This week the 65th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest will take place in Rotterdam. Especially for this occasion, we present the ten biggest Eurovision Song Contest hits per decade until Saturday. Today is the 60s.

The first edition of the Eurovision Song Contest was held in 1956. The Top 40 did not yet exist. It only started in 1965. That’s why we don’t have a decade list for the 1950s and this top 10 doesn’t contain Eurovision hits from the first half of the 1960s. Classic entries from this period are Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu (Volare ) and Piove (Ciao Ciao Bambina) by Domenico Modugno, Zwei Kleine Italiener by Conny Froboess and Non Ho L’età by Gigliola Cinquetti. If Top 40 had existed back then, this would undoubtedly have been a huge hit. The Netherlands managed to win twice in this period. In 1957 Corry Brokken won with Net Als Toen and in 1959 Teddy Scholten won with Een Beetje.

In the Top 40’s first year, the Eurovision Song Contest was an immediate and huge success. Winner France Gall with his victory song Poupée De Cire Poupée De Son fifth place in the Top 40. Two years later Sandie Shaw with his victory Dolls With Strings even a number 1 hit. However, Eurovision’s biggest success of the decade went to a non-winner. Congratulations from Cliff Richard scoring only one point less than the eventual winner during the 1968 Eurovision Song Contest in London Massielthe one with La La La can also be found in the top 10 below.

Dutch entries were not guaranteed to reach the Top 40 in the 1960s. In fact: temporary Conny Vandenbos its entry did not reach the Top 40 in 1965, but two other songs from the National Song Contest did enter the Top 40. Despite the fact that the Netherlands never placed higher than tenth in the Eurovision Song Contest between 1960 and 1968, Lenny Kuhr in 1969 the decade ended in style. From Troubadour he won the Eurovision Song Contest in Madrid. He had to share this victory with singers from Spain, France and England. The winning song from England, Boom Bang-A-Bang by Lulujust like De Troubadour, it was also a Top 40 hit and is also listed below.

1. Richard Cliff – Congratulations (424 points)

2nd place in 1968 on behalf of Great Britain
#1 in Top 40

2. French Gall – Poupée De Cire Poupée De Son (421 points)

1st place in 1965 on behalf of Luxembourg
#5 in Top 40

3. Sandie Shaw – Dolls On Strings (401 points)

1st place in 1967 on behalf of Great Britain
#1 in Top 40

4. Udo Jürgens – Merci Cherie (132 points)

1st place in 1966 on behalf of Austria
#14 in Top 40

5. Massiel – La La La (115 points)

1st place in 1968 on behalf of Spain
#15 in Top 40

6. Fernando And Filippo (Tong-Tiki-Tong) (113 points)

15th place winner in 1966 on behalf of the Netherlands
#16 in Top 40

7. Lenny Kuhr – The Singer (112 points)

Shared first place in 1969 on behalf of the Netherlands
#12 in the Top 40

8. Guy Mardel – N’avoue Jamais (79 points)

3rd place in 1965 on behalf of France
#26 in Top 40

9. Lulu – Boom Bang-A-Bang (72 points)

Shared first place in 1969 on behalf of England
#19 in Top 40

10. Dubrovački Trubaduri – Jedan Dan (58 points)

Shared 7th place in 1968 on behalf of Yugoslavia
#22 in Top 40

_{(Photo: Alan Warren / Wikimedia Commons / Mr. Cliff Richard / CC BY-SA 3.0)}

(17/05/2021)