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.

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 

Eurovision started on 24 May 1956. 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. 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.

 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 
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 
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 
According to the Eurovision rules, the winner of each contest will host the next year's contest. 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 
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 Middle Eastern countries to have ever participated was Morocco and Turkey.

 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. This is the first time the contest was cancelled. It was replaced by a replacement show called Eurovision: Europe Shine a Light. 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. That same year, a film named Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga was released starring Will Ferrell and Rachel McAdams.

 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 "United By Music" would be used every year starting from the Eurovision Song Contest 2024.
YearSlogan 2002 A Modern Fairytale  2003 A Magical Rendez-vous  2004 Under The Same Sky  2005 Awakening  2006 Feel The Rhythm  2007 True Fantasy  2008 Confluence of Sound  2010 Share The Moment 2011 Feel Your Heart Beat   2012 Light Your Fire  2013 We Are One  2014 #JOINUS  2015 Building Bridges  2016 Come Together  2017 Celebrate Diversity  2018 All Aboard!  2019 Dare To Dream  2020 Open Up  2021 2022 The Sound Of Beauty  2023 United By Music 2024

 List of contests 

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.
YearHost cityWinner Country  Performer  Song  1956 Lugano    Lys Assia  Refrain  1957 Frankfurt    Corry Brokken  Net als toen  1958 Hilversum    André Claveau  Dors, mon amour  1959 Cannes     Teddy Scholten  Een beetje  1960 London    Jacqueline Boyer  Tom Pillibi  1961 Cannes    Jean-Claude Pascal  Nous les amoureux  1962 Luxembourg     Isabelle Aubret  Un premier amour  1963 London     Grethe & Jørgen Ingmann  Dansevise  1964 Copenhagen    Gigliola Cinquetti  Non ho l'età (per amarti)  1965 Naples    France Gall  Poupée de cire, poupée de son  1966 Luxembourg    Udo Jürgens  Merci, Chérie  1967 Vienna     Sandie Shaw  Puppet on a String  1968 London    Massiel  La, la, la 1969Madrid  Frida Boccara Un jour, un enfant  Lennie Kuhr De troubadour   Salomé  Vivo cantando   Lulu Boom Bang-a-Bang 1970 Amsterdam    Dana  All Kinds of Everything  1971 Dublin    Séverine  Un banc, un arbre, une rue  1972 Edinburgh    Vicky Leandros  Après toi  1973 Luxembourg    Anne-Marie David  Tu te reconnaîtras  1974 Brighton    ABBA  Waterloo  1975 Stockholm    Teach-In  Ding-a-Dong  1976 The Hague    Brotherhood of Man  Save Your Kisses for Me  1977 London     Marie Myriam  L'oiseau et l'enfant  1978 Paris    Izhar Cohen & Alphabeta  A-ba-ni-bi ()  1979 Jerusalem    Gali Atari & Milk and Honey  Hallelujah ()  1980 The Hague    Johnny Logan  What's Another Year? 1981 Dublin     Bucks Fizz Making Your Mind Up 1982 Harrogate    Nicole  Ein bißchen Frieden 1983 Munich    Corinne Hermès  Si la vie est cadeau 1984 Luxembourg    Herreys  Diggi-loo diggi-ley 1985 Gothenburg    Bobbysocks!  La det swinge  1986 Bergen    Sandra Kim  J'aime la vie  1987 Brussels    Johnny Logan  Hold Me Now  1988 Dublin    Céline Dion  Ne partez pas sans moi  1989 Lausanne    Riva  Rock Me  1990 Zagreb    Toto Cutugno    1991 Rome     Carola    1992 Malmö    Linda Martin  Why Me?  1993 Millstreet    Niamh Kavanagh  In Your Eyes  1994 Dublin    Paul Harrington & Charlie McGettigan  Rock 'n' Roll Kids  1995 Dublin    Secret Garden  Nocturne 1996 Oslo    Eimear Quinn  The Voice  1997 Dublin    Katrina and the Waves  Love Shine a Light 1998 Birmingham    Dana International  Diva ()  1999 Jerusalem    Charlotte Nilsson  Take Me to Your Heaven 2000 Stockholm    Olsen Brothers  Fly on the Wings of Love 2001 Copenhagen    Tanel Padar, Dave Benton & 2XL  Everybody 2002 Tallinn     Marie N  I Wanna 2003 Riga    Sertab Erener  Everyway That I Can 2004 Istanbul    Ruslana  Wild Dances 2005 Kyiv    Helena Paparizou  My Number One 2006 Athens    Lordi  Hard Rock Hallelujah 2007 Helsinki    Marija Šerifović  Molitva () 2008 Belgrade    Dima Bilan  Believe 2009 Moscow    Alexander Rybak  Fairytale 2010 Oslo    Lena Meyer-Landrut  Satellite2011 Düsseldorf   Ell & Nikki Running Scared  2012 Baku    Loreen  Euphoria 2013 Malmö    Emmelie de Forest  Only Teardrops 2014 Copenhagen    Conchita Wurst  Rise Like a Phoenix 2015 Vienna     Måns Zelmerlöw  Heroes 2016 Stockholm    Jamala  1944 2017 Kyiv    Salvador Sobral    2018 Lisbon    Netta Barzilai  Toy  2019 Tel Aviv    Duncan Laurence  Arcade  2020 —  —   —   —  2021 Rotterdam    Måneskin    2022 Turin    Kalush Orchestra  Stefania  2023 Liverpool    Loreen  Tattoo 2024Malmö    Nemo  The Code2025 Basel    JJ  Wasted Love2026 Vienna colspan=4 

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

 References 

 Other websites 
 Eurovision.tv - the official website of the Eurovision Song Contest
 ebu.ch - the official website of the European Broadcasting Union
 The Official Eurovision Shop - Selection of Eurovision items 
 The Eurovision History - National Finals & Eurovision Entries


Category:1956 establishments in Europe