Eurovision, – the international song contest – which has helped launch acts like Abba and Maneskin — takes place in England this year. Here’s what to expect from this edition.

Confused with the name? Well, it definitely seems like some kind of technical term with the current evolving world which it is not.

Eurovision in simple terms is like an annual contest or one can say an annual face-off of favorite artists chosen from particular countries to participate in this contest. It’s a song contest where people from Europe or maybe outside of Europe participate. A participant has to perform live on stage during the contest and the whole show is broadcasted and is based on the voting of people for their favorite artists with the decision of judges.

The contest is famous and very popular and the most loved and awaited one for people and is conducted and organized by none other than the European Broadcasting Union.

The winners not only get the title of the Eurovision champions but also get a grand chance to host the next Eurovision. Such a legendary thing right?

But it’s not as precise as it seems. It’s a lengthy process with a lot of considerations for the performers, representing their particular place or country.

Everything starts from scratch and the same goes for participating in Eurovision.

Chronology of participation

Firstly, the country has to select the entry for participants. This process is the pre-selection.

Secondly, the pre-finalized performers are then selected for the semi-finals. This process involves facing off with the judge’s decisions and public voting.

And thirdly, the final face-off. It consists of a total of 26 countries including all the countries selected in the semifinals and Germany, Italy, France, Spain, and the United Kingdom. For the final face-off, a live performance is given by the participants and the judges and public voting help the participants in winning this extravagant contest.

The winner doesn’t solely depend on the public voting but it’s a proper calculation of the jury judges and the public voters for the performer. From giving a thought to every aspect of the performance to fans supporting one artist’s performance, it’s a very neat and precise way of making a performer become a winner and the next host.

But did this contest just appear out of nowhere?

No, no. Not at all. This might be a new term or an event for you, but it has a very old history taking you back to the year 1956 when this contest first happened. From only a few countries being aware of the contest to having a major worldwide fan following, has now become a world-famous and most streamed contest.

Well, do you want to know how the Voting works for your favorite contestant?

It’s a combination basically. The final performance makes the judges give their votes for the best performance, but do you know what the fun part is? If you’re a jury member you just cannot give your vote to your own country!

Yes, that’s right. It’s prohibited for jury members to vote for their own country. The overall scores achieved by the jury members are then compiled into 50% of the total score and the next 50% is for the votes given by the public for their favorite contestant.

If you want to support your country and its performers and want your country to win the Eurovision, then you have all the rights to drop an SMS or even give a poll on the website. All of these votes are then combined and just like every other thing, the country which has the highest total score wins the Eurovision.

Going back in time, the first victory in the Contest.

It was in the year 1956, the first ever Eurovision Contest. The competition was organized in Switzerland and was won by none other than Switzerland itself.

The winner of the first Eurovision ever was a 32-year-old dancer and singer named Lys Assia. She performed the song “Refrain” in front of the judges which blew the public as well as the judges off and made her win the contest.

But you’ll never be able to guess about the points she won the contest with which was just 24 points.

Y’all must be wondering about which Country is on the top according to the Eurovision wins and has any country won more than 2-3 awards?

The answer is yes and not 2 or 4 wins but a total of 7 wins. Ireland has achieved this place of honor and has won 7 times making it the country with the most Eurovision titles. The country won its first Eurovision contest in the year 1970 and also won for straight three years in 1992 with other wins.

Counties like Sweden and France are struggling to break the record of Ireland, let’s see if they’ll make it or not.

Australia in Eurovision? Confusing indeed.

Australia wasn’t one of the countries that always was a part of Eurovision but it all happened on the 60th anniversary of Eurovision when Australia was given an invitation for a one-time guest but guess what? seems like Australia took the one-time thing too seriously and were so loved by the jury and audience as well that they were invited again the next year. And since then, Australia has been an integral part of the Eurovision Contest. Australia has a big fan base of Eurovision and one can see why so.

If you’re an American who always wanted to show your love and support to your favorite performer through votes, then it’s a piece of good news for you because it just happened this year that the laws of Eurovision have changed. A person whose country isn’t even participating in Eurovision can now vote for their favorite performer through the official Eurovision website or application.

This has made a lot of people happy because, till last year, a person living in America wasn’t allowed to vote for Eurovision. After all, the role was that one can only vote if their country is participating in it.

How to watch it from the USA?

If you’re a citizen of the USA and want to watch Contest, then there’s no need to worry because you can easily access the show by checking about it on local tv. If not local tv then you can watch the contest directly on the Eurovision website when it’s streamed live. One can also watch the contest through various fan blogs and sites but make sure the site is safe and legal!

Which country won the Eurovision 2022?

The last year’s Eurovision contest was won by Ukraine. This was the third time that Ukraine won the Eurovision contest.

Eurovision 2023 Updates

Eurovision 2023 has already started and is heading towards its Grand finale which will be happening this Saturday in Liverpool, England. But you must be wondering that the country that wins Eurovision, hosts it, and as per the results, Ukraine won the Eurovision 2022 so why is it being held in London?

The answer is very simple, due to the ongoing conditions in Ukraine, Eurovision is taking place in England. If it were not for the unfavorable conditions of Ukraine then the contest would be held without any issues at the same place.

Go on now, keep voting for your country fellas!

Also read: MTV Awards done right, see the complete list of winners from the Award show, 2023

List of all the winners of the Eurovision Song Contest, organized by year:

Here is a list of all the winners of the Eurovision Song Contest, organized by year:

1956: Switzerland (Lys Assia) – “Refrain”
1957: Netherlands (Corry Brokken) – “Net als toen”
1958: France (André Claveau) – “Dors, mon amour”
1959: Netherlands (Teddy Scholten) – “Een beetje”
1960: France (Jacqueline Boyer) – “Tom Pillibi”
1961: Luxembourg (Jean-Claude Pascal) – “Nous les amoureux”
1962: France (Isabelle Aubret) – “Un premier amour”
1963: Denmark (Grethe & Jørgen Ingmann) – “Dansevise”
1964: Italy (Gigliola Cinquetti) – “Non ho l’età”
1965: Luxembourg (France Gall) – “Poupée de cire, poupée de son”
1966: Austria (Udo Jürgens) – “Merci, Chérie”
1967: United Kingdom (Sandie Shaw) – “Puppet on a String”
1968: Spain (Massiel) – “La, la, la”
1969: United Kingdom (Lulu) – “Boom Bang-a-Bang”, Netherlands (Lenny Kuhr) – “De troubadour”, France (Frida Boccara) – “Un jour, un enfant”, Spain (Salomé) – “Vivo cantando” (four-way tie)
1970: Ireland (Dana) – “All Kinds of Everything”
1971: Monaco (Séverine) – “Un banc, un arbre, une rue”
1972: Luxembourg (Vicky Leandros) – “Après toi”
1973: Luxembourg (Anne-Marie David) – “Tu te reconnaîtras”
1974: Sweden (ABBA) – “Waterloo”
1975: Netherlands (Teach-In) – “Ding-a-Dong”
1976: United Kingdom (Brotherhood of Man) – “Save Your Kisses for Me”
1977: France (Marie Myriam) – “L’oiseau et l’enfant”
1978: Israel (Izhar Cohen & the Alphabeta) – “A-Ba-Ni-Bi”
1979: Israel (Gali Atari & Milk and Honey) – “Hallelujah”
1980: Ireland (Johnny Logan) – “What’s Another Year”
1981: United Kingdom (Bucks Fizz) – “Making Your Mind Up”
1982: Germany (Nicole) – “Ein bißchen Frieden”
1983: Luxembourg (Corinne Hermès) – “Si la vie est cadeau”
1984: Sweden (Herreys) – “Diggi-Loo Diggi-Ley”
1985: Norway (Bobbysocks) – “La det swinge”
1986: Belgium (Sandra Kim) – “J’aime la vie”
1987: Ireland (Johnny Logan) – “Hold Me Now”
1988: Switzerland (Celine Dion) – “Ne partez pas sans moi”
1989: Yugoslavia (Riva) – “Rock Me”
1990: Italy (Toto Cutug
1991: Sweden (Carola) – “Fångad av en stormvind”
1992: Ireland (Linda Martin) – “Why Me?”
1993: Ireland (Niamh Kavanagh) – “In Your Eyes”
1994: Ireland (Paul Harrington & Charlie McGettigan) – “Rock ‘n’ Roll Kids”
1995: Norway (Secret Garden) – “Nocturne”
1996: Ireland (Eimear Quinn) – “The Voice”
1997: United Kingdom (Katrina and the Waves) – “Love Shine a Light”
1998: Israel (Dana International) – “Diva”
1999: Sweden (Charlotte Nilsson) – “Take Me to Your Heaven”
2000: Denmark (Olsen Brothers) – “Fly on the Wings of Love”
2001: Estonia (Tanel Padar, Dave Benton & 2XL) – “Everybody”
2002: Latvia (Marie N) – “I Wanna”
2003: Turkey (Sertab Erener) – “Everyway That I Can”
2004: Ukraine (Ruslana) – “Wild Dances”
2005: Greece (Helena Paparizou) – “My Number One”
2006: Finland (Lordi) – “Hard Rock Hallelujah”
2007: Serbia (Marija Šerifović) – “Molitva”
2008: Russia (Dima Bilan) – “Believe”
2009: Norway (Alexander Rybak) – “Fairytale”
2010: Germany (Lena) – “Satellite”
2011: Azerbaijan (Ell/Nikki) – “Running Scared”
2012: Sweden (Loreen) – “Euphoria”
2013: Denmark (Emmelie de Forest) – “Only Teardrops”
2014: Austria (Conchita Wurst) – “Rise Like a Phoenix”
2015: Sweden (Måns Zelmerlöw) – “Heroes”
2016: Ukraine (Jamala) – “1944”
2017: Portugal (Salvador Sobral) – “Amar pelos dois”
2018: Israel (Netta) – “Toy”
2019: Netherlands (Duncan Laurence) – “Arcade”
2021: Italy (Måneskin) – “Zitti e buoni”
2022: Ukraine (Kalush Orchestra) – “Stefania”

Note: There was no Eurovision Song Contest in 2020 due to the COVID-19.

Eurovision Guide 2023 – Everything You Need to Know

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