A Eurovision Pilgrimage in Luxembourg

 This summer, whilst on holiday in the lovely country of Luxembourg, I spent a day exploring the capital, the appropriately-named Luxembourg City. Of course, there had to be a bit of Eurovision-related sightseeing involved, so in this post I’ll be sharing some memories from my trip, as well as having a bit of a walk down memory lane looking at Luxembourg’s role in Eurovision through the years. 

Luxembourg has a long history of participation in the Eurovision Song Contest, having been one of the seven countries present at the very first contest in 1956. That year, each country sent two entries to Lugano, and both of Luxembourg’s were performed by French singer Michèle Arnaud. The full results of Eurovision 1956 have never been made publicly available, and as such, we don’t know how either of these songs placed, only that they didn’t emerge victorious.

Perhaps, then, we can treat 1957’s Danièle Dupré as Luxembourg’s de facto debut in the contest. Singing “Tant de peine” in Frankfurt, Danièle, another French singer, finished joint-fourth out of ten participating countries. However, after a disappointing last-place result the following year, Luxembourg withdrew from Eurovision in 1959 as the national broadcaster CLT rejected the proposed entry. This was the only year between 1956 and 1993 in which Luxembourg was not represented at the contest.

I mentioned above that Luxembourg’s first two Eurovision entries were both performed by French singers; and being represented by singers of another nationality has been something of a theme for the country in Eurovision. During Luxembourg’s thirty-seven appearances at Eurovision in the twentieth century, it was represented by fewer than ten Luxembourgish artists, with the majority of the others hailing from surrounding countries such as France, Belgium or the Netherlands.

That’s not to say, however, that Luxembourg hasn’t managed to pull in some big names over the years. In 1978, Spanish duo Baccara (of “Yes Sir, I Can Boogie” fame) were drafted in as the country’s representative, finishing seventh. Greek icons Nana Mouskouri and Vicky Leandros have also appeared for Luxembourg, whilst the country’s entry from 1980, “Papa Pingouin”, was later covered by Pigloo, an animated baby penguin (!), topping the French charts and later being certified Platinum in the country.

For the majority of Luxembourg’s time in Eurovision, it has been a requirement that countries should perform in one of their national languages. The vast majority, therefore, of Luxembourg’s Eurovision entries have been performed in French, the country’s de facto national language. The Luxembourgish language has rarely been featured at the contest, appearing only three times and unfortunately earning little success. In 2024, “Fighter” by Tali became the first Luxembourgish Eurovision entry to include lyrics in English.

Despite its size, Luxembourg has been one of Eurovision’s most successful nations. The country has won the contest an impressive five times, and has finished third on another two occasions. Four of Luxembourg’s winning artists were French, with one (the aforementioned Vicky Leandros) coming from Greece. Jean-Claude Pascal brought the nation its first victory in 1961 with the song “Nous les amoureux”, which was later confirmed to be about a homosexual relationship, something of a societal taboo at the time.

Seventeen-year-old France Gall won the contest in 1965 with “Poupée de cire, poupée de son”, noted for being the first pop song to win Eurovision and marking the beginning of a new era of music for the contest. The song is still widely regarded as one of the best Eurovision songs of all time, and was the inspiration for Laura Thorn’s Luxembourgish entry in this year’s contest. Luxembourg is also one of a very small number of countries to have won the contest in consecutive years, with Anne-Marie David taking Vicky Leandros’ trophy in 1973.

Luxembourg’s fifth win came in 1983, with Corinne Hermès seeing off what is, in my opinion, one of the strongest fields Eurovision has ever seen. After this, the country began to experience something of a reversal of fortunes at the contest, culminating in four appearances in the bottom five between 1987 and 1993. Sherisse Laurence and Lara Fabian brought Luxembourg its most recent top-five appearances, finishing third and fourth respectively in 1986 and 1988.

By this time, Eurovision had implemented a relegation system to accommodate the increased number of countries wishing to participate. This meant that when Luxembourg finished among the bottom seven countries at the contest in Millstreet, the nation lost the chance to participate in 1994. In subsequent years, Luxembourg elected to stay out of the contest, citing increased costs of participation as the main reason for the absence. There was excitement in 2004 when Luxembourg appeared on a preliminary list of participating countries; however, this did not come to fruition.

Luxembourg didn’t participate in Eurovision again for thirty years. On several occasions, national broadcaster RTL was asked about the possibility of a return, and the matter was even discussed in parliament, but coming back to the contest was consistently ruled out. However, that changed in December 2022, when discussions surrounding a Luxembourgish return to Eurovision were launched by then-prime minister of Luxembourg Xavier Bettel.

On 12th May 2023, the day before the grand final of Eurovision in Liverpool, it was announced that Luxembourg would indeed return to the contest in 2024, following an absence of three decades. A national final, the Luxembourg Song Contest, was introduced, and Tali was chosen as the country’s first 21st-century representative the following January, with the song “Fighter”. The first Luxembourgish entry since the introduction of televoting, “Fighter” qualified for the grand final and just made it on to the left-hand side of the board, finishing thirteenth.

Since the country’s return, one of the rules of the Luxembourgish national final has stated that artists are required to be Luxembourgish citizens (with exceptions made for long-term residents or those with ‘a proven connection to the Luxembourgish music scene and strong involvement with Luxembourgish culture’). This represents a bit of a change of direction for Luxembourg in Eurovision, and of course means that both Tali and this year’s representative Laura Thorn hail from Luxembourg itself, unlike many of the nation’s previous Eurovision artists.

Eurovision tradition states that the winning country is given the ‘right of first refusal’ to host the following year’s contest. As such, Luxembourg has hosted the contest on four occasions, each time in Luxembourg City. Following the country’s second consecutive victory in 1973, CLT declined to host the event again due to financial constraints, which led to the BBC stepping in and hosting the following year’s event in Brighton.

In the 1960s, Eurovision was nothing like the spectacle we are used to today. It was often held at the headquarters of the host country’s national broadcaster, as seen when it paid a visit to BBC Television Centre in 1963, and to RAI’s production centre in Naples in 1965. Luxembourg was no different in this regard; and the 1962 and 1966 contests were both held in the Villa Louvigny, a building located in the Municipal Park, a public park situated in the city centre.

Villa Louvigny as seen in 2025. (photo by the author)

Villa Louvigny was built in 1920, and served as the headquarters of CLT (predecessor of current Luxembourgish broadcaster RTL) from 1936 to 1991, when the offices were moved to a district in the north-east of the city. The building is now used by the country’s Ministry of Health, and, whilst I wasn’t able to go inside, my visit to the city wouldn’t have been complete without paying a visit to this part of Eurovision history (see above).

By the 1970s, Eurovision was visiting theatres and concert halls all over the continent, so when Luxembourg once again earned hosting rights in 1973, it seemed only natural that the contest should be held in the country’s Grand Théâtre, known then as the Nouveau Théâtre (presumably as the building had only been inaugurated nine years earlier). Eurovision returned to the theatre in 1984, when it was known as the Théâtre Municipal.

Luxembourg's Grand Théâtre (photo by the author)

The Grand Théâtre is Luxembourg City’s main performing arts venue, and plays host to a variety of drama, ballet and opera. It was renovated in 2002-2003 and can seat almost 1000 people in the main auditorium, and an additional 400 in the studio. The theatre is located in the north of the city, and I am pleased to report that I was actually able to enter the building – although unfortunately there didn’t seem to be anything happening on that particular day.

Thanks must go to my travel companions for allowing me to slightly hijack our afternoon exploring Luxembourg City, and also to you for reading all the way to the end of this post.