The third Eurovision Song Contest staged in 1958 may have produced the competition's first big international hit with "Nel blu dipinto di blu (Volare)" becoming a Worldwide best seller, but television ratings for the show had been rather disappointing, especially in West Germany, which had Europe's largest television audience at the time. However the fact that the competition had finally produced a hit and with French television wisely deciding to stage the 1959 show on the French Riviera city of Cannes, it meant that the interest in the fourth Eurovision Song Contest was bigger than ever.

French broadcaster RTF's decision to stage the show in Cannes, rather than Paris was not a big surprise. Cannes was already well used to staging major international entrainment events, including most famously, the annual film festival, which had been running since 1946. French television had a local studio based nearby and the combination of a readily available venue and the Mediterranean climate made the popular sailing centre of Cannes the natural favourite to host the contest, despite its relatively small population of just over 50,000. 

The choice of venue was also no surprise. The famous Palais des Festivals (left) in the heart of the city, was at the time the biggest venue to stage the contest. The original Palais des Festivals was built in 1949 to host the film festival. The building was located on the famous boulevard of La Croisette, on the present site of the Hotel Noga Hilton. Despite also staging 1961 Eurovision Song Contest, today the old Palais des Festivals is no more. In response to the growing success of the film festival and the advent of several large business conventions, the city of Cannes decided to build a new and bigger venue in 1979. The film festival moved to the new Palais des Festivals et des Congrès in 1983 and soon after the old Palais des Festivals was destroyed. Despite its bigger capacity and modern concept, the design of the current Palais des Festivals was originally condemned by many as resembling a giant bunker, compared to the slendour of the original Palais des Festivals.

For the second year in a row, the Eurovision Song Contest was staged on a Wednesday evening, but in many other ways the 1959 contest was quite different from the 1958 event. The staging was far more spectacular, the presentation more slick and the use of French throughout the show now helps to give the contest a sheen of its former grandeur.

As well as having the biggest venue and studio audience to date, the 1959 Eurovision Song Contest also had the greatest number of participating countries to date. Having missed the 1958 competition, the United Kingdom returned, and taking advantage of the contest being staged on its doorstep, the tiny principality of Monaco made its Eurovision debut. The one surprise was the decision of Luxembourg to drop out, following a disappointing result a year earlier. Luxembourg thereby became the first of the original seven Eurovision nations, to miss a contest.

Seven of the eleven participating countries chose their entries through a national final and once again, the San Remo winner represented Italy. Host nation France apparently chose their entry as early as late 1958. The Swedish final was especially unusual, as they inittially chose their singer and then had a selection show with eight other singers performing potential entries, all of them knowing that they would not be representing the country in Cannes.

For the first time Switzerland was not represented by 1956 Eurovision winner Lys Assia and the Netherlands was not represented by 1957 winner Corry Brokken, who had missed out on a record breaking fourth Eurovision appearance in the Dutch national final. Two Eurovision veterans did however make a return, 1957 Danish singer Birthe Wilke, this time performing as a soloist and Italian Domenico Modugno, putting his 1958 Eurovision disappointment behind him, to try for a second time. In the intervening year, Modugno had become one of the biggest international music stars thanks to the success of "Nel blu dipinto di blu (Volare)" and once again Italy started as the pre-contest favourite, with host nation France also highly rated.

For whatever reason a new rule was created for this Eurovision Song Contest, ensuring that no professional publishers or composers were allowed to be on the national juries. This rule did not last for long. It is however very unlikely that this rule change had anything to do with the fact that this was one of the closest and most exciting voting sequences in the first decade of the contest. 

Presenter Jacqueline Joubert adopted a rather schoolmarm approach to the voting procedure, using a large pointer to show where the scoring was coming from. Once again countries voted in reverse order to their performance and each country employed ten jurors, each of which awarded one point to their favourite song. 

Belgium gave an early lead to their Dutch neighbours, but after four countries had voted, the Netherlands was just one of three countries that were tied; with Switzerland and the U.K. having a slight advantage, having already voted. When the Dutch jury awarded the United Kingdom five of its ten points, it look like it might be decisive. However, it was the Italian jury the cast the critical votes, when they awarded seven points to the Netherlands. However after being ignored by the penultimate Danish jury, the Netherlands was just one of four countries that could have still won, depending on the votes of the final jury from France.

When the French awarded four points to the Dutch entry, it was clear that the Netherlands was going to win its second Eurovision Song Contest in three years. For the second year in a row the Italian entry was the big disappointment, finishing down in 6th place. Unusually all of the top three songs were reprieved at the end of the voting. giving the audience a second chance to hear the home entry and the runner-up from the U.K., as well as Teddy Scholten's winning Dutch entry.      

Below you can find a table with the votes as they appeared after each country voted. 

"Een beetje" was chosen as the Dutch entry for the 1959 Eurovision Song Contest in a national final staged in Hilversum on February 17th. Each of the eight competing songs was performed twice by different performers, once with a big orchestra, and then with a smaller one. In a unusual move for the time, the winning song was chosen by televoting by the Dutch public. Subsequently an expert jury chose Teddy Scholten (right) to go to Eurovision with the song rather than John de Mol who had performed the alternative version of the song.

Born in 1926, Scholten originally came to fame during the 1940's as part of the duo Scholten & Van 't Zelfde. In 1947 she married Henk Scholten. Teddy was never a major recording star, however in 1959 she was invited to take part in Nationaal Songfestival, the Dutch Eurovision selection. 

"Een beetje" become a local Top 5 hit, and Teddy Scholten recorded two different versions of the song in Dutch, as well as recording it in German, French and Italian. An English version was performed live, but never recorded. Despite being released all over Europe, the song made little impact on the charts outside of the Netherlands, only becoming a minor hit in Italy.

Teddy did not capitalise on her Eurovision success although she became a regular face on Dutch television during the early 1960s on various music shows, like "The Snip & Snap-Revue" and "Zaterdagavondakkoorden". In 1966 Teddy presented the Dutch Eurovision selection, before disappearing from the public eye.

Composer Dick Schallies was a well known jazz pianist in his native Netherlands recording many sessions for Dutch radio, between 1955 to 1980. He was also a successful arranger and pianist for the acclaimed Metropole Orkest. "Een beetje" was the first of three Eurovision entries composed by Schailles, two with lyrics written by Willy van Hemert. In 1960 they combined on "Wat een geluk" (What luck) which finished 12th, one of the worst results for a host nation at Eurovision.  A year later "Wat een dag" (What a day) composed by Dick Schallies  with lyrics by Pieter Goemans finished 10th.

Lyricist Willy van Hemert was born in Utrecht in 1912. During the 1940s he became successful writing musical revues and cabaret shows. In the 1950s he became involved in writing for television and he was associated with many successful shows. In 1951 he wrote and directed the very first television drama broadcast in the Netherlands: De Toverspiegel (The Magic Mirror). 

In 1957 he wrote the lyrics for "Net als toen" and the victory of "Een beeje" made him the first songwriter to write two Eurovision winners. In 1960 song "Wat een geluk" (What luck) which finished 12th. After Eurovision van Hermert's continued to concentrate on writing, directing and later producing for television until the 1980s. In 1972 he won the prestigious "Golden Harp" award. Willy van Hermert died in 1993.

The conductor of "Een neetje", was Dolf var den Linden, one of the most famous figures in Dutch musical television. He had also conducted the first Dutch Eurovision winner in 1957, making him the first conductor of two Eurovision winners. He is also remembered by Irish Eurovision fans as the man who conducted the orchestra for "All Kinds Of Everything", Ireland's first Eurovision Song Contest winner in 1970.