1.
RTVE
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RTVE is the largest audiovisual group in Spain broadcasting in the Spanish language. Since January 2010 it is financed exclusively by public subsidies, in the exercise of its public service function, among the obligations of the RTVE Corporation are, Promote dissemination and awareness of constitutional principles and civic values. Guarantee the objectivity and truthfulness of the information provided, while ensuring that a range of views is presented. Facilitate democratic debate and the expression of opinion. Promote the territorial cohesion and linguistic and cultural diversity of Spain, to serve the widest audience, ensuring maximum continuity and geographical and social coverage, with a commitment to quality, diversity, innovation, and high ethical standards. RTVE throughout its history has undergone numerous restructurings and reorganisations, and has assumed numerous identities, the history of RTVE begins in 1937 with the first broadcasts by Radio Nacional de España from the city of Salamanca. In these early years, RNE served as a tool for the Nationalist forces during the Spanish Civil War. Further consolidations followed in 1977, at which time RTVE became an autonomous organization, in 1979 TVE, RNE were joined by RCE an old radio service which, unlike RNE, could broadcast commercials. In 1980, RTVE was configured, by statute, as a public entity with its own jurisdiction. The former cinema newsreels service NO-DO was merged into RTVE to be dismantled in 1981, since then, the NO-DO archives are property of RTVE and its conservation is on their hands and Filmoteca Nacionals. In 1989, RCE was dismantled and its service was merged into RNE. This change in the law put Corporación RTVE in control of Spains public radio, in 2012 the PP began staffing RTVE with party veterans. Considerable controversy was caused when Ana Pastor was fired, on 11 June 2013, RTVE was one of the few known European broadcasters to condemn and criticize the closure of Greeces state broadcaster ERT. Pursuant to the 2006 Law of State Radio and television, management of the public service is entrusted to Corporación RTVE. The Administrative Council of the RTVE is the body of RTVE, and appoints the executive officers of RTVE and its companies, approves its organization. The President has operational control of operations, in order to execute the decisions. The President is appointed by, and may be dismissed by, before the 2006 Act, this position was filled by the role of the Director General, which had a de facto total control of RTVE. In practice, the Director General had been chosen by the Government for their political profile, the News Council is an internal supervisory body composed of RTVE journalists with the aim of safeguarding RTVEs independence
RTVE
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RNE's headquarters, Casa de la Radio (Radio's house) in
Pozuelo (Madrid).
RTVE
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RTVE Radiotelevisión Española
RTVE
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Studio of TVE's flagship show, Los Desayunos de TVE
2.
Eurovision Song Contest 1961
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1961 was the sixth Eurovision Song Contest. It was held on 18 March 1961 and was the first to place on a Saturday night. It was hosted in the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès located in Cannes, France, Luxembourg won for its first time with the song Nous les amoureux performed in French by Jean-Claude Pascal. As the contest overran its time, and the show was being broadcast live. The original building was built in 1949 and was located on the boulevard of Promenade de la Croisette and it also hosted the 1959 edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. Jacqueline Joubert presented the show, having already done so two years earlier in 1959, the stage used for the 1961 Contest was notably larger than in previous years and was decorated with flowers. It is noticeable that during the voting, Luxembourg gave the UK8 points and it was the largest amount of points given to a country by a single jury since 1958, when Denmark provided France with 9 points. Such a high number of obtained by a country wouldnt be achieved until 1970. A total of sixteen countries took part in the Contest, including the three debuting countries, Finland, Spain, and Yugoslavia, there were no returning or withdrawing countries this particular year. Each performance had a conductor who maestro the orchestra, each country had 10 jury members who each awarded 1 point to their favourite song. The table below shows the order in which votes were cast during the 1961 contest along with the spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for their respective country. Each national broadcaster sent a commentator to the contest, in order to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language. Details of the commentators and the station for which they represented are also included in the table below. All the juries announced their votes in French
Eurovision Song Contest 1961
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Palais des Festivals et des Congrès in Cannes, France - Host venue of the 1961 Eurovision Song Contest.
Eurovision Song Contest 1961
3.
Eurovision Song Contest 1968
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1968 was the 13th Eurovision Song Contest. The contest was won by the Spanish song La, la, la, performed by Massiel, closely followed by the United Kingdom, with a margin of just one point. Originally Spain entered Joan Manuel Serrat to sing La La La, Serrat was withdrawn and replaced by Massiel, who sang the same song in Spanish. The contest was held at the Royal Albert Hall in London,1968 was the first time that the Eurovision Song Contest was broadcast in colour. Also all of Eastern Europe and Tunisia broadcast the contest, katie Boyle hosted the contest for a third time. In May 2008, a documentary by Spanish film-maker Montse Fernández Villa,1968, the documentary claimed that the contest should in fact have been won by the United Kingdoms entry – Congratulations performed by Cliff Richard – which finished second by one vote. Massiel, the performer of the entry, was outraged by the allegations, and claimed that if there had been fixes, other singers. José María Iñigo, author of the statement in the documentary, personally apologized to Massiel, both Massiel and Iñigo accused television channel La Sexta, broadcaster of the documentary, of manufacturing the scandal. There were no withdrawing, returning, or débutant nations in the 1968 contest, each performance had a conductor who maestro the orchestra. Only one artist returned in this years contest, the winner of the 1962 contest, Isabelle Aubret, returned once more for France. The table below shows the order in which votes were cast during the 1968 contest along with the spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for their respective country. Each national broadcaster sent a commentator to the contest, in order to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language. Details of the commentators and the station for which they represented are also included in the table below. Several non-participating countries also decided to broadcast the contest on their television stations
Eurovision Song Contest 1968
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Royal Albert Hall, London. Host venue of the 1968 Eurovision Song Contest.
Eurovision Song Contest 1968
4.
Eurovision Song Contest 1969
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1969 was the 14th in the series. Four countries won the contest, the first time ever a tie-break situation had occurred, however, there was no rule at the time to cover such an eventuality, so all four countries were declared joint winners. France became the first country to win the contest four times, the Netherlands win was their third. Spain and the United Kingdom each won for the second time, and it was the first time that any country had a winning ESC entry two years in a row. The venue selected to host the 1969 contest was the Teatro Real, the theatre reopened in 1966 as a concert theatre and the main concert venue of the Spanish National Orchestra and the RTVE Symphony Orchestra. The final featured a metal sculpture created by surrealist Spanish artist. The surrealist Spanish artist Salvador Dalí was responsible for designing the publicity material for the 1969 contest as well as the sculpture which was used on stage. It was the first time that the contest resulted in a tie for first place, since there was at the time no rule to cover such an eventuality, all four countries were declared joint winners. Had the later tie-break rule been in place, the Netherlands would have won, United Kingdom would then have been runner up, having received 5 points from Sweden. On the other hand, with the present tie-break rule been in place, France would have been the overall winner, both countries received votes from 9 countries, but France received 4 points from 2 countries whereas Spain received 3 points as their highest vote. A common urban legend on ESC forums and festivals is that just prior to the show, Laurita Valenzuela, the producers assured her that such a thing would never happen. Austria was absent from the contest, refusing to participate in a contest staged in Franco-ruled Spain, only the BBC has the exclusive right to represent the United Kingdom. Each performance had a conductor who led the orchestra, five artists returned in this years contest. Louis Neefs for Belgium who last represented the nation in 1967, the table below shows the order in which votes were cast during the 1969 contest along with the spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for their respective country. Each national broadcaster sent a commentator to the contest, in order to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language. Details of the commentators and the station for which they represented are also included in the table below
Eurovision Song Contest 1969
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Teatro Real, Madrid. Host venue of the 1969 Eurovision Song Contest.
Eurovision Song Contest 1969
Eurovision Song Contest 1969
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Lenny Kuhr 's dress
Eurovision Song Contest 1969
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The final results of ESC 1969
5.
Eurovision Song Contest 1962
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1962 was the seventh edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest, held on Sunday 18 March 1962 at the Villa Louvigny in Luxembourg. The contest was won for a time by France with the song Un premier amour. This marked the first time a country had won three contests, austria, Belgium, Netherlands, and Spain all scored nul points for the first time. The 1962 Eurovision Song Contest was hosted in Luxembourg City, the venue chosen to host the 1962 contest was the Villa Louvigny. The building served as the headquarters of Compagnie Luxembourgeoise de Télédiffusion and it is located in Municipal Park, in the Ville Haute quarter of the centre of the city. After Frances entry had been performed, there was a power failure rendering the screens dark. There also seemed to be an even shorter power failure during the Netherlands entry, the power failure seemed to affect the Netherlands score during the voting. Nevertheless, the turned out to be popular in Europe after the contest. All countries who participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 1961 returned for a consecutive year, with no new countries making a début. Each performance had a conductor who maestro the orchestra, the contest saw the return of four artists this year, with three artists having previously participated in the 1960. Camillo Felgen for Luxembourg, François Deguelt for Monaco, and Fud Leclerc making his appearance for Belgium. Jean Philippe, having previous represented France in 1959, returned to the contest as a representative for Switzerland, each national broadcaster also sent a commentator to the contest, in order to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language. Details of the commentators and the station for which they represented are also included in the table below
Eurovision Song Contest 1962
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Villa Louvigny, Luxembourg. Host venue of the 1962 Eurovision Song Contest.
Eurovision Song Contest 1962
Eurovision Song Contest 1962
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Isabelle Aubret singing her winning song "
Un premier amour " at the Eurovision Song Contest 1962
6.
Eurovision Song Contest 1965
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1965 was the tenth edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It was held in Naples, Italy, following the Italian victory at the previous 1964 edition. Luxembourg won, for the time in the history of the contest, with the song Poupée de cire, poupée de son, performed by France Gall. Belgium, Finland, Germany, and Spain each scored points for the second time. The 1965 contest marked the debut of Ireland, a country which went on to dominate the competition. This was also the first contest with over 16 countries participating with a total of 18 entries, the Swedish entry was also sung in English. For the first time since Dutch victory Een Beetje in 1959, the contest took place in Naples, the capital of region Campania in southern Italy and the third-largest city in Italy, after Rome and Milan. This is Italys first hosting of the Eurovision Song Contest, the host venue was the then new Sala di Concerto della RAI, founded few years prior to the contest, in the late fifties and early sixties. It is located in Viale Marconi in the district of Fuorigrotta, the structure has three TV studios for a total of 1227 m² and capacity of 370 persons, used for the filming of programs and fiction and an auditorium. The Neapolitan song archives are housed in it. Each country had 10 jury members who distributed three points among their one, two, or three favourite songs, the points were totalled and the first, second, and third placed songs were awarded 5,3, and 1 votes in order. If only one song got every point within the jury it would get all 9 points, if only two songs were chosen, the songs would get 6 and 3 points in order. 18 countries took part, with the Eurovision Song Contest reaching its highest ever number, sweden returned after a one-year absence, and Ireland debuted in the competition. Luxembourg won for the time with the highly controversial Poupée De Cire. Belgium, Finland, Germany, and Spain all scored points for the second time. The competition was also broadcast via the Intervision network, to the Eastern European nations for the very first time, ingvar Wixell, the Swedish participant performed his song in English instead of the original Swedish title Annorstädes vals. The native languages were used for all of the other participants and this led to a rule being introduced for the next 1966 edition, that meant all participants had to perform their songs using one of their national languages. Each performance had a conductor who led the orchestra, each country had 10 jury members who distributed three points among their one, two, or three favourite songs
Eurovision Song Contest 1965
7.
Eurovision Song Contest 1983
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1983 was the 28th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It was held in Munich, then West Germany, on 23 April 1983, corinne Hermes was the winner of this Eurovision with the song, Si la vie est cadeau. This was Luxembourgs fifth victory in the contest which equalled the record set by France in 1977 and it was also the second year in a row where the winning entry was performed last on the night and the second year in a row in which Israel won 2nd place. The 1983 contest was the first to be televised in Australia, via Channel 0/28 in Sydney and Melbourne. The contest went to become a popular show in Australia, leading to an intended one-off participation in the 60th anniversary contest in 2015. Ireland was not in the contest because RTÉ was in action at that time. At one point, murmurs and boos arose from the crowd at the Greek jurys decision to give host country Germany only one point and this was the only occasion in which Greece didnt award any point to Cyprus. Due to Charells choice to announce points in three languages instead of two, the voting went on for nearly an hour, stretching the Eurovision contest past three hours for the first time ever. The language problems also occurred during the contest introductions, as Charell introduced Norwegian conductor Sigurd Jansen as. Johannes. Skorgan, having been forced to make up a name on the spot after forgetting the conductors name. Ofra Haza from Israel, who took the place, had an enduring success with her song Hi which became a hit in Europe. This year also marked the first performance of Swedens Carola Häggkvist and her song, Främling, became very popular in Sweden and in various other European countries. In the Netherlands, the reached the top five, coupled with a Dutch-language version which was performed by Carola herself. The 4th placed Džuli, also became a hit in Europe, singer Daniel released an English-language version as Julie. This years nul points were shared by Spain and Turkey, additionally, she sang her song barefoot. Some olés were heard from the present audience when she ended her performance, turkeys entry, Opera, performed by Çetin Alp & the Short Waves, could on the other hand be said to fit in well with the spirit of Eurovision of that time. The interval show was a dance set to a medley of German songs which had become internationally famous. The host, Marlene Charell, was the lead dancer, host conductor in bold Each country had a jury who awarded 12,10,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 point for their top ten songs. Below is a summary of all 12 points in the final, the following is a list of spokespersons who announced the votes for their respective country
Eurovision Song Contest 1983
8.
Eurovision Song Contest 1999
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1999 was the 44th Eurovision Song Contest, held on 29 May 1999 in Jerusalem, Israel after Dana International won the contest the previous year in the United Kingdom. The venue for the contest was the International Convention Center, the place that hosted the 1979 contest. Israels two previous winners, Izhar Cohen, who won in 1978 with A-Ba-Ni-Bi and Milk and Honeys Gali Atari who won it the year with Hallelujah attended as spectators. The winner of the Contest was Charlotte Nilsson, representing Sweden with Take Me to Your Heaven and this was Swedens fourth win in the Contest and the second in the 1990s. In the run-up to the Contest, many speculated that it would not be held in Israel, long-standing rules in place for decades were abolished during this Contest, rules that each country had to sing in one of their national languages was abolished for the first time since 1977. Furthermore, live music became optional for the first time in the Contests history, IBA took advantage of this and decided to drop the orchestra from the Contest as a way to conserve money for the show. This meant that for the first time all entries used backing track during their performances and this caused controversy for Eurovision traditionalists, with three-time winner Johnny Logan criticising the move, describing the event now as karaoke. Latvia had attempted to participate in the Contest for the first time and this gave Hungary a chance to enter the Contest, however, Magyar Televízió decided not to take part. This allowed Portugal to compete as the 23rd country, austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Denmark and Iceland returned to the Contest after being relegated from competing in 1998. Lithuania also returned to the Contest for the first time in five years, the Lithuanian delegation had had budget problems to contend with, and so the EBU allowed the Lithuanians to arrive in Israel a day later than everyone else. The first delegation on the hand to walk the Holy Land were Estonia. After being relegated from the 1998 Contest, Russias Channel One had decided not to broadcast that years contest, however, as only countries which had broadcast the previous years contest were allowed to enter the next years contest, Russia was forced to miss another year. They were joined by Finland, Greece, Hungary, Macedonia, Romania, Slovakia and Switzerland, the favourites to win the Contest came from Icelands Selma with All Out of Luck, and Cypruss Marlain with Tha Ne Erotas, after an internet poll by fans. But, while Iceland finished second to Sweden, Cyprus failed to inspire televotes, a number of controversies occurred before the Contest. Both artists would eventually represent their countries in Eurovision, in 2006 and 2002 respectively, croatias entry attracted objections from the Norwegian delegation, due to synthesised male vocals being used on the backing track of Doris Dragovićs entry. The interval act was provided by Dana International, who performed a cover of the Stevie Wonder song Free, Dana International also appeared at the end of the show, handing the winning trophy to Nilsson. After pretending that the trophy was too heavy to lift, she fell to the stage, below is a summary of all 12 point in the final
Eurovision Song Contest 1999
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Eurovision Song Contest 1999
Eurovision Song Contest 1999
Eurovision Song Contest 1999
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The venue of the contest,
International Convention Center in Jerusalem
9.
Voting at the Eurovision Song Contest
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The winner of the Eurovision Song Contest is selected by a positional voting system. Each country awards two sets of 12,10, 8–1 points to their 10 favourite songs, one from their professional jury, the current system has been in place since 2016. In 2003, Eircoms telephone polling system malfunction, irish broadcaster RTÉ did not receive the polling results from Eircom in time, and substituted votes by a panel of judges. Between 1997 and 2003, lines were opened to the public for five minutes after the performance. Between 2004 and 2006 the lines were opened for 10 minutes, in 2010 viewers were allowed to vote during the performances, but this was rescinded for the 2012 contest. The BBC contacted regional juries by telephone to choose the 1956 winners, and this method continued to be used until 1993. The following year saw the first satellite linkup to juries, to announce the votes, the contests presenters connect by satellite to each country in turn and inviting a spokesperson to read the countrys votes in French or English. The presenters originally repeated the votes in both languages, but since 2004 the votes have been translated due to time constraints, the scoreboard displays the number of points each country has received and, since 2008, a progress bar indicating the number of countries which have voted. Note The most-used voting system was last used for the 1969 contest and this system was used from 1957 to 1961 and from 1967 to 1969. Ten jurors in each country each cast one vote for their favourite song, in 1969 this resulted in a four-way tie for first place, with no tie-breaking procedure. A second round of voting in the event of a tie was introduced to this system the following year, from 1962 to 1966, a voting system similar to the current one was used. With the latter system, a country could choose to give points to two instead of three, in 1965, Belgium awarded the United Kingdom six points and Italy three. Although it was possible to one country nine points, this never occurred. The 1971,1972, and 1973 contests saw the jurors in vision for the first time, each country was represented by two jurors, one older than 25 and one younger, with at least ten years difference in their ages. Each juror gave a minimum of one point and a maximum of five points to each song, in 1974 the previous system of ten jurors was used, and the following year the current system was introduced. Spokespeople were next seen on screen in 1994 with a link to the venue. The 2004 contest had its first semifinal, with a change in voting. This resulted in Ukraines Ruslana finishing first, with a record 280 points, to date, non-qualifying countries are still allowed to vote in the final
Voting at the Eurovision Song Contest
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"The Pyrenean Axis" (Andorra and Spain)
10.
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
11.
France in the Eurovision Song Contest
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France has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 59 times since its debut at the very first contest in 1956. France is one of seven countries to be present at the first contest. France first won the contest in 1958 with Dors, mon amour performed by André Claveau, frances fifth victory came in 1977, when Marie Myriam won with the song Loiseau et lenfant. France have also finished four times, with Paule Desjardins in 1957, Catherine Ferry in 1976, Joëlle Ursull in 1990 and Amina in 1991. France finished last for the first time in 2014, when Twin Twin received only two points. France have failed to reach the top 10 in 12 of the last 14 contests, the exceptions being Patricia Kaas, who was eighth in 2009, and Amir, several French broadcasters have been used to present Eurovision in the country, formerly RTF, ORTF and TF1. The first semi-final in 2004 was not broadcast, from 2015, France 2 resumed the responsibility of organising an entry and broadcasting the final and from 2016, both semi-finals will be broadcast by France 4. The change is an attempt to better ratings and results in forthcoming contests. Radio coverage has been provided, although not every year, by France Inter from 1971 to 1998 and since 2001, in 1982, RTL Radio transmitted the contest due to the countrys absence that year. France has often changed the process used in order to find the countrys entry for the contest. France is one of the most successful countries in the Eurovision, winning the contest five times, coming second four times, France was ranked first in number of victories without interruptions from 1960 to 1993. Moreover, Amina was close to victory with the song Le Dernier qui a parlé. in 1991, therefore, the countback rule applied, but both countries had an equal number of twelve points, but the victory went to Sweden, when France had fewer 10-point scores. Today, with the new rules, France would have won the competition, one year before, France was also close to winning with Joëlle Ursull performing Serge Gainsbourgs song White and Black Blues. The song finished in second place with Irelands entry. However, in recent years, the French results have been somewhat disappointing, since 1998, when the televoting was invented, France has almost always been in the bottom-10 countries in the final, coming 18th, 19th, 22nd, 23rd, 24th and 25th. France finished in last place, for the first time in their Eurovision history, yet, France have had some good results during the 21st century. In 2001, Canadian singer Natasha St-Pier came 4th for France with her song Je nai que mon âme, being the favourite to win the contest by fans and odds. This good result was carried into the 2002 contest, when Sandrine François came 5th with Il faut du temps, with these ambitions, the French superstar Patricia Kaas represented France in the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 in Moscow, Russia
France in the Eurovision Song Contest
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Guy Mardel in Naples (
1965)
France in the Eurovision Song Contest
France in the Eurovision Song Contest
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Dan Ar Braz in Oslo (
1996)
France in the Eurovision Song Contest
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Les Fatals Picards in Helsinki (
2007)
12.
Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest
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No other country has been represented as often. France and the United Kingdom come in a second, missing only two contests each. Before German reunification in 1990, it presented as West Germany. Germany has won two contests, in 1982 and 2010, Germany first won the contest in 1982, at the 27th attempt in Harrogate, when Nicole won with the song Ein bisschen Frieden. The second German victory came 28 years later at the 2010 contest in Oslo, Germany have finished second four times and third five times, for a total of eleven top three placements. Katja Ebstein, who finished third in 1970 and 1971, Germany also finished second with Lena Valaitis in 1981 and the group Wind in both 1985 and 1987. The other third places were achieved by Mary Roos in 1972, Mekado in 1994, with one win and four second places, Germany is one of the most successful countries of the 1980s. Germany has finished last on seven occasions, receiving nul points in 1964,1965 and 2015, Germany, along with the United Kingdom, Italy, France and Spain, is one of the Big Five countries that are automatically qualified to the final, regardless of the placing. This is due to being the largest financial contributors to the contest, since 1996, ARD consortium member Norddeutscher Rundfunk has been responsible for Germanys participation in the contest. The Eurovision Song Contest semi-final is broadcast on NDR Fernsehen, and the final is broadcast on Das Erste, although German contestants have had varied levels of success, public interest remains high and the contest is one of the most watched events each year. Between 2010 and 2012, private broadcaster ProSieben worked in partnership with NDR, Germany has often changed the selection process used in order to find the countrys entry for the contest, either a national final or internal selection has been held by the broadcaster at the time. ARD had selected an artist and song to represent them at the Eurovision Song Contest 1996, to be held in Oslo, due to the large number of countries wanting to compete at Eurovision, they determined that only 23 of the 30 countries could compete. Hosts Norway qualified automatically, the other 29 songs went into an audio only pre-qualification round, unfortunately for Germany its entry, Leon with Planet of Blue, failed to earn enough points to progress to the final, finishing 24th. ARD and the EBU were not happy with this, as Germany was the biggest financial contributor at the time and this is the only time that Germany has been absent from the contest. In the 2000s, Germany has been notable for their adoption of musical styles which are not typical of Eurovision, such as country and western, Germany tied for last at the 2008 contest for points, but was awarded 23rd of 25th place when the results were posted. In 2009, ARD held a selection for the first time since 1995 due to lack of interest. Alex Christensen and Oscar Loya were selected to represent Germany at the 2009 contest, however they only managed to receive 35 points, placing 20th of 25 competing countries. In 2010, ARD approached former entrant and songwriter Stefan Raab and it has been said that Raab was approached due to his good record at the contest, finishing 5th in 2000 as well as writing entries in 1998 and 2004, which finished 7th and 8th respectively
Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest
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Walter Andreas Schwarz at
Lugano (
1956)
Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest
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Germany
Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest
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Katja Ebstein at
Amsterdam (
1970)
Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest
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Roger Cicero at
Helsinki (
2007)
13.
Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest
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Italy has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 42 times since making its debut at the first contest in 1956. It was one of seven countries that competed at the very first contest. Italy competed at the contest frequently until 1997, after a fourteen-year absence, the country competed in the Eurovision Song Contest 2011. Italy has won the contest twice, in 1958, Domenico Modugno finished third with the song Nel blu, dipinto di blu. Renamed Volare, the became a huge international hit, reaching the US number one spot. Emilio Pericoli also finished third in 1963, before Italy won for the first time in 1964 with Gigliola Cinquetti, Cinquetti returned to the contest in 1974 and finished second with the song Si, losing to ABBA. Italy then finished third in 1975 with Wess and Dori Ghezzi, the countrys best result of the 1980s was Umberto Tozzi and Raf finishing third in 1987. Italys second victory in the contest came in 1990 with Toto Cutugno, other good 1990s results were Mia Martini in 1992 and Jalisse in 1997, who both finished fourth. After 1997, Italy withdrew from the competition, the EBU announced that they would work harder to bring Italy back to the contest in 2010, along with former participants Monaco and Austria, but again Italy did not participate in the contest. Italys return to the contest proved to be successful, with Raphael Gualazzi finishing second, Italy has finished in the top ten in four of the last six contests. In 2015, Il Volo won the televoting receiving votes from all countries, since the introduction of the 50/50 voting system in 2009, this was the first time that the winner of the viewers vote did not win the contest. Italy has withdrawn from the Eurovision Song Contest a number of times, the first withdrawal was in 1981, when RAI stated that interest had diminished in the country. This absence continued through the year, before Italy returned in 1983. Italy again withdrew in 1986 when RAI decided not to enter the contest, from 1994 to 1996 Italy withdrew again, with RAI citing a lack of interest in participating. Italy returned in 1997, before withdrawing again without explanation, none of the Eurovision winning songs were particularly successful in the Italian charts. Despite the Eurovision contests taking place more than a month before the vote, Italian censors refused to allow the contest. The song thus remained censored on most Italian state TV and radio stations for over a month, at the contest in Brighton, Cinquetti finished second, losing to ABBA. Sì went on to be a UK top ten hit, peaking at number eight and it also reached the German top 20
Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest
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Bobby Solo in Naples (
1965)
Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest
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Italy
Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest
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Marco Mengoni in Malmö (
2013)
Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest
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Il Volo in Vienna (
2015)
14.
United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest
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The United Kingdom has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 59 times and is one of the most successful countries to compete in the contest. They first participated in the second contest in 1957, the UK has entered every year since 1959, and has won the contest a total of five times. Along with Sweden, the UK is one of two countries with Eurovision victories in four different decades. The British public broadcaster, the BBC, broadcasts the event each year and organises the selection process for the entry. For most years, the public had been able to vote for the winner, using in the past postcard voting, where the viewers sent postcards with their vote to the BBC, but more recently televoting. In 2009 and 2010, a new national selection format was held to find the singer who would go on to sing the internally selected song at the contest. From 2011 to 2015, for the first time in UKs Eurovision history and this resulted in the national selection process being suspended, however, this returned in 2016. The United Kingdom has finished last in three contests, in 2016, the UK failed to reach the top 10 for the seventh consecutive time, with the duo Joe and Jake finishing 24th. It was alleged that the United Kingdom were expected to take part in the first contest in 1956, and this was later revealed by the EBU in January 2017 to be a mythical fact created by fans of the contest. Patricia Bredin was the first performer to represent the UK at Eurovision, at their second attempt in the contest in 1959, the UK achieved the first of their record fifteen runner-up positions, when Pearl Carr and Teddy Johnson sang Sing, Little Birdie. In 1968, another performer was selected to represent the UK with the song Congratulations. In London, Cliff Richard gave the UK their sixth second-place finish, Congratulations remains one of only two non-winning UK Eurovision songs to top the UK charts. The UKs pulling of second was provided by the Scottish singer Lulu in 1969 with the song Boom Bang-a-Bang, another established performer, she had reached the US #1 spot with To Sir with Love in 1967. Having finished second on three occasions in the 1970s, with Mary Hopkin in 1970, The New Seekers in 1972. The UK achieved their victory in 1976 with Brotherhood of Man and Save Your Kisses for Me, who won with 164 points. In 1977, the UK finished second for the time represented by Lynsey de Paul. The UKs fourth victory came in 1981, with Bucks Fizz, the group was created especially for the UK selection contest A Song for Europe. At Eurovision in Dublin, they defeated Germanys Lena Valaitis by four points, the group went on to continued success, with 13 UK top 40 hits over the next five years
United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest
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Ronnie Carroll at Luxembourg (
1962)
United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest
United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest
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Kathy Kirby at Naples (
1965)
United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest
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Scooch at Helsinki (
2007)
15.
European Broadcasting Union
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The European Broadcasting Union is an alliance of public service media entities, established on 12 February 1950. As of 2015, the organisation comprises 73 active members in 56 countries, most EU states are part of this organisation and therefore EBU has been subject to supranational legislation and regulation. It also hosted debates between candidates for the European Commission presidency for the 2014 parliamentary elections but is unrelated to the institution itself and it is best known for producing the Eurovision Song Contest. EBU is a member of the International Music Council, Members of the EBU are radio and television companies, most of which are government-owned public service broadcasters or privately owned stations with public service missions. Active Members come from as far north as Iceland and as far south as Egypt, from Ireland in the west and Azerbaijan in the east, Associate Members are from countries and territories beyond Europe, such as Canada, Japan, Mexico, India, and Hong Kong. Associate Members from the United States include ABC, CBS, NBC, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Time Warner, and the only individual station, Chicago-based classical music station WFMT. Active Members are those paying EBU members meeting all technical criteria for full membership, syria is an example of a country within the EBA not complying with all technical criteria for full membership, and thus it is currently only granted Associated Membership. The EBUs highest profile production is the Eurovision Song Contest, organised by its Eurovision Network, the countries represented in the EBU also co-operate to create documentaries and childrens programming. Most EBU broadcasters have a deal to carry the Olympics. Another annually recurring event which is broadcast across Europe through the EBU is the Vienna New Years Concert, the theme music played before EBU broadcasts is Marc-Antoine Charpentiers Prelude to Te Deum. It is well known to Europeans as it is played before and after the Eurovision Song Contest, the EBU was a successor to the International Broadcasting Union that was founded in 1925 and had its administrative headquarters in Geneva and technical office in Brussels. It fostered programming exchanges between members and mediated disputes between members that were mostly concerned with frequency and interference issues. It was in effect taken over by Nazi Germany during the Second World War, france proposed that it would have four votes with the inclusion of its North African colonies. Great Britain felt it would have influence with just one vote. On 27 June 1946 the alternative International Broadcasting Organisation was founded with 26 members, the following day the IBU met in General Assembly and an attempt was made to dissolve it but failed, though 18 of its 28 members left to join the IBO. For a period of time in the late 1940s both the IBU and IBO vied for the role of organising frequencies but Britain decided to be in involved in neither, the BBC attempted but failed to find suitable working arrangements with them. However, for practical purposes the IBO rented the IBU technical centre in Brussels, in August 1949 a meeting took place in Stresa, Italy but it resulted in disagreement between delegates on how to resolve the problems. One proposal was for the European Broadcasting Area to be replaced by one that would exclude Eastern Europe, after Stresa, a consensus emerged among the Western Europeans to form a new organisation and the BBC proposed it be based in London
European Broadcasting Union
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Countries with one or more members are in dark blue. Associated members in light blue.
16.
La, la, la
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La, la, la is a song which was performed by the Spanish singer Massiel at the Eurovision Song Contest 1968 in London, winning the contest for Spain in that year. The performance of the song was the first of Spains two Eurovision wins to date, the song was composed by Ramón Arcusa and Manuel de la Calva, otherwise known as the singing duo Dúo Dinámico. This was the first Eurovision Song Contest broadcast in colour, with viewers noting Massiels backing singers in their short teal coloured dresses, La, la, la beat the favourite, the United Kingdoms Congratulations, by just one point. Bill Martin called the Spanish song a piece of rubbish, joan Manuel Serrat, the artist originally chosen to perform Spains entry, intended to sing it in Catalan. Hence the last-minute substitution of Massiel as singer and it was not until 2004, when Andorra made its first entry, that Catalan would be heard on the contest stage. A documentary film shown on Spanish television in 2008 claimed that General Franco had had the competition fixed to ensure a victory for Spain, which would boost the countrys image abroad. Massiel was outraged by the allegations, insisting that she won because her song was better, and she also blamed the allegations on competition among Spanish TV channels. Massiel recorded the song in four languages, Spanish, Italian, German, all as La, la, la and it was later covered by the Italian singer Mina in Radiotelevisione Italianas 1968 variety series Canzonissima and by Finnish singer Carola. The biggest-selling recording of the song, however, was the cover-version, performed in Spanish and it was also sung by Alpay, a famous Turkish singer, in Turkish that same year in Sen Gidince & La La La 45 rpm. Official Eurovision Song Contest site, history by year,1968 Detailed info and lyrics, The Diggiloo Thrush, La, la, la History of the song, as narrated by the members of Dúo Dinámico
La, la, la
–
"La, la, la"
17.
Massiel
–
María de los Ángeles Felisa Santamaría Espinosa, professionally known as Massiel, is a Spanish pop singer. She won the Eurovision Song Contest 1968 with the song La, la, la and she decided to abandon her music career in 1996, but released another album a year later and a further one in 2007, along with two new editions of 1970s albums. Massiel was born in Madrid, Spain and her first recordings were released in 1966, Di que no, No sé porqué, Llueve, No comprendo, Y sabes qué vi, Rufo el pescador, Aleluya and El era mi amigo. The song Rosas en el mar, written by her friend Luis Eduardo Aute in 1967, in 1967, she acted in the movie Vestida de novia. On March 29,1968, Massiel was asked to replace singer-songwriter Joan Manuel Serrat as Spains representative at the Eurovision Song Contest, nine days before the contest Massiel was on tour in Mexico. She returned to Spain, learned the song, and recorded it in five languages, on April 6 in London she beat the favorite, Cliff Richard with Congratulations, by one point and won the contest. Her song, La, la, la, was written by Ramón Arcusa, a 2008 Spanish documentary by La Sexta accused Spains television company TVE of bribing judges on the orders of General Franco. This allegation was based on a statement by journalist José María Íñigo, who would claim that he had repeated a widespread rumour. Both Massiel and Iñigo accused La Sexta of manufacturing the scandal, from 1966 to 1998, Massiel recorded songs of different genres for five record companies, Zafiro, Polygram, Hispavox, Bat Discos and Emasstor. Her discography includes around 50 records released as EPs, singles, LPs, CDs, in 1997 she released a Spanish album called Baladas Y Canciones De Bertolt Brecht. Massiel married her long-time boyfriend Vinny Cremonty, an Italian movie star, after retiring to raise her first son, Aitor Carlos Sayas, Massiel returned in 1981 with a brand-new sound and a new record label, Hispavox. Massiel would finish her pop comeback in 1983 with her career-defining record, not only was this album successful in her native country, but it was also her reconciliation with Latin America. The song Brindaremos Por El was a hit worldwide and topped the charts in many countries. In many ways, Massiel came back to the continent that loved her so throughout the 1960s, during the 1980s Massiel was an invited artist at the Festival de Viña del Mar in Chile because of her local popularity. At the time Chile was under the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, after singing for an hour, Massiel received the festivals most important prize, La Gaviota de Plata. In her speech of gratitude she said, Thank you Chile and she re-recorded her Eurovision winner La, la, la in 1997, with a hip-hop beat, background singers, whistling and Spanish percussion. In 1998, Massiel appeared in the film Cantando a la Vida, Massiel had the lead role of Maria and also sang the entire soundtrack to the film. In 2001 Massiel fell out of the window of her flat while trying to close the shutters and was hospitalized briefly
Massiel
–
Massiel in 1968
18.
Vivo cantando
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Vivo cantando was one of four songs which tied for first place in the Eurovision Song Contest 1969. It was Spains second winning entry in the contest and the last to date, the song is a very up-tempo number, sung from the perspective of a woman telling her lover about the positive changes he has had on her, specifically that she now lives her life singing. Dancing was against Eurovision Song Contest regulations at the time, Salomé was not penalized, however, as the performers from Ireland, Salomé recorded the song in six languages, Spanish, Catalan, Basque, English, French and Italian. It was succeeded as Spanish representative at the 1970 Contest by Julio Iglesias with Gwendolyne, official Eurovision Song Contest site, history by year,1969. Detailed info and lyrics, The Diggiloo Thrush, Vivo cantando
Vivo cantando
–
"Vivo cantando"
19.
Lulu (singer)
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Marie McDonald McLaughlin Lawrie was born in Lennoxtown, East Dunbartonshire, and grew up in Dennistoun, Glasgow, where she attended Thomson Street Primary School and Onslow Drive School. She lived in Gallowgate for a while before moving to Garfield Street, at 12 or 13, she and her manager approached a band called the Bellrocks seeking stage experience as a singer. She appeared with them every Saturday night, Alex Thomson, the bass player, has reported that even then her voice was remarkable. Lulu has two brothers and a sister and her father was a heavy drinker.7. Massey guided her career for more than 25 years, for most of time they were partners in business. After the success of Shout, Lulus next three singles failed to make an impact on the charts, in 1965 she released Leave A Little Love, which returned her to the UK top ten. Her next record, Try to Understand made the top 30, in 1966, Lulu toured Poland with the Hollies, the first British female singer to appear live behind the Iron Curtain. In the same year she recorded two German-language tracks, Wenn du da bist and So fing es an, for the Decca Germany label, All her Decca recordings were made available in 2009 on a 2-CD entitled Shout. issued on RPM Records. After two hit singles with the Luvvers, Lulu launched her solo career and she left Decca after failing to chart in 1966 and signed with Columbia to be produced by Mickie Most. In April 1967, she returned to the UK singles chart, reaching number 6 with The Boat That I Row, All seven singles she cut with Most made the UK Singles Chart. Nonetheless, when Mickie Most died in 2003, Lulu was full of praise for him, in 1967, she made her film debut in To Sir, with Love, a British vehicle for Sidney Poitier. Lulu both acted in the film and provided the song, with which she had a major hit in the United States. To Sir With Love became the best selling single of 1967 in the US, selling well in excess of a million copies, in the UK, To Sir With Love was released on the B-side of Lets Pretend, a No.11 hit. In the late-1960s Lulus pop career in the UK thrived and she had several series of her own. Her first BBC series aired in 1965 on BBC2, where she co-hosted Gadzooks and its The In-Crowd, with Alan David, completing the run as solo host under the rebranded Gadzooks. In 1966, she made appearances on BBC1s Stramash. The series often featured resident guests, including Adrienne Posta, Roger Kitter, Paul Greenwood and Pans People along with dance troupes choreographed by Nigel Lythgoe, the 1972 series was billed as Its Lulu. Not to mention Dudley Moore with Dudley Moore and his appearing in each of the 13 shows
Lulu (singer)
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Lulu on stage in
Glasgow as part of
Here Come The Girls 2010
Lulu (singer)
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Performing with
Jools Holland at
Borde Hill Garden 23 June 2007.
20.
Boom Bang-a-Bang
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Boom Bang-a-Bang was the United Kingdom entry to the Eurovision Song Contest 1969. It was sung by Lulu, and was co-written by Alan Moorhouse, lyrically, the song is a plea from the singer to her lover to cuddle me tight. She then goes on to explain that my heart goes boom bang-a-bang boom bang-a-bang when you are near, the single made No.2 in the UK Singles Chart and was a major hit throughout Europe. The song was succeeded as the winner in 1970 by Dana singing All Kinds of Everything for Ireland, over two decades after its first release, the song was included on a blacklist of banned songs issued by the BBC during the 1991 Gulf War. Boom Bang-A-Bang was also the name of a BBC One 1 hour programme made to celebrate 50 Years of the Eurovision Song Contest in 2006. Broadcast in Eurovision week, the special was hosted by Sir Terry Wogan and featured footage and highlights of past contests. The song is the tune for the BBC Three sitcom Him & Her. Lulu also recorded the song in German, also titled Boom Bang-a-Bang, list of songs banned by the BBC
Boom Bang-a-Bang
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"Boom Bang-a-Bang"
21.
Frida Boccara
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Boccara was born in Casablanca, Morocco, into a Jewish family of Italian origin that lived in Tunisia before they settled down in Morocco. When she was 18, she moved from Casablanca to Paris, France, Boccara also had a brother and a sister in show business, composers Jean-Michel Braque and Lina Boccara. Her son, Tristan Boccara, was born in the mid-1970s, in 1964, Boccara had submitted the song Autrefois to the French Eurovision Song Contest selection panel, but she was unsuccessful. Five years later, at the Eurovision Song Contest 1969, held in Madrid, Spain, she represented France performing Un jour, un enfant – music by Émile Stern and her song shared first place along with the entries from the Netherlands, the UK, and Spain. Cent mille chansons was recorded in 1968 and earned her a Gold disc, while Un jour, un enfant earned her a Platinum disc, Un monde en sarabande and La prière. In the late 1960s, she also recorded Un pays pour nous, leonard Bernstein, who composed the original melody, declared that Boccaras version was his favorite. Boccara renewed her links with Eurovision by participating in the French national finals of 1980 – performing Un enfant de France – and 1981 – with Voilà comment je taime
Frida Boccara
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Frida Boccara in 1970
22.
Un jour, un enfant
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Un jour, un enfant is one of four winning songs in the Eurovision Song Contest 1969, this one being sung in French by Frida Boccara representing France. The other three winners were Salomé representing Spain with Vivo cantando, Lulu representing the United Kingdom with Boom Bang-a-Bang, the song was performed fourteenth on the night, following Germanys Siw Malmkvist with Primaballerina and preceding Portugals Simone de Oliveira with Desfolhada portuguesa. At the close of voting, it had received 18 points, the song is a classical ballad, describing the wonders of the world as seen by a child. Boccara recorded the song in five languages, French, English, German, Spanish, the song was succeeded as Contest winner in 1970 by Dana singing All Kinds of Everything for Ireland. It was succeeded as French representative at the 1970 contest by Guy Bonnet with Marie-Blanche, aBBAs Agnetha Fältskog covered the song in Swedish on her 1970 solo album Som jag är, under the title Sov gott, min lilla vän. An instrumental version of the song by Paul Mauriat was used as a theme for the Philippine television drama anthology Lovingly Yours, official Eurovision Song Contest site, history by year,1969 Detailed info & lyrics, The Diggiloo Thrush, Un jour, un enfant
Un jour, un enfant
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"Un jour, un enfant"
23.
Lennie Kuhr
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Lenny Kuhr is a Dutch singer-songwriter. In 1967 she started a career in the Netherlands, performing songs in the French chanson tradition. In 1969 she represented the Netherlands in the Eurovision Song Contest with her composition De Troubadour and she was one of the four winners that year. In the early seventies Kuhr was more successful in France than in her home country and she topped the French charts in 1972 with the song Jesus Christo and performed in the shows of Georges Brassens. In 1980 she had her biggest hit in the Netherlands, Visite and she has been releasing records ever since, though without major chart success. In 1982 Kuhr hosted the Nationaal Songfestival, the Dutch national heat for Eurovision and she has been in a relationship with Herman Pieter de Boer and is now married to Rob Frank and has two daughters from an earlier marriage who live in Israel. For a while, she lived in Israel
Lennie Kuhr
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Lenny Kuhr in 2008
Lennie Kuhr
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Lenny Kuhr's
1969 Eurovision Song Contest dress
24.
De troubadour
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In a ballad inspired both musically and lyrically by folk-song traditions, Kuhr sings about a troubadour of the Middle Ages, describing the impact the music has on his audiences. Kuhr also recorded the song in English, French, German, Italian, the song was performed eighth on the night, following the United Kingdoms Lulu with Boom Bang-a-Bang and preceding Swedens Tommy Körberg with Judy, min vän. By the close of voting, it had received 18 points, the Netherlands thus achieved the rare feat of going from last to first in the space of one year. It was succeeded as the Netherlands representative at the 1970 contest by Hearts of Soul with Waterman, official Eurovision Song Contest site, history by year,1969 Detailed info and lyrics, Diggiloo Thrush, De troubadour
De troubadour
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"De troubadour"
25.
Netherlands
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The Netherlands is the main constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a densely populated country located in Western Europe with three territories in the Caribbean. The European part of the Netherlands borders Germany to the east, Belgium to the south, and the North Sea to the northwest, sharing borders with Belgium, the United Kingdom. The three largest cities in the Netherlands are Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague, Amsterdam is the countrys capital, while The Hague holds the Dutch seat of parliament and government. The port of Rotterdam is the worlds largest port outside East-Asia, the name Holland is used informally to refer to the whole of the country of the Netherlands. Netherlands literally means lower countries, influenced by its low land and flat geography, most of the areas below sea level are artificial. Since the late 16th century, large areas have been reclaimed from the sea and lakes, with a population density of 412 people per km2 –507 if water is excluded – the Netherlands is classified as a very densely populated country. Only Bangladesh, South Korea, and Taiwan have both a population and higher population density. Nevertheless, the Netherlands is the worlds second-largest exporter of food and agricultural products and this is partly due to the fertility of the soil and the mild climate. In 2001, it became the worlds first country to legalise same-sex marriage, the Netherlands is a founding member of the EU, Eurozone, G-10, NATO, OECD and WTO, as well as being a part of the Schengen Area and the trilateral Benelux Union. The first four are situated in The Hague, as is the EUs criminal intelligence agency Europol and this has led to the city being dubbed the worlds legal capital. The country also ranks second highest in the worlds 2016 Press Freedom Index, the Netherlands has a market-based mixed economy, ranking 17th of 177 countries according to the Index of Economic Freedom. It had the thirteenth-highest per capita income in the world in 2013 according to the International Monetary Fund, in 2013, the United Nations World Happiness Report ranked the Netherlands as the seventh-happiest country in the world, reflecting its high quality of life. The Netherlands also ranks joint second highest in the Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index, the region called Low Countries and the country of the Netherlands have the same toponymy. Place names with Neder, Nieder, Nether and Nedre and Bas or Inferior are in use in all over Europe. They are sometimes used in a relation to a higher ground that consecutively is indicated as Upper, Boven, Oben. In the case of the Low Countries / the Netherlands the geographical location of the region has been more or less downstream. The geographical location of the region, however, changed over time tremendously
Netherlands
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The Netherlands in 5500 BC
Netherlands
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Flag
Netherlands
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The Netherlands in 500 BC
Netherlands
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An oak figurine found in
Willemstad, North Brabant (4500 BC).
26.
Madrid
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Madrid is the capital city of the Kingdom of Spain and the largest municipality in both the Community of Madrid and Spain as a whole. The city has a population of almost 3.2 million with an area population of approximately 6.5 million. It is the third-largest city in the European Union after London and Berlin, the municipality itself covers an area of 604.3 km2. Madrid lies on the River Manzanares in the centre of both the country and the Community of Madrid, this community is bordered by the communities of Castile and León. As the capital city of Spain, seat of government, and residence of the Spanish monarch, Madrid is also the political, economic, the current mayor is Manuela Carmena from Ahora Madrid. Madrid is home to two football clubs, Real Madrid and Atlético de Madrid. Madrid is the 17th most liveable city in the according to Monocle magazine. Madrid organises fairs such as FITUR, ARCO, SIMO TCI, while Madrid possesses modern infrastructure, it has preserved the look and feel of many of its historic neighbourhoods and streets. Cibeles Palace and Fountain have become one of the monument symbols of the city, the first documented reference of the city originates in Andalusan times as the Arabic مجريط Majrīṭ, which was retained in Medieval Spanish as Magerit. A wider number of theories have been formulated on possible earlier origins, according to legend, Madrid was founded by Ocno Bianor and was named Metragirta or Mantua Carpetana. The most ancient recorded name of the city Magerit comes from the name of a built on the Manzanares River in the 9th century AD. Nevertheless, it is speculated that the origin of the current name of the city comes from the 2nd century BC. The Roman Empire established a settlement on the banks of the Manzanares river, the name of this first village was Matrice. In the 8th century, the Islamic conquest of the Iberian Peninsula saw the changed to Mayrit, from the Arabic term ميرا Mayra. The modern Madrid evolved from the Mozarabic Matrit, which is still in the Madrilenian gentilic, after the disintegration of the Caliphate of Córdoba, Madrid was integrated in the Taifa of Toledo. With the surrender of Toledo to Alfonso VI of León and Castile, the city was conquered by Christians in 1085, Christians replaced Muslims in the occupation of the centre of the city, while Muslims and Jews settled in the suburbs. The city was thriving and was given the title of Villa, since 1188, Madrid won the right to be a city with representation in the courts of Castile. In 1202, King Alfonso VIII of Castile gave Madrid its first charter to regulate the municipal council, which was expanded in 1222 by Ferdinand III of Castile
Madrid
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From upper left: view of business districts of
AZCA and
CTBA,
Gran Vía street and
Metropolis Building, the
Palace of Communication, view of
Royal Palace and
Almudena Cathedral.
Madrid
Madrid
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Plaza Mayor
Madrid
–
Puerta de Alcalá
27.
Eurovision Song Contest 1970
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1970 was the 15th Eurovision Song Contest, held on 21 March 1970 at the RAI Congrescentrum in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The Amsterdam contest is regarded as one of the most significant in Eurovision history for a number of reasons, Ireland won with eighteen-year-old Dana and a song called All Kinds of Everything. The UK came second for the time, six votes behind Ireland. Luxembourg received zero votes for the only time, due to there being four winners in the previous contest, a question was raised as to which nation would host the 1970 Eurovision. With the UK having hosted the 1968 Contest and Spain the 1969 Contest, only France, a toss of a coin resulted in the host country being decided as the Netherlands. The Congrescentrum, venue of the 1970 contest, is a semi-permanent exhibit at the Ferdinand Bolstraat to Amsterdam and this building was replaced in 1961 by the current RAI building on Europes Square. The current congress and event center on Europe Square, was designed by Alexander Bodon, the Dutch producers were forced to pad out the show as only 12 nations decided to make the trip to Amsterdam. The result was a format which has endured almost to the present day, an extended opening sequence set the scene, while every entry was introduced by a short video postcard featuring each of the participating artists, ostensibly in their own nation. However, the postcards for Switzerland, Luxembourg and Monaco were all filmed on location in Paris, interestingly, the long introduction film was followed by what probably is one of the shortest ever introductions by any presenter. Willy Dobbe only welcomed the viewers in English, French and Dutch, on screen captions introduced each entry, with the song titles listed all in lower case and the names of the artist and composers/authors all in capitals. The set design was devised by Roland de Groot, a design was composed of a number of curved horizontal bars. To avoid an incident like in 1969, a tie rule was created and it stated that, if two or more songs gained the same number of votes and were tied for first place, each song would have to be performed again. After which each national jury would have a show of hands of which they thought was the best, if the countries tied again, then they would share first place. Austria, Finland, Norway, Portugal and Sweden boycotted this contest as they were not pleased with the result of 1969, Portugal did however host a National final, being won by Sérgio Borges. Of the participating singers, a number were already established performers, notably, the United Kingdom sent Welsh singer and Apple recording artist Mary Hopkin, while David Alexandre Winter represented Luxembourg. The contest is notable for the appearance of the then unknown Julio Iglesias. In the run-up to the Contest, the United Kingdom were favourites to win, so sure of victory, the UK delegation had organised a winners party to be thrown after the contest. In the end, the two countries in the running were the UK and Ireland, albeit the latter holding the lead throughout the voting
Eurovision Song Contest 1970
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RAI Congrescentrum, Amsterdam - host venue of the 1970 Eurovision Song Contest
Eurovision Song Contest 1970
Eurovision Song Contest 1970
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Dana sings the winning song
All Kinds of Everything
28.
Eurovision Song Contest 1971
–
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 "
29.
Mocedades
–
Mocedades is a Spanish singing group from the Basque Country, who represented Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1973 with the hit song Eres Tú. Since June 2014, Mocedades has been the name of two bands, one with Izaskun Uranga as its leader and the other with Javier Garay. A third group, El Consorcio, is composed of former Mocedades members who left the group but have continued a career together outside the Mocedades brand. In 1967, in the Basque city of Bilbao, three sisters, Amaya, Izaskun and Estibaliz Uranga, formed a vocal trio named Las Hermanas Uranga. They sang in various locations at Bilbao, during their rehearsals, their brothers and friends joined. Eventually they decided to form a group named Voces y guitarras with folk and spiritual music. The members of Voces y guitarras were Amaya Uranga, Izaskun Uranga, Estibaliz Uranga, Roberto Uranga, Rafael Blanco, Sergio Blanco, José Ipiña, Javier Garay and they spent a year performing around their hometown before sending a demo cassette to producer Juan Carlos Calderón in Madrid. He took an immediate interest in the group and renamed them Mocedades, meaning youths, from the Spanish word mocedad, Javier Garay could not join them because of his military service, and so Mocedades started out as an eight-member group. In 1970, both Ipiña and Panera left Mocedades, Javier Garay who had previously belonged to Voces y Guitarras rejoined the group in 1970 after serving in the Spanish military in Africa. Estíbaliz Uranga and the Blanco brothers followed in 1971, and in 1972 Ipiña returned and it was with this configuration of six, known in Spain as The Six Historic Ones, that Mocedades achieved its greatest successes. The group was now on its way to making a string of hits, most notably Eres tú, runner up in 1973 and the next year a massive hit in Europe. The B-side of the single was the English-language version of the song, there were also several cover versions of the tune in both English and Spanish, only one of which, charted, becoming a minor Adult Contemporary hit. The song was re-released in English as Touch The Wind in later years and it was subsequently released in German, French, Italian, and Basque. The song was the only U. S. Billboard hit for Mocedades, the 1973 Eurovision Song Contest was marked by a scandal, with charges that Eres tú was plagiarized and merely a rewrite of the Yugoslav entry from the 1966 contest. Nevertheless, Eres tú was not disqualified, after winning second place in the contest, and as of 2013 the highest score for Spain with 125 points, the song went on to become a huge international hit. However, many more followed in Latin America and Spain, most notably Tómame o déjame, El vendedor, La otra España. In 1984, the singer, Amaya Uranga, left the group to pursue a solo career. For the third album, also José Ipiña and Carlos Zubiaga had left the group and this Mocedades made in 1995 another album entitled Suave luz before the new members left it again in 1996
Mocedades
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The Group in 2006.
30.
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
31.
Eurovision Song Contest 1979
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1979 was the 24th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It was held on 31 March 1979 in Jerusalem, Israel, the event was staged at the International Convention Center. The presenters were Daniel Peer and Yardena Arazi, the winner was Israel with the song Hallelujah, performed by Gali Atari and Milk and Honey. Therefore, this was Israels consecutive second win, and overall win, in the contest. 19 countries participated, the 20 countries that took part at the previous 1978 Contest, except for Turkey which was going to participate. Yugoslavia, that missed the 1978 Contest, also didnt want to take part nor transmit the 1979 show for political reasons, as well as being broadcast live in the 19 competing countries, the contest was broadcast in Turkey, Romania, Hong Kong and Iceland. As of 2017, it was the last time the contest was held in March, located on a plateau in the Judean Mountains between the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea, Jerusalem is one of the oldest cities in the world. In the ancient cuneiform, Jerusalem was called Urusalima, meaning City of Peace and it is considered holy to the three major Abrahamic religions—Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Each country had a jury who awarded 12,10,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 point for their top ten songs. This was the last year in which the points were announced via order of appearance, Israel gained a good lead in the early stages of the voting, but Spain eventually caught up and took a good lead themselves. At the close of the jurys votes, Israel were one point behind Spain. Spain ended up giving Israel 10 points, causing the crowd to erupt into enormous cheers, at one point before the contest Turkey was going to participate. The country would have appeared 11th on stage, represented by Maria Rita Epik and 21, for each nations performance, the orchestra was conducted by the following, Below is a summary of all 12 points in the final
Eurovision Song Contest 1979
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The venue of the contest,
International Convention Center in Jerusalem
Eurovision Song Contest 1979
32.
Eurovision Song Contest 1995
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1995 was the 40th Eurovision Song Contest and was held on 13 May 1995 in the Point Theatre in Dublin, Ireland. This years competition was the last with one host until 18 years later in 2013 in Malmö. This contest broke the chain of victories that Ireland enjoyed in 1992,1993 and this was Irelands 3rd year in succession to host the contest - and to mark the 40th show, it was opened with a 4-minute retrospective showing images from the contests history. The Norwegian group Secret Garden was the winner of this contest with the instrumental song. Incidentally, Secret Gardens violinist was Fionnuala Sherry, who is Irish and it was his birthday that night, but according to host Kennedy, He wouldnt say which one. Nonetheless, the audience sang Happy Birthday for him, assisted by the orchestra, after winning the 1994 contest, RTÉ were worried about whether they could afford to host a third consecutive contest in 1995. The BBC had offered to take on the responsibility of hosting the contest, in the end RTÉ decided to stage the contest on its own. However they did ask the EBU that, should Ireland win once more, the favourite to win the contest, according to bookmakers, was Sweden with the pop-ballad Se på mig. Other countries in contention for the win were Croatia, Denmark, Israel, Spain, the winning song was something new at Eurovision in that it contained only 24 words accompanied by long violin solos. The United Kingdom contributed a modern rap number, while the previous year’s runner-up, Poland, after the voting was completed, Norway was the winner with 148 points, followed by Spains Vuelve conmigo with 119 points, and Sweden gaining 100 points. The stage was designed by Alan Farquharson who also designed the set of the 1993 contest that took place in Millstreet, the interval act consisted of several well known Irish performers including Clannad, Brian Kennedy and was composed by leading musician Michael OSuilleabhan. The EBU decreased the number of back to 23 to make sure the show wouldnt last longer than 3 hours. 5 of the 6 countries that were relegated the year came back to the contest, Luxembourg decided to stop participating completely and Italy withdrew voluntarily. This rumour did, however inspire a popular episode of Father Ted, in any event, RTÉ ended up hosting the contest once again in 1997. Each country had a jury that awarded 12,10,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 point for their top ten songs. Below is a summary of all 12 points in the final, FR Yugoslavia After the breakup of Yugoslavia, third channel of Radio Television of Serbia broadcast the show, although Yugoslavia did not participate
Eurovision Song Contest 1995
33.
Eurovision Song Contest 1984
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1984, the 29th event of its kind, was held on 5 May 1984 in Luxembourg. The presenter, Désirée Nosbusch, only 19 years old at the time, hosted the show in a lax manner, which was quite unusual for the show at the time. She manifested her fluency in four languages by switching between a strong transatlantic English, French, German and Luxembourgish in the course of talking, swedens the Herreys were the winners of this contest with the song, Diggi-Loo Diggi-Ley. This was the Nordic countrys second win, and the first song performed in Swedish, the previous Swedish winner, ABBA, ten years ago had performed their song Waterloo in English. Israel withdrew from the contest due to Yom Hazikaron being commemorated on the same date, iceland was going to participate but withdrew due to lack of financial support. 1984 is also a notable for the audible booing that could be heard from the audience and it was said that the booing was due to English football hooligans having rioted in Luxembourg in November 1983 after being knocked out of the UEFA European Football Championship. However, the song managed a pretty good showing, reaching seventh place. 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 1984 contest. It is the major venue for drama, opera and ballet. It also hosted the 1973 edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, host conductor in bold Notes 1. ^ Contains some words in English. 2. ^ Contains some words in Italian,3. ^ Contains some words in German. Before the contest, Sweden was not expected to win or even achieve a high placing, in the run-up to the Contest, bookmakers Ladbrokes had the lowest odds on songs from Ireland, Italy, and the United Kingdom. Sweden was considered a dark horse entry with high odds, each country had a jury that awarded one to eight,10 and 12 points for their top ten songs. At the close of the jurys votes, there was only a difference of six points between Sweden and Ireland, at 141 and 135 respectively. However, Yugoslavia was the country who had not given any points to Ireland, and Portugal. Portugals voting also cost Denmark, who had been holding at a third position, even leading the scoreboard for a short time, in that place. Portugal at the time had only given Denmark one point making Denmarks total 101 points
Eurovision Song Contest 1984
34.
Nul points
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The winner of the Eurovision Song Contest is selected by a positional voting system. Each country awards two sets of 12,10, 8–1 points to their 10 favourite songs, one from their professional jury, the current system has been in place since 2016. In 2003, Eircoms telephone polling system malfunction, irish broadcaster RTÉ did not receive the polling results from Eircom in time, and substituted votes by a panel of judges. Between 1997 and 2003, lines were opened to the public for five minutes after the performance. Between 2004 and 2006 the lines were opened for 10 minutes, in 2010 viewers were allowed to vote during the performances, but this was rescinded for the 2012 contest. The BBC contacted regional juries by telephone to choose the 1956 winners, and this method continued to be used until 1993. The following year saw the first satellite linkup to juries, to announce the votes, the contests presenters connect by satellite to each country in turn and inviting a spokesperson to read the countrys votes in French or English. The presenters originally repeated the votes in both languages, but since 2004 the votes have been translated due to time constraints, the scoreboard displays the number of points each country has received and, since 2008, a progress bar indicating the number of countries which have voted. Note The most-used voting system was last used for the 1969 contest and this system was used from 1957 to 1961 and from 1967 to 1969. Ten jurors in each country each cast one vote for their favourite song, in 1969 this resulted in a four-way tie for first place, with no tie-breaking procedure. A second round of voting in the event of a tie was introduced to this system the following year, from 1962 to 1966, a voting system similar to the current one was used. With the latter system, a country could choose to give points to two instead of three, in 1965, Belgium awarded the United Kingdom six points and Italy three. Although it was possible to one country nine points, this never occurred. The 1971,1972, and 1973 contests saw the jurors in vision for the first time, each country was represented by two jurors, one older than 25 and one younger, with at least ten years difference in their ages. Each juror gave a minimum of one point and a maximum of five points to each song, in 1974 the previous system of ten jurors was used, and the following year the current system was introduced. Spokespeople were next seen on screen in 1994 with a link to the venue. The 2004 contest had its first semifinal, with a change in voting. This resulted in Ukraines Ruslana finishing first, with a record 280 points, to date, non-qualifying countries are still allowed to vote in the final
Nul points
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"The Pyrenean Axis" (Andorra and Spain)
35.
Pastora Soler
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Pilar Sánchez Luque, better known by her stage name Pastora Soler, is a Spanish singer. She is also a songwriter and her compositions usually mix copla or flamenco with pop or electronic music, Soler represented Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 in Baku, Azerbaijan with the song Quédate conmigo and came in 10th place. A precocious chanteuse, she started singing coplas and flamenco songs at events when she was a child. In 1994 she was signed to the record company Polygram to release her first studio album, Nuestras coplas, pop and commercial sounds arrived in 1996 with her second album, El mundo que soné, which was the last she published with Polygram. In 1999, she was signed to Emi-Odeón and released her third album and this album included her first big hit single, Dámelo ya, which sold 120,000 copies in Spain and was also a number one hit in Turkey. In 2001, her fourth album Corazón congelado was published, produced by Carlos Jean, the same-titled single was selected to be the official theme of the 2001 Vuelta a España. The album received a certification for its sales. Her fifth album, Deseo, was produced by Carlos Jean. This album was awarded a platinum certification. In 2005, she changed record company and signed to Warner Music Spain and her first studio album with Warner, Pastora Soler, produced by Danilo Ballo and recorded in Madrid and Milan, included more mature music and themes. Its first promotional single Sólo tú was a dramatic ballad, the album received a gold certification for its sales. The same year her first compilation album was released, Sus grandes éxitos and her seventh studio album, Toda mi verdad, was released in 2007. Recorded in Tarifa and produced by Jacobo Calderón, it consisted mostly of compositions by Antonio Martínez-Ares, for the first time a composition by Soler herself was included, the song that gives title to the album. The album peaked at thirteen in the official Spanish album chart. The tour that followed the release of the album took her to Egypt, in February 2009, her single Bendita locura was released, the single that gives title to the same titled studio album. It peaked at eight in the official Spanish album chart. In September 2010 she released a CD+DVD recorded live at the Teatro Lope de Vega in Seville that celebrated her 15 years of career as a recording artist,15 años and it includes her biggest hits, as well as duets with Malú, Miguel Poveda and Manuel Carrasco. The single chosen to promote this album was a version of La mala costumbre
Pastora Soler
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Pastora Soler (2009)
Pastora Soler
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Pastora Soler in concert
36.
Eurovision Song Contest 2012
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The Eurovision Song Contest 2012 was the 57th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Baku, Azerbaijan, following Ell & Nikkis win at the 2011 contest in Düsseldorf, the contest was held at the newly constructed Baku Crystal Hall, with semi-finals held on 22 and 24 May 2012, followed by the final held on 26 May 2012. The contest was won by singer Loreen from Sweden with the song Euphoria—written by Thomas G, son and Peter Boström, russia finished in second place, with Serbia finishing in third. They were followed by the host country, Azerbaijan, which reached the 4th place, albania finished 5th, achieving its first top 5 placing. Germany, Italy and Spain were the three members of the Big Five that managed to rank within the top 10, finishing in 8th, 9th and 10th places respectively. Azerbaijan got the right to host the 2012 edition of the Eurovision Song Contest after winning the previous 2011 edition with the song Running Scared performed by Ell & Nikki. Shortly after Azerbaijans victory at the 2011 edition, officials announced that a new 23,000 seat concert venue was to be built near National Flag Square in Baku, as a potential venue for the event. Three days later, other options were revealed by organisers, such as the 37, 000-seat Tofiq Bahramov Stadium. On 2 August 2011, Alpine Bau Deutschland AG was awarded the contract to construct the Baku Crystal Hall, preparations for construction began in the area shortly after the announcement. Even though the full cost of the contract was not named, on 8 September 2011, Azad Azerbaijan TV reported that Baku Crystal Hall would be the venue of the contest, but no formal confirmation was made at the time by the EBU. On 25 January 2012, it was confirmed that the Baku Crystal Hall would be the venue of the contest, even though the venue had an extended capacity of 23,000 people, only 16,000 people were able to attend each show. Tickets for the contest became available online for purchase on 28 February 2012, the results format of each show remained the same with each countrys votes being decided on a 50,50 split between televoting and a national jury. Each participating country had their own jury, which consisted of five professional members of the music industry. Under the official released on 24 November 2011, the number of participants in the final was raised to 26, including the host nation, the Big Five. This was the time in the Eurovision Song Contest that 26 countries were in the final. The draw that determined the semi-final running order was held on 25 January 2012 at the Buta Palace, the participating countries, excluding the automatic finalists, were split into six pots, based upon how those countries voted in past contests. From these pots, half competed in the first semi-final on 22 May 2012, the other half in that particular pot competed in the second semi-final on 24 May 2012. 1. ^ Armenia withdrew approximately a month and a half after the allocation draw
Eurovision Song Contest 2012
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Presenters of the Eurovision Song Contest 2012, from left to right –
Leyla Aliyeva,
Eldar Gasimov and
Nargiz Birk-Petersen
Eurovision Song Contest 2012
Eurovision Song Contest 2012
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Semi-final allocation draw ceremony at the
Buta Palace in Baku.
Eurovision Song Contest 2012
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Inside of Baku Crystal Hall.
37.
Ruth Lorenzo
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Ruth Lorenzo Pascual, better known as Ruth Lorenzo, is a Spanish singer and composer, best known for coming fifth in the fifth series of the British TV talent show The X Factor in 2008. Artists such as Auryn and Dannii Minogue have included compositions of hers in their albums and her debut single Burn entered the Spanish Singles Charts and reached number 16 when she released the single on 27 June 2011. She released her first UK single The Night on 15 June 2013 and she represented Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest 2014 with the song Dancing In The Rain, which entered the Spanish Singles Chart at number 5. She scored 74 points for Spain, finishing in 10th place, Ruth Lorenzo was born on 10 November 1982 in the Region of Murcia, in south-eastern Spain. At a very young age she became a fan of the musical Annie, at the age of 12, Lorenzos family moved to Utah in the United States and this was the first time she had the opportunity to be involved in music at school. After much encouragement from her teachers, Lorenzo was entered into competitions and played roles in musical productions such as The Phantom of the Opera. When Lorenzo was 19 she joined a band, which was a challenge for her as she had only sung opera music. In 2002, she auditioned for the series of Operación Triunfo, the Spanish version of Star Academy. The series was won by Basque singer Ainhoa. She also made a big decision to quit her job in her familys business in order to pursue her dreams once again, Ruth landed a contract at Polaris World where as well as performing, she worked as a PR consultant. In 2008, Lorenzo auditioned for the series of The X Factor in front of judges Simon Cowell, Cheryl Cole. She impressed the judges and made it through to the stage of the show. Lorenzo passed both stages of bootcamp and was sent to St. Tropez with the successful contestants from the over-25s category. There she auditioned in front of Dannii Minogue who was her X Factor mentor, after an emotional performance of True Colors, sung in Spanish, Minogue decided to pick Lorenzo for her final three who would proceed to the live shows. On the first live show she sang Take My Breath Away in English and Spanish and she had mainly good comments, especially from Cowell, who told her she should sing in Spanish more often. However, the next week Lorenzo sang I Just Cant Stop Loving You in English only and she performed Purple Rain in the singoff, and it saved her into the next week. In Week 5, Lorenzo was in the two again against one of the crowd favourites Laura White. This time she sang Knockin on Heavens Door and was saved by judges Minogue, Walsh and her performance was overshadowed by the uproar over Whites departure
Ruth Lorenzo
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Ruth Lorenzo in 2014
Ruth Lorenzo
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Ruth performing live in
Ayr,
Scotland
Ruth Lorenzo
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Ruth Lorenzo at rehearsal in Copenhagen
38.
Eurovision Song Contest 2014
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The Eurovision Song Contest 2014 was the 59th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Copenhagen, Denmark, following Emmelie de Forests win at the 2013 contest in Malmö and this was the third time that Denmark hosted the contest, the most recent previous occasion being in 2001. The two semi-finals took place on 6 May and 8 May 2014, and the final on 10 May 2014, the shows were presented by Lise Rønne, Nikolaj Koppel and Pilou Asbæk. The host broadcaster, DR, chose the B&W Hallerne as the host venue after considering several bids from cities and venues across Denmark, thirty-seven countries participated, this includes the return of Poland after a two-year absence and Portugal after a one-year absence. Overall, there were two countries competing compared to the previous year, making thirty-seven participants, the smallest number since 2006. Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus and Serbia announced their withdrawal from the 2014 Contest, San Marino and Montenegro both qualified for the final for the first time. The winner was Conchita Wurst with the song Rise Like a Phoenix, written by Charley Mason, Joey Patulka, Ali Zuckowski and this was Austrias first win in the competition since 1966. Jokes made about Wurst had sparked controversy, whilst Russia were booed several times during the contest, the Netherlands and Sweden finished second and third respectively with the former achieving their best result since their victory in the 1975 Contest. Armenia finished fourth, which equals their best result to date, while Hungary finished fifth, of the Big Five, only Ruth Lorenzo of Spain achieved a place in the top ten. A new record of 195 million viewers for the Eurovision Song Contest was reported, the host broadcaster, DR, and the EBU won the International TV Award at the Ondas Awards for their production of the contest. On 2 September 2013, Danish public broadcaster DR announced that it had chosen Copenhagen as the host city for the 2014 contest, the contest was held at the former shipyard Refshaleøen, in the B&W Hallerne, with the social networking hashtag #JoinUs as the motto. The mayor of Copenhagen, Frank Jensen, declared in late August that the city would contribute to the budget with 40 million. He also announced that the aim was to make the Eurovision 2014 into the greenest contest to date since Copenhagen had been elected European Green Capital for 2014. Five cities had been considered as host city of the contest, including Herning and Copenhagen, later, Fredericia and Aalborg entered the phase with the Messe C and Gigantium venues, respectively. The fifth city to join the phase was Horsens, with the venue being the courtyard of the former Horsens State Prison, in the event that Horsens had been chosen to host the contest, the courtyard would have been covered by a permanent glass roof. The contest was set to take place on 13,15 and 17 May 2014, however. On 17 June 2013, the municipality executive of Aalborg decided not to bid for hosting the contest due to the lack of sufficient hotel capacity. On 25 June 2013, the Municipality of Fredericia announced that the Triangle Region had withdrawn its bid on hosting the contest, DR required the hosting venue to have no pillars blocking any views and an interior height of at least 16 metres
Eurovision Song Contest 2014
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B&W Hallerne, located on Refshaleøen Island, Copenhagen
Eurovision Song Contest 2014
Eurovision Song Contest 2014
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Parken Stadium, which hosted the
2001 contest.
Eurovision Song Contest 2014
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Jyske Bank Boxen, hosted the final of
Dansk Melodi Grand Prix 2013.
39.
Star Academy
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Star Academy, called Operación Triunfo in Spanish-speaking countries, is a highly successful television pop music talent contest with viewer voting and reality show elements. The show format originated in Holland, with the original Starmaker produced by Endemol, the participants are filmed with cameras throughout the day and night. The live show will feature special guest stars, with whom some of the contestants have the opportunity to sing. Based on the judges verdicts and viewer voting, the weakest contestant is dropped, the eventual winner is awarded a record deal and usually some amount of money. The Star Academy concept belongs to the Dutch production company Endemol, the first country to broadcast the format was Holland on March 5,2001. From then on the Star Academy phenomenon began to spread in an unstoppable way, Star Academy is in essence a singing competition, where the lowest vote-receiver each week must leave the show, ending finally when only one person remains. In 2011, most Star Academy series outside of Africa and the Middle East were phased out in favor of musical competition format from Endemol. There are currently 101 winners of the Star Academy format, the most recent winner is Geoffrey Oji from Nigeria
Star Academy
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Own version
40.
Social networking website
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Most social network services are web-based and provide means for users to interact over the Internet, such as by e-mail and instant messaging and online forums. Social networking sites allow users to share ideas, digital photos and videos, posts, depending on the social media platform, members may be able to contact any other member. In other cases, members can contact anyone they have a connection to, and subsequently anyone that contact has a connection to, LinkedIn, a career social networking service, generally requires that a member personally know another member in real life before they contact them online. Some services require members to have a connection to contact other members. The main types of social networking services are those that contain category places, means to connect with friends, there have been attempts to standardize these services to avoid the need to duplicate entries of friends and interests. A study reveals that India has recorded worlds largest growth in terms of media users in 2013. A2013 survey found that 73% of U. S. adults use social networking sites, the variety and evolving range of stand-alone and built-in social networking services in the online space introduces a challenge of definition. Furthermore, the idea that these services are defined by their ability to bring people together provides too broad a definition, such a broad definition would suggest that the telegraph and telephone were social networking services – not the Internet technologies scholars are intending to describe. The terminology is unclear, with some referring to social networking services as social media. The potential for computer networking to facilitate newly improved forms of computer-mediated social interaction was suggested early on, efforts to support social networks via computer-mediated communication were made in many early online services, including Usenet, ARPANET, LISTSERV, and bulletin board services. Many prototypical features of social networking sites were present in online services such as America Online, Prodigy, CompuServe, ChatNet. Early social networking on the World Wide Web began in the form of generalized online communities such as Theglobe. com, Geocities, some communities – such as Classmates. com – took a different approach by simply having people link to each other via email addresses. In the late 1990s, user profiles became a feature of social networking sites, allowing users to compile lists of friends. New social networking methods were developed by the end of the 1990s and it also became one of the first companies to profit from the sale of virtual goods. Friendster was followed by MySpace and LinkedIn a year later, friendster became very popular in the Pacific Islands. Orkut became the first popular social networking service in Brazil and quickly grew in popularity in India, attesting to the rapid increase in social networking sites popularity, by 2005, it was reported that Myspace was getting more page views than Google. Facebook, launched in 2004, became the largest social networking site in the world in early 2009, Facebook was first introduced as a Harvard social networking site, expanding to other universities and eventually, anyone. The term social media was introduced and soon became widespread, web-based social networking services make it possible to connect people who share interests and activities across political, economic, and geographic borders
Social networking website
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The
European Southern Observatory uses social networks to engage people in astronomical observations.
Social networking website
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Most popular social networking sites by country
Social networking website
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Banner in
Bangkok, observed on the 30th of June 2014 during the
2014 Thai coup d'état, informing the
Thai public that 'like' or 'share' activity on social media could land them in prison.
41.
Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest 2014
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Spain participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2014 in Copenhagen, Denmark. The Spanish entry was selected through the national final Mira quién va a Eurovisión, Ruth Lorenzo represented Spain with the song Dancing in the Rain, which placed 10th in the final, scoring 74 points. On 20 January 2014, TVE announced that it would organise a national final in order to select the Spanish entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2014. This marked a return to a multi-artist national final selection procedure by the Spanish broadcaster, the five competing acts and the titles of their entries were announced officially on 20 January. The winner was selected by a combination of televoting and jury voting, the jury panel that accounted for 50% of the votes consisted of singers David Bustamante, Merche and Mónica Naranjo. Brequette and Ruth Lorenzo tied with the amount of points. Before her appearance at the contest, Lorenzo went on a promotional tour, prior to her selection, Lorenzo gave interviews and appeared on many Spanish TV and radio shows and singing Dancing in the Rain. On 2 March Lorenzo appeared at the TVEs Todos Somos Raros, Todos Somos Únicos telethon, on 27 March, Lorenzo swam with sharks at the Madrid Zoo Aquarium to fulfill his promise whether it was the representative of Spain at the Eurovision Song Contest 2014. This was followed by an appearance at the London Preview Party alongside 15 other participating entries from 2014, on 13 April, Lorenzo performed Dancing in the Rain in Birmingham, United Kingdom as the headline act during the citys annual Birmingham Pride Ball. Lorenzo also took part in interviews and performances on Swedish, Belgian. As a member of the Big Five, Spain automatically qualified for a place in the final, in addition to their participation in the final, Spain was assigned to vote in the first semi-final on 6 May 2014. During the Spanish delegations press conference on 6 May 2014, Spain was allocated to compete in the half of the final. In the final, the producers of the show decided that Spain would perform 19th, following Finland, Spain placed 10th in the final, scoring 74 points. At the contest, Ruth Lorenzo was joined on stage by four backing vocalists that did not appear on camera, Mey Green, Sandra Borrego, Aiwinnie Mybaby, the Spanish entry was placed 10th, the only Big Five country to reach the Top 10. In Spain, the first semi-final was broadcast on La 2, the Spanish spokesperson revealing the result of the Spanish vote in the final was Carolina Casado. The Spanish votes in the first semi-final were based on 50% jury voting, the Spanish votes in the final were based on 50% jury voting and 50% televoting results. Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest Eurovision Song Contest 2014
Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest 2014
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Ruth Lorenzo at rehearsal in Copenhagen
42.
Edurne
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Edurne García Almagro, known professionally as Edurne, is a Spanish singer, actress, and TV presenter. She rose to fame in late 2005 when she took part in the Spanish casting show Operación Triunfo on Telecinco and she represented Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 with the song Amanecer where she finished in 21st place. Edurne was born on 22 December 1985 in the capital of Madrid and she started attending auditions as a child. At the age of 9, she became a member of the music group Trastos. She also had as a child minor roles in Spanish TV series like Hospital Central or Ana y los 7, in late 2005, Edurne auditioned for the fourth series of Operación Triunfo, where she was selected by the shows jury. She was eliminated in the 12th live show, finishing in place in early 2006. 2007 saw the release of Edurnes second studio album, called Ilusión, ven Por Mí reached, as the albums lead single, the top-twenty in the Spanish Dance iTunes Chart. Edurne released her third album Première on 4 June 2008, with the single being Un Poco de Amor. Sigo Enamorada de Ti and Tú serás para mí were the following singles, both are songs from Grease, because of Edurnes role as Sandy in the stage production Grease, El musical de tu vida from 2007 to 2013. Edurnes fourth studio album Nueva Piel was released in 2010 and it produced the two singles Soy Como Soy and Oigo Mi Corazón, both achieved moderate success on the Spanish charts. Edurne joined the cast of ¡Más Que Baile, the Spanish version of Strictly Come Dancing, where she took the second place in the final. Pankiller was selected to be the single and the music video became popular very fast in the social networks because of the comparisons with US popstars Rihanna, Lady Gaga. From June to December 2014, Edurne presented the comedy show Todo va bien, along with Xavi Rodríguez, on 14 January 2015, TVE announced the internal selection of Edurne to represent Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 with the song Amanecer. In the final of the contest, which place in Vienna on 23 May 2015. Amanecer is included in Edurnes sixth studio album Adrenalina, which was released on 16 June 2015, Adrenalina debuted at number six on the Spanish Albums Chart, her most successful entry since her debut album. On 5 August 2015, it was announced Edurne would be joining Got Talent España as one of the four judges, in September 2016, Edurne recorded and released a video of the song Taste the Feeling, a Coca-Cola campaign for the Spanish speaking world. During her music career Edurne has earned one 40 Principales Award nomination. com Official Facebook
Edurne
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Edurne in 2015.
Edurne
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Edurne performing with
Spanish DJ Brian Cross in
Granada
43.
Eurovision Song Contest 1958
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1958 was the third Eurovision Song Contest. The event was held on Wednesday 12 March 1958 at AVRO Studios, the winner was France with the song Dors, mon amour, performed by André Claveau, written by Pierre Delanoë and composed by Hubert Giraud. As in 1956, it is the only contest that has not featured a song in the English language. The 1958 contest continued with the policy implemented the year before where each country was limited to one song entry and this policy has been retained to date. Hilversum, a municipality and a town in the province of North Holland, is known as the Media Capital of the Netherlands, one such media network was the host of the event, Nederlandse Televisie Stichting. The contest was held in one of Avro studios halls, the background of the stage had an images-board to show behind each singer, to contextually feat each songs lyrics. The center-front of the stage before the performers, and the area from the stage with the orchestra and stairs entrance, were decorated with tulips. The juries were not in the studio as in 1956, for the 1958 event, they remained in their own countries, listening to the event. Once the songs had all been sung, juries announced their results via telephone in order of presentation. The Italian entry was not picked up properly in some of the other countries and it was the only year that the host country finished in last place until 2015, and the first time more than one country was placed last. The interval act was music by the Metropole Orkest, under the direction of maestro Dolf van der Linden, there were two interval acts, one in the middle of the competing songs performances and one after all the rest of the competing performances were shown. Sweden, a country that would later be one of the most successful in the contest, the United Kingdom decided to withdraw from the contest after initially planning to submit an entry. After the contest, the Italian entry Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu by Domenico Modugno went on to become a worldwide hit. During the 1st Grammy Awards, held on 4 May 1959 at Hollywoods Beverly Hilton Hotel, Nel blu dipinto di blu received two awards, for Record of the Year and Song of the Year. The song is the only recording to achieve this honour. The song also managed to reach the No.1 spot in the US-American Billboard Charts, the song was also voted the second best Eurovision entry of all time at the 50th anniversary show Congratulations in 2005. Each performance had a conductor who maestro the orchestra, each country had 10 jury members who each decided the best song and each awarded 1 point. The table below shows the order in which votes were cast during the 1958 contest along with the spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for their respective country
Eurovision Song Contest 1958
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AVRO Studios, Hilversum. Host venue of the 1958 Eurovision Song Contest.
Eurovision Song Contest 1958
44.
Nel blu dipinto di blu
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Nel blu dipinto di blu, popularly known as Volare, is a song recorded by Italian singer-songwriter Domenico Modugno. Written by Franco Migliacci and Domenico Modugno, it was released as a single on 1 February 1958. Winning the eighth Sanremo Music Festival, the song was chosen as the Italian entry to the Eurovision Song Contest in 1958 and it spent five non-consecutive weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 in August and September 1958 and was Billboards number-one single for the year. Modugnos recording subsequently became the first Grammy winner for Record of the Year, the song was later translated in several languages and it was recorded by a wide range of performers. Franco Migliacci started working on the lyrics of the song in June 1957 and he had planned to go to the sea with Domenico Modugno, but while waiting for Modugno to show up, Migliacci started drinking wine and eventually fell asleep. He had vivid dreams, and when he woke up, he looked at the Chagall paintings on the wall, in Le coq rouge was a yellow man suspended in midair, while in Le peintre et la modelle, half the painters face was coloured blue. So he started penning a song about a man who dreams of painting himself blue, later that same night, Migliacci discussed his lyrics with Modugno, and for several days they worked on the song, tentatively entitled Sogno in blu. The song is a ballad in a dramatic style, in which Modugno describes the feeling he has. The song opens with a prelude which the cover versions often left out. Mi dipingevo le mani e la faccia di blu, poi dimprovviso venivo dal vento rapito, the English lyrics were written by Mitchell Parish. Alternative English lyrics were written in 1958 by Dame Gracie Fields and she often changed the words to suit her performance and age. In 1958, the participated in the selection process for the eighth Sanremo Music Festival. The jury charged with selecting the entries to the competition was going to reject Nel blu dipinto di blu, on 31 January 1958, the song was performed for the first time, during the second night of the eighth Sanremo Music Festival, by Domenico Modugno and Johnny Dorelli. It was Dorellis first appearance on the Sanremo Music Festival, according to his team-partner, Dorelli was so nervous that he had to be punched by Modugno to be persuaded to perform on the stage. Dorellis performance didnt have a big impact on the audience, while Modugnos is now considered to be the event which changed the history of Italian music, during his performance, Modugno opened his arms, as if he was going to fly. Following the first place at the Sanremo Music Festival, the song was chosen to represent Italy at the Eurovision Song Contest 1958, Domenico Modugno was chosen as the singer. The song was performed first on the night, preceding the Netherlands Corry Brokken with Heel de wereld. Due to a fault, the song was not heard in all countries transmitting the event, so it was performed at the end as well
Nel blu dipinto di blu
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"Nel blu dipinto di blu"
Nel blu dipinto di blu
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Dean Martin was one of the first artists covering the song.
Nel blu dipinto di blu
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David Bowie covered the song for 1986's film
Absolute Beginners, directed by
Julien Temple.
45.
Domenico Modugno
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Domenico Modugno was an Italian singer, songwriter, actor, guitarist, and later in life, a member of the Italian Parliament. He is known for his 1958 international hit song Nel blu dipinto di blu and he is considered the first Italian cantautore. The youngest of four children, Modugno was born at Polignano a Mare, in the province of Bari and his father, Vito Cosimo Modugno, was a municipal police commander, while his mother, Pasqua Lorusso, was a housewife. At the age of 9, his family moved to San Pietro Vernotico, in the Province of Brindisi, here Domenico attended primary school and learned San Pietro Vernoticos dialect, which belongs to the linguistic area of Lecces dialect, similar to Sicilian. He attended secondary school in Lecce, from a young age he wanted to become an actor and in 1951, after his military service, he enrolled in an acting school. While still studying, he had a role in a version of Filumena Marturano by Eduardo De Filippo as well as some other films. In 1957, his song Lazzarella, sung by Aurelio Fierro, came second in the Festival della Canzone Napoletana, in 1958, Modugno took part in Antonio Aniantes comedy La Rosa di Zolfo at the Festival della Prosa in Venice. Also in 1958, he discovered the Italian comedy duo of Franco Franchi and Ciccio Ingrassia, became their manager and got them into a long running film career. The turning point of his career came in year, when he also participated in the Sanremo Music Festival, presenting, together with Johnny Dorelli. Co-authored by Modugno and Franco Migliacci, the won the contest and became an enormous success worldwide. It received two Grammy Awards with sales above 22 million copies, and represented Italy in the 1958 Eurovision Song Contest, where it came in third. Modugno used the money gained with Nel blu dipinto di blu to purchase a Ferrari, however, his car was totaled in an accident and this was mentioned in the Alan Sherman song That is why Americas a nice Italian Name. In 1959, Modugno won the Sanremo Music Festival for the time in a row, with Piove. This was a period of time for Modugno who again represented Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest of 1959. Later his hit song Io was sung by Elvis Presley in English with the title Ask Me, in 1962, Modugno won the Sanremo Music Festival a third time with Addio. Four years later, he again represented Italy at Eurovision with Dio, sergio Franchi recorded it in Italian on his 1967 RCA Victor album, From Sergio-with Love. Jack Jones recorded it in English for his 1967 album, Our Song, Modugno was an actor in 44 movies, and was a film producer of two. In the 1970, Modugno focused on classic music genres and profiles, as a singer and as a musician, adapting poetry, acting on television
Domenico Modugno
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Domenico Modugno
46.
Eurovision Song Contest 1990
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1990 was the 35th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It was held in Zagreb, Yugoslavia on 5 May 1990, the presenters were Helga Vlahović Brnobić and Oliver Mlakar. Toto Cutugno was the winner of this contest with the song Insieme,1992 and this was the second victory for Italy, the first one having been Non ho letà, performed by Gigliola Cinquetti in 1964. However, the song was an even more sweeping evocation of European unity, in anticipation of the completion of the European single market. A national final was held in Malta, which was won by Maryrose Mallia with Our Little World of Yesterday, there was a slightly uncomfortable beginning to the rehearsal week when, offended by press comments concerning their ages, the two presenters quit the show. They were briefly replaced by Rene Medvešek and Dubravka Marković, who were much younger, the Eurovision Song Contest 1990 was the first to implement an age rule. The European Broadcasting Union were forced to bring in a rule after criticism arose over the ages of two performers at 1989 contest, being just 11 and 12 years old. From 1990, no artist under the age of 16 on the day of the contest could perform on stage. This rule meant that the record for the youngest ever winner at Eurovision could never be broken, as Sandra Kim, who won for Belgium at the 1986 competition, was just 13 years old. A notorious mishap occurred at the start of the first song and they walked off the stage in barely concealed annoyance and the audience was left in confusion for a moment, but the song was then restarted without any further problems. The 1990 contest was the first to feature a mascot, Eurocat. Notes 1. ^ Contains some phrases in English, French and Serbo-Croatian
Eurovision Song Contest 1990
47.
Zagreb
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Zagreb is the capital and the largest city of Croatia. It is located in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, Zagreb lies at an elevation of approximately 122 m above sea level. In the last official census of 2011 the population of the City of Zagreb was 792,875, the wider Zagreb metropolitan area includes the City of Zagreb and the separate Zagreb County bringing the total metropolitan area population up to 1,237,887. It is the biggest metropolitan area in Croatia, and the one with a population of over one million. Zagreb is a city with a history dating from the Roman times to the present day. The oldest settlement located in the vicinity of the city was the Roman Andautonia, the name Zagreb is recorded in 1134, in reference to the foundation of the settlement at Kaptol in 1094. Zagreb became a royal town in 1242. In 1851 Zagreb had its first mayor, Janko Kamauf, and in 1945 it was made the capital of Croatia when the demographic boom, the city extends over 30 kilometres east-west and around 20 kilometres north-south. The transport connections, concentration of industry, scientific, and research institutions, Zagreb is the seat of the central government, administrative bodies, and almost all government ministries. Almost all of the largest Croatian companies, media, and scientific institutions have their headquarters in the city and it is a city known for its diverse economy, high quality of living, museums, sporting, and entertainment events. Its main branches of economy are high-tech industries and the service sector, the etymology of the name Zagreb is unclear. It was used of the city only from 1852, but it had been in use as the name of the Zagreb dioecese since the 12th century. The name is first recorded in a charter by Ostrogon archbishop Felician, dated 1134, the older form of the name is Zagrab, the modern Croatian form Zagreb is first recorded in a 1689 map by Nicolas Sanson. An even older form is reflected in Hungarian Zabrag, for this, Desy proposes the etymology of Chabrag, a well-attested hypocorism of the name Cyprian. The same form is reflected in a number of Hungarian toponyms, the name Agram was used in German in the Habsburg period, this name has been classified as probably of Roman origin but according to Desy it could be an Austrian German reanalysis of *Zugram. In Middle Latin and Modern Latin, Zagreb is known as Agranum, in Croatian folk etymology, the name of the city has been derived from either the verb za-grab-, meaning to scoop or to dig. One folk legend illustrating this derivation ties the name to a drought of the early 14th century, in another legend, a city governor is thirsty and orders a girl named Manda to scoop water from Manduševac well, using the imperative, zagrabi, Mando. The oldest settlement located near todays Zagreb was a Roman town of Andautonia, now Šćitarjevo, Gradec and Kaptol were united in 1851 by ban Josip Jelačić, who was credited for this, with the naming the main city square, Ban Jelačić Square in his honour
Zagreb
Zagreb
Zagreb
Zagreb
48.
Bandido (song)
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Bandido, written by José Luis Abel and composed by Raúl Orellana and Jaime Stinus, was Spains entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1990, performed by the sister duo Azúcar Moreno. It was covered by Aşkın Nur Yengi, Turkish singer as Zehir Gibisin in her album, Hesap Ver. The song chosen to go with them to Zagreb, Croatia, Bandido, was produced by Raúl Orellana, the studio recording includes the spoken intro Ladies and gentlemen, its showtime at the Apollo Theater. Everybody, the man in show business, sampled from James Browns 1963 album Live at the Apollo. At Zagreb, the song was performed first on the night, preceding Greeces Christos Callow, at the end of judging that evening, Bandido took the fifth place slot with 96 points. Germany was the country to award Spain with the 12 points that evening. This was however a considerably better result than the last time Spain sent a flamenco influenced song to the Contest, finished last with a grand total of 0 points. The song is about a bandit, who stole the girls only to leave them with nothing except pain. The sisters beg the bandit to come back, to fulfill their longing for dark passion, in the chorus, the sisters repeat that the bandit, with his eyes and lies, stole the blood and life of. Musically, the song is known for having one of the longest instrumental intros in Eurovision history,45 seconds of a total of 3 minutes. One notable aspect of the performance was due to a technical glitch, the two singers started their choreographed dance before the song, realized the tape was in the wrong position, and abruptly walked offstage in a huff, leaving viewers to wonder what had happened. After the two left the stage, BBC commentator Terry Wogan remarked, Lets hope it doesnt go on like this or were in for a long night, ladies. After two minutes, during which the arena became silent, the returned and the song was then performed in its entirety without a hitch. In 2003, BBC chose Bandido, and all the events and difficulties surrounding the performance, official Eurovision Song Contest site, history by year,1990. Detailed info and lyrics, The Diggiloo Thrush, Bandido, facebook page YouTube video Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics
Bandido (song)
49.
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.
For the most recent participation see
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Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest
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