The Eurovision Song Contest 1971 was the 16th Eurovision Song Contest and was held at the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin, Ireland.

This was RTÉ's first outside broadcast in colour. Monaco's win was their first and only up to this date. Severine was a French singer living in France and she had never been to Monaco and apparently she never visited it even after winning the contest. The song's writers were also French and so was the orchestra's conductor. Needless to say the song was sung in French.

Spain was second, 12 points behind the winner, with the song "En Un Mundo Nuevo" (In a New World) sung by a young Karina who at that time was one of the most popular pop singers in her country. Katja Ebstein, one of the previous year's favourites returned to the contest to represent Germany again, and was again 3rd.

Each country had two jury members, one under 25 and one over 25. They each awarded 1 to 5 points for each song. This meant all the songs got votes but because of this new voting system that was introduced in this Eurovision some juries gave less points out than others. Whether this could be used by juries to increase their respective countries' chances of winning is hard to say but, in any case the shortcomings of the system were a liitle bit weird.

It would have been lovely to see Prince Rainier III and her adorable wife Princess Grace Kelly and have the Eurovision Song Contest held in glamorous Montecarlo. Unfortunately Monaco would eventually refuse to host the contest the following year so...

See you in Edinburgh for the 17th Eurovision Song Contest in 1972