For the third time in five years the winner was France with the song "Un premier amour", composed by Claude-Henri Vic [fr], written by Roland Valade and performed by Isabelle Aubret.

Monaco placed second for the first time, while the host nation came third, resulting in French language-songs occupying all of the top three positions.

[2][5] Each country, participating through a single EBU member broadcaster, was represented by one song performed by up to two people on stage.

[21][23] The draw to determine the running order took place on 16 March 1962 in the Villa Louvigny, conducted by Delannoy and assisted by her 4-year-old son Olivier.

[25] The interval act was a performance by the French clown Achille Zavatta, in a skit as the contest's seventeenth participant representing "Zavattaland".

[21][26][27][28] The contest suffered from two power failures which impacted the broadcast of the event:[2] the first occurred during the Dutch entry, which affected the picture quality and plunged the performance into total darkness for around 30 seconds for some broadcasters;[17][29] the second occurred immediately following the French entry as the auditorium went completely dark for around 1 minutes and 30 seconds, leading to broadcasters showing "breakdown" captions on-screen as the issue was resolved and a delay in the performance of the Norwegian entry.

[17][25][29] The winner was France represented by the song "Un premier amour", composed by Claude-Henri Vic [fr], written by Roland Valade and performed by Isabelle Aubret.

[34] Monaco's François Deguelt, who had previously come third in 1960, became the first of only five artists who have placed second and third in the contest without having won, alongside the UK's Cliff Richard, Germany's Katja Ebstein, Malta's Chiara Siracusa and Serbia's Željko Joksimović.

[42] 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.