Each year, the Eurovision song contest collects millions of viewers, causes incredible excitement and provokes a variety of scandals around its appearance. The most gambling fans bet on the winner, those who are fans of one or another artist vote for their idol, and the rest just enjoy high-quality music and excellent production shows. The winners of Eurovision (photo below) become real idols in their country, they idolize them and they enter the history of world music as great personalities who once again glorified their state.
Switzerland was the first
The Eurovision Song Contest (winners of all years will be announced in our article) has existed for 60 years already. During this time, the event acquired a huge number of spectators. Even today, when the show industry releases highly professional and grandiose programs, not one of them can compare with this famous competition. The Eurovision can be conquered only by the American Oscar, and even then not always. The European Song Contest is an expensive performance and a multi-million audience in Europe and beyond.
The first time the idea of attracting the countries of Europe and demonstrating their cultural values arose in English Torquay on February 12, 1950. This idea belonged to the European Broadcasting Union (EMU). This is a union of 23 Mediterranean and European broadcasting organizations, created with the aim of cooperation in the creation and broadcasting of radio and television.
The joint first project of the company was the broadcast of the coronation of Elizabeth II in early June 1953 from the capital of Great Britain. Eurovision (winners of all years will be announced later) will be created in a few years. In the meantime, EMU has also become famous for broadcasting the World Cup.
EMU partners from Italy, who held a music festival in San Remo, and were committed to establishing a Grand Prix of European compositions. So, on October 19, 1955, the Eurovision Song Contest was officially created in the capital of Italy by the EMU General Assembly.
The event was held for the first time in the Swiss city of Lugano, in which seven countries took part. Its organizer was Marcel Besancone - General Director of the Swiss television company.
Competition Rules
The winner of Eurovision 1 is Liz Assia, who won the contest with a song from Emily Gardaz and Geo Voumard. The composition was called Refrain. The event itself took place in the small theater Kursaal. Liz sang a song in French.
Since then, much has changed, but the general rules for organizing the event have remained virtually the same. Since 1956, Eurovision has been held every year in the middle of the last spring month. The festival takes place in the state that won the previous competition. Singers whose age exceeds 18 years have the right to participate in competitions.
All artists are required to sing without a phonogram and always a new song, the duration of which is limited to three minutes.
The world recognized them.
During the existence of the Eurovision Song Contest, the winners of all years have become famous for some time. But the star of most of them faded soon after the event. Only a few managed to gain recognition and become world famous people. So, thanks to the festival, the immortal ABBA team gained popularity. It was after this performance that they won the love and recognition of the audience. The year before the performance, the group did not even have a name, and in its arsenal there were only a couple of songs. In 1974 in London, on the stage of Eurovision, ABBA performed the song Waterloo and laid the foundation for her demand. And in 2005, this song was recognized as the best for the entire existence of the contest.
On the second day after the famous festival, the legendary performer of the soundtrack from the movie "Titanic" Celine Dion woke up. The girl participated in the show in 1988. Nearly 600 million people watched her performance. Celine introduced the song Je Danse Dans Ma Tete. Then the competition took place in Ireland, and Dion performed from Switzerland.
Winning countries
For almost 60 years of the existence of the competition, almost all European countries took part in it. Among them are the Netherlands, Spain, Monaco, Ukraine, Switzerland, Great Britain and Russia. It is also worth noting Italy, Luxembourg, France, Denmark and other states. But, of course, there are countries that won Eurovision, which have become favorites several times. Thus, Ireland won seven times (1970 - Dana, 1980 and 1987 - Johnny Logan, 1992 - Linda Martin, etc.). The second place is occupied by Great Britain (1967 - Sandy Shaw, 1969 - Lulu and other performers at different times), Luxembourg (1961 - Jean-Claude Pascal, 1965 - France Gall and other victories) and France (1958 - Andre Clavo, 1960 - Jacqueline Bouillard, 1962 - Isabelle Aubrey and two other victories of other artists a little later), who won five times. The Netherlands and Sweden won the victory four times (in different years, the winners were Corrie Brocken, Teddy Scholten, ABBA, Herreys).
Also among the winners are:
- Denmark - Greta and Jungen Ingmann, Olsen Brothers, Emily de Forest;
- Italy: Gigolola Cinquetti, Toto Cutugno;
- Great Britain: Lulu, Brotherhood of Man, Bucks Fizz, Katrina and the Waves;
- Monaco: Severin;
- Israel: Ishar Cohen and Alphabeta, Gali Atari and Milk and Honey;
- Germany: Nicole, Lena;
- Belgium: Sandra Kim;
- Yugoslavia: Riva;
- Estonia: Tanel Padar, Dave Benton, 2XL;
- Latvia: Marie N;
- Turkey: Sertab Erener.
They won one more time: Finland, Greece and Azerbaijan.
Russian victory
In 2008, with the song Believe Me, a singer from the Russian Federation, Dima Bilan, managed to achieve victory. He scored 272 points, ahead of Ukrainian Ani Lorak. In the semifinals, the performer spoiled the song a little, but immediately after the concert he soberly assessed the situation, corrected the mistakes, and did everything in the best way in the final.
The best of the best
The winning Eurovision songs of all years are hits that, despite their prescription, continue to be relevant and are on the list of the most popular world pop songs. Among such hits I would like to mention the aforementioned Waterloo (ABBA) and Save Your Kisses for Me, performed in 1976. The victorious song was sung by the English group Brotherhood of Man.
No less popular is the composition Only Teardrops, performed in 2013 by Danish representative Emily de Forest. Many listeners remember how Alexander Rybak became a prize winner. He introduced his famous Fairytale in 2009.
Life after Eurovision
The winners of the Eurovision Song Contest often remain just participants in a prestigious event. After the performance, they are immediately forgotten. But sometimes, as we wrote above, they manage to succeed. What happened to the life of artists after the coveted festival? For example, the winner of 2004, Ruslana (Ukraine), eventually became a People’s Artist of Ukraine and until today has released four studio albums. But Maria Sherifovic (Serbia), who managed to win thanks to the song Molitva in 2007, did not sing any more standing and equally popular compositions anymore.
