page_title: Eurovision Song Contest
section_title: Winning artists and songs
hierarchical_section_title: Eurovision Song Contest / Winners / Winning artists and songs
caption_attribution_description: Johnny Logan during rehearsals for the Eurovision Song Contest 1980
context_page_description: The Eurovision Song Contest is an international song competition, organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union and featuring participants representing primarily European countries. Each participating country submits an original song to be performed on live television and radio, transmitted to national broadcasters via the EBU's Eurovision and Euroradio networks, with competing countries then casting votes for the other countries' songs to determine a winner.
  Based on the Sanremo Music Festival held in Italy since 1951, Eurovision has been held every year since 1956, with the exception of the cancelled 2020 edition, making it the longest-running annual international televised music competition. Active members of the EBU, as well as invited associate members, are eligible to compete in the contest, and as of 2019, 52 countries have participated at least once. Originally consisting of a single evening event, the contest has expanded greatly as new countries joined, leading to the introduction of relegation procedures in the 1990s and eventually the creation of semi-finals in the 2000s.
context_section_description: Winning performers from the Eurovision Song Contest feature as some of the world's best-selling artists, while a number of the contest's winning songs have went to become some of the best-selling singles globally. ABBA, the winners of the 1974 contest for Sweden, have sold an estimated 380 million albums and singles since their contest win propelled them to worldwide fame, with their winning song "Waterloo" having sold over five million records. Celine Dion, the French Canadian singer who won for Switzerland in 1988 with "Ne partez pas sans moi", has sold more than 200 million records worldwide. "Save Your Kisses for Me", the winning song at the 1976 contest for the United Kingdom's Brotherhood of Man, is one of the contest's most successful winners, selling over six millions singles, more than any other winning song in the history of the contest. More recently, "Euphoria", performed by Loreen and the winning song for Sweden in 2012, achieved Europe-wide success following the contest, featuring in singles charts across Europe and becoming the UK's most downloaded Eurovision song, peaking at #3 on the UK Singles Chart.
  Several past winners have gone on to achieve continued success, both locally and internationally: Bucks Fizz, formed especially for the 1981 contest and the eventual winners for the United Kingdom with "Making Your Mind Up", continued to release hit songs through the 1980s; France Gall, the French singer who won for Luxembourg in 1965 as a 17 year old with the song "Poupée de cire, poupée de son", had a long career and recorded and performed into the 1990s; and Vicky Leandros, the Greek singer who won for Luxembourg in 1972 with "Après toi", continues to record and release albums, particularly in the German language market, including an attempt to represent Germany at the 2006 contest held in Athens. Other winning artists have gone on to contribute to other fields. Dana, Ireland's winner at the 1970 contest with "All Kinds of Everything", went on to serve as a Member of the European Parliament and ran unsuccessfully in two Irish presidential elections.
  Several non-winning songs have also gone on to achieve great success: "Nel blu, dipinto di blu", popularly known as "Volare", the third-placed song in the 1958 contest for Italy and originally performed in the contest by Domenico Modugno, has been recorded by various artists over the years, with combined sales of over 22 million copies worldwide; "Eres tú", performed by Spain's Mocedades and runner-up at the 1973 contest, went on to achieve success worldwide, becoming the only Spanish-language song to reach the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States; The Grammy Award-nominated "Ooh Aah... Just a Little Bit", which originally came eighth in the 1996 contest for the United Kingdom, reached #1 on the UK Singles Chart (the last Eurovision song to achieve this as of 2020) and achieved success across Europe and the US, selling 790,000 records and peaking at #12 on the Billboard Hot 100. The video for "Occidentali's Karma" by Francesco Gabbani, the sixth-placed song in the 2017 contest for Italy, has become the first Eurovision song to reach more than 200 million views on YouTube, while "Soldi", the runner-up at the 2019 contest, by Italian Mahmood is the most-streamed Eurovision song on Spotify.
  Johnny Logan remains the only artist to have won multiple Eurovision titles as a performer, winning the contest for Ireland in 1980 with "What's Another Year", written by Shay Healy, and in 1987 with "Hold Me Now", written by Logan himself. Logan was also the winning songwriter at the 1992 contest when he wrote another Irish winner, "Why Me?" performed by Linda Martin, and has therefore achieved three victories in the contest as either a performer or writer. Four further songwriters have also each written two contest-winning songs: Willy van Hemert, Yves Dessca, Rolf Løvland, and Brendan Graham.
caption: Johnny Logan is the only performer to have won the contest twice, in 1980 (pictured) and 1987
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