1.
Eurovision Song Contest 1956
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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
2.
Eurovision Song Contest 1993
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1993 was the 38th Eurovision Song Contest and was held on 15 May 1993 in Millstreet, County Cork, Ireland. Niamh Kavanagh was the winner of this Eurovision for Ireland with the song and this was Irelands fifth victory, and equalled the tally of five Eurovision victories achieved by France in 1977 and Luxembourg in 1983. However, the venue, a large indoor well- equipped equestrian centre was deemed more suitable as the location by RTÉ. With huge support from local and national authorities, plus several businesses in the region and it was also the largest outside broadcast ever attempted by state broadcaster RTÉ and was deemed a technical triumph for all involved. The stage was created by Alan Farquharson, who was also chief production designer two years later in Dublin, BBC newsreader Nicholas Witchell caused controversy by remarking on the air, shortly before the contest, that it would be held in a cowshed in Ireland. The top two countries of this contest were the same as the top two countries in the years contest, being Ireland and the United Kingdom. This was, however, merely a measure that was plainly not a sustainable solution for future years. After some extremely tight voting, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovenia edged through, each country had a jury who awarded 12,10,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 point for their top ten songs. The voting required a jury to deliberate in the midst of the war in Bosnia. Warm applause rang round the hall as a voice on a phone line was heard to deliver the familiar greeting, Hello Millstreet. By the final few juries it became clear that either Ireland or the United Kingdom were going to win, after the penultimate jury had voted, it looked to be a lost cause for second-placed Sonia of the UK as she was eleven points behind Niamh Kavanagh. Ostensibly due to technical difficulties, the final jury to announce their results was the Maltese jury. However, the name of neither country came up, instead it was Ireland that were awarded the final points of the evening, finishing with what looked in retrospect a comfortable twenty-three-point victory. Interestingly, given the way the votes were cast, having Maltas vote announced last was the way for the contest for victory to go down to the final jury. 1993 was the last year that the points were announced by telephone
Eurovision Song Contest 1993
3.
Eurovision Song Contest 1961
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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
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Palais des Festivals et des Congrès in Cannes, France - Host venue of the 1961 Eurovision Song Contest.
Eurovision Song Contest 1961
4.
Eurovision Song Contest 1965
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1965 was the tenth edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It was held in Naples, Italy, following the Italian victory at the previous 1964 edition. Luxembourg won, for the time in the history of the contest, with the song Poupée de cire, poupée de son, performed by France Gall. Belgium, Finland, Germany, and Spain each scored points for the second time. The 1965 contest marked the debut of Ireland, a country which went on to dominate the competition. This was also the first contest with over 16 countries participating with a total of 18 entries, the Swedish entry was also sung in English. For the first time since Dutch victory Een Beetje in 1959, the contest took place in Naples, the capital of region Campania in southern Italy and the third-largest city in Italy, after Rome and Milan. This is Italys first hosting of the Eurovision Song Contest, the host venue was the then new Sala di Concerto della RAI, founded few years prior to the contest, in the late fifties and early sixties. It is located in Viale Marconi in the district of Fuorigrotta, the structure has three TV studios for a total of 1227 m² and capacity of 370 persons, used for the filming of programs and fiction and an auditorium. The Neapolitan song archives are housed in it. Each country had 10 jury members who distributed three points among their one, two, or three favourite songs, the points were totalled and the first, second, and third placed songs were awarded 5,3, and 1 votes in order. If only one song got every point within the jury it would get all 9 points, if only two songs were chosen, the songs would get 6 and 3 points in order. 18 countries took part, with the Eurovision Song Contest reaching its highest ever number, sweden returned after a one-year absence, and Ireland debuted in the competition. Luxembourg won for the time with the highly controversial Poupée De Cire. Belgium, Finland, Germany, and Spain all scored points for the second time. The competition was also broadcast via the Intervision network, to the Eastern European nations for the very first time, ingvar Wixell, the Swedish participant performed his song in English instead of the original Swedish title Annorstädes vals. The native languages were used for all of the other participants and this led to a rule being introduced for the next 1966 edition, that meant all participants had to perform their songs using one of their national languages. Each performance had a conductor who led the orchestra, each country had 10 jury members who distributed three points among their one, two, or three favourite songs
Eurovision Song Contest 1965
5.
Eurovision Song Contest 1972
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1972 was the 17th annual Eurovision Song Contest. It was held in Edinburgh, United Kingdom, although Monaco had won the previous years contest, the principality was unable to meet the demands of hosting the event. Séverine made the trip to the Scottish capital Edinburgh to pass on the Grand Prix to Vicky Leandros, however, she looked thoroughly uninterested in the Monegasque entry when seen by viewers checking her watch before the song was performed. This marked the time that the contest was held in the United Kingdom. However, this is the first time that the UK hosted the Eurovision Song Contest in a venue outside England, the 1972 Eurovision Song Contest was hosted by Edinburgh, the capital city of Scotland. Usher Hall, the venue for the 1972 contest, is a hall, situated on Lothian Road, in the west end of Edinburgh. It has hosted concerts and events since its construction in 1914 and can hold approximately 2,900 people in its recently restored auditorium, the Hall is flanked by The Royal Lyceum Theatre on the right and The Traverse Theatre on the left. Historic Scotland has registered the Hall with Category A listed building status, the stage design included a screen to introduce and accompany the on stage competing performances, and to show an interval act and voting sequence that were done at Edinburgh Castle. The interval act was performed at the outside vast Esplanade of the Great Hall of Edinburgh Castle, the jurors were stationed in the safety of the castle, and watched the competing performances at Usher Hall on TV. Each country had two members, one aged between 16 and 25 and one aged between 26 and 55. They each awarded 1 to 5 points for each song, other than the song of their own country and they cast their votes immediately after each song was performed and the votes were then collected and counted. The eventual winner, Luxembourg, remained in a scoring position throughout the voting. 1972 was the first year that had no ties in the voting, every year prior to 1972, at least two countries had received the same score. All countries who participated in the 1971 contest were present this year, with no withdrawals, returns, the Irish entry was in Irish, so far the countrys only entry in that language. Each performance had a conductor who maestro the orchestra, four artists returned to the competition this year. Below is a summary of all perfect 10 scores that were given during the voting, each national broadcaster sent a commentator to the contest, in order to provide coverage of the event in their own native language. Apart from the countries, the contest was transmitted in live for the first time in the continent of Asia, in the countries Japan, Taiwan, Thailand. Brazil and Greece also provided live broadcasting, iceland and Israel broadcast it a few days later
Eurovision Song Contest 1972
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Usher Hall, Edinburgh - venue of the 1972 Eurovision Song Contest.
Eurovision Song Contest 1972
6.
Eurovision Song Contest 1973
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1973 was the 18th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It was won by the Luxembourg entry, Tu te reconnaîtras, the voting was a very close one, with Spain finishing only 4 points behind and Cliff Richard of the United Kingdom another 2 points after. The city of Luxembourg, also known as Luxembourg City, is a commune with city status, and it is located at the confluence of the Alzette and Pétrusse Rivers in southern Luxembourg. The city contains the historic Luxembourg Castle, established by the Franks in the Early Middle Ages, the Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg, inaugurated in 1964 as the Théâtre Municipal de la Ville de Luxembourg, became the venue for the 1973 contest. It is the major venue for drama, opera and ballet. The language rule forcing countries to enter songs sung in any of their languages was dropped. After finishing second in the contest, the song went on to become an international hit. The somewhat elliptical lyrics to Portugals entry Tourada provided sufficient cover for a song that was understood as a blistering assault on the countrys decaying dictatorship. Also, the breasts was used during Swedens song entry. However, no action was taken by the EBU, an argument broke out between the singer Maxi and her Irish delegation over how the song should be performed. During rehearsals she repeatedly stopped performing in frustration, when it began to appear possible that Maxi might withdraw from the contest, RTÉ immediately sent over another singer, Tina Reynolds, to take her place just in case. In the end Miss Reynolds wasnt needed as Maxi did perform, Cliff Richard represented the UK with the song Power to All Our Friends. He came 3rd with 123 points, the winner though was Anne-Marie David with Tu te reconnaîtras. In the UK it was released in English under the title Wonderful Dream and this gave rise to one of the best-known Eurovision anecdotes, frequently recounted by the UKs long-serving commentator Terry Wogan. He recalled that the floor manager strongly advised the audience to remain seated while applauding the performances, each country had two jury members, one aged between 16 and 25 and one aged between 26 and 55. They each awarded 1 to 5 points for each song immediately after it was performed, the juries watched the show on TV from the Ville du Louvigny TV Studios of CLT and appeared on screen to confirm their scores. Seventeen nations took part in this years contest, malta was drawn to perform in 6th place between Norway and Monaco, but the Maltese broadcaster withdrew before the deadline to select an entry. The 1973 contest marked the first time that women conducted the ESC orchestra, monica Dominique conducted the Swedish entry and Nurit Hirsh conducted the Israeli entry
Eurovision Song Contest 1973
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Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg. Host venue of the 1973 Eurovision Song Contest.
Eurovision Song Contest 1973
7.
Eurovision Song Contest 1983
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1983 was the 28th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It was held in Munich, then West Germany, on 23 April 1983, corinne Hermes was the winner of this Eurovision with the song, Si la vie est cadeau. This was Luxembourgs fifth victory in the contest which equalled the record set by France in 1977 and it was also the second year in a row where the winning entry was performed last on the night and the second year in a row in which Israel won 2nd place. The 1983 contest was the first to be televised in Australia, via Channel 0/28 in Sydney and Melbourne. The contest went to become a popular show in Australia, leading to an intended one-off participation in the 60th anniversary contest in 2015. Ireland was not in the contest because RTÉ was in action at that time. At one point, murmurs and boos arose from the crowd at the Greek jurys decision to give host country Germany only one point and this was the only occasion in which Greece didnt award any point to Cyprus. Due to Charells choice to announce points in three languages instead of two, the voting went on for nearly an hour, stretching the Eurovision contest past three hours for the first time ever. The language problems also occurred during the contest introductions, as Charell introduced Norwegian conductor Sigurd Jansen as. Johannes. Skorgan, having been forced to make up a name on the spot after forgetting the conductors name. Ofra Haza from Israel, who took the place, had an enduring success with her song Hi which became a hit in Europe. This year also marked the first performance of Swedens Carola Häggkvist and her song, Främling, became very popular in Sweden and in various other European countries. In the Netherlands, the reached the top five, coupled with a Dutch-language version which was performed by Carola herself. The 4th placed Džuli, also became a hit in Europe, singer Daniel released an English-language version as Julie. This years nul points were shared by Spain and Turkey, additionally, she sang her song barefoot. Some olés were heard from the present audience when she ended her performance, turkeys entry, Opera, performed by Çetin Alp & the Short Waves, could on the other hand be said to fit in well with the spirit of Eurovision of that time. The interval show was a dance set to a medley of German songs which had become internationally famous. The host, Marlene Charell, was the lead dancer, host conductor in bold Each country had a jury who awarded 12,10,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 point for their top ten songs. Below is a summary of all 12 points in the final, the following is a list of spokespersons who announced the votes for their respective country
Eurovision Song Contest 1983
8.
Eurovision Song Contest 1958
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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
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AVRO Studios, Hilversum. Host venue of the 1958 Eurovision Song Contest.
Eurovision Song Contest 1958
9.
Eurovision Song Contest 1960
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1960 was the fifth edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It was held on Tuesday 29 March 1960 in London, although the Netherlands had won the contest in 1959, the Netherlands Television Foundation declined to host another contest so soon after staging the event in 1958. The honour of hosting the contest therefore passed to the United Kingdom, therefore, the BBC chose Catherine Boyle to be the mistress of ceremonies at the contest for the first time. Frances win this year was their second in the contest, the contest was won by France with the song Tom Pillibi, performed by Jacqueline Boyer. The 1960 Eurovision Song Contest was hosted in London, the Royal Festival Hall, the venue for the 1960 contest, is a 2, 900-seat concert, dance and talks venue within Southbank Centre in London. It is situated on the South Bank of the River Thames, the result was a win for France, however Germany, Monaco and the UK led in the early stages of voting. The UK came second with 25 points, four more points than the song in 1959. Interest in the contest started to grow across Europe, with the number of participating nations increasing to 13 this year, norway made its debut with one of their leading jazz singers. Luxembourg returned to the contest after a break with a song in native Luxembourgish language. The Netherlands were mistakenly announced as Holland, each country had 10 jury members who each awarded 1 point to their favourite song. The table above shows the order in which votes were cast during the 1960 contest along with the spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for their respective country. Each national broadcaster sent a commentator to the contest, in order to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language. Details of the commentators and the station for which they represented are also included in the table below. ^ The song was performed in Norwegian, but the title of the song is in the North Sami dialect of the Sami languages, translating as the expression Hey Hey
Eurovision Song Contest 1960
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Royal Festival Hall, London. Host venue of the 1960 Eurovision Song Contest.
Eurovision Song Contest 1960
10.
Eurovision Song Contest 1970
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1970 was the 15th Eurovision Song Contest, held on 21 March 1970 at the RAI Congrescentrum in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The Amsterdam contest is regarded as one of the most significant in Eurovision history for a number of reasons, Ireland won with eighteen-year-old Dana and a song called All Kinds of Everything. The UK came second for the time, six votes behind Ireland. Luxembourg received zero votes for the only time, due to there being four winners in the previous contest, a question was raised as to which nation would host the 1970 Eurovision. With the UK having hosted the 1968 Contest and Spain the 1969 Contest, only France, a toss of a coin resulted in the host country being decided as the Netherlands. The Congrescentrum, venue of the 1970 contest, is a semi-permanent exhibit at the Ferdinand Bolstraat to Amsterdam and this building was replaced in 1961 by the current RAI building on Europes Square. The current congress and event center on Europe Square, was designed by Alexander Bodon, the Dutch producers were forced to pad out the show as only 12 nations decided to make the trip to Amsterdam. The result was a format which has endured almost to the present day, an extended opening sequence set the scene, while every entry was introduced by a short video postcard featuring each of the participating artists, ostensibly in their own nation. However, the postcards for Switzerland, Luxembourg and Monaco were all filmed on location in Paris, interestingly, the long introduction film was followed by what probably is one of the shortest ever introductions by any presenter. Willy Dobbe only welcomed the viewers in English, French and Dutch, on screen captions introduced each entry, with the song titles listed all in lower case and the names of the artist and composers/authors all in capitals. The set design was devised by Roland de Groot, a design was composed of a number of curved horizontal bars. To avoid an incident like in 1969, a tie rule was created and it stated that, if two or more songs gained the same number of votes and were tied for first place, each song would have to be performed again. After which each national jury would have a show of hands of which they thought was the best, if the countries tied again, then they would share first place. Austria, Finland, Norway, Portugal and Sweden boycotted this contest as they were not pleased with the result of 1969, Portugal did however host a National final, being won by Sérgio Borges. Of the participating singers, a number were already established performers, notably, the United Kingdom sent Welsh singer and Apple recording artist Mary Hopkin, while David Alexandre Winter represented Luxembourg. The contest is notable for the appearance of the then unknown Julio Iglesias. In the run-up to the Contest, the United Kingdom were favourites to win, so sure of victory, the UK delegation had organised a winners party to be thrown after the contest. In the end, the two countries in the running were the UK and Ireland, albeit the latter holding the lead throughout the voting
Eurovision Song Contest 1970
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RAI Congrescentrum, Amsterdam - host venue of the 1970 Eurovision Song Contest
Eurovision Song Contest 1970
Eurovision Song Contest 1970
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Dana sings the winning song
All Kinds of Everything
11.
Voting at the Eurovision Song Contest
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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
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"The Pyrenean Axis" (Andorra and Spain)
12.
Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest
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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
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Ingvar Wixell at
Naples (
1965)
Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest
Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest
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The Ark at
Helsinki (
2007)
Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest
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Charlotte Perrelli at
Belgrade (
2008)
13.
Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest
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Ireland has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 50 times since making its debut at the 1965 Contest in Naples. Since then, they have missed only two contests, in 1983 in Munich and 2002 in Tallinn, Ireland is the most successful country in the contest, with a total of seven wins. Raidió Teilifís Éireann is Irelands representative broadcaster at the contest, the semi-finals are broadcast on RTÉ Two, All of the Irish entries have been performed in English with the exception of the 1972 entry, Ceol an Ghrá, which was sung in Irish. Sean Dunphy finished second at the 1967 contest, behind Sandie Shaw, before Dana gave Ireland its first victory in 1970, the countrys next best result of the 1970s was in 1977, when The Swarbriggs plus two finished third. Johnny Logan gave Ireland a second victory in 1980, with Whats Another Year, Logan then wrote the 1984 entry Terminal 3, which finished second, performed by Linda Martin. In 1987, Logan became the first and only performer to win the contest twice, Irelands most successful decade to date in the contest is the 1990s, which began with Liam Reilly finishing joint second in 1990. Ireland then achieved a three consecutive victories in the contest. In 1992,1984 runner-up Linda Martin returned to win with another Johnny Logan composition and this was followed up by Niamh Kavanaghs victory over Sonia in 1993 with In Your Eyes and Paul Harrington and Charlie McGettigan winning in 1994 with Rock n Roll Kids. The decade saw yet another victory in 1996 when Eimear Quinn won with The Voice, Ireland also finished second in 1997 with Marc Roberts. In the 21st century, Ireland has fared well, only reaching the top 10 on three occasions, with Eamonn Toal sixth in 2000, Brian Kennedy tenth in 2006 and Jedward eighth in 2011. Ireland finished last in the final for the first time in 2007, since the introduction of the semi-final round in 2004, Ireland has failed to reach the final six times, in 2005,2008,2009,2014,2015 and 2016. 2016 marked the first time that Ireland failed to qualify in three consecutive years, Ireland has competed in the Contest almost continuously since the countrys debut in 1965. In 1983 a strike at the national broadcaster RTÉ meant that the station lacked the resources to send a participant so RTÉ broadcast the Contest with the BBC commentary feed. In 2002 Ireland was relegated from the Contest, in keeping with the EBU rules, RTÉ broadcast that years event as they intended to return in 2003, and a TV commentator was sent to the host city, Tallinn. Ireland has sent 50 entries to the Eurovision Song Contest, of these seven have won, Ireland has been relegated once, in 2001 Gary OShaughnessy finished twenty-first with Without Your Love. In addition, six Irish entries have featured in the semi-final of the Contest, in 2005, Donna & Joe finished fourteenth in the pre-qualifier, failing to qualify for the final. In 2006, Brian Kennedy finished ninth in the semi-final, ensuring an Irish presence in the Athens final, Kennedy finished tenth in the final. Ireland also featured in the first semi-final in 2008 and in the second semi-final in 2009, Irelands recent results in the Contest have been poor in comparison to the 1990s, coming last in 2007 and 2013
Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest
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Butch Moore at Naples (
1965)
Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest
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Ireland
Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest
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Dana at Amsterdam (
1970)
Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest
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Red Hurley At The Hague (
1976)
14.
Nous les amoureux
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Nous les amoureux was the winning song of the Eurovision Song Contest 1961, performed in French for Luxembourg by French singer Jean-Claude Pascal. The song was performed fourteenth on the night, by the close of voting, it had received 31 points, placing it first in a field of 16 and thus helping Luxembourg to achieve the rare feat of moving from last to first in successive years. Due to the contest overrunning in time, the reprise of song was not shown in the UK. The UKs coverage ended shortly after the voting had finished and the song was declared. The song was succeeded as Contest winner in 1962 by Isabelle Aubret singing Un premier amour for France and it was succeeded as Luxembourgish representative at the 1962 Contest by Camillo Felgen with Petit bonhomme. Official Eurovision Song Contest site, history by year,1961, detailed info and lyrics, The Diggiloo Thrush, Nous les amoureux
Nous les amoureux
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"Nous les amoureux"
15.
France Gall
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France Gall is a French yé-yé singer. She was married to, and had a singing career in partnership with. Isabelle Geneviève Marie Anne Gall was born in Paris on 9 October 1947 and her father, lyricist Robert Gall, penned songs for Edith Piaf and Charles Aznavour. Her mother, Cécile Berthier, was a singer herself and the daughter of Paul Berthier, co-founder of Les Petits Chanteurs à la Croix de Bois, the sole daughter of her family, she had two brothers, Patrice and Claude. In spring 1963, Robert Gall encouraged his daughter to record songs and that July, she auditioned for Bourgeois at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, after which Bourgeois wanted to sign her immediately. France was subsequently signed to Philips, at the time, Bourgeois was working for the label as Artistic Director for Serge Gainsbourg and assumed this role for Gall as well. He encouraged her to four tracks with French jazz musician. The first airplay of Frances first single Ne sois pas si bête and it was released in November and became a hit, selling 200,000 copies. Serge Gainsbourg, who had released albums and written songs for singers including Michèle Arnaud. Gainsbourgs Nécoute pas les idoles became Galls second single, it reached the top of the French charts in March 1964, at the same time, Gall made her live debut, opening for Sacha Distel in Belgium. Elaborate orchestrations by Alain Goraguer blended styles, permitting her to navigate between jazz, childrens songs, and anything in between, examples of this mixed-genre style included Jazz à gogo and Mes premières vraies vacances. Gall and Gainsbourgs association produced many popular singles, continuing through the summer of 1964 with the hit song Laisse tomber les filles followed by Christiansen by Datin-Vidalin, Gainsbourg also secretly recorded Galls laughter to use on Pauvre Lola, a track on his 1964 album Gainsbourg Percussions. Having previously resisted, Gall gave in to her managers at the end of 1964 and recorded a single intended for children. The song Sacré Charlemagne, written by her father, and set to the music of George Liferman, was a hit in 1965, selling 2,000,000 copies, Gall was then selected to represent Luxembourg in the Eurovision Song Contest 1965. Out of the 10 songs proposed to her, she chose Gainsbourgs Poupée de cire, — the song impressed the jury and it took the Grand Prix. Success at Eurovision ensured that Gall became even more known outside Europe and she recorded Poupée de cire, poupée de son in French, German, Italian, and Japanese. There appears to be no English version released by France Gall herself, in 1965, Gall toured France for several months with Le Grand Cirque de France, a combination of radio show and live circus. Her singles continued to successfully, including the Gainsbourg-penned Attends ou va-ten
France Gall
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Eurovision Song Contest 1965 – Serge Gainsbourg, France Gall & Mario del Monaco
France Gall
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France Gall, 1965
16.
Vicky Leandros
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She is the daughter of singer, musician, and composer, Leandros Papathanasiou. In 1972, she achieved fame after winning the Eurovision Song Contest with the song, Après Toi. On 15 October 2006, Vassiliki von Ruffin was elected councillor of the Greek harbour town of Piraeus on the Pasok list. Her task concerned the Cultural and International development of Piraeus and she was also Deputy Mayor of Piraeus. Leandros was born in Palaiokastritsa, Corfu and her father wanted to expand his career and went to Germany while she grew up at her grandmothers house until the age of eight. In 1958 her parents took her to Germany where she stayed with her permanently after her parents divorce. She revealed her talent at a young age while taking guitar, music, dance, ballet, in 1965, Leandros released her first single Messer, Gabel, Schere, Licht. This was the beginning of a career for her with her father as composer, manager and producer. In 1967, she received an offer to sing for Luxembourg at the Eurovision Song Contest with the song Lamour est bleu and she finished in fourth place but the song became one of the biggest worldwide hits of the year and was covered by other artists. She was shortly singing in eight languages with her albums, singles, in 1970, her first TV show, Ich Bin was broadcast in 13 European countries. It received many awards for its originality and thought-provoking contemporary graphics including in 1971 the world-famous Bronze Rose of Montreux. It was also the first time that Vicky used the stage surname as her father. Guests appearing were Julien Clerc and Deep Purple, throughout the 1970s other film portraits by prominent film makers were to follow which attracted interest around the world. She later went on to host a series in the UK for the BBC. In 1972, she represented Luxembourg at Eurovision for the second time, translated into English as Come What May it was also a hit in the UK reaching #2 on the UK Singles Chart. Globally it sold six million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. Leandros recorded the song in seven languages, later in the year she released her version of the Theodorakis composition O Kaymos which became a hit all over the world in various language versions. It peaked at #40 in the UK Singles Chart, in 1973, When Bouzoukis Played became another massive selling world hit in several languages, reaching #44 in the UK chart
Vicky Leandros
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Vicky Leandros in Berlin, 2010
17.
Anne-Marie David
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Anne-Marie David is a French singer. She has represented two different countries at the Eurovision Song Contest, David was born and raised in Arles. She started her career at age 18 in Paris when she became involved with musical theatre. In 1972, she was cast in the role of Mary Magdalene in the French production of Jesus Christ Superstar,1972 also saw her submit the song Un peu romantique to the French selection committee for the Eurovision Song Contest. It made the final shortlist of ten songs, in 1973, she was selected to represent Luxembourg as the Grand Duchy sought to repeat its previous years triumph on home soil in the Eurovision Song Contest. She thus joined the long list of performers to have represented the country in the contest. Ultimately six points separated the third place from David, securing the second triumph for Luxembourg. After the contest, she started touring the world and she lived in Turkey for a while, recorded two singles in Turkish and one album and received several awards in the country. She returned to Eurovision in the 1979 contest held in Jerusalem, once again it was a tight three-way finish, with the Israeli entry Hallelujah edging to a home victory. She started to tour France in the 1980s, between 1982 and 1983, she continued her musical career in Norway. In 1987, she retired from music but returned in 2003, in 2005, she sang at the festival for the 50th anniversary of the Eurovision Song Contest, staged in Copenhagen, where she performed the 1972 Eurovision winner Après toi. She attended the music show of Turkish Radio Television before the 2009 Eurovision Final was aired live. According to ESCRadio. com, in 2011, Anne Marie released a new revamped version of her 1973 winning song, aptly named “Tu Te Reconnaîtras ”
Anne-Marie David
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Anne-Marie David
18.
Si la vie est cadeau
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Si la vie est cadeau by Jean-Pierre Millers and Alain Garcia, was the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 1983, performed in French by French singer Corinne Hermès for Luxembourg. The song is a dramatic ballad dealing with the wonder of life, the lyrics tell of the singers suffering in love with a man, who promised her the whole world and did not follow through, what about the child I wanted to give to you in the spring. Hermès also recorded the song in English and German, as Words of Love, the song was performed 20th on the night, following Belgiums Pas de Deux with Rendez-vous. At the close of voting, it had received 142 points, the win brought Luxembourg equal with France on five Contest wins apiece, however both countries would later be eclipsed by the Republic of Ireland, which would win seven. The song was succeeded in 1984 as winner of the Contest by Herreys representing Sweden with Diggi-Loo Diggi-Ley and it was succeeded as Luxembourgish representative at the 1984 Contest by Sophie Carle with 100% damour. The Finnish rendering Lahjan Sain was recorded by Lea Laven being the title cut of her 1983 album release, official Eurovision Song Contest site, history by year,1983 Detailed info & lyrics, The Diggiloo Thrush, Si la vie est cadeau Eurovision 1983 performance video on YouTube
Si la vie est cadeau
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"Si la vie est cadeau"
19.
Eurovision Song Contest 1986
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1986 was the 31st Eurovision Song Contest and was held on 3 May 1986 in Grieghallen in Bergen, Norway. It was the first occasion on which Norway played host to the contest, the presenter was Åse Kleveland, a well-known folk guitarist who was President of the Norwegian Association of Musicians. The 1986 contest was a first for Eurovision in that royalty were among the guests—Crown Prince Harald, Crown Princess Sonja, Princess Märtha Louise, Sandra Kim was the winner of this Eurovision with the song Jaime la vie, representing Belgium. Aged 13, Kim was the youngest ever Eurovision winner, current rules require Eurovision Song Contest participants to be at least 16, so unless the rule is changed, Kims record will never be broken. In the lyrics of her song, Kim claimed to be 15 years of age, switzerland, who finished second, appealed for her to be disqualified, but this was to no avail. By 1985, Norway had received the distinction of being the nul points country. By the autumn of 1985, NRK had decided to hold the years contest at the Grieghallen in Bergen, turning down other bids from capital Oslo. In addition, NRK also had a special diamond-encrusted dress made for presenter Åse Kleveland for her opening number, the prized dress, which weighed upwards of 15 pounds, is still available for viewing at NRKs costuming department at Marienlyst in Oslo. Kleveland sang the multilingual Welcome to Music as the act, incorporating English and French primarily. BBC commentator Terry Wogan, at the close of Klevelands number, dryly remarked, Katie Boyle never sang, did she. So, imagine our joy when last year we won, and the pleasure we feel today, being able to welcome 700 million viewers to the top of Europe, to Norway. One of the interval acts presented featured Norwegian musicians Sissel Kyrkjebø and Steinar Ofsdal, accompanied by Norwegian national broadcasting orchestra, Kringkastingsorkesteret. They opened with the song of the city of Bergen, Udsikter fra Ulriken. Ofsdal played a range of traditional Norwegian folk instruments such as accordion, recorder, the presentation launched Kyrkjebø into a career as an internationally recognized artist. Iceland competed for the first time, as the national broadcaster RÚV finally cemented their satellite television connections with the rest of Europe, greece withdrew, having been drawn eighteenth in order of presentation. The reason behind the withdrawal, was that the Eurovision contest coincided with Holy Saturday and their entry would have been Wagon-lit performed by Polina. The Italian broadcaster, RAI, simply decided not to send any delegation to Bergen, host conductor in bold The winning song, Belgiums Jaime la vie, received points from every jury. Belgium was the winner in the voting from the results of the jury out of twenty
Eurovision Song Contest 1986
20.
Lara Fabian
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Lara Crokaert, better known as Lara Fabian, is an Italian-Belgian singer. She has sold over 20 million records worldwide and is one of the best-selling Belgian female artist of all time and she was born in Etterbeek, Brussels to a Belgian father and a Sicilian mother. Since 1996 she has held a Canadian citizenship alongside her original Belgian citizenship. Fabian is the child of Pierre Crokaert, who is Flemish, and Maria Luisa Serio. She spent her first five years in her mothers hometown of Catania in Sicily, after that she moved to Ruisbroek near Brussels, Belgium. She began singing, dancing and taking lessons at a young age. She began writing and performing her own songs during her ten years of music study. Fabians songs were influenced by her vocal training and by contemporary artists such as Barbra Streisand. She was named Lara after the character of the novel Doctor Zhivago. Her professional name is a spelling of the given name of an uncle. During the 1980s, Fabian entered a number of European competitions and she released her first single, LAziza est en pleurs / Il y avait in 1986. Both songs were written by the Belgian composer Marc Lerchs as an homage to Daniel Balavoine, in 1988, the RTL TV channel in Luxembourg invited Fabian to represent the country at the 33rd Eurovision Song Contest, held that year in Dublin, Ireland. The song was a composition by Jacques Cardona and Alain Garcia entitled Croire which reached a fourth place. The single became a hit in Europe, selling nearly 500,000 copies, in 1990, Fabian and musical collaborator Rick Allison moved to Montreal, Canada to embark on a career in North America. They started their own label and publishing company, Productions Clandestines. In August 1991, the self-titled, French-language, debut album, Lara Fabian, was released in Canada, the album went gold in 1993, and platinum the following year. The success of upbeat Dance-pop singles such as Le jour où tu partira, Les murs and she received several nominations at the 1993 ADISQ awards, and a poll published around that time voted her Québecs most promising singer. Constant touring in Québec helped Fabians 1994 album Carpe diem become her breakthrough album, the album went Gold three weeks after its release, and spawned three hit singles, Tu ten vas, Si tu maimes, and Leïla
Lara Fabian
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Lara Fabian, 2012
21.
Eurovision Song Contest 1988
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1988 was the 33rd edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. The contest took place on 30 April 1988 in Dublin, Ireland, the presenters were Pat Kenny and Michelle Rocca. The host broadcaster was Radio Telefís Éireann which revamped the production style compared to its earlier editions. The winner was Switzerland with the song Ne partez pas sans moi, performed by future international superstar Celine Dion, Switzerland beat the United Kingdom by just a point in the last vote to win the title. The Cypriot song had been drawn to be performed 2nd in the running order, the stage itself, conceived by Paula Farrell under chief production designer Michael Grogan, was also the largest and most elaborate ever constructed for the Eurovision Song Contest. The Postcards featured the participants doing things in Ireland from culture, to tradition, lowney was also the director of the shows interval act, introduced after the competing songs and before the votes announcement. Each country had a jury who awarded 12,10,8,7,6,5,4,3,2 and 1 point for its top ten songs and this edition features one of the closest and fickle-ending votes in the history of the contest. With three countries left to vote, the UK was well in the lead with 133 points against Switzerlands 118, with the conclusion of voting from the penultimate jury, the UK was holding a five-point lead over Switzerland. Switzerland was the first to be named with six points, edging it into a one-point lead over the UK, after earlier strong votes from most countries to the UK, it seemed highly likely that the UK would be given one of the higher remaining set of points. Twenty-one countries took part, after a plan of twenty-two. This was classed as a breach of the Cypriot rules of selecting their entry at this time as well as an infringement of the Eurovision Song Contest rules, the contest helped launch an international career for two artists, the winner for Switzerland Celine Dion and Luxembourg’s representative Lara Fabian. Belgian-Canadian Lara Fabian started a career after the contest with becoming established in various countries worldwide. The UK entry was written and composed by Julie Forsyth, the daughter of the entertainer Bruce Forsyth who was present, when interviewed afterwards he was particularly annoyed at the Dutch jury not having given a vote to the UK, as they had done some work there
Eurovision Song Contest 1988
22.
Eurovision Song Contest 1994
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1994 was the 39th Eurovision Song Contest and was held on 30 April 1994 in the Point Theatre in Dublin, Ireland. As of 2017, it was the last time the contest was held in April, the presenters were Cynthia Ní Mhurchú and Gerry Ryan. The pair hosted the evening in French, English and Irish, once again Ireland won the contest for the third time in a row, when Paul Harrington and Charlie McGettigan were the winners with a song written by Brendan Graham, Rock N Roll Kids. This was a sixth victory for Ireland, giving it the outright record number of victories at the Eurovision Song Contest. It was also the first time — and to date the only time — that the contest had been won by the country in three consecutive years. The contest opened with a film of stars floating in water, fireworks and caricatures dancing around, drinking coffee. The cameras then went live to the venue itself, where dressed in white and wearing caricatured heads of well-known Irish figures. The presenters entered the stage spectacularly from a bridge which descended from the roof of the theatre and this year’s video postcards had a literary theme, showing contestants reading, fishing and doing other activities around Ireland. The floor was painted with a dark blue paint to give a watery effect. Because Italy and Luxembourg withdrew voluntarily, the bottom 5 of the 1993 Contest were relegated and this meant that Belgium, Denmark, Israel, Slovenia and Turkey did not participate this year opening spaces for the new countries. This contest also saw Luxembourg withdraw from Eurovision indefinitely, Poland took part for the first time and caused a scandal when Edyta Górniak broke the rules by singing her song in English during the dress rehearsal. Only six countries demanded that Poland should be disqualified, though the rules required 13 countries to complain before Poland could be removed from the competition. The proposed removal did not occur and Poland went on to come 2nd in the contest, for the first time in Eurovision history, voting was done via satellite instead of by telephone, and as a result, viewers could see the spokespersons onscreen. When the voting started, Hungary took the lead from the first six juries and was ahead of all the other countries. However, Ireland powered their way through the board ending up the winners with a 60-point lead over second-placed Poland. The interval act was the first ever performance of the Irish dancing spectacular Riverdance, featuring Michael Flatley, ^ Contains some words in English. Each country had a jury who awarded 12,10,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 point for their top ten songs. With advances in technology, this was the first contest in which the spokesperson for each national jury appeared on-screen, live from their own countries
Eurovision Song Contest 1994
23.
San Marino in the Eurovision Song Contest
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San Marino has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 7 times, debuting in the 2008 contest, followed by participation in 2011,2012 and 2013. Having failed to qualify in their first four attempts, San Marino qualified for the Eurovision final for the first time in 2014, five months later, the broadcaster confirmed their participation in the Eurovision Song Contest 2008 in Belgrade. The first Sammarinese entry in the Eurovision Song Contest was Miodio, San Marino holds the honour of being the 50th country to participate at Eurovision, participating 5th in the first semi-final of the contest. However, Miodio failed to qualify for the final, receiving just 5 points in total, despite this, the winner of the 2008 contest, Dima Bilan, concluded his Winners Tour in San Marino. SMRTV had originally planned to compete at the 2009 contest in Moscow, the Sammarinese Minister of Culture announced shortly after the 2008 contest that they have good hopes to return. SMRTV announced that it would be reviewing the 2008 contest, in the end, SMRTV announced its withdrawal from the 2009 contest, having already applied to enter. The broadcaster insisted that this was not due to the results of the previous year. San Marino did not return for the Eurovision Song Contest 2010, the broadcaster announced that it hoped to return to the competition in the future and discussed possible participation in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest. SMRTV made an application to participate in the 2011 contest, which was later confirmed and it was the second participation in the ESC for San Marino. The singer Senit was announced as the Sammarinese entry at the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 and she sang Stand By, performed in English. As in 2008, SMRTV broadcast the full event, for the second time, San Marino failed to qualify for the final, coming sixteenth out of nineteen countries, with 34 points. On 17 January, it was confirmed by the EBU that San Marino will be participating in the 2012 edition, SMRTV confirmed on 14 March, that Valentina Monetta would represent San Marino in the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 in May. She was internally selected by SMRTV, facebook Uh, Oh, Oh was presented as the Sanmarinese entry. However, it was announced that the songs lyric breached rule 1.2.2. g of the competition, the lyric and the title of the song were changed shortly afterwards to The Social Network Song. Monetta performed the song during the first semi-final, but failed to advance to the final, San Marino confirmed in November 2012 that they would participate in the 2013 contest. Artist Lys Assia had been rumoured to represent the country with her song All in your head which failed to make the final of Switzerland. Instead, at a conference in January 2013, Valentina Monetta was revealed as the choice to represent San Marino at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2013. She performed the song Crisalide in the second semi-final on 16 May in Malmö, for the fourth time, San Marino failed to qualify for the final, despite being, unlike previous year, a fans favourite
San Marino in the Eurovision Song Contest
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Miodio performing "
Complice " at Belgrade
San Marino in the Eurovision Song Contest
San Marino in the Eurovision Song Contest
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Valentina Monetta performing Maybe in 2014 at
Copenhagen
24.
SMtv San Marino
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San Marino RTV is the public service broadcaster of the microstate of San Marino. San Marino RTV currently operates four channels, San Marino RTV, San Marino RTV2, San Marino RTV Sport. It currently operates two stations, Radio San Marino and Radio San Marino Classic. Experimental radio broadcasts began on 27 December 1992, on 28 February 1993, Radio San Marino was launched broadcasting 24 hours a day. Experimental television began on 24 April 1993, on 28 February 1994 a regular television service was launched, broadcasting from 10am to 2am. In July 1995, San Marino RTV became a member of the European Broadcasting Union, making able to broadcast. It withdrew for 2 years due to problems, but both it and RAI returned in 2011, meaning San Marino and –for the first time in 14 years– Italy took part in the 2011 contest. The small republic reached its first final in 2014, in 2011, San Marino tried to participate in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest, but they withdrew in October that year. On 25 October 2013, it was announced that San Marino would make their debut at the 2013 contest in Kiev, San Marino will once again be present at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest in 2014, having signed the appropriate documentation. RAI List of Italian-language television channels Official site
SMtv San Marino
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Radiotelevisione della Repubblica di San Marino
25.
Eurovision Song Contest 2004
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The Eurovision Song Contest 2004 was the 49th Eurovision Song Contest and it was held in the Abdi İpekçi Arena in Istanbul, Turkey. This was the first occasion in which the contest was held in Turkey after they had won the competition in 2003 with Sertab Erener singing Everyway That I Can, the hosting national broadcaster of the contest was Turkish Radio and Television Corporation. Ukrainian singer Ruslana won the contest with Wild Dances and it is notable that this was only Ukraines second participation in the contest. This was also the year in a row in which the contest was won by a woman. To accommodate the number of countries who wished to participate. The countries which didnt qualify for the final are normally calculate like participating countries, the contest was held in Istanbul following Turkeys victory in the 2003 contest in Riga, Latvia with Sertab Ereners Everyway That I Can. Originally the Mydonose Showland was chosen by TRT to host the event, korhan Abay and Meltem Cumbul were presenters of the show. In the semi-final and the final, Meltem Cumbul warmed up the audience with a sing-a-long of Eurovision classic Nel blu dipinto di blu, originally by Domenico Modugno. Sertab Erener returned to the stage in the final to perform Everyway That I Can, the 2003 winning song, Sertab also interviewed contestants in the green room. The Turkish dance ensemble Fire of Anatolia performed as the interval act, an official CD was released and, for the first time, the entire contest was released on DVD which included the Semi-Final and the Grand Final. The contests new official logo was used for the first time this year. The slogan for Istanbuls contest was Under The Same Sky, which communicated the importance of a united Europe and this year was also notable as it was the first year that Turkey voted for Cyprus and the second year in a row that Cyprus voted for Turkey. Nevertheless, in a move that angered some Cypriots, when the country presented its votes no map of the island was shown and this was due to Turkeys recognition of the northern half of the island as an independent republic. It is likely Turkey pulled out of showing the map because it would have highlighted the southern portion of the island. This was also the first year that the scores were only re-read by the hosts in one language. Before 2004 every point was repeated in French and English, but due to 36 countries voting and this was in the opposite of the original country representative spoke in. Also, this year was the first time in which a non-winning entry scored over 200 points, prior to this contest, only Rock n Roll Kids and Love Shine a Light, the winners in 1994 and 1997 had passed this mark. In this contest, all songs in the top 3 got over 200 points and this years Eurovision contest was the first to be a two-day event, with one qualifying round held on a Wednesday and the grand final held on the following Saturday
Eurovision Song Contest 2004
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Abdi İpekçi Arena in Istanbul, the 2004 venue.
Eurovision Song Contest 2004
Eurovision Song Contest 2004
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Eurovision Song Contest: Istanbul 2004
26.
Eurovision Song Contest 2005
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The Eurovision Song Contest 2005 was the 50th annual Eurovision Song Contest. The contest took place at the Palace of Sports in Kiev, Ukraine, the contest consisted of two shows, the semi-final and final, which took place on 19 and 21 May 2005, respectively. The shows were hosted by Maria Efrosinina and Pavlo Shylko, thirty-nine countries participated, including the débuts of Bulgaria and Moldova and the return of Hungary, which was last represented in 1998. The winner for 2005 was Greece with the song My Number One performed by Helena Paparizou, written by Christos Dantis and Natalia Germanou and it scored 230 points, beating Malta into second place by a margin of 38 points. This was the first victory for Greece at the Eurovision Song Contest, romania, Israel and Latvia rounded out the top five. The Big Four countries ended up as the Last Four, all placing in the four position of the scoreboard in the final. The official logo of the contest remained the same from the 2004 contest with the flag in the heart being changed. Following Istanbuls Under The Same Sky, the slogan for the 2005 show was Awakening, the postcards for the 2005 show illustrated Ukraine’s culture and heritage along with a more modern and industrial side to the country. The hosts of the Eurovision Song Contest in Kiev were television presenter Maria Masha Efrosinina, previous winner Ruslana returned to the stage in Kiev to perform in the interval act and to interview the contestants backstage in the green room. The famous Ukrainian boxers Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko opened the televoting, while a special trophy was presented to the winner by Ukraines president, Viktor Yushchenko. An official CD and DVD was released and a new introduction was an official pin set, the EBU also commissioned a book The Eurovision Song Contest – The Official History by British/American author John Kennedy OConnor to celebrate the contests fiftieth anniversary. The book was presented on screen during the break between songs 12 and 13, the book was published in English, German, French, Dutch, Swedish, Danish and Finnish. During the semi final, there were a few volume falls in the sound, most notably during the Norwegian song and these were not fixed for the DVD release. 2005 was no exception for scandals regarding the representatives from the countries participating, germanys entrant in the Eurovision Song Contest rejected calls to quit after her producer admitted manipulating the countrys pop charts with mass purchases of her single. Gracia Baur defended her producer David Brandes, also behind Swiss entry Vanilla Ninja, bulgarias debut was overshadowed by a scandal. The song Lorraine by Kaffe was accused of plagiarism, the song sounded too similar to another one released by Ruslan Mainov in 2001. There were also problems in Malta with the electricity supply during the contest, there was a controversy regarding the Turkish entry, TRT got a false jury which led to the victory of the song Gülseren, which the 2003 winner Sertab Erener said was not the best choice. There were similar controversies in Macedonia which led to a victory for Martin Vučić
Eurovision Song Contest 2005
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Eurovision Song Contest: Kyiv 2005
Eurovision Song Contest 2005
Eurovision Song Contest 2005
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The first of two official albums of the Eurovision Song Contest 2005, showing the participation of
Lebanon. (bottom row, third from right)
27.
Luxembourg
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Luxembourg /ˈlʌksəmbɜːrɡ/, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east and its culture, people and languages are highly intertwined with its neighbours, making it essentially a mixture of French and Germanic cultures. It comprises two regions, the Oesling in the north as part of the Ardennes massif. With an area of 2,586 square kilometres, it is one of the smallest sovereign states in Europe, Luxembourg had a population of 524,853 in October 2012, ranking it the 8th least-populous country in Europe. As a representative democracy with a monarch, it is headed by a Grand Duke, Henri, Grand Duke of Luxembourg. Luxembourg is a country, with an advanced economy and the worlds highest GDP per capita. Luxembourg is a member of the European Union, OECD, United Nations, NATO, and Benelux, reflecting its political consensus in favour of economic, political. The city of Luxembourg, which is the capital and largest city, is the seat of several institutions. Luxembourg served on the United Nations Security Council for the years 2013 and 2014, around this fort, a town gradually developed, which became the centre of a state of great strategic value. In the 14th and early 15th centuries, three members of the House of Luxembourg reigned as Holy Roman Emperors, in the following centuries, Luxembourgs fortress was steadily enlarged and strengthened by its successive occupants, the Bourbons, Habsburgs, Hohenzollerns and the French. After the defeat of Napoleon in 1815, Luxembourg was disputed between Prussia and the Netherlands and this arrangement was revised by the 1839 First Treaty of London, from which date Luxembourgs full independence is reckoned. In 1842 Luxembourg joined the German Customs Union, the King of the Netherlands remained Head of State as Grand Duke of Luxembourg, maintaining a personal union between the two countries until 1890. At the death of William III, the throne of the Netherlands passed to his daughter Wilhelmina and this allowed Germany the military advantage of controlling and expanding the railways there. In August 1914, Imperial Germany violated Luxembourgs neutrality in the war by invading it in the war against France and this allowed Germany to use the railway lines, while at the same time denying them to France. Nevertheless, despite the German occupation, Luxembourg was allowed to maintain much of its independence, in 1940, after the outbreak of World War II, Luxembourgs neutrality was again violated when the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany entered the country, entirely without justification. A government in exile based in London supported the Allies, sending a group of volunteers who participated in the Normandy invasion. Luxembourg was liberated in September 1944, and became a member of the United Nations in 1945. Luxembourgs neutral status under the constitution formally ended in 1948, in 2005, a referendum on the EU treaty establishing a constitution for Europe was held
Luxembourg
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Historic map (undated) of Luxembourg city's fortifications
Luxembourg
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Flag
Luxembourg
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Photograph of the fortress of Luxembourg prior to demolition in 1867
Luxembourg
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Luxembourg City: The Passerelle, also known as the viaduct or old bridge, over the
Pétrusse river valley, opened 1861
28.
OGAE
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OGAE is an international organisation that was founded in 1984 in Savonlinna, Finland by Jari-Pekka Koikkalainen. The organisation consists of a network of 42 Eurovision Song Contest fan clubs across Europe and beyond, and is a non-governmental, non-political, four non-profit competitions are organised independently every year to promote national popular music to Eurovision fans from around the world. The current President of the OGAE International Network is Simon Bennett from OGAE United Kingdom, although the Eurovision Song Contest began in 1956, the OGAE International Network was founded by Jari-Pekka Koikkalainen in 1984 in Savonlinna, Finland. The network is open to countries that take part in the Eurovision Song Contest or have participated in the past, every year the organisation arranges four competitions – Song Contest, Second Chance Contest, Video Contest and Home Composed Song Contest. In 2007, Antonis Karatzikos was elected as new International Coordinator for OGAE, in July 2009 he was re-elected for the same post. In 2011, OGAE International Network became an organisation in France. She was re-elected for a term on 17 May 2013 at the Euro Fan Café in Malmö. OGAE currently has members, including two in Germany. These are, Countries that do not have an OGAE Network in their own right, the countries which constitute this OGAE Network are, Notes 1. ^ Australia and Hungary are currently Candidate Members. The Marcel Bezençon Fan Award was handed out in 2002 and 2003, and voted on by the members of OGAE and it was discontinued and replaced by the Composer Award in 2004. Four nations competed in the first contest which took place in 1987, the contest was previously a non-televised event, but evolved over the years by the usage of video tape and nowadays DVD and YouTube. Each summer following the Eurovision Song Contest, each branch can enter one song that failed to win the national selection process for the annual Eurovision Song Contest. The members of each club choose amongst the songs that did not win, votes are cast by members of the OGAE clubs and are returned to the OGAE branch organising the particular years event. Guest juries have been used to cast votes since 1993, the OGAE Video Contest is a video event which, much like the OGAE Song Contest, is organised between branches of OGAE, the international fan club of the Eurovision Song Contest. All OGAE national clubs can enter with a song and video released in the previous 12 months in their countries. There is no obligation on the entry for the OGAE Video Contest to be sung in one of the official languages. So far 39 countries have represented at the contest at least once. These are listed alongside the year in which they made their debut
OGAE
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Organisation Générale des Amateurs de l'Eurovision
29.
Eurovision Song Contest 2008
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The Eurovision Song Contest 2008 was the 53rd edition of the Contest. It was hosted in Belgrade, Serbia after Marija Šerifović won the 2007 Contest in Helsinki and this year was the first time there were three contests, two semi-finals which were held on 20 and 22 May, and the traditional grand final which was held on 24 May 2008. The shows were hosted by Jovana Janković and Željko Joksimović at the Belgrade Arena which had a capacity of 25,000 seats. After a total of 272 points, Dima Bilan representing Russia was declared the winner, with the song Believe written by American Jim Beanz, so far this has been the only time Russia has won the contest. Russia came third in the semi-final, making it the winner with the worst semi-final result, ukraine were runners up for the second year running, with 3rd place going to Greece, 4th to Armenia seeing their best result so far and 5th to Norway. 2008 also saw, for the first time ever, Eurovision. tv streaming national finals live on ESCTV with broadcasters permission. On 30 January 2008, Eurovision. tv revealed the theme of the Contest, The Confluence of Sound, Serbia gained the right to host the Contest after Marija Šerifović won the 2007 Contest in Helsinki, Finland. Since Serbia was the winner of the preceding contest, the 2008 contest was held there. The Belgrade Arena was chosen as the venue for the contest, on 14 September 2007, the Mayor of Helsinki handed over the Eurovision keys to the Deputy of Belgrade. This ceremony is meant to be a tradition from the 2008 contest and onward, ukraine was considered an option since they came second in Eurovision Song Contest 2007. YLE were another option, as hosted the previous years competition in Helsinki. Greeces Ellinikí Radiofonía Tileórasi also offered the EBU to host the contest in Athens and it was later decided that the contest would stay in Belgrade, with the EBU giving support. RTS would gain a guarantee of safety and security from the government of Serbia for all visitors, the delegations of Albania, Croatia and Israel had special security. RTS ran a competition led to the creation of the 2008 Contests branding, logo. The theme of the Contest was based around the confluence of sound and this was symbolic as Belgrade lies on the confluence of two European rivers, the Sava and Danube. The logo chosen, a treble clef, formed the basis of the design created by Boris Miljković. The postcards in the first and second semi-final were based around the creation of the flag of the nation that was to perform next, each post card had a short story related to each country and its people. During each postcard a short letter was displayed, the postcards were brought to an end by a stamp with this years Eurovision logo
Eurovision Song Contest 2008
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The
Belgrade Arena, the 2008 venue.
Eurovision Song Contest 2008
Eurovision Song Contest 2008
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Presenters
Željko Joksimović and
Jovana Janković during the first semi-final
Eurovision Song Contest 2008
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Eurovision Song Contest: Belgrade 2008
For the most recent participation see
Luxembourg in the Eurovision Song Contest
