Merci, Chérie: Austria's First Win, Won on the Third Try

MAY 15 1966 · 12:00

Udo Jürgens · "Merci, Chérie" · Austria · 1966 Placement: 1st · Language: German · Composers: Udo Jürgens, Thomas Hörbiger · Venue: Villa Louvigny · Host: Luxembourg City, Luxembourg · Type: winner · Broadcast: pre color On March 5, 1966, at the Villa Louvigny in Luxembourg City, a 31-year-old Austrian singer-songwriter named Udo Jürgens — already a well-established German-language pop star at home — walked to the grand piano to perform his own composition 'Merci, Chérie,' a slow, tender farewell ballad co-written with the actor Thomas Hörbiger. The performance was austere by later Eurovision standards: Jürgens at the piano in a dark suit, the song's melancholy melody unfolding under his own accompaniment before opening into the full orchestra. He had represented Austria twice before — 1964 (sixth) and 1965 (fourth) — each time rising in the standings, and 1966 was expected to be close. It was not: 'Merci, Chérie' won with 31 points, giving Austria its first Eurovision victory after a decade of effort. The song would go on to become one of the most successful Eurovision winners commercially — recorded in dozens of language versions, covered by Vera Lynn, Bing Crosby, and others, and a European chart hit in multiple territories for most of the rest of the year. Context Eurovision 1966 was the eleventh edition, hosted by Luxembourg for the second time in four years. The contest had eighteen entries. Jürgens's path to the piano had been unusually long: most Eurovision winners came to the contest as performers of others' songs, but Jürgens was a composer-performer in the singer-songwriter mould that Europe was only beginning to valorise, adjacent to Charles Aznavour and Georges Moustaki and not yet quite to Serge Gainsbourg. His third Eurovision attempt in three consecutive years is itself notable; the idea of returning-until-you-win was rare in the 1960s contest. Austria's previous Eurovision performances had been modest; the ORF broadcaster's commitment to Jürgens as a repeat representative was a considered investment that paid off. Legacy Jürgens became one of the defining figures of German-language pop over the following four decades, selling more than 100 million records across his career and remaining a top-tier live draw in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland until his death in 2014, the same year Conchita Wurst finally gave Austria its second Eurovision win. 'Merci, Chérie' is commonly cited as one of the top-five most-covered Eurovision-winning songs ever, and Jürgens's subsequent career is the strongest example of a Eurovision winner using the contest as a launch point into sustained regional superstardom. Austria waited 48 years for its next Eurovision win. Mythology Jürgens is sometimes said to have won on his first attempt — he won on his third. He is occasionally claimed as Swiss or German; he was Austrian, born in Klagenfurt. 'Merci, Chérie' is sometimes reported as written entirely by Jürgens; the lyric credit belongs jointly to Thomas Hörbiger. The 1966 win is sometimes described as a landslide; the margin was narrow, with France and Norway close behind in the scoring.