What is the Eurovision Song Contest and why is it such a big deal? 

Our Deezer technical writer Rebecca has written for us an article with EVERYTHING you need to know about it! 

The Eurovision Song Contest was the brainchild of the then European Broadcasting Union (EBU) director Marcel Bezencon, a Swiss journalist and media executive, and was broadly based on the Sanremo Music Festival (known officially as the Italian Song Festival) which showcased new Italian music.

It was initially envisioned as a way of uniting Europe, which was still recovering from the effects of the second World War.

FUN FACTS:

• The first contest, held in 1956 featured just 7 countries - the Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, Germany, France, Luxembourg and Italy, with each country performing two songs each
• The contest always begins with the playing of the fanfare “Prelude To Te Deum” by Marc-Antione Charpentier, and is now known as the “Eurovision Anthem”
• The first contest to be broadcast in colour was the 1968 final hosted in the UK at the Royal Albert Hall
• The song that is universally accepted as the best entry in Eurovision history is, of course, the winning song of 1974 -  “Waterloo”” by Abba, which made stars of the Swedish band overnight 
• Australia clearly loves Eurovision - despite not participating in the competition until they were given entry as a gesture of goodwill, the country has broadcast every contest since 1983!

In order to be considered eligible, a nation’s competing entry must be a song that, in the given year’s contest, has not been released for commercial sale before the first day of September the previous year. 

The EBU stipulates that an entrant song must be no longer than 3 minutes in length - although this refers to the song performed in the live shows. All entries must include lyrics and vocals of any kind and cannot be purely instrumental.

FUN FACTS:

• The longest song performed in the competition was “Corde Della Mia Chitarra” and sang by the Italian entry in 1957, running for 5 mins 9 seconds
• Since then, rules stipulated that songs should not exceed (initially) 3 and a half minutes, now reduced down to 3 minutes
• Since 1999 there is no limitation on the language used for a song; it can be performed in any language, including both natural or constructed and the participating countries are free to decide the language they wish their entry to use.

We can all recall the times that countries have awarded their neighbours the full 12 points  - it’s one of the more predictable outcomes from the contest.

• The Greek/Cypriot twelve point vote exchange has always been the most recurring predictable vote. 

To vote, audiences across the competing countries cast their choice via a variety of ways; online, through their mobile devices or by phoning a hotline.

Alongside the public vote, a named jury will also vote to award 10 countries with points. During the course of the voting announcement, the scoreboard for each competing country is broadcast across the world in real time as the point system is totalled up. As expected, the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest is the country who receives the most points overall.

FUN FACTS:

• Ireland holds the record for the most victories in the competition - they’ve won the contest 7 times - 1970, 1980, 1987, 1992, 1993, 1994 and 1996. They have the accolade of winning the contest 3 consecutive years in a row!
• Portugal holds the record for the most points received in a Grand Final. In 2017, Salvador Sorbal won the competition with a record breaking 758 points with the song “Amas Pelos Pois”
• The longest running “losers” are the Cypriots, having never won a contest in all the years they have performed in the final 
• 95% of the Danish viewing public tuned into the 2001 final on TV - the highest percentage in Europe to date