Eurovision Song Contest

Eurovision Song Contest
The generic logo was introduced for the 2004 Contest to create a consistent visual identity. The host country's flag appears in the heart. The contest may have a custom sub-logo.


Each member country submits a song to be performed on live television and then casts votes for the other countries' songs to determine the most popular song in the competition. The Contest has been broadcast every year since its inauguration in 1956 and is one of the longest-running television programmes in the world. It is also one of the most watched non-sporting events in the world,[2] with audience figures having been quoted in recent years as anything between 100 million and 600 million internationally.[3][4] Eurovision has also been broadcast outside Europe to such places as Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Egypt, India, Japan, Jordan, Mexico, New Zealand, the Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Uruguay and Venezuela despite the fact that that they do not compete.[5][6][7] Since 2000, the Contest has also been broadcast over the Internet,[8] with more than 74,000 people in almost 140 countries having watched the 2006 edition online.[9]

Studies have been made that suggest voting blocs are a major factor, with certain countries tending to form "clusters" or "cliques", sometimes due to sharing similar cultural and/or ethnic communities, by frequently voting for one another, and that these blocs on at least two editions of the contest have crucially affected the result of the competition.[10][11]

Artists whose international careers were directly launched into the spotlight following their participation and victory at Eurovision include ABBA, who won the Contest for Sweden in 1974 with their song "Waterloo", and Celine Dion, who won the Contest for Switzerland in 1988 with the song "Ne partez pas sans moi".[12][13]





The programme was first known as the "Eurovision Grand Prix". This "Grand Prix" name was adopted by the Francophone countries, where the Contest became known as "Le Grand-Prix Eurovision de la Chanson Européenne".[19] The "Grand Prix" has since been dropped and replaced with "Concours" (contest) in these countries. The Eurovision Network is used to carry many news and sports programmes internationally, among other specialised events organised by the EBU.[20] However, in the minds of the public, the name "Eurovision" is most closely associated with the Song Contest.[17]



The programme is invariably opened by one or more presenters, welcoming viewers to the show. Most host countries choose to capitalise on the opportunity afforded them by hosting a programme with such a wide-ranging international audience, and it is common to see the presentation interspersed with video footage of scenes from the host nation, as if advertising for tourism.[citation needed] Between the songs and the announcement of the voting, an interval act is performed. These acts can be any form of entertainment imaginable. Interval entertainment has included such acts as The Wombles (1974)[23] and the first international presentation of Riverdance (1994).[24]

As national broadcasters join and leave the EBU feed, the EBU/Eurovision logo is displayed. The accompanying theme music (used on other Eurovision broadcasts) is the prelude to Marc-Antoine Charpentier's Te Deum.[15]

The Eurovision Song Contest final is traditionally held on a spring Saturday evening, at 19:00 UTC (20:00 BST, or 21:00 CEST). Usually one Saturday in May is chosen, although the Contest has been held on a Thursday (in 1956)[25] and as early as March.[26]


Eligible participants include Active Members (as opposed to Associate Members) of the EBU. Active members are those whose states fall within the European Broadcasting Area, or otherwise those who are members of the Council of Europe.[27]


Participation since 1956:
  Entered at least once
  Never entered, although eligible to do so
  Entry intended, but later withdrew



If an EBU Active Member wishes to participate, they must fulfil conditions as laid down by the rules of the Contest (of which a separate copy is drafted annually). As of 2011, this includes the necessity to have broadcast the previous year's programme within their country, and paid the EBU a participation fee in advance of the deadline specified in the rules of the Contest for the year in which they wish to participate.[citation needed]

Eligibility to participate is not determined by geographic inclusion within the continent of Europe, despite the "Euro" in "Eurovision" — nor does it have any relation to the European Union. Several countries geographically outside the boundaries of Europe have competed: Israel, Cyprus, Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan in Western Asia, since 1973, 1981, 2006, 2007 and 2008 respectively; and Morocco, in North Africa, in the 1980 competition alone. In addition, Turkey and Russia, which are both transcontinental countries with most of their territory outside of Europe, have competed respectively since 1975 and 1994.[30]

Fifty-one countries have participated at least once.[31] These are listed here alongside the year in which they made their début:

Year Country making its début entry
1956  Belgium,  France,  Germanya,  Italy,  Luxembourg,  Netherlands,  Switzerland
1957  Austria,  Denmark,  United Kingdom
1958  Sweden
1959  Monaco
1960  Norway
1961  Finland,  Spain,  Yugoslaviab
1964  Portugal
1965  Ireland
1971  Malta
1973  Israel
1974  Greece
1975  Turkey
1980  Morocco
1981  Cyprus
1986  Iceland
1993  Bosnia and Herzegovina,  Croatia,  Slovenia
1994  Estonia,  Hungary,  Lithuania,  Poland,  Romania,  Russia,  Slovakia
1998  Macedonia
2000  Latvia
2003  Ukraine
2004  Albania,  Andorra,  Belarus,  Serbia and Montenegro
2005  Bulgaria,  Moldova
2006  Armenia
2007  Czech Republic,  Georgia,  Montenegro,  Serbia
2008  Azerbaijan,  San Marino
b) The entries presented as being from "Yugoslavia" represented the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, except for the 1992 entry, which represented the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. This nation dissolved in 1991/1992 into five independent states: Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia reconstituted itself as Serbia and Montenegro in 2003—entered the Contest in 2004—and finally dissolved in 2006, making two separate states: Serbia and Montenegro; both of which débuted in the Contest in 2007.

Selection procedures


Countries may select their songs by any means, whether by an internal decision of the participating broadcaster or a public contest that allows the country's public to televote between several songs. The EBU encourages broadcasters to use the latter, as this generates more publicity for the contest. These public selections are known as national finals.[33]

Some countries' national finals are as big as—if not bigger than—the international Eurovision Song Contest itself, involving many songs being submitted to national semi-finals.[34] The Swedish national final, Melodifestivalen (literally, "The Song Festival") includes 32 songs being performed over four semi-finals, played to huge audiences in arenas around the country, before the final show in Stockholm. This has become the most watched programme of the year in Sweden.[35] In Spain, the reality show Operación Triunfo started in 2002; the winners of the first three seasons proceeded to represent the country at Eurovision.[36]

Regardless of the method used to select the entry, the song's details must be finalised and submitted to the EBU before a deadline some weeks before the international Contest.[37]

Since 1971, each participating country has been required to provide a preview video of their entry, ostensibly to be broadcast in all the nations taking part. Broadcast of the previews was compulsory until the mid 1990s, but is no longer so, providing each country provides access to the videos online.[citation needed]



Globen, Stockholm: host of Eurovision 2000.

Preparations for the event start a matter of weeks after the host wins in the previous year, and confirms to the EBU that they intend to—and have the capacity to—host the event.[citation needed] A host city is chosen—usually the capital—and a suitable concert venue. The two largest concert venues were Parken in Copenhagen (which held approximately 38,000 people when Denmark hosted in 2001[18]) and the Esprit Arena in Dusseldorf (which held approximately 36,500 people when Germany hosted in 2011). The smallest town to have been hosts was Millstreet in County Cork, Ireland, in 1993. The village had a population of 1,500[39]—although the Green Glens Arena venue could hold up to 8,000 people.[40]

The hotel and press facilities in the vicinity are always a consideration when choosing a host city and venue.[41] In Kiev 2005, hotel rooms were scarce as the Contest organisers asked the Ukrainian government to put a block on bookings they did not control themselves through official delegation allocations or tour packages: this led to many people's hotel bookings being cancelled.[42]

Eurovision Week


Each participating broadcaster nominates a Head of Delegation, whose job it is to coordinate the movements of the delegate members, and who acts as that country's representative to the EBU in the host city.[32] Members of the delegations include performers, lyricists, composers, official press officers and—in the years where songs were performed with a live orchestra—a conductor. Also present if desired is a commentator: each broadcaster may supply their own commentary for their TV and/or radio feed, to be broadcast in each country. The commentators are given dedicated commentary booths situated around the back of the arena behind the audience.[citation needed]

Rehearsals and press conferences

Estonia rehearsing at the 2006 Contest

Traditionally, delegations would arrive on the Sunday before the Contest, in order to be present for rehearsals starting on the Monday morning.[citation needed] However, with the introduction of the semi-final—and therefore the resulting increase in the number of countries taking part—since 2004 the first rehearsals have commenced during the week before Eurovision Week.[citation needed] The countries taking part in the semi-final currently rehearse over four days from the first Thursday to the Sunday, with two rehearsal periods allowed for each country. The countries which have already directly qualified for the grand final rehearse on the Monday and Tuesday of Eurovision Week.[45]

Switzerland hosting a press conference at Eurovision 2006.


Before each of the semi-finals, one or more full dress rehearsals are held. Since tickets to the live shows are often scarce, tickets are also sold in order that the public may attend these dress rehearsals. Similarly, two or more full dress rehearsals are held after all semi-finals are finished, before the live transmission of the grand final on Saturday evening.[45]

Parties and Euroclub






The voting systems used in the Contest have changed throughout the years. The modern system has been in place since 1975, and is a positional voting system. Countries award a set of points from 1 to 8, then 10 and finally 12 to other songs in the competition — with the favourite song being awarded 12 points.[50]


The voting is presided over by the EBU scrutineer, who is responsible for ensuring that all points are allocated correctly and in turn. According to one study of Eurovision voting patterns, certain countries tend to form "clusters" or "cliques" by frequently voting in the same way.[10] Yet another study concludes that as of 2006 voting blocs has, on at least two occasions, crucially affected the outcome of the contest.[11]

Presentation of votes



Votes are read out in ascending order, culminating with the maximum 12 points. The scores are repeated by the Contest's presenters in English and French, which has given rise to the famous "douze points" exclamation when the host repeats the top score in French.[37] Traditionally votes are read in English by all countries except for France and Belgium (in odd years).

From 1957 to 1962, the participating countries were called in reverse order of the presentation of their songs, and from 1963 to 2003, each country was called in the same order in which their song had been presented. Since 2004, the order of the countries' announcements of votes has changed since the inception of the semi-final, and the countries that did not make it to the final each year could also vote. In 2004, the countries were called in alphabetical order (according to their ISO codes).[53] In 2005, the votes from the non-qualifying semi-finalists were announced first, in their running order on the Thursday night; then the finalists gave their votes in their own order of performance. Between 2006 and 2010, a separate draw was held to determine the order in which countries would present their votes.[54] In 2011, the voting order was determined by the results of a jury the day before the final so as to create as much suspense as possible when the votes were revealed.[55]

From 1971 to 1973, each country sent two jurors, who were actually present at the Contest venue (though the juries in 1972 were locked away in the Great Hall of Edinburgh Castle) and announced their votes as the camera was trained on them. In 1973 one of the Swiss jurors made a great show of presenting his votes with flamboyant gestures. This system was retired for the next year.[51]

In 1956 no public votes were presented: a closed jury simply announced that Switzerland had won.[citation needed] From 1957 to 1987, the points were displayed on a physical scoreboard to the side of the stage. As digital graphic technology progressed, the physical scoreboards were superseded in 1988 by an electronic representation which could be displayed on the TV screen at the will of the programme's director.[56]

In 2006, the EBU decided to conserve time during the broadcast—much of which had been taken up with the announcement of every single point—because there was an ever-increasing number of countries voting. From then onwards, the points from 1–7 were flashed up onto the screen automatically, and the announcers only read out the 8, 10 and 12 points individually.[54]

Ties for first place


In the event of a tie for first place at the end of the evening, a count is made of the total number of countries who awarded any points at all to each of the tied countries; and the one who received points from the most countries is declared the winner. If the numbers are still tied, it is counted how many sets of maximum marks (12 points) each country received. If there is still a tie, the numbers of 10-point scores awarded are compared—and then the numbers of 8-points, all the way down the list. In the extremely unlikely event of there then still being a tie for first place, the song performed earliest in the running order is declared the winner, unless the host country performed first in the running order. The same tie-break rule now applies to ties for all places.[22]





In 1958 it was decided that from then on, the winning country (France, at the time) would host the Contest the next year.[18] The winner of the 1957 Contest was the Netherlands, and Dutch television accepted the responsibility of hosting in 1958. In all but five of the years since this rule has been in place, the winning country has hosted the show the following year. The exceptions are:



Live music






The language restriction continued until 1973, when it was lifted and performers were again allowed to sing in any language they wished.[60] Several winners in the mid-1970s took advantage of the newly found allowance, with performers from non-English-speaking countries singing in English, including ABBA in 1974.

In 1977, the EBU decided to revert to the national language restriction. Special dispensation was given to Germany and Belgium as their national selections had already taken place - both countries' entries were in English.[61]

In 1999 the rule was changed to allow the choice of language once more.[59] With this linguistic allowance the Belgian entry in 2003, "Sanomi", was sung in a constructed language.[62] In 2006 the Dutch entry, "Amambanda", was sung partly in English and partly in an artificial language.[62] In 2008 the Belgian entry, "O Julissi", was sung in an artificial language.[62] In 2011 the Norwegian entry, "Haba Haba", which was sung in English and Swahili, was the first song to be sung in an African language.[63]


Each participating broadcaster is required to broadcast the show in its entirety: including all songs, recap, voting and reprise, skipping only the interval act for advertising breaks if they wish.[22] From 1999 onwards, broadcasters who wished to do so were given the opportunity to take more advertising breaks as short, non-essential hiatuses were introduced into the programme.[37] The Dutch state broadcaster pulled their broadcast of the 2000 final to provide emergency news coverage of a major incident, the Enschede fireworks disaster. This was technically a violation of the rule, but was done out of necessity.

Political recognition issues

In 1978, during the performance of the Israeli entry, the Jordanian broadcaster JRTV suspended the broadcast and showed pictures of flowers. When it became apparent during the later stages of the voting sequence that Israel was going to win the Contest, JRTV abruptly ended the transmission.[51] Afterwards, the Jordanian news media refused to acknowledge the fact that Israel had won and announced that the winner was Belgium (which had actually come in 2nd place).[64] In 1981 JRTV did not broadcast the voting because the name of Israel appeared on the scoreboard.



  • In the first Contest in 1956, there was a recommended time limit of 3½ minutes per song.[66] In 1957, despite protests, the Italian song was 5:09 minutes in duration. This led to a stricter time limit of 3 minutes precisely.[67]

Expansion of the Contest

Regular participants in 1992. Yugoslavia is coloured in red: 1991 was the last year in which that nation participated under one name.

The number of countries participating each year has steadily grown over the course of the years, from seven participants in 1956 to over 20 in the late 1980s. In 1993 there were 25 countries participating in the competition, including, for the first time that year, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovenia, entering independently due to the dissolution of Yugoslavia.[68]


Pre-selections and relegation

Since 1993, there have been more countries wishing to enter the Contest than there is time to reasonably include all their entries in a single TV show. Several relegation or qualification systems have, therefore, been tried in order to limit the number of countries participating in the competition in any given year. The 1993 Contest introduced two new features: firstly, a pre-selection competition was held in Ljubljana in which seven new countries fought for three places in the international competition. Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Estonia, Hungary, Romania, Slovenia and Slovakia took part in Kvalifikacija za Millstreet; and the three former Yugoslav republics, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovenia, qualified for a place in the international final.[69] Also to be introduced that year was relegation. The lowest-placed countries in the 1993 score table were forced to skip the next year, in order to allow the countries which failed the 1993 pre-selection into the 1994 Contest. The 1994 Contest included also—for the first time—Lithuania, Poland and Russia.[70]

Relegation continued through 1994 and 1995;[71] but in 1996 a different pre-selection system was used, in which nearly all the countries participated. Audio tapes of all the songs were sent to juries in each of the countries some weeks before the television show. These juries selected the songs which would then proceed to be included in the international broadcast.[72] Norway, as the host country in 1996 (having won the 1995 Contest), automatically qualified and was therefore excluded from the necessity of going through the pre-selection.[citation needed]

One country which failed to qualify in the 1996 pre-selection was Germany. As one of the largest financial contributors to the EBU, their non-participation in the Contest brought about a funding issue, which the EBU would have to consider.[72]

Big Four/Five

Since 2000, the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Spain have automatically qualified for the Eurovision final, regardless of their positions on the scoreboard in previous Contests.[37] They earned this special status by being the four biggest financial contributors to the EBU (without which the production of the Eurovision Song Contest would not be possible). Due to their untouchable status, these countries became known as the "Big Four".[73] On 31 December 2010, it was announced on the official participation list published by the EBU that Italy would automatically qualify into the final, thus joining the other qualifiers to become the "Big Five".[74] Germany became the first "Big Four" country to win the Contest since the rule was made in 2000, when Lena Meyer-Landrut won the 2010 Contest. Since the introduction of semi finals, the host also qualifies, meaning that in 2012 six countries will automatically qualify.


From 1997 to 2003, countries qualified for each Contest based on the average of their points totals for their entries over the previous five years.[75][76] However, there was much discontent voiced over this system because a country could be punished by not being allowed to enter merely because of poor previous results, which did not take into account how good a fresh attempt might be. This led the EBU to create what was hoped would be a more permanent solution to the problem, which was to have two shows every year: a qualification round, and the grand final. In these two shows there would be enough broadcast time to include all the countries which wished to participate, every year. The qualification round became known as the Eurovision Semi-Final. In 2008 due to the number of nations entering, it changed very slightly as two separate semi finals were created, once going from the first semi a nation would enter straight into the final as would those progressing from the second semi.[77]


A qualification round, known as the semi-final, was introduced for the 2004 Contest.[78] This semi-final was held on the Wednesday during Eurovision Week, and was a programme similar in format to the grand final, whose time slot remained 19:00 UTC on the Saturday. The highest-placed songs from the semi-final would qualify for the grand final, while the lower-placed songs were out of the competition for that year. From 2005–2007, the semi-final programme was held on the Thursday of Eurovision Week.[79]

The ten most highly placed non-Big Four countries in the grand final were guaranteed a place in the following year's grand final, without the need to participate in next year's semi. If, for example, Germany came in the top ten, the eleventh-placed non-Big-Four country would automatically qualify for the next year's grand final.[32] The remaining countries—which had not automatically qualified for the grand final—had to enter the semi.[32]

At the 50th annual meeting of the EBU reference group in September 2007, it was decided that from the 2008 Contest onwards two semi-finals would be held.[80] From 2008 onwards, the scoreboard position of any previous years has not been relevant, and—save for the automatic qualifiers—all participating countries have had to participate in the semi-finals, regardless of their previous year's scoreboard position. The only countries which automatically qualify for the grand final are the host country, and the Big Five: France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom, who continue to enjoy their protected status.[22]

In each of the semi-finals the voting is conducted among those countries which participate in that semi-final in question. With regards to the automatic grand final qualifiers, which do not participate in the semi-finals, a draw is conducted to determine in which semi-final each of them will be allowed to vote. In contrast, every participating country in a particular year may vote in the Saturday grand final — whether their song qualified from the semi or not.[81]

After the votes have been cast in each semi-final, the countries which received the most votes—and will therefore proceed to the grand final on Saturday—are announced by name by the presenters. Full voting results are withheld until after the grand final, whereupon they are published on the EBU's website.[22]


Winning the Eurovision Song Contest provides a unique opportunity for the winning artist(s) to capitalise on the surrounding publicity to further his, her or their career(s).


The most notable winning Eurovision artist whose career was directly launched into the spotlight following their win was ABBA, who won the Contest for Sweden in 1974 with their song "Waterloo". ABBA went on to become one of the most successful bands of all time.[12]

Another notable winner who subsequently achieved international fame and success was French Canadian singer, Celine Dion, who won the Contest for Switzerland in 1988 with the song "Ne partez pas sans moi", which subsequently helped launch her international career.[13]

Other artists who have achieved varying degrees of success after winning the Contest include France Gall ("Poupée de cire, poupée de son", Luxembourg 1965), Dana ("All Kinds of Everything", Ireland 1970), Vicky Leandros ("Après toi", Luxembourg 1972), Brotherhood of Man ("Save Your Kisses for Me", United Kingdom 1976), Marie Myriam ("L'oiseau et l'enfant", France 1977), Johnny Logan (who won twice for Ireland; with "What's Another Year" in 1980, and "Hold Me Now" in 1987), Bucks Fizz ("Making Your Mind Up", United Kingdom 1981), Nicole ("Ein bißchen Frieden", Germany 1982), Herreys ("Diggi-Loo Diggi-Ley", Sweden 1984) and Sandra Kim ("J'aime la vie", Belgium 1986). Many other winners include well-known artists who won the Contest mid-career, after they had already established themselves as successful. An example is Katrina and the Waves, representing the United Kingdom, who were the winners of the contest with the song, Love Shine a Light.[82]

Some artists, however, have vanished into relative obscurity, making little or no impact on the international music scene after their win.


Ireland holds the record for the highest number of wins, having won the Contest seven times—including three times in a row in 1992, 1993 and 1994. France, Luxembourg and United Kingdom are joint second with five wins.[83]


The first years of the 21st century produced a spate of first-time winners, from both "new" Eurovision countries, and old-timers who had entered for many years without a win. Every year from 2001 to 2008 resulted in a country winning for the first time. Estonia was the first post-soviet country to win the competition in 2001. The 2006 winner was Finland, which finally won after having entered the Contest for 45 years. Ukraine on the other hand did not have to wait so long, winning with their second entry in 2004. Serbia won the very first year it entered as an independent state, in 2007.[85]

Criticisms and controversy

The Contest has been the subject of criticism regarding both its musical content and the perception that it is more about politics than it is about music.[86][87]

Musical style and presentation

Because the musical songs are playing to such a diverse international audience with contrasting musical tastes, and that countries want to be able to appeal to as many people as possible to gain votes, the majority of the songs have historically been middle-of-the-road pop. Deviations from this formula have rarely achieved success, leading to the Contest gaining a reputation for its music being "bubblegum pop".[88] This well-established pattern, however, was notably broken in 2006 with Finnish hard rock band Lordi's landslide victory and in 2007, Serbia won with a powerful[peacock term] ballad. As Eurovision is a visual show, many performances attempt to attract the attention of the voters through means other than the music, notably elaborate lighting sequences and pyrotechnics; sometimes leading to bizarre on-stage theatrics and costumes, including the use of revealing dress.[89]

Political and national voting

The Contest has long been accused of political bias, where the perception is that judges—and now televoters—allocate points based on their nation's relationship to the other countries, rather than the musical merits of the songs.[90] According to one study of Eurovision voting patterns, certain countries tend to form "clusters" or "cliques" by frequently voting in the same way.[10] Another study concludes that as of 2006, voting blocs have, on at least two occasions, crucially affected the outcome of the contest.[11] On the other hand, however, others argue that certain countries allocate disproportionately high points to others because of similar musical tastes, cultures and because they speak similar languages,[91][92] and are therefore more likely to appreciate each other's music; for example, the explanation for Greece and Cyprus' routine exchange of 12 points in every possible occasion since popular voting was introduced in 1998 is because those countries share the same music industry and language, and artists who are popular in one country are popular in the other.

Another influential factor is the high proportion of expatriates, ethnic minorities and diaspora living in certain countries, often due to recent political upheaval. Although judges and televoters cannot vote for their own country's entry, expatriates and diaspora can vote for their country of origin from their current location.

Since the number of points to be distributed allotted to each country remains equal, and independent of their population, voters in countries with larger populations have less power as individuals to influence the result of the Contest than those voting from countries with smaller populations.

In a move to help reduce the effects of voting blocs since the advent of televoting in the Eurovision Song Contest, national juries were re-introduced alongside televoting in the final in 2009, each contributing 50% of the vote.[93] This hybrid system was implemented in the semi-finals for 2010.[94]




See also


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Further reading

External links

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