Guldkorn

Biography

Family Four were a Swedish pop group who recorded during the 1960s and 1970s. They were made up of Berdnt Öst, Marie Bergman, Agnetha Munther and Pierre Isacsson. They won Melodifestivalen twice, in 1971 with "Vita vidder" and in 1972 with "Härliga sommardag". They went on to represent Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest on these two occasions. They finished sixth in 1971 and 13th in 1972. Both Marie Bergman and Pierre Isacsson went on to successful solo careers. Eurovision Song Contest 197...

Family Four were a Swedish pop group who recorded during the 1960s and 1970s. They were made up of Berdnt Öst, Marie Bergman, Agnetha Munther and Pierre Isacsson. They won Melodifestivalen twice, in 1971 with "Vita vidder" and in 1972 with "Härliga sommardag". They went on to represent Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest on these two occasions. They finished sixth in 1971 and 13th in 1972.

Both Marie Bergman and Pierre Isacsson went on to successful solo careers.


Eurovision Song Contest 1971 - Dublin
Entry for Sweden

Performer: Family Four
Song title: Vita Vidder
Song writer(s):
Song composer(s): Håkan Elmquist

Sang in Position: 12
Final Position: 6
Total Points: 85

For the first time in the history of the Eurovision Song Contest, Ireland hosted the event at the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin. Compared to 1970, the number of participants rose again to 18 as Finland, Norway, Sweden and Portugal all re-entered after a year of absence. Malta had its debut, so altogether 18 countries were present and the contest was broadcast in 29 countries.

The rule of performing either as single or duet was abolished: now groups of up to six persons were allowed to perform at Eurovision Song Contests.

In this year's Eurovision Song Contest, a new voting system was created: two jury members - one of them had to be younger than 25 - had to award between 1 and 5 points to each song. This created some problems because some juries gave fewer points than others. For example, Luxembourg awarded 43 points altogether compared to France's 107! This system meant that jury members could vote tactically, awarding few points and hoping to gain many.

The small principality of Monaco on the other hand won for the first time with the song Un Banc, Un Abre, Une Rue by French-born Séverine, who then went on to have a successful career especially in Germany.

The first appearance of Malta was unsuccessful: their participant Joe Grech ended up in last place.

Norwegian singer Hanne Krogh would return to the contest as half of the Eurovision Song Contest winner duo Bobbysocks in 1985. But in 1971, she came only 17th.



Eurovision Song Contest 1972 - Edinburgh
Entry for Sweden

Performer: Family Four
Song title: Härliga Sommardag
Song writer(s):
Song composer(s): Håkan Elmquist

Sang in Position: 14
Final Position: 13
Total Points: 75

Despite the victory of Monaco the previous year, the 1972 Eurovision Song Contest took place in Edinburgh. The reason that the contest did not take place in Monaco was because the small Mediterranean nation could not provide a decent venue. However, it was later rumoured that the real reason was that Monaco was not in a financial position to host the contest. The BBC took over and chose a venue outside of London for the first time. The contest was broadcast live to Asia for the first time with viewers in Japan, Taiwan, The Philippines, Hong Kong and Thailand, all able to watch the show. It also was the first year that a video wall was used to present song titles and artists.

For the third time already, Luxembourg won the song contest with the entry Aprés Toi performed by Vicky Leandros. The writer of the winning song, Yves Desca, also wrote the winning song of 1971 by Séverine. It was the first time in the history of the Song Contest that the same song writer won twice in a row and for two different countries.

Greek-born singer Vicky Leandros also took part in the contest for the second time and won for Luxembourg thanks to a well-planned PR campaign. This time she also used her surname, something she had avoided the first time when she participated just as "Vicky" in 1967. The winning song Après toi sold míllions of copies all over Europe, and Vicky Leandros appeared in TV-shows all over Europe. She would try to enter the Eurovision Song Contest again in 2006, but only came 3rd in the German national final for the contest.

The Irish entry Ceol An Ghrá by Sandie Jones was sung in the Irish language and until now, it remains the only song ever to be sung in Irish in the Eurovision Song Contest;

Malta took part in the contest for the second time and came last again with Helen & Joseph's L' imhabba. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.