Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster Nederlandse Televisie Stichting (NTS), the contest, originally known as the Grand Prix Eurovision de la Chanson Européenne 1958 (English: Grand Prix of the Eurovision Song Contest 1958[1]) was held on Wednesday 12 March 1958 at the AVRO Studios in Hilversum, the Netherlands and hosted by Dutch television presenter Hannie Lips.

The winner of the contest was France, represented by the song "Dors mon amour" performed by André Claveau, marking the first of five eventual wins for the country.

[4][5] Although they had won in 1957, the Netherlands' did not receive automatic rights to host the contest, as the convention in place at the time specified that each broadcaster would stage the event in turns.

[6] The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) had been the first choice to stage the event in the United Kingdom, but gave up the rights after failing to reach agreement with artistic unions.

[2][21] No significant changes to the rules of the 1957 contest were implemented; each country, participating through one EBU member broadcaster, was represented by one song performed by up to two people on stage.

[24] In addition, after the first five songs, the Metropole Orkest performed the "Wedding Dance" from the Symphonic Suite "Hasseneh" by Jacques Press [nl] as an interval act to give the juries a break to deliberate.

[9][16][26] The winner was France represented by the song "Dors mon amour", composed by Pierre Delanoë, written by Hubert Giraud and performed by André Claveau.

[29][30][31][32][33] The song has been covered by several artists, including Dean Martin, Dalida and Gipsy Kings, and many new versions with lyrics in different languages have been produced.

Broadcasters were able to send commentators to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language and to relay information about the artists and songs to their television viewers.