Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest 1960 explained

Year:1960
Broadcaster:ARD – German: [[Hessischer Rundfunk]]|i=no (HR)
Country:Germany
Preselection:National Final
Preselection Date:6 February 1960
Entrant:Wyn Hoop
Song:French: Bonne nuit ma chérie|i=no
Final Result:4th, 11 points

Germany was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 1960 with the song "French: Bonne nuit ma chérie|i=no", composed by Franz Josef Breuer, with lyrics by Kurt Schwabach, and performed by Wyn Hoop. The German participating broadcaster on behalf of ARD, German: [[Hessischer Rundfunk]]|i=no (HR), selected its entry through a national final. The song was sung in German despite its French title.

Heidi Brühl finished runner-up in the national final; however her song "German: Wir wollen niemals auseinandergehn|i=no" topped the German singles chart for several weeks and was one of the year's biggest sellers.

Before Eurovision

National final

The national final was held on 6 February at the Rhein-Main-Halle in Wiesbaden, hosted by Hilde Nocker and Werner Fullerer. Ten songs took part, with the winner being decided by a 45-member jury made up of 15 "experts" and 30 members of the public. Whether the opinion of the "experts" carried more weight pro-rata is not known. Only the top three placements are known.[1]

Final - 6 February 1960
DrawArtistSongPlace
1Angèle Durand & Rex Gildo"Abitur der Liebe"-
2Gerhard Wendland"Alle Wunder dieser Welt"3
3Gitta Lind"Auf der Straße der Träume"-
4Wyn Hoop"Bonne nuit ma chérie"1
5Gerd Ströhl"Das Herz einer Frau"
6Rainer Bertram"Ein Picasso in der Liebe"-
7Ingrid Werner"Ich hab' ein Hobby"-
8The Charming Boys"Oh Little Joe"
9Tony Sandler"Oh, wie schön"-
10Heidi Brühl"Wir wollen niemals auseinandergehn"2

At Eurovision

On the night of the final Wyn Hoop performed 11th in the running order, following the and preceding . There were no specific rules in place as yet in 1960 regarding song length, although European Broadcasting Union guidelines suggested that ideally songs should be no more than 3 minutes 30 seconds in duration. Germany was only one of several countries who appeared to have disregarded the advice, as "French: Bonne nuit ma chérie|i=no" clocked in at 4 minutes 10 seconds. At the close of voting "French: Bonne nuit ma chérie|i=no" had received 11 points, placing Germany joint 4th (with) of the 13 entries. The German jury awarded 7 of its 10 points to .[2]

Voting

Every participating broadcaster assembled a jury panel of ten people. Every jury member could give one point to his or her favourite song.

Notes and References

  1. http://natfinals.50webs.com/50s_60s/Germany1960.html ESC National Finals database 1960
  2. Web site: ESC History - Germany 1960 . 30 March 2010 . 1 December 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20221201065909/https://www.esc-history.com/details.asp?key=59 . dead .
  3. Web site: Results of the Final of London 1960 . Eurovision Song Contest . 27 March 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210327234248/https://eurovision.tv/event/london-1960/final/results/germany . 27 March 2021 . live.