Eurovision Song Contest 1972

Eurovision Song Contest 1972
Dates
Final	25 March 1972
Host
Venue	Usher Hall Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom
Presenter(s)	Moira Shearer
Executive producer	Bill Cotton
Director	Terry Hughes
Musical director	Malcolm Lockyer
EBU scrutineer	Clifford Brown
Host broadcaster	British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
Website	eurovision.tv/event/edinburgh-1972
Participants
Number of entries	18
Debuting countries	None
Returning countries	None
Non-returning countries	None
Participation map      Competing countries     Countries that participated in the past but not in 1972
Vote
Voting system	Two-member juries (one aged 16 to 25 and the other 25 to 55) rated songs between one and five points.
Winning song	Luxembourg "Après toi"
1971 ← Eurovision Song Contest → 1973

The Eurovision Song Contest 1972 was the 17th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom and was organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), who agreed to stage the event after the Monégasque broadcaster Télé Monte Carlo (TMC), who won in 1971, was unable to meet the demands of hosting the event and could not find a suitable venue. The contest was held at the Usher Hall on 25 March 1972 and was hosted by Scottish ballet dancer Moira Shearer. Eighteen countries took part in the contest, the same number as the previous year.

The contest marked the first time that Scotland had hosted the contest. Prior to 1972, when the United Kingdom hosted the contest in 1960, 1963 and 1968, the BBC had always chosen a venue in London. However, for the 1972 Eurovision Song Contest, the BBC broke this trend and chose the Scottish capital to host the competition, marking the first time that London had not been chosen by the BBC.^[1] The 1972 Eurovision Song Contest also marked the first time that the event was broadcast live to the Asian continent, with viewers in Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, Hong Kong and Thailand able to watch the show on television for the first time. The 1972 contest also marked the first time that a video wall was used to present song titles and artists prior to their performance.^[1]

The winner was Luxembourg with the song "Après toi", performed by Vicky Leandros, with lyrics by Yves Dessca, and music composed by Mario Panas (which was the writing pseudonym of Vicky's father Leo Leandros). "Après toi" became the winner with the lowest percentage of the total vote, winning with just 8.30% of the points available. Yves Dessca also wrote "Un banc, un arbre, une rue" that had won the previous edition, and became the second person to win the contest twice, the first person to win for two different countries and the first person to win two years in a row.^[2] Germany finished in third place for the third consecutive year, equalling their highest placement from the previous two editions.