France - footage in B/W shortened broadcast on 9 April 1974 and again on Eurovision Top A on 8 June 1974 (only the ABBA "Waterloo" excerpt). There was no Katie Boyle commentary, but a French voiceover.
First performance:
Winning performance:
ABBA were the 8th act to perform (view the performance
here).
Olivia
Newton-John was on 2nd for UK,
Mouth and McNeal were the biggest
threat. Prior to each country's performance, a mini-film was shown
firstly of some scenes from that country followed by the performers in and
around Brighton. ABBA were shown posing together and then one by one
appearing from behind a plant.
The programme was hosted by
Katie Boyle. The
intermission was a film of The Wombles messing about in Brighton
to "Remember You're A Womble"!
During the scoring, ABBA are seen twice in the "green room" watching the points coming in. ABBA won with 24 points. The UK did not give Sweden any points.
Björn was famously refused permission to collect a writer's prize for the winning song and you see a bemused Stig looking awkward while Benny tries to explain to someone that Björn is also a composer of the song. Notice the way Benny always touches his hair when he's flustered!
Stig's speech was "Thank you" in as many languages as he could think of! Stig and Benny were presented their winners medals by Sir Charles Curran, Director General of the BBC and President of the EBU.
The UK show was commentated by David Vine (not Terry Wogan who did the radio commentary that year). David Vine got Benny and Björn mixed up when announcing the line-up.
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Thanks to Dori Plait, Jozsef, Ian Cole and Sam Shervz