Eurovision Song

Contest

The Eurovision Song Contest (French:

Concours Eurovision de la chanson)[1] is
an annual international song
competition, held every year by the
Eurovision broadcasting organisation
since 1956 (with the exception of 2020),
with participants representing primarily
European countries. Each participating
country submits an original song to be
performed on live television and radio,
then casts votes for the other
countries' songs to determine the
winner. At least 50 countries are
eligible to compete as of 2019;[2] since
2015, Australia has been allowed as a
contestant.[3][4][5][6]
 Eurovision Song Contest

Also known as Eurovision

ESC

Genre Song contest

Created by EBU ad-hoc committee

led by Marcel
Bezençon

Based on Sanremo Music Festival

Presented by List of presenters

Composer(s) Various

Country of origin List of countries

Original language(s) English and French
No. of episodes 64 contests
92 live shows

Production

Production location(s) List of host cities

Running time ~2 hours (semi-finals)

~4 hours (finals)

Production company(s) European Broadcasting

Union

Distributor Eurovision

Release

Picture format 4:3 576i (SDTV) (1956–

99)
 16:9 576i (SDTV) (1999-
present)
1080i (HDTV) (2006–
present)
Original release 24 May 1956

Chronology

Related shows Eurovision Song Contest

Previews (UK: 1971–
1994)
Eurovision Young
Musicians (1982–
present)
Eurovision Young
Dancers (1985–2017)
 Junior Eurovision Song
Contest (2003–
present)
Eurovision Dance
Contest (2007–2008)
Eurovision Magic Circus
Show (2010–2012)
Eurovision Choir (2017–
present)
Eurovision: Europe Shine
a Light (2020)
Eurovision Asia Song
Contest

External links
 Eurovision.tv
Production website

Based on the Sanremo Music Festival

held in Italy since 1951, Eurovision had
been broadcasting every year from its
inauguration in 1956 until 2019, due to
the cancellation of the 2020 edition,
making it the longest-running annual
international television contest[7] and
one of the world's longest-running
television programmes. The
programme had been held every year
for 64 years before the Eurovision
Song Contest 2020 was cancelled due
to the COVID-19 pandemic.[8] It is also
one of the most watched non-sporting
events,[9] with audience figures of
between 100 million and 600 million
internationally.[10][11] It has been
broadcast in several countries that do
not compete, such as the United
States, Canada, New Zealand, and
China. Since 2000, it has been
broadcast online via the Eurovision
website.[12]
Ireland holds the record for most
victories, with seven wins, including
four times in five years in 1992, 1993,
1994, and 1996. Under the current
voting system, in place since 2016, the
highest-scoring winner is Salvador
Sobral of Portugal who won the 2017
contest in Kiev, Ukraine, with 758
points; under the previous system, the
highest-scoring winner was Alexander
Rybak of Norway with 387 points in
2009. The most recent winner is
Duncan Laurence from the Netherlands
who won the 2019 event with the song
"Arcade". Winning the Eurovision Song
Contest provides artists with a local
career boost and sometimes long-
lasting international success.[13] Some
of them include ABBA (winners for
Sweden), Bucks Fizz and Lulu (winners
for the United Kingdom), Celine Dion
(winner for Switzerland), Johnny Logan
(who won the contest twice for
Ireland), Dana International (for Israel)
and Lena (who won for Germany).

Origins and history

As a war-torn Europe was rebuilding
itself in the 1950s, the European
Broadcasting Union (EBU) – based in
Switzerland – set up an ad hoc
committee to search for ways of
bringing together the countries of the
EBU around a "light entertainment
programme".[14] At a committee
meeting held in Monaco in January 1955
with Marcel Bezençon of the Swiss
television as chairman, the committee
conceived the idea (initially proposed
by Sergio Pugliese of the Italian
broadcaster RAI) of an international
song contest where countries would
participate in one television programme
to be transmitted simultaneously
across all countries of the union.[14][15]
The competition was based upon the
existing Sanremo Music Festival held in
Italy[16] and was seen as a
technological experiment in live
television. In those days it was a very
ambitious project to join many
countries together in a wide-area
international network. Satellite
television did not exist and the
Eurovision Network comprised a
terrestrial microwave network.[17] The
concept, then known as "Eurovision
Grand Prix", was approved by the EBU
General Assembly in a meeting held in
Rome on 19 October 1955, and it was
decided that the first contest would
take place in spring 1956 in Lugano,
Switzerland.[14] The name "Eurovision"
was first used in relation to the EBU's
network by British journalist George
Campey in the London Evening
Standard in 1951.[15]
The first contest was held in the town
of Lugano, Switzerland, on 24 May
1956. Seven countries participated—
each submitting two songs, for a total
of 14. This was the only contest in
which more than one song per country
was performed: since 1957 all contests
have allowed one entry per country.
The 1956 contest was won by the host
nation, Switzerland.[18]

The 2020 edition was cancelled due to

the COVID-19 pandemic.
Naming E…

The contest was first known as the

"Eurovision Grand Prix" (in English). This
"Grand Prix" name was adopted by
Germany, Denmark, Norway and the
Francophone countries, with the French
designation being Le Grand-Prix
Eurovision de la Chanson
Européenne.[19] The "Grand Prix" was
dropped in 1973 and replaced with
Concours (contest) in French and in
2001 with the English name in German,
but not in Danish or Norwegian. The
Eurovision network is used to carry
many news and sports programmes
internationally, among other specialised
events organised by the EBU.[20]
However, in the minds of the public, the
name "Eurovision" is most closely
associated with the Song Contest.[17]
 Of
Other
Year(s) English French l
languages
lan

1956– Eurovision
N/A Fre
1964 Song
Contest Grand Prix
Gran
Grand Eurovision
Premio
Prix de la
1965 Eurovisione Ital
Chanson
della
Européenne
Canzone
1966 N/A Fre

1967 Grand Prix Fre

Eurovision
 de la
Chanson
1968 Eurovision Eng
Song Festival de
Contest Grand Prix la Canción
1969 Spa
de la de
Chanson Eurovisión
1970–
Eng
1972

1973 Concours N/A Fre

1974– Eurovision
de la Eng
1975
Chanson
Eurovisie
1976 Dut
Songfestival
1977 N/A Eng

1978 Fre

‫תחרות‬
1979 ‫הזמר של‬ He
‫האירוויזיון‬

Eurovisie
1980 Dut
Songfestival
1981– N/A
Eng
1983

1984 Fre

1985–
Eng
1986

1987 Fre
1988 Eng

1989 Fre

1990 Eng

Concorso
Eurovisione
1991 Ital
della
Canzone
1992–
N/A Eng
2020

Format
The format of the contest has changed
over the years, though the basic tenets
have always been thus: participant
countries submit original songs,
performed live on a television
programme broadcast across the
Eurovision Network by the EBU
simultaneously to all countries.[21] A
"country" as a participant is
represented by one television
broadcaster from that country:
typically, but not always, that country's
national public broadcasting
organisation. The programme is hosted
by one of the participant countries, and
the programme is broadcast from the
auditorium in the host city. During this
programme, after all the songs have
been performed, the countries then
proceed to cast votes for the other
countries' songs: nations are not
allowed to vote for their own song.[22]
At the end of the programme, the song
with the most points is declared as the
winner. The winner receives, simply,
the prestige of having won—although it
is usual for a trophy to be awarded to
the winning songwriters, and the
winning country is formally invited to
host the event the following year.[18]
The programme is invariably opened
by one or more presenters, welcoming
viewers to the show. Between the
songs and the announcement of the
voting, an interval act is performed.

As national broadcasters join and leave

the Eurovision feed transmitted by the
EBU, the EBU/Eurovision network logo
ident (not to be confused with the song
contest logo) is displayed. The
accompanying theme music (used on
other Eurovision broadcasts) is the
prelude to Marc-Antoine Charpentier's
Te Deum.[15] Originally, the same logo
was used for both the Eurovision
network and the European
Broadcasting Union, however, they now
have two different logos; when the
ident is transmitted, it is the Eurovision
network logo that appears.

Participation
Eligible participants include primarily
Active Members (as opposed to
Associate Members) of the EBU.
Active members are those who are
located in states that fall within the
European Broadcasting Area, or are
member states of the Council of
Europe.[23]

The European Broadcasting Area is

defined by the International
Telecommunication Union:[24]

The "European Broadcasting

Area" is bounded on the west
by the western boundary of
Region 1, on the east by the
meridian 40° East of Greenwich
and on the south by the parallel
30° North so as to include the
northern part of Saudi Arabia
and that part of those
countries bordering the
Mediterranean within these
limits. In addition, Armenia,
Azerbaijan, Georgia and
Ukraine and those parts of the
territories of Iraq, Jordan and
Syrian Arab Republic lying
outside the above limits are
included in the European
Broadcasting Area.[a]
The western boundary of Region 1 is
defined by a line running from the
North Pole along meridian 10° West of
Greenwich to its intersection with
parallel 72° North; thence by great
circle arc to the intersection of
meridian 50° West and parallel 40°
North; thence by great circle arc to the
intersection of meridian 20° West and
parallel 10° South; thence along
meridian 20° West to the South Pole.[26]
Active members include media
organisations, whose broadcasts are
often made available to at least 98% of
households in their own country which
are equipped to receive such
transmissions.[23]

If an EBU Active Member wishes to

participate they must fulfil conditions
as laid down by the rules of the
contest. A separate copy is drafted
annually. As of 2015, this included the
necessity to have broadcast the
previous year's programme within their
country. After Russia's withdrawal
from the 2017 event in Ukraine, and
Channel 1 Russia's refusal to air the
event, there is some confusion as to
whether this rule still exists. C1R did
enter a song in 2018, which was voted
out of the competition at the semi-
final.[27]

A common misconception is that

Eurovision participants have to be from
Europe. However, that's not true, any
full EBU member is eligible for
participation.[28] Furthermore, associate
members are eligible for participation
since Eurovision 2017, as long as the
Eurovision Reference Group approves it
(on a case-by-case basis).[29] As of
2019, Australia is the only associate
member to have participated.

The broadcaster must have paid the

EBU a participation fee in advance of
the deadline specified in the rules of
the contest for the year in which they
wish to participate.[30]

Eligibility to participate is not

determined by geographic inclusion
within the continent of Europe, despite
the "Euro" in "Eurovision" – nor does it
have any relation to the European
Union. Several countries geographically
outside the boundaries of Europe have
competed: Israel, Cyprus and Armenia
in Western Asia (Cyprus is a member
of the Council of Europe and a member
state of the European Union), since
1973, 1981 and 2006 respectively;
Australia since 2015[31] and Morocco, in
North Africa, in the 1980 competition
alone. In addition, several
transcontinental countries with only
part of their territory in Europe have
competed: Turkey, since 1975; Russia,
since 1994; Georgia, since 2007; and
Azerbaijan, which made its first
appearance in the 2008 edition.[32]

Participation since 1956:

   Entered at least once
   Never entered, although eligible to do so
   Entry intended, but later withdrew
Competed as a part of another country but
    Competed as a part of another country, but
never as a sovereign country

Cities that have hosted the Eurovision Song

Contest (as of 2019).[b]

Fifty-two countries have participated at

least once.[33] These are listed here
alongside the year in which they made
their début:
 Country Country C
Year making its Year making its Year m
debut entry debut entry de

1956    Belgium 1971    Malta 2000    L

   France 1973    Israel 2003    U

   Germanya 1974    Greece 2004    A

   Italy 1975    Turkey    A

  1980    Morocco    B
 Luxembourg 1981    Cyprus    S
  1986    Iceland and
 Netherlands Mo
1993    Bosnia
  and 2005    B
  Switzerland
1957    Austria Herzegovina    M

   Denmark    Croatia 2006    A

   United    Slovenia 2007    C

Kingdom 1994    Estonia Re

1958    Sweden    Hungary    G

1959    Monaco    Lithuania  

 Mo
1960    Norway    Poland
   S
1961    Finland    Romania
2008  
   Spain    Russia
 Az
     Slovakia
   S
 Yugoslaviab
1998    North Ma
1964    Portugal Macedoniac
2015    A
1965    Ireland
a) Before German reunification in 1990
Germany was presented once as 'West
Germany' (at the 1976 contest). East
Germany (the German Democratic
Republic) never competed. At all other
contests the country was presented as
'Germany' (and in 1967 as the 'Federal
Republic of Germany').
b) The entries presented as being from
"Yugoslavia" represented the Socialist
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, except
for the 1992 entry, which represented
the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
This nation dissolved in 1991/92 into five
independent states: Slovenia, Croatia,
North Macedonia (as
Macedonia/FYROM), Bosnia and
Herzegovina and the Federal Republic
of Yugoslavia. The Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia reconstituted itself as
Serbia and Montenegro in 2003—
entered the contest in 2004—and
finally dissolved in 2006, making two
separate states: Serbia and
Montenegro; both of which made their
début in the contest in 2007, the winner
that year being Serbia.
c) Before the Prespa agreement in
2018 presented as Former Yugoslav
Republic of Macedonia.
d) The participation of Australia was
intended to be a one-off event to
commemorate the 60th anniversary of
the Contest unless they won in 2015 in
which case they would have been
allowed to defend their crown in 2016.
However it was revealed in May 2015
that Australia might become a
permanent participant following some
reports by Jon Ola Sand to the
Swedish broadcaster.[34] In November
 2015, the EBU announced that Australia
would return in 2016 and after this the
country would become an effective
participant in the contest.

Hosting

Opening act in Düsseldorf in 2011

 

Eurovision Song Contest in Copenhagen 2014

Most of the expense of the contest is

covered by commercial sponsors and
contributions from the other
participating nations. The contest is
considered to be a unique opportunity
for promoting the host country as a
tourist destination. In the summer of
2005, Ukraine abolished its normal visa
requirement for visitors from the EU to
coincide with its hosting of the
event.[35]

Preparations for the event start a

matter of weeks after the host wins in
the previous year, and confirms to the
EBU that they intend to—and have the
capacity to—host the event.[36] A host
city is chosen—often a national or
regional capital city—and a suitable
concert venue is identified. The two
largest concert venues were Parken in
Copenhagen (which held approximately
38,000 people when Denmark hosted in
2001[18]) and the Esprit Arena in
Düsseldorf (which held approximately
36,500 people when Germany hosted in
2011). The smallest town to have been
hosts was Millstreet in County Cork,
Ireland, in 1993. The village had a
population of 1,500[37]—although the
Green Glens Arena venue could hold
up to 8,000 people.[38]

The hotel and press facilities in the

vicinity are always a consideration
when choosing a host city and
venue.[39] In Kiev 2005, hotel rooms
were scarce as the contest organisers
asked the Ukrainian government to put
a block on bookings they did not
control themselves through official
delegation allocations or tour packages:
this led to many people's hotel
bookings being cancelled.[40]

Host country E…

After the first two contests were

hosted by Switzerland and Germany, it
was decided that henceforth the
winning country would host the contest
the next year.[18] The winner of the
1957 contest was the Netherlands, and
Dutch television accepted the
responsibility of hosting in 1958. In all
but five of the years since this rule has
been in place, the winning country has
hosted the show the following year.
The exceptions are:

1960—hosted by the BBC in London

when the Netherlands declined due to
expense. The UK was chosen to host
because it had come second in 1959.[41]
1963—hosted by the BBC in London
when France declined due to expense,
as did second- and third-placed
Monaco and Luxembourg when offered
hosting duties.[41]
1972—hosted by the BBC in Edinburgh
when Monaco was unable to provide a
suitable venue: Monegasque television
invited the BBC to take over due to its
previous experience.[41]
1974—hosted by the BBC in Brighton
when Luxembourg declined due to
expense. The BBC was becoming
known as the host by default, if the
winning country declined (though 1980
was an exception).[42]
1980—hosted by the NOS in The Hague
when Israel declined due to expense,
having staged the 1979 event in
Jerusalem, and the fact that the date
chosen for the contest (19 April) was
Israel's Remembrance Day that year.
The Dutch offered to host the contest
after several other broadcasters
(including the BBC) were unwilling to
do so.[41] The reluctance of those
national broadcasters to stage the
contest were due to already having
 hosted the event during the past
couple of years, in addition to the
expense involved.

With the invitation of Australia to

participate since 2015, it was
announced that due to the logistical
and financial issues that would occur if
Australia were to host,[43] in the event
of an Australian victory, the
broadcaster SBS will co-host the next
contest in a European city in
collaboration with an EBU member
broadcaster of their choice.[44]
However, this has yet to happen and
since 1981, all contests have been held
in the country which won the previous
year.

Eurovision logo and theme E…

Logo used in 2004–14

The original generic logo was

introduced for the 2004 contest, to
create a consistent visual identity. The
host country's flag appears in the heart
of the generic logo. Each year of the
contest, the host country creates a
sub-theme which is usually
accompanied and expressed with a
sub-logo and slogan. The theme and
slogan are announced by the EBU and
the host country's national broadcaster.

The generic logo was revamped in

2014, ten years after the first generic
logo was created. The revamped logo
was conducted by lead designer
Cornelis Jacobs and his team of
Cityzen Agency.[45] The logo was used
for the first time in the 2015 contest,
the 60th edition of the contest.

Slogans E…

Beginning with the 2002 contest, a

slogan has been associated with each
contest (except in 2009). The slogan is
decided by the host broadcaster and is
then used to develop a visual design
for the contest. A slogan was also
selected for the 2020 contest before
its cancellation.
Year Host country Host city Slogan

2002    Estonia Tallinn A Modern Fairytale

2003    Latvia Riga Magical Rendezvous

2004    Turkey Istanbul Under the Same Sky

2005    Ukraine Kiev Awakening

2006    Greece Athens Feel the Rhythm!

2007    Finland Helsinki True Fantasy

2008    Serbia Belgrade Confluence of Sound

2010    Norway Oslo Share the Moment

2011    Germany Düsseldorf Feel Your Heart Beat!

2012    Azerbaijan Baku Light Your Fire!

2013    Sweden Malmö We Are One

2014    Denmark Copenhagen #JoinUs

2015    Austria Vienna Building Bridges

2016    Sweden Stockholm Come Together

2017    Ukraine Kiev Celebrate Diversity

2018    Portugal Lisbon All Aboard!

2019    Israel Tel Aviv Dare to Dream

2020    Netherlands Rotterdam Open Up

2021    Netherlands Rotterdam Open Up

Eurovision Week E…
The term "Eurovision Week" is used to
refer to the week during which the
Contest takes place.[46] As it is a live
show, the Eurovision Song Contest
requires the performers to have
perfected their acts in rehearsals for
the programme to run smoothly. In
addition to rehearsals in their home
countries, every participant is given the
opportunity to rehearse on the stage in
the Eurovision auditorium. These
rehearsals are held during the course
of several days before the Saturday
show, and consequently the
delegations arrive in the host city many
days before the event. Journalists and
fans are also present during the
preceding days, and so the events of
Eurovision last a lot longer than a few
hours of television.[47] A number of
officially accredited hotels are
selected for the delegations to stay in,
and shuttle-bus services are used to
transport the performers and
accompanying people to and from the
contest venue.[48]
Each participating broadcaster
nominates a Head of Delegation, whose
job it is to co-ordinate the movements
of the delegate members, and who
acts as that country's representative
to the EBU in the host city.[49] Members
of the delegations include performers,
lyricists, composers, official press
officers and—in the years where songs
were performed with a live orchestra—
a conductor. Also present if desired is a
commentator: each broadcaster may
supply their own commentary for their
TV and/or radio feed, to be broadcast
in each country. The commentators are
given dedicated commentary booths
situated around the back of the arena
behind the audience.[50]

Rehearsals and press conferences E…

Lena, representing Germany, performing

Satellite during a rehearsal in 2010
Since 2004, the first rehearsals have
commenced on the Sunday almost two
weeks before the Grand Final. There
are two rehearsal periods for each
country. The countries taking part in
the semi-finals have their first
rehearsal over four days from the first
Sunday to Wednesday. The second is
from Thursday to Sunday. The
countries which have already directly
qualified for the Grand Final rehearse
on the Saturday and Sunday.[51]
 

Switzerland hosting a press conference at

Eurovision 2006

After each country has rehearsed, the

delegation meets with the show's
production team in the viewing room.
Here, they watch the footage of the
rehearsal just performed. At this point
the Delegation may make known any
special requirements or changes
needed for the performance, and
request them to the host broadcaster.
Following this meeting, the delegation
hold a press conference where
members of the accredited press may
pose them questions.[52] The rehearsals
and press conferences are held in
parallel; so one country holds its press
conference, while the next one is in the
auditorium rehearsing. A printed
summary of the questions and
answers which emerge from the press
conferences is produced by the host
press office, and distributed to
journalists' pigeon-holes.[53] However,
for the 2020 contest in Rotterdam,
pigeon holes will not be used, in an
effort to modernise the exchange of
information.[54]

Before each of the semi-finals three

dress rehearsals are held. Two
rehearsals are held the day before
(one in the afternoon and the other in
the evening), while the third is held on
the afternoon of the live event. Since
tickets to the live shows are often
scarce, tickets are also sold so the
public may attend these dress
rehearsals.

The same applies for the final, with two

rehearsals on the Friday and the third
on Saturday afternoon before the live
transmission of the grand final on
Saturday evening.[52] For both semi-
finals and for the final, the second
dress rehearsal is also the Jury Final,
this is where the jury from each
country casts their votes. This means
that 50% of the result is already
decided before the live contests have
taken place.[51]

Parties and Euroclub E…

The "Euroclub" in Baku, 2012

On the Monday evening of Eurovision

Week, a Mayor's Reception is
traditionally held, where the city
administration hosts a celebration that
Eurovision has come to their city. This is
usually held in a grand municipally
owned location in the city centre. All
delegations are invited, and the party is
usually accompanied by live music,
complimentary food and drink and—in
recent years—fireworks.[55]

After the semi-final and grand final

there are after-show parties, held
either in a facility in the venue complex
or in another suitable location within
the city.[56]
A Euroclub is held every night of the
week: this is a Eurovision-themed
nightclub, to which all accredited
personnel are invited.[57]

During the week many delegations

have traditionally hosted their own
parties in addition to the officially
sponsored ones. However, in the new
millennium the trend has been for the
national delegations to centralise their
activity and hold their celebrations in
the Euroclub.[57]
Rules
Numerous detailed rules must be
observed by the participating nations,
and a new version is produced each
year, for instance the rules specify
various deadlines, including the date by
which all the participating broadcasters
must submit the final recorded version
of their song to the EBU. The rules also
cover sponsorship agreements and
rights of broadcasters to re-transmit
the show. The most notable rules
which affect the format and
presentation of the contest have
changed over the years, and are
highlighted here.

Live music E…

All vocals must be sung live; no voices

are permitted on the backing tracks.[22]
In 1999, the Croatian song performed by
Doris Dragović and composed by Tonči
Huljić featured sounds on their backing
track which sounded suspiciously like
human voices. The Croatian delegation
stated that there were no human
voices, but only digitally synthesised
sounds which replicated vocals. The
EBU nevertheless decided that they
had broken the spirit of the rules, and
docked them 33% of their points total
that year for the purpose of calculating
their five-year points average for
future qualification.[58]

From 1956 until 1998, the host country

was required to provide a live
orchestra. Before 1973, all music had to
be played by the host orchestra. From
1973 onwards, pre-recorded, non-vocal
backing tracks were permitted—
although the host country was still
obliged to provide a live orchestra to
give participants a choice. If a backing
track was used, then all the
instruments heard on the track were
required to be present on the stage. In
1997 this requirement was dropped.[41]

In 1999 the requirement for a live

orchestra was removed: it was left as
an optional contribution.[59] The host
that year, Israel's IBA, decided not to
use an orchestra to save expenses,
and thus 1999 was the first year when
all the songs were played as pre-
recorded backing tracks (in conjunction
with live vocals).[60]

Language E…

Each submission must have vocals;

purely instrumental music has never
been allowed. In the past, competitors
have been required to sing in one of
their own national languages, but this
rule has been changed several times
over the years. From 1956 until 1965,
there was no rule restricting the
languages in which the songs could be
sung. In 1966, a rule was imposed
stating that the songs must be
performed in one of the official
languages of the country participating,
after Sweden was the first country to
not sing in their own language, with
opera singer Ingvar Wixell performing
Sweden's 1965 entry in English.[18] The
Swedish-language version of the song
was originally selected at
Melodifestivalen 1965, but it was later
translated into English for the
Eurovision contest.
The language restriction continued until
1973, when performers were again
allowed to sing in any language they
wished.[61] Several winners in the mid-
1970s took advantage of this:
performers from non-English-speaking
countries sang in English, including
ABBA in 1974. In 1977, the EBU decided
to revert to the national language
restriction. However, special
dispensation was given to Germany
and Belgium as their national selections
had already taken place before the
decision was made; both countries'
entries that year were in English.[62] In
1999, the rule was changed again to
allow the choice of language once
more, which resulted in 12 out of 23
countries, including the United Kingdom,
singing in English that year.[58] Belgium
entered the 2003 contest with
"Sanomi", a song sung in a constructed
language,[63] finishing in second place.
In 2006, the Dutch entry,
"Amambanda", was sung partly in
English and partly in an artificial
language.[63] In 2008, the Belgian entry,
"O Julissi", was sung in an artificial
language.[63] In 2011, the Norwegian
entry, "Haba Haba", which was sung in
English and Swahili, was the second
song to be sung in an African language,
after Arabic.[64]

Since the language rule was abolished

in 1999, songs in English have become
increasingly common. In 2016, all but
three out of 36 semi-finalists had songs
in English, with only two (Bosnia and
Herzegovina and Macedonia)
performing songs in their native
languages, as Austria sent a song in
French. In the final, all but three out of
26 contestants had songs in English.
After Salvador Sobral's win in 2017
with a Portuguese-language song, the
2018 edition saw a significant increase
in the use of native languages, with
twelve of 43 participants singing in
their country's native language (not
including Estonia, whose representative
opted to sing in Italian).[65] In 2019, nine
of the songs were performed totally in
different languages, while four others
mixed English with their native
languages.[66]
There is a language rule for the hosts.
At least one of them must be able to
speak French.

Voting E…

The voting system used in the contest

has changed over the years. The
current system has been in place since
2016, and is a positional voting system.
Each country awards two sets of 12, 10,
8–1 points to their 10 favourite songs:
one from their professional jury of
votes of five music professionals and
the other from televoting.[67]

Historically, a country's votes were

decided by an internal jury, but in 1997
five countries (Austria, Switzerland,
Germany, Sweden and the United
Kingdom) experimented with
televoting, giving members of the
public in those countries the
opportunity to vote en masse for their
favourite songs. The experiment was a
success,[41] and from 1998 onwards all
countries were encouraged to use
televoting wherever possible. Back-up
juries are still used by each country, in
the event of a televoting failure.
Nowadays members of the public may
also vote by SMS, in addition to
televoting. In every case, every
country cannot vote for its own song[68]
From 2013, the public may also vote via
a mobile app.[69][70]

The current method for ranking entries,

introduced in 2016, is to sum together
the points calculated from the
telephone vote and the jury
separately.[67] Prior to this, the jury and
televoting rankings were combined
50/50 before the number of points
were calculated.[71] It was first used in
the final of the 2009 edition, and
extended the following year to the
semi-finals.[72][73] According to one
study of Eurovision voting patterns,
certain countries tend to form
"clusters" or "cliques" by frequently
voting in the same way.[74]

Scrutineers and executive supervisors E…

Since 1964 the voting has been
presided over by the EBU scrutineer,
who is responsible for ensuring that all
points are allocated correctly and in
turn. Since 2011, the Executive
Supervisor was supported by an Event
Supervisor, to oversee and coordinate
all event-related matters on behalf of
the EBU. Sietse Bakker served in the
role for the first six years, replaced by
Nadja Burkhardt.[75]

The following are the scrutineers and

Executive Supervisors of the Eurovision
Song Contest appointed by the EBU:[75]

Country Name Year(s) Contests

    Switzerland Rolf Liebermann 1956–1963 8

   Yugoslavia Miroslav Vilček 1964–1965 2

   United Kingdom Clifford Brown 1966–1977 12

    Switzerland Frank Naef 1978–1992 15

   Denmark Christian Clausen 1993–1995 3

Christine Marchal-Ortiz 1996, 1998–2002 6

   France
Marie-Claire Vionnet 1997 1

   United Kingdom Sarah Yuen 2003 1

   Sweden Svante Stockselius 2004–2010 7

   Norway Jon Ola Sand 2011–2020 9 (1 cancelled)

   Sweden Martin Österdahl[76] 2021– TBD

Presentation of votes E…

l i b d h
Electronic scoreboard, as Johnny Logan
announces the Irish votes in 2004

After the interval act is over, when all

the points have been calculated, the
presenter(s) of the show call upon
each voting country in turn to invite
them to announce the results of their
vote. Prior to 1994 the announcements
were made over telephone lines; with
the audio being piped into the
auditorium for the audience to hear,
and over the television transmission.
However, since and including 1994 the
announcements have been presented
visually. Often the opportunity is taken
by each country to show their
spokesperson standing in front of a
backdrop which includes a famous
place in that country. For example, the
French spokesperson might be seen
standing in front of the Eiffel Tower or
an Italian presenter might be seen with
the Colosseum in the background.

From 1994 to 1999, some countries did

not have their spokesperson in front of
a backdrop of a famous place, instead
opting to show the spokesperson in the
studio or in a famous building, for
example when Malta presented their
votes from a hotel in the country in
1995, or have them standing behind a
blurred image of the famous building or
skyline. From the 2000s, new
technology meant that the
spokespersons could be standing
behind a live video of a famous place in
that country. There have also been
occasions where the backdrop of the
spokesperson is not a still image or
video, but instead is a slideshow of
multiple shots of many of that
country's famous buildings.

From 1957 to 1962, the participating

countries were called in reverse order
of the presentation of their songs, and
from 1963 to 2003, they were called in
the same order in which their songs
had been presented (except for 1974).
Since 2004, when semi-finals were
introduced, the order of the countries'
announcements of votes has changed;
and the countries that did not make it
to the final each year could also vote.
In 2004, the countries were called in
alphabetical order (according to their
two-letter ISO codes).[77] In 2005, the
votes from the non-qualifying semi-
finalists were announced first, in their
running order on the Thursday night;
then the finalists gave their votes in
their own order of performance.
Between 2006 and 2010, like in 1974, a
separate draw was held to determine
the order in which countries would
present their votes.[78] From 2011 to
2015, the voting order was determined
by the results of a jury the day before
the final so as to create as much
suspense as possible when the votes
were revealed.[79] Since 2016, the first
country to announce their votes is the
country that hosted the previous year,
while the last country to announce
their votes is the current host.

From 1971 to 1973, each country sent

two jurors, who were present at the
contest venue (though the juries in
1972 were locked away in the Great
Hall of Edinburgh Castle) and
announced their votes as the camera
was trained on them. In 1973 one of the
Swiss jurors presented his votes with
flamboyant gestures. This system was
retired the next year.[41]

In 1956 no public votes were presented:

a closed jury simply announced that
Switzerland had won.[80] From 1957 to
1987, the points were displayed on a
physical scoreboard to the side of the
stage. As digital graphic technology
progressed, the physical scoreboards
were superseded in 1988 by an
electronic representation which could
be displayed on the TV screen at the
will of the programme's director.[81]

In 2006 the EBU decided to save time

during the broadcast—much of which
had been taken up with the
announcement of every single point—
because there was an ever-increasing
number of countries voting.[78] Since
then, votes from 1 to 7 from each
country have been displayed
automatically on screen and the
remaining points (8, 10 and 12) are read
out in ascending order by the
spokesperson, culminating with the
maximum 12 points. Countries must
announce the country names and
points in either English or French and
the scores are repeated by the
contest's presenters in the other
language. For this reason, the
expression douze points when the host
or spokesperson states the top score
in French is popularly associated with
the contest throughout the
continent.[59] Since 2016, only the name
of the top jury votegetter is announced,
with the points awarded to the other
nine countries shown in an on-screen
scoreboard during the announcement.
In addition, only the jury points are
announced by country. The televoting
results are announced in aggregate,
from the lowest-scoring country to the
highest. In the 2019 contest the
televoting results were announced in
aggregate in inverse standing order
based on the jury votes; starting with
Spain (7 points from the juries) and
culminating in Sweden (239 points from
the juries). After the winner has been
announced, the televoting points from
the country where the contest is
watched from are briefly seen on
screen.

Ties for first place E…

In 1969, four of the sixteen countries

taking part, France, Spain, the
Netherlands and the United Kingdom,
all tied for first place with 18 points
each. There was nothing in the rules to
decide an outright winner, so all four
were declared joint winners. This
caused much discontent among most
of the other participating countries, and
mass walkouts were threatened.
Finland, Norway, Sweden and Portugal
did not participate in the 1970 Contest
as a protest against the results of the
previous year. This prompted the EBU
to introduce a tie-break rule.[82][83]

The current tie-break procedure was

implemented in the 2016 contest. In the
procedure, sometimes known as a
countback, if two (or more) countries
tie, the song receiving more points from
the televote is the winner. If the songs
received the same number of televote
points, the song that received at least
one televote point from the greatest
number of countries is the winner. If
there is still a tie, a second tie-breaker
counts the number of countries who
assigned twelve televote points to
each entry in the tie. Tie-breaks
continue with ten points, eight points,
and so on until the tie is resolved. If the
tie cannot be resolved after the
number of countries which assigned
one point to the song is equal, the song
performed earlier in the running order
is declared the winner, unless the host
country performed earlier (in which
case the song performed later would
be the winner). The tie-break
procedure originally applied only to
first place ties,[22] but since 2008 has
been applied to all places.[84]

As of 2020, the only time since 1969

when two or more countries have tied
for first place on total points alone was
in 1991, when France and Sweden both
totalled 146 points. At that time, there
was no televote, and the tie break was
to determine which country had
received the most sets of twelve
points, then ten points, and so on. Both
France and Sweden had received four
sets of 12 points, but Sweden had
received more sets of 10-point scores,
they were declared the winners. Had
the current predominant tiebreaker
been in play, France would have won
instead by virtue of receiving points
from more overall countries.[41]

Broadcasting E…
Each participating broadcaster is
required to broadcast the show in its
entirety: including all songs, recap,
voting and reprise, skipping only the
interval act for advertising breaks if
they wish.[22] From 1999 onwards,
broadcasters who wished to do so
were given the opportunity to take
more advertising breaks as short, non-
essential hiatuses were introduced into
the programme.[59] Four major
interruptions or preemptions of the
contest broadcast have taken place
since 1999. The Dutch state
broadcaster pulled their broadcast of
the 2000 final to provide emergency
news coverage of a major incident, the
Enschede fireworks disaster.[85] Spain's
RTVE delayed their broadcast of the
second semi-final in the 2009 Contest,
due to the Madrid Open tennis
tournament.[86] The Albanian state
broadcaster deferred their broadcast
of the first semi-final in 2012 to provide
emergency news coverage of the Qafa
e Vishës bus accident.[87]
In 2018, Chinese broadcaster Mango TV
edited the Albanian and Irish songs out
of their broadcast of the first semi-final
for violations of Chinese broadcast
regulations. The Albanian performer
had visible tattoos, and the Irish song
featured a storyline showing vignettes
of a homosexual couple. Eurovision
terminated Mango's broadcasting rights
when the broadcaster refused to agree
to air the second semi-final and the
grand final unedited.

Archive status E…
The first edition ever of the Eurovision
Song Contest in 1956 was broadcast
live, but not recorded, so only a sound
recording of the radio transmission has
survived from the original
broadcast.[88] The ninth edition in 1964
hosted by Danmarks Radio is said to
have been recorded on tape, but a fire
reportedly destroyed the recording,
although the French TV archives holds
a copy of the contest.[89][88] Only small
portions of the original broadcast and
audio from the radio transmission have
survived.[88]
In late 2011, the EBU had begun
archiving all the contests since the first
edition in 1956 to be finalised before the
2015 Contest, for the 60th
anniversary.[90] It was later reported
that the archive is ready and will be
released on the 60th anniversary with
making the content available to
journalists in broadcast-ready formats
while also giving public accessibility to
"selected content" through the official
Eurovision website.[91]

Political recognition issues E…

In 1978, hosted in Paris only a month
after the 1978 South Lebanon conflict,
during the performance of the Israeli
entry, the Jordanian broadcaster JRTV
suspended the broadcast and showed
pictures of flowers. When it became
apparent during the later stages of the
voting sequence that Israel's song "A-
Ba-Ni-Bi" was going to win the contest,
JRTV abruptly ended the
transmission.[41] Afterwards, the
Jordanian news media refused to
acknowledge that Israel had won and
announced that the winner was
Belgium (who had actually come in 2nd
place).[92] In 1981 JRTV did not
broadcast the voting because the
name of Israel appeared on the
scoreboard.

In 2005, Lebanon intended to

participate in the contest. However,
Lebanese law does not allow
recognition of Israel, and consequently
Lebanese broadcaster Télé Liban did
not intend to transmit the Israeli entry.
The EBU informed them that such an
act would breach the rules of the
contest, and Lebanon was
subsequently forced to withdraw from
the competition. Their late withdrawal
incurred a fine, since they had already
confirmed their participation and the
deadline had passed.[93] However, the
Eurovision Song Contest albums were
still being sold in Lebanese music
stores until 2009, with the word Israel
erased from the back cover. As of
2010, the albums were banned
completely from sale.
In 2009, the song "We Don't Wanna Put
In" was selected to represent Georgia.
However, the song text was banned by
Eurovision as it was interpreted as
criticism against Prime Minister of
Russia Vladimir Putin after the Russo-
Georgian War the previous year. When
asked to change the lyrics of the song,
the Georgian broadcaster GPB
withdrew from the 2009 contest.[94]

In the 1998 contest, Dana International

was sent to compete to represent
Israel to perform the song "Diva".
International is a transgender woman
and her victory displayed the notion
that Eurovision was a place where it
was safe to be openly LGBTQ.[95]
Eurovision created a queer identity for
itself by embracing non-
heteronormative performers and their
performances. Although most of the
European public are accepting of this
identity, Russian media has had
negative reactions to some of the
openly queer productions.[95]

Other E…
In the first contest, 1956, there was a
recommended time limit of 31⁄2
minutes per song.[96] In 1957, despite
protests, Italy's song was 5:09 minutes
in duration. This led to a stricter time
limit of 3 minutes precisely.[97] Since
the three-minute time limit was
adopted in 1960, some artists have had
songs longer than three minutes, which
must be edited down to 3 minutes,
though some songs exceed that time
by a few seconds. Many of the entries
also have longer versions (including
different languages) for commercial
release, and since the 1990s, some are
released in additional remixed versions.
The EBU imposes no restrictions on the
nationalities of the performers or
songwriters. Individual broadcasters
are, however, permitted to impose their
own restrictions at their discretion.[49]
About a dozen artists have performed
more than once in the Contest
representing different countries, and
some of the winners were not born in
the country they represented.
From 1957 to 1970 (in 1956 there was
no restriction at all) only soloists and
duos were allowed on stage. From
1963, a chorus of up to three people
was permitted. Since 1971, a maximum
of six performers have been permitted
on the stage.[49]
The performance and/or lyrics of a
song "must not bring the Contest into
disrepute". No lyrics, speeches,
gestures of a political or similar nature
are permitted. No swearing or
unacceptable language is allowed,
neither are commercial messages.[22]
Prior to 1990, there was no performer
age limit. From 1990 to 2003,[98] all
performers were required to be at
least 16 years of age by the end of the
year in which the contest was held. In
2004,[99] this was amended to the
current rule, which requires all
performers to be at least 16 years of
age by the time of the contest.
Live animals are prohibited.[22]
Each artist may perform for only one
country per year.
The music and text must not have
been published or performed before 1
September of the year before the
contest is held. Many countries also
 have the additional rule that the song
shall never have been performed
before the relevant national Eurovision
Contest. Covers, reworked or sampled
versions of older songs are not
allowed.[100]

Expansion of the contest

Participants in the Eurovision Song Contest,

coloured by decade of debut
 

Regular participants in 1992. Yugoslavia is

coloured in red: 1992 was the last year in which
that nation participated under one name.

Regular participants in 1994. Changes from 1992

include the addition of Central and Eastern
European countries, and the separation of ex-
Yugoslavian states
Yugoslavian states.

The number of countries participating

has steadily grown over time, from
seven in 1956 to over 20 in the late
1980s. In 1993, twenty-five countries
participated in the competition,
including, for the first time, Bosnia-
Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovenia,
entering independently due to the
dissolution of Yugoslavia.[101] In the
most recent edition in 2019, a total of 41
countries took part, with 26 appearing
in the final.
Because the contest is a live television
programme, a reasonable time limit
must be imposed on the duration of the
show. In recent years the nominal limit
has been four hours, with the
broadcast occasionally over-running.[59]

Pre-selections and relegation E…

Since 1993, and following the cessation

of the Eastern European OIRT network
and the merger with the EBU, there
have been more entries than there is
time to reasonably include in a single
TV show. Several relegation or
qualification systems have been tried
to limit the number of countries
participating in the contest at one time.
Thus the 1993 Contest introduced two
new features: first, a pre-selection
competition was held in Ljubljana in
which seven new countries fought for
three places in the international
competition. Bosnia-Herzegovina,
Croatia, Estonia, Hungary, Romania,
Slovenia and Slovakia took part in
Kvalifikacija za Millstreet; and the
three former Yugoslav republics,
Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia and
Slovenia, qualified for a place in the
international final.[102] Also to be
introduced that year was "relegation":
the lowest-placed countries in the 1993
score table were not invited in 1994, to
allow the countries which failed the
1993 pre-selection into the 1994
Contest. The 1994 Contest included—
for the first time—Estonia, Romania,
Slovakia, Lithuania, Hungary, Poland
and Russia.[103]
Relegation continued in 1994 and
1995;[104] but in 1996 a different pre-
selection system was used, in which
nearly all the countries participated.
Audio tapes of all the songs were sent
to juries in each of the countries some
weeks before the television show.
These juries selected the songs which
would be included in the international
broadcast.[105] Norway, as the host
country in 1996 (having won the
previous year), automatically qualified
and so did not need to go through pre-
selection.
One country which failed to qualify in
the 1996 pre-selection was Germany.
As one of the largest financial
contributors to the EBU, their non-
participation in the contest brought
about a funding issue, which the EBU
would have to consider.[105]

Big Four and Big Five E…

Since 2000, France, Germany, Spain

and United Kingdom have
automatically qualified for the final,
regardless of their positions on the
scoreboard in previous contests, as
they are the four biggest financial
contributors to the EBU.[59] These
countries became known as the "Big
Four". On 31 December 2010, it was
announced that Italy would compete in
the Eurovision Song Contest after a
fourteen-year absence and that it
would also automatically qualify for
the final, joining the other four qualifiers
to become the "Big Five".[106] Germany
became the first and, as of 2019, the
only "Big Five" country to win the
contest since the rule was made in
2000, when Lena Meyer-Landrut won
the 2010 Contest. Turkey withdrew
from the 2013 Contest with the status
of the "Big Five" being one of the
reasons cited.[107] They also did not
participate in the following 6 years of
contests (2014–19) for similar reasons,
as well as stating their opposition to
the 50/50 jury and televoting system
that began being applied in the final of
the 2009 Contest.[108]

The Big Four/Five countries pay

approximately five to six times the
participation fee of a "standard"
participating country, effectively
subsidizing smaller European
broadcasters, thus allowing them to be
able to afford entry into the
competition. Without the contribution of
The Big Five it is estimated that the
participation cost for a "standard"
country would be double what they
currently pay.[109]

It is sometimes discussed whether the

Big 5 measure benefits or prejudicates
the countries' performances in the
contest. Since its creation, countries of
the Big Five have placed last in 8 of the
latest 15 contests (2003, 2005, 2008,
2010, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2019).
The only Big 5 country that has never
finished last since the introduction of
this concept is Italy: since its return in
2011, the country has been successful,
and placed in the top 10 seven times
out of 9 contests, including four times
in the top 5, a third place and twice as
the runner up; its worst place was a
21st in 2014. Some measures have
been taken by the EBU to give the Big
5 contestants a similar status to those
competing at the semi-finals, such as
broadcasting extended snippets of
their acts in the semi-final interval.

Qualification and semi-finals E…

Each country's qualification rates from 2004 to

present
From 1997 to 2001, countries qualified
for each contest based on the average
of their points totals for their entries
over the previous five years.[110][111]
However, there was much discontent
voiced over this system because a
country could be excluded merely
because of poor previous results,
which did not take into account how
good a fresh attempt might be. The
worst example of this was that Bosnia
and Herzegovina finished 7th with 86
points in the 1999 Contest, but it wasn't
enough to save the country being
relegated from taking part in the 2000
Contest. As a result, the EBU reverted
to the older relegation system for the
2002 and 2003 contests. Soon, the EBU
created what was hoped would be a
more permanent solution to the
problem. A qualification round, known
as the semi-final, was introduced for
the 2004 Contest.[112] This semi-final
was held on the Wednesday during
Eurovision Week, and was a
programme similar in format to the
grand final, whose time slot remained
19:00 UTC on the Saturday. The highest-
placed songs from the semi-final
qualified for the grand final, while the
lower-placed songs were eliminated.
From 2005 to 2007, the semi-final
programme was held on the Thursday
of Eurovision Week.[113] In these two
shows there was enough time to
include all the countries who wished to
participate.

The ten highest-placed non-Big Four

countries in the "grand final" were
guaranteed a place in the following
year's grand final, without having to
qualify. If, for example, Germany came
in the top ten, the eleventh-placed non-
Big-Four country would automatically
qualify for the next year's grand
final.[49] The remaining countries—
which had not automatically qualified
for the grand final—had to enter the
semi-final.[49]

At the 50th annual meeting of the EBU

reference group in September 2007, it
was decided that, with still more
nations entering, starting from the 2008
contest onwards two semi-finals would
be held,[114] from each of which one
could qualify for the final.[115] From
2008 onwards, the scoreboard position
in previous years has not been
relevant, and—save for the automatic
qualifiers—all participating countries
have had to participate in the semi-
finals, regardless of their previous
year's scoreboard position. The only
countries which automatically qualify
for the grand final are the host country
and the Big Five: France, Germany,
Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom,
who continue to enjoy their protected
status.[22]

In each of the semi-finals the voting is

conducted among those countries
which participate in that semi-final.
With regard to the automatic grand
final qualifiers, who do not participate in
the semi-finals, a draw is conducted to
determine in which semi-final each of
them will be allowed to vote. In
contrast, every participating country in
a particular year may vote in the
Saturday grand final – whether their
song qualified for the final or not.

The ten countries which receive the

most votes in each semi-final qualify
for the grand final. They are announced
by the presenters in English and
French, in a random order. Full voting
results are withheld until after the
grand final, whereupon they are
published on the EBU's website.[22] To
date only two countries have always
qualified to the Final since the
implementation of the semi-finals
system in 2004: Australia and Ukraine.

Below is a chart of qualification

percentage depending on times
qualified/participated. For example, if a
country has participated 9 times and
has qualified 7 of them, it has qualified
(7/9*100) = (0.777*100) = 77.77% of
participation, or roughly 78% as shown
below.
 Times Qualified

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

1 100

2 50 100

3 33 67 100

4 25 50 75 100

5 20 40 60 80 100

6 17 33 50 67 83 100

7 14 29 43 57 71 86 100

Times Participated 8 13 25 38 50 63 75 88 100

9 11 22 33 44 56 67 78 89 100

10 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

11 9 18 27 36 45 55 64 73 82 91 100

12 8 17 25 33 42 50 58 67 75 83 92 100

13 8 15 23 31 38 46 54 62 69 77 85 92 100

14 7 14 21 29 36 43 50 57 64 71 79 86 93 100

15 7 13 20 27 33 40 47 53 60 67 73 80 87 93 100

16 6 13 19 25 31 38 44 50 56 63 69 75 81 88 94 100

Winners
 

Map showing each country's number of

Eurovision wins up to and including 2019.

As of 2019, Ireland holds the record for

the highest number of wins, having won
the contest seven times. Sweden is
second with six wins. France,
Luxembourg, the Netherlands and the
United Kingdom are joint third with five
wins each. Israel holds four victories.
Denmark and Norway have both won
three times, six countries have won
twice, while 12 countries have won
once. A further 24 countries have
participated, but have yet to win.

The United Kingdom holds the record

for the highest number of runner-up
placings, coming in second on no fewer
than 15 occasions as of 2019. Germany,
Russia, France, Spain and Ireland have
four runner-up entries. Norway holds
the record for finishing in last place in
the final the most times: eleven.

Israel is the only non-European country

to win four times. Most recently in 2018
with Netta Barzilai and Toy, who won
with 529 points

Croatia is the only country to have

never won the contest as its current
state, but has provided a winner for a
former state - Yugoslavia. In 1989,
Yugoslavia won the contest with "Rock
Me" performed by Riva, who won the
Yugoslav selection competition that
year representing (along with 2 more
acts) the Yugoslav Socialist Republic
of Croatia. The 1990 contest was
subsequently held in Zagreb, now the
capital of Croatia.

The early years of the contest saw

many wins for "traditional" Eurovision
countries: France, the Netherlands, and
Luxembourg. However, the success of
these countries has declined in recent
decades; France last won in 1977 and
Luxembourg, in 1983. The Netherlands
won again in 2019. Luxembourg last
entered the contest in 1993.[116]

The first years of the 21st century

produced numerous first-time winners,
from both "new" and long-serving
countries who had previously entered
numerous times but without victories.
Every year from 2001 to 2008 inclusive,
a country won for its first time. Estonia
was the first post-Soviet country to win
the competition in 2001. Latvia won for
the first time in 2002. In 2003, Turkey
won for the first time. In 2005, Greece
won for the first time, 15 years after
the last Southern European country
won, i.e. Italy in 1990. Overall the South
of Europe won the competition only six
times (seven if Serbia is included). The
2006 winner was Finland's Lordi,
earning Finland's first win after having
entered the contest for 45 years.
Ukraine on the other hand did not have
to wait so long, winning with only their
second entry in 2004. Notably Conchita
Wurst's win in 2014 broke a 48-year
losing run for Austria since their 1966
win. The contest was won by Russia in
2008.

Serbia won the very first year it

entered as an independent state, in
2007, with the Serbian-language ballad
"Molitva".[117] In 2004, Serbia and
Montenegro also almost won the initial
year it entered as a competitor state,
finishing second behind Ukraine, also
with a ballad in Serbian language.[118]
Other relatively quick winners were
Latvia, who won in 2002, only their third
year competing, and Azerbaijan, who
won in 2011 in their fourth year in the
competition.[119]

When Portugal won in 2017, they ended

a 49-year run of entering without a win,
beating Finland's previous record of 45
years. Cyprus now leads this record,
with 35 years without a win, achieving
their highest score, second, in 2018.
Malta is the most successful country
without a win, achieving two-second
places and two third places.[120]

In 2009, Norway won the contest with

387 points – Alexander Rybak held
the winning title with his song
"Fairytale". His performance meant he
had the highest total in the history of
the competition, becoming the first
competitor to score 300 or more points,
including 16 maximum scores. This feat
was emulated in 2012 when Sweden
won with 372 points, with a new record
of 18 maximum scores.[120] In 2015,
Sweden won the contest with 365
points, becoming the first country to
ever reach 300 points or more twice
while winning both times. Russia placed
second with 303 points, becoming the
first country to score more than 300
points without winning.

In 2016 the scoring system was

changed, making much easier to
achieve over 300 points. The winner –
Jamala of Ukraine, reached 534 points,
and all of top 9 scored 200 or more
points, and 25 of the 26 positions got
their highest points ever. This feat was
extended in 2017 when Salvador Sobral
beat Ukraine's points record by 224
points, getting 758 points in total, in
addition to Bulgaria beating the same
score by 81 points with a total amount
of 615 points. Had Portugal won under
the previous voting system it would
still have had the highest total ever
with 417 points, becoming the first
competitor to score 400 or more points,
theoretically setting a new record of 20
maximum scores (beating Norway and
Sweden).[121]

Since the introduction of the 50/50

voting system in 2009, the juries and
the voters have disagreed on the
winner on five occasions in 2011, 2015,
2016, 2018 and 2019. 2011 winner
Azerbaijan won the televotes (jury
votes were won by Italy) and 2015
winner Sweden won the jury votes
(televotes were won by Italy). In 2016,
Ukraine did not win either the jury vote
or the televote, but won the contest
with the highest combined vote. The
televote was won by Russia and the
jury vote by Australia. In 2018, eventual
winner Israel won the televote but
came in third with the jury vote (won
by Austria). In 2019, Netherlands placed
third with the juries (North Macedonia
first, Sweden second) and second with
the televote (Norway first). The
Netherlands had the highest combined
vote and thus they won the contest.

Trophy E…

The trophy in 2014

Since 2008 the winner has been
awarded an official winner's trophy of
the Eurovision Song Contest that is
presented by the previous year's
winning artist. The trophy is a
handmade piece of sandblasted glass
in the shape of a 1950s
microphone.[122][123] The songwriters
and composers of the winning entry
receive smaller versions of the
trophy.[122] The original design was
created by Kjell Engman of Kosta
Boda, who specialises in glass art.[122]
Winning artists E…

There have been a number of

Eurovision artists and groups whose
careers were directly launched into the
spotlight following their win. Notable
examples were ABBA, who won the
contest for Sweden in 1974 with their
song "Waterloo", and went on to
become one of the most successful
pop bands in history;[124] the French
Canadian singer Céline Dion, who won
the contest for Switzerland in 1988
with the song "Ne partez pas sans moi",
which subsequently helped launch her
international career;[13] and the winners
of the 1981 contest, Bucks Fizz for the
United Kingdom with the song "Making
Your Mind Up", which also launched a
successful international career.[125]

Other artists who have achieved

varying degrees of success after
winning the contest include France Gall
("Poupée de cire, poupée de son",
Luxembourg 1965), Dana ("All Kinds of
Everything", Ireland 1970), Vicky
Leandros ("Après toi", Luxembourg
1972), Brotherhood of Man ("Save Your
Kisses for Me", United Kingdom 1976),
and Johnny Logan (who won twice for
Ireland, with "What's Another Year" in
1980 and "Hold Me Now" in 1987). As of
the 2020 contest, he remains the only
artist to have won more than once as a
performer.

Several other winners were well-

known artists who won the contest
mid-career after they had already
established themselves, including
Katrina and the Waves, winners in 1997
with "Love Shine a Light",[126] Lulu,
winner in 1969 with "Boom Bang-a-
Bang", and Sandie Shaw, winner in 1967
with "Puppet on a String". Women have
dominated the contest since its
inception, with 38 solo female wins,
notably including the first two winners,
all four winners in the infamous 1969
contest, and the two entries that
initially tied for the win in 1991 before
Sweden, represented by Carola, won
the tie-breaker and claimed sole
victory. A further 11 victories feature
women as members of duos or groups,
though these are mostly mixed-gender,
including ABBA's win in 1974 and
Brotherhood of Man in 1976, meaning
women have been present on 49 of the
67 total winning entries as of 2019. The
2017 winner was a solo male
performance by Salvador Sobral.
However, his sister and the song's
composer Luísa Sobral joined him for
the winner's reprise.

The most recent winner of the contest

is Duncan Laurence who won the 2019
contest for The Netherlands.[127]
Interval acts and guest
appearances

Irish dance champion Michael Flatley, was part

of one of the most appreciated interval acts,
Riverdance which made its debut in Dublin 1994
Since 1960, the tradition of interval acts
between the songs in the competition
programme and the announcement of
the voting has been established.[128][129]
Among these acts, there are usually
the previous winner, performances
devoted to the history of the Eurovision
Song Contest, as well as
representatives of the traditional music
scene of the host country.[129][130] One
of the interval performances was the
first public appearance of Riverdance,
a theatrical show consisting mainly of
traditional Irish music and dance, in
1994.[131][132] Riverdance was later
performed as an interval act at both
the Congratulations: 50 Years of the
Eurovision Song Contest (2005) and
Eurovision Song Contest's Greatest Hits
(2015) events.

Interval and opening entertainment has

included such acts as pop superstars
Madonna (2019), Justin Timberlake
(2016), Aqua (2001) and t.A.T.u. (2009),
but also violinist Vanessa-Mae (1998)
and world music artists Goran Bregović
(2008), Alim Qasimov (2012) and
Mariza (2018).[133][134] The world-
renowned Cirque du Soleil (2009),
Alexandrov Ensemble (2009), Vienna
Boys' Choir (1967 and 2015), Fire of
Anatolia (2004), Metropole Orkest
(2008) and Prague Theatre of
Illuminated Drawings (1984) also
performed on the Eurovision
stage.[132][135] A flashmob-styled
performance with Madcon performing
"Glow", alongside live and taped
footage of public outdoor dance events
from across Europe, was the interval
act for 2010. Other interval acts include
recorded footage of the Royal
Edinburgh Military Tattoo (1972), circus
clown Charlie Rivel (1973), quick-
change artist Arturo Brachetti (1991)
and mentalist Lior Suchard (2019).[136]

The 1999 event in Jerusalem finished

with the three presenters (Yigal Ravid,
Sigal Shachmon, and Dafna Dekel)
inviting everyone on stage to sing a
rendition of the English version of
"Hallelujah", the Israeli winner from the
1979 Contest, as a tribute to the
victims of the Balkan War (particularly
FR Yugoslavia, which was banned from
participation as penalty for the Balkan
Wars). However, due to NATO's
bombing of the Serbian television
headquarters, the Eurovision was not
broadcast in Serbia that year.[137]

In recognition of Australia's love affair

with the annual event, the interval act
for the second semi-final in 2014 was a
presentation by Australia featuring
Jessica Mauboy who performed "Sea
of Flags". Her appearance marked the
first time Australia had been
represented at Eurovision and was first
solo artist from a non-participating
country to perform as a guest.[138]
Since 2014 the winners of the most
recent Junior Eurovision Song Contest
also make a guest appearance during
one of the three shows, typically at the
Grand Final (however this was moved
to the first semi-final for the 2019
contest)[139] and are interviewed at a
press conference held for the junior
contest.[140][141]
In the first semi-final of 2016 in
Stockholm, part of the interval acts
was a dance performance devoted to
the European migrant crisis. "The Grey
People" was choreographed by Fredrik
Rydman.[142]

Interval act "Love Love Peace Peace" in

Stockholm 2016 featured three previous
winners, and presenters Mans Zelmerlow and
Petra Mede.
Special guests of Eurovision Song
Contest have been also well-known
athletes, such as boxers Vitali and
Wladimir Klitschko (2005),[143] tennis
player Novak Djokovic (2008 first semi-
final)[144] and retired basketball player
Vlade Divac (2008 Grand Final),[145]
who opened the televoting. In 2003,
Elton John spoke to the presenters live
from the Life Ball in Vienna[146] and one
astronaut and one cosmonaut—Ed Lu
and Yuri Malenchenko—gave their
greetings from the International Space
Station (ISS).[147] Russian cosmonaut
Gennady Padalka and Japanese
astronaut Koichi Wakata opened the
televoting for the Grand Final in 2009
during the Expedition 19 flight to the
ISS.[148] Tennis player Ana Ivanovic
(2008), footballer Zlatan Ibrahimović
(2013) and an actress and model Gal
Gadot (2019) have appeared in the
promotional videos about the host
city.[149][150][151]

Since 2013, the tradition of opening the

Grand Final with the "Parade of
Nations" or the "Flag Parade" has been
established, similar to the Olympic
Games opening ceremony.[152] In 2016,
the parade was themed as a tribute to
Swedish fashion design and dance
music with artists being welcomed on
stage in a catwalk fashion show with
flags being projected onto 26 dresses
designed by Bea Szenfeld.[153] In 2015
the parade was made for all the 3
evenings (both semi-finals and final)

Anniversaries

Songs of Europe E…
In 1981, a concert television programme
was held to commemorate the
contest's twenty-fifth anniversary. The
event, entitled Songs of Europe, took
place in Mysen, Norway, featuring
nearly all the winners of the contest,
from 1956 to 1981. It was hosted by Rolf
Kirkvaag and Titten Tei.

Congratulations: 50 Years of the

Eurovision Song Contest
E…

In 2005, the EBU had agreed with the

Danish broadcaster, DR, to produce a
programme to celebrate the 50th
anniversary of the Eurovision Song
Contest. The show, entitled
Congratulations: 50 Years of the
Eurovision Song Contest after Cliff
Richard's 1968 entry for the United
Kingdom, was held in Copenhagen, and
featured a competition among fourteen
of the most popular songs from the
last 50 years of the contest. A
telephone vote was held to determine
the most popular Eurovision song of all-
time, which was won by the ABBA
song "Waterloo" (winner for Sweden in
1974).[154] The event was hosted by the
1997 Contest winner for the United
Kingdom, Katrina Leskanich, and
Latvia's representative on its debut at
the 2000 Contest, Renārs Kaupers.

Eurovision Song Contest's Greatest

Hits
E…

In 2015, the EBU had decided again to

commemorate the contest and agreed
with the United Kingdom's broadcaster,
BBC, to produce a show for the 60th
anniversary of the contest, after
evaluating several proposals from
member broadcasters in regards to
the anniversary celebration beyond the
2015 Contest in May.[155][156][157] The
event, entitled Eurovision Song
Contest's Greatest Hits, took place at
the Eventim Apollo in Hammersmith,
London[158] and featured fifteen acts
from thirteen countries in the official
line-up.[159][160] Unlike the 50th
anniversary show in 2005 which was
broadcast live, this event did not
feature a competition and was pre-
recorded to be televised across Europe
and other EBU members on various
dates schedule by the respective
broadcasters. The event was hosted
by the British commentator for
Eurovision, Graham Norton, and the
host of the 2013 and 2016 Contest,
Petra Mede.

Criticism and
controversy
The contest has been the subject of
criticism regarding both its musical and
political content.[161][162] For example, on
rare occasions, certain countries have
been booed when performing or
receiving points, especially when being
given by a neighbour country. Most
recently in 2014 and 2015, Russia was
heavily booed when it qualified for the
final and received high points.[163][164]
The reason for the booing is considered
to be due to the Russian annexation of
Crimea and opposition to the country's
policy on LGBT rights.[165] Fraser Nelson
wrote: "I can't remember the last time I
heard a Eurovision audience boo
anyone; during the Iraq war in 2003, no
one booed Britain."[165] Due to the 2019
Contest being held in Israel, some
people called on their national
broadcasters to boycott the
competition over the Israeli–
Palestinian conflict.[166] Peter Gabriel
was among 50 artists who urged the
BBC to ask for the contest to be
moved out of Israel. In response, the
BBC said it was not appropriate "to use
the BBC's participation for political
reasons".[167]
China's broadcaster Mango TV, which
broadcast 2018 Contest for Chinese
audiences, was banned from
broadcasting Eurovision after it was
revealed that Mango TV censored
Ireland's same sex dance
performance,[168] along with censoring
LGBT symbols and tattoos.[169]

Musical style and presentation E…

Because the songs play to such a

diverse international audience with
contrasting musical tastes, and
countries want to be able to appeal to
as many people as possible to gain
votes, this has led to the music of the
contest being characterised as a
"mishmash of power ballads, ethnic
rhythms and bubblegum pop".[170] This
well-established pattern, however, was
broken in 2006 with Finnish metal band
Lordi's victory.[171] As Eurovision is a
visual show, many performances
attempt to attract the attention of the
voters through means other than the
music, notably elaborate lighting
sequences and pyrotechnics;
sometimes leading to bizarre on-stage
theatrics and costumes, including the
use of revealing dress.[172]

Political and geographical voting E…

The contest has long been accused by

some of political bias; the perception is
that judges and televoters allocate
points based on their nation's
relationship to the other countries,
rather than the musical merits of the
songs.[173] According to one study of
Eurovision voting patterns, certain
countries tend to form "clusters" or
"cliques" by frequently voting in the
same way.[74] Another study
concludes that as of 2006, voting blocs
have, on at least two occasions,
crucially affected the outcome of the
contest.[174] On the other hand, others
argue that certain countries allocate
disproportionately high points to others
because of similar musical tastes and
cultures and because they speak
similar languages,[175][176] and are
therefore more likely to appreciate
each other's music. A recent study in
the Journal of Artificial Societies and
Social Simulation[177] presents a new
approach which allows an analysis of
the whole time-line of the contest
(from 1957 to 2017) to investigate
collusion and the cluster blocks which
have been changing. It allows the
analysis to find collusive associations
over time periods where the voting
scheme is non-homogeneous. The
results show a changing pattern in the
collusive tendencies previously
discussed. The current research into
the analysis of the voting patterns has
been used in notable sources, such as
the Economist, for investigating
whether over 10-year periods such
collusion is increasing or
decreasing.[178][179]

The collusion between countries in

Eurovision 1997 to 2017
 

Mutual neglect of score allocations in

the Eurovision 2010 to 2015

Produced using the methods presented in[177]

 Produced using the methods presented in[177]
and[180] a network of the significant score
deviations can be viewed over a time period of
interest.

As an example, Terry Wogan, the

United Kingdom's presenter of
Eurovision since 1971 and one of the
only three presenters mentioned by
name during the contest proper[181]
stood down from BBC One's broadcast
in 2008 saying "The voting used to be
about the songs. Now it's about national
prejudices. We [the United Kingdom]
are on our own. We had a very good
song, a very good singer, we came joint
last. I don't want to be presiding over
another debacle."[182]

Another influential factor is the high

proportion of expatriates and ethnic
minorities living in certain countries.
Although judges and televoters cannot
vote for their own country's entry,
expatriates can vote for their country
of origin.

The total numbers of points to be

distributed by each country are equal,
irrespective of the country's population.
Thus voters in countries with larger
populations have less power as
individuals to influence the result of the
contest than those voting in smaller
countries. For example, San Marino
holds the same voting power as Russia
despite the vast geographic and
population differences between them.

To try to reduce the effect of voting

blocs, national juries were re-
introduced alongside televoting in the
final in 2009: each contributing 50% of
the vote.[183] This hybrid system was
expanded in 2010 to also be
implemented in the semi-finals.[184]
However, since 1994 no country has
won two years in a row, and semi-finals
have also been won by different
countries, until 2012 when Sweden won
the second semi-final in 2011 and 2012.
Although many of them used to give
their 12 points to the same country
each year, like Turkey and Azerbaijan,
it has been noticed that factors such as
the sets of other high votes received
(7, 8 or 10 points) and the number of
countries giving points to a specific
entry, also highly affect the final
positions.

An overview of the overall preference

between countries that exhibits
patterns of high score allocations is a
question that appears frequently and
recently a new study investigates the
question of 'neglect' in the competition.
The concept of 'neglect' here is
represented by countries which
produce patterns of biased low score
allocations to certain countries.
Together these two patterns provide a
better view of the competition's
intrinsic country pair biases. Result of
such a study are presented in this
paper.[180] From the analysis it can be
seen that countries which exhibit these
biases do not receive a penalization
from other participants and it presents
itself as a means to accumulate more
points by establishing these
partnerships.

Running order of the participating

songs
E…
From 2013 onwards, the final and the
semi-finals running order of the
competing performances at the semi-
finals and the final has been decided
by the show's producers and then
approved by the EBU Executive
Supervisor and the Reference Group.
An "allocation draw" occurs for the
final and the semi-finals with each
nation drawing to perform in the first or
second half.[185] Prior to 2013, the order
was decided at random (though when
the host nation performs is still decided
at random, to ensure fairness).[185]
There is some statistical evidence that
the contest's results were positively
related to the running number in 2009–
2012.[186] The change in procedure was
aimed to make the show more exciting
and ensure that all contestants had a
chance to stand out, preventing entries
that are too similar from cancelling
each other out.[187] The decision elicited
mixed reactions from both fans and
participating
broadcasters.[188][189][190][191] Some fans
have alleged that there is a risk of
corruption and that the order can be
manipulated to benefit certain
countries, since the running order is
considered to be of importance to the
result.[192][193] As of the 2019 contest,
the only regularly contested positions
in the running order that have never
won the contest are numbers 2 and 16,
with position number 21 winning for the
first time in 2016. Position 17 has the
most victories, with 7. Positions 25, 26
and 27 have not won either, but there
have been very few finals with that
many participants.
Spin-offs
A number of spin-offs and imitators of
the Eurovision Song Contest have been
produced over the years, some
national and others international.

Similar competitions that are still held,

include:

Sopot International Song Festival

(1961–80, 1984–2003, 2005–09, 2012–
14, 2017–), held in Sopot, Poland.
Östersjöfestivalen also called Baltic
Song Contest (1967–present), held
annually in Karlshamn, Sweden.
Cân i Gymru (1969–72, 1974–), held
annually in Wales, was intended to be
BBC Cymru's pre-selection show when
Wales expressed an interest in
participating in the 1969 Eurovision Song
Contest separately from the rest of
the United Kingdom.
Caribbean Song Festival (1984–), held
annually between members of the
Caribbean Broadcasting Union.
Festivali i Këngës (1962–), held
annually in Tirana, Albania, has been
used to select Albania's entry for the
Eurovision Song Contest since 2003.
Golden Stag Festival (1968–71, 1992–
97, 2001–05, 2008–09, 2018–), held
annually in Brasov, Romania.
Liet International (2002–), an annual
competition between European ethnic
minorities and minority language
speakers. First held in Friesland.
Junior Eurovision Song Contest
(2003–), for European artists under the
age of 15.
Asia Song Festival (2004–), held
annually in South Korea.
ABU Song Festivals (2012–), two Asia-
Pacific versions, the biennial ABU Radio
Song Festival and the annual ABU TV
Song Festival.
AfriMusic Song Contest (2018–), an
annual competition with African artists.
AI Song Contest (2020–), featuring
songs that are composed using
artificial intelligence.
Free European Song Contest (2020–),
organised by the German television
 network ProSieben.

Similar competitions that are proposed

or in development, include:

Eurovision Asia Song Contest (TBD),

Asian counterpart with members of
the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union.
American Song Contest (TBD),
upcoming United States counterpart
with American artists from across 50
states.[194]

Similar competitions that are no longer

held, include:
Castlebar Song Contest (1966–86,
1988), held annually in Castlebar,
County Mayo, Ireland.
Yamaha Music Festival, also called
World Popular Song Festival (1970–87,
1989), held in Tokyo, Japan.
OTI Festival (1972–98, 2000),
competed and hosted by Portugal,
Spain and the countries of the
Americas. Countries could only sing in
Spanish and Portuguese.
Intervision Song Contest (1977–80,
2008), originally held by the Eastern
Bloc countries of Europe and Finland.
Now held by Post-Soviet states and
members of the Shanghai Cooperation
Organisation.
MGP Nordic (2002, 2006–09), for
artists under the age of 16 in
Scandinavia and Finland.
World Oriental Music Festival (2005),
includes participants from Europe and
Asia.
Bundesvision Song Contest (2005–15),
held annually between the 16 states of
Germany.
 Turkvision Song Contest (2013–15), an
annual competition that launched in
December 2013, for countries and
autonomous regions that have Turkic
links.[195]

Notes
a. The European Broadcasting Area was
expanded in November 2007 by the
World Radiocommunication Conference
(WRC-07), also to include Armenia,
Azerbaijan and Georgia.[24][25]
b. The map shows Zagreb in the present
day country of Croatia. When the
 Eurovision Song Contest was in Zagreb,
it was in the former country of
Yugoslavia which cannot be shown on
the map.

References
1. "Winners of the Eurovision Song
Contest" (PDF). European Broadcasting
Union. Archived from the original (PDF)
on 28 May 2008. Retrieved
26 December 2007.
2. "Eurovision recognised by Guinness
World Records as the largest in the
world and the longest-running annual
TV programme (international)" .
Guinness World Records. 23 May 2015.
Archived from the original on 5 May
2016. Retrieved 31 March 2016.
3. "Eurovision Trivia" (PDF). BBC Online.
2002. Archived (PDF) from the original
on 3 November 2015. Retrieved 18 July
2006.
4. "Eurovision Song Contest 1972" .
European Broadcasting Union.
Archived from the original on 22 May
2011. Retrieved 21 July 2009.
5. "Eurovision Song Contest 2004 Final" .
European Broadcasting Union.
Archived from the original on 31
December 2010. Retrieved 22 July
2009.
6. Jordan, Paul (31 October 2016). "43
countries to participate in Eurovision
2017" . eurovision.tv. European
Broadcasting Union. Archived from the
original on 31 October 2016. Retrieved
31 October 2016.
7. "Eurovision recognised by Guinness
World Records as the longest-running
annual TV music competition
(international)" . Guinness World
Records. 23 May 2015. Retrieved
18 March 2020.
8. "Official EBU statement & FAQ on
Eurovision 2020 cancellation" .
Eurovision.tv. 18 March 2020.
9. "Live Webcast" . European
Broadcasting Union. Archived from the
original on 25 May 2006. Retrieved
25 May 2006.
10. "Finland wins Eurovision contest" . Al
Jazeera English. 21 May 2006.
Archived from the original on 4 June
2010. Retrieved 8 May 2007.
11. Murray, Matthew. "Eurovision Song
Contest – International Music
Program" . Museum of Broadcast
Communications. Archived from the
original on 13 January 2005. Retrieved
15 July 2006.
12. Philip Laven (July 2002). "Webcasting
and the Eurovision Song Contest" .
European Broadcasting Union. Archived
from the original on 28 May 2008.
Retrieved 21 August 2006.
13. "Serbia's "Prayer" wins Eurovision Song
Contest" . Reuters. 14 May 2007.
Archived from the original on 9
October 2007. Retrieved 1 July 2017.
14. Staff (17 May 2005). "Singing out loud
and proud". Bristol Evening Post. Daily
Mail and General Trust. "In the mid-
1950s, the members of the European
Broadcasting Union set up an ad hoc
committee to investigate ways of
rallying the countries of Europe round a
light entertainment programme. The
European Broadcasting Union (EBU)
was formed on 12 February 1950 by 23
broadcasting organisations from Europe
and the Mediterranean at a conference
in Devon, United Kingdom. It was on 6
June 1954, that Montreux became the
venue for the first transmission by the
EBU's Eurovision Network of the
Narcissus Festival and its flower-
bedecked procession floats. At
Monaco, in late January 1955, this
committee, chaired by Marcel
Bezençon, director general of Swiss
Television, came up with the idea of
creating a song contest, inspired by the
very popular San Remo Festival. The
idea was approved by the EBU General
Assembly in Rome on 19 October 1955,
and it was decided that the first
"Eurovision Grand Prix" – so baptised,
 incidentally, by a British journalist –
would take place in spring 1956 at
Lugano, Switzerland."
15. Jaquin, Patrick (1 December 2004).
"Eurovision's Golden Jubilee" . European
Broadcasting Union. Archived from the
original on 11 August 2004. Retrieved
18 July 2009.
16. "History of Eurovision" . BBC Online.
2003. Archived from the original on 24
December 2007. Retrieved 20 July
2006.
17. Waters, George T. (Winter 1994).
"Eurovision: 40 years of network
development, four decades of service
to broadcasters" . European
Broadcasting Union. Archived from the
original on 27 June 2006. Retrieved
15 July 2006.
18. "Historical Milestones" . European
Broadcasting Union. 2005. Archived
from the original on 26 May 2006.
Retrieved 26 May 2006.
19. Thomas, Franck (1999). "Histoire 1956 à
1959" (in French). eurovision-fr.net.
Archived from the original on 2 May
2006. Retrieved 17 July 2006.
20. "The EBU Operations Department" .
European Broadcasting Union. 14 June
2005. Archived from the original on 17
July 2006. Retrieved 20 July 2006.
21. "Voting fault hits Eurovision heat" . BBC
News. 13 May 2004. Archived from
the original on 11 April 2012. Retrieved
2 May 2010.
22. "Public rules of the 60th Eurovision
Song Contest" (PDF). European
Broadcasting Union. Archived from the
original (PDF) on 30 April 2015.
Retrieved 1 June 2015.
23. "Membership conditions" . European
Broadcasting Union. Archived from the
original on 17 January 2012. Retrieved
3 February 2012.
24. "ITU-R Radio Regulations 2012–15"
(PDF). International Telecommunication
Union, available from the Spectrum
Management Authority of Jamaica.
2012. Archived from the original (PDF)
on 16 August 2013. Retrieved 27 May
2013.
25. "ITU-R Radio Regulations – Articles
edition of 2004 (valid in 2004–07)"
(PDF). International Telecommunication
Union. 2004. Archived from the original
(PDF) on 10 October 2017. Retrieved
14 May 2014.
26. "Radio Regulations" . International
Telecommunication Union. 8
September 2005. Archived from the
original on 2 May 2006. Retrieved
18 July 2006.
27. Todd, Lucy (10 May 2018). "Eurovision
2018: Second semi-final sees Russia
eliminated" . BBC News. Archived
from the original on 14 June 2018.
Retrieved 10 June 2018.
28. Herbert, Emily (23 November 2018).
"Jon Ola Sand: "Participation of North
African countries in Eurovision is
possible" . Archived from the original
on 1 April 2019. Retrieved 23 November
2018.
29. Granger, Anthony (19 October 2016).
"ESC'17: Wording changes regarding
associate member participation" .
Archived from the original on 23
November 2018. Retrieved
23 November 2018.
30. "FAQ - Eurovision Song Contest" .
eurovision.tv. Archived from the
original on 5 February 2019. Retrieved
8 February 2019.
31. "Australia to compete in the 2015
Eurovision Song Contest" . Eurovision
Song Contest. 10 February 2015.
Archived from the original on 10
February 2015. Retrieved 10 February
2015.
32. "Eurovision Song Contest – Dusseldorf
2011 | News – JESC – Delegation
leaders meet for Junior Eurovision
2008" . Esctoday.com. Archived from
the original on 9 June 2008. Retrieved
22 May 2011.
33. "Eurovision Song Contest: History" .
European Broadcasting Union.
Archived from the original on 15
December 2009. Retrieved
23 November 2009.
34. Waddell, Nathan (21 May 2015).
"Australia: Australia may become a
solid participant, says JOS" . escXtra.
Archived from the original on 21 May
2015. Retrieved 21 May 2015.
35. Fawkes, Helen (19 May 2005).
"Ukrainian hosts' high hopes for
Eurovision" . BBC News Online.
Archived from the original on 12 April
2008. Retrieved 19 July 2009.
36. "What does it take to become a
Eurovision host city?" . eurovision.tv. 30
July 2017. Retrieved 18 April 2020.
37. "General Information on Millstreet"
(PDF). Republic of Ireland. Archived
from the original (PDF) on 8
September 2008. Retrieved 17 July
2009.
38. "Green Glens Arena" . Town of
Millstreet. Archived from the original
on 4 June 2009. Retrieved 19 July 2009.
39. "Reference group meets in Moscow" .
European Broadcasting Union. 12
September 2008. Archived from the
original on 5 June 2009. Retrieved
18 July 2009.
40. Marone, John. "Where Do We Put The
Foreign Tourists?" . The Ukrainian
Observer. Archived from the original
on 4 February 2006. Retrieved 18 July
2006.
41. O'Connor, John Kennedy (2005). The
Eurovision Song Contest 50 Years The
Official History. London: Carlton Books
Limited. ISBN 978-1-84442-586-0.
42. "Eurovision Song Contest 1974" .
European Broadcasting Union. Archived
from the original on 5 June 2011.
Retrieved 19 July 2009.
43. "Germany will host Eurovision if
Australia wins, says Christer
Björkman" . Wiwibloggs.com.
Wiwibloggs. 22 April 2015. Archived
from the original on 8 August 2016.
Retrieved 5 July 2016.
44. "Australia to make Eurovision Song
Contest return in 2016" . ebu.ch.
European Broadcasting Union. 17
November 2015. Archived from the
original on 6 March 2016. Retrieved
3 March 2016.
45. Siim, Jarmo. "Eurovision Song Contest
logo evolves" . EBU. Archived from
the original on 3 August 2014. Retrieved
31 July 2014.
46. "Serbia in spotlight for Eurovision" . BBC
News. 23 May 2008. Archived from
the original on 21 April 2010. Retrieved
2 May 2010.
47. "Event weeks - Eurovision Song
Contest" . eurovision.tv. Archived from
the original on 13 May 2018. Retrieved
8 February 2019.
48. "Belgrade 2008" . European
Broadcasting Union. 17 March 2008.
Archived from the original on 18 May
2008. Retrieved 19 July 2009.
49. "Rules of the 2005 Eurovision Song
Contest" . European Broadcasting
Union. 2005. Archived from the original
on 10 February 2006. Retrieved
10 February 2006.
50. "Commentator's guide to the
commentators" . Retrieved 15 May 2011.
51. [1]
52. "Rehearsal Schedule" (PDF). European
Broadcasting Union. 2008. Archived
(PDF) from the original on 21 December
2008. Retrieved 19 July 2009.
53. "Interviews 2008" . European
Broadcasting Union. 2008. Archived
from the original on 17 May 2009.
Retrieved 21 June 2009.
54. "FAQ - Eurovision Song Contest" .
Eurovision Song Contest.
55. "The grand opening reception!" .
European Broadcasting Union. 11 May
2009. Archived from the original on 14
May 2009. Retrieved 19 July 2009.
56. "After Show Party: Reactions" .
European Broadcasting Union.
Archived from the original on 14 July
2009. Retrieved 20 June 2009.
57. "The EuroClub: Official party venue
opened its doors" . European
Broadcasting Union. Archived from the
original on 8 May 2009. Retrieved
18 July 2009.
58. "Eurovision Song Contest 1999" .
European Broadcasting Union.
Archived from the original on 31
December 2010. Retrieved 21 July 2009.
59. "Rules of the 44th Eurovision Song
Contest, 1999" (PDF). European
Broadcasting Union. 13 October 1998.
Archived (PDF) from the original on 23
July 2006. Retrieved 18 July 2006.
60. "BBC - Eurovision facts and figures -
Media Centre" . www.bbc.co.uk.
Retrieved 15 May 2020.
61. "Eurovision Song Contest 1973" .
European Broadcasting Union.
Archived from the original on 23 May
2011. Retrieved 21 July 2009.
62. "Eurovision Song Contest 1977" .
European Broadcasting Union.
Archived from the original on 20
February 2017. Retrieved 21 July 2009.
63. Schacht, Andreas (9 March 2008).
"Ishtar for Belgium to Belgrade!" .
European Broadcasting Union.
Archived from the original on 3 June
2008. Retrieved 19 July 2009.
64. Hondal, Victor (12 February 2011).
"Norway sends Stella Mwangi to
Eurovision 2011" . EscToday.com.
Archived from the original on 15
February 2011. Retrieved 19 February
2011.
65. Silva, Antonio; Harris, Chris (10 May
2018). "English song dominance on the
decline at Eurovision 2018" . Euronews.
Retrieved 5 June 2019.
66. "Eurovision Class of 2019: This year's
languages" . Eurovision Song Contest. 5
April 2019. Retrieved 5 June 2019.
67. "Biggest change to Eurovision Song
Contest voting since 1975" . 18
February 2016. Archived from the
original on 3 October 2016. Retrieved
20 March 2016.
68. "People's Daily Online – Eurovision
Song Contest semi-final held in
Helsinki" . English.people.com.cn. 11 May
2007. Archived from the original on 16
October 2012. Retrieved 15 May 2011.
69. "Eurovision Song Contest app
launched!" . Eurovision.tv. 7 May 2013.
Archived from the original on 3
November 2014. Retrieved 3 November
2014.
70. "Download the official Eurovision app" .
Eurovision.tv. 3 November 2014.
Archived from the original on 3
November 2014. Retrieved 3 November
2014.
71. Bakker, Sietse (11 October 2009).
"Exclusive: Juries also get 50% stake in
Semi-Final result!" . EBU. Archived
from the original on 8 November 2014.
Retrieved 8 November 2014.
72. "Full Splitt Results" . European
Broadcasting Union. eurovision.tv. May
2014. Archived from the original on 26
November 2014. Retrieved 28 January
2015.
73. "Full Splitt Results" . European
Broadcasting Union. eurovision.tv. May
2014. Archived from the original on 11
November 2014. Retrieved 28 January
2015.
74. Fenn, Daniel; Suleman, Omer;
Efstathiou, Janet; Johnson, Neil F.
(2006). "How does Europe Make Its
Mind Up? Connections, cliques, and
compatibility between countries in the
Eurovision Song Contest". Physica A:
Statistical Mechanics and Its
Applications. 360 (2): 576–598.
arXiv:physics/0505071 .
Bibcode:2006PhyA..360..576F .
doi:10.1016/j.physa.2005.06.051 .
75. "Executive Supervisor - Eurovision Song
Contest" . eurovision.tv. Archived from
the original on 19 April 2019. Retrieved
19 April 2019.
76. Farren, Neil (20 January 2020). "Martin
Österdahl Appointed Eurovision
Executive Supervisor" . eurovoix.com.
77. "Eurovision 2004 – Voting Briefing" .
European Broadcasting Union. 12 May
2004. Archived from the original on 7
May 2005. Retrieved 7 May 2005.
78. "Results from the draw" . European
Broadcasting Union. 21 March 2006.
Archived from the original on 27 May
2006. Retrieved 27 May 2006.
79. "Eurovision 2011: Voting order
revealed!" . esctoday.com. 11 May 2011.
Archived from the original on 16 May
2011. Retrieved 6 June 2011.
80. "Eurovision Song Contest 1956" .
Eurovision.tv. Archived from the
original on 31 December 2016. Retrieved
19 July 2009.
81. "A to Z of Eurovision" . BBC Online.
Archived from the original on 27 April
2006. Retrieved 9 August 2006.
82. "Eurovision Song Contest 1969" .
European Broadcasting Union.
Archived from the original on 23 May
2011. Retrieved 23 July 2009.
83. "Eurovision Song Contest 1970" .
European Broadcasting Union.
Archived from the original on 31
December 2010. Retrieved 23 July
2009.
84. "Eurovision 2008 Final" . Eurovision.tv.
Retrieved 20 May 2014.
85. Bakker, Sietse (21 December 2009).
"The end of a decade: Stockholm
2000" . European Broadcasting Union.
Archived from the original on 5 June
2011. Retrieved 21 December 2009.
86. Escartín, Javier (15 May 2009). "Soraya,
al borde de la descalificación en
Eurovisión" . ABC (in Spanish).
Archived from the original on 17 May
2009. Retrieved 17 May 2009.
87. "Albania to broadcast tonights semi-
final deferred" . European Broadcasting
Union. 22 May 2012. Archived from the
original on 23 May 2012. Retrieved
22 May 2012.
88. "Two @Eurovision Contests are
missing" . European Broadcasting Union.
10 May 2015. Retrieved 15 May 2016.
89. "9eme-concours-eurovision-de-la-
chanson-1964" . inatheque.ina.fr.
90. Siim, Jarmo (8 October 2013). "EBU
starts Eurovision archive project" .
eurovision.tv. EBU. Archived from the
original on 17 March 2014. Retrieved
8 October 2011.
91. N., Danny (4 June 2013). "General:
Archive to be opened in time for 60th
Anniversary" . escxtra.com. escXtra.
Archived from the original on 11 June
2013. Retrieved 4 June 2013.
92. "Eurovision Song Contest 1978" .
European Broadcasting Union.
Archived from the original on 5 June
2011. Retrieved 18 July 2009.
93. "Lebanon withdraws from Eurovision" .
BBC News Online. 18 March 2005.
Archived from the original on 28 July
2011. Retrieved 15 July 2006.
94. References are found in "We Don't
Wanna Put In"
95. Beauchamp, Zack (14 May 2016).
"Eurovision, the world's biggest and
best singing competition, explained" .
Vox. Retrieved 22 November 2019.
96. "Reglement du Grand Prix Eurovision
1956 De La Chanson Européenne"
(PDF). European Broadcasting Union.
Archived (PDF) from the original on 4
January 2012. Retrieved 19 July 2009.
97. "Eurovision Song Contest 1957" .
European Broadcasting Union.
Archived from the original on 5 May
2012. Retrieved 19 July 2009.
98. "Rules of the 2003 Eurovision Song
Contest" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from
the original on 10 November 2016.
Retrieved 1 May 2019.
99. "Rules of the 2004 Eurovision Song
Contest" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from
the original on 10 November 2016.
Retrieved 1 May 2019.
100. "Extracts from the 2012 Eurovision
Song Contest rules" (PDF). European
Broadcasting Union. Archived (PDF)
from the original on 21 March 2012.
Retrieved 20 February 2012.
101. "Eurovision Song Contest 1993" .
European Broadcasting Union.
Archived from the original on 5 June
2011. Retrieved 25 June 2009.
102. "Eurovision Song Contest 1993" .
European Broadcasting Union.
Archived from the original on 5 June
2011. Retrieved 22 July 2009.
103. "Eurovision Song Contest 1994" .
European Broadcasting Union.
Archived from the original on 5 June
2011. Retrieved 22 July 2009.
104. "Eurovision Song Contest 1995" .
European Broadcasting Union.
Archived from the original on 31
December 2010. Retrieved 22 July
2009.
105. "Eurovision Song Contest 1996" .
European Broadcasting Union.
Archived from the original on 31
December 2010. Retrieved 18 July 2009.
106. Bakker, Sietse (31 December 2010). "43
nations on 2011 participants list" .
Eurovision.tv. Archived from the
original on 4 January 2011. Retrieved
31 December 2010.
107. Jiandani, Sanjay (14 December 2012).
"Turkey will not go to Eurovision in
Malmö" . ESCToday. Archived from
the original on 17 December 2012.
Retrieved 14 December 2012.
108. Jiandani, Sanjay (3 November 2015).
"Turkey: TRT confirms non participation
in Eurovision 2016" . ESCToday.
Archived from the original on 23 May
2016. Retrieved 15 May 2016.
109. Pozzi, Renee. "The cost of not having
the 'Big 4/5' " . ESC DAILY. Archived
from the original on 19 July 2016.
Retrieved 15 May 2019.
110. "Eurovision Song Contest 1997" .
European Broadcasting Union.
Archived from the original on 5 June
2011. Retrieved 26 June 2009.
111. "Eurovision Song Contest 2001" .
European Broadcasting Union.
Archived from the original on 27 July
2012. Retrieved 26 June 2009.
112. "Eurovision Song Contest 2004 Semi-
final" . European Broadcasting Union.
Archived from the original on 20 May
2009. Retrieved 22 July 2009.
113. "Eurovision Song Contest 2005 Semi-
final" . European Broadcasting Union.
Archived from the original on 18 May
2009. Retrieved 22 July 2009.
114. "Eurovision Song Contest – Two Semi-
finals in 2008" (PDF). European
Broadcasting Union. 1 October 2007.
Archived (PDF) from the original on 7
June 2011. Retrieved 18 July 2009.
115. "Bubble rapt" . The Sydney Morning
Herald. 17 May 2004. Archived from
the original on 16 March 2008.
Retrieved 22 September 2009.
116. "Eurovision Song Contest – Dusseldorf
2011 | News – 'Luxembourg never to
return to the contest' " . Esctoday.com.
5 September 2008. Archived from the
original on 4 May 2014. Retrieved
22 May 2011.
117. "News – Serbia wins Eurovision Song
Contest" . B92. Archived from the
original on 22 November 2007.
Retrieved 15 May 2011.
118. Raykoff, Ivan; Tobin, Robert Deam
(2007). A Song for Europe . google.rs.
ISBN 9780754658795.
119. "By year" . Eurovision.tv. Archived
from the original on 7 October 2014.
Retrieved 20 October 2014.
120. "History of Eurovision song contest" .
Eurovision.tv. 20 October 2014.
Archived from the original on 7
October 2014. Retrieved 20 October
2014.
121. "An Alternate Universe: Eurovision 2017
Under the Old Voting System" .
ESCXTRA. 14 May 2017. Archived from
the original on 12 June 2017. Retrieved
15 May 2017.
122. "Trophy" . Eurovision Song Contest.
Retrieved 31 May 2019.
123. "Eurovision Crystal Trophy" . Kosta
Boda. Retrieved 31 May 2019.
124. "Opening of Sweden's ABBA museum
is delayed" . The San Francisco
Chronicle. 12 September 2008.
Archived from the original on 9
September 2012. Retrieved 20 May
2019.
125. Stanley, Bob (1 July 2015). "Bucks Fizz:
more than just a Kwik Save Abba" . the
Guardian. Archived from the original
on 3 May 2018. Retrieved 2 May 2018.
126. Gray, Sadie (19 October 2008). "Lloyd
Webber agrees to try to write a winner
for Eurovision" . The Independent.
London. Archived from the original on
28 October 2014. Retrieved 2 May 2010.
127. "Netta Barzilai from Israel wins
Eurovision Song Contest 2018" . 12 May
2018. Archived from the original on 12
May 2018. Retrieved 12 May 2018.
128. "Star percussionist revealed as
Eurovision interval act" . European
Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 21 May
2019.
129. "The definitive guide to Eurovision
interval acts" . esc-plus.com. Retrieved
21 May 2019.
130. "Poll: What is your favourite Eurovision
grand final interval act from the past
decade?" . Wiwibloggs. Retrieved
21 May 2019.
131. Barnes, Clive. "Riverdance Ten Years
on" . RiverDance. Archived from the
original on 22 May 2009. Retrieved
27 July 2006.
132. "Eurovision 2017: Our Countdown Of
The 10 Best Interval Acts Ever" .
HuffPost. Retrieved 21 May 2019.
133. "Justin Timberlake makes world
premiere live performance in the
Eurovision Song Contest!" . European
Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 21 May
2019.
134. "Eurovision: Madonna mixes politics
with a classic hit during performance" .
CNN. Retrieved 21 May 2019.
135. "Cirque du Soleil!" . European
Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 21 May
2019.
136. "Mentalist Lior Suchard to make
special appearance at Eurovision
2019" . eurovision.tv. 1 May 2019.
Retrieved 24 May 2019.
137. O'Connor, John Kennedy (2007). The
Eurovision Song Contest: The Official
History. UK: Carlton Books. pp. 156–159.
ISBN 978-1-84442-994-3.
138. "Jessica Mauboy to perform at
Eurovision" . SBS News. 26 March 2014.
Retrieved 22 May 2019.
139. "Eurovision'19: Junior Eurovision Guest
Appearance Moved to Semi-Final
One" . eurovoix.com. Eurovoix. 8 May
2019. Retrieved 23 May 2019.
140. "Junior Eurovision Song Contest: Gaia
glows in Copenhagen" . www.ebu.ch. 13
May 2014. Retrieved 23 May 2019.
141. "#Discover the Junior Eurovision Song
Contest 2015" . eurovision.tv. European
Broadcasting Union. 22 May 2015.
Retrieved 23 May 2019.
142. "Budskapsstark mellanakt i Eurovision:
"Vi ingjuter värme och hopp" " (in
Swedish). Sveriges Television.
Retrieved 21 May 2019.
143. "The end of a decade: Kyiv 2005" .
eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting
Union. 27 December 2009. Retrieved
24 May 2019.
144. "Eurovision Eurovision 2008: Novak
Djokovic a special guest" .
Esctoday.com. 19 May 2008. Retrieved
24 May 2019.
145. "Russian singer wins 2008 Eurovision
Song Contest" . www.ctvnews.ca.
Retrieved 24 May 2019.
146. "Eurovision'19: Elton John & Coldplay
Being Considered as Interval Acts?" .
Eurovoix. 9 January 2019. Retrieved
24 May 2019.
147. "Eurovision Surprises: Lys Assia and
space station connections" .
ESCToday.com. 23 May 2003.
Retrieved 24 May 2019.
148. "Norway sweeps Eurovision Song
Contest" . DW.COM. Retrieved 24 May
2019.
149. "Second Semi-Final: The Qualifiers" .
eurovision.tv. Retrieved 25 May 2019.
150. Roos, Malin. "SVT:s skräll: Zlatan
öppnar Eurovision" [SVT bang: Zlatan
opens Eurovision]. Expressen (in
Swedish). Retrieved 28 April 2013.
151. "Gal Gadot promotes Tel Aviv during
Eurovision broadcast" . The Jerusalem
Post. Retrieved 25 May 2019.
152. "Eurovision Song Contest 2013:
Reporter's log" . BBC. Retrieved 21 May
2019.
153. Albinsson, Mathilde (13 May 2016). "Så
blir öppningsnumret i finalen av
Eurovision 2016 – en hyllning till
svensk design och dansmusik" [Here
is the opening number for Eurovision
2016 - a tribute to Swedish design and
house music]. svt.se (in Swedish).
Sveriges Television. Retrieved 17 May
2016.
154. "Abba win 'Eurovision 50th' vote" . BBC
News Online. 23 October 2005.
Archived from the original on 19
October 2006. Retrieved 20 July 2006.
155. Borg, Luje (9 December 2013). "EBU: A
pan-European survey" . esctoday.com.
ESCToday. Archived from the original
on 13 December 2013. Retrieved
9 December 2013.
156. "60th Anniversay: BBC Confirmed As
Show Producers" . eurovoix.com.
Eurovoix. 29 January 2015. Archived
from the original on 30 January 2015.
Retrieved 29 January 2015.
157. "Eurovision 2015: BBC to produce 60th
anniversary special" .
officialcharts.com. Official Charts
Company. 29 January 2015. Archived
from the original on 3 February 2015.
Retrieved 29 January 2015.
158. Roxburgh, Gordon (3 February 2015).
"Official: London to host Eurovision's
60th Anniversary Event" . eurovision.tv.
European Broadcasting Union.
Archived from the original on 3
February 2015. Retrieved 3 February
2015.
159. Freeman, Guy (6 February 2015).
"Eurovision's Greatest Hits – full line-up
revealed!" (6 February 2015). bbc.co.uk.
BBC. Archived from the original on 7
February 2015. Retrieved 6 February
2015.
160. Jiandani, Sanjay (5 February 2015).
"United Kingdom: 4 more Eurovision
acts join the party!" . esctoday.com.
ESCToday. Archived from the original
on 5 February 2015. Retrieved
5 February 2015.
161. "Politics 'not Eurovision factor' " . BBC
News Online. 9 May 2007. Archived
from the original on 31 March 2008.
Retrieved 25 May 2008.
162. "Malta slates Eurovision's voting" . BBC
News Online. 14 May 2007. Archived
from the original on 5 March 2008.
Retrieved 25 May 2008.
163. "BBC News – Russia booed at
Eurovision semi-final" Archived 13
May 2014 at the Wayback Machine.
BBC. 7 May 2014. Retrieved 13 May
2014.
164. Wyatt, Daisy (24 May 2015). "Eurovision
2015: Russia booed despite song
contest's best efforts to put 'music
over politics' " . The Independent.
Archived from the original on 28 May
2015. Retrieved 29 May 2015.
165. "Eurovision 2014: the booing of Russia
was a disgrace" . Spectator Blogs. 11
May 2014. Archived from the original
on 4 May 2015. Retrieved 6 May 2015.
166. "Israel counters Eurovision boycott
campaign with Google ads" . Reuters. 10
May 2019. Archived from the original
on 13 May 2019. Retrieved 13 May 2019.
167. Savage, Mark (30 January 2019). "Stars
urge BBC to ask for Eurovision to be
moved out of Israel" . BBC News.
Archived from the original on 7 May
2019. Retrieved 13 May 2019.
168. "China banned from broadcasting
Eurovision after censoring same-sex
dance" . SBS News. 11 May 2018.
Archived from the original on 13 May
2019. Retrieved 13 May 2019.
169. "Eurovision 2018: Chinese channel
barred from airing contest" . BBC
News. 11 May 2018. Archived from the
original on 13 May 2019. Retrieved
13 May 2019.
170. Majendie, Paul (11 August 2007).
"Edinburgh Fringe show celebrates
Eurovision kitsch" . Reuters. Archived
from the original on 1 June 2010.
Retrieved 18 July 2009.
171. "Eurovision's Diamond Day" . Archived
from the original on 3 September 2015.
172. Paul Allatson (April 2007). " 'Antes
cursi que sencilla': Eurovision Song
Contests and the Kitsch-Drive to Euro-
Unity". Culture, Theory and Critique. 48
(1): 87–98.
doi:10.1080/14735780701293540 .
173. "Eurovision votes 'farce' attack" . BBC
News Online. 16 May 2004. Archived
from the original on 27 April 2006.
Retrieved 15 July 2006.
174. Derek Gatherer. "Comparison of
Eurovision Song Contest Simulation
with Actual Results Reveals Shifting
Patterns of Collusive Voting Alliances.
Archived 5 May 2007 at the Wayback
Machine", Journal of Artificial Societies
and Social Simulation vol. 9, no. 2. 31
March 2006. Retrieved 14 May 2011.
175. "Ginsburgh, Victor and Abdul Noury.
2006. The Eurovision Song Contest Is
Voting Political or Cultural?" (PDF).
Archived from the original (PDF) on 3
September 2015. Retrieved 19 April
2019.
176. Spierdjik, Laura; Vellekoop, Michel (18
May 2006). "Geography, Culture, and
Religion: Explaining the Bias in
Eurovision Song Contest Voting" (PDF).
rug.nl. Archived (PDF) from the original
on 3 September 2015. Retrieved 3 June
2015.
177. Mantzaris, Alexander V., Rein, Samuel
R. and Hopkins, Alexander D.
"Examining Collusion and Voting Biases
Between Countries During the
Eurovision Song Contest Since 1957.
Archived 19 March 2018 at the
Wayback Machine", Journal of Artificial
Societies and Social Simulation vol. 21,
no. 1. 31 January 2018. Retrieved 16 May
2017.
178. Economist, DailyChart (11 May 2018).
"Partisanship at Eurovision is becoming
more blatant" . Economist. Archived
from the original on 11 May 2018.
Retrieved 11 May 2018.
179. Economist, WarableGames (12 May
2018). "Neighbourly voting in the
Eurovision Song Contest" . Economist.
Archived from the original on 12 May
2018. Retrieved 12 May 2018.
180. Mantzaris, Alexander V.; Rein, Samuel
R.; Hopkins, Alexander D. (2018).
"Preference and neglect amongst
countries in the Eurovision Song
Contest". Journal of Computational
Social Science. 1 (2): 377–390.
doi:10.1007/s42001-018-0020-2 .
181. "Eurovision Song Contest 2008".
Eurovision Song Contest. 24 May 2008.
182. "erry Wogan 'very doubtful' about
presenting Eurovision again" . 28
November 2015. Archived from the
original on 15 August 2008. Retrieved
28 November 2015.
183. Viniker, Barry (8 December 2008). "EBU
confirms 50/50 vote for Eurovision
Song Contest" . ESCToday. Archived
from the original on 11 December 2008.
Retrieved 8 December 2008.
184. Bakker, Sietse (31 December 2009).
"Exclusive: 39 countries to be
represented in Oslo" . EBU. Archived
from the original on 3 January 2010.
Retrieved 31 December 2009.
185. "Heads of Delegations meet in Vienna" .
eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting
Union. Archived from the original on 16
March 2015. Retrieved 16 March 2015.
186. "Order effects in the results of song
contests: Evidence from the Eurovision
and the New Wave" . journal.sjdm.org.
187. Siim, Jarmo (7 November 2012).
"Running order Malmö 2013 to be
determined by producers" . European
Broadcasting Union. Archived from the
original on 10 November 2012. Retrieved
9 November 2012.
188. Repo, Juha (8 November 2012). "Mixed
feelings about Eurovision rule change" .
ESCToday.com. Archived from the
original on 13 November 2012. Retrieved
22 November 2012.
189. Jiandani, Sanjay (19 November 2012).
"Ireland reacts to running order rule" .
ESCToday.com. Archived from the
original on 27 April 2016. Retrieved
22 November 2012.
190. Sanjay, Jiandani (16 November 2012).
"San Marino reacts to running order
rule" . ESCToday.com. Archived from
the original on 27 April 2016. Retrieved
22 November 2012.
191. Jiandani, Sanjay (14 November 2012).
"Moldova reacts to running order rule" .
ESCToday.com. Archived from the
original on 27 April 2016. Retrieved
22 November 2012.
192. Gavster. "Producers To Decide
Eurovision Running Order" .
esctips.com. Archived from the
original on 24 May 2015. Retrieved
23 May 2015.
193. "eurovision 2013 running order rule
change controversy" . Eurovisiontimes.
9 November 2012. Archived from the
original on 24 May 2015. Retrieved
23 May 2015.
194. Granger, Anthony (15 May 2019).
"Details Revealed About The American
Song Contest" . Eurovoix. Archived
from the original on 17 May 2019.
Retrieved 15 May 2019.
195. Granger, Anthony (21 September 2013).
"Turkvision a snub at Eurovision?" .
Eurovoix.com. Archived from the
original on 24 September 2013.
Retrieved 21 September 2013.

Further reading
Gambaccini, Paul et al. The Complete
Eurovision Song Contest Companion.
London: Pavilion, 1998 ISBN 1-86205-167-4,
160p.
O'Connor, John Kennedy. The Eurovision
Song Contest: The Official History. London:
Carlton, 2007 ISBN 978-1844429943, 208p.
 Raykoff, Ivan and Robert D. Tobin (eds.), A
Song for Europe: Popular Music and Politics
in the Eurovision Song Contest (Burlington,
VT: Ashgate, 2007).
Yair, G (1995). " 'Unite Unite Europe' The
political and cultural structures of Europe
as reflected in the Eurovision Song Contest".
Social Networks. 17 (2): 147–161.
doi:10.1016/0378-8733(95)00253-k .
Yair; Maman (1996). "The Persistent
Structure of Hegemony in the Eurovision
Song Contest". Acta Sociologica. 39 (3):
309–325. doi:10.1177/000169939603900303 .

External links
Wikimedia Commons has media
related to Eurovision Song Contest.

Wikiquote has quotations related to:

Eurovision Song Contest

Official website
Eurovision Song Contest  – European
Broadcasting Union
Eurovision Song Contest's channel on
YouTube
Retrieved from
"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?
title=Eurovision_Song_Contest&oldid=96158300
1"

Last edited 5 days ago by 2A00:23C5:AB07:2701:707C:1A9:4603:3020

Content is available under CC BY-SA 3.0

unless otherwise noted.