"Skibet skal sejle i nat" ("The ship is leaving tonight") was the Danish

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

 entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1957

Eurovision Song Contest 1957

The Eurovision Song Contest 1957 was the 2nd Eurovision Song Contest. Like the first contest, this one was still mainly a radio programme, but there was a noticeable increase in the number of people with televisions....

, performed in Danish

Danish language

Danish is a North Germanic language spoken by around six million people, principally in the country of Denmark. It is also spoken by 50,000 Germans of Danish ethnicity in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, where it holds the status of minority language...

 by Birthe Wilke

Birthe Wilke

Birthe Wilke is a popular Danish singer. She grew up in a musical family in Copenhagen's Vesterbro area.When she was in her teens, she won a talent competition at the National Scala Theatre in Copenhagen, sang as soloist with Bruno Henriksen's Orchestra at Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen, made her...

 and Gustav Winckler

Gustav Winckler

Gustav Frands Wilzeck Winckler was a popular Danish singer, composer and music publisher. He grew up in the Nørrebro district of Copenhagen and started his career as a decorator....

 and consequently the first time Danish was heard in the Eurovision.

The song was performed ninth on the night, following France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

's Paule Desjardins

Paule Desjardins

Paule Desjardins is a French singer who represented France in the Eurovision Song Contest 1957 with the song "La belle amour" which finished second with 17 points.- References :...

 with "La belle amour

La Belle Amour

"La belle amour" was the French entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1957, performed in French by Paule Desjardins.The song was performed eighth on the night, following Germany's Margot Hielscher with "Telefon, Telefon" and preceding Denmark's Birthe Wilke & Gustav Winckler with "Skibet skal sejle...

" and preceding Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

's Lys Assia

Lys Assia

Lys Assia born Rosa Mina Schärer on 3 March 1924, Rupperswil, Aargau, Switzerland) is a Swiss singer who won the first Eurovision Song Contest in 1956. When Lys Assia was a young girl she was a dancer. In 1940, however, she stood in for a female singer...

 with "L'enfant que j'étais

L'enfant que j'étais

"L'enfant que j'étais" was the Swiss entry at the Eurovision Song Contest 1957, performed in French by Lys Assia.The song was performed last on the night, following Denmark's Birthe Wilke & Gustav Winckler with "Skibet skal sejle i nat"...

". At the close of voting, it had received 10 points, placing 3rd in a field of 10.

The song is a love duet, with the singers parting before one of them takes a sea voyage on the ship of the title. Additionally, the song is famous for the kiss the duo exchanged at the end of the performance - the longest stage kiss in Contest history, made so by a stagehand omitting to signal for it to end.

While the Contest was still predominantly a radio show at the time, the conservative social mores ensured that this event has entered Eurovision folklore. Indeed, at the late 2005 Congratulations

Congratulations (Eurovision)

Congratulations: 50 Years of the Eurovision Song Contest was a television programme organised by the European Broadcasting Union to commemorate the Eurovision Song Contest's fiftieth anniversary and to determine the Contest's most popular entrant of its fifty years. It took place at Forum,...

 special, hosts Katrina Leskanich

Katrina Leskanich

Katrina Leskanich is an American singer and musician, long time resident of the United Kingdom. She is best known for being the lead singer and namesake of the pop band Katrina and the Waves.-Early life:...

 and Renars Kaupers

Renars Kaupers

Renārs Kaupers, artistic name Reynard Cowper is a Latvian pop singer and songwriter.He is the lead singer of the Latvian pop/rock band Brainstorm, which came third at the Eurovision Song Contest 2000 with their song "My Star"...

 pretended to re-enact it, only to have Wilke herself appear between them.

It was succeeded as Danish representative

Denmark in the Eurovision Song Contest

Denmark has competed in the Eurovision Song Contest from 1957 to 1966 and from 1978 to the present day and has a good record, finishing in the top three six times and winning twice. From 1967 until 1977, Denmark didn't participate in the contest....

 at the 1958 Contest

Eurovision Song Contest 1958

The Eurovision Song Contest 1958 was the third Eurovision Song Contest. The convention that the winning country from a year hosted the following year's contest was introduced in this year. France's win was their first. It was the last time to date that the United Kingdom did not enter the contest...

 by Raquel Rastenni

Raquel Rastenni

Raquel Rastenni , born Anna Rachel Rastén, was a popular Danish singer. She was born in Copenhagen, and grew up in a little apartment in the poor central part of the city. Her Jewish parents had immigrated to Denmark from Russia at the start of the 1900s...

 with "Jeg rev et blad ud af min dagbog

Jeg Rev Et Blad Ud Af Min Dagbog

"Jeg rev et blad ud af min dagbog" was the Danish entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1958, performed in Danish by Raquel Rastenni....

".