Eurovision: 1975 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Sweden

The contest is normally held in the country which won the prior year's contest - in this case, ABBA won for Sweden in 1974. The actual venue was the Stockholm Exhibition and Convention Centre in Stockholm, Sweden.

Answer: The Netherlands

Top of the list was "Ding-A-Dong", sung by Teach-In of the Netherlands. It was sung in English.

Answer: The Shadows

The Shadows formed as a backing group for Cliff Richard, and were highly successful in the 1950s and 1960s. They were originally named The Drifters but due to a conflict with the American group of that name, they changed their name - and their personnel, none of the original Drifters were still in the band when it became The Shadows.

Answer: Portugal

In 1974, the Portuguese entry supposedly was the signal to start what became known as the "Carnation Revolution" - the overthrow of the right-wing authoritarian government by the military, bringing democracy to the country.
The 1975 entry, "Madrugada", celebrated the revolution - and the performer, Duarte Mendes, had to be stopped from wearing his uniform and carrying his weapon onto the stage!

Answer: 7

They were the Netherlands, Ireland, Norway, Britain, Malta, Finland and Sweden. Both Germany and Belgium sang their songs in their own language PLUS English.

Answer: Greece

Greece did not take part as a protest against the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus and the inclusion of Turkey in the Eurovision contest. The island had been a British Crown Colony following the demise of the Ottoman Empire, but in 1960 it became independent. Greek Cypriots wanted to annexe the island to Greece, Turkish Cypriots to Turkey, a few coups were attempted and eventually the Turks took control of a portion of the island, displacing the Greek Cypriots living in the north of the island.

Answer: Turkey

Turkey's entry into the contest spurred the aforementioned withdraw of the contest by Greece. Their entry, "Seninle Bir Dakika", was sung by Semiha Yanký and placed dead last.

Answer: Karin Falck

Karin Falck was the presenter- the others were commentators in their own countries. Falck has produced and directed many radio and television programmes in Sweden, with a career going back into the mid-1950s.

Answer: The World of John Bauer

The World of John Bauer was the halftime entertainment. Bauer, born in 1882, was a Swedish artist known in particular for his illustrations of fairy tales - not the pretty ones with princes and princesses and white horses. His were rather nightmarish ones of trolls and gnomes and, it must be said, the odd prince and princess. A series of the drawings were shown during the intermission.

ABBA won the previous year's contest and went on to have a career as music superstars. Lindarw is Sweden's most famous drag queen. Ulla Andersson is a former top model, actress, singer, songwriter and ex-wife of Quincy Jones.

Answer: 2

Monaco, with their entry "Une chanson c'est une lettre" ("A Song is a Letter") and Yugoslavia with their entry "Dan ljubezni" ("A Day of Love") both placed at number 13 with 22 points. The winner received 152 points. The scoring system had changed; no longer did each of the country's 10 judges each assign one point. Now each country's jury as a whole gave 12 points to their first choice, 10 to the second, then 8,7,6,5,4,3,2 and 1 points in order of preference. To add confusion, the points were announced in the order in which the songs were sung.