A Teenager's Adventure Song Wins for France

MAY 15 1960 · 12:10

Jacqueline Boyer · "Tom Pillibi" · France · 1960 Placement: 1 · Score: 32 · Language: French · Composers: André Popp, Pierre Cour · Venue: Royal Festival Hall · Host: London, United Kingdom · Type: winner · Broadcast: pre color Boyer, 18, daughter of French chansonnier Jacques Pills and Lucienne Boyer, takes the Royal Festival Hall stage in a bouffant pink taffeta dress. 'Tom Pillibi' is a fairy-tale about a charming liar with imagined Scottish and Brazilian kingdoms — mischievous, airy, with a rising French verse structure. Boyer sings it with theatrical twinkle. The jury adores it. 32 points for the win. Context Boyer's parents were French pop royalty; her father had represented Monaco the previous year and come last. André Popp, the composer, would later write Frida Boccara's 1969 tied winner 'Un jour, un enfant'. France had already won in 1958; 1960 was the beginning of France's 1960s Eurovision dominance. Legacy Boyer became a career chanteuse performing in France, Germany, and Quebec through the 1980s. 'Tom Pillibi' remained a French children's-radio staple for decades. Her win reframed her father's 1959 last-place finish as a family plot twist. She released a memoir in 2010 dedicated partly to her Eurovision year.