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 to 18 as Finland, Norway, Sweden and Portugal all returned to the contest after a year of absence. Malta also made its debut. The contest was broadcast in 29 countries.
The rule of performing either as single or duet was abolished: now groups of up to six people were allowed to perform.
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! In theory this meant that jury members could vote tactically, awarding few points and hoping to gain many.
The small principality of Monaco won for the first time in 1971 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.
Malta's 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.
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