1.
Armenia
–
Armenia, officially the Republic of Armenia, is a sovereign state in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia. The Republic of Armenia constitutes only one-tenth of historical Armenia, Armenia is a unitary, multi-party, democratic nation-state with an ancient cultural heritage. Urartu was established in 860 BC and by the 6th century BC it was replaced by the Satrapy of Armenia, in the 1st century BC the Kingdom of Armenia reached its height under Tigranes the Great. Armenia became the first state in the world to adopt Christianity as its official religion, in between the late 3rd century to early years of the 4th century, the state became the first Christian nation. The official date of adoption of Christianity is 301 AD. The ancient Armenian kingdom was split between the Byzantine and Sasanian Empires around the early 5th century, under the Bagratuni dynasty, the Bagratid Kingdom of Armenia was restored in the 9th century. Declining due to the wars against the Byzantines, the fell in 1045. An Armenian principality and later a kingdom Cilician Armenia was located on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea between the 11th and 14th centuries. By the 19th century, Eastern Armenia had been conquered by the Russian Empire, during World War I, Armenians living in their ancestral lands in the Ottoman Empire were systematically exterminated in the Armenian Genocide. By 1920, the state was incorporated into the Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, in 1936, the Transcaucasian state was dissolved, transforming its constituent states, including the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic, into full Union republics. The modern Republic of Armenia became independent in 1991 during the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Republic of Armenia recognises the Armenian Apostolic Church, the worlds oldest national church, as the countrys primary religious establishment. The unique Armenian alphabet was invented by Mesrop Mashtots in 405 AD, Armenia is a member of the Eurasian Economic Union, the Council of Europe and the Collective Security Treaty Organization. Armenia supports the de facto independent Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, which was proclaimed in 1991, the native Armenian name for the country is Հայք. The name in the Middle Ages was extended to Հայաստան, by addition of the Persian suffix -stan, the further origin of the name is uncertain. It is also postulated that the name Hay comes from one of the two confederated, Hittite vassal states—the Ḫayaša-Azzi. The exonym Armenia is attested in the Old Persian Behistun Inscription as Armina, the ancient Greek terms Ἀρμενία and Ἀρμένιοι are first mentioned by Hecataeus of Miletus. Xenophon, a Greek general serving in some of the Persian expeditions, describes many aspects of Armenian village life and he relates that the people spoke a language that to his ear sounded like the language of the Persians. According to the histories of both Moses of Chorene and Michael Chamchian, Armenia derives from the name of Aram, a descendant of Hayk
Armenia
–
Reconstruction of
Herodotus ' world map c. 450 BC, with Armenia shown in the center
Armenia
–
Flag
Armenia
–
The Armenian pagan
Temple of Garni, probably built 1st century AD, is the only "Greco-Roman
colonnaded building" in Armenia and the entire
former Soviet Union.
Armenia
–
The
Etchmiadzin Cathedral, Armenia's Mother Church traditionally dated 303 AD, is considered the oldest cathedral in the world.
2.
Eurovision Song Contest 2008
–
The Eurovision Song Contest 2008 was the 53rd edition of the Contest. It was hosted in Belgrade, Serbia after Marija Šerifović won the 2007 Contest in Helsinki and this year was the first time there were three contests, two semi-finals which were held on 20 and 22 May, and the traditional grand final which was held on 24 May 2008. The shows were hosted by Jovana Janković and Željko Joksimović at the Belgrade Arena which had a capacity of 25,000 seats. After a total of 272 points, Dima Bilan representing Russia was declared the winner, with the song Believe written by American Jim Beanz, so far this has been the only time Russia has won the contest. Russia came third in the semi-final, making it the winner with the worst semi-final result, ukraine were runners up for the second year running, with 3rd place going to Greece, 4th to Armenia seeing their best result so far and 5th to Norway. 2008 also saw, for the first time ever, Eurovision. tv streaming national finals live on ESCTV with broadcasters permission. On 30 January 2008, Eurovision. tv revealed the theme of the Contest, The Confluence of Sound, Serbia gained the right to host the Contest after Marija Šerifović won the 2007 Contest in Helsinki, Finland. Since Serbia was the winner of the preceding contest, the 2008 contest was held there. The Belgrade Arena was chosen as the venue for the contest, on 14 September 2007, the Mayor of Helsinki handed over the Eurovision keys to the Deputy of Belgrade. This ceremony is meant to be a tradition from the 2008 contest and onward, ukraine was considered an option since they came second in Eurovision Song Contest 2007. YLE were another option, as hosted the previous years competition in Helsinki. Greeces Ellinikí Radiofonía Tileórasi also offered the EBU to host the contest in Athens and it was later decided that the contest would stay in Belgrade, with the EBU giving support. RTS would gain a guarantee of safety and security from the government of Serbia for all visitors, the delegations of Albania, Croatia and Israel had special security. RTS ran a competition led to the creation of the 2008 Contests branding, logo. The theme of the Contest was based around the confluence of sound and this was symbolic as Belgrade lies on the confluence of two European rivers, the Sava and Danube. The logo chosen, a treble clef, formed the basis of the design created by Boris Miljković. The postcards in the first and second semi-final were based around the creation of the flag of the nation that was to perform next, each post card had a short story related to each country and its people. During each postcard a short letter was displayed, the postcards were brought to an end by a stamp with this years Eurovision logo
Eurovision Song Contest 2008
–
The
Belgrade Arena, the 2008 venue.
Eurovision Song Contest 2008
Eurovision Song Contest 2008
–
Presenters
Željko Joksimović and
Jovana Janković during the first semi-final
Eurovision Song Contest 2008
–
Eurovision Song Contest: Belgrade 2008
3.
Sirusho
–
Siranush Harutyunyan, known professionally as Sirusho, is an Armenian singer, whose musical career has been active for over 20 years. Her musical style reflects the Armenian traditional soundes mixed with the world music. Sirusho received her first award only aged 9, for her song Lusabats, Sirushos first studio album, Sirusho, was released in 2000, her second album Sheram was released in 2005. In the same year, she was awarded The Future of Armenian Music, Best Album, in 2008, the BBC described her success as making her a national treasure of Armenia. Sirusho represented Armenia with the song Qélé, Qélé, which she co-wrote with Armenian producer H. A, Qélé, Qélé became hit for all Eurovision following fans around the world, especially in Greek-speaking areas. The Yerevan Remix version of the song was played in Greek clubs, on London Greek Radio in the United Kingdom. Sirusho is the first Armenian artist to be a 2-time nominee at World Music Awards with the song Pregomesh, in October 2013, W magazine included Sirusho in their list of 6 un-American idols, The Beyoncé of Brazil, the Gaga of Serbia. The author of the list, Kevin McGarry, suggested Perhaps the door is open for Sirusho to introduce the world to a sound. Sirusho was born in Yerevan, Soviet Armenia on January 7,1987, to actor and director Hrachya Harutyunyan and Syuzan Margaryan, one of the most popular singers in Armenia in the 1980s–1990s. Sirusho got her first award as a child at the Armenian national Music Awards for her performance of Lusabats, at the age of 7 Sirusho began to write her own music and lyrics in Armenian and English. At the age of 9 Sirusho won another award at the Young Talents Contest for one of her own compositions and she released her first studio album Sirusho at the age of 13. Sirusho graduated from Yerevans Khachik Dashtents School #114 in 2004 and she subsequently studied piano at the Sayat-Nova Music School. She has graduated Yerevan State University, with excellence in international relations, although Sirusho mainly performed soul and pop, for most of her career, she decided to work on an album presenting Armenian folk songs by gusan Sheram. It was titled Sheram and was released in 2005, the album also included the single Shorora was very well received. In 2005, Sheram was awarded the Best Album of the Year award at the Armenian National Music Awards, Sirusho also won the Best Female Artist of the Year award. In 2006, Varduhi Vardanyan, a renowned Armenian singer, died, Varduhi has been a very close friend of Sirushos since her childhood. After her death, Sirusho dedicated a song to Varduhi, entitled Mez Vochinch Chi Bazhani, in 2006, Sirusho received the award for Best Female Artist of the year at the Annual Armenian-Russian Diaspora Music Awards held in Moscow, Russia where she received The Best Female Artist Award. A few days later, she released her single Heranum em, the single was included in Sirushos album Hima, which also included Arjani E, a track with singer Sofi Mkheyan as well as another tracks written and produced by Sirusho
Sirusho
–
Sirusho in London, 2008
Sirusho
–
Sirusho performing Armenia's entry at the
Eurovision Song Contest 2008
4.
Not Alone (Aram Mp3 song)
–
Not Alone is a song by Armenian singer Aram Mp3. It was internally selected to represent Armenia at the Eurovision Song Contest 2014 in Denmark, the song was revealed on 14 March 2014. On 31 December 2013 Aram Mp3 was selected by Armenian First Channel to represent Armenia at the Eurovision Song Contest 2014, on 21 February 2014 it was announced that Arams song is already chosen, but the song will be premiered together with a music video by March. Overall the broadcaster received 75 songs from domestic and foreign composers, the song recording works begun in February 2014. On 14 March the song and music video premiered on AMPTV. The music of the song was written by Aram himself, while the author of the lyrics is Arams friend Garik Papoyan, when asked about the song message, Aram said, You should never give up and always fight for love. Not Alone is a mix of ballad and dubstep and it starts with piano accompaniment, and in the middle of the song there is also violin. The dubstep part of the song starts after repeating Youre not alone, the song ends as it started, with piano accompaniment. The official remix version by DJ Serjo was released a few days ago before the first semi-final of contest, the song mostly received positive reviews and was considered as one of the main favorites of the 2014 Eurovision. Jess Denham of The Independent called it an empowering dubstep ballad, sofabet editor Daniel Gould stated that The song is not typical Eurovision fare, because of its structure. Gould called it a big tune, structurally daring, contemporary, alex Fletcher from Digital Spy called the song as a standard Eurovision brooding fare for 1 minute 53, and then continuing his article he notes, Then theres a key change. Eurovision loves a bloody key change and it then morphs into a dubstep banger with extra knobs on. In Armenia the song was received by Armenian musicians. Hayko, who represented Armenia in 2007, said he liked the song and called it tasteful, similarly, Armenias 2013 representative, Gor Sujyan said he liked the song very much, including the music, lyrics and the instrumentation. He expressed the opinion that it will be accepted in Europe, hasmik Karapetyan admitted that she expected a more rhythmic song from Aram, but she praised the song and suggested it came out to be a powerful, moving song, which contains a very important message. The music video is directed by Grigor Gasparyan and it was shot in March in Yerevan. On 14 March the song and music video premiered on AMPTV. In 24 hours since the video was uploaded on Eurovision channel on YouTube
Not Alone (Aram Mp3 song)
–
"Not Alone" was composed by Aram himself.
Not Alone (Aram Mp3 song)
–
"Not Alone"
Not Alone (Aram Mp3 song)
–
Aram Mp3 performing the song in
Copenhagen,
Denmark
5.
English language
–
English /ˈɪŋɡlɪʃ/ is a West Germanic language that was first spoken in early medieval England and is now the global lingua franca. Named after the Angles, one of the Germanic tribes that migrated to England, English is either the official language or one of the official languages in almost 60 sovereign states. It is the third most common language in the world, after Mandarin. It is the most widely learned second language and a language of the United Nations, of the European Union. It is the most widely spoken Germanic language, accounting for at least 70% of speakers of this Indo-European branch, English has developed over the course of more than 1,400 years. The earliest forms of English, a set of Anglo-Frisian dialects brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the century, are called Old English. Middle English began in the late 11th century with the Norman conquest of England, Early Modern English began in the late 15th century with the introduction of the printing press to London and the King James Bible, and the start of the Great Vowel Shift. Through the worldwide influence of the British Empire, modern English spread around the world from the 17th to mid-20th centuries, English is an Indo-European language, and belongs to the West Germanic group of the Germanic languages. Most closely related to English are the Frisian languages, and English, Old Saxon and its descendent Low German languages are also closely related, and sometimes Low German, English, and Frisian are grouped together as the Ingvaeonic or North Sea Germanic languages. Modern English descends from Middle English, which in turn descends from Old English, particular dialects of Old and Middle English also developed into a number of other English languages, including Scots and the extinct Fingallian and Forth and Bargy dialects of Ireland. English is classified as a Germanic language because it shares new language features with other Germanic languages such as Dutch, German and these shared innovations show that the languages have descended from a single common ancestor, which linguists call Proto-Germanic. Through Grimms law, the word for foot begins with /f/ in Germanic languages, English is classified as an Anglo-Frisian language because Frisian and English share other features, such as the palatalisation of consonants that were velar consonants in Proto-Germanic. The earliest form of English is called Old English or Anglo-Saxon, in the fifth century, the Anglo-Saxons settled Britain and the Romans withdrew from Britain. England and English are named after the Angles, Old English was divided into four dialects, the Anglian dialects, Mercian and Northumbrian, and the Saxon dialects, Kentish and West Saxon. Through the educational reforms of King Alfred in the century and the influence of the kingdom of Wessex. The epic poem Beowulf is written in West Saxon, and the earliest English poem, Modern English developed mainly from Mercian, but the Scots language developed from Northumbrian. A few short inscriptions from the period of Old English were written using a runic script. By the sixth century, a Latin alphabet was adopted, written with half-uncial letterforms and it included the runic letters wynn ⟨ƿ⟩ and thorn ⟨þ⟩, and the modified Latin letters eth ⟨ð⟩, and ash ⟨æ⟩
English language
–
The opening to the Old English epic poem
Beowulf,
handwritten in
half-uncial script: Hƿæt ƿē Gārde/na ingēar dagum þēod cyninga / þrym ge frunon... "Listen! We of the Spear-Danes from days of yore have heard of the glory of the folk-kings..."
English language
–
Countries of the world where English is a majority native language
English language
–
Title page of Geoffrey Chaucer's
Canterbury Tales c.1400
6.
Armenian language
–
The Armenian language is an Indo-European language spoken by the Armenians. Like Hellenic Greek, it has its own branch in the language tree. It is the language of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. It has historically been spoken throughout the Armenian Highlands and today is spoken in the Armenian diaspora. Armenian has its own script, the Armenian alphabet, introduced in 405 AD by Mesrop Mashtots. Armenian is an independent branch of the Indo-European languages and it is of interest to linguists for its distinctive phonological developments within that family. Armenian exhibits more satemization than centumization, although it is not classified as belonging to either of these subgroups, Armenia was a monolingual country by the 2nd century BC at the latest. Its language has a literary history, with a 5th-century Bible translation as its oldest surviving text. Its vocabulary has been influenced by Western Middle Iranian languages, particularly Parthian, and to an extent by Greek, Persian. There are two standardized modern literary forms, Eastern Armenian and Western Armenian, with which most contemporary dialects are mutually intelligible and he is also credited by some with the creation of the Caucasian Albanian alphabet. In The Anabasis, Xenophon describes many aspects of Armenian village life and he relates that the Armenian people spoke a language that to his ear sounded like the language of the Persians. W. M. However, unlike shared innovations, the retention of archaisms is not considered conclusive evidence of a period of common isolated development. Some of the terms he gives admittedly have an Akkadian or Sumerian provenance, loan words from Iranian languages, along with the other ancient accounts such as that of Xenophon above, initially led linguists to erroneously classify Armenian as an Iranian language. Scholars such as Paul de Lagarde and F. Müller believed that the similarities between the two meant that Iranian and Armenian were the same language. The distinctness of Armenian was recognized when philologist Heinrich Hübschmann used the method to distinguish two layers of Iranian loans from the older Armenian vocabulary. Meillets hypothesis became popular in the wake of his Esquisse, eric P. Hamp supports the Graeco-Armenian thesis, anticipating even a time when we should speak of Helleno-Armenian. Nevertheless, as Fortson comments, by the time we reach our earliest Armenian records in the 5th century AD, graeco--Aryan is a hypothetical clade within the Indo-European family, ancestral to the Greek language, the Armenian language, and the Indo-Iranian languages. Graeco-Aryan unity would have divided into Proto-Greek and Proto-Indo-Iranian by the mid-third millennium BC
Armenian language
–
Armenian manuscript, 5th–6th century.
Armenian language
–
regions where Armenian is the language of the majority
Armenian language
–
The Four Gospels, 1495, Portrait of St Mark Wellcome with Armenian inscriptions
Armenian language
–
First Armenian language Bible.
7.
Anytime You Need
–
Anytime You Need was the Armenian entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 2007, performed in English and Armenian by Hayko. This was the first occasion on which the Armenian language was used in a Contest entry, Hayko addresses himself to his lover, telling her that while other relationships end, theirs will endure. He explains that All Ill ever do is watch over you and he promises her that he will be there whenever she calls crying with the blues and that he will dry your tears when you cry. The final lines of the song are delivered in Armenian, and feature a similar profession of love, the performance featured Hayko standing in the centre of the stage in front of an artificial tree. There were two backing musicians, one of whom was described by BBC commentator Terry Wogan as looking like a red Indian, due to Armenia having finished the previous Contest in the top ten, the song was automatically qualified for the final. At the close of voting, it had received 138 points and this was the exact position Armenia had finished on debut in 2006. Hayko Armenia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2007
Anytime You Need
–
"Anytime You Need"
8.
Eurovision Song Contest 2009
–
The Eurovision Song Contest 2009 was the 54th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest and was hosted by Russia after their win in 2008. It took place between 12 and 16 May 2009 at the Olympic Indoor Arena in Moscow, Russia, third place went to Azerbaijan, fourth to Turkey, and the United Kingdom taking 5th, seeing their best placing since 2002. Forty-two countries participated in the contest, Slovakia announced that it would return to the contest, Latvia and Georgia originally announced their intention to withdraw, but it was later stated by the European Broadcasting Union that both countries would indeed participate. However, Georgia later decided to withdraw after the EBU rejected its selected song as being a breach of contest rules, the contest was held in Russia following its victory in the 2008 contest in Belgrade, Serbia, with Dima Bilans Believe. Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister of Russia, stated that the contest would be held in Moscow and it was proposed by Channel One that the contest be held in Moscows Olympic Indoor Arena, and this proposal was evaluated by the European Broadcasting Union and confirmed on 13 September 2008. The Director-General of the venue, Vladimir Churilin, refuted rumours of emergency reconstruction of the building, saying and we now can take up to 25 thousand spectators. The contest final took place on 16 May 2009 at the Olympic Indoor Arena in Moscow, thirty-seven countries participated in one of the two semi-finals of the contest, with the Big Four countries and the host pre-qualified for the final. In addition to those pre-qualified, the final included the ten selected countries from each semi-final. However, it was confirmed that the Big Four countries would continue to qualify for the final at the 2009 contest. Host broadcaster Channel One presented the sub-logo and theme for the 2009 contest on 30 January 2009, the sub-logo is based upon a Fantasy Bird, which can be used with many colours. As in previous years, the sub-logo was presented alongside the generic logo,2009 was the first year since 2001 that there was no slogan for the contest. The stage was designed by New York-based set designer John Casey, Casey, who had previously designed the stage for the Eurovision Song Contest 1997 in Dublin, was also involved in design teams for the 1994 and 1995 contests. He explained that even before worked with the Russians on the TEFI Awards in Moscow in 1998, was inspired by and drawn to art from the Russian Avant Garde period, especially the constructivists. Tried to come up with a design for the contest that incorporates Russian avant-garde art into a contemporary setting. Casey explained that together, the various LED shapes form the finished product, furthermore, large sections of the stage can move, including the circular central portion of curved LED screens, which can be moved to effect and allow each song to have a different feel. Finally a phrase in transliterated Russian and its English translation were shown, the music accompanying the postcards was written and produced by Matthew Herbert. On Friday 30 January 2009, the draw to decide which countries would appear in either the first or second semi-final took place, the participating countries excluding the automatic finalists were split into six pots, based upon how those countries have been voting. From these pots, half competed in the first Semi Final on 10 May 2009, the other half in that particular pot will compete in the second Semi Final on 12 May 2009
Eurovision Song Contest 2009
–
The venue of the contest,
Olympic Indoor Arena in
Moscow
Eurovision Song Contest 2009
Eurovision Song Contest 2009
–
The stage of the contest
Eurovision Song Contest 2009
–
Alexander Rybak after winning the final.
9.
Inga and Anush Arshakyan
–
Inga and Anush Arshakyan, or, the Arshakyan Sisters, are an Armenian folk singing duo. The sisters represented Armenia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2009, eventually finishing in 10th place in the final, Anush was born on 24 December 1980 in Yerevan. She graduated from S. Aslamazyan music school, in piano, in 1994, she came first and was awarded the audience prize in the Sonorous Voices competition that took place in Omsk. In that period, she started promoting herself as a writer/composer, as soon as she graduated in 2001, she entered and graduated from A. Babajanyan music college, in piano. In 1999, she made her debut as a soloist together with Armenia State Philharmonic Orchestra, from 2001 to 2005, she studied at Yerevan State Conservatory, and graduated in jazz-vocal. Her sister Inga was born on 18 March 1982, in Yerevan and she also graduated from S. Aslamazyan music school and A. Babajanyan music college, as a violinist in 1997. Parallel with her studies she was working in the G. Achemyan violin ensemble and she toured with the ensemble to Armenian provinces. In 1998, Inga joined her sister and together they promoted their activities, not only duets, but also arias, where the violin plays a great role, are present in the repertoire. In 2002 graduating in strings, she followed her sister into the Yerevan State Conservatory, jazz vocal class, in 2000, Inga and Anush entered the State Song Theater of Armenia. Both of them performed national, ethnic songs and songs written by A. Grigoryan and they sang in many cities of Armenia as soloists. In September 2002, they left for the United States for a tour with song theatre soloists. After the concerts at Alex Theatre in Los Angeles, the sisters immediately got an offer to appear on the stage with solo concerts. The song theater left for Tehran with the same program, in 2002, the Armenian variety song festival Golden Lyre 2002 congratulated Anush and Inga on the Sympathy of Audience nomination. In February 2003, the Seasons of Life concert program was prepared, ethnic, national as well as modern songs were included in the musical performance, as well as songs to the accompaniment of violin, guitar and piano. In March 2003, solo concerts of Inga and Anush took place in the Alex Theater, at the same time their first album We and our Mountains was released. This was followed by invitations to appear on stage with the program in New York City, Toronto, Argentina. Eventually in November, they left the staff and started working on their own. In 2004, their rendition of the folk song Tamzara was announced as the winner of the Golden Lyre 2004 festival, additionally the song won the Tigran Naghdalyan award in the National Music Awards in December 2005
Inga and Anush Arshakyan
–
Inga & Anush
10.
Eurovision Song Contest 2010
–
The Eurovision Song Contest 2010 was the 55th annual Eurovision Song Contest, broadcast from the Telenor Arena in Bærum, Greater Oslo, Norway. Norway gained the rights to host the contest after achieving a record breaking victory in Moscow the previous year and it was the third time Norway had hosted the contest, having previously done so in 1986 and 1996. The 2010 winner was Germany with Lena singing Satellite, written by American Julie Frost and it was Germanys first win in twenty-eight years, its second since the Contests inception, and its first win as a unified country. It was also the first time a Big Four country won the contest since the introduction in 2000. The semi-finals took place on 25 and 27 May 2010 while the final was scheduled for 29 May 2010, the European Broadcasting Union announced that the voting system used in the semi-finals would change from previous years to balance jury voting with televoting. A return of accompaniment by orchestra was also proposed, but did not happen, thirty-nine countries took part in the contest, with Georgia returning after a one-year hiatus, and Andorra, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Montenegro withdrawing. Lithuania originally announced its withdrawal from the competition, but was later among the 39 participants confirmed by the EBU and this represents a larger budget than that allotted in the 2007 Contest in Helsinki, but is not as much as the budget in Moscow for 2009. The revised estimated cost for the now stands at 211 million kroner. At a press conference in Oslo on 27 May 2009, it was announced that the show was to be held in the Oslo metropolitan area, NRK argued that Oslo was the only city with the required capacity, venues, and infrastructure to hold the show. On 3 July 2009, it was decided that the venue would be the newly constructed Telenor Arena, the Oslo Spektrum was ruled out to host the contest due to its smaller size and capacity as was Valhall in Oslo and the Hamar Vikingskipet. The theme art, a series of intersecting circles, was selected to represent gathering people, in addition to the base colour of white, the logo was created in black, gold, and pink. A preview of the design was released on 6 May 2010, featuring no LED screens. The basic synopsis of the postcards is a group of little golden balls forms the shape of each country. Then, they move and form a screen where we can see a video of a little crowd from in a city of the country about to perform supporting and cheering their act. After that, a few seconds of the performer of the country getting ready in the stage are shown, and then, NRK announced the hosts of the contest on 10 March 2010. Those chosen were Erik Solbakken, Haddy Jatou Njie, and Nadia Hasnaoui, Solbakken and Njie opened the three shows, introduced the artists, and reported from the green room during the voting, with Hasnaoui presenting the voting section and scoreboard announcements. This was the time that more than two hosts were presenting the shows, after the 1999 Contest. This replaces the semi-final format used in the 2008 and 2009 contests in which the countries with the top nine highest points from the results in each semi-final qualified for the final
Eurovision Song Contest 2010
–
Screenshot from the rehearsals where the design can be seen
Eurovision Song Contest 2010
Eurovision Song Contest 2010
–
Telenor Arena, 28 May 2010
Eurovision Song Contest 2010
–
Lena performing the winning entry, "
Satellite," for Germany.
11.
Eurovision Song Contest 2013
–
The Eurovision Song Contest 2013 was the 58th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Malmö, Sweden, following Loreens win at the 2012 contest in Baku and it was the fifth time that Sweden had hosted the contest, the last time being in 2000. Sveriges Television chose Malmö Arena as the following the consideration of several venues in Sweden. The host for the contest was Petra Mede, thirty-nine countries participated, including Armenia, which was last represented in 2011. Bosnia and Herzegovina, Portugal, Slovakia and Turkey announced their withdrawal from the 2013 Contest, compared to many of the previous contests in the history of Eurovision, rather than focusing on promoting its own country, Sweden chose to lay focus on the artists and their respective countries. The winner for 2013 was Denmark with the song Only Teardrops sung by Emmelie de Forest and this makes it the second time that Denmark won on Swedish soil. Ukraine finished in place and Norway in fourth, while Russia finished in fifth place. Out of the countries with the Big Five status, only Italy managed to finish in the top ten, third in a row since its return, coming seventh with 126 points, the Netherlands finished ninth in their first participation in a final since 2004. 170 million viewers watched the semifinals and final of the 2013 edition, for the first time since 1985, no country of the former Yugoslav federation participated in the final of the Eurovision Song Contest. The concept sees all countries performing in the Grand Final present themselves with their flags before the contest begins. This year, the contestants entered the stage by walking across a bridge over the audience. The idea was continued the following years by Denmark and Austria, on 8 July 2012, the Swedish broadcaster Sveriges Television announced that Malmö Arena in Malmö would be the host venue for the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest. This was the time after 1975,1985,1992 and 2000 that the competition was held in Sweden and the second time, after 1992. This were factors in the choice of Malmö Arena as the host venue, and Malmö as Swedens third-largest city by population after Stockholm and Gothenburg, Øresund bridge was eventually also used as the main artistic medium for the theme of the contest, as an expression of binding cultures. One alternative put forward in the Expressen, was to hold the competition at three different venues – the semi-finals in Gothenburg and Malmö, and the final in Stockholm. This proposal was dismissed as unfeasible by SVT, which declared that the contest would be hosted in one city. On 20 June 2012, it was announced that Gothenburg had withdrawn from the process due to the city being the host of the Göteborg Horse Show in late April 2013. There were also concerns about the availability of hotel rooms due to a variety of events taking place in the same time frame as the Eurovision Song Contest
Eurovision Song Contest 2013
–
Square in Malmö before the finals, with time table demonstrating the countdown for the broadcast.
Eurovision Song Contest 2013
Eurovision Song Contest 2013
–
Malmö Arena, next to Hyllie Railway Station.
Eurovision Song Contest 2013
–
The stage with its movable parts and the audience closely surrounding it during the opening act of the second semi-final
12.
Eurovision Song Contest 2016
–
The Eurovision Song Contest 2016 was the 61st edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in the Ericsson Globe in Stockholm, Sweden, following Swedens victory at the 2015 in Vienna with the song Heroes and this was the third time the contest had taken place in Stockholm, after 1975 and 2000, the latter also being held at the Globe. The contest consisted of two semi-finals on 10 and 12 May and the final on 14 May 2016, with all three live shows hosted by Zelmerlöw and Petra Mede, the winner of the contest was Ukraine with the song 1944, performed by Jamala. This was Ukraines second win and its first since 2004 and it was also the first song with lyrics in Crimean Tatar to win or enter the contest. Forty-two countries participated in the contest, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia and Ukraine returned after absences from recent contests, while Australia also returned after debuting as a special guest in 2015. Twenty-six countries competed in the final, which was the first to be broadcast on television in the United States. In the final, Australia finished second, improving on its debut in 2015, while Bulgaria finished fourth, its best result since its debut, Justin Timberlake performed during the interval act of the final. A record-breaking 204 million viewers watched the contest, beating the 2015 viewing figures by over 5 million. The contest took place in the Ericsson Globe in Stockholm, following Swedens victory at the 2015 contest in Vienna with the song Heroes, performed by Måns Zelmerlöw. The Ericsson Globe has a capacity of approximately 16,000 attendees, host broadcaster Sveriges Television announced on 24 May, the day after winning the 2015 contest, that the Tele2 Arena in Stockholm was their first choice venue. However, other cities and arenas were invited to apply, a press centre with a specific size had to be made available at the venue. A specific number of hotels and hotel rooms had to be available in the vicinity of the venue. The host city had to be near a major airport, an announcement regarding the venue was expected from SVT by midsummer, with the Ericsson Globe announced as the venue on 8 July. These were subject to change depending on SVT, but were confirmed when Stockholm was announced as the host city. Discussions were held in 2014 between the EBU and the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union regarding the inclusion of a guest performance from the ABU TV Song Festival at the contest. The EBU confirmed on 16 July 2015 that they are looking into the possibility of the proposal, however, the EBU published the public rules of the contest on 28 October, which stated that the start time would remain at 21,00 CEST. The core team for the contest was announced by SVT and the EBU on 26 October, johan Bernhagen and Martin Österdahl were Executive Producers, while Tobias Åberg was Head of Production. The three live shows were directed by Sven Stojanović and the contest was produced by Christer Björkman, the EBU announced on 18 February 2016 that a new voting system would be implemented at the contest for the first time since 1975
Eurovision Song Contest 2016
–
The Ericsson Globe, Stockholm; venue of the 2016 contest
Eurovision Song Contest 2016
13.
France in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
France has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 59 times since its debut at the very first contest in 1956. France is one of seven countries to be present at the first contest. France first won the contest in 1958 with Dors, mon amour performed by André Claveau, frances fifth victory came in 1977, when Marie Myriam won with the song Loiseau et lenfant. France have also finished four times, with Paule Desjardins in 1957, Catherine Ferry in 1976, Joëlle Ursull in 1990 and Amina in 1991. France finished last for the first time in 2014, when Twin Twin received only two points. France have failed to reach the top 10 in 12 of the last 14 contests, the exceptions being Patricia Kaas, who was eighth in 2009, and Amir, several French broadcasters have been used to present Eurovision in the country, formerly RTF, ORTF and TF1. The first semi-final in 2004 was not broadcast, from 2015, France 2 resumed the responsibility of organising an entry and broadcasting the final and from 2016, both semi-finals will be broadcast by France 4. The change is an attempt to better ratings and results in forthcoming contests. Radio coverage has been provided, although not every year, by France Inter from 1971 to 1998 and since 2001, in 1982, RTL Radio transmitted the contest due to the countrys absence that year. France has often changed the process used in order to find the countrys entry for the contest. France is one of the most successful countries in the Eurovision, winning the contest five times, coming second four times, France was ranked first in number of victories without interruptions from 1960 to 1993. Moreover, Amina was close to victory with the song Le Dernier qui a parlé. in 1991, therefore, the countback rule applied, but both countries had an equal number of twelve points, but the victory went to Sweden, when France had fewer 10-point scores. Today, with the new rules, France would have won the competition, one year before, France was also close to winning with Joëlle Ursull performing Serge Gainsbourgs song White and Black Blues. The song finished in second place with Irelands entry. However, in recent years, the French results have been somewhat disappointing, since 1998, when the televoting was invented, France has almost always been in the bottom-10 countries in the final, coming 18th, 19th, 22nd, 23rd, 24th and 25th. France finished in last place, for the first time in their Eurovision history, yet, France have had some good results during the 21st century. In 2001, Canadian singer Natasha St-Pier came 4th for France with her song Je nai que mon âme, being the favourite to win the contest by fans and odds. This good result was carried into the 2002 contest, when Sandrine François came 5th with Il faut du temps, with these ambitions, the French superstar Patricia Kaas represented France in the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 in Moscow, Russia
France in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Guy Mardel in Naples (
1965)
France in the Eurovision Song Contest
France in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Dan Ar Braz in Oslo (
1996)
France in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Les Fatals Picards in Helsinki (
2007)
14.
Cyprus in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Cyprus has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 33 times since making its debut in 1981. Cyprus first entry was the group Island, who finished sixth, the countrys best result in the contest is three fifth-place finishes, in 1982 with Anna Vissi,1997 with Hara & Andreas Constantinou and 2004 with Lisa Andreas. Since 2006, Cyprus failed to qualify from the round for six out of eight years. On 14 July 2014, Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation officially confirmed their return to the contest in 2015, since its first entry, Cyprus has participated every year except 1988,2001 and 2014. In 2001, the country did not qualify for the contest due to insufficiently high average scores in previous contests, in 2014, the broadcaster decided to withdraw from the contest and cited public indifference and the economic crisis for not taking part. On 3 October 2013, the Cypriot broadcaster Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation withdrew from the 2014 contest, reasons that were cited are public opinion regarding the 2012–13 Cypriot financial crisis and budget restrictions as factors that influenced this decision. Cyprus is famous for always exchanging 12 points with Greece in the Semi Final and Final, the last time Cyprus gave Greece less than 12 points was in 2015. Cyprus and Turkey never voted for each other until 2004, a taboo attributed to the ongoing Cyprus dispute, since its first entry in 1981, Cyprus has had a mixture of good and bad results. The best result achieved so far is a place, reached by Anna Vissi in 1982, Hara and Andreas Constantinou in 1997. The lowest result was a last place in 1986, with the song Tora Zo sung by Elpida, in the 1980s and 1990s, Cyprus had managed to reach the top 10 a number of times, something which made the Contest become popular in the Cypriot public. Since the last best result of the country in 2004, Cyprus performance has dropped notably, from 2006 to 2009 and again in 2011 &2013, the country didnt manage to reach the final. At the same time when Cyprus performance in the contest dropped vertically, Greeces performance improved very fast by one win and this created a shift of interest, with the Cypriot public being more interested in the success of the Greek entry. In May 2014, the radio station London Greek Radio announced that Cyprus were planning a return to the contest after a one-year break. A few weeks later Eurovision website Wiwibloggs announced that Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation had confirmed their return, on 14 July 2014, CyBC officially confirmed their return to the contest in 2015. Cyprus hosted the Eurovision Song Project, which included 2 semi-finals,1 second chance round, if a country had won the previous year, they did not have to compete in the semi-finals the following year. In addition, back in 2004-2007, the top ten countries who were not members of the big four did not have to compete in the finals the following year. As of 2016, Cyprus voting history is as follows, Composer Award In addition, since 2009, British writer and TV presenter Nathan Morley has provided the CyBC Radio commentary. Cyprus in the Eurovision Young Musicians Cyprus in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest National Final Cyprus Points to and from Cyprus eurovisioncovers. co. uk Music. net. cy - Cyprus National Finals 2010
Cyprus in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Alex Panayi at
Dublin (
1995)
Cyprus in the Eurovision Song Contest
Cyprus in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Lisa Andreas at
Istanbul (
2004)
Cyprus in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Evridiki at
Helsinki (
2007)
15.
Netherlands in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
The Netherlands has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 57 times since making its debut as one of the seven countries competing in the very first contest in 1956. It has missed only four contests so far, the preselection process was often done through the Nationaal Songfestival, with the winner qualifying to represent the Netherlands in the Eurovision Song Contest. The Netherlands has won the contest four times, with four victories, the Netherlands ranks in the top 10 most successful Eurovision countries. The countrys first two came in the 1950s, with Corry Brokken in 1957 and Teddy Scholten in 1959. Sandra & Andres finished fourth in 1972 and Mouth & MacNeal were third in 1974, the Netherlands best result of the 1980s was fifth, achieved by both Maggie MacNeal in 1980 and Marcha in 1987. In the 1990s, Ruth Jacott, with sixth place in 1993 and Edsilia Rombley, with fourth in 1998, the Netherlands have finished last in the contest final on four occasions, in 1958,1962,1963 and 1968. They also finished last in the semi-final in 2011, since the semi-finals were introduced in 2004, the Netherlands has reached the final on only four occasions, failing to reach the final for eight years in a row, from 2005–2012. Opting for a selection has fared well for the Netherlands since 2013, when Anouk became the first Dutch entry in nine years to qualify for the final. In 2016, the Netherlands once again qualified for the final, the Netherlands has hosted the Eurovision Song Contest four times, in 1958,1970,1976 and 1980. The first three times were after winning the year, while the 1980 contest was staged in the Netherlands. Similarly, the Netherlands had declined the right to organise the 1960 contest, the Netherlands has missed only four contests in its Eurovision history. The first of these was at the 1985 contest, held in Gothenburg, the contest, held on 4 May conflicted with the Dutch Remembrance of the Dead and as such the Netherlands withdrew. In 1991 the contest was held on 4 May. There was no Dutch participation in the 1995 and 2002 contests, the Netherlands did compete in 2000. But at 22,00 on Saturday 13 May, the broadcast was cancelled because of the Enschede fireworks disaster which happened a few hours before. The points awarded by the Netherlands were taken from the jury vote. Table key NOTE, The full results for the first contest are unknown, the official Eurovision site lists all the other songs as being placed second. Willem van Beusekom provided NOS TV commentary every year from 1987 until 2005, however, on November 7,2005 it was announced that Van Beusekom would quit his role as Dutch commentator saying Its good to step back
Netherlands in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Conny Vandenbos at Naples (
1965)
Netherlands in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Netherlands
Netherlands in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Edsilia Rombley at Helsinki (
2007)
Netherlands in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Hind at Belgrade (
2008)
16.
Eurovision Song Contest 2002
–
The Eurovision Song Contest 2002 was the 47th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. The contest took place in Tallinn, Estonia, following Tanel Padar, Dave Benton & 2XLs win at the 2001 contest in Copenhagen, for the first time, a slogan was implemented. This years theme was called A Modern Fairytale, which was evident in the postcards aired between the songs, which showed classic fairytales ending in modern Estonian situations, the final took place on the 25 May 2002 at the Saku Suurhall. Opening the show were the champions, Tanel Padar and Dave Benton. The contest was won by Latvia, represented by Marie N with the song I Wanna, the United Kingdom and host country Estonia shared 3rd place with 111 points each, while France finished in 5th place with 104 points. Despite being one of the favourites to win the contest, Denmark finished last with just 7 points and had to sit out of the years contest. Tallinn is the capital and largest city of Estonia and it is situated on the northern coast of the country, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland,80 km south of Helsinki in Finland, east of Stockholm in Sweden, and west of Saint Petersburg in Russia. Founded in 1248 but the earliest human settlements back to 3000 years BC. Due to its important strategic location the city became a major trade hub. Tallinns Old Town is one of the best preserved and intact medieval cities in Europe and is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Saku Suurhall was chosen as the venue for the contest. It is the largest arena in Estonia, built in 2001 and it is named after the Estonian brewery and soft drink company Saku. These countries replaced the bottom 6 countries from the 2001 contest, portugal declined to enter the Contest due to internal problems in the Portuguese broadcaster RTP. Controversy erupted during the competition over remarks by commentators on Swedish and Belgian TV, the song received zero points from the Swedish audience but earned two from the Belgians, finishing 12th overall. In the televoting household shall not be permitted to vote more than three times and this year saw allegations that the juries in use were guilty of swapping votes between each other. Below is a summary of all 12 points in the final, For the first time, founded by Christer Björkman and Richard Herrey, the awards are named after the creator of the annual competition, Marcel Bezençon. The awards are divided into 3 categories, Press Award, Artistic Award, as had been the case every year since the mid-1980s, the contest was broadcast in Australia on SBS-TV with the BBC commentary. Within a few years, the contest would grow to be so popular in Australia, Serbia and Montenegro After the breakup of Yugoslavia, Federal Republic of Yugoslavia last participated in 1992. Radio Television of Serbia broadcast the show, originally, first time as Serbia and Montenegro had planned debuts, but the EBUs late changes to the relegation procedure meant that they could not compete
Eurovision Song Contest 2002
–
Laura Voutilainen, Winner of Fan Award
Eurovision Song Contest 2002
Eurovision Song Contest 2002
–
Eurovision Song Contest: Tallinn 2002
Eurovision Song Contest 2002
–
An alternative cover showing the title as Eurovision Song Contest: Estonia 2002.
17.
Tallinn, Estonia
–
Tallinn is the capital and largest city of Estonia. It is situated on the northern coast of the country, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland,80 km south of Helsinki, east of Stockholm, from the 13th century until 1918, the city was known as Reval. Tallinn occupies an area of 159.2 km2 and has a population of 444,591, approximately 33% of Estonias total population lives in Tallinn. Tallinn was founded in 1248, but the earliest human settlements date back 5,000 years, making it one of the oldest capital cities of Northern Europe. The initial claim over the land was laid by the Danes in 1219 after a raid of Lyndanisse led by Valdemar II of Denmark. Due to its location, the city became a major trade hub, especially from the 14th to the 16th century. Tallinns Old Town is one of the best preserved cities in Europe and is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Tallinn is the political, financial, cultural and educational center of Estonia. Often dubbed the Silicon Valley of Europe, it has the highest number of startups per person in Europe and is a birthplace of international companies. The city is to house the headquarters of the European Unions IT agency, providing to the global cybersecurity it is the home to the NATO Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence. It is ranked as a city and has been listed among the top 10 digital cities in the world. The city was a European Capital of Culture for 2011, along with Turku in Finland and it has been suggested that Quwri may have denoted a predecessor of the modern city. The earliest names of Tallinn include Kolyvan, which is known from East Slavic chronicles, up to the 13th century, the Scandinavians and Henry of Livonia in his chronicle called the town Lindanisa (or Lyndanisse in Danish, Lindanäs in Swedish and Ledenets in Old East Slavic. It has been suggested that the archaic Estonian word linda is similar to the Votic word lidna. According to this suggestion, nisa would have the meaning niemi, producing Kesoniemi, another ancient historical name for Tallinn in Finnish is Rääveli. The Icelandic Njals saga mentions Tallinn and calls it Rafala, which is a variant of the name Raphael, after the Danish conquest in 1219, the town became known in the German, Swedish and Danish languages as Reval. The name originated from Revelia Revala or Rävala, the adjacent ancient name of the surrounding area and it is usually thought to be derived from Taani-linn, after the Danes built the castle in place of the Estonian stronghold at Lindanisse. However, it could also have come from tali-linna, or talu-linna, the element -linna, like Germanic -burg and Slavic -grad / -gorod, originally meant fortress, but is used as a suffix in the formation of town names
Tallinn, Estonia
–
A collage of Tallinn showing a view from the sea, the Old Town and a night view of the downtown
Tallinn, Estonia
–
UNESCO World Heritage Site
Tallinn, Estonia
–
The Danish flag falling from the sky in the 1219
Battle of Lyndanisse.
Tallinn, Estonia
–
The original
Old Thomas (1530)
18.
Sweden
–
Sweden, officially the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and Finland to the east, at 450,295 square kilometres, Sweden is the third-largest country in the European Union by area, with a total population of 10.0 million. Sweden consequently has a low density of 22 inhabitants per square kilometre. Approximately 85% of the lives in urban areas. Germanic peoples have inhabited Sweden since prehistoric times, emerging into history as the Geats/Götar and Swedes/Svear, Southern Sweden is predominantly agricultural, while the north is heavily forested. Sweden is part of the area of Fennoscandia. The climate is in very mild for its northerly latitude due to significant maritime influence. Today, Sweden is a monarchy and parliamentary democracy, with a monarch as head of state. The capital city is Stockholm, which is also the most populous city in the country, legislative power is vested in the 349-member unicameral Riksdag. Executive power is exercised by the government chaired by the prime minister, Sweden is a unitary state, currently divided into 21 counties and 290 municipalities. Sweden emerged as an independent and unified country during the Middle Ages, in the 17th century, it expanded its territories to form the Swedish Empire, which became one of the great powers of Europe until the early 18th century. Swedish territories outside the Scandinavian Peninsula were gradually lost during the 18th and 19th centuries, the last war in which Sweden was directly involved was in 1814, when Norway was militarily forced into personal union. Since then, Sweden has been at peace, maintaining a policy of neutrality in foreign affairs. The union with Norway was peacefully dissolved in 1905, leading to Swedens current borders, though Sweden was formally neutral through both world wars, Sweden engaged in humanitarian efforts, such as taking in refugees from German-occupied Europe. After the end of the Cold War, Sweden joined the European Union on 1 January 1995 and it is also a member of the United Nations, the Nordic Council, Council of Europe, the World Trade Organization and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Sweden maintains a Nordic social welfare system that provides health care. The modern name Sweden is derived through back-formation from Old English Swēoþēod and this word is derived from Sweon/Sweonas. The Swedish name Sverige literally means Realm of the Swedes, excluding the Geats in Götaland, the etymology of Swedes, and thus Sweden, is generally not agreed upon but may derive from Proto-Germanic Swihoniz meaning ones own, referring to ones own Germanic tribe
Sweden
–
A
Vendel-era helmet, at the Swedish Museum of National Antiquities.
Sweden
–
Flag
Sweden
–
A
romantic nationalist interpretation of
Valdemar IV taking control over
Gotland. The final battle outside the walls of Visby in 1361 ended with a massacre of 1,800 defenders of the city.
Sweden
–
Stockholm in mid-17th century
19.
1992 Eurovision Song Contest
–
The Eurovision Song Contest 1992 was the 37th Eurovision Song Contest and was held on 9 May 1992 in Malmö, Sweden. The presenters were Lydia Cappolicchio and Harald Treutiger, Linda Martin, representing Ireland, was the winner of this Eurovision with the song Why Me. The song was written by Johnny Logan, who had won the 1980 contest as singer and the 1987 contest as singer/songwriter. The contest took place at the ice arena of Malmö where the stage set was in the shape of a Viking ships bow with a dragon in the centre. The opening sequence included women dressed in the Swedish colours of yellow and blue, the filmic postcard tradition was continued with clips based on each country. Last years winner, Carola, appeared on stage in a dress with sheer sleeves. However, the Irish sent Linda Martin, who had the past experience of coming in 2nd place in the 1984 contest, but also paired up again with Johnny Logan. In the end, Ireland won the contest with a 16-point lead over the United Kingdom, malta with Little Child, performed by Mary Spiteri, also scored very well coming in 3rd place with 123 points. This was the first time that the three highest-placed songs had all been in English, Sweden, the host country, finished 2nd last. Switzerland had to replace its original choice of entry, Soleil, soleil which was to have performed by Géraldine Olivier. The song did not comply with some of the rules of the selection contest and so, despite having won. Each country had a jury who awarded 12,10,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 point for their top ten songs
1992 Eurovision Song Contest
–
Eurovision Song Contest 1992
20.
Vienna
–
Vienna is the capital and largest city of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austrias primary city, with a population of about 1.8 million, and its cultural, economic and it is the 7th-largest city by population within city limits in the European Union. Today, it has the second largest number of German speakers after Berlin, Vienna is host to many major international organizations, including the United Nations and OPEC. The city is located in the part of Austria and is close to the borders of the Czech Republic, Slovakia. These regions work together in a European Centrope border region, along with nearby Bratislava, Vienna forms a metropolitan region with 3 million inhabitants. In 2001, the city centre was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, apart from being regarded as the City of Music because of its musical legacy, Vienna is also said to be The City of Dreams because it was home to the worlds first psycho-analyst – Sigmund Freud. The citys roots lie in early Celtic and Roman settlements that transformed into a Medieval and Baroque city and it is well known for having played an essential role as a leading European music centre, from the great age of Viennese Classicism through the early part of the 20th century. The historic centre of Vienna is rich in architectural ensembles, including Baroque castles and gardens, Vienna is known for its high quality of life. In a 2005 study of 127 world cities, the Economist Intelligence Unit ranked the city first for the worlds most liveable cities, between 2011 and 2015, Vienna was ranked second, behind Melbourne, Australia. Monocles 2015 Quality of Life Survey ranked Vienna second on a list of the top 25 cities in the world to make a base within, the UN-Habitat has classified Vienna as being the most prosperous city in the world in 2012/2013. Vienna regularly hosts urban planning conferences and is used as a case study by urban planners. Between 2005 and 2010, Vienna was the worlds number-one destination for international congresses and it attracts over 3.7 million tourists a year. The English name Vienna is borrowed from the homonymous Italian version of the name or the French Vienne. The etymology of the name is still subject to scholarly dispute. Some claim that the name comes from Vedunia, meaning forest stream, which produced the Old High German Uuenia. A variant of this Celtic name could be preserved in the Czech and Slovak names of the city, the name of the city in Hungarian, Serbo-Croatian and Ottoman Turkish has a different, probably Slavonic origin, and originally referred to an Avar fort in the area. Slovene-speakers call the city Dunaj, which in other Central European Slavic languages means the Danube River, evidence has been found of continuous habitation since 500 BC, when the site of Vienna on the Danube River was settled by the Celts. In 15 BC, the Romans fortified the city they called Vindobona to guard the empire against Germanic tribes to the north
Vienna
Vienna
Vienna
Vienna
21.
Stockholm
–
The city is spread across 14 islands on the coast in the southeast of Sweden at the mouth of Lake Mälaren, by the Stockholm archipelago and the Baltic Sea. The area has settled since the Stone Age, in the 6th millennium BC. It is also the capital of Stockholm County, Stockholm is the cultural, media, political, and economic centre of Sweden. The Stockholm region alone accounts for over a third of the countrys GDP and it is an important global city, and the main centre for corporate headquarters in the Nordic region. The city is home to some of Europes top ranking universities, such as the Stockholm School of Economics, Karolinska Institute and it hosts the annual Nobel Prize ceremonies and banquet at the Stockholm Concert Hall and Stockholm City Hall. One of the citys most prized museums, the Vasa Museum, is the most visited museum in Scandinavia. The Stockholm metro, opened in 1950, is known for its decoration of the stations. Swedens national football arena is located north of the city centre, Ericsson Globe, the national indoor arena, is in the southern part of the city. The city was the host of the 1912 Summer Olympics, and hosted the equestrian portion of the 1956 Summer Olympics otherwise held in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Stockholm is the seat of the Swedish government and most of its agencies, including the highest courts in the judiciary, and the official residencies of the Swedish monarch and the Prime Minister. The government has its seat in the Rosenbad building, the Riksdag is seated in the Parliament House, and the Prime Ministers residence is adjacent at the Sager House. After the Ice Age, around 8,000 BCE, there were already a number of people living in the present-day Stockholm area. Thousands of years later, as the ground thawed, the climate became tolerable, at the intersection of the Baltic Sea and lake Mälaren is an archipelago site where the Old Town of Stockholm was first built from about 1000 CE by Vikings. They had a positive impact on the area because of the trade routes they created. Stockholms location appears in Norse sagas as Agnafit, and in Heimskringla in connection with the legendary king Agne, the earliest written mention of the name Stockholm dates from 1252, by which time the mines in Bergslagen made it an important site in the iron trade. The first part of the name means log in Swedish, although it may also be connected to an old German word meaning fortification, the second part of the name means islet, and is thought to refer to the islet Helgeandsholmen in central Stockholm. Stockholms core, the present Old Town was built on the island next to Helgeandsholmen from the mid 13th century onward. The city originally rose to prominence as a result of the Baltic trade of the Hanseatic League, Stockholm developed strong economic and cultural linkages with Lübeck, Hamburg, Gdańsk, Visby, Reval, and Riga during this time
Stockholm
–
Aerial view of the
Old Town,
Skeppsbron,
Stockholm City Hall,
Hötorget buildings,
Ericsson Globe and
Stockholm Palace.
Stockholm
–
Detail of engraving of Stockholm from
Suecia antiqua et hodierna by
Erik Dahlberg and
Willem Swidde, printed in 1693.
Stockholm
–
Panorama over Stockholm around 1868 as seen from a
hot air balloon
Stockholm
–
Kungsträdgården in Stockholm around 1890–1900
22.
Armenia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2014
–
Armenia participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2014 in Copenhagen, Denmark. Aram Mp3 represented Armenia with the song Not Alone which he co-wrote with Garik Papoyan, the song was chosen by internal selection by the Armenian broadcaster Public Television of Armenia. Armenia qualified from the first semi-final and placed 4th in the final with 174 points, during the program, Aram Mp3 was announced as the Armenian representative for Copenhagen. The presentation of the Armenian entry, Not Alone, took place on 14 March 2014 during a special presentation programme aired on Armenia 1 and hosted by Gohar Gasparyan. During the semi-final allocation draw on 20 January 2014 at the Copenhagen City Hall, in the first semi-final, the producers of the show decided that Armenia would open the semi-final and perform 1st, preceding Latvia. Armenia qualified from the first semi-final, placing 4th and scoring 121 points, during the winners press conference for the first semi-final qualifiers, Armenia was allocated to compete in the first half of the final. In the final, the producers of the show decided that Armenia would perform 7th, following Romania, Armenia placed 4th in the final, scoring 174 points. The Armenian performance featured Aram Mp3 performing on stage alone, the stage atmosphere during the performance transitioned from dark settings to explosive and pulsating elements projected on the LED screens as the song progressed. The Armenian spokesperson revealing the result of the Armenian vote in the final was Anna Avanesyan, the Armenian votes in the final were based on 50% jury voting and 50% televoting results. Armenia in the Eurovision Song Contest Eurovision Song Contest 2014 Official Public Television of Armenia Eurovision website
Armenia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2014
–
Aram Mp3 at the first semi-final dress rehearsal
23.
Tamar Kaprelian
–
Tamar Kaprelian is an Armenian American musician and singer. She is best known for her single New Day and for winning the Cover Contest in March 2008 with Apologize by OneRepublic. She was selected to be part of Genealogy, a collective Armenian international music band to represent Armenia in 2015 Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna with the song Face the Shadow. Born Tamar Mardirossian, better known by her artist name Tamar Kaprelian, was born in Scottsdale, Arizona to Armenian parents, Kaprelian is her mothers maiden name and she chose it in honor of her grandfather who died a few years before her career began. Tamar is incredibly proud of her heritage and she wants people to know that she is an Armenian and her great-grandparents are from Old Armenia. On her mothers side of the family, her grandfather Girair Kaprelian was born in Kharpert and they met in Iraq, where her grandfather owned a successful textile manufacturing business in the Middle East. On her fathers side, her grandfather George Mardirossian was born in Jerusalem and they met in Egypt and moved to Manchester where they started an Armenian hotel/restaurant. Her parents, Avedis and Silva Mardirossian, met in Manchester and moved to the United States and her interest in music began when she discovered the works of Billy Joel and Paul McCartney, although she also cites classic Disney film songs as an early influence. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Columbia University in May,2016, Kaprelian won the OneRepublic Apologize Cover Contest in March 2008, and as a reward, Ryan Tedder helped bring her to the attention of Interscope Records which signed her shortly afterward. Wax Ltd produced her song New Day, which went on to be her first single, during 2010, she performed Devs part of Like a G6 with The Far East Movement at selected live performances. Her first EP, California, was released on June 19,2012 and she became an Armenian citizen along with the other foreign members of Genealogy on 28 April 2015 after being given Armenian passports by President Serzh Sargsyan. After the contest, Kaprelian released a collaborative single The Otherside credited to Tamar Kaprelian featuring Elhaida Dani, Elina Born, on February 14,2017, the cover version of an old Armenian song titled Sareri Hovin Mernem was released with a simple music video on YouTube. The duet, performed alongside Larisa Hovannisian, was produced by DerHova, facebook page Twitter page Instagram page YouTube channel Tamar Kaprelian at the Internet Movie Database
Tamar Kaprelian
–
Kaprelian in 2015
24.
List of host cities of the Eurovision Song Contest
–
This page is a list of cities and venues that have hosted the Eurovision Song Contest, one or more times. Future venues are shown in italics, since 1958, the host city has customarily been in the winner country of the previous year. There have been exceptions, however, when certain issues have prevented the winner to host the years contest. The host country then passed to the country that had come second, such events occurred in 1960,1963,1972,1974 and 1980. With 6 contests, Dublin is the city that has hosted the most contests and it is followed by London and Luxembourg, and Copenhagen and Stockholm. Host City Insignia is a trophy awarded to cities hosting the Eurovision Song Contest. The symbol is a key ring to which the Eurovision Song Contest Host Cities can attach their city key or other symbol representing the city. Additionally, there is a fob with a picture of the Helsinki Senate Square attached to the key ring, the idea of the rotating trophy was proposed jointly by the City of Helsinki, the Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE and EBU in connection with the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest. Hand-engraved on the ring are the texts, Eurovision Song Contest Host City, all Host Cities up until the year 2006. The concept and fob were designed by the ANTEEKSI Team and the ring by jewellery designer Taru Tonder, List of host cities of the ABU Song Festivals List of host cities of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest City of Helsinki news at 13.09
List of host cities of the Eurovision Song Contest
–
BBC Television Centre in
London hosted the
1963 Contest.
List of host cities of the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Host cities of Eurovision Song Contest in Europe
List of host cities of the Eurovision Song Contest
–
The
Scandinavium in
Gothenburg: venue for the
1985 Contest.
List of host cities of the Eurovision Song Contest
–
The film studios at
Cinecittà in
Rome played host to the
1991 Contest.
25.
List of Eurovision Song Contest presenters
–
This list includes those who have acted as presenters of the Eurovision Song Contest, since the competitions inception in 1956. From 1988, it has been the norm to have two presenters for the contest, all contests before 1978 have had one presenter, and only a few after 1988 have had only one presenter. The 1999 contest was the first to consist of three presenters in one contest, kvalifikacija za Millstreet was the preselection for the Eurovision Song Contest 1993. Seven countries took part, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Estonia, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia
List of Eurovision Song Contest presenters
–
1979 hostess:
Yardena Arazi.
List of Eurovision Song Contest presenters
–
1994 host:
Gerry Ryan, pictured in March 2010, one month before
his death.
List of Eurovision Song Contest presenters
–
1997 host:
Ronan Keating.
List of Eurovision Song Contest presenters
–
2006 hostess:
Maria Menounos.
26.
List of Eurovision Song Contest winners
–
Sixty-four songs have won the Eurovision Song Contest, an annual competition organised by member countries of the European Broadcasting Union. The contest, which has been broadcast every year since its debut in 1956, is one of the television programmes in the world. The contests winner has been determined using numerous voting techniques throughout its history, the country awarded the most points is declared the winner. The first Eurovision Song Contest was not won on points, but by votes, there have been 60 contests, with one winner each year except the tied 1969 contest, which had four. Twenty-six different countries have won the contest, switzerland won the first contest in 1956. The country with the highest number of wins is Ireland, with seven, portugal is the country with the longest history in the contest without a win, it made its forty-eighth appearance at the 2015 contest. The only person to have won more than once as performer is Irelands Johnny Logan, Logan is also one of only five songwriters to have written more than one winning entry. This unique distinction makes Logan the only person to have three Eurovision victories to his/her credit, as singer, songwriter or both. The other four songwriters with more than one winning entry to their credit are, Willy van Hemert, Yves Dessca, Rolf Løvland, however, throughout the history of the contest, relatively few of these artists have gone on to be huge international stars. ABBA went on to be one of the most successful bands of its time, three countries have won twice in a row, Spain, Luxembourg and Israel. Along with Switzerlands win in the first contest, Serbia is the other country to win with its debut entry, though Serbia had competed prior as part of Yugoslavia and Serbia. Under the voting system used between 1975 and 2015, the winner of the contest was decided by the final voting nation on eleven occasions. Changes to the system, including a steady growth in the number of countries participating/voting. Ukraines Jamala holds the record of the highest number of points in the contests history, Norways Alexander Rybak holds the largest margin of victory in absolute points, a 169-point cushion over second place in 2009. Italys Gigliola Cinquetti holds the record for largest victory by percentage, under the voting system used from 1975 until 2015, the lowest winning score was Norways Bobbysocks. 123 points earned when winning Eurovision 1985, while the lowest winning total ever is the 18 points scored by each of the four winning countries in 1969. 2011 winner Azerbaijan Eldar & Nigar, hold the lowest average score for a song under that system. The United Kingdom has finished second fifteen times at Eurovision, more than any other country, the most successful country never to have won the Contest is Malta, having finished second in 2002 and 2005 and third in 1992 and 1998
List of Eurovision Song Contest winners
–
Left:
Lys Assia, the first Eurovision winner (1956), and
Dima Bilan, winner in 2008. Centre:
Johnny Logan, the winning artist in 1980, winning artist and composer in 1987 and the winning composer in 1992. Right:
Ell & Nikki celebrating
Eurovision Song Contest 2011 victory in
Düsseldorf.
List of Eurovision Song Contest winners
List of Eurovision Song Contest winners
List of Eurovision Song Contest winners
–
Lys Assia, winner of the
1956 contest.
27.
Eurovision Song Contest 1957
–
The Eurovision Song Contest 1957 was the second edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It was held on Sunday 3 March 1957 in Frankfurt-am-Main, West Germany and it was won by the Netherlands with Net als toen, performed by Corry Brokken. Like the first 1956 edition, this one was mainly a radio programme. In fact, not only were the official 1956 scores withheld and it was planned at the time that each participating country would take it in turns to host the event. However, as more countries wished to participate, this became impractical, the contest took place in Frankfurt am Main, one of the largest cities in, at the time West Germany. The host venue was the Großer Sendesaal des Hessischen Rundfunks, a building, music hall, today it is used as a music hall. After being devastated in the Second World War during the early 1940s, with investments coming in from both national and international financial institutions,1957, the year of the contest, already saw the first of Frankfurts high-rise business buildings. In this years contest the Italian entry lasted for 5,09 minutes and it was because of songs like the former that a rule was eventually introduced restricting each song to a maximum of 3 minutes, this rule still applies. In a change of rules from the years contest, duos were allowed to compete. Danish representatives, Birthe Wilke and Gustav Winckler, were the first of such acts to participate under this rule change, at the end of their performance, the couple exchanged the longest kiss in the contests history, although only people with televisions could actually see it. This was due to a member of the staff forgetting to give a pre-arranged sign that the kiss should end. This was the first year where the juries were contacted by telephone and it was also the first time the Netherlands won the contest. Another notable change was that the national juries could not vote for their own song, belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, and Switzerland make their second appearances following their débuts in 1956. With those joining in 1957, the number of countries was ten. Each performance had a conductor who conducted the orchestra, Corry Brokken for Netherlands, and Lys Assia for Switzerland. The table below shows the order in which votes were cast during the 1957 contest along with the spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for their respective country. Each national broadcaster sent a commentator to the contest, in order to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language. Details of the commentators and the station for which they represented are also included in the table below
Eurovision Song Contest 1957
–
Großer Sendesaal des hessischen Rundfunks studio's, Frankfurt am Main. Host venue of the 1957 Eurovision Song Contest.
Eurovision Song Contest 1957
28.
Eurovision Song Contest 1958
–
The Eurovision Song Contest 1958 was the third Eurovision Song Contest. The event was held on Wednesday 12 March 1958 at AVRO Studios, the winner was France with the song Dors, mon amour, performed by André Claveau, written by Pierre Delanoë and composed by Hubert Giraud. As in 1956, it is the only contest that has not featured a song in the English language. The 1958 contest continued with the policy implemented the year before where each country was limited to one song entry and this policy has been retained to date. Hilversum, a municipality and a town in the province of North Holland, is known as the Media Capital of the Netherlands, one such media network was the host of the event, Nederlandse Televisie Stichting. The contest was held in one of Avro studios halls, the background of the stage had an images-board to show behind each singer, to contextually feat each songs lyrics. The center-front of the stage before the performers, and the area from the stage with the orchestra and stairs entrance, were decorated with tulips. The juries were not in the studio as in 1956, for the 1958 event, they remained in their own countries, listening to the event. Once the songs had all been sung, juries announced their results via telephone in order of presentation. The Italian entry was not picked up properly in some of the other countries and it was the only year that the host country finished in last place until 2015, and the first time more than one country was placed last. The interval act was music by the Metropole Orkest, under the direction of maestro Dolf van der Linden, there were two interval acts, one in the middle of the competing songs performances and one after all the rest of the competing performances were shown. Sweden, a country that would later be one of the most successful in the contest, the United Kingdom decided to withdraw from the contest after initially planning to submit an entry. After the contest, the Italian entry Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu by Domenico Modugno went on to become a worldwide hit. During the 1st Grammy Awards, held on 4 May 1959 at Hollywoods Beverly Hilton Hotel, Nel blu dipinto di blu received two awards, for Record of the Year and Song of the Year. The song is the only recording to achieve this honour. The song also managed to reach the No.1 spot in the US-American Billboard Charts, the song was also voted the second best Eurovision entry of all time at the 50th anniversary show Congratulations in 2005. Each performance had a conductor who maestro the orchestra, each country had 10 jury members who each decided the best song and each awarded 1 point. The table below shows the order in which votes were cast during the 1958 contest along with the spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for their respective country
Eurovision Song Contest 1958
–
AVRO Studios, Hilversum. Host venue of the 1958 Eurovision Song Contest.
Eurovision Song Contest 1958
29.
Eurovision Song Contest 1960
–
The Eurovision Song Contest 1960 was the fifth edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It was held on Tuesday 29 March 1960 in London, although the Netherlands had won the contest in 1959, the Netherlands Television Foundation declined to host another contest so soon after staging the event in 1958. The honour of hosting the contest therefore passed to the United Kingdom, therefore, the BBC chose Catherine Boyle to be the mistress of ceremonies at the contest for the first time. Frances win this year was their second in the contest, the contest was won by France with the song Tom Pillibi, performed by Jacqueline Boyer. The 1960 Eurovision Song Contest was hosted in London, the Royal Festival Hall, the venue for the 1960 contest, is a 2, 900-seat concert, dance and talks venue within Southbank Centre in London. It is situated on the South Bank of the River Thames, the result was a win for France, however Germany, Monaco and the UK led in the early stages of voting. The UK came second with 25 points, four more points than the song in 1959. Interest in the contest started to grow across Europe, with the number of participating nations increasing to 13 this year, norway made its debut with one of their leading jazz singers. Luxembourg returned to the contest after a break with a song in native Luxembourgish language. The Netherlands were mistakenly announced as Holland, each country had 10 jury members who each awarded 1 point to their favourite song. The table above shows the order in which votes were cast during the 1960 contest along with the spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for their respective country. Each national broadcaster sent a commentator to the contest, in order to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language. Details of the commentators and the station for which they represented are also included in the table below. ^ The song was performed in Norwegian, but the title of the song is in the North Sami dialect of the Sami languages, translating as the expression Hey Hey
Eurovision Song Contest 1960
–
Royal Festival Hall, London. Host venue of the 1960 Eurovision Song Contest.
Eurovision Song Contest 1960
30.
Eurovision Song Contest 1961
–
The Eurovision Song Contest 1961 was the sixth Eurovision Song Contest. It was held on 18 March 1961 and was the first to place on a Saturday night. It was hosted in the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès located in Cannes, France, Luxembourg won for its first time with the song Nous les amoureux performed in French by Jean-Claude Pascal. As the contest overran its time, and the show was being broadcast live. The original building was built in 1949 and was located on the boulevard of Promenade de la Croisette and it also hosted the 1959 edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. Jacqueline Joubert presented the show, having already done so two years earlier in 1959, the stage used for the 1961 Contest was notably larger than in previous years and was decorated with flowers. It is noticeable that during the voting, Luxembourg gave the UK8 points and it was the largest amount of points given to a country by a single jury since 1958, when Denmark provided France with 9 points. Such a high number of obtained by a country wouldnt be achieved until 1970. A total of sixteen countries took part in the Contest, including the three debuting countries, Finland, Spain, and Yugoslavia, there were no returning or withdrawing countries this particular year. Each performance had a conductor who maestro the orchestra, each country had 10 jury members who each awarded 1 point to their favourite song. The table below shows the order in which votes were cast during the 1961 contest along with the spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for their respective country. Each national broadcaster sent a commentator to the contest, in order to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language. Details of the commentators and the station for which they represented are also included in the table below. All the juries announced their votes in French
Eurovision Song Contest 1961
–
Palais des Festivals et des Congrès in Cannes, France - Host venue of the 1961 Eurovision Song Contest.
Eurovision Song Contest 1961
31.
Eurovision Song Contest 1962
–
The Eurovision Song Contest 1962 was the seventh edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest, held on Sunday 18 March 1962 at the Villa Louvigny in Luxembourg. The contest was won for a time by France with the song Un premier amour. This marked the first time a country had won three contests, austria, Belgium, Netherlands, and Spain all scored nul points for the first time. The 1962 Eurovision Song Contest was hosted in Luxembourg City, the venue chosen to host the 1962 contest was the Villa Louvigny. The building served as the headquarters of Compagnie Luxembourgeoise de Télédiffusion and it is located in Municipal Park, in the Ville Haute quarter of the centre of the city. After Frances entry had been performed, there was a power failure rendering the screens dark. There also seemed to be an even shorter power failure during the Netherlands entry, the power failure seemed to affect the Netherlands score during the voting. Nevertheless, the turned out to be popular in Europe after the contest. All countries who participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 1961 returned for a consecutive year, with no new countries making a début. Each performance had a conductor who maestro the orchestra, the contest saw the return of four artists this year, with three artists having previously participated in the 1960. Camillo Felgen for Luxembourg, François Deguelt for Monaco, and Fud Leclerc making his appearance for Belgium. Jean Philippe, having previous represented France in 1959, returned to the contest as a representative for Switzerland, each national broadcaster also sent a commentator to the contest, in order to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language. Details of the commentators and the station for which they represented are also included in the table below
Eurovision Song Contest 1962
–
Villa Louvigny, Luxembourg. Host venue of the 1962 Eurovision Song Contest.
Eurovision Song Contest 1962
Eurovision Song Contest 1962
–
Isabelle Aubret singing her winning song "
Un premier amour " at the Eurovision Song Contest 1962
32.
Eurovision Song Contest 1966
–
The Eurovision Song Contest 1966 was the 11th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It was held on 5 March 1966 in Luxembourg, Luxembourg, the host venue was Grand Auditorium de RTL in Villa Louvigny. The winner was Austria with the song Merci, Chérie performed and composed by Udo Jürgens and this would remain Austrias only win in the contest until their second win in 2014. The rule stating that a country could only sing in any of its national languages was created in this year. The 1966 Eurovision Song Contest was hosted in Luxembourg City, the venue chosen to host the 1966 contest was the Villa Louvigny, which also hosted the Eurovision Song Contest 1962. The building served as the headquarters of Compagnie Luxembourgeoise de Télédiffusion and it is located in Municipal Park, in the Ville Haute quarter of the centre of the city. During the voting process, the presenter accidentally greeted United Kingdom by saying Good night, London. She then realized her mistake and said Good evening, London, after Michael Aspel,1966 marked the year the first ever black singer graced the Eurovision stage, Milly Scott representing the Netherlands. She was also the first singer to use a portable microphone and this was the last contest that Denmark participated in until 1978, more than a decade later. It was also one of the first contests in which an entry was not accompanied by an orchestra, during the Saturday afternoon rehearsal Modugno performed the new arrangement with three of his own musicians as opposed to the orchestra, which went over the three minute time limit. Following his rehearsal Modungo was confronted by the producers about exceeding the time limit and was asked to use the original arrangement with the orchestra. Modungo was so dissatisfied with the orchestra that he threatened to withdraw from the Contest, despite websites and the official programme listing Angelo Giacomazzi as the conductor, Giacomazzi actually played the piano for the entry. All countries which participated in the 1965 contest returned for a consecutive year. There were no new nations, nor any returning, nor withdrawals, each performance had a conductor who was maestro of the orchestra. Udo Jürgens from Austria whose previous participations were in 1964 and 1965, and Domenico Modugno from Italy,1. ^ The song also contains phrases in French. Each national broadcaster sent a commentator to the contest, in order to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language. Details of the commentators and the station for which they represented are also included in the table below
Eurovision Song Contest 1966
–
Villa Louvigny, Luxembourg. Host venue of the 1966 Eurovision Song Contest.
Eurovision Song Contest 1966
Eurovision Song Contest 1966
–
Udo Jürgens with last year's winner
France Gall
33.
Eurovision Song Contest 1969
–
The Eurovision Song Contest 1969 was the 14th in the series. Four countries won the contest, the first time ever a tie-break situation had occurred, however, there was no rule at the time to cover such an eventuality, so all four countries were declared joint winners. France became the first country to win the contest four times, the Netherlands win was their third. Spain and the United Kingdom each won for the second time, and it was the first time that any country had a winning ESC entry two years in a row. The venue selected to host the 1969 contest was the Teatro Real, the theatre reopened in 1966 as a concert theatre and the main concert venue of the Spanish National Orchestra and the RTVE Symphony Orchestra. The final featured a metal sculpture created by surrealist Spanish artist. The surrealist Spanish artist Salvador Dalí was responsible for designing the publicity material for the 1969 contest as well as the sculpture which was used on stage. It was the first time that the contest resulted in a tie for first place, since there was at the time no rule to cover such an eventuality, all four countries were declared joint winners. Had the later tie-break rule been in place, the Netherlands would have won, United Kingdom would then have been runner up, having received 5 points from Sweden. On the other hand, with the present tie-break rule been in place, France would have been the overall winner, both countries received votes from 9 countries, but France received 4 points from 2 countries whereas Spain received 3 points as their highest vote. A common urban legend on ESC forums and festivals is that just prior to the show, Laurita Valenzuela, the producers assured her that such a thing would never happen. Austria was absent from the contest, refusing to participate in a contest staged in Franco-ruled Spain, only the BBC has the exclusive right to represent the United Kingdom. Each performance had a conductor who led the orchestra, five artists returned in this years contest. Louis Neefs for Belgium who last represented the nation in 1967, the table below shows the order in which votes were cast during the 1969 contest along with the spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for their respective country. Each national broadcaster sent a commentator to the contest, in order to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language. Details of the commentators and the station for which they represented are also included in the table below
Eurovision Song Contest 1969
–
Teatro Real, Madrid. Host venue of the 1969 Eurovision Song Contest.
Eurovision Song Contest 1969
Eurovision Song Contest 1969
–
Lenny Kuhr 's dress
Eurovision Song Contest 1969
–
The final results of ESC 1969
34.
Eurovision Song Contest 1970
–
The Eurovision Song Contest 1970 was the 15th Eurovision Song Contest, held on 21 March 1970 at the RAI Congrescentrum in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The Amsterdam contest is regarded as one of the most significant in Eurovision history for a number of reasons, Ireland won with eighteen-year-old Dana and a song called All Kinds of Everything. The UK came second for the time, six votes behind Ireland. Luxembourg received zero votes for the only time, due to there being four winners in the previous contest, a question was raised as to which nation would host the 1970 Eurovision. With the UK having hosted the 1968 Contest and Spain the 1969 Contest, only France, a toss of a coin resulted in the host country being decided as the Netherlands. The Congrescentrum, venue of the 1970 contest, is a semi-permanent exhibit at the Ferdinand Bolstraat to Amsterdam and this building was replaced in 1961 by the current RAI building on Europes Square. The current congress and event center on Europe Square, was designed by Alexander Bodon, the Dutch producers were forced to pad out the show as only 12 nations decided to make the trip to Amsterdam. The result was a format which has endured almost to the present day, an extended opening sequence set the scene, while every entry was introduced by a short video postcard featuring each of the participating artists, ostensibly in their own nation. However, the postcards for Switzerland, Luxembourg and Monaco were all filmed on location in Paris, interestingly, the long introduction film was followed by what probably is one of the shortest ever introductions by any presenter. Willy Dobbe only welcomed the viewers in English, French and Dutch, on screen captions introduced each entry, with the song titles listed all in lower case and the names of the artist and composers/authors all in capitals. The set design was devised by Roland de Groot, a design was composed of a number of curved horizontal bars. To avoid an incident like in 1969, a tie rule was created and it stated that, if two or more songs gained the same number of votes and were tied for first place, each song would have to be performed again. After which each national jury would have a show of hands of which they thought was the best, if the countries tied again, then they would share first place. Austria, Finland, Norway, Portugal and Sweden boycotted this contest as they were not pleased with the result of 1969, Portugal did however host a National final, being won by Sérgio Borges. Of the participating singers, a number were already established performers, notably, the United Kingdom sent Welsh singer and Apple recording artist Mary Hopkin, while David Alexandre Winter represented Luxembourg. The contest is notable for the appearance of the then unknown Julio Iglesias. In the run-up to the Contest, the United Kingdom were favourites to win, so sure of victory, the UK delegation had organised a winners party to be thrown after the contest. In the end, the two countries in the running were the UK and Ireland, albeit the latter holding the lead throughout the voting
Eurovision Song Contest 1970
–
RAI Congrescentrum, Amsterdam - host venue of the 1970 Eurovision Song Contest
Eurovision Song Contest 1970
Eurovision Song Contest 1970
–
Dana sings the winning song
All Kinds of Everything
35.
Eurovision Song Contest 1972
–
The Eurovision Song Contest 1972 was the 17th annual Eurovision Song Contest. It was held in Edinburgh, United Kingdom, although Monaco had won the previous years contest, the principality was unable to meet the demands of hosting the event. Séverine made the trip to the Scottish capital Edinburgh to pass on the Grand Prix to Vicky Leandros, however, she looked thoroughly uninterested in the Monegasque entry when seen by viewers checking her watch before the song was performed. This marked the time that the contest was held in the United Kingdom. However, this is the first time that the UK hosted the Eurovision Song Contest in a venue outside England, the 1972 Eurovision Song Contest was hosted by Edinburgh, the capital city of Scotland. Usher Hall, the venue for the 1972 contest, is a hall, situated on Lothian Road, in the west end of Edinburgh. It has hosted concerts and events since its construction in 1914 and can hold approximately 2,900 people in its recently restored auditorium, the Hall is flanked by The Royal Lyceum Theatre on the right and The Traverse Theatre on the left. Historic Scotland has registered the Hall with Category A listed building status, the stage design included a screen to introduce and accompany the on stage competing performances, and to show an interval act and voting sequence that were done at Edinburgh Castle. The interval act was performed at the outside vast Esplanade of the Great Hall of Edinburgh Castle, the jurors were stationed in the safety of the castle, and watched the competing performances at Usher Hall on TV. Each country had two members, one aged between 16 and 25 and one aged between 26 and 55. They each awarded 1 to 5 points for each song, other than the song of their own country and they cast their votes immediately after each song was performed and the votes were then collected and counted. The eventual winner, Luxembourg, remained in a scoring position throughout the voting. 1972 was the first year that had no ties in the voting, every year prior to 1972, at least two countries had received the same score. All countries who participated in the 1971 contest were present this year, with no withdrawals, returns, the Irish entry was in Irish, so far the countrys only entry in that language. Each performance had a conductor who maestro the orchestra, four artists returned to the competition this year. Below is a summary of all perfect 10 scores that were given during the voting, each national broadcaster sent a commentator to the contest, in order to provide coverage of the event in their own native language. Apart from the countries, the contest was transmitted in live for the first time in the continent of Asia, in the countries Japan, Taiwan, Thailand. Brazil and Greece also provided live broadcasting, iceland and Israel broadcast it a few days later
Eurovision Song Contest 1972
–
Usher Hall, Edinburgh - venue of the 1972 Eurovision Song Contest.
Eurovision Song Contest 1972
36.
Eurovision Song Contest 1973
–
The Eurovision Song Contest 1973 was the 18th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It was won by the Luxembourg entry, Tu te reconnaîtras, the voting was a very close one, with Spain finishing only 4 points behind and Cliff Richard of the United Kingdom another 2 points after. The city of Luxembourg, also known as Luxembourg City, is a commune with city status, and it is located at the confluence of the Alzette and Pétrusse Rivers in southern Luxembourg. The city contains the historic Luxembourg Castle, established by the Franks in the Early Middle Ages, the Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg, inaugurated in 1964 as the Théâtre Municipal de la Ville de Luxembourg, became the venue for the 1973 contest. It is the major venue for drama, opera and ballet. The language rule forcing countries to enter songs sung in any of their languages was dropped. After finishing second in the contest, the song went on to become an international hit. The somewhat elliptical lyrics to Portugals entry Tourada provided sufficient cover for a song that was understood as a blistering assault on the countrys decaying dictatorship. Also, the breasts was used during Swedens song entry. However, no action was taken by the EBU, an argument broke out between the singer Maxi and her Irish delegation over how the song should be performed. During rehearsals she repeatedly stopped performing in frustration, when it began to appear possible that Maxi might withdraw from the contest, RTÉ immediately sent over another singer, Tina Reynolds, to take her place just in case. In the end Miss Reynolds wasnt needed as Maxi did perform, Cliff Richard represented the UK with the song Power to All Our Friends. He came 3rd with 123 points, the winner though was Anne-Marie David with Tu te reconnaîtras. In the UK it was released in English under the title Wonderful Dream and this gave rise to one of the best-known Eurovision anecdotes, frequently recounted by the UKs long-serving commentator Terry Wogan. He recalled that the floor manager strongly advised the audience to remain seated while applauding the performances, each country had two jury members, one aged between 16 and 25 and one aged between 26 and 55. They each awarded 1 to 5 points for each song immediately after it was performed, the juries watched the show on TV from the Ville du Louvigny TV Studios of CLT and appeared on screen to confirm their scores. Seventeen nations took part in this years contest, malta was drawn to perform in 6th place between Norway and Monaco, but the Maltese broadcaster withdrew before the deadline to select an entry. The 1973 contest marked the first time that women conducted the ESC orchestra, monica Dominique conducted the Swedish entry and Nurit Hirsh conducted the Israeli entry
Eurovision Song Contest 1973
–
Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg. Host venue of the 1973 Eurovision Song Contest.
Eurovision Song Contest 1973
37.
Eurovision Song Contest 1976
–
The Eurovision Song Contest 1976 was the 21st edition of the contest hosted by NOS and held in The Hague, Netherlands. The arena for the event was the Nederlands Congrescentrum, teach-Ins victory in Stockholm the previous year gave The Netherlands the right to host the contest for the third time. The Contest was won by Brotherhood of Man, who sang Save Your Kisses for Me in English, the Hague is the seat of government of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the capital city of the province of South Holland. It is also the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam, located in the west of the Netherlands, The Hague is in the centre of the Haaglanden conurbation and lies at the southwest corner of the larger Randstad conurbation. The contest took place at the Congresgebouw, the venue was constructed in 1969. The scoring system introduced in the years competition returned in 1976. Each jury gave 12 points to the best song,10 to the second best, then 8 to the third, unlike today, the points were not given in order, but in the order the songs were performed. The current procedure was not established until 1980, Sweden, Malta and Turkey withdrew from this contest reducing the number of participating countries down to eighteen from the previous competitions record of nineteen countries that took part. Austria and Greece returned to the contest, Sweden withdrew from the contest, as the broadcaster Sveriges Radio did not have enough money to host another contest if Sweden won again. A new rule was introduced that in the future each broadcaster participating would have to pay a part of the cost of staging the contest. Malta, having selected Enzo Guzman with the song Sing Your Song, Country Boy to represent them, then withdrew from the contest for undisclosed reasons, Malta would not return to the competition until 1991. The entry from Greece aroused controversy as it was about the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, the previous year Greece had withdrawn from the contest in protest over this matter. This year it was Turkeys turn to withdraw, liechtenstein attempted to submit an entry to the contest, but as they had no broadcasting service of their own, they were not allowed to. Their entry would have been Little Cowboy by Biggi Bachmann, each performance had a conductor who maestro the orchestra. Four artists returned to the contest in 1976, each national broadcaster also sent a commentator to the contest, in order to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language
Eurovision Song Contest 1976
–
Nederlands Congrescentrum, The Hague. Host venue of the 1976 Eurovision Song Contest.
Eurovision Song Contest 1976
38.
Eurovision Song Contest 1980
–
The Eurovision Song Contest 1980 was the 25th Eurovision Song Contest and was held on 19 April 1980 in The Hague. The presenter was Marlous Fluitsma, although each song was introduced by a presenter from the participating nation, in some cases, this was the same person providing the commentary. The contest was won by Johnny Logan, representing Ireland with a song called Whats Another Year, after Spain, the 2nd-place winner of 1979, and reportedly the UK, refused to host, the Netherlands finally agreed to host the show in a small-scale production. As with the recent 1977 and 1978 contests, there were no pre-filmed postcards between the songs, with a guest presenter from each nation introducing the entries, NOS spent just US$725,000 on the project. Morocco joined the Eurovision family for the first time, monaco withdrew, and would not return again. Australian-born Johnny Logan representing Ireland was the winner of this Eurovision with the song and this was Irelands second time winning the competition, having won in 1970 with All Kinds of Everything, which was also held on Dutch soil. They would finish in place again the following year, finally winning it in 1982. Germany would go on to second again in 1985 and 1987. United Kingdom returned to form by coming third, the Hague is the seat of government of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the capital city of the province of South Holland. It is also the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam, located in the west of the Netherlands, The Hague is in the centre of the Haaglanden conurbation and lies at the southwest corner of the larger Randstad conurbation. The scoring system implemented in 1975 remained the same, each country had a jury who awarded 12,10,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 point for their top ten songs. However this year for the first time, countries were required to cast their votes in ascending order,1,2,3 etc and this change made for the added excitement of waiting for each country to award their highest 12 points at the end of each voting round. For each nations performance, the orchestra was conducted by the following, Notes a. ^ Although the song was completely in Norwegian, the Netherlands gained a strong lead early on, getting the maximum douze points from three of the first four voting countries. This was not to last, however, as Germany and eventually Ireland overtook them, below is a summary of all 12 points in the final, Each song was introduced by a presenter from the national country. Thelma Mansfield introduced the song in Irish, whereas the song was performed in English
Eurovision Song Contest 1980
–
Johnny Logan performing his winning song "
What's Another Year "
Eurovision Song Contest 1980
Eurovision Song Contest 1980
–
Katja Ebstein during rehearsals
Eurovision Song Contest 1980
–
Maggie MacNeal during rehearsals
39.
Eurovision Song Contest 1982
–
The Eurovision Song Contest 1982 was the 27th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It was held on 24 April 1982 in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, the German entrant, Nicole, was winner with the song Ein bißchen Frieden. Germany received 1.61 times as many points as runner-up Israel, which was a record under the current scoring system until 2009 and this was the first time that Germany won the contest. They have competed in the every year since the contests inception. The opening of the contest showed a map of Europe, with the translation Where is Harrogate, popping up on-screen from the languages of the various countries. The question was always in the language in which the countrys song was performed. The Irish entry was sung in English, but the translation of the question in the map was in Irish, then the map zoomed into Harrogates location in Yorkshire, followed by an introduction video spotlighting the town. Greece was due to participate in the contest with the song Sarantapente Kopelies performed by Themis Adamantidis, although drawn to perform in second place, ERT withdrew the entry a few weeks before the contest. Antenne 2 became the new broadcaster for Eurovision after public outcry, the tradition of previous years winners handing over the prize to current winners was not followed by Bucks Fizz, winners in 1981. Irish band Chips lost out in their national finals, which would, had they been successful, have led to the situation of two bands in the same Eurovision with the same name. Harrogate is a spa town in North Yorkshire, England, historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire, the town is a tourist destination and its visitor attractions include its spa waters and RHS Harlow Carr gardens. Nearby is the Yorkshire Dales national park and the Nidderdale AONB, Harrogate grew out of two smaller settlements, High Harrogate and Low Harrogate, in the 17th century. The town became known as The English Spa in the Georgian Era, in the 17th and 18th centuries its chalybeate waters were a popular health treatment, and the influx of wealthy but sickly visitors contributed significantly to the wealth of the town. The Harrogate International Centre was chosen as the host venue for the contest, the grand convention and exhibition centre opened short time prior to the contest, and was the first big event held in the main 2000-seat auditorium. There were 18 competitors in this years final, No year since has had this few competitors in the final of the competition. Each country had a jury who awarded 12,10,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 point for their top ten songs, Germany had the advantage of performing last. After coming second in 1980 and second in Dublin the year previously, Ralph Siegel, the winner, Nicole, beat the nearest competition by 61 points and over 13 million West Germans watched her victory on television. Germany was the leader for nearly the entire voting process
Eurovision Song Contest 1982
40.
Eurovision Song Contest 1983
–
The Eurovision Song Contest 1983 was the 28th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It was held in Munich, then West Germany, on 23 April 1983, corinne Hermes was the winner of this Eurovision with the song, Si la vie est cadeau. This was Luxembourgs fifth victory in the contest which equalled the record set by France in 1977 and it was also the second year in a row where the winning entry was performed last on the night and the second year in a row in which Israel won 2nd place. The 1983 contest was the first to be televised in Australia, via Channel 0/28 in Sydney and Melbourne. The contest went to become a popular show in Australia, leading to an intended one-off participation in the 60th anniversary contest in 2015. Ireland was not in the contest because RTÉ was in action at that time. At one point, murmurs and boos arose from the crowd at the Greek jurys decision to give host country Germany only one point and this was the only occasion in which Greece didnt award any point to Cyprus. Due to Charells choice to announce points in three languages instead of two, the voting went on for nearly an hour, stretching the Eurovision contest past three hours for the first time ever. The language problems also occurred during the contest introductions, as Charell introduced Norwegian conductor Sigurd Jansen as. Johannes. Skorgan, having been forced to make up a name on the spot after forgetting the conductors name. Ofra Haza from Israel, who took the place, had an enduring success with her song Hi which became a hit in Europe. This year also marked the first performance of Swedens Carola Häggkvist and her song, Främling, became very popular in Sweden and in various other European countries. In the Netherlands, the reached the top five, coupled with a Dutch-language version which was performed by Carola herself. The 4th placed Džuli, also became a hit in Europe, singer Daniel released an English-language version as Julie. This years nul points were shared by Spain and Turkey, additionally, she sang her song barefoot. Some olés were heard from the present audience when she ended her performance, turkeys entry, Opera, performed by Çetin Alp & the Short Waves, could on the other hand be said to fit in well with the spirit of Eurovision of that time. The interval show was a dance set to a medley of German songs which had become internationally famous. The host, Marlene Charell, was the lead dancer, host conductor in bold Each country had a jury who awarded 12,10,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 point for their top ten songs. Below is a summary of all 12 points in the final, the following is a list of spokespersons who announced the votes for their respective country
Eurovision Song Contest 1983
41.
Eurovision Song Contest 1988
–
The Eurovision Song Contest 1988 was the 33rd edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. The contest took place on 30 April 1988 in Dublin, Ireland, the presenters were Pat Kenny and Michelle Rocca. The host broadcaster was Radio Telefís Éireann which revamped the production style compared to its earlier editions. The winner was Switzerland with the song Ne partez pas sans moi, performed by future international superstar Celine Dion, Switzerland beat the United Kingdom by just a point in the last vote to win the title. The Cypriot song had been drawn to be performed 2nd in the running order, the stage itself, conceived by Paula Farrell under chief production designer Michael Grogan, was also the largest and most elaborate ever constructed for the Eurovision Song Contest. The Postcards featured the participants doing things in Ireland from culture, to tradition, lowney was also the director of the shows interval act, introduced after the competing songs and before the votes announcement. Each country had a jury who awarded 12,10,8,7,6,5,4,3,2 and 1 point for its top ten songs and this edition features one of the closest and fickle-ending votes in the history of the contest. With three countries left to vote, the UK was well in the lead with 133 points against Switzerlands 118, with the conclusion of voting from the penultimate jury, the UK was holding a five-point lead over Switzerland. Switzerland was the first to be named with six points, edging it into a one-point lead over the UK, after earlier strong votes from most countries to the UK, it seemed highly likely that the UK would be given one of the higher remaining set of points. Twenty-one countries took part, after a plan of twenty-two. This was classed as a breach of the Cypriot rules of selecting their entry at this time as well as an infringement of the Eurovision Song Contest rules, the contest helped launch an international career for two artists, the winner for Switzerland Celine Dion and Luxembourg’s representative Lara Fabian. Belgian-Canadian Lara Fabian started a career after the contest with becoming established in various countries worldwide. The UK entry was written and composed by Julie Forsyth, the daughter of the entertainer Bruce Forsyth who was present, when interviewed afterwards he was particularly annoyed at the Dutch jury not having given a vote to the UK, as they had done some work there
Eurovision Song Contest 1988
42.
Eurovision Song Contest 1989
–
The Eurovision Song Contest 1989 was the 34th annual Eurovision Song Contest. It was held on 6 May 1989 in Lausanne, Switzerland, the program was presented by Lolita Morena and Jacques Deschenaux. Riva, representing Yugoslavia, won with the song Rock Me and this was the only victory for Yugoslavia as a unified state. The United Kingdoms Ray Caruana, lead singer with Live Report was outspoken about coming second to what he considered a less worthy song. They had been defeated by 7 points, two of the performers, Nathalie Pâque and Gili Natanael were respectively 11 and 12 years old at their time of competing. Due to bad publicity surrounding their participation, the European Broadcasting Union introduced the rule stating no performer is allowed to take part before the year of their 16th birthday. The previous years winner, Celine Dion, opened the show with a performance of her winning song. The song went on to become a top ten hit in the US a year later - effectively launching her into international success. Each country had a jury who awarded 12,10,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 point for their top ten songs
Eurovision Song Contest 1989
43.
Eurovision Song Contest 1990
–
The Eurovision Song Contest 1990 was the 35th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It was held in Zagreb, Yugoslavia on 5 May 1990, the presenters were Helga Vlahović Brnobić and Oliver Mlakar. Toto Cutugno was the winner of this contest with the song Insieme,1992 and this was the second victory for Italy, the first one having been Non ho letà, performed by Gigliola Cinquetti in 1964. However, the song was an even more sweeping evocation of European unity, in anticipation of the completion of the European single market. A national final was held in Malta, which was won by Maryrose Mallia with Our Little World of Yesterday, there was a slightly uncomfortable beginning to the rehearsal week when, offended by press comments concerning their ages, the two presenters quit the show. They were briefly replaced by Rene Medvešek and Dubravka Marković, who were much younger, the Eurovision Song Contest 1990 was the first to implement an age rule. The European Broadcasting Union were forced to bring in a rule after criticism arose over the ages of two performers at 1989 contest, being just 11 and 12 years old. From 1990, no artist under the age of 16 on the day of the contest could perform on stage. This rule meant that the record for the youngest ever winner at Eurovision could never be broken, as Sandra Kim, who won for Belgium at the 1986 competition, was just 13 years old. A notorious mishap occurred at the start of the first song and they walked off the stage in barely concealed annoyance and the audience was left in confusion for a moment, but the song was then restarted without any further problems. The 1990 contest was the first to feature a mascot, Eurocat. Notes 1. ^ Contains some phrases in English, French and Serbo-Croatian
Eurovision Song Contest 1990
44.
Eurovision Song Contest 1992
–
The Eurovision Song Contest 1992 was the 37th Eurovision Song Contest and was held on 9 May 1992 in Malmö, Sweden. The presenters were Lydia Cappolicchio and Harald Treutiger, Linda Martin, representing Ireland, was the winner of this Eurovision with the song Why Me. The song was written by Johnny Logan, who had won the 1980 contest as singer and the 1987 contest as singer/songwriter. The contest took place at the ice arena of Malmö where the stage set was in the shape of a Viking ships bow with a dragon in the centre. The opening sequence included women dressed in the Swedish colours of yellow and blue, the filmic postcard tradition was continued with clips based on each country. Last years winner, Carola, appeared on stage in a dress with sheer sleeves. However, the Irish sent Linda Martin, who had the past experience of coming in 2nd place in the 1984 contest, but also paired up again with Johnny Logan. In the end, Ireland won the contest with a 16-point lead over the United Kingdom, malta with Little Child, performed by Mary Spiteri, also scored very well coming in 3rd place with 123 points. This was the first time that the three highest-placed songs had all been in English, Sweden, the host country, finished 2nd last. Switzerland had to replace its original choice of entry, Soleil, soleil which was to have performed by Géraldine Olivier. The song did not comply with some of the rules of the selection contest and so, despite having won. Each country had a jury who awarded 12,10,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 point for their top ten songs
Eurovision Song Contest 1992
45.
Eurovision Song Contest 1993
–
The Eurovision Song Contest 1993 was the 38th Eurovision Song Contest and was held on 15 May 1993 in Millstreet, County Cork, Ireland. Niamh Kavanagh was the winner of this Eurovision for Ireland with the song and this was Irelands fifth victory, and equalled the tally of five Eurovision victories achieved by France in 1977 and Luxembourg in 1983. However, the venue, a large indoor well- equipped equestrian centre was deemed more suitable as the location by RTÉ. With huge support from local and national authorities, plus several businesses in the region and it was also the largest outside broadcast ever attempted by state broadcaster RTÉ and was deemed a technical triumph for all involved. The stage was created by Alan Farquharson, who was also chief production designer two years later in Dublin, BBC newsreader Nicholas Witchell caused controversy by remarking on the air, shortly before the contest, that it would be held in a cowshed in Ireland. The top two countries of this contest were the same as the top two countries in the years contest, being Ireland and the United Kingdom. This was, however, merely a measure that was plainly not a sustainable solution for future years. After some extremely tight voting, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovenia edged through, each country had a jury who awarded 12,10,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 point for their top ten songs. The voting required a jury to deliberate in the midst of the war in Bosnia. Warm applause rang round the hall as a voice on a phone line was heard to deliver the familiar greeting, Hello Millstreet. By the final few juries it became clear that either Ireland or the United Kingdom were going to win, after the penultimate jury had voted, it looked to be a lost cause for second-placed Sonia of the UK as she was eleven points behind Niamh Kavanagh. Ostensibly due to technical difficulties, the final jury to announce their results was the Maltese jury. However, the name of neither country came up, instead it was Ireland that were awarded the final points of the evening, finishing with what looked in retrospect a comfortable twenty-three-point victory. Interestingly, given the way the votes were cast, having Maltas vote announced last was the way for the contest for victory to go down to the final jury. 1993 was the last year that the points were announced by telephone
Eurovision Song Contest 1993
46.
Eurovision Song Contest 1994
–
The Eurovision Song Contest 1994 was the 39th Eurovision Song Contest and was held on 30 April 1994 in the Point Theatre in Dublin, Ireland. As of 2017, it was the last time the contest was held in April, the presenters were Cynthia Ní Mhurchú and Gerry Ryan. The pair hosted the evening in French, English and Irish, once again Ireland won the contest for the third time in a row, when Paul Harrington and Charlie McGettigan were the winners with a song written by Brendan Graham, Rock N Roll Kids. This was a sixth victory for Ireland, giving it the outright record number of victories at the Eurovision Song Contest. It was also the first time — and to date the only time — that the contest had been won by the country in three consecutive years. The contest opened with a film of stars floating in water, fireworks and caricatures dancing around, drinking coffee. The cameras then went live to the venue itself, where dressed in white and wearing caricatured heads of well-known Irish figures. The presenters entered the stage spectacularly from a bridge which descended from the roof of the theatre and this year’s video postcards had a literary theme, showing contestants reading, fishing and doing other activities around Ireland. The floor was painted with a dark blue paint to give a watery effect. Because Italy and Luxembourg withdrew voluntarily, the bottom 5 of the 1993 Contest were relegated and this meant that Belgium, Denmark, Israel, Slovenia and Turkey did not participate this year opening spaces for the new countries. This contest also saw Luxembourg withdraw from Eurovision indefinitely, Poland took part for the first time and caused a scandal when Edyta Górniak broke the rules by singing her song in English during the dress rehearsal. Only six countries demanded that Poland should be disqualified, though the rules required 13 countries to complain before Poland could be removed from the competition. The proposed removal did not occur and Poland went on to come 2nd in the contest, for the first time in Eurovision history, voting was done via satellite instead of by telephone, and as a result, viewers could see the spokespersons onscreen. When the voting started, Hungary took the lead from the first six juries and was ahead of all the other countries. However, Ireland powered their way through the board ending up the winners with a 60-point lead over second-placed Poland. The interval act was the first ever performance of the Irish dancing spectacular Riverdance, featuring Michael Flatley, ^ Contains some words in English. Each country had a jury who awarded 12,10,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 point for their top ten songs. With advances in technology, this was the first contest in which the spokesperson for each national jury appeared on-screen, live from their own countries
Eurovision Song Contest 1994
47.
Eurovision Song Contest 1997
–
The Eurovision Song Contest 1997, was the 42nd Eurovision Song Contest and it was held at the Point Theatre Dublin, Ireland, on 3 May 1997. Carrie Crowley and Boyzone member Ronan Keating were the presenters of the show, belgium, Finland, and Slovakia withdrew from the contest due to the relegation rule. The United Kingdom won the competition, thanks to Katrina and the Waves, Ireland hosted the contest for the fourth time in five years after winning the 1996 in Oslo. Dublin was chosen to be the host city, making it the time that the Eurovision Song Contest was staged in the Irish capital. The venue for the contest was the Point Theatre located on the North Wall Quay of the River Liffey, the theatre previously hosted the 1994 and 1995 contests. RTÉ once again produced a spectacular show, with a stage that had a smaller performance space for the artists than in previous years. This was the third Eurovision set to be designed by Paula Farrell, there was a wide array of different styles this year. Denmark brought a rap song, Croatia came with their version of the Spice Girls, the music was in general more modern than before, and for the first time in 1991, an up-tempo song won. This year, televoting was tested in five countries, Austria, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, the results of the televoting countries were, in some cases, different from those that used a jury. Iceland received 16 of its 18 points from five countries. Also, for the first time in Eurovision history, there was a country where not one, television reporter Frédéric Ferrer and 1977 Eurovision winner Marie Myriam each took turns at giving results from that country. Long-time Irish conductor Noel Kelehan was not the host conductor this year, however, from this year, entrants were allowed to use singback without orchestra accompaniment, and in 1999, the orchestra would be abolished completely. Alma Čardžić returned for Bosnia and Herzegovina after last representing the nation in 1994, maarja-Liis Ilus and Şebnem Paker both returned for a 1996 representing Estonia and Turkey respectively. 1. ^ ^ Contained some lyrics in English, iceland got most of its 18 points from the 5 countries that used televoting. Ireland was ostensibly the best scoring country across the televoting countries, the United Kingdom was only eligible to receive points from 4 of them, since they couldnt vote for themselves. Despite being the runner-up, it received only one 12-point score. The UK spokesman Colin Berry remarked, Youre going to like one, Ireland. Causing Terry Wogan to reply, Well, tit for tat, the winning song scored an unprecedented 227 points, it received points from all participating countries, including five sets of 10 points and a record-breaking ten sets of the maximum 12 points
Eurovision Song Contest 1997
48.
Eurovision Song Contest 1998
–
The Eurovision Song Contest 1998 was the 43rd annual Eurovision Song Contest. The contest took place in Birmingham in the United Kingdom, following Katrina and it was the UKs fifth win, and the eighth time that the UK hosted the contest, the last being in Harrogate in 1982. The UK has not won or hosted the contest since, belgium, Finland, and Slovakia returned to the contest after a 1996. Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Denmark, Iceland, Italy, Italy did not return until 2011. Dana International eventually went on to win the contest, scoring 172 points, with the song Diva, written by Svika Pick and Yoav Ginai. The singer had attracted media attention both in Israel and Europe since she had undergone gender reassignment in 1993, being the first openly transgender performer to enter the competition. The United Kingdom, along with their national broadcaster the BBC and it was the first time since the 1982 that the Eurovision Song Contest was staged in the United Kingdom, and the last to date. This was an eighth time that the United Kingdom staged the contest, having done so for the 1960,1963,1968,1972,1974,1977. The National Indoor Arena had been used for major events in the past. The week after the Eurovision Song Contest, the city was to host the 24th G8 summit, with Terry Wogan vacating his hotel room to make way for Bill Clinton. Ironically, the contest was held in an English speaking country for the last time the contest was run without the free language rule, so only the UK, Malta, and Ireland performed in English. The postcards continued with the theme of Birmingham old and new, looking at a traditional object. Popular Britpop songs and also pieces of classical music were used as background music. Finally, the flag of the country about to perform was formed, a jury was used if there were exceptional reasons not to use a televote. Macedonia, participating as Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, took part for the first time, Israel could have returned in 1997, but opted not to due to Holocaust Remembrance Day, meaning they returned for the first time in three years. The Italian broadcaster, RAI, decided to withdraw from the contest, Russia and Italy did not broadcast the event due to withdrawals. Because Russia did not participate, Channel One decided not to broadcast the 1998 contest, according to other sources Channel One had expected Channel Russia to broadcast the contest. Danijela returned for Croatia after last taking part in 1995 as part of the group Magazin, egon Egemann who was the violinist for Gunvor this year, last participated for Switzerland at the 1990
Eurovision Song Contest 1998
–
The
National Indoor Arena, which hosted the contest.
Eurovision Song Contest 1998
49.
Eurovision Song Contest 2000
–
It was the first time since 1996 that the contest was held on mainland Europe. The contest was the second to be held in Stockholm, the presenters were Kattis Ahlström and Anders Lundin, and the contest was won by the Olsen Brothers who represented Denmark with the song Fly on the Wings of Love. The song was written by one of the brothers, Jørgen Olsen, the Globe Arena was, at the time, the largest venue chosen to host the contest with a capacity of 16,000 spectators. The postcards used to each country participating involved Swedish themes that incorporated each nation in some respect. All the postcards are filmed in Stockholm, Sweden, however, the exception is the postcard for Sweden. The favourite in this years contest was Estonia, who was also a fan favourite, however, as the voting results came in, Denmark immediately took control of the scoreboard, beating Russia into second place and Latvia into 3rd place. Slovakia, Greece and Hungary decided not to compete for financial reasons and these countries were, Finland, Macedonia, Romania, Russia and Switzerland. Latvia also joined contest as the country to debut. For the first time, an official CD compilation was released, such a disc was attempted in the previous year, however it lacked four of the competing songs. SVT announced on July 7,1999 that the contest would be hosted by the Globe Arena in Stockholm, other possible candidates had been Scandinavium in Gothenburg and Malmömässan in Malmö. They had previously hosted Eurovision Song Contest 1985 and 1992 respectively, the Globe was said to be chosen because Stockholm hadnt hosted the contest since 1975 and that it would be somewhat cheaper than the other options. The graphic design programme for this years contest was developed by Stockholm Design Lab and was centred around a stylised mouth symbol and it was given the Excellent Swedish Design award later that year. The softness of the mouth was contrasted with a pointy typeface, the intermission during the finale of the ESC was Once Upon a Time Europe Was Covered With Ice, a movie/song directed, composed and edited by Johan Söderberg and produced by John Nordling. For the film Söderberg had traveled all over Europe to record children performing the score, on stage were violinist Caroline Lundgren, drummer Strängnäs Trumkorps plus street musicians from Stockholm and dancers from the Bounce Street Dance Company. There were some controversies concerning some participating countries, israel, who opened the contest, entered a group who waved Israeli and Syrian flags advocating peace between the two nations. The two male singers in the also ran up to each other and kissed for a brief moment. This issue was rejected by the European Broadcasting Union, later, NOS declared that it was both for practical reasons as well as because they found it inappropriate to broadcast a light entertainment programme on the night of such a catastrophic event. As a result, televoting had to be suspended and the Dutch votes were given by a jury instead
Eurovision Song Contest 2000
–
Eurovision Song Contest: Stockholm 2000
Eurovision Song Contest 2000
50.
Eurovision Song Contest 2001
–
The Eurovision Song Contest 2001 was the 46th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. The contest took place in Copenhagen, Denmark, following the Olsen Brothers win at the 2000 contest in Stockholm, the hosting marked only the second time the contest was held on Danish soil, after the 1964 contest -37 years earlier. 23 countries took part in the contest, which was held on 12 May 2001, the host venue was the Parken Stadium - the largest venue to ever host the contest. A total of 35,000 spectators saw the live from within the stadium. The presenters were Danish journalist and TV-show presenter Natasja Crone Back, france, Greece and Slovenia were the heavy favourites to win the contest, however, as the voting progressed it became a two-horse race between Estonia and the host country Denmark. The contest was won by Estonia, represented by Tanel Padar, Dave Benton & 2XL with the song Everybody, the host nation, Denmark, finished in 2nd place with 177 points - beaten by 21 points. Coming 3rd were Greece with 147 points - giving the country their best result up till this point, france came 4th with 142 points, and in 5th place were Sweden with 100 points. Dave Benton, who was born and raised in Aruba, was the first black person and, at the age of 50 years and 101 days, Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark was the host city for the 46th edition of Eurovision. The venue choice for the contest was Parken Stadium, a stadium in the Indre Østerbro district of Copenhagen, Denmark. The logo of the 2001 Eurovision Song Contest was made out of four circles, the four circles were also present in the stage design, with the light construction was made of the same four rings. The Danish national broadcaster faced some problems whilst organising the contest such as the lack of funds, the event was eventually located in the football stadium Parken, after the company running the stadium agreed to add a retractable roof to the building. Changes occurred in the process for the 2002 Contest, along with the Big 4 countries. The other spots for 2002 would be filled by countries that were excluded from the 2001 contest because of their low point average for the years 1996–2000, the Danes were so offended that the BBC was obliged to issue an apology on Wogans comments. Controversy also surrounded the Swedish song, Listen To Your Heartbeat, eventually the EBU decided for the matter to be settled in court, with the song allowed to compete as long as the courts did not declare the song as plagiarism. During the voting the Danish band Aqua performed with a medley of their singles, Although enjoyable, people complained about it being a little bit rude as there was some swearing during the performance, both at the beginning and end of Barbie Girl. This brought the number of participating countries to twenty-three. Tanel Padar was a backing vocalist for Ines in 2000, the majority of participating countries held a televote, where the top ten most voted for songs were awarded the 12,10,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 points. This year the EBU introduced for the first time a mix of voting systems for those countries that didnt want to use 100% televoting, only three votes were allowed per household
Eurovision Song Contest 2001
–
Parken Stadium, Copenhagen
Eurovision Song Contest 2001
Eurovision Song Contest 2001
–
Eurovision Song Contest: Copenhagen 2001
51.
Eurovision Song Contest 2004
–
The Eurovision Song Contest 2004 was the 49th Eurovision Song Contest and it was held in the Abdi İpekçi Arena in Istanbul, Turkey. This was the first occasion in which the contest was held in Turkey after they had won the competition in 2003 with Sertab Erener singing Everyway That I Can, the hosting national broadcaster of the contest was Turkish Radio and Television Corporation. Ukrainian singer Ruslana won the contest with Wild Dances and it is notable that this was only Ukraines second participation in the contest. This was also the year in a row in which the contest was won by a woman. To accommodate the number of countries who wished to participate. The countries which didnt qualify for the final are normally calculate like participating countries, the contest was held in Istanbul following Turkeys victory in the 2003 contest in Riga, Latvia with Sertab Ereners Everyway That I Can. Originally the Mydonose Showland was chosen by TRT to host the event, korhan Abay and Meltem Cumbul were presenters of the show. In the semi-final and the final, Meltem Cumbul warmed up the audience with a sing-a-long of Eurovision classic Nel blu dipinto di blu, originally by Domenico Modugno. Sertab Erener returned to the stage in the final to perform Everyway That I Can, the 2003 winning song, Sertab also interviewed contestants in the green room. The Turkish dance ensemble Fire of Anatolia performed as the interval act, an official CD was released and, for the first time, the entire contest was released on DVD which included the Semi-Final and the Grand Final. The contests new official logo was used for the first time this year. The slogan for Istanbuls contest was Under The Same Sky, which communicated the importance of a united Europe and this year was also notable as it was the first year that Turkey voted for Cyprus and the second year in a row that Cyprus voted for Turkey. Nevertheless, in a move that angered some Cypriots, when the country presented its votes no map of the island was shown and this was due to Turkeys recognition of the northern half of the island as an independent republic. It is likely Turkey pulled out of showing the map because it would have highlighted the southern portion of the island. This was also the first year that the scores were only re-read by the hosts in one language. Before 2004 every point was repeated in French and English, but due to 36 countries voting and this was in the opposite of the original country representative spoke in. Also, this year was the first time in which a non-winning entry scored over 200 points, prior to this contest, only Rock n Roll Kids and Love Shine a Light, the winners in 1994 and 1997 had passed this mark. In this contest, all songs in the top 3 got over 200 points and this years Eurovision contest was the first to be a two-day event, with one qualifying round held on a Wednesday and the grand final held on the following Saturday
Eurovision Song Contest 2004
–
Abdi İpekçi Arena in Istanbul, the 2004 venue.
Eurovision Song Contest 2004
Eurovision Song Contest 2004
–
Eurovision Song Contest: Istanbul 2004
52.
Eurovision Song Contest 2005
–
The Eurovision Song Contest 2005 was the 50th annual Eurovision Song Contest. The contest took place at the Palace of Sports in Kiev, Ukraine, the contest consisted of two shows, the semi-final and final, which took place on 19 and 21 May 2005, respectively. The shows were hosted by Maria Efrosinina and Pavlo Shylko, thirty-nine countries participated, including the débuts of Bulgaria and Moldova and the return of Hungary, which was last represented in 1998. The winner for 2005 was Greece with the song My Number One performed by Helena Paparizou, written by Christos Dantis and Natalia Germanou and it scored 230 points, beating Malta into second place by a margin of 38 points. This was the first victory for Greece at the Eurovision Song Contest, romania, Israel and Latvia rounded out the top five. The Big Four countries ended up as the Last Four, all placing in the four position of the scoreboard in the final. The official logo of the contest remained the same from the 2004 contest with the flag in the heart being changed. Following Istanbuls Under The Same Sky, the slogan for the 2005 show was Awakening, the postcards for the 2005 show illustrated Ukraine’s culture and heritage along with a more modern and industrial side to the country. The hosts of the Eurovision Song Contest in Kiev were television presenter Maria Masha Efrosinina, previous winner Ruslana returned to the stage in Kiev to perform in the interval act and to interview the contestants backstage in the green room. The famous Ukrainian boxers Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko opened the televoting, while a special trophy was presented to the winner by Ukraines president, Viktor Yushchenko. An official CD and DVD was released and a new introduction was an official pin set, the EBU also commissioned a book The Eurovision Song Contest – The Official History by British/American author John Kennedy OConnor to celebrate the contests fiftieth anniversary. The book was presented on screen during the break between songs 12 and 13, the book was published in English, German, French, Dutch, Swedish, Danish and Finnish. During the semi final, there were a few volume falls in the sound, most notably during the Norwegian song and these were not fixed for the DVD release. 2005 was no exception for scandals regarding the representatives from the countries participating, germanys entrant in the Eurovision Song Contest rejected calls to quit after her producer admitted manipulating the countrys pop charts with mass purchases of her single. Gracia Baur defended her producer David Brandes, also behind Swiss entry Vanilla Ninja, bulgarias debut was overshadowed by a scandal. The song Lorraine by Kaffe was accused of plagiarism, the song sounded too similar to another one released by Ruslan Mainov in 2001. There were also problems in Malta with the electricity supply during the contest, there was a controversy regarding the Turkish entry, TRT got a false jury which led to the victory of the song Gülseren, which the 2003 winner Sertab Erener said was not the best choice. There were similar controversies in Macedonia which led to a victory for Martin Vučić
Eurovision Song Contest 2005
–
Eurovision Song Contest: Kyiv 2005
Eurovision Song Contest 2005
Eurovision Song Contest 2005
–
The first of two official albums of the Eurovision Song Contest 2005, showing the participation of
Lebanon. (bottom row, third from right)
53.
Albania in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Albania has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 13 times since its debut in 2004. In 2004, Albanias first entry at Eurovision, Anjeza Shahini and this remained the countrys best result in the contest until 2012, when Rona Nishliu placed fifth. RTSH first showed interest in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2003, however three more countries also applied to enter the contest for the first, and Albania was not allowed to compete in the contest, having been forced to wait another year before debuting. The first Albanian entrant to the Eurovision Song Contest was decided through the long-standing Albanian song contest, the winner of Festivali I Këngës 42 would go on to represent Albania in its first Eurovision Song Contest. The winner was Anjeza Shahini with the song Imazhi yt and this was translated into English, and performed at Eurovision as The Image of You. She qualified for the final, coming 4th, and received 106 points in the final and this placing allowed Albania to skip the semi-final of the 2005 contest, automatically qualifying for the final. The Albanian entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2005 was again selected through Festivali I Këngës, the winner of Festivali I Këngës 43 was Ledina Çelo with Nesër shkoj, translated as Tomorrow I Go in English. Çelo could not replicate Shahinis 7th place, receiving only 53 points, in the semi-final of the 2006 contest he received 58 points, placing 14th of 23 in his semi-final and failing to qualify for the final. The 2007 entry was Frederik Ndoci with Hear My Plea, performed at Festivali I Këngës 45 as Balada e gurit, the song was performed at Eurovision in both English and Albanian. In the semi-final of the 2007 contest he received 49 points, placing 17th of 28 in his semi-final, the winner of Festivali I Këngës 46 was Zemrën e lamë peng by Olta Boka. Press reactions in Albania were not happy with the decision, despite this, Olta Bokas victory remained, and she sang for Albania at the Eurovision Song Contest 2008 in Belgrade, Serbia. At the contest she qualified Albania for the final, placing 9th in a field of 19 in the second semi-final, Albania was the first country to select both their artist and publicly present their song for Eurovision 2009. The winner was selected by Festivali I Këngës. The winner of Festivali I Këngës 47 was Kejsi Tola with the song Më merr në ëndërr, the song was performed in English as Carry Me in Your Dreams. Albania finished 7th out of 19 in the 2nd semifinal with 73 points, in the final, where both jury and televoting were used, Albania scored 48 points, finishing 17th in a field of 25. However, had only televoting been used Albania would have placed 11th in the contest, conversely if only jury voting had been used Albania would have placed 23rd. The winner of Festivali I Këngës 48 was decided on 27 December and she represented Albania at Eurovision 2010 in Oslo with the song Nuk mundem pa ty. The song is a typical composition, and has been compared to Christina Aguileras Keeps Gettin Better
Albania in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Anjeza Shahini at Istanbul (
2004)
Albania in the Eurovision Song Contest
Albania in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Frederik Ndoci at Helsinki (
2007)
Albania in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Olta Boka at Belgrade (
2008)
54.
Australia in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Australia is the first country from the Oceania region to participate in the contest. Australian broadcaster Special Broadcasting Service first broadcast the Eurovision Song Contest in 1983 and has continued to do so every year since. The contest has attracted an audience in Australia, primarily because of the countrys political and cultural ties with the European Union. Early broadcasts of the contest in Australia either featured no commentary or used the United Kingdoms commentary as transmitted by the BBC, in 2001, actress and comedian Mary Coustas provided commentary for the contest performing as her comedic character Effie. Between 2002 and 2003, SBS presenter Des Mangan provided commentary for the Australian audience, since 2009, Julia Zemiro and Sam Pang have been assigned as commentators for the competition by SBS. In addition to broadcasting the contest, SBS has also broadcast the 50th and 60th anniversary programmes, from 2010 to 2014, SBS allowed Australian viewers to participate in their own televote for the Grand Finals. However, these votes were not counted at the actual contest, the SBS commentary team and Australian delegation were awarded a commentary booth of their own at the 2012 contest in Baku. They have been allocated a commentary booth every year since, the song, co-written by Australian Tony Cole, finished second with 114 points. English-born Australian singer-songwriter, Olivia Newton-John, represented the United Kingdom in 1974 in Brighton with the song Long Live Love, john Farrar, who was born in Melbourne, performed as part of The Shadows for the United Kingdom at the 1975 contest. Martin Lee, singer in Brotherhood of Man, which won the 1976 contest, austria paid tribute to Australia in 1977 in London with their entry Boom Boom Boomerang performed by Schmetterlinge. The song was considered controversial at the due to being the first song to openly mock the contest itself. Johnny Logan, winner of the contest in 1980 and 1987 for Ireland, was born in Frankston, Victoria in 1954, in 1996 in Oslo, Norway, Australian singer Gina G represented the United Kingdom with her performance of Ooh Aah. Jane Comerford, who was born in Newcastle, New South Wales, performed in the 2006 contest for Germany as a part of Texas Lightning with the song No No Never, which took 14th place and 36 points. Australians Craig Porteils and Cameron Giles-Webb co-wrote the song This Is Our Night which was performed by Sakis Rouvas for Greece at the 2009 contest. Katrina Noorbergen, an Australian living in Berlin, co-wrote the song A Million Voices which was performed by Polina Gagarina for Russia at the 2015 contest and she also performed as one of Gagarinas backing singers in the contest. Tonino Speciale, who grew up in Western Sydney, co-wrote the song Black Smoke which was performed by Ann Sophie for Germany at the 2015 contest, mary-Jean ODoherty, an American-born and half-Australian opera singer, performed as part of the group Genealogy for Armenia at the 2015 contest. Australias first appearance in the international broadcast of the Eurovision Song Contest occurred on 14 May 2013 during the first semi-final in Malmö, a short pre-recorded video titled Greetings from Australia, submitted by SBS and hosted by Julia Zemiro, was broadcast during the interval acts. On 24 March 2014, the Danish broadcaster DR gave permission to SBS to perform as an act in the second semi-final of Eurovision Song Contest 2014
Australia in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Australia
55.
Austria in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Austria has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 49 times since its debut in 1957. The country has won twice, in 1966, with the song Merci Chérie by Udo Jürgens, Austria currently holds the record for longest gap between wins, with 48 years between victories. Austria finished last at its first attempt in the contest in 1957, before Liane Augustin gave the country its first top five result in 1958, having finished sixth in 1964 and fourth in 1965, Udo Jürgens won the contest at his third attempt in 1966. This would be Austrias only top three result of 20th century, the countrys best result over the next 46 years would be fifth place, which it achieved with Milestones in 1972, Waterloo & Robinson in 1976 and Thomas Forstner in 1989. Austria has finished last in the final a total of seven times, the country also finished last in the semi-final in 2012. After a three-year absence, ORF announced on 28 July 2010 that Austria would return to the contest in 2011, because of this, Austria became the first host country to receive nul points. Austria has opted out of participation in several Contests, the first of these was the 1969 Contest, which was staged in Madrid. As Spain was ruled at that time by Francisco Franco, Austria chose to boycott the Contest, the following year, Austria was again absent. This was due to the result in 1969 in which four songs tied for first place. From 1973 to 1975, Austria stayed away as well, the exact reason for this is unclear, however the scoring system in use at one of these Contests - allowing all entrants a guaranteed number of points - may have been a factor. The country was ineligible to compete in 1998 and 2001, as it had not achieved high placings in the five previous years. They returned for the 2007 contest in Helsinki, but came second to last in the semi-final, despite withdrawing, the final of the 2008 contest was screened on ORF. ORF decided not to participate in the 2009 contest, but did broadcast the final as in 2008, the EBU announced that they would work harder to bring Austria back to the contest in 2010, along with former participants Monaco and Italy. It was, however, confirmed that Austria would not participate in the 2010 Contest in Oslo, in July 2010, the chairman of ORF, Alexander Wrabetz, stated that Austria would return for the 2011 contest, due to it being held in its neighbour Germany. In 2011, Austria reached the final for the first time since 2004, ^ Specifically Styrian, a Southern Bavarian dialect spoken in Styria. ^ Specifically Mühlviertlerisch, a Central Bavarian dialect spoken in Upper Austria, ^ While Austria and Germany both finished with no points, Austria is listed as finishing ahead of Germany due to the tiebreaker rule that favours the song performed earliest in the running order. Therefore, Germany finished in 27th place, with Austria in 26th, if a country had won the previous year, they did not have to compete in the semi-finals the following year. In addition, back in 2004-2007, the top ten countries who were not members of the big four did not have to compete in the finals the following year
Austria in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Udo Jürgens performing "
Sag ihr, ich lass sie grüßen " at
Naples (
1965)
Austria in the Eurovision Song Contest
Austria in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Tie Break performing "
Du bist " at
Istanbul (
2004)
Austria in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Eric Papilaya performing "
Get a Life – Get Alive " at
Helsinki (
2007)
56.
Azerbaijan in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Azerbaijan made its debut at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2008, after İctimai Televiziya became an active member of the European Broadcasting Union. İTV had broadcast the Eurovision Song Contest in previous years, purchasing broadcasting rights from the EBU, Azerbaijan is the last country in the Caucasus to participate, Armenia was the first one, in 2006, followed by Georgia in 2007. Azerbaijan since their debut in 2008 has never missed the final. Azerbaijan reached the Top 5 in five contests, and achieved the Top 5 place finishes each once - 3rd in 2009, 5th in 2010, 1st in 2011, 4th in 2012. Azerbaijans first try at Eurovision proved to be successful as the qualified for the final from the first semi-final. Previously, another broadcaster, AzTV, wanted to participate in 2007, AzTV was denied active EBU membership on 18 June 2007, as it was considered too connected to the Azerbaijani government. On 5 July, İTV became a full EBU member, azerbaijans first Eurovision performance by Elnur and Samir made it in the top ten placed at number 8 with 132 points. In 2009 Azerbaijan achieved an improvement on their 2008 debut, coming third and receiving 207 points with the song Always, on 14 May 2011, Azerbaijan won the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 with a song by Ell & Nikki. With their entry only receiving 5.26 points per voting country, since debuting in 2008 the contest has been extremely popular in the country. After placing in the Top 10 at their debut in 2008 and also ending in the Top 5 from 2009-2013, Azerbaijan expects their act to end up in the Top 5 and the country often hires very well established songwriters and producers to make their entry for the contest. Azerbaijan issued a stamp dedicated to Azerbaijan’s victory with Ell & Nikki at Eurovision. The duo also became national stars after their Eurovision 2011 win, the country spent €160 million on hosting the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest, including building a completely new arena for the event. As of 2015, this is the largest amount of any host has ever spent on hosting the Eurovision Song Contest. Table key NOTE, If a country had won the previous year, founded by Christer Björkman and Richard Herrey, the awards are named after the creator of the annual competition, Marcel Bezençon. The awards are divided into three categories, Press Award, Artistic Award, and Composer Award. co. uk
Azerbaijan in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Elnur &
Samir in
Belgrade (
2008)
Azerbaijan in the Eurovision Song Contest
Azerbaijan in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Aysel &
Arash in
Moscow (
2009)
Azerbaijan in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Safura Alizadeh in
Oslo (
2010)
57.
Belarus in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Belarus has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 13 times since making its debut in 2004. Dmitry Koldun became the countrys first entrant to reach the final at the 2007 contest and this remains Belarus only top ten placement. Belarus also qualified for the final in 2010,2013 and 2014, Belarus entered the contest in the same year that semi-finals began to be used to determine who would compete in the final. Belarus has so far managed to qualify for the four times, in 2007 with Dmitry Koldun, in 2010 with band 3+2, in 2013 with Alyona Lanskaya. After the 2009 edition, Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko, said that it was necessary to replace the current working team behind Belarus Eurovision entry. Lukashenko pointed out his frustrations over divisions within the team, Alexander Rybak, the winner of the 2009 contest representing Norway, expressed an interest in composing an entry for his birth country Belarus. An attempt to compose a song for Belarus materialized in 2015, despite being the favourite to win the national final that year, it only got a 4th place. The member of OGAE International Network
Belarus in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Dmitry Koldun at
Helsinki (
2007)
Belarus in the Eurovision Song Contest
Belarus in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Ruslan Alekhno at
Belgrade (
2008)
Belarus in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Alyona Lanskaya at
Malmö (
2013)
58.
Czech Republic in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
The Czech Republic has competed at the Eurovision Song Contest five times, first taking part in 2007. On their first four attempts the country failed to qualify to the final from the semi-finals, in 2016, the Czech Republic got its first qualification to the final in their Eurovision history, leaving Andorra as the only country to have never performed in the final. After receiving nul points at the 2009 Contest and a lack of interest from the Czech public, five years later ČT announced their return to the contest in 2015, with an internal selection being used to select their fourth Eurovision entry. During the time of Czechoslovakia, Československá televize is known to have broadcast a number of editions of the Contest in Czechoslovakia during the 1960s and 1970s. After the dissolution of the state in 1993 the Czech Republics partner Slovakia immediately attempted to enter the Contest, Czech broadcaster Česká televize had originally planned to send an entry to the 2005 Contest, held in Kiev, Ukraine. However, this did not materialise for various reasons, ČT again looked at sending an entry to the 2006 Contest in Athens, Greece, but failed to do so after having doubts that the country would qualify for the final. In April 2006 ČT officially confirmed their presence at the 2007 Contest in Helsinki, ČT held a national final to select the first Czech entry. Eurosong 2007 featured 10 songs, with the voting for the winner through SMS voting. However one song was withdrawn before the show began, leaving only 9 songs to compete, the winner was rock band Kabát with the song Malá dáma. At the contests semi-final on 10 May 2007 the Czech Republic performed 16th in the semi-final, for the 2008 Contest in Belgrade, Serbia, ČT again held a national final to select the entry for the country. 10 acts again competed for the chance to represent the Czech Republic in Serbia, despite placing in the bottom two twice, ČT confirmed that they would participate at the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 in Moscow, Russia. ČT decided to hold a selection for the artist who would represent the country at the contest in Russia. The broadcaster chose Romani band Gipsy. cz in January 2009 to compete in Moscow – the band had previously competed in the two national finals, coming both times in the top three. Two songs were presented to the Czech public to vote on, Aven Romale, after voting had concluded after 14 days, the final winner was Aven Romale, which featured lead singer Radoslav Banga dressing-up as a super-hero character, Super Gypsy. The group performed 2nd on the night of the first semi-final of the contest, however the group managed to receive nul points from the 20 countries voting in the semi-final, becoming the 16th entry to achieve this result since the current voting method was introduced in 1975. On 22 July 2009 ČT officially announced their withdrawal from the 2010 Contest, stating a lack of interest from the Czech public to the contest, the song however failed to qualify from the semi-final. However it did give the Czech Republic their best score and placed 13th with 33 points, on 31 August 2015, ČT announced that it would participate in the 2016 edition, in-which they qualified to final for the first time in Czech Republics Eurovision history. The placement in the final was 25 out of 26 countries, the televoting gave Czech Republic zero points and the juries 41 points
Czech Republic in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Kabát performing "
Malá dáma " at Helsinki
Czech Republic in the Eurovision Song Contest
Czech Republic in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Tereza Kerndlová performing "
Have Some Fun " at Belgrade
59.
Denmark in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Denmark has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 45 times since its debut in 1957. Having competed in ten consecutive contests until 1966, Denmark was absent for eleven consecutive contests from 1967-1977, since 1978, they have been absent from only four contests. Denmark has won the contest three times, the Danish qualifying competition for the contest is the Dansk Melodi Grand Prix. Birthe Wilke and Gustav Winckler placed third at the countrys first attempt in 1957, Denmark then won the contest for the first time in 1963 with the song Dansevise performed by Grethe & Jørgen Ingmann. The country would not return to the top five for over twenty years, Hot Eyes then finished third in 1988, as did Birthe Kjær in 1989. In the 1990s, due to performances in the previous years. They did make the top ten three times, with Aud Wilkens fifth place in 1995 being Denmarks only top five result of the decade, the second Danish victory came in 2000, with the Olsen Brothers defying the odds to win with Fly on the Wings of Love. In 2001, as hosts, Denmark finished second with Never Ever Let You Go performed by Rollo & King, in 2002, Malene Mortensen became the first Danish entry to finish last. Denmark were absent from the 2003 contest, in 2005, Copenhagen hosted Congratulations,50 Years of the Eurovision Song Contest, an event to commemorate the 50th anniversary. Denmark achieved its best result for nine years at the 2010 contest, a Friend in London then finished fifth in 2011. Denmark won the contest for the time in 2013, with Only Teardrops performed by Emmelie de Forest receiving Denmarks highest ever score with 281 points. Denmark has placed in the top five a total of 14 times and has a score of 65.261 points. Denmark first participated at the Eurovision Song Contest 1957, held in Frankfurt, the country had intended to compete at the first contest in 1956, but had submitted its application past the deadline and was, therefore, not allowed to compete. Denmark was the first Nordic country to take part in the contest, with Sweden, Norway, iceland, however, did not take part until 1986. Denmarks first participants were Birthe Wilke and Gustav Winckler, who sang the song Skibet skal sejle i nat and their performance was controversial as, at the end of the song, the couple performed an 11-second kiss, which caused outcry in some countries. Nevertheless, the performance achieved a respectable 3rd place, Denmark won the contest for the first time in 1963, when Grethe and Jørgen Ingmann sang Dansevise. When Norway announced its votes, the presenter Katie Boyle could not hear the spokesperson, the final result was valid and the victory went to Denmark. Accordingly, in 1964, the contest was held in Denmark for the first time, after the 1966 contest and a record low 14th place, Denmark withdrew from the contest, as DR´s new head of entertainment Niels Jørgen Kaiser did not view the contest as being quality entertainment
Denmark in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Birthe Wilke and
Gustav Winckler in Frankfurt (
1957)
Denmark in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Denmark
Denmark in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Grethe and
Jørgen Ingmann (
1963)
Denmark in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
DQ at
Helsinki (
2007)
60.
Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Finland has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 50 times since its debut in 1961. Finland won the contest for the first time in 2006 with Lordis Hard Rock Hallelujah, previously, its best showing was Marion Rung’s song Tom Tom Tom in 1973, which was placed 6th. Finland has finished last in the contest ten times, receiving nul points in 1963,1965 and 1982, since the introduction of the semi-finals in 2004, Finland has failed to reach the final six times. In 2014, the country had its best result for eight years when Softengine finished 11th, in 2015 Finland finished last in Semi Final One with the shortest ever Eurovision entry Aina mun pitää that only lasts 1 minute and 25 seconds by PKN. Before the 2006 victory, Finland was considered by many as the ultimate under-achiever of Eurovision, prior to its triumph, it had placed last a total of eight times, once with nul points after the introduction of the current scoring method. Finlands entry in 1982, Nuku pommiin by Kojo, was one of fifteen songs since the modern scoring system was instituted in 1975 to earn no points. Due to low results, Finland was excluded from the contest in 1995,1997,1999,2001 and 2003, in 2006, Finland won with The band Lordi and its song Hard Rock Hallelujah, an entry different from the mainstream Europop that dominated the competition. The song broke records scoring the highest number of points in Eurovision Song Contest history. The record was broken by Norway in 2009. All of Finlands entries were in English between 1973 and 1976 and again since 2000, both of these periods allowed submissions in any language, two entries,1990 and 2012, were in Swedish, which is an official language in Finland alongside Finnish. All of Finlands other songs have been in Finnish, in voting patterns, Finland has traditionally supported and been supported by the other Nordic countries. In recent years also the Baltic nations, such as Estonia and Latvia have been favoured by Finland, and the other way around. In 2004, Finlands first-place vote went to Sweden, in 2005, it contributed 12 points to Norway, in 2006, it was Russias turn to get the 12 points, but it was Serbia who got their top score in 2007. The first time in Eurovision history that Sweden gave Finland 12 points was in 2006 for Lordis song Hard Rock Hallelujah, in 2007, they repeated this, giving 12 points to Hanna Pakarinen with Leave Me Alone. Finland has also given notably high points to Italy, a country that had not competed in various periods, especially from 1998 to 2010, ^ In 2009, Finland qualified through the back-up jury selection. If a country had won the year, they did not have to compete in the semi-finals the following year. In addition from 2004-2007, the top ten countries who were not members of the big four did not have to compete in the semi-finals the following year
Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Viktor Klimenko at
Naples (
1965)
Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest
Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Hanna Pakarinen at
Helsinki (
2007)
Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Teräsbetoni at
Belgrade (
2008)
61.
Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
No other country has been represented as often. France and the United Kingdom come in a second, missing only two contests each. Before German reunification in 1990, it presented as West Germany. Germany has won two contests, in 1982 and 2010, Germany first won the contest in 1982, at the 27th attempt in Harrogate, when Nicole won with the song Ein bisschen Frieden. The second German victory came 28 years later at the 2010 contest in Oslo, Germany have finished second four times and third five times, for a total of eleven top three placements. Katja Ebstein, who finished third in 1970 and 1971, Germany also finished second with Lena Valaitis in 1981 and the group Wind in both 1985 and 1987. The other third places were achieved by Mary Roos in 1972, Mekado in 1994, with one win and four second places, Germany is one of the most successful countries of the 1980s. Germany has finished last on seven occasions, receiving nul points in 1964,1965 and 2015, Germany, along with the United Kingdom, Italy, France and Spain, is one of the Big Five countries that are automatically qualified to the final, regardless of the placing. This is due to being the largest financial contributors to the contest, since 1996, ARD consortium member Norddeutscher Rundfunk has been responsible for Germanys participation in the contest. The Eurovision Song Contest semi-final is broadcast on NDR Fernsehen, and the final is broadcast on Das Erste, although German contestants have had varied levels of success, public interest remains high and the contest is one of the most watched events each year. Between 2010 and 2012, private broadcaster ProSieben worked in partnership with NDR, Germany has often changed the selection process used in order to find the countrys entry for the contest, either a national final or internal selection has been held by the broadcaster at the time. ARD had selected an artist and song to represent them at the Eurovision Song Contest 1996, to be held in Oslo, due to the large number of countries wanting to compete at Eurovision, they determined that only 23 of the 30 countries could compete. Hosts Norway qualified automatically, the other 29 songs went into an audio only pre-qualification round, unfortunately for Germany its entry, Leon with Planet of Blue, failed to earn enough points to progress to the final, finishing 24th. ARD and the EBU were not happy with this, as Germany was the biggest financial contributor at the time and this is the only time that Germany has been absent from the contest. In the 2000s, Germany has been notable for their adoption of musical styles which are not typical of Eurovision, such as country and western, Germany tied for last at the 2008 contest for points, but was awarded 23rd of 25th place when the results were posted. In 2009, ARD held a selection for the first time since 1995 due to lack of interest. Alex Christensen and Oscar Loya were selected to represent Germany at the 2009 contest, however they only managed to receive 35 points, placing 20th of 25 competing countries. In 2010, ARD approached former entrant and songwriter Stefan Raab and it has been said that Raab was approached due to his good record at the contest, finishing 5th in 2000 as well as writing entries in 1998 and 2004, which finished 7th and 8th respectively
Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Walter Andreas Schwarz at
Lugano (
1956)
Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Germany
Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Katja Ebstein at
Amsterdam (
1970)
Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Roger Cicero at
Helsinki (
2007)
62.
Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Ireland has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 50 times since making its debut at the 1965 Contest in Naples. Since then, they have missed only two contests, in 1983 in Munich and 2002 in Tallinn, Ireland is the most successful country in the contest, with a total of seven wins. Raidió Teilifís Éireann is Irelands representative broadcaster at the contest, the semi-finals are broadcast on RTÉ Two, All of the Irish entries have been performed in English with the exception of the 1972 entry, Ceol an Ghrá, which was sung in Irish. Sean Dunphy finished second at the 1967 contest, behind Sandie Shaw, before Dana gave Ireland its first victory in 1970, the countrys next best result of the 1970s was in 1977, when The Swarbriggs plus two finished third. Johnny Logan gave Ireland a second victory in 1980, with Whats Another Year, Logan then wrote the 1984 entry Terminal 3, which finished second, performed by Linda Martin. In 1987, Logan became the first and only performer to win the contest twice, Irelands most successful decade to date in the contest is the 1990s, which began with Liam Reilly finishing joint second in 1990. Ireland then achieved a three consecutive victories in the contest. In 1992,1984 runner-up Linda Martin returned to win with another Johnny Logan composition and this was followed up by Niamh Kavanaghs victory over Sonia in 1993 with In Your Eyes and Paul Harrington and Charlie McGettigan winning in 1994 with Rock n Roll Kids. The decade saw yet another victory in 1996 when Eimear Quinn won with The Voice, Ireland also finished second in 1997 with Marc Roberts. In the 21st century, Ireland has fared well, only reaching the top 10 on three occasions, with Eamonn Toal sixth in 2000, Brian Kennedy tenth in 2006 and Jedward eighth in 2011. Ireland finished last in the final for the first time in 2007, since the introduction of the semi-final round in 2004, Ireland has failed to reach the final six times, in 2005,2008,2009,2014,2015 and 2016. 2016 marked the first time that Ireland failed to qualify in three consecutive years, Ireland has competed in the Contest almost continuously since the countrys debut in 1965. In 1983 a strike at the national broadcaster RTÉ meant that the station lacked the resources to send a participant so RTÉ broadcast the Contest with the BBC commentary feed. In 2002 Ireland was relegated from the Contest, in keeping with the EBU rules, RTÉ broadcast that years event as they intended to return in 2003, and a TV commentator was sent to the host city, Tallinn. Ireland has sent 50 entries to the Eurovision Song Contest, of these seven have won, Ireland has been relegated once, in 2001 Gary OShaughnessy finished twenty-first with Without Your Love. In addition, six Irish entries have featured in the semi-final of the Contest, in 2005, Donna & Joe finished fourteenth in the pre-qualifier, failing to qualify for the final. In 2006, Brian Kennedy finished ninth in the semi-final, ensuring an Irish presence in the Athens final, Kennedy finished tenth in the final. Ireland also featured in the first semi-final in 2008 and in the second semi-final in 2009, Irelands recent results in the Contest have been poor in comparison to the 1990s, coming last in 2007 and 2013
Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Butch Moore at Naples (
1965)
Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Ireland
Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Dana at Amsterdam (
1970)
Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Red Hurley At The Hague (
1976)
63.
Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Italy has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 42 times since making its debut at the first contest in 1956. It was one of seven countries that competed at the very first contest. Italy competed at the contest frequently until 1997, after a fourteen-year absence, the country competed in the Eurovision Song Contest 2011. Italy has won the contest twice, in 1958, Domenico Modugno finished third with the song Nel blu, dipinto di blu. Renamed Volare, the became a huge international hit, reaching the US number one spot. Emilio Pericoli also finished third in 1963, before Italy won for the first time in 1964 with Gigliola Cinquetti, Cinquetti returned to the contest in 1974 and finished second with the song Si, losing to ABBA. Italy then finished third in 1975 with Wess and Dori Ghezzi, the countrys best result of the 1980s was Umberto Tozzi and Raf finishing third in 1987. Italys second victory in the contest came in 1990 with Toto Cutugno, other good 1990s results were Mia Martini in 1992 and Jalisse in 1997, who both finished fourth. After 1997, Italy withdrew from the competition, the EBU announced that they would work harder to bring Italy back to the contest in 2010, along with former participants Monaco and Austria, but again Italy did not participate in the contest. Italys return to the contest proved to be successful, with Raphael Gualazzi finishing second, Italy has finished in the top ten in four of the last six contests. In 2015, Il Volo won the televoting receiving votes from all countries, since the introduction of the 50/50 voting system in 2009, this was the first time that the winner of the viewers vote did not win the contest. Italy has withdrawn from the Eurovision Song Contest a number of times, the first withdrawal was in 1981, when RAI stated that interest had diminished in the country. This absence continued through the year, before Italy returned in 1983. Italy again withdrew in 1986 when RAI decided not to enter the contest, from 1994 to 1996 Italy withdrew again, with RAI citing a lack of interest in participating. Italy returned in 1997, before withdrawing again without explanation, none of the Eurovision winning songs were particularly successful in the Italian charts. Despite the Eurovision contests taking place more than a month before the vote, Italian censors refused to allow the contest. The song thus remained censored on most Italian state TV and radio stations for over a month, at the contest in Brighton, Cinquetti finished second, losing to ABBA. Sì went on to be a UK top ten hit, peaking at number eight and it also reached the German top 20
Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Bobby Solo in Naples (
1965)
Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Italy
Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Marco Mengoni in Malmö (
2013)
Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Il Volo in Vienna (
2015)
64.
Lithuania in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Lithuania has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 17 times since its debut in 1994, where Ovidijus Vyšniauskas finished last, receiving nul points. Lithuania then withdrew from the contest, not returning until 1999, LT Uniteds sixth place in 2006 with the song We Are the Winners is Lithuanias best result in the contest. The country reached the top ten for a time in 2016. Having been relegated from the 2000 contest the country returned in 2001 with Skamp and You Got Style and they received 35 points, placing 13th. However the following year, Aivaras could only manage to come second last with 12 points, since the semi-finals were introduced Lithuania again came last with Laura and the Lovers and Little by Little. The following year the Lithuanian broadcaster Lietuvos Nacionalinis Radijas ir Televizija sent LT United to the 2006 contest with the football chant-like song We Are the Winners. They took Lithuania to the final for the first time since 2002, coming sixth in the final with 162 points, Lithuanias best placing as of 2016. The following year Lithuania automatically qualified for the final, however 4Fun could not replicate LT Uniteds success, in 2008 Jeronimas Milius failed to reach the final, coming 16th of 19 competing nations in the second semi-final. Lithuania threatened to boycott the 2009 contest if Russia continues to showcase power, the statement was made in reaction to the Russias actions in the 2008 South Ossetia war. Culture Minister Jonas Jucas stated that it was too early to discuss the boycott since spontaneous decisions might aggravate the efforts of diplomats and thus make the situation worse. At the Eurovision Song Contest 2009, Lithuania qualified from the finals and at the end of the voting in the final had received 23 points. LRT announced in December 2009 that, due to a lack of necessary funds, however, in the event that the necessary funds of 300,000 litas would be found the broadcaster announced that they would attempt to continue the countrys participation. Ultimately, private company TEO LT provided the funding and Lithuania participated in Bærum. In 2011 Lithuania participated in the first Semi Final on the 10 May 2011 and after coming 5th, in the final, Lithuania performed 4th and at the end of the voting had received 63 points putting them 19th. ^ Includes two phrases in French, ^ Includes two phrases in French. American Sign Language was also used during the televised performance. If a country had won the year, they did not have to compete in the semi-finals the following year. In addition from 2004-2007, the top ten countries who were not members of the big four did not have to compete in the semi-finals the following year
Lithuania in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
4Fun performing "
Love or Leave " at Helsinki (
2007)
Lithuania in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Lithuania
Lithuania in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Jeronimas Milius performing "
Nomads in the Night " at Belgrade (
2008)
65.
Moldova in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Moldova has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 12 times, debuting in 2005. The debut year remains the countrys most successful result, with Zdob şi Zdub finishing sixth, the countrys only other top ten result was in 2007, when Natalia Barbu finished tenth. Moldova has reached the final eight out of twelve times, failing to get through in 2008,2014,2015 and 2016. Following the poor result in the 2006 contest, the Moldovan broadcaster, Teleradio-Moldova announced that it would withdraw from participation, however, in response to public pressure TRM filed the preliminary documents to compete and sent Natalia Barbu with song Fight. In 2008 Moldova, for the first time in 4 years of participating, failed to make the Final, their number, A Century of Love. In 2010 a saxophonist Sergey Stepanov from group SunStroke Project and Olia Tira has become internet phenomenon because of his 30-second saxophone solo, in 2011 Zdob şi Zdub represented Moldova for a second time in the contest, with the song So Lucky placing 12th in the final. This was the time that Moldova ended up 10th in the semifinal. In 2012, Pasha Parfeny represented Moldova, with the song Lăutar, placing 5th in the Semi Final, table key NOTE, If a country had won the previous year, they did not have to compete in the semi-finals the following year. The other reason being that back in 2004-2007, the top ten countries who were not members of the big four did not have to compete in the finals the following year. If, for example, Germany and France placed inside the top ten, as of 2016, Moldovas voting history is as follows, Moldova in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest Moldova-Gagauzia in the Türkvizyon Song Contest Points to and from Moldova eurovisioncovers. co. uk
Moldova in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Natalia Gordienko and
Arsenium performing "
Loca " at
Athens (
2006)
Moldova in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Moldova
Moldova in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Natalia Barbu performing "
Fight " at
Helsinki (
2007)
Moldova in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Geta Burlacu performing "
A Century of Love " at
Belgrade (
2008)
66.
Norway in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Norway has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 55 times since making its debut in 1960 and has only been absent twice since then. In 1970, the country boycotted the contest over disagreements about the voting structure, Norway has won the contest three times. The contest is broadcast in Norway by NRK, which also broadcasts Norways national selection competition, Norways first entrant in the contest in 1960 was Nora Brockstedt, who finished fourth. Åse Kleveland then finished third in 1966 and these would remain Norways only top five results until 1985, when Bobbysocks gave the country its first victory with the song La det swinge. The country achieved two top five results over the next ten years, with both Karoline Krüger in 1988 and Silje Vige in 1993, finishing fifth. Norways second victory came in 1995 with Secret Gardens mainly instrumental, in 1996, Elisabeth Andreassen, who had won the contest as one half of Bobbysocks, returned to finish second. In 2003, Jostein Hasselgård was fourth, Norway won for the third time in 2009, with Alexander Rybaks smash hit Fairytale. The 2009 winning score of 387 points being the highest ever winning total and it also achieved the biggest ever margin of victory. Norway also has the two distinctions of having finished last in the Eurovision final more than any other country. The country has finished last eleven times, failing to score a point four times, since the introduction of the semi-final round in 2004, Norway has finished in the top ten six times. In 2015 Mørland & Debrah Scarlett finished eighth with A Monster Like Me, Norway has a total of 11 top five and 22 top ten results in the contest. If a country had won the year, they did not have to compete in the semi-finals the following year. In addition from 2004-2007, the top ten countries who were not members of the big four did not have to compete in the semi-finals the following year. If, for example, Germany and France placed inside the top ten, ^ Spain originally gave its 12 points to Israel and 10 to Norway. After the broadcast it was announced that Spanish broadcaster wrongly tallied the votes and Germany should have got the top mark -12 points - instead of being snubbed, the mistake was corrected and so Germany was placed 7th over Norway. The organisation consists of a network of 40 Eurovision Song Contest fan clubs across Europe and beyond, and is a non-governmental, non-political, and non-profitable company. In what has become a tradition for the OGAE fan clubs. Melodi Grand Prix Norway in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest Norway in the Eurovision Young Musicians Melodi Grand Prix Points to and from Norway eurovisioncovers. co. uk
Norway in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Maria Haukaas Storeng performing "
Hold On Be Strong " at Belgrade (
2008)
Norway in the Eurovision Song Contest
Norway in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Alexander Rybak, performing "
Fairytale " at Moscow (
2009)
Norway in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Margaret Berger performing "
I Feed You My Love " at Malmö (
2013)
67.
Slovenia in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Slovenia has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 22 times since its debut in 1993. Since then, the country has missed two contests, in 1994 and 2000. Slovenias best result in the contest is seventh place, both in 1995 with Darja Švajger and 2001 with Nuša Derenda, the countrys only other top ten result being a tenth-place finish for Tanja Ribič in 1997. Since the introduction of the round in 2004, Slovenia has failed to reach the final on nine occasions. Slovenia had previously represented at the contest as Yugoslavia between 1961 and 1991. Four of the 27 entries were from Slovene artists, the Slovene national final to select their entry is EMA, broadcast, along with Eurovision, by Radiotelevizija Slovenija. Table key NOTE, If a country had won the previous year, in addition from 2004–2007, the top ten countries who were not members of the big four did not have to compete in the semi-finals the following year. If, for example, Germany and France placed inside the top ten, the countries who placed 11th and 12th were advanced to the following years grand final along with the rest of the top ten countries
Slovenia in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Alenka Gotar performing "
Cvet z juga " at Helsinki (
2007)
Slovenia in the Eurovision Song Contest
Slovenia in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Rebeka Dremelj performing "
Vrag naj vzame " at Belgrade (
2008)
Slovenia in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Ansambel Žlindra and
Kalamari performing "
Narodnozabavni rock " at Oslo (
2010)
68.
Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Sweden has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 56 times since making its debut in 1958, missing only three contests since then. Sweden is one of the most successful competing nations at the Eurovision, with a total of six victories in the contest, Sweden is also the contests most successful country of the 21st century, with two wins from nine top five results. In total, Sweden has achieved 23 top five results in the contest, since 1959, the Swedish entry has been chosen through an annual televised competition, known since 1967 as Melodifestivalen. At the 1997 contest, Sweden was one of the first five countries to adopt televoting, Swedens first entrant in the contest was Alice Babs in 1958, who was placed fourth. This remained the countrys best result until 1966, when Lill Lindfors, Swedens first Eurovision victory was in 1974 with the song Waterloo, performed by ABBA. Thanks to their victory in Brighton, ABBA went on to worldwide success. In the 1980s, Sweden achieved three top three results. After Carola finished third in 1983, the Herreys gave Sweden its second victory in 1984 with Diggi-Loo Diggi-Ley, kikki Danielsson then finished third in 1985. Carola returned to the contest in 1991, to give the Swedes their third win with Fångad av en stormvind, charlotte Nilsson gave the country a second win of the decade in 1999, with Take Me to Your Heaven. The 1990s also saw two third-place results, for Jan Johansen in 1995 and One More Time in 1996, in 2010, Anna Bergendahl became the first Swedish entrant to fail to make it to the final, finishing 11th in the semifinal, only five points from qualification. They also finished third in 2011 with Eric Saade and Popular, third in 2014 with Sanna Nielsen and Undo, and fifth with Frans and the song If I Were Sorry in 2016. Sweden has hosted the Eurovision Song Contest six times and is the country to have hosted the event in five different decades. Together with Croatia and Malta it was the country to never be relegated, under the previous rules of the contest. Melodifestivalen is a music competition organised by Swedish public broadcasters Sveriges Television. It has chosen the representative for the Eurovision Song Contest since 1959. It is Swedens most popular shows, and it has been estimated that more than 4 million Swedes watch the show annually. Almost every Swedish entry for Eurovision has been selected through Melodifestivalen, only Swedens first entry in 1958, was not selected through Melodifestivalen, having been selected internally by the Swedish broadcaster at the time, Swedish Radio Service. ^ In 2008, Sweden qualified through the back-up jury selection, If a country had won the previous year, they did not have to compete in the semi-finals the following year
Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Ingvar Wixell at
Naples (
1965)
Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest
Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
The Ark at
Helsinki (
2007)
Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Charlotte Perrelli at
Belgrade (
2008)
69.
Switzerland in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Switzerland has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 57 times since making its debut at the first contest in 1956, missing only four contests, in 1995,1999,2001 and 2003. Switzerland hosted the first contest in 1956, and won it themselves, Switzerland won the contest again in 1988. Lys Assia won the very first contest in Lugano in 1956 with the song Refrain and she returned to place second in 1958. In 1993, Annie Cotton gave the country its eighth top three result, when she placed third, in the 21st century, Switzerland has only once reached the top ten, in 2005 with the girl band Vanilla Ninja finishing eighth. Since the introduction of the round in 2004, Switzerland has failed to qualify for the final nine times. At the 2014 contest, Sebalter gave the country its second best result of the century, Switzerland had been absent from Eurovision four times since their participation began in the first contest. These absences, in 1995,1999,2001 and 2003 were caused by poor results in previous contests that relegated Switzerland from the contest, Switzerland has four official languages, French, German, Italian, and Romansh. For decades, the requirements stated that the song had to be performed in a national language. Out of their 55 appearances in the Contest, Switzerland has sent 52 songs,24 of which were in French,12 in German, nine in Italian, nine in English, both of Switzerlands winning songs have been sung in French. ^ The full results for the first contest in 1956 are unknown, the official Eurovision site lists all the other songs as being placed second. If a country had won the year, they did not have to compete in the semi-finals the following year. In addition from 2004-2007, the top ten countries who were not members of the big four did not have to compete in the semi-finals the following year. If, for example, Germany and France placed inside the top ten, as of 2016, Switzerlands voting history is as follows, Over the years Switzerland has broadcast the Eurovision Song Contest on three television stations, SRF, RTS and RSI. Table key Points to and from Switzerland eurovisioncovers. co. uk
Switzerland in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Jean Philippe at Luxembourg (
1962)
Switzerland in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Switzerland
Switzerland in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Yovanna at Naples (
1965)
Switzerland in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Henri Dès at Amsterdam (
1970)
70.
United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
The United Kingdom has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 59 times and is one of the most successful countries to compete in the contest. They first participated in the second contest in 1957, the UK has entered every year since 1959, and has won the contest a total of five times. Along with Sweden, the UK is one of two countries with Eurovision victories in four different decades. The British public broadcaster, the BBC, broadcasts the event each year and organises the selection process for the entry. For most years, the public had been able to vote for the winner, using in the past postcard voting, where the viewers sent postcards with their vote to the BBC, but more recently televoting. In 2009 and 2010, a new national selection format was held to find the singer who would go on to sing the internally selected song at the contest. From 2011 to 2015, for the first time in UKs Eurovision history and this resulted in the national selection process being suspended, however, this returned in 2016. The United Kingdom has finished last in three contests, in 2016, the UK failed to reach the top 10 for the seventh consecutive time, with the duo Joe and Jake finishing 24th. It was alleged that the United Kingdom were expected to take part in the first contest in 1956, and this was later revealed by the EBU in January 2017 to be a mythical fact created by fans of the contest. Patricia Bredin was the first performer to represent the UK at Eurovision, at their second attempt in the contest in 1959, the UK achieved the first of their record fifteen runner-up positions, when Pearl Carr and Teddy Johnson sang Sing, Little Birdie. In 1968, another performer was selected to represent the UK with the song Congratulations. In London, Cliff Richard gave the UK their sixth second-place finish, Congratulations remains one of only two non-winning UK Eurovision songs to top the UK charts. The UKs pulling of second was provided by the Scottish singer Lulu in 1969 with the song Boom Bang-a-Bang, another established performer, she had reached the US #1 spot with To Sir with Love in 1967. Having finished second on three occasions in the 1970s, with Mary Hopkin in 1970, The New Seekers in 1972. The UK achieved their victory in 1976 with Brotherhood of Man and Save Your Kisses for Me, who won with 164 points. In 1977, the UK finished second for the time represented by Lynsey de Paul. The UKs fourth victory came in 1981, with Bucks Fizz, the group was created especially for the UK selection contest A Song for Europe. At Eurovision in Dublin, they defeated Germanys Lena Valaitis by four points, the group went on to continued success, with 13 UK top 40 hits over the next five years
United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Ronnie Carroll at Luxembourg (
1962)
United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest
United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Kathy Kirby at Naples (
1965)
United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Scooch at Helsinki (
2007)
71.
Andorra in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Andorra has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest six times, debuting in the 2004 contest. Interest in the contest had been great for a time, despite the local Andorran broadcaster, Ràdio i Televisió dAndorra. A majority of the songs have so far been sung in Catalan, as of 2017, Andorra is the only country to have participated in the contest and never to have featured in the final. Despite the homeland interest in the competition, Andorra has never qualified for the final, in 2007, a qualification for the final was predicted, but with a 12th-place finish, it just missed out. In the past RTVA held a large reality show contest to select its entry for Eurovision, from 2006, RTVA held an internal selection process to select the Andorran entry for the Eurovision Song Contest. RTVA confirmed its participation in the 2009 contest in Moscow, Russia and it announced that there would be a public selection process - something not seen in the country since 2005. Andorras 2009 entry once again failed to qualify, getting only 8 points in the semifinal, in the finals, Andorra has always given its 12 points to Spain, with the exception of 2007. As the two nations are neighbouring, this has very little to dispel accusations of political voting which have been going on for a long time. In December 2009, RTVA announced that Andorra would withdraw from the 2010 Contest due to a lack of funding for an Andorran entry and this came after RTVA submitted an entry for the contest, in case funding could be found to submit an entry. However no funding could be found, and so Andorra was forced to withdraw, Andorra did not participate in the 2011 contest due to financial difficulties, or in the 2012 contest, for the same reason. Andorra did not participate in subsequent contests, on 8 November 2011, it was announced by the Andorran broadcaster, RTVA, that they would leave the EBU, due to financial reasons and a cut of subsidies from the Andorran government. After a meeting with the EBU director Ingrid Deltenre in June 2012, RTVA decided to stay in the EBU, ^ Andorra finished in 23rd place at the 2006 contest, even though 24 countries appear on the semi-final scoreboard published by the European Broadcasting Union. Serbia & Montenegro withdrew from the competition before the contest but still voted, as of 2009, Andorras voting history is as follows, Points to and from Andorra - eurovisioncovers. co. uk RTVAs Eurovision page EuroAndorra, the Pyrenean eurosite OGAE Andorra site
Andorra in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Marta Roure performing "
Jugarem a estimar-nos " at Istanbul (
2004)
Andorra in the Eurovision Song Contest
Andorra in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Anonymous performing "
Salvem el món " at Helsinki (
2007)
Andorra in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Gisela performing "
Casanova " at Belgrade (
2008)
72.
Slovakia in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Slovakia has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest seven times, debuting in 1994. It had attempted to debut in 1993, but did not pass through the qualifying round, in the first three finals that Slovakia participated in, it placed no better than 18th, which it achieved in 1996. Because of its results, it was forced to miss a year after each contest. It did eventually return to the Contest eleven years later, in 2009, Slovakia had planned on entering the contest at the 1993 contest, but with the introduction of many new countries, a preliminary round was held to trim down the number of new entries. Kvalifikacija za Millstreet featured seven countries competing for three places in the final. Slovakia came fourth in the contest, represented by Elán with Amnestia na neveru, Slovakias Eurovision entries in the 1990s werent very successful, finishing 19th, 18th and 21st. After the 1998 contest, STV decided not to again for a number of years. From 1994 to 1998, STV used a selection to select the Slovak entry for the contest. In 2009, Slovakia organised a national final for the first time. A number of heats preceded a grand final, held on March 8,2009 and Kamil Mikulčík and they finished on 18th place out of 19 in semi-final. Slovakia tried again in 2010 contest with Horehronie by Kristina with similar result, despite being the fan, on 18 February 2011, RTVS revealed their choice for Slovakias Eurovision 2011 entry. The song was Im Still Alive and was performed by twin sisters Daniela, Daniela and Veronika Nízlová had some experience at Eurovision before as backing singers and dancers for Tereza Kerndlová, the Czech entry in the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest. The 2011 entry was the first Slovak entry performed in English, TWiiNS eventually finished 13th in their Semi Final, which meant they did not qualify for the Grand Final. However, they provided the best result for their country in many years, RTVS sent an artist once again to the Contest in 2012, with a song that was selected internally by RTVS. At a press conference on 7 March 2012, the Slovak entry for the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest was announced and he performed in the second semi final, that was held on Thursday, May 24,2012. The song did not qualify in the finals and it was later revealed that the song finished in last place with 22 points. On 4 December 2012, RTVS announced its withdrawal from Eurovision Song Contest 2013 and it had also been announced that Slovakia would not return at Eurovision Song Contest 2015, citing financial constraints and an incompatibility between the contest and the programming goals of RTVS. However RTVS returned to the Eurovision Young Dancers in 2015, with RTVS explaining that the return of Slovakia to EYD supported domestic production, RTVS announced on 28 September 2015 that Slovakia would not participate in the 2016 contest
Slovakia in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Nela Pocisková in Moscow (
2009)
Slovakia in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Slovakia
Slovakia in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Kristina in Oslo (
2010)
Slovakia in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
TWiiNS in Düsseldorf (
2011)
73.
Turkey in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Turkey participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 34 times from their debut in 1975 with the song Seninle Bir Dakika performed by Semiha Yankı, to their withdrawal in 2013. Turkey has always qualified for the final, except the 2011 Contest. Since their debut in the two years Turkey finished last, they scored nul points, before 1997, the countrys only top ten result was achieved by Klips ve Onlar, who placed ninth in 1986. Turkey achieved six top five results between 1997 and 2010, winning once in 2003 with the song Everyway That I Can by Sertab Erener, in 2004, the home entry in Istanbul, For Real by Athena, placed fourth. In 2007, Shake It Up Şekerim by Kenan Doğulu also finished fourth, in 2008, the band Mor ve Ötesi placed seventh. In 2009, Hadise achieved another impressive result for Turkey, finishing in fourth place, in 2010, the nu metal band maNga, achieved Turkeys second best result in the contest, finishing second. Since the introduction of the free language rule as well as televoting, in 1997, Turkey finished third with the song Dinle by Şebnem Paker, who sung all the song in Turkish. The country sent a song partially in English for the first time in 2000 and completely in English in 2003, since 2000, Turkey has had seven entries completely sung in English and four bilingual songs. TRT announced on 14 December 2012 that they would not attend the 2013 competition in Malmö, in September 2013, Turkeys state broadcaster stated a return is unlikely for the 2014 competition, citing the same reasons. Also there was no television broadcast on TRT in 2013 and 2014, test transmissions started on TRT1 on 31 January 1968. A full national television schedule, which at that time linked the areas in and around Ankara, Istanbul, TRT renewed its membership in the European Broadcasting Union starting on 26 August 1972 with Turkeys first Eurovision Network event, a football match, on 13 January 1973. Turkish national broadcaster televised the Eurovision Song Contest between 1973 and 2012 incessantly, even in the years that they werent participating, Turkey debuted to the Eurovision Song Contest in the 1975 Contest, which is the 20th edition of the Contest and held in Stockholm, Sweden. Greece did not participate in the 1975 Contest for unknown reasons according to the EBU, TRT organized a national final for select the first ever Turkish entrant to the Eurovision Song Contest. The final took place on 9 February 1975 in the studios of TRT, the winning song was picked by averaging the ranks from the professional jury and peoples jury as Seninle Bir Dakika by Semiha Yankı. At the close of voting the song had received only 3 points from Monaco, in 1976, Greek entry aroused controversy as it was about the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. This time Turkey withdrew from the Contest to protest the political background of the entry of Greece, Panagia Mou, Turkey didnt take part in the Contest until 1978. The 1979 Contest was held in the Israeli capital, Jerusalem, Turkish entry selected as Seviyorum by Maria Rita Epik but Arab countries compelled the Turkish government to withdraw from the Contest because of Arabs state of war with the host country, Israel. So Turkey withdrew from the Contest for the time in 1979
Turkey in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Kenan Doğulu in
2007.
Turkey in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Turkey
Turkey in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Sertab in the opening of
the 2004 Contest.
Turkey in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Mor ve Ötesi in
2008.
74.
Lebanon in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Lebanon has never participated in the Eurovision Song Contest. On October 21,2004, Ibrahim El Khoury, President Director General of Télé Liban, stated that Lebanon intended to make its debut at the Eurovision Song Contest 2005 in Kiev, Ukraine. On November 3,2004, it was announced that Aline Lahoud was internally selected by the network to represent Lebanon and her orient-occident song Quand tout senfuit, sung in French and written by Jad Rahbani and Romeo Lahoud, was chosen in mid-February. Lahoud was scheduled to present her song in the held on May 19,2005. On December 15,2004, Télé Liban announced that financial constraints forced them to withdraw from the contest, however, five days later, the European Broadcasting Union reached an agreement with Télé Liban and Lebanon was put on the official list of participants. In early March 2005, the official Lebanese Eurovision Song Contest website did not list Israel as a participant, later that month, the EBU asked Télé-Liban to assure that they would broadcast the entire contest, including the Israeli entry, without interruption. Télé Liban could not guarantee that request, so on March 18,2005, Lebanese legislation prohibited the broadcast of Israeli content on Lebanese television networks. Since Télé Liban withdrew almost three months after the December 15 no consequence withdrawal deadline, the broadcaster was penalized, losing its participation fee, with the three-year ban, Télé Liban was not eligible to enter the Eurovision Song Contest again until the 2009 Contest. His participation never came to be and the country has not made another attempt to join the contest following the conclusion of its broadcasters ban
Lebanon in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
The first of two official albums of the Eurovision Song Contest 2005, showing the participation of Lebanon. (bottom row, third from right)
Lebanon in the Eurovision Song Contest
75.
Yugoslavia in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Yugoslavia participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 27 times, debuting in 1961 and competing every year until its last appearance in 1992, with the exceptions of 1977–1980 and 1985. Yugoslavia won the 1989 contest and hosted the Eurovision Song Contest 1990, ljiljana Petrović was Yugoslavias first entrant in the contest in 1961 and placed eighth. In 1962, Lola Novaković gave the country its first top five result and this would remain Yugoslavias only top five result until 1983, when Danijel finished fourth with the song Džuli. Novi Fosili also finished fourth in 1987 with Ja sam za ples, in 1989, the country achieved its only victory in the contest, when Riva won with the song Rock Me. The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia debuted in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1961, the first to compete in 1961 were Belgrade, Ljubljana and Zagreb, while the others joined in the following years. During its existence, SFR Yugoslavia was represented by a variety of artists from five of the eight Yugoslav federal units and these artists were from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia, with Macedonia, Vojvodina, and Kosovo never passing the national pre-selection. Croatia was the most successful constituent republic, as its performers won the national contest 13 out of the 26 times SFR Yugoslavia took part in the contest, from 1977 to 1980, and in 1985, Yugoslavia didnt participate in the contest. The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia won the Eurovision Song Contest 1989 with the song Rock Me by the group Riva, following the rules of the contest, the Eurovision Song Contest 1990 took place in Zagreb, as the entry came from Croatia. On 28 March 1992, the countries that still constituted the fading and it included artists not only from Serbia and Montenegro, but also from Bosnia and Herzegovina. Although the latter declared independence on 1 March of that year, among it candidates was Alma Čardžić. The winner of that pre-selection was Ljubim te pesmama performed by Extra Nena from Serbia, Yugoslavia was banned from participating in the Song Contest until 2004 due to UN sanctions during the Yugoslav Wars and the Croatian War of Independence. After the dissolution of SFR Yugoslavia its former constituent republics proclaimed independence, the once subnational public radio and TV stations changed to national but under new names, including, RTV Slovenia, HRT, RTS, MKRTV and so on. Since joining the EBU respectively, all of the countries have participated in the Eurovision Song Contest, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro. The following lists the 27 contestants that won the local competition, note that the selected entries of 1978–1980 and 1985 did not actually compete at the contest, as Yugoslavia did not participate during those years because of internal political reasons. Yugoslavia is one of the few countries that have sent all the songs in one of the official languages, despite this Yugoslavia have had organized national finale for 1978,1979,1980 as part of Opatija music festival. Opatija was not held in 1977, points to and from Yugoslavia eurovisioncovers. co. uk
Yugoslavia in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Vice Vukov performing "
Čežnja " in Naples
Yugoslavia in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
(1961–1991)
Yugoslavia in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Eva Sršen performing "
Pridi, dala ti bom cvet " in Amsterdam
76.
Dansk Melodi Grand Prix
–
Dansk Melodi Grand Prix is an annual music competition organised by Danish public broadcaster Danmarks Radio, which determines the countrys representative for the Eurovision Song Contest. The festival has produced three Eurovision winners and thirteen top-five placings, with the introduction of a semi-final at the 2004 contest, and due to Denmarks absence from the 2003 contest, Denmarks 2004 representative, Thomas Thordarsson, had to take part in the semi-final. His song, Shame on You did not reach the final, in 2005, DR made a bold step for Dansk Melodi Grand Prix. Artists were allowed, for the first time ever, to sing in a other than Danish. Many of the entries that year were sung in English, however, against the odds, jakob Sveistrup won Dansk Melodi Grand Prix with his song Tænder på dig. It was later re-written for the Eurovision Song Contest 2005 to English as Talking to You, unlike the year before, Denmark secured a place in the final, finishing third in the semifinal. In the final he came 9th, guaranteeing Denmark a place in the final of the 2006 contest, a year later, Sidsel Ben Semmane sang Twist of Love in the final, but managed to finish 18th of 24 songs. In 2007, after poor results, Dansk Melodi Grand Prix adopted a semi-final format that had served well for the Swedish preselection. Two semi-finals with 8 songs each were introduced, with the top 4 songs qualifying for the final, the 4 losing songs of each semi-final then took part in one of two wildcard rounds where the listeners of Danish radio stations P3 and P4 chose another two finalists. The winner under this new format, DQ with the song Drama Queen, finished 18th in the semifinal, DR continued to use this format in the 2008 edition which was won by Simon Mathew and the song All Night Long. At the Eurovision Song Contest 2008 in Belgrade, Serbia, Denmark as in 2005, finished 3rd in the semifinals, in the final, Mathew got 60 points, finishing 15th in a field of 25 songs. For the 2009 of Dansk Melodi Grand Prix, DR reverted to their one-night final, the final of 10 songs consisted of 6 songs from an open call of songs from the public, with 4 songs being invited by DR to compete. Denmark has won Eurovision three times, in 1963,2000 and 2013
Dansk Melodi Grand Prix
–
Simon Mathew, the 2008 winner, performing in the
Eurovision song contest in
Belgrade,
Serbia
Dansk Melodi Grand Prix
–
Dansk Melodi Grand Prix
77.
Eesti Laul
–
Eesti Laul is an annual music competition organised by Estonian public broadcaster Eesti Rahvusringhääling. It determines the countrys representative for the Eurovision Song Contest, and has been staged every year since 2009, the contest was introduced in 2009, replacing the former Eurolaul festival, used since Estonias first participation in Eurovision in 1993. Since its introduction, the competition has been one of the most popular programmes in Estonia, it is also broadcast on radio. In 2012, the semifinals averaged 199 thousand viewers, and over an estimated 296 thousand people in Estonia watched the final, the contest was introduced by ERR, the organisers of the contest, with a different philosophy on the contest used previously. Eesti Laul was introduced to produce an Estonian contest, with Estonian musical tastes being presented to a European audience, the contest is also an open one, with all information of the songs being revealed in the selection process. The festival has produced three top-ten placings for Estonia at the contest, the winner of the Eesti Laul has been chosen by televoting and panels of jurors since its inception. The competition makes an impact on music charts in Estonia. The introduction of semifinals in 2011 raised the number of contestants from ten to twenty. The introduction of a grand final hosted in Saku Suurhall has attracted tourism to the city. Most of rules are dictated by those of the Eurovision Song Contest, however, regulations have been introduced by the Estonian broadcaster. The competitions official rules are released by ERR early in preparation for each years Eest Laul, there is a limit of six people on stage for each performance. All vocals had to be live, human voices are not allowed on backing tracks. Entries usually are not publicly broadcast until the songsare previewed on television, until 2017, competing songs were only permitted if they were written by all-Estonian team. Since 2017, foreign collaborations were allowed as long as 50% of the authors were Estonians. Artists and songwriters were allowed to submit up to three songs each with an exception to rule for songwriters who participated in songwriting camps organised by the Estonian Song Academy. The twenty selected songs in the contest are shown to the Estonian public through two semi-finals, from each semi-final, five acts get through to the final show. The first winner of Eesti Laul was Urban Symphony with the song Rändajad, at Eurovision, the group changed Estonias previous fortunes at Eurovision, qualifying to the final, and placing 6th in the final with 129 points. Entries which did not qualify for the Grand Final of the Eurovision Song Contest are listed in red and this list includes those who have acted as presenters of Eesti Laul
Eesti Laul
–
Eesti Laul
78.
A Dal
–
A Dal is the national selection process in Hungary for the Eurovision Song Contest. The contest was introduced in 2012, the contest was introduced by the Médiaszolgáltatás-támogató és Vagyonkezelő Alap, the organisers of the contest, with a different philosophy on the contest used previously. A Dal was introduced to produce a Hungarian contest, with Hungarian musical tastes being presented to a European audience, the contest is also an open one, with all information of the songs being revealed in the selection process. The selected songs in the contest are shown to the Hungarian public through a number of special shows and it includes three heats, two semi-finals, and then a final. Ten songs compete in heat, with six moving on to the semi-finals. Nine songs compete in each semi-final, four songs from each semi-final move on to the final, two advancing due to the jury and two due to the public. The final winner is selected through two rounds of voting, the first round selects the top four songs out of the eight finalists, the first round uses only the jury and the second round uses only the public. The first winner of A Dal was the band Compact Disco with the song Sound of Our Hearts, at the Eurovision Song Contest 2012, the group qualified to the final, and placing 24th in the final with 19 points. The most successful A Dal winner is András Kállay-Saunders and his song Running, at the Eurovision Song Contest 2014, Kállay-Saunders qualified for the final and later placed 5th with 143 points, earning Hungarys second best placement ever and only top five finish since 1994. Hungary in the Eurovision Song Contest
A Dal
–
A Dal
79.
Sanremo Music Festival
–
Usually referred to as Festival di Sanremo, or outside Italy as Sanremo Music Festival or Sanremo Music Festival Award, it was the inspiration for the Eurovision Song Contest. Starting from 1955 all the editions of the Festival have been broadcast live by the Italian TV station Rai 1. During this era of the festival, it was custom that one version of the song was performed by a native Italian artist while the version was performed by an international guest artist. The Festival airs annually in Australia on the multicultural broadcaster SBS One, in the aftermath of World War II, one of the proposals to revitalize the economy and the reputation of Sanremo was to create an annual music festival to be held in the city. Officially titled Festival della Canzone Italiana, the first edition of the show was held at the Sanremo Casino on 29,30 and 31 January 1951, the final of the competition was broadcast by Rete Rossa, the second most important RAI radio station. Twenty songs took part in the competition, performed by three artists only–Nilla Pizzi, Duo Fasano and Achille Togliani, starting from the third edition of the festival, held in 1953, each song was performed by two different artists with different orchestras and arrangements. Two years later, in 1955, the festival made its first appearance on television, the last night of the show was also broadcast in Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland. The same rule was applied in the years contest. Between 1967 and 1971, entries were not forced to be interpreted by foreign artists, starting from 1972, each entry was sung by one artist only. The competing artists were split for the first time into Big artists, the competition had one winner only, but the entries in the Young artists category had to go through an elimination round, while Big artists were directly admitted to the final. In 1977, the Sanremo Casino, which hosted all the editions of the contest, was not available for renovations. The theater later became the location for the annual contest, hosting it every year except in 1990. In 1980, pre-recorded backing tracks replaced the orchestra, while playback performances were allowed in 1983 during the final, in 1984 and 1985, all the artists were forced to perform in playback, while live performances with the orchestra were reintroduced in 1986. During the same years, several changes were introduced in the contest. In 1982, accredited music journalists decided to create an award to recognise the best song competing in the festival, starting from 1983, the prize was officially awarded during the event. The critics prize was later entitled to Mia Martini, who was the first artist receiving it in 1982 for her entry E non finisce mica il cielo, moreover, starting from 1984, the separation between newcomers and established artists was marked introducing two different competitions with separate winners. In 1989 a third category, the Upcoming Artists Section, was introduced, only in 1998 the top three artists in the newcomers section were allowed to compete in the main competition. This led to the victory of the debuting Annalisa Minetti, which generated several controversy, the distinction among different categories was abolished again in 2004
Sanremo Music Festival
–
The
Teatro Ariston in
Sanremo during the last evening of the Festival in 2013
Sanremo Music Festival
–
The
Sanremo Casino hosted the Sanremo Music Festival between 1951 and 1976.
Sanremo Music Festival
–
Roberto Carlos won the Sanremo Music Festival with Sergio Endrigo in 1968.
Sanremo Music Festival
–
Adriano Celentano and Claudia Mori won the Sanremo Music Festival in 1970.
80.
Melodi Grand Prix
–
Melodi Grand Prix, sometimes as Norwegian Melodi Grand Prix, commonly known as Grand Prix and MGP, is an annual music competition organised by Norwegian public broadcaster Norsk Rikskringkasting. It determines the countrys representative for the Eurovision Song Contest, and has been staged almost every year since 1960, the festival has produced three Eurovision winners and nine top-five placings for Norway at the contest. However, Norway holds the record for the number of entries who have come last since entering Eurovision,11 in all. Despite this, the still makes considerable impact on music charts in Norway. The Eurovision Song Contest began on 24 May 1956, when the Grand Prix Eurovision de la Chanson Européenne was held in Lugano, Norways first contest was the fourth, the 1960 Contest. The first Melodi Grand Prix was held on 20 February at the NRK Television Centre in Oslo, ten songs competed in the radio semi-final, held on 2 February, where the top 5 songs would progress to the televised contest. However this number was increased to 6 after three songs tied for fourth place, the winner of the televised contest was Voi Voi, performed by Nora Brockstedt. Brockstedt performed Norways first Eurovision entry at London on 29 March, Brockstedt also went on to win the following years contest as well with Sommer i Palma. Melodi Grand Prix has failed to be staged on three previous occasions, in 1970 Norway was absent from the contest because of a Nordic boycott of the voting system, which had led to a four-way tie for first place at the 1969 contest. In 1991 no Melodi Grand Prix was held as NRK felt that the entries received for the Contest were of too low quality. The final instance of no Melodi Grand Prix was in 2002, all winners of MGP have gone on to represent Norway at the Eurovision Song Contest. Norway has won it three times, in 1985,1995 and 2009, however Norway has also come last 11 times, more than any other nation, in 1963,1969,1974,1976,1978,1981,1990,1997,2001,2004 and 2012
Melodi Grand Prix
–
2013 winner
Margaret Berger went on to finish fourth at the
Eurovision Song Contest 2013 final in
Malmö
Melodi Grand Prix
–
Melodi Grand Prix
81.
EMA (Slovenia)
–
EMA is the national contest in Slovenia to select the countrys entry since 1996 to the Eurovision Song Contest. The contest has been held since the debut in the Eurovision Song Contest. The contest is organized and broadcast by the Slovene broadcaster Radiotelevizija Slovenija, the contest was previously known as Slovenski izbor za pesem Evrovizije in 1993 and 1995. EMA has been the show for Slovene representative in the Eurovision Song Contest. Originally it was titled ‘’Slovenski Izbor za Pesem Evrovizije’’, however it was re-named into EMA in 1996, RTV SLO organized the first EMA on 25 February 1993 in RTV SLO Studios in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Ironically 1X Band was not on the participants list. However, after a disqualification of one of the original participants 1X Band was chosen to participate in the last minute, the winner was selected by 12 regional radio station juries from all over Slovenia. Each radio jury voted with Eurovision votes, due to Slovenia’s first appearance being placed in the bottom 7, Slovenia wasn’t allowed to participate in 1994. Therefore, the contest wasn’t held that year, the contest followed the 1993 format in 1995 and 1996. But in 1996, only eleven participants appeared, because of the twelfth participant’s disqualification before the contest was held, in 1997, EMA saw major changes in the format. RTV SLO chose to invite 7 songwriters to each write 2 songs for the final, and regional juries were re-placed by televoting. Both features stayed in production also in 1998, role of televoting was reduced to 1/3 of the final voting. Other than that Slovene Expert Jury and International Expert Jury voted, each voting factor, televoting, Slovene jury and International jury vote with Eurovision votes. During the show, the called the international jury as Ireland. This edition caused high controversy as the winner, Tinkara Kovač didn’t won the selection. In 2000, Slovenia was not allowed to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest due to average of results between 1995 and 1999. In 2001, EMA returned, expending over 2 nights for the first time, in the semi-final 22 participants appeared. Televoting chose six and Jury chose 6 to proceed to the final, in the final, the voting was up to Televoting, Expert Jury and RTV SLO Jury
EMA (Slovenia)
–
EMA
82.
Melodifestivalen
–
Melodifestivalen is an annual music competition organised by Swedish public broadcasters Sveriges Television and Sveriges Radio. It determines the countrys representative for the Eurovision Song Contest, and has been staged almost every year since 1959, since 2000, the competition has been the most popular television programme in Sweden, it is also broadcast on radio and the Internet. In 2012, the semifinals averaged 3.3 million viewers, the festival has produced six Eurovision winners and eighteen top-five placings for Sweden at the contest. The winner of the Melodifestival has been chosen by panels of jurors since its inception, since 1999, the juries have been joined by a public telephone vote which has an equal influence over the final outcome. The competition makes an impact on music charts in Sweden. The introduction of semifinals in 2002 raised the number of contestants from around twelve to thirty-two. A childrens version of the competition, Lilla Melodifestivalen, also began that year, light orchestrated pop songs, known locally as schlager music, are so prevalent that the festival is sometimes referred to as Schlagerfestivalen by the Swedish media. However, other styles of such as rap, reggae. The introduction of a final in Stockholm has attracted substantial tourism to the city. The most recent Melodifestivalen winner is Robin Bengtsson who won on 11 March 2017 with the song I Cant Go On and he is set to represent Sweden at the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest in Kiev, Ukraine. With seven nations competing, the first Eurovision Song Contest took place in Lugano, Swedens first contest was the third, in 1958. Without broadcasting a selection, Sveriges Radio chose to send Alice Babs to the contest in Hilversum, the song selected was Samma stjärna lyser för oss två, later renamed Lilla stjärna. It finished fourth at Eurovision on 12 March 1958, the first Melodifestival, incorporated into the Säg det med musik radio series, took place on 29 January 1959 at Cirkus in Stockholm, eight songs participated. Four expert juries in Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmö, and Luleå decided the winner, the competition was won by Siw Malmkvist performing Augustin, but SR decided that the winning song—regardless of its original performer—would be performed by Brita Borg at Eurovision. This policy, of selecting the artist for Eurovision internally and having other artists perform potential Swedish entries at Melodifestivalen, was stopped in 1961, the competition became a stand-alone television programme in 1960, known as the Eurovisionschlagern, svensk final. In the events early years, it was broadcast to Norway, the competition adopted its current name, Melodifestivalen, in 1967. The Melodifestival has failed to be staged on three occasions, in 1964, the competition was cancelled due to an artists strike, Sweden did not send a song to Eurovision that year. Sweden was absent at Eurovision for a time in 1970 because of a Nordic boycott of the voting system
Melodifestivalen
–
Charlotte Perrelli, the 2008 winner of Melodifestivalen, performing on
Eurovision song contest in
Belgrade
Melodifestivalen
–
Melodifestivalen (The Melody Festival)
Melodifestivalen
–
The
Ericsson Globe hosted the first of its twelve finals in 1989.
Melodifestivalen
–
Ulf Elfving announcing the votes of the Stockholm jury at the 2005 final. The points scored by each entry are shown on a graphic scoreboard.
83.
OGAE Second Chance Contest
–
The OGAE Second Chance Contest is a visual event which was founded in 1987 and is organised by branches of OGAE, the international fan club of the Eurovision Song Contest. Four nations competed in the first contest which took place in 1987, the contest was previously a non-televised event, but evolved over the years by the usage of video tape and nowadays DVD and YouTube. Each summer following the Eurovision Song Contest, each branch can enter one song that failed to win the national selection process for the annual Eurovision Song Contest. The members of each club choose amongst the songs that did not win, votes are cast by members of the OGAE clubs and are returned to the OGAE branch organising the particular years event. Guest juries have been used to cast votes since 1993, the contest began in 1987, when it was then known as Europes Favourite. Four OGAE branches competed in the first contest, coming from the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, the contest quickly expanded and now contains over 20 countries competing each year. Due to the nature of some countries and national finals it is a common occurrence for countries to compete in the contest. The contest takes place during the summer after the years Eurovision Song Contest, a video entry from each branch of OGAE is handed to each competing OGAE club. The votes are then returned to the organising OGAE branch, normally the previous years winning branch, the method of voting has developed since the contests interception, from audio-tape in the contests beginnings to the use of video tape and nowadays by DVD and YouTube. Previously it had known for non-televised national final entries to compete in the Second Chance Contest. This occurred from 1989 to 1991 when OGAE Spain entered songs known to have entered into the countrys internal selection process. After 1999 a new rule was introduced allowing only songs from televised national finals to compete in the Second Chance Contest and this has led some branches ineligible to compete for many years due to no national final being held in the country. In 1993 guest juries have been used in the voting of the contest and these juries are composed of branches that are ineligible to compete in the contest due to no national final being held in their country. Participation in the Second Chance Contest requires competing branches to have had a national final held in their country for the years Eurovision Song Contest. So far 37 countries have represented at the contest at least once. These are listed alongside the year in which they made their debut. Their first participation came at the 2009 Contest, where represented by Slovakia. From 2003 it was decided to hold Retrospective Contests each year containing songs from prior to 1987
OGAE Second Chance Contest
–
Arja Saijonmaa winner of the first edition of the OGAE Second Chance Contest in 1987.
OGAE Second Chance Contest
–
Map showing each country's number of OGAE Second Chance wins up to and including 2014.
OGAE Second Chance Contest
–
Carola was the winner of the 1990 Second Chance Contest, before going on to win the Eurovision Song Contest
the following year.
OGAE Second Chance Contest
–
Gladys del Pilar winner of the 1994 Second Chance Contest.
For the most recent participation see
._Photo_363.jpg)
Armenia in the Eurovision Song Contest
