Kross-European Song Contest of 1970

This was the 45th edition of the contest was held in June 1970. Preparations begin in June 1969 as to not allow the fiasco of 1968 to happen again. Kross Company again collaborated with RECORDZA and EmbeX for the edition of the contest. A Canadian company began sponsoring the production while having a TV station broadcast it there. Kiana Ratz returned but as the assistant executive producer with help from Felix Dahlman but Krystal Gales (assistant from 1968 and producer from 1962-1967) was hired as the Executive producer.

Due to rising tensions in Arab-Israeli War, many countries withdrew: Lebanon, Algeria, Egypt, Tunisia, Turkey and Libya. some state they also left due to bad scores in recent years (see Lebanon, Libya and Algeria), disagreement with management (see Turkey) and poor funding (see most of them). The only majority Muslim countries to stay was the European country of Albania and the African country, Morocco. Liechtenstein also withdrew due to financial reasons. Luxembourg was set to withdraw due to financial reasons as well but rejoined due to adequate funding by France. France itself withdrew with many management in the delegation and available artists moving to the United States to help support the withdrawal from Vietnam campaign along with other projects in general. People believe this is the biggest withdrawal of countries (8 total) since the Great Depression hit in 1932 or after the Second World War in 1945.

The contest would start on Tuesday 26th May 1970 with the first semi final, continue through to Thursday 28th May 1970. with the second semi final and end with the grand final on Saturday 30th May 1970.

With Czechoslovakia winning the previous edition, many were worried that the protests in Prague would become a problem. Nevertheless, Prague was selected to host the event.

Grouping
There would be six groups of six participants each. Group S would go straight to the final. Normally the straight-to-final participants included the big three of France, Netherlands and the United Kingdom; the host country and two guests, usually Switzerland and Italy. With France's withdrawal, the 6th member was unclear. Germany was a candidate because of it's large population but depending on which side was selected, would anger the other. Australia was selected as it was very far away and had a large land mass and different music industry.

Awards
Bekaert Awards