Let me try to explain...
Believe it or not, the ESC was set up to rekindle European unity through the medium of song *guffaw* The father of the contest was Marcel Bezancon, the Swiss director of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) who was influenced by the Sanremo festival in Italy that he founded the idea of holding a European version. Both contests are still going strong and nowadays the winner of Sanremo gets first refusal to go to Eurovision!
In 1956, 7 countries met in Lugano, Switzerland, to fight out (pardon the pun) the first contest. Due to the small country pool, for the only time ever, each country was allowed to bring 2 songs. After the songs were sung, 2 secret jury members for each country voted for their favourite act (as always they could not vote for their own country!). Only the winner was announced, and that was Lys Assia for Switzerland singing "Refrain".
Ever since then, every year, there has be a televised Eurovision Song Contest. The contest has gone through many rule changes and format changes.
So what are the rules of Eurovision?
Well with any contest there are reams of minute details but I will try and keep to the main fact.
Firstly each country needs to select a song. This is usually the job of the National TV station signed up to the European Broadcasting Union, or EBU for short. Many countries will select their song and/or singer internally. Some will have a public final where the song and/or singer will the selected through a jury, phone vote or combination of the two.
Then the song needs to be checked that it is an original composition. It must not have been publicly performed or published or played on the radio or TV before a specified date that the EBU makes clear, usually around the 1st September. Hopefully this will have been checked BEFORE it has been selected. If not, the country may not have time to find a suitable song to take its place. This situation happened to the Bosnian entry for 1999 "Starac i more" by Hari Mata Hari. After it won the final, it was discovered that the same song have been publiushed and performed in Finnish in 1997. It was replaced by the song that came second in the national final "Putnici" by Dino and Beatrice.
The staging of the song contest has also not changed. A maximum of 6 people can be on stage during the song. This number includes any singers, backing singers, band members, instrumentalists and dancers the song requires. This has meant with some bands that they have had to leave members out of the performance, such as Zdob şi Zdub. in 2005. Some acts however have got around this by using 'dummies'. This was first used successfully by Alf Poier in 2003 then by DJ Bobo in 2007.
Some other rules have not changed, such as the 3 minute rule. Every entry must be 3 mins or less. This mainly a management issue so that all of the songs can be sung, staging changed AND all the voting done within a reasonable time limit. i.e. before Christmas. In fact the shortest eurovsion song ever performed was Finland's entry in 2015 called "Aina mun pitää"which lasted a mere 112 seconds !!! However in a more controversial note, the Italian entry of 1957 lasted 5 mins and 7 seconds. From that time, the rule was adhered to much more vigorously.
Due to the large numbers of countries now eligible to do Eurovision (due to the break up of Yugoslavia and the former USSR states), the EBU has had to implement rules over the past few years to limit the number of songs in the final to 26. They have had pre-qualifying rounds as well as a relegation system to make sure the best countries stay in. However since 2004 there have been semifinals taking place the week before the final. Only the 10 best songs from every semi go through to the final. However some countries always pre qualify for the final. Firstly the winning country (who then hosts the next years contest) always goes straight through to the final. Then France, Germany, Spain and UK also go through as the 'Big 4' as they are the main contributors to the EBU. And In 2010 Italy joined this group to make the 'Big 5'
So, who can do eurovision?
Very easy. It is a bit of a myth that a country has to be in Europe to do Eurovision. The actual rule is that a country must be a member of the EBU (European Broadcasting Union) and be on or more northerly than the 30th Latitude North. Israel, not really a European country, has been active in Eurovision since 1973, winning 3 times. Morocco entered the contest in 1980 with the first song ever in Arabic. Unfortunately the song came 18th out of 19 and has never returned.
Lebanon was also due to enter in 2005. Broadcaster, Télé-Liban, had selected a singer and song internally and were all ready to make their debut until they suddenly withdrew that December. Although the official reason was due to money, many believed it to be due to political conflicts with Israel. Lebanese legislation prohibited the broadcast of Israeli content on Lebanese television networks. Télé-Liban wrote on its website that it "is not permitted to broadcast the performance of the Israeli participant, thereby breaching the rules of the Eurovision Song Contest 2005".
Then in 2015 a special invitation was made to SBS in Australia who were given a special invitation to send a song to Eurovision and have a one-off spot straight through tot he final. Guy Sebastian was their entrant and gained a pretty good fifth place. Would this really be a one off? Yes.... and no. Ever since this debut, Australia has been a fixture of Eurovision however nowadays they have to join the squabble in the semi finals to get a place. As of writing they have a 100% record of getting through to the Saturday night.
Who has entered Eurovision? And why do it in the first place?
Many participants will enter the Eurovsion fray to start an international career.
In 1974 ABBA, a band already quite famous in their homeland, represented Sweden singing "Waterloo" this song catapulted the band to instant European fame which lead to success further around the world for almost a decade, and still many years after their split. In fact a vote to celebrate 50 years of Eurovision saw Waterloo voted as the best Eurovision song ever!!!
In 1988 a very young (and frankly badly dressed) Celine Dion won the contest for Switzerland by just one single point. Although the contest did not directly plunge her into the international limelight, in fact her follow up single came nowhere in the European charts, it did give her some clout in the industry and did get her name banded about outside her native Quebec.
Some enter to try and restart their career.
In 2003 the Russians decided to send one of their most famous, or should that be infamous, acts - tATu. They came to prominence in 2000 with their song "All the things she said" however by 2003 their career was starting to lag. They came to the stage in Latvia with their song in their native tongue "Ne Ver', Ne Boysia". Prior to the contest they had said derogatory things about the German entrant, Lou, and had missed rehearsals due to arriving a day late and complaining of sore throats. Rumours were abound that the girls were to kiss on stage, which never materialised. The awful, shouty, flat performance gained many marks and was up with the leaders until with very end when it was pipped to the post, coming in 3rd behind Belgium and the winners Turkey.
Vicky Leandros (Luxembourg 1967+1972-winner)
Anne-Marie David (Luxembourg 1973-winner and France 1979)
Mia Martini (Italy 1977+1992)
Sandra Reemer (Netherlands 1972+1976+1979)
Evridiki (Cyprus 1992+1994+2006)
Doris (Yugoslavia 1995, Croatia 1999)
Elisabeth Andreasson (Sweden 1983, Norway 1985-winner, 1994+1996)
Anna Vissi (Greece 1980+2005 and Cyprus 1983)
Eiríkur Hauksson (Iceland 1985+2006 and Norway 1991)
Valentina Monetta (San Marino 2012+2013+2014+2017)
Serafin Zubiri (Spain 1992+2000)
Selma (Iceland 1999+2005)
Serhat (San Marino 2015+2019)
Sakis Rouvas (Greece 2004+2009)
Sergey Lazarev (Russia 2015+2019)
and of course Johnny Logan (Ireland 1980+1987) winning both times.
Some enter eurovision as established band or artist hoping their fan base will garner them extra votes.
Cliff Richard entered Eurovision twice, failing to win both times. It was thought that him being a well known and well liked singer (as well as being good at his craft) might garner him the odd extra votes from the juries, but obviously not quite enough in either case. Rumours were that Cliff was so nervous the spent the whole of the voting procedure locked inside the toilets.
Dima Bilan was probably one of the more controvertial winners of late. After the furore of tATu the Russians took a different strategy. Although practically unknown in western Europe, Dima has been a huge star in Russia and its neighbours for many years. He first entered Eurovision in 2005 and came a well deserved second place. Two years later, now a massive star in Eastern Europe, he came back with a Timbaland produced song, "Believe". He won by a country mile. Many might have seen this win as very politically motivated as well as having probably the most famous man east of the Iron Curtain singing the entry. He was also backed by Ukranian violinist Edvin Maront and World Champion Figure Skater Evgeni Plushenko.
The UK in the 2010s had a slew of 'veteran acts' being internally selected. Entrants such as Engelbert Humperdink, Bonnie Tyler and Blue all tred (and failed) to get a good enough result. Other well known acts to grace the stage have been No Angels, Darude, Julio Iglesias and Baccara and have all used their name and past fame to garner votes, some more successfully than others!
No... oh well at least I tried.
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