The 1964 Eurovision Song Contest took place in the famous Tivoli Concert Hall in Copenhagen. The event became highly politicised with demands that right-wing dictatorships in Spain and Portugal should be excluded from the contest. There was even some trouble during the contest as just before the Belgian entry, a man entered the stage holding a banner saying "Boycott Franco and Salazar". He was quickly removed from the stage. As in the three previous contests, 16 countries participated in the competition. Portugal made its debut whilst Sweden chose not to enter. Germany, Portugal and Switzerland each scored zero points for the first time. In the case of Portugal, it was the first time in the history of the contest that a newcomer did not receive any points at all. Italy celebrated its first victory with the song Non Ho l’Età, performed by 16-year-old Gigliola Cinquetti. Gigliola would also take part in 1974 and would become the host of Eurovision Song Contest of 1991, together with Toto Cutugno.
As with the first ever contest in 1956, there is no known recording of the show. This is said to be as a result of a fire at the studios of Danish broadcaster DR in the 1970s and the fact that none of the other broadcasters recorded the entire show. A short recording of the winning reprise survives as does the audio recording of the contest.
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