Eurovision 1961: Luxembourg has it in the Cannes while the UK makes second place a serious habit

The number of countries taking part had swelled once more. The record 13 entrants in 1960 was now a scoreboard-busting 16, with Finland, Spain and Yugoslavia all making their Contest debuts in Cannes, albeit finishing 10th, ninth and eighth respectively. All of them went on to win at least one Contest, but two of them would make extremely heavy work of it.

Would you like your regular factoids?

(a) The UK entry was the biggest hit the British heat had produced so far. The Allisons (who weren't really brothers) performed The Everleys-style Are You Sure? as the penultimate song of the evening. It went on to be a number two hit back home and 15 of the 20 votes the Swiss and Luxembourgoise jurors were entitled to spread around the songs went Blighty's way.

The song did polarise the juries. Are You Sure? amassed 24 votes (Luxembourg got 31), but those two dozen points came from just seven of the 15 countries who could vote for it - the other eight ignored it altogether. The reason? Probably because the UK entry sounded more like the songs coming into Europe from the USA than a tune inspired by national culture - one of the main reasons the Contest was set up in the first place. Anything which bucked the national trend was a no-no.

(b) This was also the first year the Contest had an interval act. In the years before this, the jury in the last country to perform - which couldn't vote for itself - had to have its votes ready almost as soon as their act had left the stage as they would then be called to give their scores. The voting then continued in reverse performance order - a bit like the way they used to do the opening credits of Dallas in reverse alphabetical order.

Spain breaks millions of British hearts with both its first ever Eurovision vote and the final scores of the 1961 Contest.

That all changed in 1961 however - probably because there were so many songs to poner over. Therefore, the stage was cleared for a quick ballet and then the voting began. For some reason, they still went in reverse order (?!?).

(c) The winner was not the biggest hit to emerge from the Contest, not an unusual situation in 1960s Eurovision. That honour went to the final song of the night, Italy's Al Di La performed by the not-very-Italian-sounding Betty Curtis.

It sold millions on the Continent. We don't think Betty is related to Tony.

That result meant Eurovision would be exploring undiscovered territory in 1962. The Contest was getting ready to not pass the Duchy.