The Eurovision Song Contest came to Edinburgh 50 years ago
It's the biggest celebration of music in the world, last year pulling in a global audience of more than 180 million viewers. But when, in 1972, the Eurovision Song Contest came to Edinburgh, it was a very different event.
That Eurovision came to the Capital 50 years ago this week at all was a quirk of fate. The city inherited the final when the 1971 winner, Monaco, found it was unable to provide a venue to host the following year's event as was, and still is, the tradition.
Shouldering the responsibility of producing and finding a home for the 1972 final eventually fell to the
BBC who chose Edinburgh, the first time a location outside of London had been selected for a UK final.
The Usher Hall, with a capacity of just under 3,000, was the venue of choice and internationally renowned Scottish ballet dancer Moira Shearer was chosen to present the annual songfest. The distinctive tones of actor Tom Fleming provided the commentary.
Representing the UK that year were The New Seekers with the song Beg, Steal Or Borrow. Up against 17 other countries they were respectable runners-up to Luxembourg's Vicky Leandross, whose song Apres Toi garnered 128 points to the UK'S 114.
Even back then, staging the contest was a prestigious honour and a huge project for any broadcaster. The man charged with transforming the stage and choir loft of the Usher Hall into a glittering TV set that would be seen around the globe was acclaimed light entertainment director, Terry Hughes. His vision saw a large onstage screen introducing each country with a picture of their act, their name and the song title, while swirling animations play ed on the screen behind them as they performed.
The screen also showed the interval act from Edinburgh Castle Esplanade, however, it wasn't live. Instead, stock footage of the 1968 Edinburgh Military Tattoo was played.
The voting and juries, professional and public, also came from the castle. During the contest, the best song was voted for by a jury, no telephone voting in those days. Each participating country had two jury members, one aged from 16 to 25 and one aged from 26 to 55, awarding between one and five points for each song. Of course, they weren't allowed to vote for their own entry.
The public vote came after the interval act, the public jury members appearing on the screen, each holding a card with a number from one to five.
Broadcast in 28 countries, the Edinburgh production cost the BBC the grand sum of £81,000 to stage.
As Hughes recalled in Eurovision historian Gordon Roxburgh's book, Songs For Europe: The United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest,
Volume Two – The 1970s, “I’m sure the venue had already been decided on before I became involved, though I think it was my idea to have the jury in Edinburgh Castle, which I thought would be suitably different. They were always going to be in a different venue as we simply didn’t have the room in the Usher Hall.
“I was instrumental in choosing Moira Shearer as the presenter; we had a short-list and I pushed for her.
"I remember going to see her, and she was kind of reluctant at first, as she had never done anything like it before, but she was a lovely lady and brought an elegance and class to it, and she could also speak enough French."