Italy's Gigliola Cinquetti won the 1964 Eurovision contest at age 16, setting a youngest-winner record that stood for 22 years.
Key Facts
- Edition
- 9th Eurovision Song Contest
- Winning song
- Non ho l'età by Gigliola Cinquetti (Italy)
- Winner's age
- 16 years and 92 days
- Margin of victory
- Nearly three times runner-up's points
- Participating countries
- 16
- Venue
- Tivolis Koncertsal, Copenhagen
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
Denmark earned hosting rights after Grethe and Jørgen Ingmann won the 1963 Eurovision Song Contest with 'Dansevise', obligating broadcaster Danmarks Radio to organise the following year's competition. Sixteen broadcasters entered, with Portugal debuting and Sweden abstaining.
On 21 March 1964, the Eurovision Song Contest was held at Tivolis Koncertsal in Copenhagen, hosted by Lotte Wæver. Italy's entry 'Non ho l'età', performed by 16-year-old Gigliola Cinquetti and written by Nicola Salerno and Mario Panzeri, won by an exceptionally wide margin, accumulating nearly three times the points of the runner-up.
Cinquetti became the youngest Eurovision winner on record, a title she held until 1986. The contest also became one of only two editions, alongside 1956, for which no complete video recordings survive, leaving a significant gap in the audiovisual archive of the event.
Work
Non ho l'età
The song's landslide victory made Cinquetti the youngest Eurovision winner in the contest's history at the time, a record that endured for over two decades and drew wide international attention to the competition.