Amsterdam 1970

Eurovision Song Contest for the Grand Prix of 1970

There were plenty of host countries to choose from as a result of the four-way tie in 1969; the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, France and Spain. Eventually, Amsterdam was chosen to host the fifteenth Eurovision Song Contest by the drawing of lots. For the second year in a row, the number of participants went down. Finland, Norway, Sweden and Portugal were all dissatisfied about the voting in the 1969 contest when 4 countries were declared winners and withdrew from the contest. To ensure that a similar incident did not happen again a tie rule was created. The rule stated that if two or more songs gained the same number of points, each song had to be performed once more. After these performances, the juries (with the exception of the countries that had tied) had to select their favourite song. This had to be done by the showing of hands. If entries still were to tie, both of them would share the first position.