Eurovision competition. Eurovision - pages of history, best songs and performers Eurovision rules

Eurovision is one of the largest music competitions in the world, which is held every year and attracts participation best performers from member countries of the European Broadcasting Union. In this regard, as a viewer of the project, you will be able to see fascinating performances by representatives of not only European countries, but also countries such as Israel and Egypt. According to the rules, only one singer can perform from each country, and the winner is determined by the results of voting by viewers from all over the world.

History of Eurovision

The very first Eurovision Song Contest was organized in Switzerland in the mid-fifties of the last century. The reason for its holding was the desire to create a project similar to the large Italian festival called “San Remo”. The main goal, according to Marcel Besson, there was an opportunity to unite in creativity nations that were separated in the post-war period.

Despite the fact that the festival is still held in Italy, Eurovision is still significantly ahead of it and has become the most popular and anticipated event of the year. Today, friends, relatives and even groups of strangers, numbering more than one hundred million, gather together to watch the performances of the participants and vote for their favorite.

Before each Eurovision Song Contest, participants who wish to become finalists of the project undergo a qualifying round, based on the results of which the list of countries participating this year is determined. The undisputed participants each time are the four founding countries - Germany, Great Britain, Spain and France, which are united under the name “Big Four EMU”.

If we talk about Eurovision winners, then the luckiest country should be called Great Britain. Despite the fact that Ireland took first places more often (seven to five), this country is the leader in the number of second places, since it has fifteen such victories. This may be due to the fact that the UK often had to become the venue for the competition, as France refused this advantage.

Viewers often wonder why, for example, England represents American singer(Katrina Leskanish with the Cambridge group Waves or Ozzy Gina J.) or a performer from Greece from Duxerbourg? The fact is that absolutely anyone can be a representative from a particular country, regardless of nationality and even citizenship.

Interesting facts from the history of Eurovision

Throughout the history of the competition, the most unexpected performers have become leaders, and our country only gained momentum in the mid-2000s. We decided to make a selection of the most interesting moments for you.

• The victory at the very first competition went to the Swiss performer Lis Assia for the song Refrain.
• Since 1959, composers cannot be members of the professional jury.
• In 1960, Eurovision was shown for the first time in live, however, only in Finland.
• 1988 is a landmark year for Celine Dion. Everyone knows her now, but then it was finest hour for an unknown girl.
• The winner in 1986 was a singer from Belgium, who was only thirteen years old. Throughout the history of Eurovision, both eleven- and twelve-year-old singers have taken part in the competition. Today this is impossible, since the age limit is 16 years, and for younger talents there is their own Junior Eurovision.
• The rule that participants must perform a song in the language of their country was introduced in 1966.
• In the Spanish victory song La La La (1968), this very word is repeated 138 times.
• After 4 countries took first place at once (1969), it was decided to adjust the rules: if several leading countries score the same number of points, their performers perform their routine again, and the decision is made by the jury.
• Philip Kirkorov, who represented our country in 1995, took only seventeenth place, and the following year Russia did not take part in the project at all.
• – not the first freak of this kind in the history of Eurovision. In 2007, she almost became the winner (an image created by the artist from Ukraine Andrey Danilko), who ultimately took an honorable second place. And almost ten years earlier, a performer from Israel named Dana International (1998) surprised viewers with her transsexuality.
• The year 2000 is Russia's first notable achievement. Alsou took second place. The next successful representative was the TaTu group, which took third place.

The best Eurovision songs ever

To understand what kind of music Europe loves, a music service called Deezer created a ranking of the best hits and winners of the show.

1. Euphoria and a singer from Sweden (2012).
2. Only Teardrops from Denmark (2013).
3. Unforgettable Conchita Wurst with the composition Rise Like A Phoenix (2014).
4. Also very resonant hard rock band Lordi and song Hard Rock Hallelujah from Finland (2006).
5. A performance by two musicians - from Ireland and Norway - called Secret Garden with the song Nocturne (1995).
6. Johnny Logan from Ireland and his composition Hold Me Now (1987).
7. Abba Waterloo (Sweden) with a hit called Hold me now (1974).
8. Song Satellite by German Lena Mayer-Landrut (2010).
9. Gina G and Ooh Aah... Just a Little Bit from the UK (1996).
10. Finally, the charming Italian Toto Cutugno with the song Insieme (1990).

It should be noted that every year of the event is associated with completely unexpected decisions and victories. We don’t know whether this depends on the unpredictable tastes of listeners or on the desire of the performers themselves to make the most vivid impression possible. But we look forward to the continuation of this musical story.

The organizers of Eurovision had a good goal: to merge the disparate countries of Europe after the Second World War into a single musical impulse. In 1956, the first competition was held, and the location was chosen as well as possible: the action took place in Lugano, a southern city in Switzerland, distinguished by its diplomacy. The victory was also won by the representative of this country - Liz Assia with the song Refrain. Since this year, the show has never been cancelled.

Eurovision rules

Participants are required to have live sound (the recording can only contain accompaniment), an original three-minute composition and no more than 6 people on stage at the same time. You can sing in any language. Participants must be over 16 years old: for minor musicians, Junior Eurovision was founded in 2003 (participants in the 2006 children's competition, the Tolmachev sisters, represented Russia at the adult competition in 2014).

Popular

The show is broadcast live, and after that SMS voting begins, allowing you to choose the best performers. Depending on the number of voters, participants receive from 12 to 1 points from each country (or do not receive any points if they are not voted for). And six years ago, music experts joined the audience: five professionals from each country also vote for their favorite songs.

Sometimes countries receive the same number of points - in this case, the number of 10 and 12 point assessments is taken into account. By the way, in 1969, when this rule had not yet been taken into account, four countries were declared winners: France, Spain, the Netherlands and Great Britain. The other participants didn’t like this much, so now the jury is choosing their favorite more carefully.

Eurovision countries

Only countries that are members of the European Broadcasting Union can participate in Eurovision (hence the name of the competition), that is, it is not geography that is important, but the channel that will broadcast the show live. For many applicants, this regulation becomes a serious obstacle: Kazakhstan, which submitted an application to join the EMU, was never approved by the organizers of the competition.

The organizers of Eurovision do not generally advocate much for new participants, but this does not stop the appetite of many countries dreaming of participating in the competition. Compared to 1956, the number of performers has increased 9 times: instead of 7 countries, 39 are now competing. By the way, Australia will take the stage this year. The green continent will be represented for the first time in history by singer Guy Sebastian. The only “but”: if Australia wins, they have not yet been allowed to host Eurovision.

But there are those who are never denied participation: these are the countries of the so-called “Big Five”, which includes Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain. These states never hesitate for qualifying performances and always automatically find themselves in the finals.

Eurovision refusals

Eurovision is an expensive pleasure, so the most common reason failures of countries - economic. In second place is politics, which every now and then interferes with the competition. For example, Armenia refused to send its musicians to Baku in 2012 due to strained relations with Azerbaijan, and Morocco for a long time was not shown in the competition due to conflicts with Israel.

There are also those who do not want to go to the show, accusing the judges of bias. The most dissatisfied country was the Czech Republic: since 2009, the state has stubbornly avoided Eurovision (over three years of participation, the Czechs scored a total of only 10 points), and only this year they decided to try their hand again.

This year, Türkiye, which has accumulated complaints, said “no.” Muslims are angry about bearded Conchita Wurst's victory last year and Finnish Krista Siegfrids' lesbian kiss with her backing singer, which was caught on camera during the semi-finals in 2013.

Famous Eurovision participants

Many performers believe that Eurovision is a stepping stone to global popularity. In fact, the competition may give a few seconds of fame, but few people give the chance to become truly famous. There are also pleasant exceptions. For example, in 1974, the Swedish group ABBA, at that time unfamiliar even within their native country, won first place with the song Waterloo. This victory instantly brought success to the group all over the world: 8 singles of the group, one after another, firmly settled at the top of the British charts, and in the USA, three of the quartet’s albums went gold and one went platinum. By the way, the hit Waterloo in 2005, thanks to a vote of viewers from 31 countries, was recognized as the best Eurovision song in history.

Celine Dion was already a star in Canada and France by the time of the competition. The victory in 1988 with the song Ne partez pas sans moi (the singer represented Switzerland) expanded her geography: Dion’s records began to be sold in Asia, Australia and most European countries, and made her think about recording singles in English. A similar story happened with the Spaniard Julio Iglesias, who in 1994 reached fourth place with the song Gwendolyne, and then learned to sing in Portuguese, French and Italian and made a name for himself in Europe.

For the group Brainstorm, which took third place in 2000 (these, by the way, were the first performers to perform in the competition from Latvia), Eurovision, if it didn’t open up the whole planet, allowed them to successfully tour Scandinavia and consolidate their success in Eastern Europe, the Baltics and Russia.

It also happened the other way around: when well-known performers took part in a music competition, but they never achieved leadership in the competition. Thus, Tatu, despite encouraging forecasts, took only third place, the British Blue became 11th, and Patricia Kaas was eighth.

Eurovision scandals

People like to criticize Eurovision: the first places were probably bought, the lyrics are unoriginal, and countries vote not for the composition, but for their neighbors. Even texts, behavior and appearance some of the competition participants.

In 1973, fans of the Israeli singer Ilanit were seriously worried about the singer’s life. On the eve of the competition, the singer received threats from Islamic radicals who did not hide the impending attack. Nevertheless, the performer went on stage, having previously donned a bulletproof vest. Fortunately, nothing dangerous to her life happened.

In 2007, a scandal arose around a Ukrainian participant, singer Verka Serduchka (aka Andrey Danilko), in whose song the words “Russia, good bye” were heard. The culprit of the story herself explained that the text contains the phrase Lasha Tumbai, translated from Mongolian as “whipped cream.” Be that as it may, Verka’s performance turned out to be prophetic: relations with Russia have deteriorated sharply, and now the singer is a rare bird in our area.

And the Spaniard Daniel Dijes was “lucky” to be the victim of the hooligan in the red cap, Jimmy Jump, who usually breaks into football matches to make the audience laugh and get into the frame. In 2010, Jimmy chose Eurovision as the venue and snuck onto the stage during Daniel's performance. Jimmy showed off in front of the cameras for a full 15 seconds until the shocked security began to act. Dihes (who didn't lose his cool during Jump's antics) was allowed to sing again.

Non-standard participants in the show - representatives of sexual minorities or alternative musical genres - also attract attention. Several times such musicians managed to win, which angered many spectators, but did not cancel their victory. In 1998 it was transgender Dana International from Israel; in 2006, hard rockers Lordi caused a wave of irritation, and last year the bone of contention was Thomas Neuwirth, who appeared on stage in the image of a woman with a beard, Conchita Wurst.

What are the rules for the Eurovision Song Contest?

Sisters Tolmachevs represented Russia at Eurovision 2014. At the final of the competition, held in Copenhagen on May 10, Anastasia and Maria performed the song “Shine”. One of the authors of the composition was Philip Kirkorov.
AiF.ru talks about how the winner of the show is chosen.

About the origins of Eurovision

The Eurovision Song Contest was first held in Switzerland in 1956 as an alternative to the Italian festival in Sanremo (this festival dates back to 1951, with short interruptions it is held annually until the present day). So, the organizers of the new competition decided that only representatives of countries belonging to the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) can participate in it, so it is not entirely correct to call Eurovision a competition exclusively European countries, because representatives of Israel, Cyprus, Egypt and other countries that geographically belong to other parts of the world also participate in it.

The Tolmachev sisters will represent Russia at Eurovision. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

General rules of the competition

Throughout its history, the Eurovision rules have changed only a few times, the last time the changes affected the principle of voting for your favorite song. Key aspects of the current version of the rules are as follows:

Due to the large number of participants, the competition takes place in several stages: first - the semi-finals, which must be passed by representatives of all countries except the country hosting the competition, as well as the “Big Five” founding countries of Eurovision - Great Britain, Germany, France, Spain and Italy.

Representatives of those countries that took first to tenth places in the semi-finals are allowed into the finals of the competition. A total of 26 countries are represented in the finals of the competition - 20 semi-final leaders, five members of the Big Five and a representative of the host country.

The Eurovision 2014 final will be held in B&W Halls, essentially an industrial building. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

Viewer voting rules

It is not always clear exactly how points are distributed between participants. It's actually not that complicated.

Voting takes place in each country that sent its participant to the competition. Based on the voting results, the number of votes cast for a particular song is calculated. The song that received the most votes gets 12 points - and this is the maximum score. The second most voted song gets 10 points, the third gets 8 points. Next, songs in descending order receive 7, 6, 5 - and so on up to one point each.

Until 1997, voting took place only among a specially selected national jury. However, it was decided to conduct an experiment and allow TV viewers to vote for their favorite composition. Thus, since 1998, televoting was introduced in all countries using SMS messages or phone calls, all of which were paid. From now on, the national jury did not participate in the distribution of points, but played the role of “insurance” so that if a technical failure occurred in any country, it would assign points to the contestants independently. After the end of voting, each country is invited to announce the results in turn.

Due to the large number of participating countries, only the highest scores are announced (12, 10 and 8 points), and viewers see the distribution of the remaining points on the interactive scoreboard.

If it happens that several participants receive the same number of points in the final or semi-final of the competition, then the winner is determined only by the results of the popular vote: the song that received more points from television viewers becomes the winner.

If in this case the winner is not identified, then they look at the jury’s assessments - the song that was rated higher by the jury members from all countries becomes the winner.

Eurovision is an annual music song competition held among performers from countries that are members of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). That is why among the competition participants you can see performers from Israel and other countries outside Europe. Each participating country sends one participant to Eurovision who performs one song. The winner of the competition is determined by voting by viewers and a jury from each participating country.

The Eurovision music competition was first held in 1956. The competition appeared as a result of the transformation of the Italian Sanremo festival. Marcel Beson, who was very fond of this project, saw in the competition an opportunity to unite nations in the post-war era. The festival in Sanremo still exists today. And Eurovision today is one of the most anticipated and popular events in musical life Europe. Every year this competition is watched by more than 100 million television viewers around the world.

Every year, before the competition, a pre-selection procedure takes place, which helps determine the list of participating countries. Performers from the Big Four EBU countries - , - enter the competition automatically.

We can say that the luckiest country at Eurovision is Great Britain. Of course, she became the winner more often (7 times against 5 victories of Britain), but the British took second place 15 times, France and Luxembourg, like England, won 5 times, but they took second place no more than three times.

The nationality of performers at Eurovision does not matter. This is confirmed by the participation of Katrina Lescanish in the competition. She was born in America and performed with the Cambridge band Waves. Another foreigner representing Great Britain in the competition was Ozzy Gina J., while Greek Nana Mouskouri and Belgian Lara Fabian competed for Luxembourg in 1963 and 1988 respectively. By the way, the victory in 1988 went to Switzerland, represented by the Canadian singer Celine Dion. It was the victory at the competition that turned nobody famous singer into a real star.

In 1986, the competition was won by 13-year-old Belgian Sandra Kim with the song “J’aime la vie.” Now the Eurovision rules set an age limit for performers - you can take part in the competition from 16 years old.

For the finals of the competition there are special strict rules. For example, there cannot be amplifiers on stage; the drummer must play on the provided drum kit. The performer may use instrumental backing tracks. Any song whose duration is more than 3 minutes can be disqualified. Everyone remembers that “brevity is the sister of talent.”

The first Eurovision Song Contest took place in Lugano (Switzerland). 7 countries took part in the competition with two artists/songs per country. Lis Assia from Switzerland won with the song “Refrain”. Lis beat out the Belgian song "The Drowned Men Of The River Seine".

The second Eurovision Song Contest was held in the German city of Frankfurt am Main. For the first time, Austria, Great Britain and Germany took part in the competition. The victory was won by Corrie Brocken from the Netherlands, who performed the song “Net Als Toen”. It was in 1957 that the rule was adopted that the duration of a song should be no more than three minutes.

The location of the competition was the city of Hilversum (). Third place went to Italian singer Domenico Modugno, who performed the song “Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu”. This song was later recorded under the name “Volare” and became a real hit. The victory went to Andre Clavet from France with the song “Dors Mon Amour”. Great Britain did not participate in this competition.

Cannes, France. The UK returned to Eurovision and took second place with "Sing Little Birdie", beating France's "Oui, Oui, Oui, Oui" by just one point. The winner was Holland with the song “Een Beetje”. Starting this year, professional composers are prohibited from serving on the jury.

The Netherlands refuses to host the competition for the second time and Eurovision is being held in the UK for the first time. Frenchwoman Jacqueline Boyer took first place with the song “Tom Pillibi”, second place went to the British with their song “Looking High, High, High”, performed by Brian Jones. This year the number of participating countries has increased to 13 due to Norway joining the competition and Luxembourg returning. 1960 was also the first year that the final of the competition was shown live. Finland has decided to take this step.

Eurovision returns to Cannes (France). Luxembourg won with the song “Nous les amoureux”, performed by Jean-Claude Pascal. Second place out of 16 participating countries was taken by Great Britain, which was represented by group The Allisons.

The venue of the competition was Luxembourg. The song “Un premier amour”, performed by the Frenchwoman Isabelle Oubre, took first place with 26 points.

France refuses to host Eurovision for the third time and the competition is again held in London. Luxembourg is represented by Greek singer Nana Mouskouri, while the French pop star represents Monaco. For the first time in the history of the competition, Norway scored zero points. Denmark won with the song “Dansevise”, performed by Greta and Jürgen Ingmann.

The festival takes place in Copenhagen, Denmark. Second place is again taken by the UK - Matt Monroe with the song “I Love The Little Things”. Later, his song “Walk Away”, a reworked version of the composition of this year’s Austrian participant, became very popular. The victory went to Italy with the song “Non ho l’eta”, performed by 16-year-old Gigliola Cinquetti.

In Naples (Italy), Luxembourg wins with a song by the Frenchman Serge Gainsbourg, performed by 17-year-old France Gall. The UK takes second place for the fifth time in 8 years thanks to singer Katya Kirby, who performed the song “I Belong”.

The victory in the competition goes to Udo Jürgens with the song “Merci Cheri”, who represented Austria. Starting this year, the rule comes into force that the song presented at the competition must be performed in the state language of the performing country.

The competition takes place in Vienna (Austria). Vicky Leandros performed for Luxembourg for the first time with the song “L’amour est bleu”, which later became a classic. This year's winner was Sandie Shaw with her song "Puppet On A String". The UK takes first place for the first time.

London, Great Britain. The competition takes place at the Royal Albert Hall. The first place was taken by the Spanish singer Massiel with the song “La La La”. The word "La" was used 138 times in this song. Briton Cliff Richard with the song “Congratulations” was one point behind the Spaniard and took second place.

Eurovision takes place in Madrid, Spain. For the only time in the history of the competition, four countries took first place at once. The Netherlands with "De troubadour" performed by Lenny Cure, France with "Un Jour, Un Enfant" performed by Frida Boccara, UK with "Boom bang a bang" performed by Lulu and Spain with the song "Vivo cantando" performed by Salomé ( Maria Rosa Marco).

The location of the competition was determined by drawing lots between the winning countries of 1969. The competition ended up taking place in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. This year, changes were made to the rules, which eliminated the possibility of several participants winning at the same time. In the event that several performers receive the same number of points, they must perform the song again and the jury, in addition to representatives of the countries claiming first place, again determines the winner. If in this case there is a draw, both countries will receive the Grand Prix. In 1970, due to disagreement with the voting system, Norway, Portugal, Sweden and Finland refused to take part in the competition. As a result, the number of participants in the competition was reduced to 12. The victory went to the Irish singer Dana with the song “All kinds of everything,” eclipsing the Spanish singer Julio Iglessias, who took only fourth place.

Dublin, . This year, a rule came into effect limiting the number of performers on stage to six. The first place was taken by the representative of Monaco, Severine, with the song “Un banc, un arbre, une rue”.

Monaco refused to host the competition and Eurovision is taking place in Edinburgh, Scotland. The winner was a Greek girl living in Germany, but singing for Luxembourg - Vicky Leandros with the song “Apres toi”.

The competition takes place in Luxembourg. This is the first time Israel is taking part in the competition, which required additional security measures. The rules have once again undergone changes; now the performer can independently choose the language for performing the song. For the second year in a row, Luxembourg won with the song “Tu te reconnaitras”, performed by Anne-Marie David. ABBA's song "Ring Ring" failed in the national selection competition.

Brighton, UK. Greece is taking part in the competition for the first time. From France, no one spoke out in connection with the death of President Georges Pompidou. The Swedish group ABBA took first place with their famous song “Waterloo”.

Stockholm, Sweden. Türkiye is taking part in Eurovision for the first time. Due to Turkey's participation, Greece refuses to participate in the competition, thus expressing its protest against the Turkish invasion of Northern Cyprus. France and Malta returned to the competition. The winner was the Netherlands with the song “Ding-A-Dong” performed by the groups Teach-In.

The Hague, Netherlands. Türkiye refuses to participate in the competition, and therefore Greece returns. For the third time in the history of the competition, the UK wins with the song “Save Your Kisses For Me”, performed by the band Brotherhood Of Men.

London, Great Britain. The rules of the competition are undergoing minor changes. Once again, songs must be performed only in the official language of the performing country. France won this year with the song “L’oiseau et l’enfant”, performed by Marie Miriam, who became a star in France.

Paris, France. Türkiye and Denmark are returning to the competition. The victory went to Israel thanks to the catchy song “A-Ba-Ni-Bi” performed by Izhar Cohen and the Alphabeta group.

Eurovision takes place in Jerusalem. Türkiye once again refuses to take part in the competition. The victory went to the hosts, who were represented by Gali Atari and Milk and Honey with the composition “Hallelujah”.

Israel refused not only to host the competition, but also to participate in Eurovision. The competition took place in The Hague, the Netherlands. Turkey returned to the number of participants in the competition, Morocco took part in Eurovision for the first time. The victory went to the Irishman Johnny Logan, who performed the song “What’s Another Year”.

Dublin, Ireland. Yugoslavia and Israel returned to the competition. Cyprus took part in the competition for the first time. The victory was won by the British group Bucks Fizz, who performed the song “Making Your Mind Up”. Germany is in second place, only 4 points behind Britain.

Harrogate, UK. First place went to Germany with the song “Ein Bißchen Frieden”, performed by singer Nicole. This song was recorded in six languages ​​and reached number one in the charts in all European countries.

Munich, Germany. Luxembourg decided to send a “trained singer”, Corinne Hermé, to the competition. And this decision justified itself - she took first place, ahead of the Israeli singer Ofra Haza.

Eurovision takes place in Luxembourg. British group Belle and the Devotions were booed at the end of their set. Sweden won with the song “Diggi-Loo, Diggi-Lee” performed by Herrey’s.

Gothenburg, Sweden. The victory went to the Norwegian group “Bobbysocks” with the song “La det swinge”. For the first time in the history of the competition, it was broadcast only via satellite.

Bergen, Norway. The victory in the thirtieth anniversary Eurovision contest was won by 13-year-old Sandra Kim, who performed the song “J’Aime La Vie”. Belgium was the first. The host of the competition was the Norwegian Minister of Culture Ase Kleveland, who took third place at Eurovision in 1966.

Brussels, . First place was taken by Irishman Johnny Logan, who performed the song “Hold Me Now”. He became the first to win Eurovision twice.

Dublin, Ireland. Thanks to the singer Celine Dion with the song “Ne partez pas sans moi”, Switzerland takes first place in the competition. British representative Scott Fitzgerald was just one point behind her.

Lausanne, Switzerland. The thirty-fourth Eurovision Song Contest was memorable for the fact that two participants were still children: 11-year-old Nathalie Park represented France and 12-year-old Gili Nathanel, who competed for Israel. It was because of these participants that the rule was adopted that participants in the competition should not be under 16 years old. This year's winner was Yugoslavia with the song "Rock me" performed by Riva. The UK is again in second place.

Zagreb, Yugoslavia. By this year, the number of participants had become relatively constant, with 22 countries taking part in the competition. The victory in 1990 was won by the Italian Toto Cutugno, who performed the song “Insieme: 1992”.

Rome, Italy. This year there was intense competition between France with "C'est le dernier qui a parle qui a raison" sung by Amina and Sweden with "Fangad av en stormvind" sung by Carola. Both participating countries scored 146 points. In accordance with the rules, in this case, the victory is won by the country that most often received the most points (12 points, 10, etc.). As a result, Sweden became the winner.

Malmo, . Irish singer Linda Martin took first place in the competition with Johnny Logan’s song “Why me?” Johnny Logan became the first artist to win the Eurovision Grand Prix three times. Once as a songwriter and twice as a performer.

Millstreet, Ireland. For the first time, three former Yugoslav republics, which declared their independence, are taking part in Eurovision. As a result, the number of competitors increased to 25. For the fifth time in the history of the competition, the victory went to the representative of Ireland - singer Niamh Kavanagh, who performed the song “In your eyes”.

Dublin, Ireland. This year, Hungary and Russia took part in the competition for the first time. However, the number of competitors did not change, since Denmark, Belgium, Israel, Luxembourg, Italy, Turkey and Slovenia did not take part in the competition this year. The third success in a row and only the sixth success came to Ireland with the song “Rock’n roll kids”, performed by Paul Harrington and Charlie McGettigan. Russia's debut at Eurovision brought the country 9th place. The country was represented by Judith (Maria Katz) with the song “Eternal Wanderer”.

Dublin, Ireland. The composition of participating countries continues to change. Norway wins Eurovision for the second time. This year's winner was the group Secret Garden, who performed the song “Nocturne”. Philip Kirkorov with the song “Lullaby for a Volcano” brought Russia only 17th place.

Oslo, Norway. Due to the fact that a large number of countries expressed a desire to take part in the competition, a new system selection. It included an additional jury and a preliminary audio application, which had to be sent to the EBU. The number of participants was limited to 23. In 1996, Russia did not take part in Eurovision. Ireland took first place, thereby setting a record for the number of victories (seven). The winning song was “The voice” performed by Imer Quinn.

Eurovision takes place again in Dublin, Ireland. The selection system has been modified to ensure that all countries can take part in the competition at least once every two years. The winning country of last year's competition automatically takes part in the competition. The remaining 17 participants are selected based on their GPA over the past 5 years. Great Britain won with the song “Love shine a light” performed by Katrina and The Waves. Alla Pugacheva performed from Russia with the song “Primadonna”. However, neither the popularity of the singer in our country nor the monumentality of the song made an impression. As a result, only 15th place.

Birmingham, UK. This year, a televoting system was launched to attract additional attention from viewers to the show. This year's winner created a lot of buzz. Israel took first place thanks to transsexual singer Dana International, who performed the song “Diva.”

Jerusalem, Israel. The victory at Eurovision in 1999 was won by the representative of Sweden, Charlotte Nilsson, who performed the song “Take me to your heaven”. This year, new rules were also adopted: songs can be performed in any language, and you can also sing with a backing track, replacing the orchestra. Russia did not take part in the competition this year.

Eurovision takes place in Stockholm, Sweden. It was this year that Russia made its first notable appearance at the competition. Our country took 2nd place thanks to the singer Alsou. First place was taken by two Olsen brothers from Denmark, who performed the song “Fly on the wings of love.”

Copenhagen, Denmark. The competition took place at the Parken stadium, 35,000 people watched Eurovision live, which became a record for the competition. Russia was represented by the Mumiy Troll group with the song “Lady alpine blue”. This year our country took only 12th place. The winners were Estonian performers Tanel Padar, Dave Benton & 2XL with the song “Everybody”.

The Eurovision Song Contest takes place in Tallinn, Estonia. Russia is represented by the group “Prime Minister” with the song “Northern girl”. The result is 10th place. The winner of this competition was singer Mari N from Latvia, who performed the song “I wanna”. For Baltic countries this was the second victory in a row.

Riga, . Russia goes all-in and sends to Eurovision scandalously famous group"TATTOO" with the composition "Don't believe, don't be afraid." The group took only third place. First place was taken by Sertab Erener from Turkey, who amazed everyone with her song “Everyway That I Can” and the show she staged on the stage of Skonto Hall. This year, Ukraine took part in Eurovision for the first time, and as a result took 14th place.

Istanbul, . This year, young singer Yulia Savicheva performed for Russia. Many experts believe that Yulia performed quite professionally; she was able to overcome her anxiety and performed with dignity. However, this was not enough for victory; as a result, only 11th place. First place went to Ukrainian Ruslana, who performed a fiery song with Hutsul motifs “Wild Dances”.

Kyiv, . In February 2005, the Eurovision qualifying round took place in Russia: TV viewers chose the winner through interactive voting. According to the results of the audience vote, singer Natalya Podolskaya won. With the song “Nobody Hurt No One” she represented our country in Kyiv. At Eurovision, Natalya took only 15th place. The victory went to the singer from Greece Helena Paparizou, who performed the song “My Number One”.

International music Festival this year took place in Athens. Dima Bilan with the song “Never Let You Go” first competed in the Eurovision semi-finals (since Russia did not score the required number of points in 2005), and then in the final, where he took second place. The victory went to the Finnish rock band “Lordi” with the song “Hard Rock Hallelujah”. The group performed at Eurovision dressed as monsters, which shocked many viewers of the competition.

Helsinki, . Russia was represented by the female trio “Silver”, which was created shortly before the competition. Their song “Song No. 1” took third place at Eurovision. The winner was the singer from Serbia Maria Šerifović with the composition “Prayer”.

Eurovision 2008 took place in Belgrade, Serbia. Dima Bilan is representing Russia for the second time, whose song “Believe” brought victory to our country. On the same stage with Bilan were figure skater, Olympic champion Evgeni Plushenko, and the famous Hungarian violinist Edvin Marton. In second place was Ukrainian singer Ani Lorak with the song “Shady lady” to the music of Philip Kirkorov, and on the third - the Greek Kalomira with the song “Secret combination”.

The 54th Eurovision Song Contest was held in Moscow. The winner of the competition was Alexander Rybak, representing Norway. In terms of the number of points scored, Rybak set an absolute record - in the final he scored 387 points. The famous French singer Patricia Kaas took part in this competition. Arash and Aysel competed for Azerbaijan. A Ukrainian citizen, Anastasia Prikhodko, performed for Russia with the song “Mamo”. She took only 11th place.

This year the music festival took place in Norway. This is the third time the country has hosted Eurovision on its territory. The first time Eurovision took place in Norway in 1986 thanks to the victory of the duo “Bobbysocks”, the second time - in 1996 after the victory of the group Secret Garden and the third time the right to host the competition was obtained thanks to Alexander Rybak. The winner of the 55th Eurovision Song Contest was singer Lena Mayer-Landrut with the song “Satellite”. represented Russia Music band Peter Nalich with the song “Lost and Forgotten”. The guys took 11th place, but they themselves were satisfied with the result.

The 56th Eurovision Song Contest was held in the city of Dusseldorf, located in Germany. The winner was a duet from Azerbaijan. The song “Running Scared” brought the duo 221 points. Alexey Vorobyov represented Russia, who scored 77 points and took only 16th place.

Eurovision 2012 took place in Azerbaijan, in Baku, where a concert complex with a capacity of 20,000 seats was built specifically for the competition. Montenegro returned to the list of participants.

The 58th Eurovision Song Contest was held in the city of Malmö. Sweden hosted the Euroshow for the fifth time. The winner was the representative with the song Only Teardrops. According to the voting results, the singer scored 281 points. Russian Dina Garipova took fifth place. Refused to participate in the competition: Czech Republic. Slovakia, Türkiye and Portugal. Armenia returned to Eurovision.

The 59th Eurovision Song Contest took place in Denmark from 6 to 10 May. 37 countries took part in it: on stage international competition Representatives of Poland and Portugal returned. For the first time, performers from Montenegro and San Marino became finalists of the competition. The winner, with 290 points, was an Austrian drag queen performer with the song Rise Like A Phoenix.

The anniversary, 60th Eurovision Song Contest was held in Austria from 19 to 23 May 2015. The winner was the representative of Sweden with the song “Heroes”. Contestant from Russia Polina Gagarina with the composition “Million Voices” took an honorable second place, unconditionally winning the sympathy of the European public. Representatives from 40 countries competed in the anniversary event; Ukraine refused to participate for the first time due to economic difficulties. For the first time, a performer from Australia came to Eurovision, performing under special conditions.

Eurovision 2016 was the 61st song contest held in Stockholm, Sweden from 10 to 14 May. Representatives from 42 countries took part in it, including a performer from Australia who performed at special conditions. The victory was won by the singer from Ukraine Jamala with the composition “1944”. The representative of Russia Sergey Lazarev with the song “You Are the Only One” took third place, while receiving the most a large number of points - 361 - from TV viewers. In 2016, for the first time since 1975, the rules of the competition were changed: now the jury's scores are announced separately from the results of TV viewers' voting.

The 62nd Eurovision Song Contest will take place in Kyiv (Ukraine) from May 9 to 13. Ukraine is hosting the competition for the second time.

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For decades now, the Eurovision Song Contest, traditionally held in May since the distant 1956, has been breaking spears. This competition really raises many questions to which there are no answers. Let's try to get a little into the Eurovision kitchen and figure out what's what.

Origins

The song competition arose at a time when the concept of “song” was clear and defined. Popular singers in their country took to the stage, accompanied by symphony orchestra sang their simple songs. The winner of the first Eurovision, held in Lugano, Switzerland, was the Swiss woman Lise Assia. At the dawn of the competition, no one saw any political or any other motive in this, and the second competition, without any scandals or intrigues, was held the following year in Germany, in Frankfurt am Main.

The creation of the song competition was supposed to unite Europe, restored after the devastating war, and contribute to the popularization of television, which was then only at the very beginning of its development. The task was a success: the live broadcast of the Eurovision final is still the most popular non-sports television program in the whole world, and it is watched not only in the countries taking part in the competition, but all over the world, from the States to Australia.

Present tense

The 2000s marked new stage in the history of Eurovision. The rules and performance standards changed; countries began to take part in the competition, which in the minds of an ordinary European have nothing to do with Europe (to be more precise, with the European Union). Numerous complaints from viewers against the leadership of the competition called into question its continued existence. However, the Eurovision cause is still alive and victorious. On one Saturday in May, at least 100 million viewers gather on television screens, and on best years this figure was 600 million. With the development of the Internet and the broadcast of the competition online, more than 70 thousand more web surfers, who are partial to pop music and its variations, were added to the television audience.

Rules

There is no single set of rules that was fixed in 1956 and has not changed throughout the entire period. Some recommendations, for example, the duration of a song no more than 3 minutes, remain, however most of The rules of the competition have changed over time and have nothing in common with the distant competition of 1956, in which only 7 countries of old Europe took part. By 2004, the number of countries wishing to simultaneously take part in Eurovision exceeded 40 (the main requirement for a country is participation in the European Broadcasting Union, which many television companies consider it a matter of honor to join). The Eurovision leadership made a strong-willed decision to introduce a system of semi-finals, which were broadcast on Thursday, and subsequently even two, spaced on Tuesday and Thursday. This is how “Euroweek” turned out, starting and ending on two consecutive Saturdays in May. Without participating in the semi-finals, participants from the Big Five (the founding countries of Eurovision: Germany, Great Britain, France, Spain and Italy; surprisingly, Switzerland, where the format was invented, are not on this list) and a representative of the host country traditionally advance to Saturday's final. The remaining 20 participants are selected by a collective vote of the jury and viewers in each country.

Contestants

European music is unique: artists who are famous in their own countries are not known anywhere outside their homeland. Therefore, there is no need to expect superstars at Eurovision, with rare exceptions. In 1974, the competition was won by the Swedish group ABBA, which by that time was already at the zenith of world fame. The victory of Canadian citizen Celine Dion, who represented Switzerland in 1988, gave a powerful impetus to the development of the singer’s global career. This is where the striking examples end. Patricia Kaas, super popular in the 1990s, could not rise above 8th place, and the group Blue, whose credits include collaboration with Sir Elton John himself and millions of broken girls’ (and other) hearts, did not enter the top ten at all, stuck in 11th place in 2011 . There were more tragic stories: Dana Int., whose star lit up after winning Eurovision with the mega-action film “Diva”, in 2011 could not even make it to the final, which put bold point on her future career outside of Israel.

Scandals

Not a single competition takes place without scandals. The story of the group t.A.T.u, which stormed Eurovision at a time when their songs were at the top of the British hit parade - the main indicator of the popularity of a particular artist, caused a particular stir. An open secret is the fact that according to the voting results, 2 pseudo-lesbians who sang in Russian became first, but due to technical forgery and due to the reluctance to give Eurovision to Russia, they became only third. Numerous legal proceedings between the group's producer and Eurovision bosses came to nothing, Eurovision went to Turkey, but there is urban legend, that somewhere far away, in Konstantin Lvovich Ernst’s safe, there is a letter of apology from Svante Stokeselius himself, the main producer of the competition. Nevertheless, Eurovision took place in Russia, but several years later, and it was brought by Dima Bilan, far from the most original artist in our country.

Geopolitics

The main reproach against the Eurovision producers is the inability to overcome a geopolitical problem: neighbors vote for neighbors. For example, a Norwegian song consistently receives 12 points from its neighbors Finland and Sweden, the Balkan countries vote for each other, Georgia traditionally ignores the performances of Russians, and the Azerbaijani jury protests against Armenian artists and vice versa. The result is not a vote for a song, but pan-European fraternization, which can only be overcome politically independent countries, and then in rare cases. In many ways, voting determines foreign policy countries. Dima Bilan was second in his first run only because Russia did not support the deployment of troops to Afghanistan and ended up being an outsider in the political arena of Europe. The trend began to decline after the victory of the same Bilan - the representative of Norway Alexander Rybak won at Eurovision in Russia, the German Lena Mayer-Landrut won in Norway, and what happened in Germany generally shook up the stagnant world of Eurovision: the song contest was won by a duet Eli and Nikki are from Azerbaijan, which many Europeans cannot even find on a map.

Gays and housewives

Traditionally, it is believed that Eurovision is watched only by gays and housewives who have nothing better to do. However, the numbers show that this is not at all the case. Eurovision is popular among all segments of the European population, but not everyone admits it due to the dubious content of the competition. Gays are considered the main fans of Eurovision for the most banal reasons: Euroweek is an extra opportunity to express themselves to the world by holding various kinds of events and parades. In addition, at Eurovision the main rule of most gays is observed: “beautiful-expensive-rich.” The spectacle is truly luxurious, and gays always like it.

Significant Achievements

There are none and they are unlikely to exist. Performing at Eurovision and even winning it is not a guarantee of European popularity. The Eurovision winner does not receive global recognition. He is simply giving his country a chance to show off the technical capabilities of television. Therefore, superstars are not eager to take part in the competition. Secondary artists most often participate in national selections, but despite this, the victory is given to a popular artist or group. From a musical point of view, the competition is nothing interesting; it is worth watching only because of the impressive video sequence. The songs performed are death for a true music lover.

Russia has been taking part in Eurovision since 1994, and our only counted victory is for Dima Bilan in Serbia with the song “Believe me,” allegedly produced by Timbaland. Twice representatives of Russia took second place, twice – third, in other years – from 9th to 17th places, but always reached the finals. The worst result was shown by Philip Kirkorov, who took 17th place with the song “Lullaby for the Volcano” in 1995. However, after this fiasco, Kirkorov “fell ill” with Eurovision, almost every year he produces one of the participants (Ani Lorak, under his leadership, even reached an honorable second place), regularly covers songs performed at the competition, and occasionally records duets with participants “ Eurovision".

Of the former republics of the USSR, Ukraine, Latvia and Estonia have already hosted Eurovision, and now Azerbaijan. Belarus, Moldova, Lithuania and Armenia remain uncovered.

According to legend, the idea to send a participant from the USSR belonged to Mikhail Gorbachev back in the stagnant 80s. A specific candidate was considered - Valery Leontyev. However, something didn’t work out; Valery Leontyev didn’t go anywhere and doesn’t want to remember it.

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