Editing Eurovision Song Contest 1969 (section)

== Format ==
The [[surrealist]] artist [[Salvador Dalí]] designed the publicity material for the contest. The stage featured a metal sculpture created by surrealist artist {{ill|Amadeo Gabino|es}}.{{efn|After the contest, TVE moved the sculpture to the garden at its premises in [[Prado del Rey (studios)|Prado del Rey]], where it has remained ever since.}} The musical director of the event was [[Augusto Algueró]], who made the arrangements and conducted the orchestra during the opening and ending acts. The show opened with a rendition of the [[Te Deum (Charpentier)|Eurovision tune]] by the Teatro Real organ, followed by the orchestra performing the previous year's winning song, "La, la, la". The interval act consisted of a surrealist documentary titled {{lang|es|La España diferente}}, directed by [[Javier Aguirre (director)|Javier Aguirre]], with music by [[Luis de Pablo]]. The show ended with the orchestra performing a medley of previous Eurovision winning songs during the credits.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.diariodejerez.es/television/Medio-siglo-rara-victoria-Salome-Eurovision-video_0_1353764943.html|title=Medio siglo de la rara victoria de Salomé|newspaper={{ill|Diario de Jerez|es}}|author=Sempere, Antonio|date=12 May 2019|language=es}}</ref>

This was the second contest to be filmed and transmitted in colour, even though TVE did not have the required colour equipment for such a big event. It had to rent colour television cameras from the [[ARD (broadcaster)|ARD]] German network, which was provided by [[Fernseh]] and brought to Madrid from Cologne.<ref>{{cite news |title=Aus der Wirtschaft |access-date=11 June 2024 |url=https://archive.org/details/funkschau-1969-heft-10/page/870/mode/2up |work={{ill|Funkschau|de}} |date=15 May 1969 |location=[[Haar, Bavaria|Haar]], [[West Germany]] |page=870 |via=Internet Archive}}</ref> In Spain itself the broadcast was seen in black and white because the local transmitters did not support colour transmissions. The colour recording equipment did not arrive in time, so TVE only had a black and white copy of the contest, until a colour copy was discovered in the archives of [[NRK]].<ref>{{Cite web|last=RTVE.es|date=2019-03-29|title=50 años de Eurovisión 1969 {{!}} La final de Eurovisión 1969: por primera vez a todo color y con los comentarios de Uribarri|url=https://www.rtve.es/television/20190329/final-eurovision-1969-primera-vez-todo-color-comentarios-uribarri/1912900.shtml|access-date=2021-05-23|website=RTVE.es|language=es}}</ref>

It was the first time that the contest resulted in a tie for first place, with four countries each gaining 18 votes. Since there was at the time no rule to cover such an eventuality, all four countries were declared joint winners. This caused an unfortunate problem concerning the medals due to be distributed to the winners as there were not enough to go round, so that only the singers received their medals on the night:<ref name=ESC1969 /> the songwriters, to some disgruntlement, were not awarded theirs until some days later{{Citation needed|date=May 2023|reason=The originally quoted source ( https://web.archive.org/web/20120606184812/http://www.eurovision.tv/page/history/by-year/contest?event=286#About%20the%20show ) says nothing about how and when the composers received their medals.}}. The medals were presented by previous year's winner, Massiel.