Aren’t you always asking the question: what’s your favourite song from the 1961 contest? You mean you’ve never considered it? It must be just me then.
I realise some of you out there may not even know there was a contest in 1961. Or even TV in 1961. But you’d be wrong. It was held in Cannes in the days when everything was in French. One song – yes, just one song – was in English, so the fans needed to be fully polyglottal. For those of us who remember the free language rule, these were good times. And we had the likes of Luxembourg, Monaco and Yugoslavia taking part. They were halcyon days.
Today’s birthday girl sadly died in 1998 and came from L’Île-de-France, although she sang for one of these dormant countries. Enjoy her song about youth, good weather, spring, glory and prisoners of the town. What larks! Colette would have been 90 today.