EurovisionAgain
EurovisionAgain, usually stylized as #EurovisionAgain, is an ongoing initiative to re-broadcast all previous finals of the Eurovision Song Contest, as most of the finals before are unavailable online and in many cases only exist in poor quality off-screen recordings. Originally conceived by journalist Rob Holley, it has since become a collaborative effort between Eurovision fans, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and its various member broadcasters. The finals are broadcast on the Eurovision Song Contest's official YouTube channel at 21:00 CEST on the third Saturday of every month during the Eurovision off-season, and contests prior to  2004 remain accessible for one week or month due to copyright agreements. In August 2021, the EBU confirmed that they are planning to broadcast "as many finals as we can over the next few years" through the initiative. History. Upon hearing about the cancellation of the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, journalist Rob Holley launched an initiative to watch a past contest on YouTube every week as a replacement. "#EurovisionAgain" quickly became popular, so the EBU itself decided to join the initiative. Every Saturday (which was shifted to the third Saturday of every month starting from  18 July 2020) at 21:00 CEST, the Eurovision YouTube channel re-broadcasts a final of a previous contest, revealed by the "EurovisionAgain" team 15 minutes before the start. Contests prior to 2004 are available for a limited time. The initiative was generally received as a welcome distraction for fans. On Twitter, "#EurovisionAgain" regularly became a trending topic and received positive reactions of past participants. As part of the initiative, Holley has collected over £24,700 for charity. The 2020 season ended with a special edition of "#EurovisionAgain" where the 26 most popular songs that did not qualify for the final , one from each country, as chosen via the official Eurovision social media handles, were streamed and put to a fan-vote. Iceland's 2016 entry, "Hear Them Calling" by Greta Salóme, won the fan-vote. On 19 June 2021, the second year of broadcasts commenced with the replay of the 1969 contest from Madrid, the oldest contest to be featured to date. Unlike the contents shown in 2020, the broadcasts are now made available for a full month rather than one week. This season also included a special broadcast of the recently-discovered high-definition test tapes from the . The  EurovisionAgain Twitter has confirmed that the broadcasts will return after the . Availability. The initiative has been well received by fans as it has made it possible for viewers to experience older Eurovision finals, and also allowed fans access to higher quality copies of older finals than what was previously available. Due to copyright agreements, the EBU only has ownership of contests aired since 2004, with individual host broadcasters owning the rights to those before that. A large majority of the existing finals, especially those in the former half of the contest's history, have previously only been available as video  tape recordings, often with generational loss, especially those from the 1950s and 60s. In August 2021, the EBU confirmed that they are planning to broadcast their entire archive of finals "over the next few years" through the initiative. Format. Each replayed final is broadcast as a premiere on the Eurovision Song Contest's official YouTube channel, with fans encouraged to vote for their favorites during the interval. Once the broadcast ends, the final remains on YouTube for one month, and the fan vote results are announced via Twitter. The selection of each broadcast is kept secret until 15 minutes before  the start of the broadcast, with various hints and clues being posted on the "EurovisionAgain" Twitter account in the days and hours prior. For most of the final replays, a previous winner, participant, presenter or producer of the chosen year pre-records an introduction to be uploaded along with the reveal of which year is being broadcast. For the 2021 season, the broadcasts also included modern re-imaginings of the scoreboards using 3D animation in the graphical style of the original scoreboards. Rebroadcast contests. twenty-six of the previous contest finals have been broadcast as part of "#EurovisionAgain", with two  additional special broadcasts.