Eurovision Song Contest facts
Trivia on ABBA, Lulu, Lordi, Dana International, Celine Dion & more
In May, Helsinki in Finland will host Europe's biggest musical competition. Expect camp performances, biased voting, dreadful ballads and great entertainment.
The Eurovision Song Contest is the continent’s annual showcase of high camp, dreadful songwriting, garish costumes and dodgy parochial voting. Running every year since 1956, it has managed to become one of the biggest non-sporting televised events across the world, and it is screened in many countries that aren’t even eligible to take part. Over the years, many things have changed, including the rules, the voting systems, the number of entrants and the broadcast itself. No matter how many innovations are thrown at the contest, though, the music remains uniformly awful. And that, in essence, is where the fun lies.
The contest is run by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), an organisation with a loose definition of Europe that also includes Cyprus, Turkey, Israel and Morocco. Each year, on a Saturday in spring (usually May), the extravaganza is hosted by the nation that won the previous year.
These days, largely due to the disintegration of the Soviet bloc, so many countries enter that a semi-final and relegation have had to be introduced. Those who finished in the bottom few the previous year have to sing off against the other low-ranked nations a few days before the main contest. The top songs from the semi-final then make it into the final, where they join the more successful entrants from the previous year and the ‘big four’. The Big Four are Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain and France, who qualify automatically because they are by far the biggest contributors to the European Broadcasting Union.
Facts and trivia
Notable past winners of Eurovision include:
- In 1974, the winning Swedish entry went on to become arguably the most famous Eurovision song of all time. It was called Waterloo by a small band called ABBA. You may have heard of them.
- In 2006, the contest was won by a Finnish death metal group called Lordi, who grunted through Hard Rock Hallelujah in monster masks and exploded fireworks as a distraction measure.
- In 1998 there was controversy when the Israeli entrant, a transsexual called Dana International, won with her song, Diva.
- A Canadian chanteuse masquerading as a Swiss singer won in 1988 with Ne Partez Pas Sans Moi. Her name? Celine Dion
- Lulu kicked off her career by winning in 1969 with Boom Bang A Bang.
The 2007 Eurovision Song Contest will be held in Helsinki, Finland, on May 12th.
