1.
United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
2.
BBC
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The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. It is headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, the BBC is the worlds oldest national broadcasting organisation and the largest broadcaster in the world by number of employees. It employs over 20,950 staff in total,16,672 of whom are in public sector broadcasting, the total number of staff is 35,402 when part-time, flexible, and fixed contract staff are included. The BBC is established under a Royal Charter and operates under its Agreement with the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. The fee is set by the British Government, agreed by Parliament, and used to fund the BBCs radio, TV, britains first live public broadcast from the Marconi factory in Chelmsford took place in June 1920. It was sponsored by the Daily Mails Lord Northcliffe and featured the famous Australian Soprano Dame Nellie Melba, the Melba broadcast caught the peoples imagination and marked a turning point in the British publics attitude to radio. However, this public enthusiasm was not shared in official circles where such broadcasts were held to interfere with important military and civil communications. By late 1920, pressure from these quarters and uneasiness among the staff of the licensing authority, the General Post Office, was sufficient to lead to a ban on further Chelmsford broadcasts. But by 1922, the GPO had received nearly 100 broadcast licence requests, John Reith, a Scottish Calvinist, was appointed its General Manager in December 1922 a few weeks after the company made its first official broadcast. The company was to be financed by a royalty on the sale of BBC wireless receiving sets from approved manufacturers, to this day, the BBC aims to follow the Reithian directive to inform, educate and entertain. The financial arrangements soon proved inadequate, set sales were disappointing as amateurs made their own receivers and listeners bought rival unlicensed sets. By mid-1923, discussions between the GPO and the BBC had become deadlocked and the Postmaster-General commissioned a review of broadcasting by the Sykes Committee and this was to be followed by a simple 10 shillings licence fee with no royalty once the wireless manufactures protection expired. The BBCs broadcasting monopoly was made explicit for the duration of its current broadcast licence, the BBC was also banned from presenting news bulletins before 19.00, and required to source all news from external wire services. Mid-1925 found the future of broadcasting under further consideration, this time by the Crawford committee, by now the BBC under Reiths leadership had forged a consensus favouring a continuation of the unified broadcasting service, but more money was still required to finance rapid expansion. Wireless manufacturers were anxious to exit the loss making consortium with Reith keen that the BBC be seen as a service rather than a commercial enterprise. The recommendations of the Crawford Committee were published in March the following year and were still under consideration by the GPO when the 1926 general strike broke out in May. The strike temporarily interrupted newspaper production and with restrictions on news bulletins waived the BBC suddenly became the source of news for the duration of the crisis. The crisis placed the BBC in a delicate position, the Government was divided on how to handle the BBC but ended up trusting Reith, whose opposition to the strike mirrored the PMs own
3.
Eurovision Song Contest 1957
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1957 was the second edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It was held on Sunday 3 March 1957 in Frankfurt-am-Main, West Germany and it was won by the Netherlands with Net als toen, performed by Corry Brokken. Like the first 1956 edition, this one was mainly a radio programme. In fact, not only were the official 1956 scores withheld and it was planned at the time that each participating country would take it in turns to host the event. However, as more countries wished to participate, this became impractical, the contest took place in Frankfurt am Main, one of the largest cities in, at the time West Germany. The host venue was the Großer Sendesaal des Hessischen Rundfunks, a building, music hall, today it is used as a music hall. After being devastated in the Second World War during the early 1940s, with investments coming in from both national and international financial institutions,1957, the year of the contest, already saw the first of Frankfurts high-rise business buildings. In this years contest the Italian entry lasted for 5,09 minutes and it was because of songs like the former that a rule was eventually introduced restricting each song to a maximum of 3 minutes, this rule still applies. In a change of rules from the years contest, duos were allowed to compete. Danish representatives, Birthe Wilke and Gustav Winckler, were the first of such acts to participate under this rule change, at the end of their performance, the couple exchanged the longest kiss in the contests history, although only people with televisions could actually see it. This was due to a member of the staff forgetting to give a pre-arranged sign that the kiss should end. This was the first year where the juries were contacted by telephone and it was also the first time the Netherlands won the contest. Another notable change was that the national juries could not vote for their own song, belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, and Switzerland make their second appearances following their débuts in 1956. With those joining in 1957, the number of countries was ten. Each performance had a conductor who conducted the orchestra, Corry Brokken for Netherlands, and Lys Assia for Switzerland. The table below shows the order in which votes were cast during the 1957 contest along with the spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for their respective country. Each national broadcaster sent a commentator to the contest, in order to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language. Details of the commentators and the station for which they represented are also included in the table below
4.
Eurovision Song Contest 1967
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1967 was the 12th edition of Eurovision Song Contest. It took place on 8 April 1967 in Vienna, Austria following Udo Jürgens win at the 1966 contest. The presenter became confused whilst the voting was taking place, and declared the United Kingdoms entry to be the winner before the last country, shaw intensely disliked the composition, though her attitude towards the song somewhat mellowed in later years, even releasing a new version in 2007. The contest long remained the only time Austria had hosted the event, the 1967 Eurovision Song Contest was held in Vienna, the capital of Austria. The venue for the contest was the Hofburg Palace, which was the winter residence the Habsburg dynasty. It currently serves as the residence of the President of Austria. The stage setup was a bit unusual this year. There were two revolving mirrored walls on both ends of the stage and started revolving at the start of song and stopped revolving at the end of each song. The hostess, Erika Vaal ended the program by congratulating the winning song, country, denmark chose not to participate and left the contest at this point, to return in 1978. The reason was that the new director for the TV entertainment department at DR thought that the money could be spent in a better way, the United Kingdoms win was their first. Television presenter, artist and musician, Rolf Harris provided the commentary for BBC Television viewers, switzerland received zero votes for the second time. Portugal was represented by Eduardo Nascimento who was the first black singer in the history of Eurovision Song Contest. Rumours claimed that Portuguese prime minister Salazar had chosen this particular singer to show the rest of Europe that he wasnt racist, each performance had a conductor who maestro the orchestra. Three artists returned in this years contest, the table below shows the order in which votes were cast during the 1967 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
5.
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
6.
Eurovision Song Contest 1976
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1976 was the 21st edition of the contest hosted by NOS and held in The Hague, Netherlands. The arena for the event was the Nederlands Congrescentrum, teach-Ins victory in Stockholm the previous year gave The Netherlands the right to host the contest for the third time. The Contest was won by Brotherhood of Man, who sang Save Your Kisses for Me in English, the Hague is the seat of government of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the capital city of the province of South Holland. It is also the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam, located in the west of the Netherlands, The Hague is in the centre of the Haaglanden conurbation and lies at the southwest corner of the larger Randstad conurbation. The contest took place at the Congresgebouw, the venue was constructed in 1969. The scoring system introduced in the years competition returned in 1976. Each jury gave 12 points to the best song,10 to the second best, then 8 to the third, unlike today, the points were not given in order, but in the order the songs were performed. The current procedure was not established until 1980, Sweden, Malta and Turkey withdrew from this contest reducing the number of participating countries down to eighteen from the previous competitions record of nineteen countries that took part. Austria and Greece returned to the contest, Sweden withdrew from the contest, as the broadcaster Sveriges Radio did not have enough money to host another contest if Sweden won again. A new rule was introduced that in the future each broadcaster participating would have to pay a part of the cost of staging the contest. Malta, having selected Enzo Guzman with the song Sing Your Song, Country Boy to represent them, then withdrew from the contest for undisclosed reasons, Malta would not return to the competition until 1991. The entry from Greece aroused controversy as it was about the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, the previous year Greece had withdrawn from the contest in protest over this matter. This year it was Turkeys turn to withdraw, liechtenstein attempted to submit an entry to the contest, but as they had no broadcasting service of their own, they were not allowed to. Their entry would have been Little Cowboy by Biggi Bachmann, each performance had a conductor who maestro the orchestra. Four artists returned to the contest in 1976, each national broadcaster also sent a commentator to the contest, in order to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language
7.
Eurovision Song Contest 1981
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1981 was the 26th event of its kind, and was held on 4 April 1981 at the Simmonscourt Pavilion of the Royal Dublin Society in Dublin. The presenter was Doireann Ní Bhriain, the United Kingdoms Bucks Fizz were the winners of this contest with the song Making Your Mind Up, beating second place Germany by four points. Dublin is the capital and largest city of Ireland, Dublin is in the province of Leinster on Irelands east coast, at the mouth of the River Liffey. Founded as a Viking settlement, the Kingdom of Dublin became Irelands principal city following the Norman invasion, the city expanded rapidly from the 17th century and was briefly the second largest city in the British Empire before the Acts of Union in 1800. Following the partition of Ireland in 1922, Dublin became the capital of the Irish Free State, the contest took place under heavy guard at the 15,000 seat Simmonscourt Pavilion of the RDS, which was normally used for agricultural and horse shows. Over 250 armed soldiers and police were on hand to protect against any likely political demonstrations, having won the year before, Ireland hosted the 1981 contest - the second time they had done so. As in 1971, the 1981 Eurovision Song Contest was produced by the countrys broadcaster RTÉ, the presenter on this occasion was Doireann Ni Bhriain, who was well known in Ireland at the time as a TV presenter and for the current affairs radio show Women Today. She was chosen for her fluency in Irish and English as well as having studied French, the director was Ian McGarry, while Noel Kelehan was the chief conductor for the show. It cost RTÉ over £300,000 to stage, although this included £110,000 from the EBU, from this, the Irish Government expected to make around £2,000,000 from tourism as a result of staging the show. The RDS would go on to host the next Irish Eurovision production in 1988 and this year marked the début of Cyprus in the contest, who finished sixth. Returning to the contest was Israel, who did not compete the previous year, yugoslavia also returned to the competition after a five-year absence. Italy withdrew for the first time from the contest, due to lack of interest, of the performers, many previous contestants returned to the contest this year. Notably, Jean-Claude Pascal for Luxembourg, who had won the contest 20 years earlier, repeated entrants Peter, Sue and Marc returned for the fourth time, after 1971,1976 and 1979. Performing again for Switzerland, they remain the only act to sing in four different languages, other returnees were Marty Brem who had taken part the year before for Austria, Tommy Seebach for Denmark, and Björn Skifs for Sweden. Bucks Fizz member, Cheryl Baker had performed in 1978 with the band Co-Co for the UK, while Sheeba member Maxi had performed as a solo artist in 1973 for Ireland. Andy Hill – the producer of the single - said that had they known, the interval act was traditional Irish band Planxty, who performed the lengthy piece Timedance, which depicted Irish music through the ages. The dancers were from Dublin City Ballet with choreography by Iain Montague and this is seen as a precursor to Riverdance, which became famous after its performance in 1994. The song, which was written by Bill Whelan, went on to be released as a Planxty single, the voting proved to be memorable for its closeness
8.
Eurovision Song Contest 1997
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1997, was the 42nd Eurovision Song Contest and it was held at the Point Theatre Dublin, Ireland, on 3 May 1997. Carrie Crowley and Boyzone member Ronan Keating were the presenters of the show, belgium, Finland, and Slovakia withdrew from the contest due to the relegation rule. The United Kingdom won the competition, thanks to Katrina and the Waves, Ireland hosted the contest for the fourth time in five years after winning the 1996 in Oslo. Dublin was chosen to be the host city, making it the time that the Eurovision Song Contest was staged in the Irish capital. The venue for the contest was the Point Theatre located on the North Wall Quay of the River Liffey, the theatre previously hosted the 1994 and 1995 contests. RTÉ once again produced a spectacular show, with a stage that had a smaller performance space for the artists than in previous years. This was the third Eurovision set to be designed by Paula Farrell, there was a wide array of different styles this year. Denmark brought a rap song, Croatia came with their version of the Spice Girls, the music was in general more modern than before, and for the first time in 1991, an up-tempo song won. This year, televoting was tested in five countries, Austria, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, the results of the televoting countries were, in some cases, different from those that used a jury. Iceland received 16 of its 18 points from five countries. Also, for the first time in Eurovision history, there was a country where not one, television reporter Frédéric Ferrer and 1977 Eurovision winner Marie Myriam each took turns at giving results from that country. Long-time Irish conductor Noel Kelehan was not the host conductor this year, however, from this year, entrants were allowed to use singback without orchestra accompaniment, and in 1999, the orchestra would be abolished completely. Alma Čardžić returned for Bosnia and Herzegovina after last representing the nation in 1994, maarja-Liis Ilus and Şebnem Paker both returned for a 1996 representing Estonia and Turkey respectively. 1. ^ ^ Contained some lyrics in English, iceland got most of its 18 points from the 5 countries that used televoting. Ireland was ostensibly the best scoring country across the televoting countries, the United Kingdom was only eligible to receive points from 4 of them, since they couldnt vote for themselves. Despite being the runner-up, it received only one 12-point score. The UK spokesman Colin Berry remarked, Youre going to like one, Ireland. Causing Terry Wogan to reply, Well, tit for tat, the winning song scored an unprecedented 227 points, it received points from all participating countries, including five sets of 10 points and a record-breaking ten sets of the maximum 12 points
9.
Eurovision Song Contest 2003
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The Eurovision Song Contest 2003 was the 48th annual Eurovision Song Contest. The contest took place in Riga, Latvia on 24 May 2003 and it was the first win and hosting of the competition for Latvia with only their third participation after debuting at the 2000 contest. Latvijas Televīzija chose the Skonto Hall as the venue after conducting a bidding process among several cities and venues in Latvia. The hosts for the contest were the years winner Marie N and former Latvian representative at the 2000 contest, Renārs Kaupers. The design of the contest was built around the theme Magical rendez-vous, Denmark, Finland, Lithuania, Macedonia and Switzerland were required to withdraw due to their poor results in the 2002 contest. This was the first win for Turkey at the Eurovision Song Contest, Norway and Sweden rounded out of the top five, placing fourth and fifth respectively. The United Kingdom achieved their worst result to date, coming in last place, the 2003 contest was the last contest to take place on one evening. This was also the last contest in which a system was used to determine which countries would participate in the following years contest. On 22 August 2002, Latvian public broadcaster Latvijas Televīzija announced that it had chosen the Skonto Hall in Riga as the host venue for the 2003 contest. Latvia won the Eurovision Song Contest 2002 on 25 May 2002 in Tallinn and this was Latvia’s first victory in the contest, which also carried the right for LTV to organise the 2003 contest. LTV initially had concerns with staging the contest. Rubenis elaborated that LTV was prepared to cover the side and broadcasting of the contest. The Government of Latvia allotted €5.3 million for the event with a further €1.1 million being provided by the Riga City Council – covering the anticipated organisational costs for the contest. Three cities were considered as host city of the contest, Riga, Ventspils, LTV requested proposals from the three cities concerning how they plan to organise the contest. Riga City Council offered the Mežaparks Open-air Stage, Skonto Hall, Jūrmala City Council offered the Dzintari Concert Hall with plans to expand and upgrade the facility and surrounding infrastructure. LTV’s organisational task force decided to proceed with the bids from Riga and Ventspils, eliminating Jūrmala. LTV ultimately chose the Skonto Hall as the venue to stage the contest, the rules also modified the eligibility criteria for entries, changing the date of release cut-off point for songs from 1 January 2003 to 1 October 2002. The draw for running order was held on 29 November 2002 in Riga, hosted by Marie N and Renārs Kaupers, the official sponsors for the contest were Latvian mobile telecom provider Latvijas Mobilais Telefons and Latvian bank company Parex Banka
10.
Eurovision Song Contest 2008
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The Eurovision Song Contest 2008 was the 53rd edition of the Contest. It was hosted in Belgrade, Serbia after Marija Šerifović won the 2007 Contest in Helsinki and this year was the first time there were three contests, two semi-finals which were held on 20 and 22 May, and the traditional grand final which was held on 24 May 2008. The shows were hosted by Jovana Janković and Željko Joksimović at the Belgrade Arena which had a capacity of 25,000 seats. After a total of 272 points, Dima Bilan representing Russia was declared the winner, with the song Believe written by American Jim Beanz, so far this has been the only time Russia has won the contest. Russia came third in the semi-final, making it the winner with the worst semi-final result, ukraine were runners up for the second year running, with 3rd place going to Greece, 4th to Armenia seeing their best result so far and 5th to Norway. 2008 also saw, for the first time ever, Eurovision. tv streaming national finals live on ESCTV with broadcasters permission. On 30 January 2008, Eurovision. tv revealed the theme of the Contest, The Confluence of Sound, Serbia gained the right to host the Contest after Marija Šerifović won the 2007 Contest in Helsinki, Finland. Since Serbia was the winner of the preceding contest, the 2008 contest was held there. The Belgrade Arena was chosen as the venue for the contest, on 14 September 2007, the Mayor of Helsinki handed over the Eurovision keys to the Deputy of Belgrade. This ceremony is meant to be a tradition from the 2008 contest and onward, ukraine was considered an option since they came second in Eurovision Song Contest 2007. YLE were another option, as hosted the previous years competition in Helsinki. Greeces Ellinikí Radiofonía Tileórasi also offered the EBU to host the contest in Athens and it was later decided that the contest would stay in Belgrade, with the EBU giving support. RTS would gain a guarantee of safety and security from the government of Serbia for all visitors, the delegations of Albania, Croatia and Israel had special security. RTS ran a competition led to the creation of the 2008 Contests branding, logo. The theme of the Contest was based around the confluence of sound and this was symbolic as Belgrade lies on the confluence of two European rivers, the Sava and Danube. The logo chosen, a treble clef, formed the basis of the design created by Boris Miljković. The postcards in the first and second semi-final were based around the creation of the flag of the nation that was to perform next, each post card had a short story related to each country and its people. During each postcard a short letter was displayed, the postcards were brought to an end by a stamp with this years Eurovision logo
11.
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
12.
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
13.
Eurovision Song Contest 1959
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1959 was the fourth edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It was held on Wednesday 11 March 1959 in Cannes, France, the contest was won by the Netherlands with the song Een beetje, performed by Teddy Scholten. This was their second and the first time a country had won the contest twice, willy van Hemert was also the lyricist of Net als toen, which won the Eurovision Song Contest 1957. Van Hemert was the first person to win the Eurovision Song Contest twice, the original building was built in 1949 and was located on the boulevard of Promenade de la Croisette, on the present site of the JW Marriott Cannes. A new rule was created for this Eurovision, ensuring that no professional publishers or composers were allowed in the national juries, Italy gave one point to France, no points to the UK and seven points to the Netherlands placing them just three points ahead of the UK. Something that occurred this year, but never again, was more than the winning entry was performed once again. The second and third placed songs, United Kingdom and France, were allowed to sing again at the end of the show, together with eventual winner, luxembourg withdrew from the contest for the first time. The United Kingdom returned after missing the previous contest and finished second for the first time, the UK would have 15 second-place finishes in the countrys history in the contest. Monaco made its debut in the contest, but came last, each performance had a conductor who maestro the orchestra. Birthe Wilke for Denmark, and Domenico Modugno for Italy, the table above shows the order in which votes were cast during the 1959 contest along with the spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for their respective country. Each national broadcaster sent a commentator to the contest, in order to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language. Details of the commentators and the station for which they represented are also included in the table below
14.
Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest
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Sweden has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 56 times since making its debut in 1958, missing only three contests since then. Sweden is one of the most successful competing nations at the Eurovision, with a total of six victories in the contest, Sweden is also the contests most successful country of the 21st century, with two wins from nine top five results. In total, Sweden has achieved 23 top five results in the contest, since 1959, the Swedish entry has been chosen through an annual televised competition, known since 1967 as Melodifestivalen. At the 1997 contest, Sweden was one of the first five countries to adopt televoting, Swedens first entrant in the contest was Alice Babs in 1958, who was placed fourth. This remained the countrys best result until 1966, when Lill Lindfors, Swedens first Eurovision victory was in 1974 with the song Waterloo, performed by ABBA. Thanks to their victory in Brighton, ABBA went on to worldwide success. In the 1980s, Sweden achieved three top three results. After Carola finished third in 1983, the Herreys gave Sweden its second victory in 1984 with Diggi-Loo Diggi-Ley, kikki Danielsson then finished third in 1985. Carola returned to the contest in 1991, to give the Swedes their third win with Fångad av en stormvind, charlotte Nilsson gave the country a second win of the decade in 1999, with Take Me to Your Heaven. The 1990s also saw two third-place results, for Jan Johansen in 1995 and One More Time in 1996, in 2010, Anna Bergendahl became the first Swedish entrant to fail to make it to the final, finishing 11th in the semifinal, only five points from qualification. They also finished third in 2011 with Eric Saade and Popular, third in 2014 with Sanna Nielsen and Undo, and fifth with Frans and the song If I Were Sorry in 2016. Sweden has hosted the Eurovision Song Contest six times and is the country to have hosted the event in five different decades. Together with Croatia and Malta it was the country to never be relegated, under the previous rules of the contest. Melodifestivalen is a music competition organised by Swedish public broadcasters Sveriges Television. It has chosen the representative for the Eurovision Song Contest since 1959. It is Swedens most popular shows, and it has been estimated that more than 4 million Swedes watch the show annually. Almost every Swedish entry for Eurovision has been selected through Melodifestivalen, only Swedens first entry in 1958, was not selected through Melodifestivalen, having been selected internally by the Swedish broadcaster at the time, Swedish Radio Service. ^ In 2008, Sweden qualified through the back-up jury selection, If a country had won the previous year, they did not have to compete in the semi-finals the following year
15.
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
16.
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
17.
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
18.
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
19.
Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest
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Spain has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 56 times since making its debut in 1961, where they finished ninth. Spain has competed in the contest continuously since the debut in 1961. The only country with a run of uninterrupted Eurovision appearances is the United Kingdom. The 1969 contest in Madrid is the only time Spain has hosted the event, since lots were drawn after 1969s four way tie and the 1970 contest was hosted by the Netherlands. Spain has also finished second in the contest four times, with Karina in 1971, Mocedades in 1973, Betty Missiego in 1979 and Anabel Conde in 1995, and third in 1984 with Bravo. The country finished last with Nul points in 1962,1965 and 1983, Spain has had less success in recent years, failing to reach the top 10 in 10 of the last 12 contests. The exceptions being 10th-place finishes for Pastora Soler in 2012 and Ruth Lorenzo in 2014, Spain has regularly 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. Between 1977 and 1999, Spains entries were selected internally by TVE, before that, internal selections and national contests, like Pasaporte a Dublín in 1971, were alternated. From 2000, Spain has used various formats with different results. In 2000 and 2001, TVE organised a final called Eurocanción. The result in the Eurovision final was not good and for 2006, in 2007, Spains entry was decided through the Misión Eurovisión 2007 show, with a disappointing result once again. From 2008 to 2010, the Internet was the key element of the used by TVE to select the Spanish entry. In 2008, the social networking website MySpace was involved in the national final Salvemos Eurovisión, a website was created to make it possible for anyone to upload a song and proceed to a televised final if chosen by online voters or an expert jury. The result improved a little, but not much, nevertheless the interest of the Spanish audience was revived again, for 2009, MySpace was still involved in the selection process Eurovisión 2009, El retorno, although some changes were introduced in the format. The result was the worst in the 2000s, 24th place, in 2010, a similar format, Eurovisión, Destino Oslo, selected the Spanish entry, with the best result since 2004. In 2011, Internet voting was scrapped from the new selection method Destino Eurovisión, after a further disappointing result, for 2012, TVE decided to approach an established act, Pastora Soler, and organise a national final to select her song. A top ten result was achieved for the first time since 2004, in 2014, TVE decided to return to a multi-artist national final procedure, called Mira quién va a Eurovisión, five artists were invited to participate by TVE. A top ten result was achieved for the time in three years
20.
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
21.
Eurovision Song Contest 1998
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1998 was the 43rd annual Eurovision Song Contest. The contest took place in Birmingham in the United Kingdom, following Katrina and it was the UKs fifth win, and the eighth time that the UK hosted the contest, the last being in Harrogate in 1982. The UK has not won or hosted the contest since, belgium, Finland, and Slovakia returned to the contest after a 1996. Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Denmark, Iceland, Italy, Italy did not return until 2011. Dana International eventually went on to win the contest, scoring 172 points, with the song Diva, written by Svika Pick and Yoav Ginai. The singer had attracted media attention both in Israel and Europe since she had undergone gender reassignment in 1993, being the first openly transgender performer to enter the competition. The United Kingdom, along with their national broadcaster the BBC and it was the first time since the 1982 that the Eurovision Song Contest was staged in the United Kingdom, and the last to date. This was an eighth time that the United Kingdom staged the contest, having done so for the 1960,1963,1968,1972,1974,1977. The National Indoor Arena had been used for major events in the past. The week after the Eurovision Song Contest, the city was to host the 24th G8 summit, with Terry Wogan vacating his hotel room to make way for Bill Clinton. Ironically, the contest was held in an English speaking country for the last time the contest was run without the free language rule, so only the UK, Malta, and Ireland performed in English. The postcards continued with the theme of Birmingham old and new, looking at a traditional object. Finally, the flag of the country about to perform was formed, a jury was used if there were exceptional reasons not to use a televote. Macedonia, participating as Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, took part for the first time, Israel could have returned in 1997, but opted not to due to Holocaust Remembrance Day, meaning they returned for the first time in three years. The Italian broadcaster, RAI, decided to withdraw from the contest, Russia and Italy did not broadcast the event due to withdrawals. Because Russia did not participate, Channel One decided not to broadcast the 1998 contest, according to other sources Channel One had expected Channel Russia to broadcast the contest. Danijela returned for Croatia after last taking part in 1995 as part of the group Magazin, egon Egemann who was the violinist for Gunvor this year, last participated for Switzerland at the 1990. José Cid part of Alma Lusa in 1980 returned for Portugal, below is a summary of all 12 points in the final, Spain originally gave its 12 points to Israel and 10 to Norway
22.
Eurovision Song Contest 1978
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1978 was the 23rd edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It was held on 22 April 1978 in Paris, the contest was won by Izhar Cohen & the Alphabeta who represented Israel with the song A-Ba-Ni-Bi. Although A-Ba-Ni-Bi is the title, French television mistakenly captioned on screen the song title as Ah-Bah-Nee-Bee. The presenters were Denise Fabre and Léon Zitrone, and this was the first time more than one presenter hosted an edition of the Contest, twenty countries participated, a record at the time. The winning entry is a song sung in the Hebrew equivalent of Ubbi dubbi. This was Israels first Eurovision win, the win caused problems for several North African and Middle-Eastern nations that were televising the contest, even though they were not participating. Jordanian TV finished the show with a photo of a bunch of daffodils on screen, norway finished last for the fifth time, gaining the first nul points during the current voting system was implemented in 1975. The venue was built by French architect Guillaume Gillet, and was inaugurated in 1974, björn Skifs was unhappy with the rule that every country would have to perform in their native language. He planned to sing in English anyway, but changed his mind at the very last moment and he therefore sang the first few lines in gibberish before finding the words again. This pattern would repeat over the years, in 1979 Greece took part in the Contest with Sokrati in Jerusalem -. In 1980 both countries returned, with Autostop and Petr Oil respectively, despite Turkeys failure to recognize the Greek government in Cyprus, all three countries performed together when Cyprus debuted in 1981 and it continued until 2012. Denmark returned to the contest this year, for the first time since 1966, the Greek entry this year was a song called Charlie Chaplin, in reference to the comedian who died the previous year. In a curious twist, however, regular entrants Peter, Sue and they lost out at third place however. The song from Monaco also made reference to Charlie Chaplin, each performance had a conductor who maestro the orchestra. Several artists returned to the 1978 Contest, ireen Sheer had previously represented Luxembourg in 1974, and finished in equal fourth place. ^ Contains some words in French, ^ Contains some words in English. Each country had a jury who awarded 12,10,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 points for their top ten songs. Each national broadcaster sent a commentator to the contest, in order to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language
23.
Eurovision Song Contest 1987
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1987 was the 32nd Eurovision Song Contest and was held on 9 May 1987 in Brussels, Belgium after Sandra Kims win the previous year. Johnny Logan was the winner for Ireland with the song Hold Me Now and that made him the first performer to win the contest twice, as he had won also in 1980. The 1987 Eurovision was the biggest contest at that time, with 22 countries taking part, only Malta, Monaco and Morocco failed to compete out of all the countries which had entered the contest in the past. Due to the number of countries, and the time it took for the contest to be held and this became problematic over the next few years as new and returning nations indicated an interest in participating, but could not be accommodated. Controversy erupted in Israel after their song was selected, Shir Habatlanim by the Lazy Bums, the comedic performance was criticised by the countrys culture minister, who threatened to resign should the duo proceed to Brussels. They went on to perform for Israel, placing eighth, however the culture ministers threat was left unfulfilled, host conductor in bold Notes 1. ^ Contains some phrases in English
24.
Sandie Shaw
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Sandie Shaw is an English singer. One of the most successful British female singers of the 1960s, after a long and successful career, Shaw announced her retirement from the music industry in 2013. Sandra Ann Goodrich was born and brought up in Dagenham, Essex, on leaving school, she worked at the nearby Ford Dagenham factory, and did some part-time modelling before coming second as a singer in a local talent contest. As a prize, she appeared at a charity concert in London and he introduced her to his manager, Eve Taylor, who won her a contract with Pye Records in 1964 and gave her the stage name of Sandie Shaw. Taylor teamed Shaw with songwriter Chris Andrews, who wrote her first single, As Long as Youre Happy Baby, which failed to make the charts. However, for her second single Taylor gave her the Bacharach and David song Always Something There to Remind Me, which had been a No.49 US pop hit for singer Lou Johnson. Shaws version rose quickly to No.1 in the UK Singles Chart in the autumn of 1964, and also charted in the United States at No.52 on the Billboard Hot 100 early the following year. Id Be Far Better Off Without You was issued as the follow-up, but DJs preferred its B-side, Girl Dont Come, also written by Andrews, Girl Dont Come reached No.3 in the UK and became her biggest US hit, reaching No.42. It was followed by hits in the UK including Ill Stop at Nothing, Long Live Love, her second UK No.1 in 1965. The singles were produced by Taylor, Andrews and Shaw herself, Sandie Shaw was a regular on popular British TV programmes of the time such as Top of the Pops, Ready Steady Go. and Thank Your Lucky Stars. She was seen as epitomising the swinging Sixties, and her trademark barefoot performances endeared her to the public at large and she also recorded most of her hit singles in Italian, French, German and Spanish boosting her popularity in Europe. She was popular across South America, performed behind the Iron Curtain, Shaw also released several original albums in the 1960s, Sandie, Me, Love Me, Please Love Me, The Sandie Shaw Supplement and Reviewing the Situation. These albums generally consisted of Andrews-penned songs mixed with cover versions of songs made popular by other musicians, by 1967 Shaws record sales were declining and her manager decided on more of a cabaret appeal. She was invited by the BBC to represent the UK in that years Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna and it gave her a third UK No.1 single, a record for a female at the time. Puppet on a String also became a hit and the largest-selling single of the year in Germany, qualifying for a gold disc for one million plus sales in the UK. Her Eurovision success almost did not happen, the BBC wanted to drop her because she had been the woman in a divorce case. Fashion had become another of Shaws trademarks, and in 1968 she began the Sandie Shaw fashion label, selling her own brand of clothing, in the same year she hosted her own TV show, The Sandie Shaw Supplement, and issued an LP of the same title. Shaw was to have made her debut in Mrs. Brown, Youve Got a Lovely Daughter
25.
Puppet on a String
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Puppet on a String is the name of the Eurovision Song Contest-winning song in 1967 by British singer Sandie Shaw. It was her thirteenth UK single release, the song was a UK Singles Chart number one hit on 27 April 1967, staying at the top for a total of three weeks. Al Hirt released a version of the song in 1967 that went to number 18 on the Adult Contemporary chart, Shaw had originally performed the song as one of five prospective numbers to represent the United Kingdom in the 1967 Eurovision Song Contest on The Rolf Harris Show. She had never been taken with the idea of taking part in the contest but her discoverer, Adam Faith, had talked her into it, of the five songs performed, Puppet on a String was Shaws least favourite. In her own words I hated it from the very first oompah to the final bang on the big bass drum, I was instinctively repelled by its sexist drivel and cuckoo-clock tune. As a result, Puppet on a String became her third Number One hit in the UK and was a big worldwide smash, Shaw also recorded Puppet on a String in French, Italian, Spanish, and German. Shaw re-recorded Puppet on a String in early 2007 in honour of her 60th birthday and this took place after Shaw visited her friend, musician Howard Jones, and found him playing some chords on his keyboard and humming a melody. He encouraged her to continue the melody and before long she realised that it was in fact Puppet on a String and they recorded the new, slow-tempo electronic version of the song and sent it to producer/mixer Andy Gray who put the final touches on the song. Shaw stated that she loved the new version and released it exclusively for download from her. It was available for download for sixty days. As a result of its popularity, Shaw continued to put out new songs on her website for download for the months of her 61st year. The song was covered in over 200 versions in over 30 languages, Norwegian, In 1967 Bente Aaseth released the single Sprellemann on His Masters Voice. The Norwegian lyrics were written by Juul Hansen, portuguese, In 1967 by Simone de Oliveira released her version, entitled Marionette. In 1990, the song was covered by Ana Faria as Feira Popular, the song is about an evening out at Feira Popular de Lisboa. Its featured on their album with the same title Russian,1968, Emil Gorovets, title, Я не кукла Slovak, In 1967 Slovak singer
26.
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
27.
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
28.
Brotherhood of Man
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Brotherhood of Man are a British pop group who achieved success in the 1970s. They won the 1976 Eurovision Song Contest with Save Your Kisses for Me, created in 1969 by songwriter and record producer Tony Hiller, Brotherhood of Man was initially an umbrella title for a frequently-changing line-up of session singers. Early on, they scored a hit with the song United We Stand. By 1973 the concept had run its course and Hiller formed a definite four-member line-up consisting of Martin Lee, Lee Sheriden, Nicky Stevens and Sandra Stevens. This version of the went on to score many hits around the world in the mid to late 1970s including Kiss Me Kiss Your Baby, Angelo, Oh Boy. They achieved perhaps their biggest success in their native UK with three number one singles and four top twenty albums, the group under this line-up still continues today, performing shows throughout Europe. Altogether, they have released 16 studio albums, with sales topping 15 million records. Brotherhood of Man were formed by record producer/composer Tony Hiller in 1969, Burrows was a well-known session singer, performing in various line-ups on hit singles such as the No.1 hit Love Grows by Edison Lighthouse. The two female members, Glover and Leslie were an act in their own right, releasing singles as Sue, the group came together in 1969 and began recording some songs with Hiller. Their first single Love One Another failed to chart, but the follow-up United We Stand was a worldwide hit, United We Stand was heavily played on British radio, and broke the American market. The single became a Top 20 hit in the UK, Canada, the song has since been used as the closing theme for televisions Brady Bunch Hour and as an anthem for various causes. Burrows left the group soon after and as a four-piece, The Brotherhood of Man followed United We Stand with another hit, the song charted in the UK, Canada, and US and has since been covered by Olivia Newton-John and The Osmonds among others. A début album United We Stand followed soon after, over the next two years, the group continued in varied line-ups. Goodison left the group at the beginning of 1971 and was replaced by American singer Hal Atkinson and they had one more minor hit in the US, but experienced no further success in the UK and were eventually dropped by their record company. Keen to keep the name alive, Hiller set about putting a new line up together. In 1972 he got together a trio of singers, Martin Lee, Nicky Stevens. Sheriden was already known to Hiller as a songwriter and had a solo career, Lee had a solo single to his name and was a budding songwriter. Stevens had been trained, but had since adapted her vocals and was performing as a cabaret singer
29.
Save Your Kisses for Me
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Save Your Kisses for Me was the winning song of the Eurovision Song Contest 1976, performed for the United Kingdom by Brotherhood of Man in The Hague, Netherlands. The lyrics and music were written by Tony Hiller, Lee Sheriden, and Martin Lee, the song became a worldwide hit, reaching No.1 in many countries, including the UK, where it became the biggest-selling song of the year. Overall, it one of the biggest-selling Eurovision winners ever. Save Your Kisses for Me was originally written by member Lee Sheriden in August 1974, on bringing the song in to the next songwriting session, others thought that the title was clumsy and reworked it into Oceans of Love. Sheriden was unhappy with the changes and the song was shelved, but I didnt mind because Martin came in and sung it to perfection. Soon after, manager Tony Hiller was keen for the group to try for Eurovision, up till now, a singer was nominated to perform, but for 1976 it was opened up to different singers to enter their own songs. Brotherhood of Man put forward Save Your Kisses for Me and it was accepted as one of the 12 finalists and it won A Song for Europe on 25 February 1976, beating second-placed Co-Co by just two points. The song was released as a single and reached number one in the UK Singles Chart, the bouncy jingle described the gently conflicted emotions of a young man leaving an adored loved-one in the morning as he leaves for work. The songs final line provided the twist, that he was leaving a three-year-old behind and it was awarded the maximum twelve points by seven countries, totalling 164 points compared to the second-placed French entry with 147 points. According to John Kennedy OConnors The Eurovision Song Contest - The Official History, in the UK, it stayed at No.1 for six weeks and was certified platinum by the BPI in May 1976, becoming the biggest selling single of the year. In the United States, the song was a pop hit but went all the way to No.1 on the Easy Listening chart. At the same time as the single was at No.1, the released their latest album, Love and Kisses. The group followed this up with the similarly themed My Sweet Rosalie, Save Your Kisses for Me is still one of the best-selling singles of all time in the UK, with sales of over a million copies. Save Your Kisses for Me 3,06 Lets Love Together 2,57 Save Your Kisses for Me was succeeded at Eurovision in 1977 by Marie Myriam singing Loiseau et lenfant for France, in a reversal of the 1976 result, the UK were runners-up. Among many cover versions, country singer Margo Smith had a hit on the Country charts in 1976. Brotherhood of Man themselves have re-recorded the song twice as well as releasing a Spanish version as a single in 1991. It was re-enacted by the group along with twelve dancers dressed in matching red, white, and black costumes with briefcases and it came fifth in the final voting. Save Your Kisses for Me was notably covered by Margo Smith in 1976 and her version of the song was recorded in a country format and released as a single via Warner Bros
30.
Bucks Fizz
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Bucks Fizz are a British pop group that achieved success in the 1980s, most notably for winning the 1981 Eurovision Song Contest with the song Making Your Mind Up. The group was formed in January 1981 specifically for the contest and comprised four vocalists, Bobby G, Cheryl Baker, Mike Nolan and they achieved instant attention with the dance routine which accompanied the song, involving a skirt-rip. They also had UK Top 10 hits with Now Those Days Are Gone, If You Cant Stand the Heat, When We Were Young and their worldwide record sales have exceeded 15 million. The line-up of the group has changed a number of times over the years, in late 1980, Nichola Martin and Andy Hill sought to create a new group to enter their song Making Your Mind Up in the Eurovision Song Contest. The first member to be recruited was Mike Nolan, who was known to Martin, together, they recorded a demo of the song and entered it for inclusion in A Song for Europe – the preliminary heats for the contest. Realising that a name was needed for the artists, Martin quickly decided on Bucks Fizz. In January, Martin contacted Cheryl Baker to join them, as he remembered her from the 1978 Eurovision group, concurrent to this, Martin was holding auditions for another male vocalist and female vocalist, should Baker turn down the position. At the end of auditions, Martin had found a male singer, Stephen Fischer and female. Fischer then became unavailable as he was starring in a musical at the time and Martin hired another auditionee, the four members met for the first time on 11 January 1981. An associate of Martins, Jill Shirley agreed to manage the group, the routine itself was choreographed by Chrissie Wickham, a former member of dance troupe, Hot Gossip, although Martin, Baker and Aston have all since laid claim to the skirt-rip idea. On 11 March, A Song for Europe took place with the unknown Bucks Fizz competing against well-known act Liquid Gold, as well as Hill and Martins own group, Making Your Mind Up became an easy winner and the group recorded the song with Hill as producer. Later in the month it was released as a single and entered the charts at No.24, by the time the contest was staged, the single had risen to No.2. On 4 April, Bucks Fizz represented United Kingdom in the 1981 Eurovision Song Contest, although they were favourites to win, the song faced stiff competition and after a vocally unsound rendition, the early votes were poor. Halfway through the process, Bucks Fizz took the lead. Ultimately, Bucks Fizz won the contest by a margin of four points, Making Your Mind Up became a major hit around the continent, reaching No.1 in the UK as well as eight other countries. It charted highly in other such as Australia, eventually selling four million copies worldwide. A follow-up single was recorded amid promotional tours and the image was revamped. In May, the single Piece of the Action was released, the song boasted a contemporary pop sound and high production values, in contrast to the rocknroll style of Making Your Mind Up
31.
Making Your Mind Up
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Making Your Mind Up is a song by British pop group Bucks Fizz. It was the winner of the 1981 Eurovision Song Contest and a UK Number-one single, released in March 1981, it was Bucks Fizzs debut single, the group having been formed just two months earlier. From 2004 to 2007 the BBC used the name Making Your Mind Up for their Eurovision selection show in honour of the song. In late 1980, songwriter Andy Hill teamed up with John Danter, working with his then girlfriend, Nichola Martin, a former singer, they set about recording a demo of the song to enter. This featured the vocals of Hill, Martin and Mike Nolan, Martin then set about gathering a line-up to enter the song with, based around her and Nolan. With the song already entered under the name Bucks Fizz, Martin and future manager, Jill Shirley recruited Cheryl Baker, Bobby G and Jay Aston to the line-up, with Martin herself dropping out. The song secured an entry into the final along with another Hill/Danter composition, Have You Ever Been in Love, Martin and Shirley secured a recording deal with RCA Records and Hill spent a week at Mayfair Studios in London with the group recording the song and its B-side. Backing vocals on the record were supplied by Alan Carvell, who went on to be one of two backing singers in the Eurovision performance. The song was published by Paper Music, which was a publishing company owned by Billy Lawrie – himself a songwriter and brother of singer Lulu. Choreographer Chrissie Whickham, a member of dance troupe Hot Gossip. The lyrics of the song are largely meaningless, although it can be argued that they are making the decision to commit to a serious relationship. On 11 March 1981, Bucks Fizz performed Making Your Mind Up at the Song for Europe finals and despite being up against favourites and current chart group Liquid Gold, won the contest with ease. From this point, the group undertook much promotion of the song around the UK, including an appearance on Top of the Pops and it rose to No.5 the following week. A promotional video was filmed by the BBC for the Eurovision previews as they had done in previous years, the video depicts the group walking around Harrods department store in London. In line with other previous preview videos, the group do not lipsynch any of the words and this video has never been released on any official Bucks Fizz video or DVD release, being usually substituted by the groups first appearance on Top of the Pops. On 4 April, the 1981 Eurovision Song Contest was staged in Dublin, in a close contest throughout the voting procedure, Making Your Mind Up managed to secure a victory with 136 points, beating second-placed Germany by a small margin of four. The song is held in regard by many Eurovision fans. Member Cheryl Baker has since commented on their poor performance stating that she sang the song in a key to the rest of the group due to nerves
32.
Katrina and the Waves
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Katrina and the Waves were a British-American rock band best known for the 1985 hit Walking on Sunshine. They also won the 1997 Eurovision Song Contest with the song Love Shine a Light, the bands earliest incarnation was as The Waves, a group that played in and around Cambridge, England, from 1975 to 1977 and featured guitarist Kimberley Rew and drummer Alex Cooper. This incarnation of the Waves never issued any recordings, and broke up when Rew left to join the Soft Boys, a more direct ancestor of Katrina and the Waves was the band Mamas Cookin, a pop cover band hailing from Feltwell, England. This band, founded in 1978, featured American Katrina Leskanich on vocals and keyboards, by late 1980, Alex Cooper had joined the band on drums, with Bob Jakins on bass. Mamas Cookin proceeded to gig steadily in England over the two years, specialising in covers of songs by American acts such as Heart, Foreigner, Linda Ronstadt. When The Soft Boys broke up in 1981, Rew contacted his old Wave-mate Cooper to see about renewing their musical partnership. Cooper convinced Rew to join Mamas Cookin, and the group was quickly renamed The Waves after the band Rew. The Waves were initially fronted by singer/songwriter/guitarist Rew, who brought a wealth of material to the band. Leskanich, meanwhile, originally sang lead vocals on the cover tunes in the bands repertoire. However, over the first year of the Waves existence, Rew began to write material for Leskanich to sing, the Waves made their initial recorded appearances on a 1982 single, both tracks were included on the 1982 Rew solo album called The Bible of Bop. The Waves then issued their debut EP Shock Horror later in 1982, around this time, bassist Jakins left the band. Jakins was not replaced, as de la Cruz took over on bass and the band was renamed Katrina, in early 1983, the fledgling band recorded—at their own expense—an LP of their original material designed to be sold at gigs. Rew wrote all the songs on this LP, while Leskanich sang eight of the ten tracks. The LP was shopped around to labels, but only Attic Records in Canada responded with an offer. Consequently, although they were based in England, Katrina and The Waves first album Walking On Sunshine was released only in Canada, the album garnered enough critical attention and radio play to merit a Canadian tour. In 1984, the released a follow-up album in Canada. Rew was still the primary songwriter, but de la Cruz was also responsible for a few songs, also in 1984, their song Going Down to Liverpool was covered by The Bangles, which added to their profile. For the first Capitol album, the band re-recorded, remixed, the Katrina and the Waves album was a substantial critical and commercial success, and the group had a worldwide hit with the song Walking on Sunshine
33.
Love Shine a Light
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Love Shine a Light was the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 1997, performed by Katrina and the Waves as the 1997 Eurovision entrant by the UK and the lead single from the album Walk on Water. It is the groups biggest success since Walking on Sunshine 12 years earlier, all you need is a hit song, and we want you to do it. And if you do do it we’ll give you a deal, adds Leskanich. Leskanich would also state that Kimberley Rew had said of Katrina, however Rew was absent from the Katrina and the Waves performance of Love Shine a Light at the Eurovision 1997 final held on 3 May 1997. They came with five different designers and every single outfit made me look like a clown or a chair cover, so while I was doing the song, I had to remember to lift my left shoulder slightly to even it out with the other. She also wore leather trousers and black high-heeled boots. Don Airey, who played as a musician on the single recording of the song. He added strings, brass and a flute, giving the song a more anthemic feel. I mean we wouldnt come here unless we were intending to win. For Eurovision you need a song with a message, lighters in the air, Coca-Cola. Song has a universality about it that everyone and I think people are looking for that message in Eurovision. It also received the maximum 12 points from ten countries, a feat not matched until 2005, by a more directly comparable measure, Love Shine a Light received an average of 9.458 points per country or 78. Katrina Leskanich commented that it was the landslide of the week – the Labour Party led by Tony Blair had won the UK general election held two days earlier, on 1 May 1997. In a 2009 interview Leskanich restated her opinion of Love Shine a Light, it was such a feel-good, lighters-in-the-air and it would have been embarrassing for it not to win. How can you have a contest about whats the best song, the song was succeeded in 1998 as Contest winner by Dana International representing Israel performing Diva. This song was performed as part of a medley in the introduction of the 50th anniversary show for the ESC in Copenhagen as well as the semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2006. A remix of the song was performed during the UK selection process final of 2008, Eurovision, in 1997 the German schlager singer Christian Anders published a Single Liebe und Licht as a slowed-down version. Heidi Kyrö recorded the song in 1998, the Finnish version of the name Päivänvaloon, the song was covered in a way of eurodance by the DJ Mauro Farina a. k. a. Speedmaster in 2002, appearing on Dancemania Speed 9 with the name Love Shine A Speedy Light, in 2008, Italian Eurodance group Katty B released a Euro House cover that became popular in Italy
34.
Pearl Carr & Teddy Johnson
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Pearl Lavinia Carr and Edward Victor Teddy Johnson are an English husband-and-wife team of entertainers, popular during the 1950s and early 1960s. Carr was born in Exmouth, Devon, while Johnson was born in Surbiton and they were both successful solo singers before their marriage in 1955. Carr had been lead singer with the Keynotes, who had two British hits in 1956 with Dave King, Memories Are Made of This and You Cant Be True To Two and she also was a popular radio singer and comedian on Bernard Bradens Bedtime With Braden radio show. Johnson had led his own band, was a professional drummer. He also was a DJ on Radio Luxembourg and later on BBC Radio 2, pearl Carr, now 95, and Teddy Johnson, now 97, both live in Brinsworth House, a home for retired entertainers. Carr and Johnson were frequently on British television light entertainment programmes, such as The Winifred Atwell Show as well as Big Night Out and they represented the United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest 1959 and finished second with the song Sing, Little Birdie. This peaked at #12 on the UK Singles Chart and they also tried to represent the United Kingdom again in 1960 entering two songs into the pre-selection, Pickin Petals and When The Tide Turns, the latter making the final. It was up against Johnsons own brother, Bryan, in the end Bryan won and went on to represent the United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest 1960. He also came second, with the song Looking High, High, High, Carr and Johnson released another single the following year entitled, How Wonderful To Know, which charted at #23 in the UK. In 1986, the two were the subject of an edition of This Is Your Life, after this success they appeared in a West End revival of the Stephen Sondheim musical Follies
35.
Matt Monro
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Matt Monro, known as The Man with the Golden Voice, was an English singer who became one of the most popular entertainers on the international music scene during the 1960s and 1970s. Throughout his 30-year career, he filled cabarets, nightclubs, music halls, and stadiums in Australia, Japan, the Philippines, and Hong Kong to Africa, the Middle East, Europe, and the Americas. AllMusic has described Monro as one of the most underrated pop vocalists of the 60s and he was born Terence Edward Parsons in Shoreditch, London and attended Duncombe School in Islington, and Elliott School in Putney. Matt was first noticed while serving in the British armed forces in Hong Kong, agreeing to the deal, he performed his first on-air concert for Rediffusion on June 27,1953. By 1956, Monro had become a featured vocalist with the BBC Show Band, an important influence on his early career was the pianist Winifred Atwell, who became his mentor, provided him with his stage name, and helped him sign with Decca Records. In 1957 Monro released Blue and Sentimental, a collection of standards, a short recording contract with Fontana Records followed. By the end of the 1950s, Monros mid-decade fame had evaporated and he and his wife Mickie lived from her wages as a song plugger and his royalties from a TV advertising jingle for Camay soap. In 1959 he recorded a country song, Bound for Texas, for The Chaplin Revue. It would be the first of many Monro soundtrack themes, when Sellers heard the recording he decided to use it to open the record rather than record his own version. Their second single and Monros highest UK chart success, Portrait of My Love, written by Cyril Ornadel, by the following year, he had been named Top International Act by Billboard. In February 1961, the British music magazine, NME reported that Monro had won ITVs A Song for Britain with My Kind of Girl and his follow-up hits included that song, plus Softly as I Leave You and the song from the James Bond film From Russia with Love. For the latter, his vocals were not used in the titles, as became the standard for the series, they were heard on a radio during the film. The Austrian entry Warum nur warum, performed by songwriter Udo Jürgens, caught Monros ear, despite its sixth-place finish, and he recorded an English version titled Walk Away, earning him another hit single late in 1964. He also had a hit with the Beatles Yesterday in 1965, releasing the first single of the most recorded song of all time, the following year, Monro sang the Oscar-winning title song for the film, Born Free, which became his signature tune. It was also his second collaboration with John Barry, following From Russia With Love, Monro went on to record two further songs from Barry film scores, Wednesdays Child and This Way Mary. Both Born Free and On Days Like These had lyrics by Don Black, in the late 60s he recorded another Udo Jürgens song with the name Was Ich Dir Sagen Will. It was adapted to English as The Music Played, Matt recorded a Spanish version of the song with adapted title of Alguien Canto. The Spanish version was a top hit in Spain in 1969
36.
Eurovision Song Contest 1964
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1964 was the ninth edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It was held in Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, after the victory in the 1963 edition. Italy won the contest for the first time scoring 49 points with the song Non ho letà, the host venue for the contest was Tivolis Koncertsal in Denmarks capital city Copenhagen, which lies within Denmarks famous amusement park and pleasure garden Tivoli Gardens. Each country had 10 jury members who distributed three points among their one, two, or three favourite songs, the points were totaled 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. A political protest occurred after the Swiss entry, a man trespassed onto the stage holding a banner that read Boycott Franco & Salazar, whilst this was going on, television viewers were shown a shot of the scoreboard, once the man was removed the contest went on. Her performance was given a repeat on British television the following afternoon. As with the 1956 contest, no recording of the actual contest performance is known to survive. Reports say that this is there was a fire at the studios of DR. No other broadcaster recorded the show other than for the Winners reprise. It has been speculated that the BBC once held a copy of the show, as an empty tape canister marked Eurovision 1964 was found during a storage cleanup, but the tape was missing, presumably wiped. The audio of the show however is still intact. Sweden did not participate because of a boycott by singers, portugal made its début in the contest, however they became the first country to score nul points on their début. Germany, Switzerland, and Yugoslavia also scored nul points for the first time, the Netherlands became the first country to send a singer of non-European ancestry, Anneke Grönloh was of Indonesian descent. The Spanish group Los TNT was the first group of three or more participants of the history of the ESC, one artist returned to the contest this year, Switzerlands Anita Traversi that represented the country in 1960. 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
37.
Kathy Kirby
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Kathy Kirby was an English singer, reportedly the highest-paid female singer of her generation. She is best known for her version of Doris Days Secret Love. Her physical appearance often drew comparisons with Marilyn Monroe and her popularity peaked in the 1960s, when she was one of the best-known and most-recognised personalities in British show business. Kirby was born in Ilford, Essex, the eldest of three children of Irish parents and her mother Eileen brought them up alone after their father left early in their childhood. Kirby grew up in Tomswood Hill, Barkingside, near Ilford, Kirbys vocal talent became apparent early in life, and she took singing lessons with a view to becoming an opera singer. She became a singer after meeting bandleader Bert Ambrose at the Ilford Palais in 1956. She remained with Ambroses band for three years and he remained her manager, mentor and lover until his death on stage in Leeds in 1971. During the summer of 1957 Kirby performed at the Florida Park Restaurant in Madrid, and after returning to the UK not only performed with Ambroses orchestra, but also with Nat Allen and his band. In 1959 Kirby joined vocalists Tony Mansell and Rikki Henderson in the Denny Boyce Band and she adopted a blonde bombshell look and was compared to Marilyn Monroe. In 1962 she signed a contract with Decca Records, for whom her first single was Big Man in October 1962, the single sold well over a long period of time, but failed to reach the top of the British charts. It was however a hit in Vancouvers CFUN in January 1963. In the summer of 1963, after becoming a regular on the musical TV program Stars and Garters, she had her first hit, Dance On. which peaked at No.11 in the UK chart and No.1 in Australia. Its follow-up was a reworking of the Doris Day classic Secret Love which peaked at No.4 on the British chart. In the same year she won Top British Female Singer in the New Musical Express poll and her album 16 Hits From Stars & Garters was released at the end of 1963, and cracked the top 20. The single Let Me Go, Lover, another upbeat reworking, this time of the classic by Joan Weber, reached No.10 in early 1964. Kirby disliked the song, stating that, Honestly, I was really surprised because I never had hope for this record. Let Me Go, Lover. was followed by Youre The One and this success was followed by a record-breaking summer season show at the ABC Theatre in Blackpool. Kirby became one of the biggest stars of the early to mid-1960s, appearing in the Royal Command Variety Performance and she represented the United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1965 and came second with the song I Belong which also became a hit
38.
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
39.
Cliff Richard
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Sir Cliff Richard OBE is a British pop singer, musician, performer, actor and philanthropist. Richard has sold more than 250 million records worldwide and he has total sales of over 21 million singles in the United Kingdom and is the third-top-selling artist in UK Singles Chart history, behind the Beatles and Elvis Presley. Richard was originally positioned as a rock and roll singer in the style of Little Richard. With his backing group, The Shadows, Richard dominated the British popular music scene in the period of the late 1950s to early 1960s. Increased focus on his Christian faith and subsequent softening of his music later led to a middle of the road pop image. He has had more than 130 singles, albums and EPs make the UK Top 20, Richard has had 67 UK top ten singles, the second highest total for an artist behind Elvis Presley. Richard holds the record as the act to make the UK singles charts in all of its first six decades. He has achieved 14 UK No.1 singles, and is the singer to have had a No.1 single in the UK in five consecutive decades. Richard has never achieved the same impact in the United States despite eight US Top 40 singles, including the million-selling Devil Woman and We Dont Talk Anymore. He has remained a music, film, and television personality in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Northern Europe and Asia. Richard has been a resident in the United Kingdom for most of his life and he divides his time between living in Barbados and Portugal. Harry Rodger Webb was born in India at King Georges Hospital, Victoria Street, in Lucknow and his parents were Rodger Oscar Webb, a manager for a catering contractor that serviced the Indian Railways, and the former Dorothy Marie Dazely. Richard is primarily of English heritage, but he has one great-grandmother who was of half Welsh and half Spanish descent, the Webb family lived in a modest home in Maqbara, near the main shopping centre of Hazratganj. Dorothys mother served as the matron at the La Martiniere Girls School. In 1948, following Indian independence, the family embarked on a sea voyage to Tilbury, Essex. The Webbs moved from comparative wealth in India, where lived in a company-supplied flat at Howrah near Calcutta. Harry Webb attended a primary school, Stanley Park Juniors. He then attended Cheshunt Secondary Modern School from 1952 to 1957, as a member of the top stream, he stayed on beyond the minimum leaving age to take GCE Ordinary Level examinations and gained a pass in English literature
40.
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
41.
Mary Hopkin
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Mary Hopkin, credited on some recordings as Mary Visconti, is a Welsh folk singer best known for her 1968 UK number one single Those Were The Days. She was one of the first musicians to sign to The Beatles Apple label, Hopkin was born in Pontardawe, Wales, into a Welsh-speaking family, her father worked as a housing officer. She took weekly singing lessons as a child and began her career as a folk singer with a local group called the Selby Set. She released an EP of Welsh-language songs for a record label called Cambrian, based in her home town. The model Twiggy saw her winning the British ITV television talent show, Opportunity Knocks and she became one of the first artists to record on The Beatles Apple record label. Her debut single, Those Were the Days, produced by McCartney, was released in the UK on 30 August 1968. It sold over 1,500,000 copies in the United States alone, on 2 October 1968 Hopkin appeared at St Pauls Cathedral, London, for the Pop Experience, where she sang Morning of My Life, Turn Turn Turn, and Plaisir dAmour. In December 1968 the NME music magazine reported that Hopkin was considering a lead acting role in Stanley Bakers forthcoming film and that particular project did not materialise but Hopkin did sing the title songs to two of Bakers films, Wheres Jack. On 21 February 1969 her debut album, Postcard, also produced by McCartney, was released and it included covers of three songs from Donovan, who also played on the album, and one song each from George Martin and Harry Nilsson. It reached number three on the UK Albums Chart, although it proved to be her solitary success in that chart, in the United States, Postcard reached Number 28 on the Billboard albums chart. The next single was Goodbye written by McCartney, released on 28 March 1969 and it was kept off the top of the charts by The Beatles single Get Back. Goodbye has never officially released by The Beatles, although a demo version can be found on some of their bootlegs. In March, she represented the United Kingdom in the 1970 Eurovision Song Contest, singing Knock Knock, Knock Knock, Whos There. was released as a single on 23 March 1970 and became her second Number 2 UK hit. Her second album, Earth Song, Ocean Song, was released by Apple on 1 October 1971. The record was produced by her husband Tony Visconti and included versions of songs written by Cat Stevens, Gallagher and Lyle, and Ralph McTell. Hopkin felt it was the album she had wanted to make, so coinciding with getting married and with little left to prove. Another single, Que Sera, Sera, reached number 47 in the Canadian RPM Magazine charts in August 1970, after marrying Visconti in 1971, Hopkin withdrew from the pop-music scene to have a family. Although reportedly unhappy with business, she did not stop recording
42.
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
43.
The New Seekers
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The New Seekers are a British-based pop group, formed in 1969 by Keith Potger after the break-up of his group, the Seekers. The idea was that the New Seekers would appeal to the market as the original Seekers. They achieved worldwide success in the early 1970s with hits including Id Like to Teach the World to Sing, You Wont Find Another Fool Like Me and Beg, the group was formed after the disbanding of the successful 1960s Australian group the Seekers. Potger himself also performed and recorded with the group, after one single release, the line-up was reworked in 1970 to Eve Graham, Lyn Paul, Marty Kristian, Peter Doyle, and Paul Layton. Over the next year, the released a number of singles to little recognition. The song became a big hit in the UK, spending five weeks at No.2 in the chart and was one of the biggest selling singles of the year. Towards the end of 1971, the recorded a adaptation of the Coca-Cola jingle, Id Like to Buy the World a Coke. Reworked as Id Like to Teach the World to Sing, the became a worldwide success. It made No.1 in the UK for four weeks, in the US, the song was also a hit, reaching No.7, and in Canada it reached no.3. It became a No.1 hit in other countries and is the most recognised song by the group. The group were chosen to represent the United Kingdom in the 1972 Eurovision Song Contest and they entered with the song Beg, Steal or Borrow, which was chosen by viewers of BBC1s Its Cliff Richard. Show from six shortlisted songs performed by the group on a weekly basis and they went on to finish in second place at the Eurovision final in Edinburgh, where the group received the biggest cheer of the night from the partisan audience. The song was a No.2 hit in the UK, around this time, they also charted highly with their most successful album, Wed Like to Teach the World to Sing, which reached No.2. Another top five hit came with the single, Circles in mid 1972. At the end of the year, the took part in the BBCs anniversary TV show Fifty Years Of Music. The following year the group saw a dip, although they did score a top 20 hit with an adaptation of Pinball Wizard. Member Peter Doyle left the group this year and was replaced by Peter Oliver, the New Seekers had enjoyed a number of hits in the US by this time and toured there with Liza Minnelli in 1973. While there, they recorded the track to the American Marlo Thomas television special
44.
Eurovision Song Contest 1972
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1972 was the 17th annual Eurovision Song Contest. It was held in Edinburgh, United Kingdom, although Monaco had won the previous years contest, the principality was unable to meet the demands of hosting the event. Séverine made the trip to the Scottish capital Edinburgh to pass on the Grand Prix to Vicky Leandros, however, she looked thoroughly uninterested in the Monegasque entry when seen by viewers checking her watch before the song was performed. This marked the time that the contest was held in the United Kingdom. However, this is the first time that the UK hosted the Eurovision Song Contest in a venue outside England, the 1972 Eurovision Song Contest was hosted by Edinburgh, the capital city of Scotland. Usher Hall, the venue for the 1972 contest, is a hall, situated on Lothian Road, in the west end of Edinburgh. It has hosted concerts and events since its construction in 1914 and can hold approximately 2,900 people in its recently restored auditorium, the Hall is flanked by The Royal Lyceum Theatre on the right and The Traverse Theatre on the left. Historic Scotland has registered the Hall with Category A listed building status, the stage design included a screen to introduce and accompany the on stage competing performances, and to show an interval act and voting sequence that were done at Edinburgh Castle. The interval act was performed at the outside vast Esplanade of the Great Hall of Edinburgh Castle, the jurors were stationed in the safety of the castle, and watched the competing performances at Usher Hall on TV. Each country had two members, one aged between 16 and 25 and one aged between 26 and 55. They each awarded 1 to 5 points for each song, other than the song of their own country and they cast their votes immediately after each song was performed and the votes were then collected and counted. The eventual winner, Luxembourg, remained in a scoring position throughout the voting. 1972 was the first year that had no ties in the voting, every year prior to 1972, at least two countries had received the same score. All countries who participated in the 1971 contest were present this year, with no withdrawals, returns, the Irish entry was in Irish, so far the countrys only entry in that language. Each performance had a conductor who maestro the orchestra, four artists returned to the competition this year. Below is a summary of all perfect 10 scores that were given during the voting, each national broadcaster sent a commentator to the contest, in order to provide coverage of the event in their own native language. Apart from the countries, the contest was transmitted in live for the first time in the continent of Asia, in the countries Japan, Taiwan, Thailand. Brazil and Greece also provided live broadcasting, iceland and Israel broadcast it a few days later
45.
Eurovision Song Contest 1988
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1988 was the 33rd edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. The contest took place on 30 April 1988 in Dublin, Ireland, the presenters were Pat Kenny and Michelle Rocca. The host broadcaster was Radio Telefís Éireann which revamped the production style compared to its earlier editions. The winner was Switzerland with the song Ne partez pas sans moi, performed by future international superstar Celine Dion, Switzerland beat the United Kingdom by just a point in the last vote to win the title. The Cypriot song had been drawn to be performed 2nd in the running order, the stage itself, conceived by Paula Farrell under chief production designer Michael Grogan, was also the largest and most elaborate ever constructed for the Eurovision Song Contest. The Postcards featured the participants doing things in Ireland from culture, to tradition, lowney was also the director of the shows interval act, introduced after the competing songs and before the votes announcement. Each country had a jury who awarded 12,10,8,7,6,5,4,3,2 and 1 point for its top ten songs and this edition features one of the closest and fickle-ending votes in the history of the contest. With three countries left to vote, the UK was well in the lead with 133 points against Switzerlands 118, with the conclusion of voting from the penultimate jury, the UK was holding a five-point lead over Switzerland. Switzerland was the first to be named with six points, edging it into a one-point lead over the UK, after earlier strong votes from most countries to the UK, it seemed highly likely that the UK would be given one of the higher remaining set of points. Twenty-one countries took part, after a plan of twenty-two. This was classed as a breach of the Cypriot rules of selecting their entry at this time as well as an infringement of the Eurovision Song Contest rules, the contest helped launch an international career for two artists, the winner for Switzerland Celine Dion and Luxembourg’s representative Lara Fabian. Belgian-Canadian Lara Fabian started a career after the contest with becoming established in various countries worldwide. The UK entry was written and composed by Julie Forsyth, the daughter of the entertainer Bruce Forsyth who was present, when interviewed afterwards he was particularly annoyed at the Dutch jury not having given a vote to the UK, as they had done some work there
46.
Michael Ball (singer)
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Michael Ashley Ball, OBE is an English actor, singer and broadcaster, who is known for his work in musical theatre. He made his West End debut in 1985 playing Marius in the original London production of Les Misérables, in 1989, he reached number two in the UK singles chart with Love Changes Everything, a song taken from the musical Aspects of Love, where he played Alex. He played the role in London and on Broadway, in 1992, Ball represented the United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest, finishing second with the song One Step Out of Time. In 1995, he reprised the role of Marius in Les Misérables and his other West End roles include Georgio in Passion and Caractacus Potts in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. He has twice won the Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical and he won in 2008 for his role as Edna Turnblad in Hairspray, and then in 2013 for the title role in the revival of Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Ball was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 2015 Birthday Honours for his services to musical theatre, Ball was born in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire to a Welsh mother and an English father. His father trained as an Austin apprentice at the Longbridge plant and went on to become a successful businessman, Balls maternal grandfather was a coal miner. His maternal grandmother was protective of the family, Ball has a sister, Katherine, almost a decade his junior. He moved to Dartmoor with his parents when he was three years old and he has never had singing lessons, but as a boy he learned to sing by singing along to music, for example, songs by Ella Fitzgerald, Mahalia Jackson and Frank Sinatra. He joined a theatre, which led to his studying drama at Guildford School of Acting. As a student he went busking on Saturdays in Guildford town with a student friend to earn a little extra money. After his graduation, Balls singing career rapidly got off the ground, when he returned to work he was still suffering from fatigue, and began to get on-stage panic attacks — overwhelming anxiety, a rapid heartbeat, sweating, and problems with vision. These also started happening at times, such as when he was going to work. For most of the nine months he lived alone in his flat feeling depressed, he did not seek therapy. Thames Television invited Ball to sing during the Miss England contest, a televised event. When he viewed a recording later, he realised that no one would have noticed how nervous he was, Mackintosh thought that Ball would not be under too much pressure as Raoul, and that the part was right for him. Ball played Alex in Aspects of Love, both in London and New York, and Giorgio in the London production of Stephen Sondheims Passion, alone Together was his one-man show first performed at the Donmar Warehouse. In 2002 he took on the role of Caractacus Potts in the Sherman Brothers musical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, in 2004, he co-starred with Petula Clark in a production of Lloyd Webbers Sunset Boulevard at the Cork Opera House, later broadcast by the BBC
For the most recent participation see
Eric Robinson (1957, 1959–1960, 1963, 1965) (musical director in 1960, 1963)
Harry Robinson (1961)
Harry Rabinowitz (1964, 1966)
Ken Woodman (1967)
David Mackay (1972–73)
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United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest
