Kross European Song Contest

## History

the Kross European Song Contest (KESC) was created by the Kross Company as the successor to the Kross Gesangsfestival, a cross-European singing competition, which lasted fourteen editions from 1900 to 1913. After the production team was fired in 1914 after the outbreak of the First World War, CEO Marcus Kross wanted to reinvent the contest. The contest become not only about voice, but about the staging, the performance as a whole, and also culture and some times politics.

At the end of the First World War, Marcus Kross stepped down as CEO (leaving in December 1918, after being CEO for 22 years). Liam Bekaert was selected to replace Kross and became the new CEO on the 1st January 1919. After collaborations with sponsors, and supporting companies, Kross Company launched the Kross European Song Contest, whose first edition was held in 1920.

Executive producers are in charge of running the contests and are practically the CEO. They are assisted by their assistant directors who often are also executive at other points of their lives. Liam Bekaert, the person the award was named after, directed 19 contests before he died in the second World War, either as executive or assistant. Kiana Ratz has directed the most contests, at 30, as of 1991. The current executive producer is Katelyn Ratz, daughter of Kiana.

## Participating Nations

Striked through nations no longer exist. Some nations have missed editions and returned at later dates. Some nations have returned to the contest as part of another country or under a different name.

## Winners and Runner Ups

### Last Places (Semi Finals and Finals)

Contests that weren't held: 1930, 1931, 1941, 1942, 1943, 1944, 1971

## Each country's hosting and wins

When you win, you get the opportunity to host the next contest. Usually this is taken but there have been a few exceptions where the winner cannot host.

## Best and Worst Results

Even if one country has more top 5 entries, if they have less wins, they are lower than someone who has more wins but less top 5 appearances. Germany includes both West German and East German entries.

## Controversies

* in 1928, all of the scores and results 4th place and below were lost due to human error when making the scoreboard and press releases. On 15th May 1934 (6 years later), a meeting was held to solve this gap in statistics by taking the predictions of the show and using them as the official results (by keeping Italy, United Kingdom and Austria as the top 3 as shown in the original show).
* in 1938, Austria was forced to withdraw after Germany annexed it into it's own country. This became a problem as Austria won the previous edition and was part of the automatic qualifiers. France ended up hosting instead and Switzerland took their place in the final due to their long time good places.
* in 1941, The Axis held an unofficial contest was held which is usually not recognised.

1. ↑ From 1920 to 1926, it is shown as the United Kingdom.

From 1927 onwards, it is presented as Great Britain (except on a few occasions)
2. ↑ participated from 1935 with it's last appearance in 1992. It no longer exists.
3. ↑ First debuted as "Weimar Republic", then to change to "Nazi Germany" in the 1932. Named as "West Germany" in all years that "East Germany" performed in and as just "Germany" or "FR of Germany" in the other years. Post German unification, it is named as "Germany".

All of these combined, "Weimar Republic", "Nazi Germany", "West Germany", "East Germany", "FR of Germany" and "Germany" are represented by just Germany in all statistics.
4. ↑ Represented as "Estonia" from it's debut in 1923 until it's last appearance in 1940. When it returned in 1987, it was represented under "Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic" as it was still under control of the Soviet Union. It continued with this name until it's last usage in 1991. by 1992 onward, it was represented by "Estonia" again as it was now independent.
5. ↑ Represented as "Lithuania" from t's debut in 1923 until it's last appearance in 1940. When it returned in 1985, it was represented under the name, "Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic" as it was still under the control of the Soviet Union. It continued with this name with it's last usage in 1991. by 1992, it was now an independent country and has used the name, "Lithuania" ever since.
6. ↑ Represented as "Latvia" from it's debut in 1924 until it's last appearance in 1940. When it returned in 1987, it was represented under "Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic" as it was still under control of the Soviet Union. It continued with this name until it's last usage in 1991. by 1992 onward, it used the name, "Latvia", as it was now an independent country.
7. ↑ Used the flag of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes for the entire participation from 1925-1940. In the next edition, held in 1945, it used the communist flag of Yugoslavia. It was presented as "Yugoslavia" for it's entire time at the contest. Yugoslavia no longer competes.