Eurovision Song Contest

The Eurovision Song Contest (sometimes shortened to ESC or simply Eurovision) is an international song contest held every year by the European Broadcasting Union since 1956. Each year, different singers representing countries in Europe perform a song and the winner is decided through voting.

Eurovision Song Contest
Eurovision's "heart logo"
Also known as	Eurovision Eurosong ESC
Genre	Music competition
Created by	European Broadcasting Union
Based on	Sanremo Music Festival
Presented by	Various presenters
Country of origin	Various participating countries
Original languages	Various; primarily English and French
Production
Production location	Various host cities
Running time	~2 hours (semi-finals) ~4 hours (finals)
Production companies	European Broadcasting Union Various national broadcasters
Original release
Release	24 May 1956 (1956-05-24) – present
Related
Junior Eurovision Song Contest Eurovision Young Musicians Eurovision Dance Contest American Song Contest

Between 160 million and 200 million people watch every year. This makes it the largest music competition in the world. Eurovision has had many famous winners in the past including ABBA, Céline Dion, Sandie Shaw, Bucks Fizz, Alexander Rybak, Conchita Wurst, Netta Barzilai, Duncan Laurence and Måneskin. Other famous contestants that did not win include Olivia Newton-John, Bonnie Tyler, Blue, Jedward, Engelbert Humperdinck and Rosa Linn.

Creation

Top row (left to right):

• Lys Assia, first person to win Eurovision
• André Claveau, first man to win Eurovision
• ABBA, the first group to win Eurovision

Middle row (left to right):

• Celine Dion, 1988 winner, is considered one of the best singers of all time
• Dana International was the first transgender winner
• Duncan Laurence's song "Arcade" is the most listened-to Eurovision song

Bottom row (left to right):

• Salvador Sobral is the contestant who won with the most points
• Johnny Logan is the first person to win twice
• Loreen is the first woman to win twice and the winner of the 2023 contest.

Eurovision started on 24 May 1956.^[1] The Eurovision Song Contest was created by the European Broadcasting Union to experiment live television and broadcasting across multiple countries. It was inspired by RAI's Sanremo Music Festival.^[1] The first contest was held in 1956 with the aim of uniting the countries of Europe following World War II. Seven countries took part in the first contest, which was hosted in Lugano. It was won by Lys Assia, who was representing Switzerland.^[2]

Expansion of the contest

More countries began to join very quickly. In the 1970s, countries from outside Europe began to participate (such as Israel). Morocco also participated once (and is the only African country to do so). The early 1990s saw the fall of both the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, with both split into multiple countries (all in Eastern Europe). All of these new countries wanted to join so the 1993 contest had a separate contest held beforehand between seven new Eastern European countries. The three winners of the contest would participate in the actual Eurovision Contest.

Relegation system (1994—2003)

The 1994 contest introduced a relegation system. This meant that each year, the countries that ranked lowest would not be allowed to participate the following year in order to allow other countries to enter. Eurovision 1999 introduced a new rule where the United Kingdom, Spain, France and Germany (this group was called the "Big Four") were given the right to participate in every contest, even if they ranked at the bottom.

Semi-finals (2004—present)

The relegation system was used until the Eurovision Song Contest 2004, which introduced a semi-final. The Big 4 and the ten highest-scoring acts of the previous contest would automatically qualify to the final while the rest would have to participate in a semi-final (the ten winners of the semi-final would join the others in the final).

In 2008, a second semi-final was introduced. Now, the ten highest-ranking countries from each semi-final join the host country and the Big Four in the Grand Final. The Big Four expanded to the "Big Five" when Italy re-joined the contest.

Current competition format

Loreen was the winner of the 2023 contest.

Each year, every country taking part will send in one song which is performed by up to six singers. Each song is performed in a large arena in front of an audience of fans. The winner is decided through a complicated system of voting.

Participation

In the first few years of the contest, a small group of countries competed against each other in one show. As more countries wanted to join, it was eventually decided that there would be two semi-finals, where the ten highest-ranked countries from each semi-final would go into the final. The United Kingdom, France, Spain, Germany and Italy automatically qualify for the final because they give a lot of money to the contest. In addition to this, the host country also automatically makes it to the final. This makes an average of 26 finalists (25 if the host country is a member of the Big Five).

Voting and winner selection

Eurovision trophy

Until the late 1990s, the winner was decided by experts from each country, called a jury. The juries awarded points to their favourite songs. The way that the points were awarded changed many times over the years until 1975, where it was decided that each jury awarded 12, 10 and 8—1 points to ten songs (with their favourite getting 12 points, second getting 10 and third to tenth getting 8—1 points).

In the late 1990s, televoting was introduced for some countries while others used juries. From 1998 to 2008, only televoting was used with the same system which had been used since 1975.

In 2009, it was decided that the juries would come back because countries kept voting for their neighbours (a system known as bloc voting). From 2009 to 2015, the rankings of each country's jury vote and public vote were added together and the top ten songs were awarded with 12, 10 and 8—1 points.

In 2016, a new system was introduced where each country's jury and public awarded separate points to their top ten favourite songs. This meant that countries started scoring far higher than before.

In 2023, the "Rest of the World" vote was introduced for the public vote, which allowed viewers from other countries to vote. This gave the public 50.6% say in the voting while the juries now have 49.4%.

Hosting

The four hosts of the Eurovision Song Contest 2019

According to the Eurovision rules, the winner of each contest will host the next year's contest.^[3][4] This rule has been applied most of the time, with a notable exception being the 2023 contest, which was hosted in the United Kingdom because the previous year's winner, Ukraine, was unable to host.

Each year, the contest is hosted by a number of presenters. Usually, these are celebrities from the hosting country or can also be past winners and contestants.

The presenters will usually speak in English or the language of the host country. In addition to the presenters, each participating country has a "commentator" who narrates the event for the viewers in their language.

Contestant selections

The European Broadcasting Area

In order for a country to participate, it must be a part of the European Broadcasting Union. This includes all of Europe, some Asian and African countries as well as Australia. Each country has a television channel (called broadcasters) which broadcasts the Contest in that country. The only European countries which have never participated are Liechtenstein and the Vatican. The only African country to have ever participated was Morocco.

Entry selections

There are three main types of selections which choose who will represent what country:

• An internal selection is when the channel showing the Contest in a country chooses the contestant and song. For example, the BBC (which airs the Contest in the UK) has chosen the song and contestant without involving the public for several years.
• A national selection is where a country holds its own competition to decide who will represent them in Eurovision. For example, Sweden's national selection is Melodifestivalen, which is the most watched national selection.
• A combination of both selections is a rare method. It is often when the broadcaster chooses the contestant and lets the public vote on the song.

Recent history

The Eurovision Song Contest 2020 was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[5][6] This is the first time the contest was cancelled. It was replaced by a replacement show called Eurovision: Europe Shine a Light.^[7][8][9] It showed the selected entries in place of the Grand Final on 16 May 2020. The BBC also organised an all-stars contest, where ABBA's "Waterloo" was voted best Eurovision song.^{[10][11][12][13]} That same year, a film named Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga was released starring Will Ferrell and Rachel McAdams.^[14][15]

Slogans

Starting in the Eurovision Song Contest 2002, each contest was given a different theme and slogan. This stopped when it was announced that the same slogan would be used every year starting from the Eurovision Song Contest 2024.

Year	Slogan
2002	A Modern Fairytale	[16][17]
2003	A Magical Rendez-vous	[18][19]
2004	Under The Same Sky	[20][21]
2005	Awakening	[22][23]
2006	Feel The Rhythm	[24][25]
2007	True Fantasy	[26][27]
2008	Confluence of Sound	[28][29]
2010	Share The Moment	[30][31]
2011	Feel Your Heart Beat	[32][33]
2012	Light Your Fire	[34][35]
2013	We Are One	[36][37]
2014	#JOINUS	[38][39]
2015	Building Bridges	[40][41]
2016	Come Together	[42][43]
2017	Celebrate Diversity	[44][45]
2018	All Aboard!	[46][47]
2019	Dare To Dream	[48][49]
2020	Open Up	[50][51]
2021		[52][53]
2022	The Sound Of Beauty	[54][55]
2023	United By Music	[56][57]
2024		[58][59]

List of contests

Further information: List of Eurovision Song Contest entries (1956–2003) and List of Eurovision Song Contest entries (2004–present)

The first Contest was won by Swiss singer Lys Assia with the song "Refrain". The first man to win (André Claveau) won the third Contest. ABBA was the first group to win. The first person to win the Contest twice was Johnny Logan. The first woman to win twice was Loreen, who got her second victory in 2023.

Year	Host city	Winner
		Country	Performer	Song
1956	Lugano	Switzerland	Lys Assia	Refrain
1957	Frankfurt	Netherlands	Corry Brokken	Net als toen
1958	Hilversum	France	André Claveau	Dors, mon amour
1959	Cannes	Netherlands	Teddy Scholten	Een beetje
1960	London	France	Jacqueline Boyer	Tom Pillibi
1961	Cannes	Luxembourg	Jean-Claude Pascal	Nous les amoureux
1962	Luxembourg	France	Isabelle Aubret	Un premier amour
1963	London	Denmark	Grethe & Jørgen Ingmann	Dansevise
1964	Copenhagen	Italy	Gigliola Cinquetti	Non ho l'età (per amarti)
1965	Naples	Luxembourg	France Gall	Poupée de cire, poupée de son
1966	Luxembourg	Austria	Udo Jürgens	Merci, Chérie
1967	Vienna	United Kingdom	Sandie Shaw	Puppet on a String
1968	London	Spain	Massiel	La, la, la
1969	Madrid	France[1]	Frida Boccara	Un jour, un enfant
		Netherlands[1]	Lennie Kuhr	De troubadour
		Spain[1]	Salomé	Vivo cantando
		United Kingdom[1]	Lulu	Boom Bang-a-Bang
1970	Amsterdam	Ireland	Dana	All Kinds of Everything
1971	Dublin	Monaco	Séverine	Un banc, un arbre, une rue
1972	Edinburgh	Luxembourg	Vicky Leandros	Après toi
1973	Luxembourg	Luxembourg	Anne-Marie David	Tu te reconnaîtras
1974	Brighton	Sweden	ABBA	Waterloo
1975	Stockholm	Netherlands	Teach-In	Ding-a-Dong
1976	The Hague	United Kingdom	Brotherhood of Man	Save Your Kisses for Me
1977	London	France	Marie Myriam	L'oiseau et l'enfant
1978	Paris	Israel	Izhar Cohen & Alphabeta	A-ba-ni-bi (א-ב-ני-בי)
1979	Jerusalem	Israel	Gali Atari & Milk and Honey	Hallelujah (הללויה)
1980	The Hague	Ireland	Johnny Logan	What's Another Year?
1981	Dublin	United Kingdom	Bucks Fizz	Making Your Mind Up
1982	Harrogate	Germany	Nicole	Ein bißchen Frieden
1983	Munich	Luxembourg	Corinne Hermès	Si la vie est cadeau
1984	Luxembourg	Sweden	Herreys	Diggi-loo diggi-ley
1985	Gothenburg	Norway	Bobbysocks!	La det swinge
1986	Bergen	Belgium	Sandra Kim	J'aime la vie
1987	Brussels	Ireland	Johnny Logan	Hold Me Now
1988	Dublin	Switzerland	Céline Dion	Ne partez pas sans moi
1989	Lausanne	Yugoslavia	Riva	Rock Me
1990	Zagreb	Italy	Toto Cutugno	Insieme: 1992
1991	Rome	Sweden	Carola	Fångad av en stormvind
1992	Malmö	Ireland	Linda Martin	Why Me?
1993	Millstreet	Ireland	Niamh Kavanagh	In Your Eyes
1994	Dublin	Ireland	Paul Harrington & Charlie McGettigan	Rock 'n' Roll Kids
1995	Dublin	Norway	Secret Garden	Nocturne
1996	Oslo	Ireland	Eimear Quinn	The Voice
1997	Dublin	United Kingdom	Katrina and the Waves	Love Shine a Light
1998	Birmingham	Israel	Dana International	Diva (דיווה)
1999	Jerusalem	Sweden	Charlotte Nilsson	Take Me to Your Heaven
2000	Stockholm	Denmark	Olsen Brothers	Fly on the Wings of Love
2001	Copenhagen	Estonia	Tanel Padar, Dave Benton & 2XL	Everybody
2002	Tallinn	Latvia	Marie N	I Wanna
2003	Riga	Turkey	Sertab Erener	Everyway That I Can
2004	Istanbul	Ukraine	Ruslana	Wild Dances
2005	Kyiv	Greece	Helena Paparizou	My Number One
2006	Athens	Finland	Lordi	Hard Rock Hallelujah
2007	Helsinki	Serbia	Marija Šerifović	Molitva (Молитва)
2008	Belgrade	Russia	Dima Bilan	Believe
2009	Moscow	Norway	Alexander Rybak	Fairytale
2010	Oslo	Germany	Lena Meyer-Landrut	Satellite
2011	Düsseldorf	Azerbaijan	Ell & Nikki	Running Scared
2012	Baku	Sweden	Loreen	Euphoria
2013	Malmö	Denmark	Emmelie de Forest	Only Teardrops
2014	Copenhagen	Austria	Conchita Wurst	Rise Like a Phoenix
2015	Vienna	Sweden	Måns Zelmerlöw	Heroes
2016	Stockholm	Ukraine	Jamala	1944
2017	Kyiv	Portugal	Salvador Sobral	Amar Pelos Dois
2018	Lisbon	Israel	Netta Barzilai	Toy
2019	Tel Aviv	Netherlands	Duncan Laurence	Arcade
2020	—[2]	—[2]	—[2]	—[2]
2021	Rotterdam	Italy	Måneskin	Zitti e buoni
2022	Turin	Ukraine	Kalush Orchestra	Stefania
2023	Liverpool	Sweden	Loreen	Tattoo
2024	Malmö	Switzerland	Nemo	The Code
2025	Basel	TBA

International versions

There are some other versions of Eurovision including:

• Junior Eurovision Song Contest
• Eurovision Dance Contest
• Turkvision Song Contest
• American Song Contest
• Eurovision Young Musicians
• Eurovision Young Dancers
• OTI Festival
• AfriMusic Song Contest
• Bundevision Song Contest
• Eurovision Asia Song Contest

Notes

1. ^ In 1969 four countries were joint winners as there was no rule for a tie.
2. ^ Cancelled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Replaced by a programme called Eurovision: Europe Shine a Light.