Eurovision Song Contest 1975
The Eurovision Song Contest 1975 was the 20th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Stockholm, Sweden, following ABBA's win at the 1974 contest in Brighton, United Kingdom with the song "Waterloo". It was the first time the contest took place in Sweden, also marking the first time the Scandinavian Peninsula hosted the event. The contest was held at Stockholmsmässan on Saturday, 22 March 1975 and was hosted by Karin Falck.
Nineteen countries participated in the contest, beating the previous record of eighteen, that was first set in the 1965 edition. France and Malta returned after their one-year and two-year absences, respectively. Turkey made its debut, while Greece decided not to enter after its debut the year prior.[1]
The winner of the contest was the Netherlands who won with the song "Ding-a-dong", performed by Teach-In, written by Will Luikinga and Eddy Ouwens, and composed by Dick Bakker. This was the Netherlands' fourth victory in the contest.[1] The country would not win again until 2019.
The contest took place in Stockholm, the capital and largest city of Sweden, which has long been one of the country's cultural, media, political, and economic centres as well as the most populated urban area in Scandinavia.[2][3]
The venue for the contest was Stockholmsmässan (or Stockholm International Fairs in English). The main building is in Älvsjö – a southern suburb of Stockholm Municipality for which the building got its nickname. It was constructed in 1971 and holds 4,000 people.
To introduce each song, all the artists were recorded on videotape painting a portrait of themselves during the rehearsal period, incorporating their nation's flag into the illustration. Some artists included their backing artists in the painting, others chose only to paint the lead singer.[4]
