7th Grand Prix

7° Grand Prix Europe (fr. Septième Grand Prix de l'Europe) was the seventh edition of the annual Grand Prix contest. The contest was held in the Alexandra theater in Birmingham, United Kingdom, following the victory of Ellaine Berkley in the 6th Grand Prix. A record of 18 countries took part in the contest, with Ireland and Norway appearing for the first time, while Germany returned after a two year absence and Monegasque ban was lifted.

For the first time, the contest included an interval act - performed by the previous winner, Ellaine Berkley in a duet with an established jazz singer Patrick Fane. Additionally, before each act there was a short film featuring the next performer, serving as a "postcard", which later became a core part of the show.

The contest was won by Luxembourg, represented by Geraldiné with song "Oasis". The winner scored points from every country, impressive enough given the fact that the old voting system was in use, allowing every jury panel to award only five songs.

Location
British victory met with a large interest within the country and several cities applied to host the Grand Prix when BBC opened the submissions. While some of them could accommodate even up to five thousand guests, BBC opted for not-so-grand option, The Alexandra theater in Birmingham city. Birmingham is a second most-populous city in the United Kingdom, with easy access to the airport, allowing delegations to quickly arrive on the place. The venue, Alexandra Theater, with a capacity of nearly 1400 people, was said to connect British tradition with Birmingham's freshness. As it became obvious that more than usual countries intended to participate, the chief supervisor, Maeve Lickwits, expressed concern that delegations, orchestra members and conductors might take too much space that would otherwise be available for audience. To cut unnecessary guests, BBC relegated jury members to another hall, where they were watching all the performances on-screen. Since then, most contests with sole jury-based voting had national jury members vote from their own country rather than from the venue.

The show
The contest featured the first ever interval act - Ellaine Berkley, winner of the 6th Grand Prix, performed one of her songs when all the performances have finished. This gave time to properly connect to all the jury panels. There were two male hosts: Josh Anderson and Martin O'Helley, the latter one repeating most of the phrases in French. O'Helley was visibly struggling with some of words, preferring to omit them instead.

Graphic design, while using different colours and fonts, was similar to those of 5th and 6th Grand Prix, featuring the host country's flag, with a name of host city written. British flag visible on the logo, as well as the slogan, were drawn in paintbrush-like pattern, emphasizing Birmingham's youthfulness and modernity. The graphic had a bright red background, never before used in Grand Prix, therefore bringing a new kind of aesthetics.

It was the first contest to run for more than 90 minutes. The broadcast started at 9 PM GMT, meaning that most of the participating nations televised the show even until midnight.

Participants
A record of eighteen countries featured in the Grand Prix, with two debuting and two returning. Norway appeared for the first time, following Denmark and Sweden, while Irish broadcaster accepted BBC's invitation. The country continued to participate in the contest later. Germany returned after last appearing in the 4th Grand Prix, their withdrawal being justified by contest's focus on Francophone countries (quickly disproves, as the Netherlands and United Kingdom, latest winners, both are part of a Germanic languages family). Monaco, which was banned from the 6th Grand Prix, as their jury members were trying to bribe other delegations a year before, returned. Most of the delegation members were swapped.

Returning artists
Filipa Mändeck returned as a soloist, previously participating for Austria in 4th Grand Prix as a member of group Pamaz. Claudia Poulin returned for Monaco after 4 years, singing in a duet before.

Results
Luxembourg was the first winner ever to receive at least 1 point from every other country. Additionally, it was the first nation to receive more than 50 points - the biggest amount when the old voting system was in use. Geraldiné scored more than 60% of all available points. There was also a triple draw: Belgium, Italy and Switzerland all received 10 points, sets of 5, twice 2 and 1 point. Because of that, none of them could be determined to score higher, therefore granting all these countries 10th place.