1.
Malta
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Malta, officially known as the Republic of Malta, is a Southern European island country consisting of an archipelago in the Mediterranean Sea. It lies 80 km south of Italy,284 km east of Tunisia, the country covers just over 316 km2, with a population of just under 450,000, making it one of the worlds smallest and most densely populated countries. The capital of Malta is Valletta, which at 0.8 km2, is the smallest national capital in the European Union, Malta has one national language, which is Maltese, and English as an official language. John, French and British, have ruled the islands, King George VI of the United Kingdom awarded the George Cross to Malta in 1942 for the countrys bravery in the Second World War. The George Cross continues to appear on Maltas national flag, the country became a republic in 1974, and although no longer a Commonwealth realm, remains a member state of the Commonwealth of Nations. Malta was admitted to the United Nations in 1964 and to the European Union in 2004, in 2008, Catholicism is the official religion in Malta. The origin of the term Malta is uncertain, and the modern-day variation derives from the Maltese language, the most common etymology is that the word Malta derives from the Greek word μέλι, meli, honey. The ancient Greeks called the island Μελίτη meaning honey-sweet, possibly due to Maltas unique production of honey, an endemic species of bee lives on the island. The Romans went on to call the island Melita, which can be considered either as a latinisation of the Greek Μελίτη or the adaptation of the Doric Greek pronunciation of the same word Μελίτα. Another conjecture suggests that the word Malta comes from the Phoenician word Maleth a haven or port in reference to Maltas many bays, few other etymological mentions appear in classical literature, with the term Malta appearing in its present form in the Antonine Itinerary. The extinction of the hippos and dwarf elephants has been linked to the earliest arrival of humans on Malta. Prehistoric farming settlements dating to the Early Neolithic period were discovered in areas and also in caves. The Sicani were the tribe known to have inhabited the island at this time and are generally regarded as being closely related to the Iberians. Pottery from the Għar Dalam phase is similar to found in Agrigento. A culture of megalithis temple builders then either supplanted or arose from this early period, the temples have distinctive architecture, typically a complex trefoil design, and were used from 4000 to 2500 BCE. Animal bones and a knife found behind an altar stone suggest that temple rituals included animal sacrifice. Tentative information suggests that the sacrifices were made to the goddess of fertility, the culture apparently disappeared from the Maltese Islands around 2500 BC. Archaeologists speculate that the builders fell victim to famine or disease
Malta
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Ġgantija megalithic temple complex
Malta
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Flag
Malta
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The temple complex of
Mnajdra
Malta
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Roman mosaic from
Rabat, Malta.
2.
Malta Song for Europe
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Malta Song for Europe was the song festival which used to decide who will represent Malta in the Eurovision Song Contest. It is now being organised by Maltese broadcaster Public Broadcasting Services, Maltas participation in the Eurovision Song Contest dates back to 1971. In those years the contest was known as the Malta Song Festival, in the past the rules for submissions by composers, authors and singers were published in October. The first elimination of the songs was held in December, the semifinal was then held in February. Two days after, a final was held to choose Maltas representative at the Eurovision. In 2009 a new format of the contest was introduced, the Malta Eurosong contest, with eight semi-finals held over November 2008 to January 2009, with a final of 20 songs competing in February. In 2010 six semi-finals will be held over December 2009 and January 2010, since 2011 it became known as the Malta Eurovision Song Contest. Malta Song for Europe 2006 Malta Song for Europe 2007 Malta Song for Europe 2008 Malta in the Eurovision Song Contest
Malta Song for Europe
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PBS, the contest's organiser.
3.
Eurovision Song Contest 1971
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1971 was the sixteenth edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It was held in Dublin, Ireland on 3 April 1971, monacos win was their first and only victory. The song was performed by a French singer, living in France, sung in French, conducted by a French native, the contest was held at the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin, the capital and most populous city of Ireland. This was the first time that the contest was held in Ireland, for the first time, each participating broadcaster was required to televise all the songs in previews prior to the live final. Reports suggested that Castel had not even had time to buy a suitable dress for the show. The BBC were worried about the audience reaction to the UK song due to the hostilities raging in Northern Ireland. They specifically selected a singer from Northern Ireland, Clodagh Rodgers, however, Rodgers still received death threats from the IRA for representing the UK. Groups of up to six people were allowed to perform for the first time and this was only RTÉs second outside broadcast in colour. The contest was broadcast in Iceland, the USA and Hong Kong several days later, while this meant that no country could score fewer than 34 points, it had one major problem, some jury members tended to award only one or two points. Whether this was done to increase their respective countries chances of winning is not known for sure, however, the system remained in place for the 1972 and 1973 contests. Malta made their début in this years contest, while Austria, Finland, Norway, Portugal and this brought the total number of countries to eighteen. Each performance had a conductor who directed the orchestra, two artists returned to the competition this year, Katja Ebstein represented Germany for the second consecutive year, while Jacques Raymond had previously represented Belgium in 1963. Below is a summary of all perfect 10 scores that were given during the voting, the table below shows the order in which votes were cast during the 1971 contest, along with the spokespeople who were 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 Eurovision Song Contest, The Official History, John Kennedy OConnor, Carlton Books Ltd, ISBN 1-84442-994-6 Official website
Eurovision Song Contest 1971
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Gaiety Theatre, Dublin - host venue of the 1971 Eurovision Song Contest
Eurovision Song Contest 1971
Eurovision Song Contest 1971
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Saskia & Serge finishing 6th with their entry "
Tijd "
4.
Eurovision Song Contest 2002
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The Eurovision Song Contest 2002 was the 47th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. The contest took place in Tallinn, Estonia, following Tanel Padar, Dave Benton & 2XLs win at the 2001 contest in Copenhagen, for the first time, a slogan was implemented. This years theme was called A Modern Fairytale, which was evident in the postcards aired between the songs, which showed classic fairytales ending in modern Estonian situations, the final took place on the 25 May 2002 at the Saku Suurhall. Opening the show were the champions, Tanel Padar and Dave Benton. The contest was won by Latvia, represented by Marie N with the song I Wanna, the United Kingdom and host country Estonia shared 3rd place with 111 points each, while France finished in 5th place with 104 points. Despite being one of the favourites to win the contest, Denmark finished last with just 7 points and had to sit out of the years contest. Tallinn is the capital and largest city of Estonia and it is situated on the northern coast of the country, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland,80 km south of Helsinki in Finland, east of Stockholm in Sweden, and west of Saint Petersburg in Russia. Founded in 1248 but the earliest human settlements back to 3000 years BC. Due to its important strategic location the city became a major trade hub. Tallinns Old Town is one of the best preserved and intact medieval cities in Europe and is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Saku Suurhall was chosen as the venue for the contest. It is the largest arena in Estonia, built in 2001 and it is named after the Estonian brewery and soft drink company Saku. These countries replaced the bottom 6 countries from the 2001 contest, portugal declined to enter the Contest due to internal problems in the Portuguese broadcaster RTP. Controversy erupted during the competition over remarks by commentators on Swedish and Belgian TV, the song received zero points from the Swedish audience but earned two from the Belgians, finishing 12th overall. In the televoting household shall not be permitted to vote more than three times and this year saw allegations that the juries in use were guilty of swapping votes between each other. Below is a summary of all 12 points in the final, For the first time, founded by Christer Björkman and Richard Herrey, the awards are named after the creator of the annual competition, Marcel Bezençon. The awards are divided into 3 categories, Press Award, Artistic Award, as had been the case every year since the mid-1980s, the contest was broadcast in Australia on SBS-TV with the BBC commentary. Within a few years, the contest would grow to be so popular in Australia, Serbia and Montenegro After the breakup of Yugoslavia, Federal Republic of Yugoslavia last participated in 1992. Radio Television of Serbia broadcast the show, originally, first time as Serbia and Montenegro had planned debuts, but the EBUs late changes to the relegation procedure meant that they could not compete
Eurovision Song Contest 2002
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Laura Voutilainen, Winner of Fan Award
Eurovision Song Contest 2002
Eurovision Song Contest 2002
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Eurovision Song Contest: Tallinn 2002
Eurovision Song Contest 2002
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An alternative cover showing the title as Eurovision Song Contest: Estonia 2002.
5.
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)
6.
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
7.
Eurovision Song Contest 2006
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The Eurovision Song Contest 2006 was the 51st Eurovision Song Contest, held at the Olympic Indoor Hall in Athens, Greece on 18 May and 20 May 2006. The hosting national broadcaster of the contest was Ellinikí Radiofonía Tileórasi, the Finnish band Lordi won the contest with the song Hard Rock Hallelujah, written by lead singer Mr. Lordi. Hard Rock Hallelujah was the first ever hard rock song to win the contest, since Eurovision is normally associated with pop music. This was Finlands first victory in Eurovision after waiting forty-five years and it is also noted that they scored the same amount of points in the semi-final and the grand final. In the semi-final, both the hosts sang Katrina and the Waves contest-winning Love Shine A Light, for one of the intervals, Sakis Rouvas sang an English version of his Greek hit Seho Erotefthi called Im in love with you. Helena Paparizou, who performed the song in Kiev, returned to the Eurovision stage in Athens. An official CD and DVD was released and a new introduction was a fan book released from this year. The 2006 contest also saw the 1, 000th song to be performed in the contest, Armenia also entered for the first time in the contest. The venue that was chosen as the host venue, was the Olympic Indoor Hall in Athens, the official logo of the contest remained the same from 2004 and 2005 with the countrys flag in the heart being changed. The 2006 sub-logo created by the design company Karamela for Greek television was based on the Phaistos Disc which is a popular symbol of ancient Greece. According to ERT, it was inspired by the wind and the sea, the golden sunlight, following Istanbuls Under The Same Sky and Kievs Awakening, the slogan for the 2006 show was Feel The Rhythm. This theme was also the basis for the postcards for the 2006 show, to save time in the final, the voting time lasted ten minutes and the voting process was changed, points 1-7 were shown immediately on-screen. The spokespersons only announced the countries scoring 8,10 and 12 points, constantinos Christoforou saluted from Nicosia, the last divided capital in Europe, during Cyprus reading, the telecast displayed Switzerland by mistake. This voting process has been criticized because suspense was lost by only reading three votes instead of ten, and for the first time, the display for the Macedonian entry had the title spelled out in its entirety instead of being abbreviated as it has been in previous years. Participating countries in a Eurovision Song Contest must be members of the EBU. The semi-final was held on 18 May 2006 at 21,00,23 countries performed and all 37 participants and Serbia & Montenegro voted. Shaded countries qualified for the Eurovision Final Notes 1. ^ The song also contained phrases in Spanish,2. ^ The song also contained phrases in French. The finalists were, the four automatic qualifiers France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom, the top 10 countries from the 2005 final, the final was held on 20 May 2006 at 21,00 and was won by Finland
Eurovision Song Contest 2006
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Athens Olympic Indoor Hall
Eurovision Song Contest 2006
Eurovision Song Contest 2006
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Eurovision Song Contest: Athens 2006
8.
Eurovision Song Contest
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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
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Opening act in Düsseldorf in 2011
Eurovision Song Contest
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Entered at least once
Eurovision Song Contest
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Eurovision Song Contest in Copenhagen 2014
Eurovision Song Contest
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Lena, representing Germany, performing
Satellite during a rehearsal in 2010
9.
Maltese language
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Maltese is descended from Siculo-Arabic, the variety of Arabic that developed in Sicily and was later introduced to Malta, between the end of the ninth century and the end of the twelfth century. Maltese is a branch of Arabic because it has evolved independently of Literary Arabic into a standardized language over the past 800 years in a gradual process of Latinisation. About half of the vocabulary is derived from standard Italian and Sicilian, the original Semitic base comprises around one-third of the Maltese vocabulary, and typically includes words that denote basic ideas and the function words. Maltese has always written in the Latin script, the earliest surviving example dating from the late Middle Ages. The Norman conquest in 1090, followed by the expulsion of the Muslims permanently isolated the vernacular from its Arabic source, in contrast to Sicily, the vernacular in Malta continued to develop alongside Italian, eventually replacing it as official language in 1934. The first written reference to the Maltese language is in a will of 1436, the oldest known document in Maltese is Il Cantilena by Pietru Caxaro. It dates from the 15th century, the earliest known Maltese dictionary was a sixteenth-century manuscript entitled Maltese-Italiano, it was included in the Biblioteca Maltese of Mifsud in 1764, but is now lost. The first systematic lexicon is that of Giovanni Pietro Francesco Agius de Soldanis, Maltese became an official language of Malta in 1934, alongside English, when Italian was dropped from official use. In 1975, there were an estimated 371,000 Maltese speakers, today, the core vocabulary is Semitic, with large numbers of loanwords. Because of the Sicilian influence on Siculo Arabic, Maltese has many language contact features and is most commonly described as a language with a number of loanwords. Voiceless stops are only lightly aspirated and voiced stops are fully voiced, voicing is carried over from the last segment in obstruent clusters, thus, two- and three-obstruent clusters are either voiceless or voiced throughout, e. g. /niktbu/ is realised we write. Maltese has final-obstruent devoicing of voiced obstruents and voiceless stops have no audible release, gemination is distinctive word-medially and word-finally in Maltese. The distinction is most rigid intervocalically after a stressed vowel, some speakers have lost length distinction in clusters. The two nasals /m/ and /n/ assimilate for place of articulation in clusters, /t/ and /d/ are usually dental, whereas /t͡s d͡z s z n r l/ are all alveolar. /t͡s d͡z/ are found mostly in words of Italian origin, retaining length, /d͡z/ and /ʒ/ are only found in loanwords, e. g. /ɡad͡zd͡zɛtta/ newspaper and /tɛlɛˈviʒin/ television. The pharyngeal fricative /ħ/ is velar or glottal for some speakers, stress is generally on the penultimate syllable, unless some other syllable is heavy, or unless a stress-shifting suffix is added. When two syllables are heavy, the penultimate takes the stress, but otherwise the heavier syllable does. Many Classical Arabic consonants underwent mergers and modifications in Maltese, The modern system of Maltese orthography was introduced in 1924, the first edition of this book was printed in 1924 by the Maltese governments printing press
Maltese language
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Maltese
10.
Eurovision Song Contest 1975
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1975 was the 20th edition of the contest hosted by SR and held in Stockholm, Sweden. The arena for the event was the newly built Stockholmsmässan in Älvsjö in southern Stockholm, aBBAs victory in Brighton the previous year gave Sweden the right to host the contest for the first time. The Contest was won by Teach-In, who sang Ding-a-dong in English, the venue for the contest was Stockholmsmässan. The main building is in Älvsjö – a southern suburb of Stockholm Municipality for which the building got its nickname and it was constructed in 1971 and holds 4,000 people. This year a new scoring system was implemented, each country would be represented by a jury of 11 members, at least half of whom had to be under the age of 26. Each jury member had to every song a mark of between 1 and 5 points, but could not vote for their own nations entry. The votes were cast immediately after the song was performed and collected by the straight away. The jury spokesperson then announced the ten scores in the order the songs were presented when called upon by the hostess, the hostess Karin Falck several times confused the new system with questions like How much is seven in France. Unlike today, the points were not given in order, the current procedure of announcing the scores in ascending order, beginning with 1 point, was not established until 1980. This scoring system remained in use until 1996, although the number of jurors varied, in from 1997, some juries were replaced by televotes and from 1998, all countries were encouraged to televote when possible. In the 2009 final and the 2010 semi-finals, the juries were reintroduced to provide 50% of the scores, despite these changes in how the points were decided, the douze points scoring system remained in place from 1975-2015. In 2016 it was altered to each country providing two separate sets of points, however, modelled after the former model, greece withdrew from this contest in response to the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus, in protest of Turkeys participation. Despite this, a record of nineteen countries took part, turkey made their début, while France and Malta returned to the contest. The Portuguese entry Madrugada was a celebration of the Carnation Revolution. Some competitors opted to perform their songs in English for the rehearsals heard by the judges, others, such as Belgium and Germany, opted for a mix of their own language and English. Each performance had a conductor who maestro the orchestra, norways Ellen Nikolaysen was the only participant to return to the contest this year. Ellens previous participations where with the band Bendik Singers in 1973, each national broadcaster also sent a commentator to the contest, in order to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language. Details of the commentators and the station for which they represented are also included in the table below
Eurovision Song Contest 1975
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Stockholm International Fairs in Älvsjö, Stockholm. Host venue of the 1975 Eurovision Song Contest.
Eurovision Song Contest 1975
Eurovision Song Contest 1975
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Teach-In leaving from Amsterdam Airport for the European Song Contest 1975
11.
Eurovision Song Contest 1991
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1991 was the 36th Eurovision Song Contest and was held on 4 May 1991 in Rome. Due to the Gulf War and mounting tensions in Yugoslavia, RAI decided to move the contest from Sanremo to Rome and this was the last event in which the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia participated. The 1992 contest saw the participation of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and it was also the first time that Germany was represented in their reunited form since the East Germany joined West Germany by the German reunification. Carola was the winner of this Contest with the song Fångad av en stormvind and this was the third victory for Sweden, the last one being in 1984. There was a tie between Carola and Frances Amina, as both had received 146 points and this necessitated a count-back, a tie-breaking measure introduced after the infamous four-way tie in 1969s Contest. Both Sweden and France had received four lots of 12 points and this was the closest France has ever come to winning the ESC since 1977. Had todays tie-break rule been in place, France would have won in 1969 and 1991, the presenters were Gigliola Cinquetti and Toto Cutugno, Italian winners of the ESC to date, which opened the contest singing Insieme,1992 and Non ho letà. Cutugno had some difficulty with the pronunciation of the titles and names of the artists. Despite this, in Italy almost seven million people watched the show, in addition to tallying the vote numbers in English and French, Cinquetti and Cutugno gave each of the jury allotments in Italian as well. Nearly all of the commentary during the voting was given in Italian, at the time, Carlson had appeared numerous times on Italian TV and this was seen as one of her largest audiences. Each country had a jury who awarded 12,10,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 point for their top ten songs. During the final vote none of the top three contenders - Sweden, Israel and France - had received any points up until the last 12-point vote. This vote went to France and for the first time in years, there was a tie for first place. However, since the four-way tie of 1969, the rules had been altered to ensure a single outright winner, the first step in the procedure was to check the number of 12-point votes awarded to each country. Sweden and France were still tied, but when counting the number of 10-point votes, Sweden had more and was finally declared the winner. If the tie occurred under modern tie-breaking rules, France would have won because it had voted for by more countries than Sweden. Below is a summary of all 12 point in the final, The singers were asked to sing a known Italian song which would then be used as a short clip for the postcard
Eurovision Song Contest 1991
12.
Eurovision Song Contest 1992
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1992 was the 37th Eurovision Song Contest and was held on 9 May 1992 in Malmö, Sweden. The presenters were Lydia Cappolicchio and Harald Treutiger, Linda Martin, representing Ireland, was the winner of this Eurovision with the song Why Me. The song was written by Johnny Logan, who had won the 1980 contest as singer and the 1987 contest as singer/songwriter. The contest took place at the ice arena of Malmö where the stage set was in the shape of a Viking ships bow with a dragon in the centre. The opening sequence included women dressed in the Swedish colours of yellow and blue, the filmic postcard tradition was continued with clips based on each country. Last years winner, Carola, appeared on stage in a dress with sheer sleeves. However, the Irish sent Linda Martin, who had the past experience of coming in 2nd place in the 1984 contest, but also paired up again with Johnny Logan. In the end, Ireland won the contest with a 16-point lead over the United Kingdom, malta with Little Child, performed by Mary Spiteri, also scored very well coming in 3rd place with 123 points. This was the first time that the three highest-placed songs had all been in English, Sweden, the host country, finished 2nd last. Switzerland had to replace its original choice of entry, Soleil, soleil which was to have performed by Géraldine Olivier. The song did not comply with some of the rules of the selection contest and so, despite having won. Each country had a jury who awarded 12,10,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 point for their top ten songs
Eurovision Song Contest 1992
13.
Mary Spiteri
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Mary Spiteri is a popular cabaret artiste from Malta. She was born on 25 October 1947 in Naxxar, in 1975, Mary Spiteri represented Malta in the Tokyo Music Festival and was awarded with the Outstanding Award for her entry Go On. Mary represented Malta in the 1992 Eurovision Song Contest held in Malmö with the song Little Child, Spiteri finished in third place behind Ireland and the United Kingdom. But 1992 was not Marys first attempt at Eurovision, in 1971, she participated in the Maltese heat of Eurovision with the song Min Int. Another attempt was made in 1975 when Mary performed two songs in the Maltese final, Live For Tomorrow and Try a Little Love Today. After her 1992 appearance Mary became something of a figure to Eurovision fans and was presented with an award by Eurovision Network at their convention held in Coventry that year. Marys subsequent efforts to return to the Eurovision stage have not been successful and she was unplaced in the 1995 Maltese final with Just One Love but managed third place in 1997 with Lovers Play with Words. Mary tried again and she has entered two songs which competed in Malta Song For Europe in 2008, but was unsuccessful in reaching the Eurovision. In 2014 it was announced that Mary Spiteri held the longest note for 13 seconds in Eurovision Song Contest history with her performance of Little Child in 1992
Mary Spiteri
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Mary Spiteri's Song for Europe 1993
14.
Eurovision Song Contest 1998
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1998 was the 43rd annual Eurovision Song Contest. The contest took place in Birmingham in the United Kingdom, following Katrina and it was the UKs fifth win, and the eighth time that the UK hosted the contest, the last being in Harrogate in 1982. The UK has not won or hosted the contest since, belgium, Finland, and Slovakia returned to the contest after a 1996. Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Denmark, Iceland, Italy, Italy did not return until 2011. Dana International eventually went on to win the contest, scoring 172 points, with the song Diva, written by Svika Pick and Yoav Ginai. The singer had attracted media attention both in Israel and Europe since she had undergone gender reassignment in 1993, being the first openly transgender performer to enter the competition. The United Kingdom, along with their national broadcaster the BBC and it was the first time since the 1982 that the Eurovision Song Contest was staged in the United Kingdom, and the last to date. This was an eighth time that the United Kingdom staged the contest, having done so for the 1960,1963,1968,1972,1974,1977. The National Indoor Arena had been used for major events in the past. The week after the Eurovision Song Contest, the city was to host the 24th G8 summit, with Terry Wogan vacating his hotel room to make way for Bill Clinton. Ironically, the contest was held in an English speaking country for the last time the contest was run without the free language rule, so only the UK, Malta, and Ireland performed in English. The postcards continued with the theme of Birmingham old and new, looking at a traditional object. Popular Britpop songs and also pieces of classical music were used as background music. Finally, the flag of the country about to perform was formed, a jury was used if there were exceptional reasons not to use a televote. Macedonia, participating as Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, took part for the first time, Israel could have returned in 1997, but opted not to due to Holocaust Remembrance Day, meaning they returned for the first time in three years. The Italian broadcaster, RAI, decided to withdraw from the contest, Russia and Italy did not broadcast the event due to withdrawals. Because Russia did not participate, Channel One decided not to broadcast the 1998 contest, according to other sources Channel One had expected Channel Russia to broadcast the contest. Danijela returned for Croatia after last taking part in 1995 as part of the group Magazin, egon Egemann who was the violinist for Gunvor this year, last participated for Switzerland at the 1990
Eurovision Song Contest 1998
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The
National Indoor Arena, which hosted the contest.
Eurovision Song Contest 1998
15.
Chiara Siracusa
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Chiara Siracusa better known by her mononym Chiara, is a Maltese singer. She represented her country in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1998,2005, and 2009 and is with a second and a third place the third most successful participant who never won the contest. In 1998, she won Maltas Song for Europe festival, the national pre-selection for Eurovision, with the gentle ballad The One That I Love and that was still enough to qualify as Maltas best ever placing at the time, from the 1992 contest. Chiara told in a BBC interview two years later that she cried for hours in the bathroom of her hotel suite after losing at Eurovision. For the first time, Maltas Eurovision entry was selected solely by a public vote, Chiara won with 11,935 phone calls,566 ahead of her nearest rival Olivia Lewis, and so represented Malta at the Eurovision Song Contest 2005 in Kiev, Ukraine. Chiara came second in the Contest with 192 points, putting her ahead of Maltas only other Eurovision runner-up, Ira Losco, after the result in 2005, Chiara had been working a lot around Malta and abroad, most notably in Greece and Cyprus. She hosted the Malta Song for Europe in 2008, the loss of her father in 2008 became tough time for Chiara, but as a tribute to him she was even more determined to achieve further success. Chiara returned to the Malta Eurosong finals with a composed by Belgian songwriters Gregory Bilsen. On 7 February 2009, Chiara won the Maltese preselection for the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 and she represented Malta in the first semi final in Moscow with her song What If We on 12 May. She qualified to the final, held on May 16. In June 2010, she released the Official Malta Gay Pride Anthem,1998, Shades Of One 2000, What You Want 2003, Covering Diversions 2005, Here I Am The One That I Love Angel What If We Chiara Siracusa on Myspace
Chiara Siracusa
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Chiara in 2009
16.
Eurovision Song Contest 2009
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The Eurovision Song Contest 2009 was the 54th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest and was hosted by Russia after their win in 2008. It took place between 12 and 16 May 2009 at the Olympic Indoor Arena in Moscow, Russia, third place went to Azerbaijan, fourth to Turkey, and the United Kingdom taking 5th, seeing their best placing since 2002. Forty-two countries participated in the contest, Slovakia announced that it would return to the contest, Latvia and Georgia originally announced their intention to withdraw, but it was later stated by the European Broadcasting Union that both countries would indeed participate. However, Georgia later decided to withdraw after the EBU rejected its selected song as being a breach of contest rules, the contest was held in Russia following its victory in the 2008 contest in Belgrade, Serbia, with Dima Bilans Believe. Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister of Russia, stated that the contest would be held in Moscow and it was proposed by Channel One that the contest be held in Moscows Olympic Indoor Arena, and this proposal was evaluated by the European Broadcasting Union and confirmed on 13 September 2008. The Director-General of the venue, Vladimir Churilin, refuted rumours of emergency reconstruction of the building, saying and we now can take up to 25 thousand spectators. The contest final took place on 16 May 2009 at the Olympic Indoor Arena in Moscow, thirty-seven countries participated in one of the two semi-finals of the contest, with the Big Four countries and the host pre-qualified for the final. In addition to those pre-qualified, the final included the ten selected countries from each semi-final. However, it was confirmed that the Big Four countries would continue to qualify for the final at the 2009 contest. Host broadcaster Channel One presented the sub-logo and theme for the 2009 contest on 30 January 2009, the sub-logo is based upon a Fantasy Bird, which can be used with many colours. As in previous years, the sub-logo was presented alongside the generic logo,2009 was the first year since 2001 that there was no slogan for the contest. The stage was designed by New York-based set designer John Casey, Casey, who had previously designed the stage for the Eurovision Song Contest 1997 in Dublin, was also involved in design teams for the 1994 and 1995 contests. He explained that even before worked with the Russians on the TEFI Awards in Moscow in 1998, was inspired by and drawn to art from the Russian Avant Garde period, especially the constructivists. Tried to come up with a design for the contest that incorporates Russian avant-garde art into a contemporary setting. Casey explained that together, the various LED shapes form the finished product, furthermore, large sections of the stage can move, including the circular central portion of curved LED screens, which can be moved to effect and allow each song to have a different feel. Finally a phrase in transliterated Russian and its English translation were shown, the music accompanying the postcards was written and produced by Matthew Herbert. On Friday 30 January 2009, the draw to decide which countries would appear in either the first or second semi-final took place, the participating countries excluding the automatic finalists were split into six pots, based upon how those countries have been voting. From these pots, half competed in the first Semi Final on 10 May 2009, the other half in that particular pot will compete in the second Semi Final on 12 May 2009
Eurovision Song Contest 2009
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The venue of the contest,
Olympic Indoor Arena in
Moscow
Eurovision Song Contest 2009
Eurovision Song Contest 2009
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The stage of the contest
Eurovision Song Contest 2009
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Alexander Rybak after winning the final.
17.
Gianluca Bezzina
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Gianluca Bezzina is a Maltese medical doctor and part-time singer who represented Malta in the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 in Malmö, Sweden. Gianluca Bezzina was born in 1989 in Qrendi, Malta and he is the third of seven siblings. He comes from a musical family. His sister Dorothy was also a participant in the 2013 Malta Eurovision Song Contest Starting From The End and she is a very popular singer at weddings in Malta. Members of his family sang the song Tomorrow on TVM, in 1989, his maternal aunt, Mary Anne Zammit, started publishing several audio cassettes of local songs in Maltese with themes dedicated to children and the family. Gianlucas maternal grandfather, the late Gaetano Buttigieg of Marsa, Malta and he was one of the pioneers in the use of the Maltese Language in pop music. In the fifties, sixties and seventies Gaetano published Maltese lyrics adapted to international pop songs, Bezzina started his musical career by studying the piano accordion at the age of seven, while simultaneously developing his singing skills with the Malta Childrens Choir. His grandfather Gaetano, always encouraged Gianluca in his singing career, on 19 June 2014 Funk Initiative were declared the winners of Isle Of MTV Battle Of The Bands Competition and they opened the Isle of MTV concert held on the Granaries in Floriana on 25 July 2014. They will be performing their track, Gianluca is one of the three doctors forming part of this band. The other members are two engineers and an accounts teacher, Bezzina and Losco sang two duets, Feeling Good and Let Her Go. On 19 March 2014 Gianluca took part in a show held at the Salesian Theatre in Sliema. The show, produced and directed by his sister Dorothy, was a tribute to Gianlucas grandfather, Gaetano, on the tenth anniversary of his demise. Gianluca, together with members of this closely knit and very talented family, sang 24 songs, all in Maltese. The lyrics of all songs were written by their grandfather. On 3 October 2014 Gianluca, together four of his sisters, qualified for the semi-final of Malta in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015. They are singing as a group called L-Aħwa, the Maltese word for siblings, Bezzina won the Maltese national final to represent Malta in the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 in Malmö, Sweden with the song Tomorrow. In reality, he participated in the Malta national song contest just for fun, after he won the contest, Gianluca stated that he was very surprised that he won the contest. Bezzina took 4th place in the Eurovision Song Contest Semi-Final on Thursday 16 May 2013 with 118 points and this qualified Bezzina for the final on Saturday 18 May 2013
Gianluca Bezzina
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Gianluca during a Eurovision 2013 press conference
Gianluca Bezzina
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Bezzina at the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest
18.
Eurovision Song Contest 2013
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The Eurovision Song Contest 2013 was the 58th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Malmö, Sweden, following Loreens win at the 2012 contest in Baku and it was the fifth time that Sweden had hosted the contest, the last time being in 2000. Sveriges Television chose Malmö Arena as the following the consideration of several venues in Sweden. The host for the contest was Petra Mede, thirty-nine countries participated, including Armenia, which was last represented in 2011. Bosnia and Herzegovina, Portugal, Slovakia and Turkey announced their withdrawal from the 2013 Contest, compared to many of the previous contests in the history of Eurovision, rather than focusing on promoting its own country, Sweden chose to lay focus on the artists and their respective countries. The winner for 2013 was Denmark with the song Only Teardrops sung by Emmelie de Forest and this makes it the second time that Denmark won on Swedish soil. Ukraine finished in place and Norway in fourth, while Russia finished in fifth place. Out of the countries with the Big Five status, only Italy managed to finish in the top ten, third in a row since its return, coming seventh with 126 points, the Netherlands finished ninth in their first participation in a final since 2004. 170 million viewers watched the semifinals and final of the 2013 edition, for the first time since 1985, no country of the former Yugoslav federation participated in the final of the Eurovision Song Contest. The concept sees all countries performing in the Grand Final present themselves with their flags before the contest begins. This year, the contestants entered the stage by walking across a bridge over the audience. The idea was continued the following years by Denmark and Austria, on 8 July 2012, the Swedish broadcaster Sveriges Television announced that Malmö Arena in Malmö would be the host venue for the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest. This was the time after 1975,1985,1992 and 2000 that the competition was held in Sweden and the second time, after 1992. This were factors in the choice of Malmö Arena as the host venue, and Malmö as Swedens third-largest city by population after Stockholm and Gothenburg, Øresund bridge was eventually also used as the main artistic medium for the theme of the contest, as an expression of binding cultures. One alternative put forward in the Expressen, was to hold the competition at three different venues – the semi-finals in Gothenburg and Malmö, and the final in Stockholm. This proposal was dismissed as unfeasible by SVT, which declared that the contest would be hosted in one city. On 20 June 2012, it was announced that Gothenburg had withdrawn from the process due to the city being the host of the Göteborg Horse Show in late April 2013. There were also concerns about the availability of hotel rooms due to a variety of events taking place in the same time frame as the Eurovision Song Contest
Eurovision Song Contest 2013
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Square in Malmö before the finals, with time table demonstrating the countdown for the broadcast.
Eurovision Song Contest 2013
Eurovision Song Contest 2013
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Malmö Arena, next to Hyllie Railway Station.
Eurovision Song Contest 2013
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The stage with its movable parts and the audience closely surrounding it during the opening act of the second semi-final
19.
Eurovision Song Contest 2001
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The Eurovision Song Contest 2001 was the 46th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. The contest took place in Copenhagen, Denmark, following the Olsen Brothers win at the 2000 contest in Stockholm, the hosting marked only the second time the contest was held on Danish soil, after the 1964 contest -37 years earlier. 23 countries took part in the contest, which was held on 12 May 2001, the host venue was the Parken Stadium - the largest venue to ever host the contest. A total of 35,000 spectators saw the live from within the stadium. The presenters were Danish journalist and TV-show presenter Natasja Crone Back, france, Greece and Slovenia were the heavy favourites to win the contest, however, as the voting progressed it became a two-horse race between Estonia and the host country Denmark. The contest was won by Estonia, represented by Tanel Padar, Dave Benton & 2XL with the song Everybody, the host nation, Denmark, finished in 2nd place with 177 points - beaten by 21 points. Coming 3rd were Greece with 147 points - giving the country their best result up till this point, france came 4th with 142 points, and in 5th place were Sweden with 100 points. Dave Benton, who was born and raised in Aruba, was the first black person and, at the age of 50 years and 101 days, Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark was the host city for the 46th edition of Eurovision. The venue choice for the contest was Parken Stadium, a stadium in the Indre Østerbro district of Copenhagen, Denmark. The logo of the 2001 Eurovision Song Contest was made out of four circles, the four circles were also present in the stage design, with the light construction was made of the same four rings. The Danish national broadcaster faced some problems whilst organising the contest such as the lack of funds, the event was eventually located in the football stadium Parken, after the company running the stadium agreed to add a retractable roof to the building. Changes occurred in the process for the 2002 Contest, along with the Big 4 countries. The other spots for 2002 would be filled by countries that were excluded from the 2001 contest because of their low point average for the years 1996–2000, the Danes were so offended that the BBC was obliged to issue an apology on Wogans comments. Controversy also surrounded the Swedish song, Listen To Your Heartbeat, eventually the EBU decided for the matter to be settled in court, with the song allowed to compete as long as the courts did not declare the song as plagiarism. During the voting the Danish band Aqua performed with a medley of their singles, Although enjoyable, people complained about it being a little bit rude as there was some swearing during the performance, both at the beginning and end of Barbie Girl. This brought the number of participating countries to twenty-three. Tanel Padar was a backing vocalist for Ines in 2000, the majority of participating countries held a televote, where the top ten most voted for songs were awarded the 12,10,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 points. This year the EBU introduced for the first time a mix of voting systems for those countries that didnt want to use 100% televoting, only three votes were allowed per household
Eurovision Song Contest 2001
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Parken Stadium, Copenhagen
Eurovision Song Contest 2001
Eurovision Song Contest 2001
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Eurovision Song Contest: Copenhagen 2001
20.
Eurovision Song Contest 2007
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The Eurovision Song Contest 2007 was the 52nd edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It was won by first-time appearance as an independent country Serbia and was held at the Hartwall Areena in Helsinki, Finland earned the right to host the event after heavy metal band Lordis victory at the Eurovision Song Contest 2006. It was the first time the Contest had been held in Finland, a budget of €13 million was presented for arranging the contest. Other bids to host the contest came from Espoo, Turku, the hosts were Finnish television personality Jaana Pelkonen and Finnish musician, stage performer and actor Mikko Leppilampi. Krisse Salminen acted as guest host in the room. A record number of 42 countries participated, the European Broadcasting Union put aside its limit of 40 countries, which would have meant excluding some countries using a ranking order scheme. This trend continued at the 2008 and 2009 Contests, on 12 March 2007, the draws for the running order for the semi-final, final and voting procedure took place. A new feature allowed five wild-card countries from the semi-final and three countries from the final to choose their starting position, the heads of delegation went on stage and chose the number they would take. In the semi-final, Austria, Andorra, Turkey, Slovenia and Latvia were able to choose their positions, in the final, Armenia, Ukraine and Germany were able to exercise this privilege. All countries opted for spots in the half of both evenings. Shortly after the draw, the entries were approved by the EBU, the United Kingdom chose their entry after the deadline because they were granted special dispensation from the EBU. The contest saw some changes to the voting time-frame. The compilation summary video of all entries including phone numbers was shown twice, the voting process was the same as 2006 except there was fifteen minutes to vote, an increase of five minutes on the 2006 Contest. In the final, the results from each country were once again shown from one to seven points automatically on screen and only eight, ten and twelve were read by the spokespeople. For the first time, the winner was awarded a promotion tour around Europe, visiting Denmark, Spain, Sweden, the tour was held between 16 May and 21 May. The event was sponsored by European communications group TeliaSonera, and — as with several previous contests — Nobel Biocare, apocalyptica were the interval act, and played a medley of songs, Worlds Collide, Faraway and finally Life Burns. The official logo of the contest remained the same as 2006, the stage was in the shape of a kantele, a traditional Finnish instrument. On 20 February 2007 a reworked official website for the contest was launched marking the first public exhibition of this years theme, an official CD and DVD were released
Eurovision Song Contest 2007
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The hosts
Jaana Pelkonen and
Mikko Leppilampi
Eurovision Song Contest 2007
Eurovision Song Contest 2007
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Hartwall Areena, the venue of ESC 2007
Eurovision Song Contest 2007
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Eurovision Song Contest: Helsinki 2007
21.
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
22.
Eurovision Song Contest 2010
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The Eurovision Song Contest 2010 was the 55th annual Eurovision Song Contest, broadcast from the Telenor Arena in Bærum, Greater Oslo, Norway. Norway gained the rights to host the contest after achieving a record breaking victory in Moscow the previous year and it was the third time Norway had hosted the contest, having previously done so in 1986 and 1996. The 2010 winner was Germany with Lena singing Satellite, written by American Julie Frost and it was Germanys first win in twenty-eight years, its second since the Contests inception, and its first win as a unified country. It was also the first time a Big Four country won the contest since the introduction in 2000. The semi-finals took place on 25 and 27 May 2010 while the final was scheduled for 29 May 2010, the European Broadcasting Union announced that the voting system used in the semi-finals would change from previous years to balance jury voting with televoting. A return of accompaniment by orchestra was also proposed, but did not happen, thirty-nine countries took part in the contest, with Georgia returning after a one-year hiatus, and Andorra, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Montenegro withdrawing. Lithuania originally announced its withdrawal from the competition, but was later among the 39 participants confirmed by the EBU and this represents a larger budget than that allotted in the 2007 Contest in Helsinki, but is not as much as the budget in Moscow for 2009. The revised estimated cost for the now stands at 211 million kroner. At a press conference in Oslo on 27 May 2009, it was announced that the show was to be held in the Oslo metropolitan area, NRK argued that Oslo was the only city with the required capacity, venues, and infrastructure to hold the show. On 3 July 2009, it was decided that the venue would be the newly constructed Telenor Arena, the Oslo Spektrum was ruled out to host the contest due to its smaller size and capacity as was Valhall in Oslo and the Hamar Vikingskipet. The theme art, a series of intersecting circles, was selected to represent gathering people, in addition to the base colour of white, the logo was created in black, gold, and pink. A preview of the design was released on 6 May 2010, featuring no LED screens. The basic synopsis of the postcards is a group of little golden balls forms the shape of each country. Then, they move and form a screen where we can see a video of a little crowd from in a city of the country about to perform supporting and cheering their act. After that, a few seconds of the performer of the country getting ready in the stage are shown, and then, NRK announced the hosts of the contest on 10 March 2010. Those chosen were Erik Solbakken, Haddy Jatou Njie, and Nadia Hasnaoui, Solbakken and Njie opened the three shows, introduced the artists, and reported from the green room during the voting, with Hasnaoui presenting the voting section and scoreboard announcements. This was the time that more than two hosts were presenting the shows, after the 1999 Contest. This replaces the semi-final format used in the 2008 and 2009 contests in which the countries with the top nine highest points from the results in each semi-final qualified for the final
Eurovision Song Contest 2010
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Screenshot from the rehearsals where the design can be seen
Eurovision Song Contest 2010
Eurovision Song Contest 2010
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Telenor Arena, 28 May 2010
Eurovision Song Contest 2010
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Lena performing the winning entry, "
Satellite," for Germany.
23.
Eurovision Song Contest 2011
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The Eurovision Song Contest 2011 was the 56th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Düsseldorf, Germany, following Lenas win at the 2010 contest in Oslo and this was the first contest to take place outside of the host nations capital city since the 2004 contest in Istanbul. The event was held at the Esprit Arena, with semi-finals held on 10 and 12 May, Italy also returned to the Contest, marking its first participation since 1997. No country withdrew from the contest, the winner was Azerbaijan with the song Running Scared performed by Ell & Nikki. The runner up was Italy, and Sweden finished in third place,2010 Hosts Norway was eliminated in the first semi final. Azerbaijan obtained its first ever victory in any Eurovision since its debut in 2008, Azerbaijan won the viewers voting with Sweden in second place, and Greece in third place. Italy won the voting, with Azerbaijan in second place. This is the first time since the juries were reintroduced alongside the televoting in 2009 that the winner didnt place first in the juryvoting, the broadcast of the final won the Rose dOr award for Best Live Event. Following Lenas win at the 2010 contest with the song Satellite, twenty-three cities submit official bids to the German broadcaster Norddeutscher Rundfunk, in order to be the host city for the 2011 contest. Eight of these continued to show interest in hosting the event including Berlin, Hamburg, Hanover, Gelsenkirchen, Düsseldorf, Cologne, Frankfurt. NDR announced on 21 August 2010 that four of those cities had officially applied to host the 2011 Contest, Berlin, Hamburg, Hanover, decision makers at NDR reportedly doubted the venues ability to provide advantageous acoustic conditions. Berlins speaker Richard Meng neither confirmed nor denied that because, he stated and this message indicated that talks with Düsseldorf to host the song contest in the Esprit Arena were already at an advanced stage. The club later announced on 6 October 2010 that it had obtained permission to move its games if necessary, the Neue Ruhr Zeitung newspaper reported on 12 December 2010 that Fortuna Düsseldorf were to be moved to the Paul-Janes-Stadion due to the contest. Fortuna Düsseldorfs training venue next to the Esprit Arena would be equipped with mobile stands from a Swiss event construction specialist, Nussli Group and this decision was made because the Arena Sportpark Düsseldorf holds better logistic qualifications. The Esprit Arena in Düsseldorf was announced by German broadcaster Norddeutscher Rundfunk as the venue for the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest on 12 October 2010. This was the first Eurovision Song Contest held in Germany since German reunification and that the stadium acquired a rental period of six weeks, in order to allow construction and dismantling work within the Esprit Arena to be carried out. The stadium accommodated a capacity of 38,000 for spectators during the Eurovision Song Contest, Düsseldorf offered 23,000 hotel beds and 2,000 additional beds in the Düsseldorf surroundings and on ships on the River Rhine. The four countries that were part of the Big Four, along with the host of the contest, since Germany was both a Big Four country and the host for the 2011 contest, there was a vacant spot in the final
Eurovision Song Contest 2011
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Eurovision Song Contest 2011 "Feel Your Heart Beat!"
Eurovision Song Contest 2011
Eurovision Song Contest 2011
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The
Esprit Arena, the 2011 venue
Eurovision Song Contest 2011
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Opening act_with
Stefan Raab
24.
Eurovision Song Contest 2015
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The Eurovision Song Contest 2015 was the 60th anniversary edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest musical event. The contest took place in Vienna, Austria, following Austrian Conchita Wursts victory in the 2014 and this was the second time that Austria hosted the contest, the 1967 being the first. The 2015 contest consisted of two semi-finals, which place on 19 and 21 May, and a final, held on 23 May 2015. The shows were presented by Mirjam Weichselbraun, Alice Tumler and Arabella Kiesbauer while Conchita Wurst was hosting the green room, forty countries participated in the contest, with Australia making a guest appearance, and Cyprus, the Czech Republic, and Serbia returning. Ukraine, however, announced their withdrawal due to financial and political reasons around the Ukrainian crisis, once all the votes had been announced, based on 50% jury and 50% televoting, Sweden won the contest for the sixth time, with Måns Zelmerlöws song Heroes. Sweden became the first country to win the contest twice in the current format, and this was the second win in four years. Italy won the voting with Russia in second place. Sweden won the voting, with Latvia in second place. This is the first time since the juries were reintroduced alongside the televoting in 2009 that the winner didnt place first in the televoting, for the first time, the top four of the contest all scored 200 points or better. Russias entry A Million Voices became the first non-winning Eurovision song to score over 300 points, Austria and Germany became the first countries 2003 to score no points in the final. Austria is also the first host country to score nul points, the 2015 contest also saw the best ever result for Montenegro since its independence, and the Czech Republic. Also the top two countries of this contest were the same as the top two countries in the 2012, being Sweden and Russia, over 197 million viewers worldwide watched the contest, beating the 2014 viewing figures by 2 million. The Wiener Stadthalle hosts the annual Erste Bank Open tennis tournament, after Austrias victory in the 2014 Contest, their delegation revealed the possibility of hosting the contest either in the capital city, Vienna, or in Salzburg. Vienna, considered the front-runner, had two venues in the phase, Wiener Stadthalle and the trade centre, Messe Wien. Also in the race were Stadthalle Graz and Schwarzl Freizeit Zentrum, with a maximum capacity of 30,000, the Wörthersee Stadium in Klagenfurt also joined the race, however, it would require the construction of a roof for the contest to be hosted there. Innsbruck also joined the race with Olympiahalle, which hosted ice hockey, a fifth city, Linz, joined the race with Brucknerhaus, although the venue is not big enough for the contest. Being geographically close to Linz, Wels showed desire to host the event as well, oberwart, with the Exhibition hall, and Vorarlberg, with the Vorarlberger Landestheater, were the latest cities to declare an interest. On 29 May 2014, Austrian host public broadcaster ORF and the EBU released some requirements, ORF requested interested parties to respond by 13 June 2014
Eurovision Song Contest 2015
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The venue of the contest,
Wiener Stadthalle in
Vienna
Eurovision Song Contest 2015
Eurovision Song Contest 2015
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Stage design of the contest
Eurovision Song Contest 2015
25.
TVM (Malta)
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Television Malta is a terrestrial television network in Malta operated by the national broadcaster, Public Broadcasting Services. TVM broadcasts a mix of news, sport, entertainment, magazine programming and it is funded through a government grant and commercial advertising. The majority of programmes broadcast on TVM are produced externally of PBS, PBS publishes details of the types of programmes it wishes to broadcast on TVM and production companies provide PBS with a detailed report of their proposal for the programme. Most programmes are broadcast in Maltese, however the Maltese speak both Maltese and English so English also features, mainly in BBC and ITV titles, sunday evenings are dedicated to classic British comedy, and English language films are shown on Saturday evenings. The English language feed of Euronews is also broadcast daily, in October 2011, PBS announced another overhaul of the TVM brand, to mark 50 years since the establishment of the Malta Television Service in 2012. The new branding pays homage to previous TVM identities, and makes use of the Maltese cross, in March 2012, PBS started its trial transmissions on the new channel TVM2, which has replaced Education 22. The broadcast time starts at around 15,00 and finishes at around 12, on 8 March 2012, PBS also started trials of TVM HD, the first HD channel from Malta. The channel is available to all those who have Melita Netbox or iBox, GO, Melitas main rival in the cable television industry on the Maltese Islands included the channel later in their schedule and also exclusively TVM2 HD. A new programme schedule was announced, including a number of news bulletins. For several years including the 2015/2016 period TVM had the highest number of viewers compared to the rest of Maltese television stations put together, some of the current hits are Xarabank, Disset, Strada Stretta, Skjetti and news broadcasting. Statistics show that more than a quarter of the population of Malta watch these on a regular basis, TVM airs TVAM, a breakfast television program focused on news and current affairs, weekday mornings from 07,00 to 08,30. TVMs main newscast L-aħbarijiet ta Telavixin Malta is aired weeknights from 20,00 to 20,50, since 2012, a nightly newscast in Maltese Sign Language has aired on sister network TVM2. TVM previously carried bulletins in English from Euronews and Britains ITN
TVM (Malta)
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Television Malta
26.
Radio Malta
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Radio Malta is the main radio service of Public Broadcasting Services, the public broadcaster of Malta. The origins of Radio Malta go back to 1935, for many years, transmissions were effected on a cable-radio system which started away back in 1935 by a British company called Rediffusion. On 29 September 1962, the company officially opened TVM. During the late sixties Rediffusion Malta effected several test transmissions with the aim to set up a radio station, but the radio station never materialised, possibly due to conflict of interest with the cable radio system which the same company was utilising. Regular Wireless radio transmissions in Maltese started on 8 January 1973 by the Malta Broadcasting Authority on 999 kHz Medium Wave and it was called Radju ta Malta. This frequency is still in use by Radio Malta, norman Hamilton, then Rediffusions top D. J. left the company and decided to join Radio Malta from its first day of transmission. Norman is no longer involved in radio, mario Laus was also one of Radio Maltas first D. J. s and today he is still one of its most popular D. J. s and certainly the longest-serving D. J. of this radio station. In 1975, when Xandir Malta was set up, the Cable Radio system, now no longer belonging to Rediffusion, and Radio Malta, became one entity with a separate identity. Radio Malta started transmitting on 93.7 F. M. when the British Forces Broadcasting Services closed down on 31 March 1979 with the departure of British Services from the Maltese Islands, the cable radio system was demised in 1989. Consequently many talented and experienced broadcasters were now working solely for Radio Malta, among these, the late Charles Arrigo, trained by the B. B. C. and considered by many as the Dean of Maltese Broadcasting. The legendary and charismatic broadcaster, the late Charles Abela Mizzi, with his golden voice, another veteran, still serving with Radio Malta, is George Peresso. In 1990, PBS Ltd took over the role and responsibility of Xandir Malta and its stereophonic transmissions are now also accessible in Malta on DAB+. The nineties ushered in broadcasting pluralism in Malta and this phenomenon brought to Radio Malta many a new talent. However with pluralism, Malta witnessed greater staff mobility within local radio stations started to mushroom on the Maltese Islands. Other veterans have also returned to the fold, Radio Malta transmits cultural and current affairs programmes putting a strong focus on news. Phone-Ins feature on some of its programmes, classical music and classic hits form an integral part of its daily 24x7 schedule. With the exception of the BBC News, all programmes on Radio Malta are transmitted in the Maltese language, surveys conducted in 2012 showed that Radio Malta doubled its listenership and is now the second most listened to radio station in Malta and Gozo. In 2013, its co-ordinator was Carlo Borg Bonaci, a local d. j. now running Magic Radio, Carlo is one of Maltas leading voice-overs in the field of radio and television advertising
Radio Malta
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Radju Malta
Radio Malta
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Former Radio Malta logo
27.
Joe Grech
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Joseph Grech, is a Maltese singer, who was born in Cospicua, Malta. At a very early stage in his life, Joe started to play the trumpet with the Zejtun Band Club, however, he soon switched to singing. He was the first singer to win the first Malta Song Festival in 1960, a festival which was organized by the Żgħażagħ Ħaddiema Nsara, the festival was held at the Radio City Opera House in Hamrun, Malta. Ten songs were presented in the final of Thursday 3 November and another ten songs on the semi-final of Friday 4 November. Out of these twenty songs, ten made it to the night of Saturday 5 November 1960. The Winning Song was Joe Grechs own composition Vola Uccellino, the festival was also transmitted on Rediffusion Malta, then a cable radio service provider in Malta since September 1935. Victor Aquilina and Marlene Lauri were the comperes of this festival, two orchestras conducted by Prof. Giorlando Valente and Mro. Dominic Vella respectively, accompanied the ten songs, eight of these songs were sung in Italian, one in English and one in Maltese, the latter being L-Għada tal-Festa Ma Vitorin. This song was sung by Frans Fenech and Terry L. Bencini, incidentally Terry was also awarded the Best Singer Trophy of this festival. Again in 1962 Joe was classified as the winner of the Malta Song Festival with the song Żgħażagħ Rebbieħa written and this was also interpreted by Carmen Schembri, later Gusman. Carmelo Abela was responsible for the orchestration, Joe married Josephine née Buttigieg on 24 September 1961. They have a daughter Marcelle, also a versatile singer, in 1965, the Impresa Valente chose Joe Grech to represent Malta in the Italian Festival of Martina Franca. Another Maltese singer, Tony Agius, also participated in this festival, in those days, it was very rare for a Maltese singer to participate in an Italian festival, let alone win a trophy as the Best Foreign Singer of this Italian festival. The then Italian High Commissioner of Italy for Malta, Signor Antonio Spada, presented a trophy to Joe Grech In 1967 and it also made a tremendous success in countries where the Maltese and the Gozitans had a diaspora, especially Australia. Joseph Ciappara with lyrics by Dr. George Zammit, incidentally Il-Kaċċatur was designated as the B side of the record, with Carmen Schembri singing L-Għanja tal-Emigranti, The Emigrants Song, being the A side. This success prompted Audiovision Productions to issue another follow-up record for Joe still as a B side entitled Il-Festa Taghna and this was another composition by Mro. Joseph Ciappara with lyrics by J. B. Cassar, joes first A side was entitled Ku Klu Ku Klu with lyrics by Albert M. Cassola and music by F. X. In 1968 two other A sides were published, Il-Lejl Tal-Vitorja and Nhar San Girgor, the lyrics of these two songs were written by Dr. George Zammit whilst Mro
Joe Grech
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Joe Grech in Malta 2005.
28.
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
29.
Eurovision Song Contest 1974
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1974 was the 19th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It was held in the resort of Brighton on the south coast of the United Kingdom. The BBC agreed to stage the event after Luxembourg, having won in both 1972 and 1973, declined on the grounds of expense to host the contest for a consecutive year. The winner of the Contest was Sweden with the song Waterloo which was performed by the band ABBA, ABBA are among the few Eurovision winners to achieve international superstar status. Katie Boyle returned to host her fourth Eurovision Song Contest, Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove on the south coast of Great Britain. The venue which hosted the 1974 Contest was the Brighton Dome, a venue that contains the Concert Hall, the Corn Exchange. A two-night preview programme, Auftakt für Brighton, was coordinated by the German national broadcaster ARD broadcast at the end of March and was hosted by the journalist Karin Tietze-Ludwig and it was the first preview-type programme to be broadcast in many European countries simultaneously. The programme was notable in being the European television debut for the winners, ABBA. The United Kingdom was represented in the contest by the Australian pop singer Olivia Newton-John, France had been drawn to sing at No. Since President Pompidous funeral was held the day of the contest, dani was seen by viewers in the audience at the point the French song should have been performed. For the same reason, the French singer Anne-Marie David, who had won the first place for Luxembourg in 1973, in her absence, the Director General of the BBC and President of the EBU, Sir Charles Curran, presented the Grand Prix. Malta had selected Enzo Guzman with the song Paċi Fid Dinja to represent them, malta would return to the competition in 1975. The song was not played on most Italian state TV and radio stations for over a month, portugals entry E depois do adeus was used as the first of the two signals to launch the Carnation Revolution against the Estado Novo regime. The second song to be broadcast, marking the start of military operations of the coup, was Grândola, Vila Morena by Zeca Afonso. Seventeen nations took part in this years contest, greece made their début, while France withdrew during the week of the contest after the sudden death of French President Georges Pompidou. Each performance had a conductor who maestro the orchestra, had France taken part in the contest, its entry would have been conducted by Jean-Claude Petit. Three artists returned to the contest this year, gigliola Cinquetti winner of the 1964 Contest participated again for Italy. Romuald Figuier who also participated in the 1964 Contest for Monaco, norways Bendik Singers also returned after last participating in Eurovision Song Contest 1973
Eurovision Song Contest 1974
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Brighton Dome, United Kingdom. Host venue of the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest.
Eurovision Song Contest 1974
30.
English language
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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
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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
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Countries of the world where English is a majority native language
English language
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Title page of Geoffrey Chaucer's
Canterbury Tales c.1400
For the most recent participation see
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Malta in the Eurovision Song Contest
