Eurovision Song Contest

Based on the [San Remo Music Festival]?, the first Eurovision Song Contest was the brainstorm of the [European Broadcasting Union]?. The first contest took place in 1956, when seven of the original invitees participated (the other three were disqualified for late entry). The original participants were France, West Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Belgium, and Switzerland. They were joined the next year by the UK, Denmark, and Austria (the procrastinators), and in 1959 by Monaco.

Initially each country was allowed to submit two three-minute (or less) songs, performed by inhabitants of the respective country. By the 1960s, entries were limited to one song per country (participation in the contest had almost doubled), and the songs had to be sung in the national language of the country. Participation continued to grow through the 1980s, and by the turn of the century the rules had been changed several times to both limit the number of finalists and to allow for the new independent republics that arose from the former Eastern bloc nations. At present (2001) qualification is based on an odd combination of seeding and relegation and promotion places. Despite its name some non-European countries such as Israel have taken part.

The winner of the contest is decided by phone polls held during the telecast in each country, and points awarded by rank for each country's phone poll results (people are excluded for voting for the artist representing their home country).

Hosting the Eurovision Song Contest is an honor accorded the winners of the previous year -- although it means that the winners actually incur heavy expenses as a result of winning. Many pop singers and groups have begun the path to fame with a win at the contest, perhaps most notably ABBA.

The musicians and songs selected for the contest tend towards very conventional "bubblegum" pop, and voting patterns tend to bear little resemblance to the actual quality of the music and often show more about the ethnic prejudices of various European nations than anything else (for instance, English and French acts tend to go very poorly in each other's poll, Turkey and Greece generally snub each other, conversely Turkish acts poll well in Germany due to the large population of Turkish expatriates there). Many viewers of the contest indeed view the event as a combination of camp entertainment and a musical train wreck (a fact played upon in the English-language broadcast with the sardonic BBC commentary of [Terry Wogan]?) and a subculture of Eurovision song contest drinking games and the like has evolved in some countries.

And the winners are:

Year	Country	Song	Performer
1956	Switzerland	Refrain	[Lys Assi]?
1957	The Netherlands	Net Als Toen	[Corry Brokken]?
1958	France	Dors mon amour	Andre Claveau
1959	The Netherlands	Een beetje	Teddy Scholten
1960	France	Tom Pilibi	Jacqueline Boyer
1961	Luxembourg	Nous les amoureux	Jean-Claude Pascal
1962	France	Un premier amour	Isabelle Aubret
1963	Denmark	Dansevise	Grethe & Jorgen Ingmann
1964	Italy	''Non ho l'eta	Gigliola Cinquetti
1965	Luxembourg	''Poupee de cire, poupee de son	France Gall
1966	Austria	Mercie Cherie	Udo Jurgens
1967	United Kingdom	''Puppet on a string	Sandy Shaw
1968	Spain	La, la, la ...	Massiel
1969 (joint winner)	Spain	Vivo cantando	Salome
1969 (joint winner)	France	''Un jour, un enfant	Frida Boccara
1969 (joint winner)	The Netherlands	De troubador	Lennie Kuhr
1969 (joint winner)	United Kingdom	Boom bang a bang	Lulu
1970	Ireland	All kinds of everything	Dana
1971	Monaco	Un banc un arbre une rue	Severine
1972	Luxembourg	Apres toi	Vicky Leandros
1973	Luxembourg	Tu te reconnaitras	Anne Marie David
1974	Sweden	Waterloo	ABBA
1975	The Netherlands	Ding-a-dong	Teach-In
1976	United Kingdom	Save Your Kisses for Me	Brotherhood of Man
1977	France	L'oiseau et l'enfant	Marie Myriam
1978	Israel	A-ba'ni-bi	Izhar Cohen
1979	Israel	Hallelujah	Milk and Honey with Gali
1980	Ireland	What's another year	Johnny Logan & Choir
1981	United Kingdom	Making your mind up	Bucks Fizz
1982	Germany	''Ein Bisschen frieden	Nicole
1983	Luxembourg	Si la vie est cadeau	Corinne Hermes
1984	Sweden	Diggi-loo-diggi-ley	Herrey's
1985	Norway	La det swinge	Bobbysocks
1986	Belgium	J'aime la vie	Sandra Kim
1987	Ireland	Hold me now	Johnny Logan
1988	Switzerland	Ne partez pas sans moi	[Celine Dion]?
1989	Yugoslavia	Rock Me, Baby	Riva
1990	Italy	Insieme 1992	Toto Cutugno
1991	Sweden	Fangad av en stormvind	Carola
1992	Ireland	Why me	Linda Martin
1993	Ireland	In your eyes	Niamh Kavanagh
1994	Ireland	Rock'n Roll kids	Paul Harrington / Charlie McGettigan?
1995	Norway	Nocturne	Secret Garden
1996	Ireland	The voice	Eimear Quinn
1997	United Kingdom	''Love shine a light	[Katrina and The Waves]?
1998	Israel	Diva	Dana International
1999	Sweden	Take me to your heaven	Charlotee Nilsson
2000	Denmark	Fly on the wings of love	Olsen Brothers

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