Notable Incidents
The United Kingdom was represented in the contest by the (British born) Australian pop singer Olivia Newton-John, who came fourth with the song "Long Live Love". As noted by author and historian John Kennedy O'Connor in his book The Eurovision Song Contest - The Official History, Olivia disliked this song and preferred others from the UK heat, but "Long Live Love" was chosen as the UK's entry by a public postal vote.
France had been going to enter this Eurovision with the song "La vie à vingt-cinq ans" by Dani, but they withdrew after the French President, Georges Pompidou, died in the week of the contest. Since his funeral was held the day of the contest, it was deemed inappropriate for the French to take part. Dani was seen by viewers in the audience at the point the French song should have been performed, after the Irish and before the German entry. For the same reason, the French singer Anne-Marie David, who had won the first place for Luxembourg in 1973, could not come to Brighton to hand the prize to the 1974 winner.
Malta withdrew from the contest for unknown reasons, but had selected Enzo Guzman with the song "Paċi Fid Dinja" (Peace in the World) to represent them. The singer has confirmed this to be the case. Malta returned to the competition in 1975.
Italy refused to broadcast the televised contest on the state television channel RAI because of a song sung by Gigliola Cinquetti which coincided with the intense political campaigning for the 1974 Italian referendum on divorce which was held a month later in May. Despite the Eurovision contest taking place more than a month before the planned vote and despite Cinquetti going as far as winning second place, Italian censors refused to allow the contest and song to be shown or heard. RAI censors felt the song which was titled "Sì", and which contained lyrics constantly repeating the word "SI" (yes) could be accused of being a subliminal message and a form of propaganda to influence the Italian voting public to vote "YES" in the referendum. The song remained censored on most Italian state TV and radio stations for over a month.
Portugal's entry "E depois do adeus" was used as one of the two signals to launch the Carnation Revolution against the Estado Novo regime. The song alerted the rebel captains and soldiers to begin the coup and the tanks of the left-wing military coup to move in. John Kennedy O'Connor describes it as "the only Eurovision entry to have actually started a revolution", while Des Mangan suggests that other Portuguese entries (he mentions 1998's "Se Eu Te Pudesse Abraçar") would not be likely to inspire coups.
Sweden won the contest with a score of 24 points, representing just 15% of the possible available vote. Such a low percentage has never been achieved since, but it is still higher than the 12% achieved by each of the four winners in 1969. This was the first time when four countries came last with a point. (In 1962, 1963, 1964, and 1965, four countries had come last without a point.
Read more about this topic: Eurovision Song Contest 1974
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