1.
Royal Festival Hall
–
The Royal Festival Hall is a 2, 500-seat concert, dance and talks venue within Southbank Centre in London. It is situated on the South Bank of the River Thames, not far from Hungerford Bridge and it is a Grade I listed building, the first post-war building to become so protected. The London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment are resident in the hall, the hall was built as part of the Festival of Britain for London County Council, and was officially opened on 3 May 1951. The complex includes several rooms, bars and restaurants. A large head and shoulders bust of Nelson Mandela stands on the walkway between the hall and Hungerford Bridge approach viaduct, originally made in glass-fibre it was repeatedly vandalised until re-cast in bronze. The closest tube stations are Waterloo and, across the river via the Jubilee Bridges, Embankment, the acoustical consultant was Hope Bagenal, working with members of the Building Research Station, Henry Humphreys, Peter Parkin and William Allen. Martin was 39 at the time, and very taken with the Nordic activities of Alvar Aalto, the figure who really drove the project forward was Herbert Morrison, the Labour Party politician. He it was who had insisted that Matthew had Martin as his deputy architect, a 1948 sketch by Martin shows the design of the concert hall as the egg in a box. But the strength of the design was the arrangement of interior space and they were concerned that whilst the scale of the project demanded a monumental building, it should not ape the triumphal classicism of many earlier public buildings. The wide open foyers, with bars and restaurants, were intended to be meeting places for all, because these public spaces were built around the auditorium, they also had the effect of insulating the Hall from the noise of the adjacent railway bridge. The hall they built used modernism’s favourite material, reinforced concrete, alongside more luxurious elements including beautiful woods, the exterior of the building was bright white, intended to contrast with the blackened city surrounding it. The cantilevered boxes are described as looking like drawers pulled out in a hurried burglary. The ceiling was wilfully sculptural, a conceit at the edge of building technology and, as it turns out. Robin Day, who designed the furniture for the auditorium, used a clearly articulated structure in his designs of bent plywood, the foundation stone was laid in 1949 by Prime Minister Clement Attlee on the site of the former Lion Brewery, built in 1837. The first general manager was T. E. Bean, who had managed the Hallé Orchestra. I was overwhelmed by a shock of breathless delight at the originality and beauty of the interior and it felt as if I had been instantly transported far into the future and that I was on another planet, said journalist Bernard Levin of his first impressions of the building. The 7,866 pipe organ was built during 1950–1954 by Harrison & Harrison in Durham, to the specification of the London County Councils consultant, Ralph Downes, however, the design of the organ in its housing made maintenance difficult, and by 2000 it had become unusable. It was consequently completely removed before restoration of the Hall itself began in 2005, and after restoration and updating by Harrison & Harrison, the remainder was reinstalled between 2012 and 2013, and voicing completed in 2014
Royal Festival Hall
–
The Royal Festival Hall from
Golden Jubilee Bridge, during reopening celebrations
Royal Festival Hall
–
View to the South from Westminster Pier, 1958
Royal Festival Hall
–
View Southwards towards Westminster Bridge, the Shot Tower and the Festival Hall, 1960
Royal Festival Hall
–
The Royal Festival Hall undergoing restoration work, July 2005
2.
London
–
London /ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south east of the island of Great Britain and it was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. Londons ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1. 12-square-mile medieval boundaries. London is a global city in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism. It is crowned as the worlds largest financial centre and has the fifth- or sixth-largest metropolitan area GDP in the world, London is a world cultural capital. It is the worlds most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the worlds largest city airport system measured by passenger traffic, London is the worlds leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. Londons universities form the largest concentration of education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted the modern Summer Olympic Games three times, London has a diverse range of people and cultures, and more than 300 languages are spoken in the region. Its estimated mid-2015 municipal population was 8,673,713, the largest of any city in the European Union, Londons urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census. The citys metropolitan area is the most populous in the EU with 13,879,757 inhabitants, the city-region therefore has a similar land area and population to that of the New York metropolitan area. London was the worlds most populous city from around 1831 to 1925, Other famous landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Pauls Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, and The Shard. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world, the etymology of London is uncertain. It is an ancient name, found in sources from the 2nd century and it is recorded c.121 as Londinium, which points to Romano-British origin, and hand-written Roman tablets recovered in the city originating from AD 65/70-80 include the word Londinio. The earliest attempted explanation, now disregarded, is attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae and this had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had allegedly taken over the city and named it Kaerlud. From 1898, it was accepted that the name was of Celtic origin and meant place belonging to a man called *Londinos. The ultimate difficulty lies in reconciling the Latin form Londinium with the modern Welsh Llundain, which should demand a form *lōndinion, from earlier *loundiniom. The possibility cannot be ruled out that the Welsh name was borrowed back in from English at a later date, and thus cannot be used as a basis from which to reconstruct the original name. Until 1889, the name London officially applied only to the City of London, two recent discoveries indicate probable very early settlements near the Thames in the London area
London
–
Palace of Westminster,
Buckingham Palace and
Central London skyline
London
London
London
–
The name London may derive from the
River Thames
3.
United Kingdom
–
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
United Kingdom
–
Stonehenge, in
Wiltshire, was erected around 2500 BC.
United Kingdom
–
Flag
United Kingdom
–
The
Bayeux Tapestry depicts the
Battle of Hastings, 1066, and the events leading to it.
United Kingdom
–
The
Treaty of Union led to a single united kingdom encompassing all Great Britain.
4.
British Broadcasting Corporation
–
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. The total number of staff is 35,402 when part-time, flexible, the BBC is established under a Royal Charter and operates under its Agreement with the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. The fee is set by the British Government, agreed by Parliament, and used to fund the BBCs radio, TV, britains first live public broadcast from the Marconi factory in Chelmsford took place in June 1920. It was sponsored by the Daily Mails Lord Northcliffe and featured the famous Australian Soprano Dame Nellie Melba, the Melba broadcast caught the peoples imagination and marked a turning point in the British publics attitude to radio. However, this public enthusiasm was not shared in official circles where such broadcasts were held to interfere with important military and civil communications. By late 1920, pressure from these quarters and uneasiness among the staff of the licensing authority, the General Post Office, was sufficient to lead to a ban on further Chelmsford broadcasts. But by 1922, the GPO had received nearly 100 broadcast licence requests, John Reith, a Scottish Calvinist, was appointed its General Manager in December 1922 a few weeks after the company made its first official broadcast. The company was to be financed by a royalty on the sale of BBC wireless receiving sets from approved manufacturers, to this day, the BBC aims to follow the Reithian directive to inform, educate and entertain. The financial arrangements soon proved inadequate, set sales were disappointing as amateurs made their own receivers and listeners bought rival unlicensed sets. By mid-1923, discussions between the GPO and the BBC had become deadlocked and the Postmaster-General commissioned a review of broadcasting by the Sykes Committee and this was to be followed by a simple 10 shillings licence fee with no royalty once the wireless manufactures protection expired. The BBCs broadcasting monopoly was made explicit for the duration of its current broadcast licence, the BBC was also banned from presenting news bulletins before 19.00, and required to source all news from external wire services. Mid-1925 found the future of broadcasting under further consideration, this time by the Crawford committee, by now the BBC under Reiths leadership had forged a consensus favouring a continuation of the unified broadcasting service, but more money was still required to finance rapid expansion. Wireless manufacturers were anxious to exit the loss making consortium with Reith keen that the BBC be seen as a service rather than a commercial enterprise. The recommendations of the Crawford Committee were published in March the following year and were still under consideration by the GPO when the 1926 general strike broke out in May. The strike temporarily interrupted newspaper production and with restrictions on news bulletins waived the BBC suddenly became the source of news for the duration of the crisis. The crisis placed the BBC in a delicate position, the Government was divided on how to handle the BBC but ended up trusting Reith, whose opposition to the strike mirrored the PMs own. Thus the BBC was granted sufficient leeway to pursue the Governments objectives largely in a manner of its own choosing, supporters of the strike nicknamed the BBC the BFC for British Falsehood Company. Reith personally announced the end of the strike which he marked by reciting from Blakes Jerusalem signifying that England had been saved, Reith argued that trust gained by authentic impartial news could then be used
British Broadcasting Corporation
–
BBC Television Centre at
White City, West London, which opened in 1960 and closed in 2013
British Broadcasting Corporation
–
Logo used since 1997
British Broadcasting Corporation
–
BBC Pacific Quay in
Glasgow, which was opened in 2007
British Broadcasting Corporation
–
BBC New Broadcasting House, London which came into use during 2012–13.
5.
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)
6.
Luxembourg in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Luxembourg has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 37 times since making their debut at the first contest in 1956. From 1956 to 1993, Luxembourg missed only one contest, in 1959, since 1994, Luxembourg has not participated in the contest. Luxembourg has won the contest a total of five times, the only countries with more victories are Sweden, with six, and Ireland, with seven. Their first victory was in 1961 when Jean-Claude Pascal won with the song Nous les amoureux, France Gall gave them their second victory in 1965 with Poupée de cire, poupée de son. Luxembourgs fifth victory was in 1983 when Corinne Hermes won with Si la vie est cadeau, since being relegated from taking part in 1994, the country withdrew from the contest indefinitely. Luxembourgs Minister of Culture, Maggy Nagel, expressed her desire for the country to return to the contest and this was later explained as a misunderstanding by the Culture Minister. A collaboration with San Marino has been proposed, but later SMRTV clarified that there have only been talks between the two countries and that the broadcaster is evaluating other proposals and it was later announced that the project would not move forward due to funding problems. In 2004, RTL were to return to Eurovision after an absence of 11 years, however, after monetary issues, Luxembourg withdrew. Strong rumours indicated that RTL would participate at the 2005 contest, however, RTL later decided against it, and said that they would never return. In 2008, RTL later reiterated their lack of interest in returning to the contest, in recent years the Luxembourg branch of OGAE has been campaigning for Luxembourg to return to the contest. However, they would have had to secure fees regarding participation, although it was rumoured that Luxembourg would return in the 2012 edition of the contest, RTL has announced that no such intentions exist at present. On 31 July 2014, RTL Télé Lëtzebuerg confirmed that Luxembourg would not be returning to the contest in 2015 and it was reported on 26 October 2014 that the countrys Minister of Culture, Maggy Nagel, expressed her desire for the country to return to the contest. This was later confirmed by Nagel to be a misunderstanding and that the country would not be returning, however, on 24 November 2014, it was announced that Mersch had failed to raise the necessary funds in time for the project to move forward. On 21 June 2016, the Petitions Committee of the Government of Luxembourg received five petitions on various matters in relation to the Grand Duchy, one of which was for Luxembourg to return to the Eurovision Song Contest. The Luxembourg Government will therefore hold a debate to discuss the proposals set out on the petition, nevertheless, RTL reiterated its intention not to participate on 22 August. Between 1956 and 1993 Luxembourg was only absent from the Contest once, however, in 1993 Luxembourg was relegated from taking part in the 1994 Contest, and has yet to return. Due to the small size and the national broadcasters penchant for internal selection, most of Luxembourgs entrants came from outside the Grand Duchy. All five of the artists from Luxembourg were foreign, four were French
Luxembourg in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Camillo Felgen in Luxembourg (
1962)
Luxembourg in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Luxembourg
Luxembourg in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
France Gall in Naples (
1965)
Luxembourg in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
David Alexandre Winter in Amsterdam (
1970)
7.
Voting at the Eurovision Song Contest
–
The winner of the Eurovision Song Contest is selected by a positional voting system. Each country awards two sets of 12,10, 8–1 points to their 10 favourite songs, one from their professional jury, the current system has been in place since 2016. In 2003, Eircoms telephone polling system malfunction, irish broadcaster RTÉ did not receive the polling results from Eircom in time, and substituted votes by a panel of judges. Between 1997 and 2003, lines were opened to the public for five minutes after the performance. Between 2004 and 2006 the lines were opened for 10 minutes, in 2010 viewers were allowed to vote during the performances, but this was rescinded for the 2012 contest. The BBC contacted regional juries by telephone to choose the 1956 winners, and this method continued to be used until 1993. The following year saw the first satellite linkup to juries, to announce the votes, the contests presenters connect by satellite to each country in turn and inviting a spokesperson to read the countrys votes in French or English. The presenters originally repeated the votes in both languages, but since 2004 the votes have been translated due to time constraints, the scoreboard displays the number of points each country has received and, since 2008, a progress bar indicating the number of countries which have voted. Note The most-used voting system was last used for the 1969 contest and this system was used from 1957 to 1961 and from 1967 to 1969. Ten jurors in each country each cast one vote for their favourite song, in 1969 this resulted in a four-way tie for first place, with no tie-breaking procedure. A second round of voting in the event of a tie was introduced to this system the following year, from 1962 to 1966, a voting system similar to the current one was used. With the latter system, a country could choose to give points to two instead of three, in 1965, Belgium awarded the United Kingdom six points and Italy three. Although it was possible to one country nine points, this never occurred. The 1971,1972, and 1973 contests saw the jurors in vision for the first time, each country was represented by two jurors, one older than 25 and one younger, with at least ten years difference in their ages. Each juror gave a minimum of one point and a maximum of five points to each song, in 1974 the previous system of ten jurors was used, and the following year the current system was introduced. Spokespeople were next seen on screen in 1994 with a link to the venue. The 2004 contest had its first semifinal, with a change in voting. This resulted in Ukraines Ruslana finishing first, with a record 280 points, to date, non-qualifying countries are still allowed to vote in the final
Voting at the Eurovision Song Contest
–
"The Pyrenean Axis" (Andorra and Spain)
8.
Eurovision Song Contest 1959
–
The Eurovision Song Contest 1959 was the fourth edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It was held on Wednesday 11 March 1959 in Cannes, France, the contest was won by the Netherlands with the song Een beetje, performed by Teddy Scholten. This was their second and the first time a country had won the contest twice, willy van Hemert was also the lyricist of Net als toen, which won the Eurovision Song Contest 1957. Van Hemert was the first person to win the Eurovision Song Contest twice, the original building was built in 1949 and was located on the boulevard of Promenade de la Croisette, on the present site of the JW Marriott Cannes. A new rule was created for this Eurovision, ensuring that no professional publishers or composers were allowed in the national juries, Italy gave one point to France, no points to the UK and seven points to the Netherlands placing them just three points ahead of the UK. Something that occurred this year, but never again, was more than the winning entry was performed once again. The second and third placed songs, United Kingdom and France, were allowed to sing again at the end of the show, together with eventual winner, luxembourg withdrew from the contest for the first time. The United Kingdom returned after missing the previous contest and finished second for the first time, the UK would have 15 second-place finishes in the countrys history in the contest. Monaco made its debut in the contest, but came last, each performance had a conductor who maestro the orchestra. Birthe Wilke for Denmark, and Domenico Modugno for Italy, the table above shows the order in which votes were cast during the 1959 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 1959
–
Palais des Festivals et des Congrès in Cannes, France - Host venue of the 1959 Eurovision Song Contest.
Eurovision Song Contest 1959
9.
Eurovision Song Contest
–
The competition was based upon the existing Sanremo Music Festival held in Italy since 1951. The contest has been broadcast every year for sixty years, since its inauguration in 1956 and it is also one of the most watched non-sporting events in the world, with audience figures having been quoted in recent years as anything between 100 million and 600 million internationally. Eurovision has also been broadcast outside Europe to several countries that do not compete, such as the United States, Canada, New Zealand, and China. An exception was made in 2015, when Australia was allowed to compete as a guest entrant as part of the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the event. In November 2015, the EBU announced that Australia was invited back as a participant in the 2016 contest after their success in 2015, following their success again in 2016, Australia will compete again in 2017. Since 2000, the contest has also been broadcast over the Internet via the Eurovision website, winning the Eurovision Song Contest provides a short-term boost to the winning artists career, but rarely results in long-term success. Notable exceptions are ABBA, Bucks Fizz and Céline Dion, all of whom launched successful careers after their wins. Ireland holds the record for the highest number of wins, having won the contest seven times—including four times in five years in 1992,1993,1994 and 1996. Under the current voting system, the highest scoring winner is Jamala of Ukraine who won the 2016 contest in Stockholm, under the previous system, in place from 1975 to 2015, the highest scoring winner is Alexander Rybak of Norway with 387 points in 2009. Satellite television did not exist, and the Eurovision Network comprised a terrestrial microwave network, the name Eurovision was first used in relation to the EBUs network by British journalist George Campey in the London Evening Standard in 1951. The first contest was held in the town of Lugano, Switzerland, seven countries participated—each submitting two songs, for a total of 14. This was the only contest in more than one song per country was performed, since 1957. The 1956 contest was won by the host nation, Switzerland, the programme was first known as the Eurovision Grand Prix. This Grand Prix name was adopted by Denmark, Norway and the Francophone countries, the Grand Prix has since been dropped and replaced with Concours in French, but not in Danish or Norwegian. The Eurovision network is used to carry news and sports programmes internationally. However, in the minds of the public, the name Eurovision is most closely associated with the Song Contest, a country as a participant is represented by one television broadcaster from that country, typically, but not always, that countrys national public broadcasting organisation. The programme is hosted by one of the participant countries, during this programme, after all the songs have been performed, the countries then proceed to cast votes for the other countries songs, nations are not allowed to vote for their own song. At the end of the programme, the song with the most points is declared as the winner, the programme is invariably opened by one or more presenters, welcoming viewers to the show
Eurovision Song Contest
–
Opening act in Düsseldorf in 2011
Eurovision Song Contest
–
Entered at least once
Eurovision Song Contest
–
Eurovision Song Contest in Copenhagen 2014
Eurovision Song Contest
–
Lena, representing Germany, performing
Satellite during a rehearsal in 2010
10.
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
11.
Nederlandse Omroep Stichting
–
The Nederlandse Omroep Stichting, English, Dutch Broadcast Foundation, is one of the broadcasting organizations making up the Netherlands Public Broadcasting system. It has a statutory obligation to make news and sports programmes for the three Dutch public television channels and the Dutch public radio services. The NOS also acts as technical co-ordinator for the Dutch public broadcasting system as a whole, the NOS does have correspondents in multiple countries, including a permanent studio in Washington DC. Programmes produced by the NOS include its daily television and radio bulletins, parliamentary reports are shown from a special studio in The Hague. It also supplies news programmes aimed at children, teens and young adults and sports fans, programmes are made available via television, radio and online. The NOS also broadcast text pages and a website, which are often used by the public. The Netherlands Radio Union was established in 1947, the associations were responsible for their own output, but studios, orchestras and outside broadcast facilities were managed by the NRU. Weekly radio plays were also the domain of the NRU and would run until 1986, the NRU became the Dutch founding member of the European Broadcasting Union in 1950. Meanwhile the Netherlands Television Service was created in 1951, two years after public television returned to the airwaves, the NTS served as a similar organization to the NRU, in that broadcast and transmission facilities were supplied to member associations for making programmes. It wasnt until 1956 that the NTS itself produced its first programme and this was followed by a sports round-up, Sport in Beeld in 1959, and in 1967 of Langs de Lijn, a joint production of several broadcasting associations. A new Media Act was passed into law in 1967, merging the Netherlands Radio Union, the new organization, the Nederlandse Omroep Stichting was created on 29 May 1969. The NOS, as was its predecessors, was tasked with co-ordinating the whole public broadcasting system, as well as providing news and it also inherited the technical and production facilities needed to make and broadcast radio and television programmes. All broadcasting members of the NRU and the NTS were made members of the NOS, on 2 May 1977, a strike by sound engineers affected television news broadcasts. Upset viewers called on all broadcasters to resolve the situation, on 1 April 1980 the NOS launched its teletext service, in the framework of supplying news and information. It first experimented with teletext in 1977, on the 25th anniversary, the NOS aired its first televised youth news bulletin, called the Jeugdjournaal. The Media Act of 1988 meant several changes to NOS and the broadcasting system, the Netherlands Broadcast Production Company consisted of those facilities, mainly based in Media Park in Hilversum. The Media Act also required broadcasting association members take up positions on the NOS Board of Directors, a new government commission oversaw content and financial matters, as well as admitting potential new broadcasting associations. In 1995, saw another Media Act enacted which saw the broadcasting duties of the NOS greatly reduced, the NPS took on the programming tasks of the NOS concerning culture, art, children, education and ethnic-minorities, whilst the NOS concentrated on news, sport and live events
Nederlandse Omroep Stichting
12.
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
13.
France
–
France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks
France
–
One of the
Lascaux paintings: a horse –
Dordogne, approximately 18,000 BC
France
–
Flag
France
–
The
Maison Carrée was a temple of the
Gallo-Roman city of Nemausus (present-day
Nîmes) and is one of the best preserved vestiges of the
Roman Empire.
France
–
With
Clovis ' conversion to Catholicism in 498, the
Frankish monarchy,
elective and
secular until then, became
hereditary and of
divine right.
14.
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)
15.
Southbank Centre
–
Southbank Centre is a complex of artistic venues in London, England, on the South Bank of the River Thames. It comprises three main venues, together with the Hayward Gallery, and is Europe’s largest centre for the arts. It attracts more than six million visitors annually, in addition, three to six major art exhibitions are presented at Hayward Gallery yearly, and National Touring Exhibitions reach over 100 venues across the UK. Southbank Centres site, which extended to 21 acres from County Hall to Waterloo Bridge, is fronted by The Queen’s Walk. The site is located next to the National Theatre and BFI Southbank, susan Gilchrist became chairman of the Board of Governors of the Southbank Centre in 2016, having first joined the Board in 2008. In April 2009 Alan Bishop, former chairman of Saatchi and Saachi International and Chief Executive of the Central Office of Information, September 2005 saw the arrival of Jude Kelly as Southbank Centres Artistic Director. The closest Underground stations are Waterloo and Embankment, the history of Southbank Centre starts with the Festival of Britain, held in 1951. The Royal Festival Hall is the building from the Festival of Britain that survives. From 1962 to 1965, the Royal Festival Hall was extended towards the river and Waterloo station and refurbished. The London County Council decided in 1955 to build a concert hall. It was another 12 years before the Queen Elizabeth Hall and the linked Purcell Room opened to the public, together, they were to be known as South Bank Concert Halls. In 1968, the Hayward opened, under management of the Arts Council. The new buildings had their main entrances at first floor level and were integrated into an elevated concrete walkway system linked to the Royal Festival Hall. Following abolition of the Greater London Council in 1986, the South Bank Board was formed to take operational control of the concert halls. The following year, the South Bank Board took over the running of the Hayward from the Arts Council. Collectively, the venues, along with Jubilee Gardens, became the South Bank Centre. The walkway on the east side of the RFH, running along Belvedere Road towards the Shell Centre was removed in 1999-2000 and this did not proceed due to the high degree of National Lottery funding required and likely high cost. In 2000, a masterplan for the South Bank Centre site was produced, between 2005-7 the Festival Hall auditorium was modified, the natural acoustic enhanced to meet classical music requirements
Southbank Centre
–
Southbank Centre's 21 acre former estate extended from
Waterloo Bridge to the
London Eye
Southbank Centre
–
Visitors to the
Festival of Britain in front of the
Dome of Discovery, 1951
Southbank Centre
–
Royal Festival Hall and Shot Tower, 1959
Southbank Centre
–
Royal Festival Hall, 2007
16.
South Bank
–
The South Bank is an entertainment and commercial district of Central London, England, next to the River Thames opposite the City of Westminster. It forms a narrow, unequal strip of land within the London Borough of Lambeth. As with most central London districts its edges evolve and are informally defined however its central area is bounded by Westminster Bridge, both the County Hall and the Shell Centre contain major residential parts. South Bank is 800 metres southeast of Charing Cross, the pedestrianised embankment is The Queens Walk which is part of the Albert Embankment built not only for public drainage but to raise the whole tract of land and prevent flooding. In 1951 the Festival of Britain redefined the area as a place for arts and it now forms a significant tourist district in central London, stretching from the Blackfriars Bridge in the east to Westminster Bridge in the west. A series of central London bridges connect the area to the bank of the Thames Golden Jubilee. During the Middle Ages this area developed as a place of entertainment outside the regulation of the City of London on the north bank. By the 18th century the more genteel entertainment of the gardens had developed. The shallow bank and mud flats were ideal locations for industry and docks, there was a shift in use when the London County Council required a new County Hall, which was built between 1917 and 1922 on the south bank near North Lambeths Lower Marsh. The construction of County Hall returned the first section of frontage to public use. This was extended eastwards in 1951 when the Festival of Britain caused a considerable area to be redeveloped and it was renamed South Bank as part of promoting the Festival. The South Bank stretches two miles along the southern bank of the River Thames. The western section is in the Bishops ward of the London Borough of Lambeth, there are significant amounts of public open space along the riverside. Between the London Studios and the Oxo Tower lies Bernie Spain Gardens, named after Bernadette Spain, the South Bank is a significant arts and entertainment district. The Southbank Centre comprises the Royal Festival Hall, the Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Royal National Theatre, the London IMAX super cinema and BFI Southbank adjoin to the east, but are not strictly part of the centre. County Hall is non-administrative and has converted into The London Marriott Hotel County Hall, Sea Life London Aquarium. It contains the Jubilee Gardens, home to the Udderbelly Festival for 15 weeks in the summer, the OXO Tower Wharf is towards the eastern end of South Bank, and houses Gallery@Oxo, shops and boutiques, and the OXO Tower Restaurant run by Harvey Nichols. The London Studios, the home of ITV faces the Thames
South Bank
–
The
London Eye on the South Bank at County Hall.
South Bank
–
Royal Festival Hall c1959 and the now-demolished
Shot Tower.
South Bank
–
The
National Theatre is one of the collection of arts buildings on the South Bank.
17.
Hungerford Bridge
–
The Hungerford Bridge crosses the River Thames in London, and lies between Waterloo Bridge and Westminster Bridge. The north end of the bridge is Charing Cross railway station, and is near Embankment Pier, the south end is near Waterloo station, County Hall, the Royal Festival Hall, and the London Eye. Each pedestrian bridge has steps and lift access, the first Hungerford Bridge, designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, opened in 1845 as a suspension footbridge. It was named after the then Hungerford Market, because it went from the South Bank to Hungerford Market on the side of the Thames. In 1859 the original bridge was bought by the railway company extending the South Eastern Railway into the newly opened Charing Cross railway station. The railway company replaced the bridge with a structure designed by Sir John Hawkshaw, comprising nine spans made of wrought iron lattice girders. The chains from the old bridge were re-used in Bristols Clifton Suspension Bridge, the buttress on the South Bank side still has the entrances and steps from the original steamer pier Brunel built on to the footbridge. Walkways were added on each side, with the one later being removed when the railway was widened. Another walkway was added in 1951 when an Army Bailey bridge was constructed for the Festival of Britain. In 1980 a temporary walkway was erected on the side while the downstream railway bridge. It is one of three bridges in London to combine pedestrian and rail use, the others being Fulham Railway Bridge. The footbridge gained a reputation for being narrow, dilapidated and dangerous, in the mid-1990s a decision was made to replace the footbridge with new structures on either side of the existing railway bridge, and a competition was held in 1996 for a new design. It was felt, especially following the Marchioness disaster, that these should be clad in concrete at water level, the Golden Jubilee Bridges achieved this protection at no cost to Railtrack. The concept design for the new footbridges was won by architects Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands, detailed design of the two bridges was carried out by consulting engineers Gifford, now Ramboll UK. Despite extensive surveys of the riverbed, London Underground was unwilling to accept these risks and preliminary works were stopped in 2000. The design was modified so that the structure on the north side. Excavation near the lines was carried out when the tube was closed. The two new 4-metre wide footbridges were completed in 2002 and they were named the Golden Jubilee Bridges, in honour of the fiftieth anniversary of Queen Elizabeth IIs accession, although in practice they are still referred to as the Hungerford Footbridges
Hungerford Bridge
–
Hungerford Bridge and Golden Jubilee Bridges, seen from the north
Hungerford Bridge
–
The Hungerford Suspension bridge, designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel
Hungerford Bridge
–
Charing Cross Bridge,
Claude Monet 1899, Collection Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza,
Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid
Hungerford Bridge
–
The Hungerford and Golden Jubilee bridges as seen from the London Eye, with Waterloo Bridge in the background
18.
List of countries in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Fifty-two countries have participated in the Eurovision Song Contest since it started in 1956. Of these, twenty-five have won the contest, the contest, organised by the European Broadcasting Union, is held annually between members of the Union. Broadcasters from different countries submit songs to the event, and cast votes to determine the most popular in the competition, participation in the contest is primarily open to all active member broadcasters of the EBU. To be a member, broadcasters must be a member of the European Broadcasting Union. Eligibility to participate is not determined by geographic inclusion within the continent of Europe, two of the countries that have previously sought to enter the competition, Lebanon and Tunisia, in Western Asia and North Africa respectively, are also outside of Europe. The Gulf state of Qatar, in Western Asia, announced in 2009 its interest in joining the contest in time for the 2011 edition, however, this did not materialise, and there are no known plans for a future Qatari entry the Eurovision Song Contest. Australia, where the contest has been broadcast since the 1970s, debuted as a participant in the 2015 edition, the number of countries participating each year has grown steadily, from seven in 1956 to over twenty in the late 1980s. A record 43 countries participated in 2008 and 2011, as the number of contestants has risen, preliminary competitions and relegation have been introduced, to ensure that as many countries as possible get the chance to compete. In 1993, a show, Kvalifikacija za Millstreet, was held to select three Eastern European countries to compete for the first time at the main Contest. After the 1993 Contest, a rule was introduced, the six lowest-placed countries in the contest would not compete the following year. In 1996, a new system was introduced, audio tapes of all twenty-nine entrants were submitted to national juries. The twenty-two highest-placed songs after the juries voted reached the contest, norway, as host country, was given a bye to the final. From 1997 to 2001 a system was used whereby the countries with the lowest average scores over the five years were relegated. Countries could not be relegated for more one year. Between 2001 and 2003, the system used in 1994 and 1995 was used. In 2004, a semi-final was introduced, the ten highest-placed countries in the previous years Contest qualified for the final, along with the Big Four, the largest financial contributors to the EBU. All other countries entered the semi-final, ten countries qualified from the semi, leaving a final of twenty-four. In 2008, two semi-finals were held with all countries, except the host country and the Big Four, participating in one of the semi-finals
List of countries in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Dan Ar Braz represented France in 1996, performing in the
Breton language
List of countries in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
1950s
List of countries in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Jari Sillanpää represented Finland in the first Eurovision semi-final in 2004, failing to qualify.
List of countries in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Magdi Rúzsa, born in the Serbian province of
Vojvodina, represented Hungary in 2007.
19.
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)
20.
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)
21.
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)
22.
Belgium in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Belgium has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 58 times since making its debut as one of the seven countries at the first contest in 1956. The only countries with more appearances are Germany, France and the United Kingdom, Belgium have been absent only three times in total, in 1994,1997 and 2001, due to low scores in the previous contests that relegated them from the contest. Belgium has won the contest once, in 1986, in the first 20 years of the contest, Belgiums best result was Tonias fourth place in 1966. In 1978, Jean Vallée achieved Belgiums first top three placement, when he was second, in 1986, Sandra Kim became the first and to date only winner for Belgium, when she performed the song Jaime la Vie, to win as a 13-year-old in Bergen. Belgiums only other top three result came in 2003, when the group Urban Trad finished second in Riga, losing out by two points. Belgium have finished last in the contest five times, most recently in 2000 and have twice received nul points, in 1962 and 1965. After the introduction of the round in 2004, Belgium failed to reach the final in seven out of eight contests, the exception being Tom Dice. Belgium has since achieved two top ten results, with Loïc Nottet finishing fourth 2015, and Laura Tesoro finishing 10th in 2016. Belgium has two national broadcasters of the contest, Flemish broadcaster Vlaamse Radio- en Televisieomroep and French-speaking broadcaster Radio télévision belge de la communauté française, the two broadcasters rotate selection for the Eurovision Song Contest each year. While VRT normally hosts a national final, Eurosong, when selecting their entries for Eurovision, Belgium has won the contest once, in 1986 when Sandra Kim won with her song Jaime la vie in Bergen, Norway. Although she claimed she was 15 years old, she was actually only 13, currently the minimum age for participation is 16 and thus Sandra Kim will remain the youngest winner unless the age limit is lowered. By winning in 1986, Belgium became the last of the French-speaking countries to win the contest, now Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Monaco and Switzerland all had won at least once. Belgium scored a record at the time, with Sandra Kim earning a never seen before amount of 176 points. Kim received 77. 2% of the maximum score, which, as of 2016. Belgiums next best placing has been second which it has achieved twice at the 1978 and 2003 contests, however, it has been last seven times. In 2003, Urban Trad sang in an invented language earning second place with 165 points,2 points fewer than that years winner Turkey, ishtar did the same in 2008, but came 17th in the first semi-final and thus did not qualify for the final. In the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 Belgium participated in the first semi-final on 12 May 2009, however they received just one point which came from Armenia, the 2010 entry for Belgium was Tom Dice, runner-up of the Belgian Flemish version of The X Factor in 2008. Dice was internally selected and announced by VRT on 25 November 2009, Tom Dice finished 1st in the first semi-final, allowing Belgium to participate to the final for the first time since the introduction of the semi-finals
Belgium in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Xandee performing "
1 Life " at Istanbul (
2004)
Belgium in the Eurovision Song Contest
Belgium in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
The KMG's performing "
Love Power " at Helsinki (
2007)
Belgium in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Ishtar performing "
O Julissi " at Belgrade (
2008)
23.
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)
24.
Robert Stolz
–
Robert Elisabeth Stolz was an Austrian songwriter and conductor as well as a composer of operettas and film music. Stolz was born of parents in Graz. His father was a conductor, his mother a concert pianist, at the age of seven, he toured Europe as a pianist, playing Mozart. He studied at the Vienna Conservatory with Robert Fuchs and Engelbert Humperdinck, from 1899 he held successive conducting posts at Maribor, Salzburg and Brno before succeeding Artur Bodanzky at the Theater an der Wien in 1907. There he conducted, among other pieces, the first performance of Oscar Strausss Der tapfere Soldat in 1908, before leaving in 1910 to become a freelance composer, meanwhile, he had begun to compose operettas and individual songs and had a number of successes in these fields. After serving in the Austrian Army in World War I, Stolz devoted himself mainly to cabaret, around 1930, he started to compose music for films, such as the first German sound film Zwei Herzen im Dreivierteltakt, of which the title-waltz rapidly became a popular favourite. The rise of Nazi Germany led Stolz to return to Vienna and he remained active in Berlin as well. He used to travel by car between the two cities, so he smuggled Jews and political refugees across the German-Austrian border in the trunk of his limousine and he managed to do so 21 times. Then came the Anschluss, and he moved again, first to Zürich and then to Paris, with the help of friends he was released and in 1940 made his way to New York. In America, Stolz achieved fame with his concerts of Viennese music, in 1946 Stolz returned to Vienna, where he lived for the rest of his life. In the 1960s and 1970s he made recordings of operettas by composers such as Johann Strauss, Franz Lehár, Emmerich Kálmán, and Leo Fall. In 1952, he began to compose for the Vienna Ice Revue and he dedicated his first of 19 ice operettas to European Champion Eva Pawlik. In 1970, to mark his 90th birthday, he was made an Honorary Citizen of Vienna and he was also awarded Viennas Grand Medal of Honour, being only the second musician ever to be so honoured. He also appeared on a series of commemorative Austrian postage stamps, in later years he used a baton inherited from Franz Lehár, which had been originally owned by Johann Strauss and contained Strausss initials engraved in silver. After his death in Berlin in 1975, Robert Stolz received the honour of a lying-in-state in the foyer of the Vienna State Opera House and he was buried near Johannes Brahms and Johann Strauss II in Viennas Zentralfriedhof, and a statue to him was erected in the Wiener Stadtpark. Robert Stolz was married five times and his first and second wives, were singers. His third wife was Josephine Zernitz and the fourth was named Lilli and his fifth wife Yvonne Louise Ulrich, called Einzi, was his manager until his death. She had one daughter from her first marriage, whom Robert Stolz adopted, the Barbed Wire Waltz, the memoirs of the Last Waltz King Melbourne, Robert Stolz Publishing
Robert Stolz
–
Robert Stolz in 1915
Robert Stolz
–
Robert Stolz in 1970
Robert Stolz
–
Robert Stolz Memorial at the
Prater
25.
Monaco in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Monaco has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 24 times since its debut in 1959. The countrys only win in the contest came in 1971 when Séverine performed Un banc, un arbre, in 1972, Monaco was expected to host the contest, but declined. Monaco is still today, the only microstate which has won the Eurovision Song Contest, Monaco finished last at its first contest in 1959 before achieving three top three results in the 1960s. Two of these were achieved by François Deguelt, who finished third in 1960, romuald also finished third in 1964. Severines victory in 1971 was the first of five top four results in eight years, the others were achieved by Romauld, Mary Christy who was third in 1976, Michèle Torr, fourth in 1977 and Caline & Olivier Toussaint who were fourth in 1978. After participating in 1979, Monaco was absent from the contest for 25 years, Monaco returned to the contest for three years from 2004 to 2006 but failed to qualify from the semi-finals. The Monegasque broadcaster then withdrew from the contest saying that regional voting patterns in the contest have effectively given Monaco no chance of qualifying for the final, Monaco participated in the contest 21 times between its debut in 1959 and 1979. Afterwards the country withdrew from the contest for financial reasons and it only returned in 2004,25 years after its last participation. It withdrew again in 2007, after failing to qualify for the final for three consecutive years, Monaco won the contest in 1971, with the song Un banc, un arbre, une rue, performed by Séverine. The Monegasque victory is rather particular in the history of Eurovision because the songwriter, the singer and the director were not from the country they represented, Séverine even declared to journalists that she had never set foot in Monaco, forgetting that the video-clip was filmed there. Séverines producer was dishonest with her and stole her prize, thus she never got paid for her victory, nevertheless, the singer is still a great fan of the contest. Monacos next best placing has been second which it has achieved once at the 1962 and it has been third three times, in 1960,1964 and 1976, and last twice, in 1959 and 1966. Monaco is among the eight countries which finished last on their first participation, the others being Austria, Portugal, Malta, Turkey, Lithuania, the Czech Republic and San Marino. After winning in 1971, the decided to organise the 1972 contest as an open-air show. However, because of a lack of funds and material, Télé Monte Carlo sought help from the French public broadcaster, ORTF, because TMC wanted the show to be held in Monaco while ORTF wanted it in France, negotiations never succeeded. Monaco left it up to the EBU, the EBU asked Spain and Germany, who respectively finished second and third at the 1971 contest, but the countries were not interested in organising the 1972 contest. It was eventually organised by the BBC in Edinburgh, Monaco was absent from the contest between 1980 and 2003, before returning for three years from 2004–2006, but Maryon, Lise Darly and Séverine Ferrer all failed to progress from the semi-finals. TMC broadcast the 2007 contest opening the way for participation in the Eurovision Song Contest 2008, despite this, Monaco did not compete in Moscow in 2009
Monaco in the Eurovision Song Contest
–
Marjorie Noël performing "
Va dire à l'amour " in Naples
Monaco in the Eurovision Song Contest
26.
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)
27.
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)
28.
Dolf van der Linden
–
David Gijsbert van der Linden, known as Dolf van der Linden, was a Dutch conductor of popular music with a reputation which extended beyond the borders of the Netherlands. David Gijsbert van der Linden, the son of a salesman of musical instruments, was born in Vlaardingen, before World War II, he played in some different bands as a pianist and tried his hand at arranging music for these bands. His colleagues started calling him Dolf, because he reminded them of a colleague with that name. In 1945, he was asked by Dutch authorities who had arrived back from their exile in London to form an orchestra for light music, picking musicians he knew from all over the Netherlands, he thus managed to create the Metropole Orchestra. Famous names from early years were Benny Behr, Sem Nijveen, Kees Verschoor. In 1957, van der Linden conducted the winning Dutch entry to the Eurovision Song Contest, Net als toen, in the year after, he and his orchestra accompanied the Eurovision Song Contest which was organised by Dutch TV in Hilversum. Afterwards, he was asked by, amongst others, the BBC to do work for them. All in all, between 1957 and 1971, van der Linden conducted 13 Dutch Eurovision entries, amongst which two winners. In 1969 he refused to go to the Eurovision Song Contest in Spain, frans de Kok stepped in and was lucky enough to accompany what turned out to be another winning entry, De troubadour by Lenny Kuhr. In the 1970 contest in Amsterdam, he was asked by RTÉ to step in and conduct All Kinds of Everything by Dana, in the 1970s, Dolf van der Linden tried to rejuvenate and modernise his orchestra. In 1980, he retired and his successor as conductor of the Metropole Orchestra was Rogier van Otterloo. In 1995 he was awarded a Golden Harp for his achievements for entertainment music in the Netherlands, at the ceremony. In 1999, van der Linden died in Hilversum, on 22 June 2015, which would have been van der Lindens 100th birthday, the Metropole Orchestra played a concert of his compositions and arrangements. At this occasion, the first copy of van der Lindens biography, written by Bas Tukker, was presented to Dolfs younger brother Rob
Dolf van der Linden
–
Dolf van der Linden in 1959
29.
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)
30.
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)
31.
Franck Pourcel
–
Franck Pourcel was a French composer, arranger and conductor of popular music and classical music. Born in Marseille on 11 August 1913, Pourcel started learning the violin at the age of six, later, Pourcel studied violin at the Conservatoire in Marseille, and also drums because he loved jazz, and spent a year in Paris at the Conservatoire. By 1931, he was working as a violinist in several theaters in Marseille and he then became the musical director for Lucienne Boyer, with whom he went on a world tour. He immigrated to the United States in 1952 but returned to France the following year to record Blue Tango, in 1954, Pourcel recorded his first album on the Pathé-Marconi record label, with whom he would record a total of nine albums in a three-year period. In 1956, he recorded his version of Only You, which sold three million copies by 1959, and was awarded a gold disc. It peaked at #9 on the United States Billboard pop chart during a 16 weeks chart run, between 1956 and 1972, he was the conductor for France at the Eurovision Song Contest with the exceptions of 1957 and 1968. Four of the songs that he conducted won first place for France, as a result, France became the most successful country in the contests early years, until Luxembourg matched its four wins in 1973. By 1958, Pourcel started recording classical music, in 1962, he co-composed with Paul Mauriat the hit Chariot, which was recorded by Petula Clark and followed up by Peggy March as I Will Follow Him. The song became the theme for the film, Sister Act. In 1975, at the request of Air France, Pourcel composed an anthem for their new supersonic plane, Pourcel recorded 250 albums, over 3000 songs, and he conducted famous orchestras such as London Symphonic Orchestra, BBC Orchestra and Orchestre des concerts Lamoureux. He created the series Amour Danse et violons and the classical series Pages Célébres and his first recordings from 1956 to 1962 were released under the series Originals. Pourcel recorded until 1995 with EMI and he died on 12 November 2000 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, at the age of 87, from Parkinsons disease. His daughter Françoise Pourcel, is taking care of his musical legacy
Franck Pourcel
–
Contents
32.
Eurovision Song Contest 1956
–
The Eurovision Song Contest 1956 was the debut edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, held at the Teatro Kursaal in Lugano, Switzerland on Thursday 24 May. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union, the music competition was inspired by the Italian Sanremo Music Festival. Lohengrin Filipello hosted the first contest which lasted approximately 1 hour and 40 minutes, seven countries participated, with each of them performing two songs. Two jury members from all participating countries cast their votes in secret, from that meeting, the concept of the Eurovision Song Contest was born. A decision was reached to hold the first ever contest in the Swiss resort of Lugano the following year, the chosen venue for the contest was the Teatro Kursaal in Lugano, a city in the south of Switzerland, in the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino, which borders Italy. The event was inspired by the Italian music festival, as well as that the contest was hosted in Italian. The programme lasted approximately one hour and 40 minutes, although it was mainly a radio programme, there were cameras in the studio for the benefit of the few Europeans who possessed a television. The interval act, whistling by the Joyeux Rossignols, had to be extended due to a delay in the voting procedure and it had been strongly recommended that each participating country have a preliminary national song contest. Two jury members from all participating countries travelled to Lugano to cast their vote on the songs in secret, the voting system at this Contest allowed juries to vote for any competing song, including those of their own country. Additionally, the Swiss jury was allowed by the EBU to vote also on behalf of the Luxembourg delegation, some even think that the Swiss entry won because of this rule. It is one of two contests to not have survived completely, along with the 1964 contest. Seven countries participated in the first ever contest, each were represented with two songs, two more countries, Austria, and Denmark were also expected to take part in the contest, but they missed the submission deadline and therefore could not take part. Each performance had a maestro who conducted the orchestra, the conductors listed conducted both performances for the indicated countries. Simon Barclays book The Complete and Independent Guide to the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 includes a table with what appears to be the rankings, under the chart he writes that the votes awarded have never been disclosed. According to writer Jan Feddersen, Im Wartesaal zum großen Glück was probably voted No.2 behind Lys Assia, the participating national broadcasters sent commentators to the contest, in order to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language. Details of the commentators and the station that they represented are shown in the table below. Official website Listen to the whole 1956 contest
Eurovision Song Contest 1956
33.
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
34.
Siw Malmkvist
–
Siw Siwan Gunnel Margareta Malmkvist is a Swedish singer who has been popular in Scandinavia and West Germany. Malmkvist was born in Landskrona, Skåne County, Sweden and she is a versatile artist, having performed in stage plays, musicals and in films alongside her career in pop/schlager music. In 2002 she appeared as the Mother in Hasse Alfredsons stage play Lille Ronny at Maximteatern, together with actor Thorsten Flinck, she recorded a popular Swedish cover of Nick Cave/Kylie Minogues 1995 hit Where the Wild Roses Grow. In 2008/2009, she played the part of Fräulein Schneider in the musical Cabaret at Stockholms Stadsteater, directed by Colin Nutley
Siw Malmkvist
–
Siw Malmkvist
Siw Malmkvist
–
Siw Malmkvist and
Lee Hazlewood in 1968
35.
Swedish language
–
Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken natively by more than 9 million people predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, where it has equal legal standing with Finnish. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish, along with the other North Germanic languages, Swedish is a descendant of Old Norse, the common language of the Germanic peoples living in Scandinavia during the Viking Era. It is currently the largest of the North Germanic languages by number of speakers, Standard Swedish, spoken by most Swedes, is the national language that evolved from the Central Swedish dialects in the 19th century and was well established by the beginning of the 20th century. While distinct regional varieties descended from the rural dialects still exist. The standard word order is, as in most Germanic languages, V2, Swedish morphology is similar to English, that is, words have comparatively few inflections. There are two genders, no cases, and a distinction between plural and singular. Older analyses posit the cases nominative and genitive and there are remains of distinct accusative and dative forms as well. Adjectives are compared as in English, and are inflected according to gender, number. The definiteness of nouns is marked primarily through suffixes, complemented with separate definite and indefinite articles, the prosody features both stress and in most dialects tonal qualities. The language has a large vowel inventory. Swedish is also notable for the voiceless velar fricative, a highly variable consonant phoneme. Swedish is an Indo-European language belonging to the North Germanic branch of the Germanic languages, by many general criteria of mutual intelligibility, the Continental Scandinavian languages could very well be considered dialects of a common Scandinavian language. In the 8th century, the common Germanic language of Scandinavia, Proto-Norse, had some changes. This language began to undergo new changes that did not spread to all of Scandinavia, the dialects of Old East Norse that were spoken in Sweden are called Runic Swedish while the dialects of Denmark are referred to as Runic Danish. The dialects are described as runic because the body of text appears in the runic alphabet. Unlike Proto-Norse, which was written with the Elder Futhark alphabet, Old Norse was written with the Younger Futhark alphabet, from 1200 onwards, the dialects in Denmark began to diverge from those of Sweden. An early change that separated Runic Danish from the dialects of Old East Norse was the change of the diphthong æi to the monophthong é. This is reflected in runic inscriptions where the older read stain, there was also a change of au as in dauðr into a long open ø as in døðr dead
Swedish language
–
The initial page of the first complete copy of
Västgötalagen, the
law code of
Västergötland, from c. 1280. It is one of the earliest texts in Swedish written in the
Latin script.
Swedish language
–
Major Swedish-speaking areas
Swedish language
–
Front page of
Gustav Vasa 's Bible from 1541, using
Fraktur. The title translated to English reads: "The Bible / That is / The Holy Scripture / in Swedish. Printed in
Uppsala. 1541".
Swedish language
–
August Strindberg, one of the most influential writers in modern Swedish literature.
36.
Camillo Felgen
–
Camillo Jean Nicolas Felgen was a Luxembourgish singer, lyricist, Disc jockey, and television presenter. Felgen started his career as a teacher, during the Second World War, Felgen was a translator for the German occupiers, and then a reporter with a French-language newspaper. He studied theater and opera in Brussels and Liège, in 1946, he joined Radio Luxembourg as a chorus singer, in 1949, the mastering of his baritone completed his theatre and opera studies. In 1951, he had his first international hit record, Bonjour les amies, the song went on to become the theme song for his national broadcaster. In 1953, he recorded his first German-language record, Onkel Toms altes Boot and he finished last with only one point. Two years later he entered the contest again, this time doing much better by finishing in 3rd place with the song Petit bonhomme. he did at times do the commentary in german to. One of the greatest hits of Felgen was Ich hab Ehrfurcht vor schneeweißen Haaren, another was Sag warum, in 1959, based on a melody by Phil Spector. Camillo Felgen also wrote German lyrics for cover versions of songs, using the pseudonyms of Lee Montague. As Jean Nicolas, Felgen also translated the two songs recorded by The Beatles in German, I Want to Hold Your Hand and She Loves You. Felgen, then working as a director at Radio Luxembourg, was given just 24 hours to finalize the translated lyrics, fly to Paris. He died in Esch-sur-Alzette on 16 July 2005, at the age of 84
Camillo Felgen
–
Camillo Felgen at the
Eurovision Song Contest 1962
37.
Luxembourgish language
–
Luxembourgish, Luxemburgish or Letzeburgesch is a West Germanic language that is spoken mainly in Luxembourg. Worldwide, about 390,000 people speak Luxembourgish, despite the lack of a sharp boundary between Luxembourgish and the neighboring German dialects, this has led several linguists to regard it as a separate, yet closely related language. Luxembourgish belongs to the West Central German group of High German languages and is the example of a Moselle Franconian language. Luxembourgish is the language of Luxembourg and one of three administrative languages, alongside French and German. Luxembourgish is also spoken in the Arelerland region of Belgium and in parts of Lorraine in France. In the German Eifel and Hunsrück regions, and in Lorraine, Moselle Franconian dialects outside the Luxembourg state border tend to have far fewer French loan words, and these mostly remain from the French Revolution. There are several distinct forms of Luxembourgish including Areler, Eechternoacher, Kliärrwer, Miseler, Stater, Veiner, Minetter and Weelzer. Further small vocabulary differences may be even between small villages. There is no distinct boundary between the use of Luxembourgish and the use of other closely related High German dialects, it instead forms a dialect continuum of gradual change. Spoken Luxembourgish is relatively hard to understand for speakers of German who are not familiar with Moselle Franconian dialects. However, they can read the language to some degree. For those Germans familiar with Moselle Franconian dialects, it is easy to understand. However, the number of French loanwords in Luxembourgish may hamper communication about certain topics. There is no intelligibility between Luxembourgish and French or any of the Romance dialects spoken in the adjacent parts of Belgium, erna Hennicot-Schoepges, President of the Christian Social Peoples Party of Luxembourg 1995–2003, was active in promoting the language beyond Luxembourgs borders. A number of proposals for standardising the orthography of Luxembourgish can be documented, there was no officially recognised system, however, until the adoption of the OLO on 5 June 1946. The rules explicitly rejected certain elements of German orthography, similarly, new principles were adopted for the spelling of French loanwords. A more successful standard eventually emerged from the work of the committee of specialists charged with the task of creating the Luxemburger Wörterbuch, published in 5 volumes between 1950 and 1977. The orthographic conventions adopted in this project, set out in Bruch
Luxembourgish language
–
Approx. 2 meters high installation in the
Justus-Lipsius building during the
Luxembourgish EU-Presidency, first half of 2005
Luxembourgish language
–
Area where Luxembourgish (striped) and related
Moselle Franconian is spoken (solid).
38.
Danish language
–
There are also minor Danish-speaking communities in Norway, Sweden, Spain, the United States, Canada, Brazil and Argentina. Due to immigration and language shift in urban areas, around 15–20% of the population of Greenland speak Danish as their home language. Along with the other North Germanic languages, Danish is a descendant of Old Norse, until the 16th century, Danish was a continuum of dialects spoken from Schleswig to Scania with no standard variety or spelling conventions. With the Protestant Reformation and the introduction of printing, a language was developed which was based on the educated Copenhagen dialect. It spread through use in the system and administration though German. Today, traditional Danish dialects have all but disappeared, though there are variants of the standard language. The main differences in language are between generations, with youth language being particularly innovative, Danish has a very large vowel inventory comprising 27 phonemically distinctive vowels, and its prosody is characterized by the distinctive phenomenon stød, a kind of laryngeal phonation type. The grammar is moderately inflective with strong and weak conjugations and inflections, nouns and demonstrative pronouns distinguish common and neutral gender. As in English, Danish only has remnants of a case system, particularly in the pronouns. Its syntax is V2, with the verb always occupying the second slot in the sentence. Danish is a Germanic language of the North Germanic branch, other names for this group are the Nordic or Scandinavian languages. Along with Swedish, Danish descends from the Eastern dialects of the Old Norse language, Scandinavian languages are often considered a dialect continuum, where there are no sharp dividing lines between the different vernacular languages. Like Norwegian and Swedish, Danish was significantly influenced by Low German in the Middle Ages, Danish itself can be divided into three main dialect areas, West Danish, Insular Danish, and East Danish. Danish is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Swedish, both Swedes and Danes also understand Norwegian better than they understand each others languages. By the 8th century, the common Germanic language of Scandinavia, Proto-Norse, had some changes. This language was called the Danish tongue, or Norse language. Norse was written in the alphabet, first with the elder futhark. From the 7th century the common Norse language began to undergo changes that did not spread to all of Scandinavia, most of the changes separating East Norse from West Norse started as innovations in Denmark, that spread through Scania into Sweden and by maritime contact to southern Norway
Danish language
–
The first page of the Jutlandic Law originally from 1241 in Codex Holmiensis, copied in 1350. The first sentence is: " Mædh logh skal land byggas " "With law the land shall be built".
Danish language
–
Learn Danish banner in
Flensburg,
Germany where it is an officially recognized
regional language
Danish language
–
Danish label reading militærpoliti, "military police", on police vehicle
Danish language
–
Danish keyboard with keys for Æ, Ø, and Å.
39.
Fud Leclerc
–
Fud LeClerc was a Belgian singer, who was also the pianist of Juliette Gréco. Born Fernand Urbain Dominic Leclercq, LeClerc had a career as a pianist, accordionist, on his return to Belgium he began a new career as a building contractor. More recently, LeClerc was invited to ESC2005 by the Belgian TV network RTBF as a guest star, at the time of his death LeClerc was retired, and living in Brussels. Fud Leclerc at the Internet Movie Database Tom nom, Eurovision 1962 on YouTube
Fud Leclerc
–
Fud LeClerc at the
Eurovision Song Contest 1958
40.
French language
–
French is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages, French has evolved from Gallo-Romance, the spoken Latin in Gaul, and more specifically in Northern Gaul. Its closest relatives are the other langues doïl—languages historically spoken in northern France and in southern Belgium, French was also influenced by native Celtic languages of Northern Roman Gaul like Gallia Belgica and by the Frankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. Today, owing to Frances past overseas expansion, there are numerous French-based creole languages, a French-speaking person or nation may be referred to as Francophone in both English and French. French is a language in 29 countries, most of which are members of la francophonie. As of 2015, 40% of the population is in Europe, 35% in sub-Saharan Africa, 15% in North Africa and the Middle East, 8% in the Americas. French is the fourth-most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union, 1/5 of Europeans who do not have French as a mother tongue speak French as a second language. As a result of French and Belgian colonialism from the 17th and 18th century onward, French was introduced to new territories in the Americas, Africa, most second-language speakers reside in Francophone Africa, in particular Gabon, Algeria, Mauritius, Senegal and Ivory Coast. In 2015, French was estimated to have 77 to 110 million native speakers, approximately 274 million people are able to speak the language. The Organisation internationale de la Francophonie estimates 700 million by 2050, in 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked French the third most useful language for business, after English and Standard Mandarin Chinese. Under the Constitution of France, French has been the language of the Republic since 1992. France mandates the use of French in official government publications, public education except in specific cases, French is one of the four official languages of Switzerland and is spoken in the western part of Switzerland called Romandie, of which Geneva is the largest city. French is the language of about 23% of the Swiss population. French is also a language of Luxembourg, Monaco, and Aosta Valley, while French dialects remain spoken by minorities on the Channel Islands. A plurality of the worlds French-speaking population lives in Africa and this number does not include the people living in non-Francophone African countries who have learned French as a foreign language. Due to the rise of French in Africa, the total French-speaking population worldwide is expected to reach 700 million people in 2050, French is the fastest growing language on the continent. French is mostly a language in Africa, but it has become a first language in some urban areas, such as the region of Abidjan, Ivory Coast and in Libreville. There is not a single African French, but multiple forms that diverged through contact with various indigenous African languages, sub-Saharan Africa is the region where the French language is most likely to expand, because of the expansion of education and rapid population growth
French language
–
The
"arrêt" signs (French for "stop") are used in
Canada while the international stop, which is also a valid French word, is used in France as well as other French-speaking countries and regions.
French language
–
Regions where French is the main language
French language
–
Town sign in
Standard Arabic and French at the entrance of
Rechmaya in
Lebanon.
French language
–
An obsolete 100
Lebanese pound note with the French language inscriptions "Banque du Liban" and "Cent livres".
41.
Nora Brockstedt
–
Nora Brockstedt was a Norwegian singer. She first entered a stage at the age of 20. During the next two decades, she managed to become one of Norways most famous and beloved singers and entertainers, throughout the 1950s she had several sing-along radio hits, including En liten pike i lave sko, Augustin, and Tango for to. In the years 1950 to 1954, she was a member of the six-member group The Monn Keys, Brockstedt holds a reputation as one of the most prominent Alf Prøysen interpreters. Brockstedt represented Norway in the Eurovision Song Contest 1960 and 1961, with the memorable songs Voi-voi and she appeared on the Advent Calendar-themed seasonal television program Jul i Skomakergata in 1979. In her last years, she focused more on the genre, with successful albums like As Time Goes By. She sang jazz in the 1960s, but was known for her conventional pop songs. She died after an illness at Ullevaal Hospital in Oslo on 5 November 2015. Eurovision Song Contest 1960 Eurovision Song Contest 1961 Melodi Grand Prix Jazz Short recording of Nora Brockstedt singing
Nora Brockstedt
–
Nora Brockstedt
42.
Norwegian language
–
Norwegian is a North Germanic language spoken mainly in Norway, where it is the official language. Along with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants. These Scandinavian languages, together with Faroese and Icelandic as well as extinct languages. Faroese and Icelandic are hardly mutually intelligible with Norwegian in their spoken form because continental Scandinavian has diverged from them, as established by law and governmental policy, the two official forms of written Norwegian are Bokmål and Nynorsk. The official Norwegian Language Council is responsible for regulating the two forms, and recommends the terms Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk in English. Two other written forms without official status also exist, one and it is regulated by the unofficial Norwegian Academy, which translates the name as Standard Norwegian. Nynorsk and Bokmål provide standards for how to write Norwegian, no standard of spoken Norwegian is officially sanctioned, and most Norwegians speak their own dialects in all circumstances. Thus, unlike in other countries, the use of any Norwegian dialect. Outside Eastern Norway, this variation is not used. From the 16th to the 19th centuries, Danish was the written language of Norway. As a result, the development of modern written Norwegian has been subject to strong controversy related to nationalism, rural versus urban discourse, historically, Bokmål is a Norwegianised variety of Danish, while Nynorsk is a language form based on Norwegian dialects and puristic opposition to Danish. The unofficial form known as Riksmål is considered more conservative than Bokmål, Norwegians are educated in both Bokmål and Nynorsk. A2005 poll indicates that 86. 3% use primarily Bokmål as their written language,5. 5% use both Bokmål and Nynorsk, and 7. 5% use primarily Nynorsk. Thus, 13% are frequently writing Nynorsk, though the majority speak dialects that resemble Nynorsk more closely than Bokmål. Broadly speaking, Nynorsk writing is widespread in western Norway, though not in major urban areas, examples are Setesdal, the western part of Telemark county and several municipalities in Hallingdal, Valdres, and Gudbrandsdalen. It is little used elsewhere, but 30–40 years ago, it also had strongholds in rural parts of Trøndelag. Today, not only is Nynorsk the official language of four of the 19 Norwegian counties, NRK, the Norwegian broadcasting corporation, broadcasts in both Bokmål and Nynorsk, and all governmental agencies are required to support both written languages. Bokmål is used in 92% of all publications, and Nynorsk in 8%
Norwegian language
–
Norwegian ambulances changed their markings in 2005. This is the old appearance, with the Norwegian ambulanse, "Ambulance."
Norwegian language
–
Old West Norse dialect
43.
German language
–
German is a West Germanic language that is mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, South Tyrol, the German-speaking Community of Belgium and it is also one of the three official languages of Luxembourg. Major languages which are most similar to German include other members of the West Germanic language branch, such as Afrikaans, Dutch, English, Luxembourgish and it is the second most widely spoken Germanic language, after English. One of the languages of the world, German is the first language of about 95 million people worldwide. The German speaking countries are ranked fifth in terms of publication of new books. German derives most of its vocabulary from the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, a portion of German words are derived from Latin and Greek, and fewer are borrowed from French and English. With slightly different standardized variants, German is a pluricentric language, like English, German is also notable for its broad spectrum of dialects, with many unique varieties existing in Europe and also other parts of the world. The history of the German language begins with the High German consonant shift during the migration period, when Martin Luther translated the Bible, he based his translation primarily on the standard bureaucratic language used in Saxony, also known as Meißner Deutsch. Copies of Luthers Bible featured a long list of glosses for each region that translated words which were unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Roman Catholics initially rejected Luthers translation, and tried to create their own Catholic standard of the German language – the difference in relation to Protestant German was minimal. It was not until the middle of the 18th century that a widely accepted standard was created, until about 1800, standard German was mainly a written language, in urban northern Germany, the local Low German dialects were spoken. Standard German, which was different, was often learned as a foreign language with uncertain pronunciation. Northern German pronunciation was considered the standard in prescriptive pronunciation guides though, however, German was the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire, which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe. Until the mid-19th century, it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of the Empire and its use indicated that the speaker was a merchant or someone from an urban area, regardless of nationality. Some cities, such as Prague and Budapest, were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain, others, such as Pozsony, were originally settled during the Habsburg period, and were primarily German at that time. Prague, Budapest and Bratislava as well as cities like Zagreb, the most comprehensive guide to the vocabulary of the German language is found within the Deutsches Wörterbuch. This dictionary was created by the Brothers Grimm and is composed of 16 parts which were issued between 1852 and 1860, in 1872, grammatical and orthographic rules first appeared in the Duden Handbook. In 1901, the 2nd Orthographical Conference ended with a standardization of the German language in its written form
German language
–
Old Frisian (Alt-Friesisch)
German language
–
The widespread popularity of the
Bible translated into German by
Martin Luther helped establish modern German
German language
–
Examples of German language in
Namibian everyday life
German language
–
German-language newspapers in the U.S. in 1922
44.
Italian language
–
By most measures, Italian, together with Sardinian, is the closest to Latin of the Romance languages. Italian is a language in Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City. Italian is spoken by minorities in places such as France, Montenegro, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Crimea and Tunisia and by large expatriate communities in the Americas. Many speakers are native bilinguals of both standardized Italian and other regional languages, Italian is the fourth most studied language in the world. Italian is a major European language, being one of the languages of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe. It is the third most widely spoken first language in the European Union with 65 million native speakers, including Italian speakers in non-EU European countries and on other continents, the total number of speakers is around 85 million. Italian is the working language of the Holy See, serving as the lingua franca in the Roman Catholic hierarchy as well as the official language of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. Italian is known as the language of music because of its use in musical terminology and its influence is also widespread in the arts and in the luxury goods market. Italian has been reported as the fourth or fifth most frequently taught foreign language in the world, Italian was adopted by the state after the Unification of Italy, having previously been a literary language based on Tuscan as spoken mostly by the upper class of Florentine society. Its development was influenced by other Italian languages and to some minor extent. Its vowels are the second-closest to Latin after Sardinian, unlike most other Romance languages, Italian retains Latins contrast between short and long consonants. As in most Romance languages, stress is distinctive, however, Italian as a language used in Italy and some surrounding regions has a longer history. What would come to be thought of as Italian was first formalized in the early 14th century through the works of Tuscan writer Dante Alighieri, written in his native Florentine. Dante is still credited with standardizing the Italian language, and thus the dialect of Florence became the basis for what would become the language of Italy. Italian was also one of the recognised languages in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Italy has always had a dialect for each city, because the cities. Those dialects now have considerable variety, as Tuscan-derived Italian came to be used throughout Italy, features of local speech were naturally adopted, producing various versions of Regional Italian. Even in the case of Northern Italian languages, however, scholars are not to overstate the effects of outsiders on the natural indigenous developments of the languages
Italian language
–
Dante Alighieri (above) and
Petrarch (below) were influential in establishing their
Tuscan dialect as the most prominent literary language in all of
Italy in the
Late Middle Ages
Italian language
–
The geographic distribution of the Italian language in the world: large Italian-speaking communities are shown in green; light blue indicates areas where the Italian language was used officially during the Italian colonial period.
Italian language
Italian language
–
Pietro Bembo was an influential figure in the development of the Italian language from the Tuscan dialect, as a literary medium, codifying the language for standard modern usage
45.
Rudi Carrell
–
Rudi Carrell, born Rudolf Wijbrand Kesselaar, was a Dutch entertainer, born in Alkmaar. Along with famous entertainers such as Johannes Heesters and Linda de Mol and he worked as a television entertainer and hosted his own show. The Rudi Carrell Show ran first in the Netherlands, then in Germany for many years, Carrell was also a singer with a number of hits, and acted in several movies. He represented the Netherlands at the Eurovision Song Contest 1960 singing Wat een geluk and he finished 12th out of 13 scoring just 2 points. Carrell provided the Dutch radio commentary for the 1987 Contest, the Rudi Carrell Show was a huge success in Germany from the 1960s to the 1990s. The show included a concept to Star Search or Pop Idol and brought many well-known German pop stars and actors to prominence. His show was pretty popular in some other European non-German speaking countries like Slovenia. In between he hosted popular shows, including Am laufenden Band, Rudis Tagesshow, Herzblatt. In 1987, he caused a diplomatic rift between Germany and Iran with a sketch in which veiled women threw their undergarments at someone dressed like Irans Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini. The Iranian government responded by expelling two German diplomats and permanently closing the Goethe Institute in Tehran, another controversial sketch used clever editing to show the then Chancellor Helmut Kohl and other prominent German politicians apparently consorting with prostitutes. In an interview in November 2005 the entertainer confirmed to the magazine Bunte and he died on 7 July 2006 in Bremen, Germany, aged 71. Rudi Carrell, Gib mir mein Fahrrad wieder, Wenen/München/Zürich/Innsbruck 1979, niederländische Unterhaltungskünstler in Deutschland nach 1945, Münster 2005. Das Image eines Stars in der Geschichte des deutschen Fernsehens, Osnabrück 2000, German television comedy Rudi Carrell at the Internet Movie Database a German online book of condolence for Rudi Carell Find-a-Grave entry
Rudi Carrell
–
Rudi Carrell
Rudi Carrell
–
Bust of Rudi Carrell, created by Carsten Eggers
46.
Dutch language
–
It is the third most widely spoken Germanic language, after English and German. Dutch is one of the closest relatives of both German and English and is said to be roughly in between them, Dutch vocabulary is mostly Germanic and incorporates more Romance loans than German but far fewer than English. In both Belgium and the Netherlands, the official name for Dutch is Nederlands, and its dialects have their own names, e. g. Hollands, West-Vlaams. The use of the word Vlaams to describe Standard Dutch for the variations prevalent in Flanders and used there, however, is common in the Netherlands, the Dutch language has been known under a variety of names. It derived from the Old Germanic word theudisk, one of the first names used for the non-Romance languages of Western Europe. It literarily means the language of the people, that is. The term was used as opposed to Latin, the language of writing. In the first text in which it is found, dating from 784, later, theudisca appeared also in the Oaths of Strasbourg to refer to the Germanic portion of the oath. This led inevitably to confusion since similar terms referred to different languages, owing to Dutch commercial and colonial rivalry in the 16th and 17th centuries, the English term came to refer exclusively to the Dutch. A notable exception is Pennsylvania Dutch, which is a West Central German variety called Deitsch by its speakers, Jersey Dutch, on the other hand, as spoken until the 1950s in New Jersey, is a Dutch-based creole. In Dutch itself, Diets went out of common use - although Platdiets is still used for the transitional Limburgish-Ripuarian Low Dietsch dialects in northeast Belgium, Nederlands, the official Dutch word for Dutch, did not become firmly established until the 19th century. This designation had been in use as far back as the end of the 15th century, one of them was it reflected a distinction with Hoogduits, High Dutch, meaning the language spoken in Germany. The Hoog was later dropped, and thus, Duits narrowed down in meaning to refer to the German language. g, in English, too, Netherlandic is regarded as a more accurate term for the Dutch language, but is hardly ever used. Old Dutch branched off more or less around the same time Old English, Old High German, Old Frisian and Old Saxon did. During that period, it forced Old Frisian back from the western coast to the north of the Low Countries, on the other hand, Dutch has been replaced in adjacent lands in nowadays France and Germany. The division in Old, Middle and Modern Dutch is mostly conventional, one of the few moments linguists can detect somewhat of a revolution is when the Dutch standard language emerged and quickly established itself. This is assumed to have taken place in approximately the mid-first millennium BCE in the pre-Roman Northern European Iron Age, the Germanic languages are traditionally divided into three groups, East, West, and North Germanic. They remained mutually intelligible throughout the Migration Period, Dutch is part of the West Germanic group, which also includes English, Scots, Frisian, Low German and High German
Dutch language
–
The Utrecht baptismal vow Forsachistu diobolae...
Dutch language
–
Distribution of the Dutch language and its dialects in
Western Europe
Dutch language
–
Second edition of this column decorated with a title of
Charles V 's portrait, with archaic Dutch inscriptions
Dutch language
–
Dutch language street sign in the Netherlands
47.
Renato Rascel
–
Renato Ranucci, in art Renato Rascel was an Italian film actor, singer, and songwriter. He appeared in 50 films between 1942 and 1972 and he represented Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1960 with the song Romantica which was placed equal eighth out of thirteen entries. He was born to Cesare and Paola Ranucci in Turin where his parents, Renato could really say that he was born in the back stage of the theater and that’s where he spent all of his life. At the age of 14 Renato started to play drums in ballrooms around Rome. Soon after, he joined the Di Fiorenza Sisters as an actor, dancer and clown, in 1935, he joined Elena Gray for his first foreign tour in Africa. In this time he created some of his most famous such as “Napoleon”. In 1942 he shoots the first of a series of films Pazzo d’amore developing and establishing his very peculiar kind of humor. Among the sixty plus films he worked in one of the most relevant was Il Cappotto by Gogol, in 1977, he appeared in the Zeffirelli film Jesus of Nazareth as the blind man. His post second World War success is due mainly to his roles in the musicals by Garinei & Giovannini. The artistic trio is responsible for the existence of the “Musical” in Italy with Attanasio cavallo vanesio in 1952, Il giorno della tartaruga and Alleluja, in his career, Rascel had established himself as a comic and dramatic actor, dancer, singer and songwriter. His most famous song, Arrivederci Roma, is among the three most famous Italian songs of all time. He also wrote a number of famous songs such as Venticello de Roma, Con un po di fantasia, Vogliamoci tanto bene, Romantica. With the arrival of the set in the Italian household. Among his most memorable performances are “Rascel la nuit“ in 1956 and his performance in “Father Brown” in 1970, where he interprets a priest that solves crimes in his community, was one of the biggest television successes of the decade. He represented Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest 1960 with the song Romantica, Renato Rascel at the Internet Movie Database Renato Rascel at AllMovie Renato Rascel official site
Renato Rascel
–
Rascel in
The Overcoat (1952)
48.
Romantica (song)
–
Romantica is a song written by Italian singer-songwriter Renato Rascel with Dino Verde. It was performed for the first time during the tenth Sanremo Music Festival in January 1960, the song placed first in the competition. The song was chosen as the Italian entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1960. It was performed twelfth on the night, following Germanys Wyn Hoop with Bonne nuit ma chérie, at the close of voting, it had received 5 points, placing it 8th in a field of 13. The song span three foreign versions in 1960, dalidas version topped the French charts for a week. The Estonian version by the Estonian Radio Male Quartet entitled Romantika altered the original by skipping the introduction, for two seasons of the Estonian hit comedy talk show Rahva Oma Kaitse, the Estonian version was featured as the end title piece. One of the editors, Mart Juur commented, Honestly, meanwhile we havent heard anything of the worth of Ringo Starrs No No Song and Romantika by the Male Quartet of the Estonian Radio. Look, there was a time when we used the so-called bozo songs, jane Morgan recorded an English version of the song just after the contest, in 1960. In the late 80s, early 90s, the Norwegian vintage band Lollipop performed and released a version of Romantica, the song was performed by the Norwegian singer, Tor Endresen in Italian. Lollipop was a band that was constructed by Norwegian singer Rune Larsen for a vintage musicshow in Norway and it became very successful with 30 episodes on TV and two tours and also CD rekleases of music from the period 1955 to 1965. As the Italian representative, Romantica was succeeded at the 1961 Contest by Betty Curtis with Al di là
Romantica (song)
–
The 1960 San Remo Music Festival. Tony Dallara is singing Romantica. Guitarist
Pino Rucher (first from left) with the Angelini Orchestra.
France
United Kingdom - Eric Robinson
Sweden - Thore Ehrling
Luxembourg - Eric Robinson
Denmark - Kai Mortensen
Belgium - Henri Segers
Norway - Øivind Bergh
Austria - Robert Stolz
Monaco - Raymond Lefèvre
Switzerland - Cédric Dumont
Netherlands - Dolf van der Linden
Germany - Franz Josef Breuer
Italy - Cinico Angelini
France - Franck Pourcel
United Kingdom
Sweden
Luxembourg
Denmark
Belgium
Norway
Austria
Monaco
Switzerland
Netherlands
Germany
Italy
