DR thought that the money could be spent in a better way.

The entry from Luxembourg, „L’amour est bleu“, sung by Vicky Leandros, came in fourth; nonetheless, it went on to become the biggest international hit of the 1967 contest, and a year later would be a big instrumental hit for French musician, Paul Mauriat, under the English title, „Love is Blue“. Television presenter, artist and musician Rolf Harris provided the commentary for BBC Television viewers. Switzerland received zero votes for the second time. Portugal was represented by Eduardo Nascimento, who was the first black male singer in the history of the contest, performing „O vento mudou“ („The wind changed“). Rumours claimed that Portuguese prime minister Salazar had chosen this particular singer to show the rest of Europe that he was not racist.

Conductors

Each performance had a conductor who was maestro of the orchestra. This was the first contest to have a unique conductor for every entry, as prior contests usually had the host conductor conduct multiple entries in addition to their own country’s entry.

•  Netherlands – Dolf van der Linden
•  Luxembourg – Claude Denjean
•  Austria – Johannes Fehring
•  France – Franck Pourcel
•  Portugal – Armando Tavares Belo
•   Switzerland – Hans Moeckel 
•  Sweden – Mats Olsson
•  Finland – Ossi Runne
•  Germany – Hans Blum
•  Belgium – Francis Bay
•  United Kingdom – Kenny Woodman
•  Spain – Manuel Alejandro
•  Norway – Øivind Bergh
•  Monaco – Aimé Barelli
•  Yugoslavia – Mario Rijavec 
•  Italy – Giancarlo Chiaramello
•  Ireland – Noel Kelehan

Returning artists

Artist	Country	Previous year(s)
Claudio Villa	Italy	1962
Kirsti Sparboe	Norway	1965
Raphael	Spain	1966

Results

#	Representing country	Performer(s)	Song title, writer(s) and composer(s)	Points	Place
01	The NetherlandsNTS	Thérèse Steinmetz	Ring-dinge	002	14
02	LuxembourgCLT	Vicky	L’amour Est Bleu	017	04
03	AustriaORF	Peter Horten	Warum Es Hunderttausend Sterne Gibt	002	14
04	FranceORTF	Noëlle Cordier	Il Doit Faire Beau Là-bas	020	03
05	PortugalRTP	Eduardo Nascimento	O Vento Mudou	003	12
06	SwitzerlandSSR SRG	Géraldine	Quel Coeur Vas-tu Briser?	000	17
07	SwedenSR	Östen Warnebring	Som En Dröm	007	08
08	FinlandYLE	Fredi	Varjoon-suojaan	003	12
09	GermanyARD	Inge Brück	Anouschka	007	08
10	BelgiumBRT	Louis Neefs	Ik Heb Zorgen	008	07
11	United KingdomBBC	Sandie Shaw	Puppet On A String	047	01
12	SpainTVE	Raphael	Hablemos Del Amor	009	06
13	NorwayNRK	Kirsti Sparboe	Dukkemann	002	14
14	MonacoTMC	Minouche Barelli	Boum-badaboum	010	05
15	YugoslaviaJRT	Lado Leskovar	Vse Roze Sveta	007	08
16	ItalyRAI	Claudio Villa	Non Andare Più Lontano	004	11
17	IrelandRTÉ	Sean Dunphy	If I Could Choose	022	02

Scoreboard

Participant																		Points	Place
The Netherlands						1										1		2	14
Luxembourg		1	2			2	3		1			1			4	2	1	17	4
Austria											1						1	2	14
France	1				2	1		2	2				4	1	1	2	4	20	3
Portugal				1								1		1				3	12
Switzerland																		–	17
Sweden			1			2				2	1						1	7	8
Finland							1				1				1			3	12
Germany		1				1	1			1	1		1			1		7	8
Belgium			3		1	1					1					1	1	8	7
United Kingdom	3	3	2	7	3	1	2	5	3	7	1		1	7	2			47	1
Spain	1	1						1	2		2				1		1	9	6
Norway													1		1			2	14
Monaco	2			1			1					5	1					10	5
Yugoslavia		1		1			1	1			1	2						7	8
Italy						1						1		1		1		4	11
Ireland	3	3	2		4		1	1	2		1		2			2	1	22	2