TV Shows We Used To Watch - The Eurovision Song Contest

Description: The contest once began as a stage for presenting the European ideals of freedom, unity and peace. Eurovision Song Contest Facts The first ever Eurovision Song Contest took place on the 24th of May, 1956, in Lugano, Switzerland. In 54 years, over 1,200 songs competed in the Eurovision Song Contest. Noel Kelehan conducted five winners (1980, 1987, 1992, 1993 and 1996). Dutch conductor Dolf van der Linde conducted for seven different countries (Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland). Johnny Logan won the Eurovision Song Contest three times. In 1980 and 1987 he represented Ireland as performer and won both times, in 1992 he wrote Linda Martin’s winning entry Why Me. Poland made the most impressive debute in 1994, when Edyta Gorniak came 2nd with To Nie Ja, closely followed by Serbia’s victory in 2007. Although Serbia & Montenegro was represented twice before, it was the first time that Serbia took part as an independent country Norway could be found at the bottom of the list as many as ten times! The unfortunates came last in 1963, 1969, 1974, 1976, 1978, 1981, 1990, 1997, 2001 and 2004. Nevertheless, they also won three times (in 1985, 1995 and 2009) Ireland won a record 7 times, Luxembourg, France and the United Kingdom 5 times. Sweden and the Netherlands won 4 times ABBA is the most successful Eurovision Song Contest winner. The Swedish pop band won the contest in 1974 In 2001, the largest audience ever attended the Eurovision Song Contest. Almost 38,000 people gathered at Copenhagen’s Parken Stadium In 2008, a record number of 43 countries participated. The most covered Eurovision Song Contest song is Domenico Modugno’s Nel Blu Di Pinto Di Blu, also known as Volare. The song has been covered by famous stars such as Frank Sinatra, Cliff Richard, David Bowie and many more. Televoting was introduced in 1997. In 2004, the first televised Eurovision Song Contest Semi-Final took place. In 2008, a second Semi-Final was introduced. Recently, the contest was won by Greece (2005), Finland (2006), Serbia (2007), Russia (2008) and Norway (2009) In 2007, 90 million people saw the Eurovision Song Contest, in 2008 105 million people tuned in. In 2009, 125 million people watched the competition. In 2009, over 10 million phone and SMS votes were cast for the Eurovision Song Contest. The Eurovision Contest is one of the longest-running television programmes in the world. The Eurovision Song Contest is more than half a century old. The UK didn’t participate until 1957. An estimated 100 million people across the world watch the contest every year. Last year over 9 million British viewers watched the culmination of the voting on BBC One. The BBC’s Eurovision production team have worked out three separate routes to get to Oslo should planes be cancelled again! Pop sensation Eliza Doolittle is the daughter of Frances Ruffelle, who represented the United Kingdom in 1994 with Lonely Symphony. Ireland have won more often with seven victories compared to the UK's five. The UK have finished in second place an incredible 15 times… After Alexander Rybak took the title for Norway last year, the contest travels to Oslo. Here are a few facts about this year’s host nation: Norway made their debut in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1960 and has since only missed it twice, in 1970 and 2002. They hold the unfortunate accolade of having scored "nul points" more times than anyone in Eurovision history (four times) and also coming last the most number of times (ten) including the following: 1963: Anita Thallaug, Solvherv - nul points. 1969: Kristi Sparboe, Oj, oj, oj, så glad jeg skal bli - last place. 1974: Anne-Karine Strom, The First Day Of Love - last place. 1976: Anne-Karine Strom, Mata Hari - last place. 1978: Jahn Teigen, Mil etter mil - nul points. 1981: Finn Kalvik, Aldri I livet - nul points. 1990: Ketil Stokkan, Brandenburger Tor - last place. 1997: Tor Endresen, San Francisco - nul points. 2001: Haldor Laegreid, On My Own - last place. 2004: Knut Anders Sorum, High - did not qualify from semi-final. After many years of trying, exactly a quarter of a century ago the Norwegians broke their unlucky streak by sending Bobbysocks to compete in the 1985 Eurovision. They romped to victory with the memorably catchy tune Let It Swing. Ten years later, Norway won again with the mostly instrumental song Nocturne, performed by Secret Garden. This folk-style melody had a distinctly Irish flavour, which is perhaps understandable as it won the Eurovision slap-bang in the middle of Ireland's record-breaking run of victories in 1992, 1993, 1994 and 1996. Of course, last year's winning song was the fantastic Fairytale, performed by violin-wielding Alexander Rybak. The song was a runaway success, being a firm favourite with both Eurovision fans and the bookies months before the contest. In terms of number of points, Fairytale became the most successful Eurovision song of all time, clocking up a massive 387 votes. It also had the most amount of "douze points" ever awarded, and also left the runner-up trailing by more points than has ever been seen before. However, the UK's very own Brotherhood of Man can still justifiably claim to have the biggest percentage of possible votes, winning 164 votes out of a possible 204 (80.3% of the possible maximum vote), as opposed to Alexander Rybak's still massively impressive 387 points out of a possible 492 (78.65% of the total).
Posted by: brizzle born and bred from Bristol, UK
Added on: 28 Aug, 2010
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