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This is the first part of a series of articles on the artists performing at the 60th Anniversary show in London, to celebrate the Eurovision Song Contest.
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Anne Marie David sang Tu te reconnaîtras in 1973 and Je suis l’enfant soleil in 1979.
She was born in Arles, France.
At eighteen years old she moved to Paris and started performing in musical theatre. It was on the boards of the National Theatre of the Palais de Chaillot that her career started. She was playing the part of Mary Magdalene from the rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar.
Her first involvement in the Eurovision Song Contest was when, in 1972, she submitted a song entitled Un peu romantique to the French selection committee. It narrowly missed out being included in the top six which went to the National final.
In 1973 she was selected to represent the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg at Eurovision. After winning the record sold over one million copies and she achieved her first gold record.
Post- Eurovision she toured internationally, lived in Turkey and had notable success there, recording two singles in Turkish, one album and achieving several awards.
Ann-Marie returned to the Contest, representing France in 1979. Her song was Je suis l’enfant soleil and, again, battled for the crown but came third.
She retired from performing in 1987, making some further appearances, and was part of the 50th celebration in Copenhagen.
Eurovision Song Contest 1973 was the eighteenth edition of the show.
It was held in the Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg in the capital city. A venue, which still is considered as one of the best places to perform opera and ballet, had been opened nine years earlier and was built as the Grand Duchy’s premier building for music productions.
The broadcaster was CLT and their orchestra performed on a two level gantry so as to fit on the stage along with the performers.
This was an historic year in that two of the conductors were women. Monica Dominique conducted the Swedish entry You’re summer and Nurit Hirsh conducted the first ever Israeli entry Ey sham.
Malta was to participate that year but the public broadcaster withdrew.
There was doubt as to who would perform the Irish entry due to a difference of musical opinion between their chosen singer, Maxi and the delegation. Eventually an agreement was reached and the replacement, Tina, had to sit it out.
For the voting each country supplied two people, one being 16 – 25 and the other 26 – 55. Each awarded between 1 and 5 points. The final result went down to the wire with three countries being possible winners.
In the end third place went to Cliff Richard, singing Power to all our friends for the United Kingdom for the second occasion. He attained 123 points
Only two points higher were Mocedades and the song Eres tú, with Anne-Marie David taking home the trophy with a further 4 points and a total of 129.
