List of Eurovision Song Contest winners

List of Eurovision Song Contest winners
70 songs written by 143 songwriters have won the Eurovision Song Contest, an international song competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union. The contest, which has been broadcast every year since its debut in 1956 (with the exception of 2020), is one of the longest-running television programmes in the world. The contest's winner has been determined using numerous voting techniques throughout its history; centre to these have been the awarding of points to countries by juries or televoters. The country awarded the most points is declared the winner. The first Eurovision Song Contest was not won on points, but by votes (two per country), and only the winner was announced.
There have been 67 contests, with one winner each year except the tied 1969 contest, which had four. 27 countries have won the contest, with winning the first contest in 1956. The countries with the highest number of wins are and with seven wins each. Two people have won more than once as a performer: Ireland's Johnny Logan, who performed "What's Another Year" in 1980 and "Hold Me Now" in 1987, and Sweden's Loreen, who performed "Euphoria" in 2012 and "Tattoo" in 2023. Logan is also one of seven songwriters to have written more than one winning entry ("Hold Me Now" in 1987 and "Why Me?" in 1992, performed by Linda Martin), and is the only person to have three Eurovision victories to their credit, as either singer, songwriter or both. The other six songwriters with more than one winning entry to their credit are Willy van Hemert (Netherlands, 1957 and 1959), Yves Dessca (Monaco, 1971 and Luxembourg, 1972), Rolf Løvland (Norway, 1985 and 1995), Brendan Graham (Ireland, 1994 and 1996), and Thomas G:son and Peter Boström (both for Sweden's entries in 2012 and 2023).
Relatively few winners of the Eurovision Song Contest have gone on to achieve major success in the music industry. The most notable winners who have gone on to become international stars are ABBA, who won the 1974 contest for Sweden with their song "Waterloo", and Céline Dion, who won the 1988 contest for Switzerland with the song "". More recently, Duncan Laurence, who won the for the Netherlands with "Arcade", experienced worldwide streaming success with the song as a sleeper hit throughout 2020 and 2021, while Måneskin, winners of the for Italy with "", subsequently achieved worldwide popularity in the months following their victory.
Since 2008, the winner has been awarded an official winner's trophy of the Eurovision Song Contest. The trophy is a handmade piece of sandblasted glass in the shape of a 1950s microphone. The songwriters and composers of the winning entry receive smaller versions of the trophy. The original design was created by Kjell Engman of Kosta Boda, who specialises in glass art.
Winners by year
Performers and songwriters with multiple wins
The following individuals have won the Eurovision Song Contest as a performer or songwriter more than once.
Observations
Eleven Eurovision winners (alongside three non-winners) were featured at the special concert Congratulations: 50 Years of the Eurovision Song Contest in 2005, in which ABBA's "Waterloo" was voted the most popular song of the contest's first fifty years.
and have won seven times, more than any other country. Ireland also won the contest for three consecutive years (1992, 1993, 1994), the only country to ever do so. Three countries have won twice in a row: (1968 and 1969), (1972 and 1973) and (1978 and 1979). is the only country to win with its debut entry (in 2007), although Serbia had competed previously as part of Yugoslavia and Serbia and Montenegro. By contrast, Portugal holds the record for waiting the longest to achieve their first win, doing so in 2017; 53 years after their first appearance in the contest. Austria holds the record for longest wait in between wins, having won for the first time in 1966 and a second time in 2014. Under the voting system used between 1975 and 2015, the winner of the contest was decided by the final voting nation on eleven occasions.
Changes to the voting system, including a steady growth in the number of countries participating and voting, means that the points earned are not comparable across the decades. Portugal's Salvador Sobral holds the record of the highest number of points in the contest's history, earning 758 with the song "Amar pelos dois". Norway's Alexander Rybak holds the largest margin of victory in absolute points, a 169-point cushion over second place in 2009. Italy's Gigliola Cinquetti holds the record for largest victory by percentage, scoring almost three times as many as second place (49 points compared with 17 by the runner-up) in the 1964 contest. The lowest winning score is the 18 points (of the 160 total votes cast by 16 countries) scored by each of the four winning countries in .
Under the voting system used from 1975 until 2015, in which each country gives maximum points to its first place choice, Sweden's Loreen won the 2012 contest with the most ever first place votes earned, receiving first place votes from 18 of 41 countries (excluding themselves). The 1976 winner for the United Kingdom, Brotherhood of Man, holds the record of the highest average score per participating country, with an average of 9.65 points received per country. Azerbaijani winners Ell and Nikki hold the lowest average score for a winning song under that system, receiving 5.14 points per country.
Around two-thirds of the winning songs were performed in the second half of the final. According to the official statistics, until 2019, only 34.3% of the winning songs were performed in the first half, including 3 of the 4 winners in 1969. The only song to win without being clearly in one half or the other was the Israeli entry "Hallelujah" in 1979, which was drawn 10th out of 19 songs. Between 2005 and 2013, all the winning songs were performed in the second half of the final's running order.
The has finished second sixteen times at Eurovision (most recently in 2022), more than any other country. has finished third and fourth seven times at Eurovision (most recently respectively in 1981 and in 2001), and has finished fifth nine times at Eurovision (most recently in 2019). The country with the most top three places that has never won the contest is Malta, having finished second in 2002 and 2005 and third in 1992 and 1998. Another island nation, Iceland, has also finished second twice, in 1999 and 2009. With Portugal achieving its first win in 2017, Malta now also holds the record for longest wait for a first win, having first shown up in the contest in 1971 (although Cyprus has more winless appearances, with 36 since debuting in 1981, due to Malta taking a break from 1976 through 1990). Spain holds the current record for longest drought by a winning country, having last won in 1969. They are followed by France (1977) and Belgium (1986).
There is no official runner-up for two of the contests – 1956 and 1969. In 1956 only the winner, Switzerland, was announced, whilst there were speculative reports that Germany ended up in second place with "Im Wartesaal zum großen Glück" by Walter Andreas Schwarz, given that Germany was chosen to host the 1957 contest. In 1969, four songs shared first place by achieving the same number of points; fifth place was achieved by Switzerland, which is not considered an official runner-up, because of the draw for first place.
Discrepancies between the jury and televote
Since the re-introduction of the juries alongside televoting in 2009, both the jury and the televote have agreed on the winner on only six occasions: in 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2017. Two winners have won without placing first in either area: Ukraine's Jamala in 2016, who finished second in the jury vote behind Australia and second in the televote behind Russia, and the Netherlands' Duncan Laurence in 2019, who placed third behind North Macedonia and Sweden in the jury vote, and second behind Norway in the televote.
Sweden won both the combined vote and jury vote in 2015 and 2023, represented by Måns Zelmerlöw and Loreen (who had also won in 2012), respectively. However, in the televote, Sweden came third behind Italy and Russia in 2015, and second behind Finland in 2023.
Azerbaijan's Ell and Nikki in 2011, Israel's Netta in 2018, Italy's Måneskin in 2021 and Ukraine's Kalush Orchestra in 2022 all won both the combined vote and televote. However, in the jury vote, Azerbaijan came second behind Italy in 2011, Israel came third behind Austria and Sweden in 2018, Italy came fourth behind Switzerland, France and Malta in 2021, and Ukraine came fourth behind the United Kingdom, Sweden and Spain in 2022.
Winners by country
The first repeat winner was the Netherlands, completed in . France was the first country to win three times (completed in ), four times (completed in ), and five times (completed in ). Ireland was the first country to win six times (completed in ) and seven times (completed in ). The first country to win two consecutive contests was Spain, from to . The first country to win three consecutive contests was Ireland, from to .
The year 1969 is in italics to indicate the joint (four-way) win.
Gallery
Performers
Songwriters
See also
Eurovision Song Contest winners discography
List of Junior Eurovision Song Contest winners
Notes and references
Notes
References
Bibliography
Eurovision Song Contest: History by events
Winners
Eurovision Song Contest winners